Episode 152: “Less is the New Luxe” the Trends in Demand NOW (Vicki Ostrom, Futurist)

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We just have so many opportunities. Like, I just think this is a rich time, to tell you the truth. But it does require from us as businesses some work. We have to step back and we have to really examine what do our customers need right now? What What satisfies? What is the solution to their problems? And so you can't just hit, oh, well, let's see, what, what did we sell last year at this time? Okay. Yep. Boom. Let's do it because it isn't going to work anymore. You've got to do some storytelling. You've got to—

Back in January at our annual SKUCon conference, futurist and trend editor Vicki Ostrom with SanMar presented on the topic Trendspotting: 4 Macro Trends Driving Innovation Today., and it was stunning in its insight into where we are now. I've mentioned before that we would have Vicki return to the SKU Cast every year to update us on what's trending, not merely products, but the trends of what people desire and how it impacts the way we create brand experiences for our customers. I love talking with Vicki. She's so insightful and passionate about what she does. We talked today about the trends of indulging in stillness, seeking comfort in colors, the term prepared essentialism, and why all of that matters for our brands and for our merchandising. Hi friends, I'm Bobby Leehoo, the Chief Content Officer at CommonsQ, and this episode is brought to you by CommonsQ, the work-from-anywhere platform that powers your connected workflow, enabling you to process more orders and dramatically grow your sales. To learn more or to begin your free trial now, visit commonsq.com. And now here's Vicki, where we kick off our conversation talking about the impact of COVID and how that has accelerated the trends she talked about back in January. It seems that much of what you said was so insightful at SKUCon for our challenging times today. It was so prescient, but what has changed in trends since that presentation?

The thing is, is that nothing has changed in the sense of the trend trajectories that we were on, the things that we were already moving toward are exactly the same. It's just that they've accelerated like 3 years. Like we've gone in 3 months where we might have gone in 3 years' time. And that's something that all the trend services are saying. They're like, look, You know, nothing that we've been talking about, because they all went back and reexamined, okay, you know, what have we said was going to happen? Is this still appropriate? Is this still right? Is it accurate? And they were like, oh my gosh, yeah, I mean, really everything we've been talking about is exactly where we're going. It's just that we've literally gotten there in 3 months, whereas it might have taken 3 years before.

We are seeing the same thing. We study— when I say we, Catherine and I specifically study a lot of client trends and where the client is going and what the future expectations are from the buyers and clients. And we're seeing the exact same thing. Everything has been accelerated. I want to stop right now and just encourage everyone to go to the community.com and sku.com after this episode, or when you have a moment, or to sit down with your team and really watch Vicki's presentation from SKUCon because it was astounding. How much it was foretelling the future and where we're at today. So I just want to encourage you to do that before I forget, and especially with your teams, because I think it's really important. What I love most, Vicki, about your trends work is that you really focus on the emotional impact of trends. You know, what values are people holding to more now? You mentioned something to me about the emotional movement that the world is catching up to. Can you share more about that?

A couple of years ago, I was doing my trend presentation. I was getting prepared and I came across a podcast as I was working on my, my own trend work. I came across this podcast that was talking about this whole concept of like, is retail really dying? You know, what's really going on with that? Because that's where we were at, at that moment. And they stepped back and they talked to some experts that were really examining the true space that we were in as a society in the United States financially and what those strains were placing on us as far as what we could do with our lives and just trying to understand having come out of the recession from 2008, '09, '10. What, you know, here we are, it was like 2018, I believe. And we were supposed to be back to where we were pre-recession. You know, we were supposed to be back at the same financial levels and yet everyone was really struggling. So we had this disconnect between, you know, the world saying to us as people, well, you know, we're back, you know, we're back every, you know, we've all got the same money now and everything's good and look at all this great stuff. And yet in their own lives, people were really suffering. You know, they just didn't have enough money to do the things they needed to do. And in fact, we're falling behind. And those kind of things were one of the things that were bringing on stressors. And so I really took my own presentation and I just stepped back and really looked at that state that people were in, you know, trends. You can get really in your head about like, oh, you know, what are the latest technologies and what are we going to do with them. And, but, but it really comes back, you have to strip it back to where are your consumers' heads, you know, where are their hearts, where, where are their abilities. And I came out with this whole set of ideas about being, you know, like, where do we need to be for our customers. And it brought me back as a trend person to the emotions of my actual consumer that I was talking about, you know, and it was really instructive to me because it was about understanding the mindset on, on an individual person's level. And that comes to emotions and the emotions that a lot of people have been feeling for a while. And every trend person, service futurist that you come across will come back to these same things is that the drivers that are helping us understand what kinds of products to make for consumers have to do with things that are on their minds, which is the things we talked about in January at SKUCon, which were, you know, we're stressed out, we are lonely. You know, the young people are lonelier than 74-year-olds now. We, you know, we're concerned about the environment in a deep way. We are concerned about our financial state, you know, so there's just a lot of those kind of things that have been piling on and you can do, you can deal with one or another, but all of them together over the last few years especially has, has, you know, been weighing on us. And so those emotions have to be taken into consideration by us as businesses and by us as people who design things.

