Fashion and Interior trends and imagery

I collected together images of both fashion and interior pieces from magazines ranging from Spring to September 2010. The magazines included Interior, Country living, Coast, Red, Cosmopolitan, Home and Garden, Period Living and some others donated by friends without my being able to attribute them.

The themes of country, traditional seaside are predictable for summer magazines but the elements of retro 1950's, the best of British and romantic floral have continued into Autumn collections of both fashion and interior designs. I found the imitation or introduction of craft pieces suprising by High Street stores like Next.

John Lewis and others have gone for the elegant English look - traditional train carriages kept featuring in adverts. Camel and leather gloves, the extolling of the traditional Barbour jacket and up market wellies. I found this hard to look at after being excited by books like techno textiles 1 and 2 and The new textiles

Whilst I am aware of the bias in magazines towards Middle England I think some of the trends captured are more understandable in a socio economic way.

I can see in a year of continuing economic uncertainty and increasing numbers of servicemen killed in Afghanistan the emphasis on being "British" (and here I include another return to nostalgia for tartan !) is one way of reasserting identity and seeking comfort zones. the retro knitted goods produced on the croft - tea cosies etc have sold far more this year than last. My more edgy dyed pieces have not sold as well.

Colour palettes seem to have mixed retro yellow and browns with traditional English florals and the odd introduction of bright coastal colours - some of which dominated the 1980's.