We're tempted to think that this experience through COVID and what we've been through with the economic crisis now is like an Instant Pot, but you're suggesting that really the research has been showing for a while that it's been more like a Crock-Pot where we've been slowly boiling to this need for protection and security and calm and peace and mindfulness and all of those things that encompass sort of a well-being. Exactly. That now is accelerated even far more. It's almost as if there's this— that it came to a full boil and it's, it's now imperative.

Exactly. Yeah, there was actually a— I was listening to a webinar on home trends by a couple of the editors from WGSN, which is Worth Global Style Network. It's one of the big trend services, and I thought it was actually one of the best webinars that I've heard, thinking through what we're going to be wanting. Because it really, it brought us again, like you and I were talking about back to this, like, how, where did this all come from? And they were talking about in 2015, the Milan Furniture Fair had this movement that they were talking about how both public and private spaces were getting cozier and warmer in terms of home. We had gone from the joy of missing out to the fear of missing out. You know, like we were— excuse me, the joy of missing out became more important than the fear of missing out. You know, so we were bringing it in.

Oh, that's a beautiful phrase. Yeah, I love that.

And that in, in 2016, then this— remember we were talking all about this hygge, which was the Danish term about cozy interiors and, you know, taking pleasure in the presence of gentle, soothing things, they were calling it. You know, a a practical way of creating sanctuary in the middle of a very real life. You know, it's another way someone put it, you know. So we started moving into that kind of concept way back then, you know. We were already thinking about that, right?

Well, since you brought up the home, let's talk about this specifically. Since many of us are spending a lot more time at home, obviously, and it has become the center, a center of both our work and our personal lives, um, how is the home changing?

You know, it really is our sanctuary, and we are understanding that it needs to be everything for us. And so it was interesting in this home webinar, they were talking about how actually the architecture of our internal home is changing and how, you know, most of the homes that are going to be existing in the United States in 30 years have already been built. And so it's not like we're necessarily going to change the, you know, the physical architecture, but we are rearranging our homes now more. And so they were saying, we are— we want to reintroduce the idea of a mudroom again, somewhere that we can have, you know, when we first come in the house, we want like this sanitation station, you know, we want to have, right. A bench where we can actually sit down. You know, we had gone to this very big open space aesthetic in the last few years, and we're coming back to the old thought that we had was like, okay, we've come in the house, we want to, you know, take off our shoes, we want to get cleaned up, and then we'll, you know, we don't bring all that dirt and germs into the house. And so, you know, there's things like that that we're thinking about. But, um, one of the biggest ones which I thought was really interesting is there's a really great new direct-to-consumer brand called Backdrop and their, their paints. And they have sold out in the last 3 months. They've sold out of their most calming neutral shades of paint like twice or 3 times, you know. So everyone's going to repainting their walls and just really making what they have inside the walls of their home as peaceful and calming as it can be.

I have been obsessed with the comfort— I don't know how to say this right— but the comfort of things before all of this happened. And lately I've been reading a book. It's gonna sound funny, but it's a book called The Bedroom, and which it sounds strange, but it's, it's an intimate portrait of the bedroom by a French historian and professor from Paris, Michel Perrault, P-E-R-R-O-U-T. And it's a fascinating book. And I guess I gravitated to it exactly from what you're saying, is that we are seeing our spaces not as a pass-through anymore, not as merely a function in our lives, but much more so a place for respite and calm and recharge. And we've had no choice. We've been put in a position where it is the space. My question then is, what do we need to be aware of from either an emotional impact, a design impact, or our product selections when it comes to merchandise in the home?

Well, you know, we've talked about a lot of heavy things just now already, but I think one thing that we can take joy in is this way that as businesses, we can then take that mindset that we know that our consumers are stressed out about a lot of things and go, what can we do to help? What can— what products, what services can we offer that will help us feel good in an uncertain world? And that's actually great because there are so many ways that we can do that. There's a term that I came across in some of my trend research that there— that's going around called lessidence. And I loved it because it's, it's less is the new luxe. So it's like, it's like elegance, you know, but less. So it's about a curated life that's simple, but no less decadent. And what that translates into is product details that are luxurious. So like, for example, in the home, it could be like you're buying a couch that now has exaggerated tufting, like really deep tufts, or it has a gold base on a sofa that's otherwise, you know, pretty straightforward, but you look down and it has this gold base. It's, you know, kind of playful extremes even, you know, could be you now have this huge, like beanbag chair in the corner, you know, like that's just like extremely huge or something. Or like just super soft, you know, that we've talked for a while about how important the senses are. And a lot of designers are designing toward the senses now because we, we have come in so much. We've really taken moments to think and, and look around us in our homes and think about life as we've been inside. And so these little luxuries have become really important. The touch of something is a luxury now. So a sherpa blanket or, you know, a sherpa, you know, pop over top, or— right, the comfort, you know, textural things, senses too, you know, smells and feelings. Like even in the beauty world, um, the like gels and foams are trending, or, you know, just so it's just all about the senses.

Yeah. And since I find I'm lighting incense a whole lot more than I used to, I, you know, this leads me to— that opens up a thought of something we talked about before, and that is things like the capsule collection, where people are spending less instead of buying lots and lots of stuff. They're investing more in quality pieces. That are going to endure. It feels like that's the trend that you're referring to.

Yes, I'm looking here.

And by the way, I think the capsule collection has some strong merit for us in merchandising when we're working with our clients, for example, on what merchandise to put in their shop. No longer is it just get us a bunch of the cheap t-shirts and cheap, you know, sports shirts. Let's Let's invest in quality. Let's make a capsule collection for your employees. And that's something obviously you can speak to better than I can.

Yeah, no, I think you're absolutely right. And it is, it is a little bit of a hard thing to get our mind around in an industry where you're trying to sell products, and especially at this moment where there's just been this instant halt on anyone buying anything for a while. And so as businesses were like, oh my gosh, I've got to sell things. But to get your head around this idea that as consumers have less to spend, they're putting increased scrutiny on every single thing that they buy. So we want to make sure that what we do spend our money on is worthy. So how many things can it do for us? And, you know, how long will I have it? So there's this, this talk in the design world about premium quality, like what can I feel good about in an uncertain world. And so, like you said, you know, putting effort into finding those products to offer your customer that has some aspect of it that appeals to them when they're shy about investing, you know, so is it a long-lasting product could be one way to look at it.

The reason I think that your trends study and your trends reporting and what you're doing for us is so critical now is that we often take the lead from our customers and get shut down by budgetary concerns. But where you're coming at the consumers' demand, the end users' demand, their need, not demand, but their need, is where we can start with our customers. So rather than starting with budget, rather than starting with your typical inexpensive merch conversation, you can start with where we need, how we need folks to feel, how we want our customers to feel about this brand, and therefore what we're doing now is making investments. And I see it as an interesting opportunity. It requires coming at the problem from a different angle. Rather than merchandising to the low budget, you're merchandising toward an experience, which is what our medium does incredibly well.

Exactly. We just have so many opportunities. Like, I just think this is a rich time, to tell you the truth. But it does require from us as businesses some work. We have to step back and we have to really examine what do our customers need right now? What, what satisfies? What is the solution to their problems? And, and so you can't just hit, oh, well, let's see, what, what did we sell last year at this time? Okay. Yep. Boom. Let's do it because it isn't going to work anymore. You've got to do some storytelling. You've got to You know, you do have a customer base that is pretty much exclusively buying things online now. So again, that's one of those accelerated things. You know, a lot of people were buying things online, but a lot of people were still going into stores. And now we just don't have that option. And so they're looking at not just your product on a page, they're looking at your whole web presence. Yeah. And seeing who you are. So that's kind of hard because you're like, oh my gosh, they're looking at my whole everything, you know. But it's also an opportunity because you get a chance to tell your story of, of why it is you're bringing these things to them and offering them solutions. And, and, you know, you don't have to You know, use a lot of words. Visuals are everything. We are, you know, we're a visual society right now. So a few key words, a few key images can tell a lot. And, you know, we actually don't want to overwhelm our customers right now. We have a lot of facts coming at us, so we need, we need, we, there's a movement where customers want education. So, you know, they do want to learn things, they— but they want to learn things that are useful to them, right?

You mentioned fabrics and materials that are trending and that we need to be aware of, and you touched on colors. And what about design and aesthetics and colors? What do you— I know it's a lot from the same material that you said, and it's just accelerated, but can you Can you touch on that again? I know it's meta for a lot of our folks, but I mean, color has such a huge impact on everything that we do, especially now, like you said, where folks are seeing everything through the digital screen and our presentations. This has a big impact on our digital presentations where we're presenting via video. You're not just going to bring in a random sample. You're going to, you're going to actually match the psychology and the beauty and the emotion of color through the experience too, because if they can't touch it and feel it, you might at least be able to present color as a pleasing palette for them to consider. Right. So what colors are you seeing and design trends are you seeing that are important?

So there's actually 3 major groups of color. It's not— again, it's not as easy as just saying, oh, it's brights, you know. There's some really interesting color psychology that's going on right now.. And the, there's 3 big groups of color that keeps coming up amongst pretty much all the trend sites that you look at. And they're all interesting for specific reasons. So the one is mood boosters, which are, you know, you can imagine what those are, the really bright, beautiful primary colors. And they're being talked about as joyful. In my trend pres— it's right on my mind because I'm just working on this, talking about color a lot. WGSN said about the mood boosters, they said embrace joy, which I really love. They said consumers will be seeking uplifting, optimistic designs and experiences in challenging times. So use mood-boosting brights for environments, packages, packaging, and products. So that makes sense. But one that really surprised me but makes a lot of sense was grounding neutrals. And those are literally the colors of soil and earth and minerals and plants. They're, you know, those beautiful wheat colors, and they talk about browns that are red-based being really, really important right now. So they're very warm, browns, you know, things that are— things that you can understand in a world that's pretty not understandable. You can understand the earth. And so that is one reason that they're important. But the other thing they talk about with this color group of grounding neutrals is that they're grounded in memories. And I loved that. There's a trend service called Fashion Snoops, and they were talking about this color group. They said, COVID-19 has left us yearning for memories of yesterday and feelings of nostalgia. And you know, when you think about those beautiful browns and like warm ivories and, and garnet and smoke and, you know, olive colors like that, you have this feeling of nostalgia, like almost like you're looking through rose-colored glasses or something, you know, come over you. But they also said this, they said there's a, there was a shift toward non-binary neutral shades on the fall/winter '21/'22 runways. And they were talking about this particular group of colors, especially, but I will also say this definitely relates to pastels too, which is the next group I'm going to talk about. There's this movement, especially amongst young people, where non-gendered— there, a lot of color is becoming non-gendered. You know, you're seeing a lot of young men and older men wearing pinks, for example, power pastels. You know, pastels are, are powerful too, you know, just as powerful as bright primary colors in a lot of ways, especially now because they're so soothing. They, they calm us down, they slow us down. And again, Fashion Snoops said about this color group, they said it's soothing comfort. These light-infused pastels evoke an ultra-sensorial experience. So there again, they're using that word sense, you know, they're talking about all the senses that encourages us to indulge in stillness. I thought that was a great term.

That's a great phrase. I love that.

I do. I was like, oh my gosh, that's so right. It's beautiful. Yeah. And they said consumers seek out comforting therapeutic shades. And I, and I think that therapeutic shades really applies to all of this, all of those color groups we were just talking about. So they can really be used in your marketing in very specific ways, like you could do different days or different, you know, color stories with product attached for different reasons.

I want to recommend a book by Josef Albers called Interaction of Color.

I've—

it's amazing. It's an amazing—

yes.

I mean, I started with Goethe's Theory of Colors and it was a little too dense. And then I found Albers' Interaction of Color. Such a beautiful book. And, you know, as folks are like, this, I'm leaping a little bit, but folks are getting, rethinking their, their office space and what they're going to do with that as things transfer. And as people stay, you know, there's a large percentage of folks that are wanting to stay virtual and their offices are going to require transformation. Their showroom should turn into something comforting and warm and the old conference room should go away and something like an incubator for creativity that is, that is a welcome spot, almost like your third place where you would go for a nice calm cup of coffee, but surrounded by these beautiful books that inspire things like color and fabrics. And, you know, not just the cold PMS book that, that tells us a number, but the experiential aspect of what we're going to be creating for our clients going forward. What about sustainability? There seems to be a tension now in the market and in our industry where some believe that due to the economic restraints sustainability will take a backseat. Others believe it's going to be more important than ever.

What are you seeing? It's, it's a really, it's a complicated question that I wish I had more actual numbers to back up the theories. But what I can tell you is that in the world of people who make the fabrics and who have a lot at stake because they're having to decide, you know, what from the, from the source material that designers are going to be using to make things, are they, are they going to keep going with their sustainability issue, you know, right metrics? And because it's a big, it's a big thing, they don't want to make things that people aren't going to buy. And are their clients actually going to buy these materials that are a little bit more expensive And they all are getting behind sustainability. They really are, are putting their money there. American Eagle Outfitters, I was just looking up just one thing that came out just like 2, 2 days ago, I want to say. Um, they just opened up a new store in the Hamptons called Unsubscribed. And it's just one store, but it's a store that is about slowing down. And I mean, that's their whole take on it. You know, they're American Eagle Outfitters. Yeah, right. They are the epitome of the fast fashion movement. Right. And they are at least taking one step toward putting a stake in the ground about that they believe in the slow fashion movement. Now, I will say it's one store and it's in the Hamptons because the prices are, the prices are, are much higher. I mean, I think it's like up to $300 for a blouse, you know, like $50 to $300. So it's like, it's, it's very expensive. So I don't know.

Well, it is indicative of the fact that with this experience we've all been through lately, many of us are out hiking more, we're outdoors more. Obviously we've been forced outdoors, we have been forced back indoors, and like you said, and to make a sanctuary as best we can of the places and spaces in which we We live. But you said, and I love this phrase and I keep coming back to it, but through this forced Sabbath rest that not many of us have been able to rest, but still there has been somewhat of a forced Sabbath rest, the world has gotten more mindful. And that's really what we're talking about. So, you know, when we're talking to our customers and folks who are listening to this podcast episode, like you said, I think it's a rich territory for us to approach our clients. It also means our teams need to be really educated. On sustainability and in its broad impact and not just that narrow definition, far more than we have in the past, so that we can educate and come to our clients from a different angle.

And, you know, there are some, some trends in color that are happening outside of even the truth of sustainability, but just because of the, the, you know, people want to wear what they believe. And so interestingly, I love that phrase. Just a thought is natural colors, ivories, warm ivories that are perceived to be something that's undyed and so therefore more sustainable are trending now in our industry. We know that just because it's ivory doesn't mean it's necessarily not dyed, right? However, it doesn't matter to the consumer. A lot of consumers are like, oh, natural. I just want something that's a natural color. You know, it just makes me feel like I'm I'm doing the right thing.

Yeah, or it's the experience of back to nature, back to natural with no embellishments, with the simplicity. That's the one word I think I hear circling around a lot is the simplicity of the way we want our lives.

Yes, I agree. Less is more, less but better. We hear that, those phrases a lot. The other color palette that is interesting to note is the like washed looks. So we are seeing this return to garment wash looks or, you know, beach washes or whatever, kind of like washed down looks, because it gives it a look that is vintage, that's maybe it's pre-loved, that it has this worn and, you know, statement that it makes, which has to do with the resale world. And so You know, these ideals that we have about sustainability that we want to wear on our bodies to show our, you know, friends and everyone that this is what we believe in are translating into some very simple color palettes in apparel as well.

Yeah. So Vicki, you're saying basically all my faded denim that I have a closet full of is— actually might be on trend for once in my life.

Super on trend. It's super on trend. And you know, that's another thing that's so fascinating and I think is so actually visually beautiful is this whole visible mending trend. There's, you know, people are—

I've seen that.

I love that. I love it. You know, just showing the mending. I mean, you can buy— and this is, this is great— you can buy these. Do you know what Pellon is? It's like a lightweight interfacing. That you use in sewing, and people are selling it as a certain version of it that disappears when you put water on it. And so you get this little sheet of Pellon and it has like a concentric circle, say, printed on it. And then you put it on your jean over the, you know, part that's ripped, and you can then hand stitch visibly over it in a certain pattern, you know, because you have a pattern. Then you get your then you wash it and that pellon disappears and then you've done this beautiful visible mending. So, you know, how easy would that be to share with your customer? Yeah, like you could send it in an envelope.

I'm real curious. We have limited time. We have a few minutes left, but I'm curious, what brands are you excited about these days? Who are you following that you feel like inspires you? Forget whether or not they're a bellwether for trends. It's just, I'm curious what you love these days.

Oh, there's some, you know, there's some outdoor brands that they're not in our industry necessarily, but I think the outdoor gear is probably some of the most important products that we can invest in. Because we're going to be spending a lot of time outdoors, you know, other than our, our, our inactive wear, you know, which is our new clothing for inside that's activewear but that we're wearing inside when we're just working. Yeah, um, outdoor gear is really important because that's where we're going to be meeting friends for a long time, you know, that's where it's more safe to be is outside. And so there's a company called, um, Volibak V-O-L-L-E-B-A-K. And they do a lot of visionary work with materials that, like, say, for example, they have a puffer jacket that's made out of fabric that's like 15 times stronger than steel, but yet it's a puffer jacket, you know. So they're, they're doing kind of outside of the box things. But then, and then there's another one called Stone Island. That's doing a lot of those kind of innovative fabrication things too. So those are sort of big idea ones.

Vicki, it has been so nice to have you on SkewCast again. We could talk for hours because I love talking with you about this topic. Every time you bring up something, my mind sort of just, just, you know, detonates and I try to follow half a dozen paths at once to keep up with you. And I love this whole conversation because I think the way you're approaching merchandising and trending is where we need to be. And I also— you and I are big believers in the emotional experience of no matter what it is that you're selling, the emotional experience is how people make their decisions. Can you— can we just end with what you think so that we can put an exclamation mark on this episode? The most important emotions are for us as we are selling, providing solutions moving forward.

I loved this term that I came across recently, and it's, it was used specifically in a webinar that I watched about outerwear, outdoor gear, apparel specifically, and things that we should be looking for and wanting to design toward. And he used this word prepared essentialism. What do we need to feel safe? And he said that was one of the biggest tenets in design to, to consider going into the future. And they, they went on in another part of their, you know, talking about other kinds of products to say this concept includes emotionally. So, you know, we need physical things to feel safe, to feel comfort. Right now, I think comfort is an emotion that we're looking, all looking to have. But comfort and safety isn't just a physical thing. It's also an emotional thing. And so, when you think about product, yes, you're thinking about, you know, does, you know, am I having materials that are long-lasting? Are they durable? Are they perhaps having a surface quality that doesn't allow germs to land on it? Or, you know, the very technical things that we are going to start thinking about. But then I think you could also think about you know, do— is my sherpa super soft? You know, does the, the blanket that I'm offering in and bring an emotional comfort? It does. My puffer— could I sell my puffer and talk about how it feels like a hug when you wear it? Yeah, you know, those kind of emotional things are as an important way to feel prepared as we go into the future as it is the very functional physical things that we need to think about, about germs and, you know, caring for, for ourselves in that way as well.

I love it. Vicki, thank you so much. This has been so much fun to talk about this. And I am, as I mentioned in the intro, we're— we love having you back. And I mentioned this last year that we'd love to have you every 6 months just to talk about Trans One Way. And we need to keep it top of mind for our customers. So it's a really important topic.

Thanks for doing this. Thank you for asking.

It's been a pleasure. And good luck with the blueberry farm. Thank you.

All right. Talk soon.

Okay. Bye. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of SkuCast. Be sure to keep up with our latest content by subscribing to SKU Cast on iTunes or to our blog at community.commsku.com. Until next time, friends, thanks so much for listening.