Bill Schaffer AIFD, AAF, PFCI & Kristine Kratt AIFD, PFCI
A crucial part of trend forecasting is to routinely analyze pop-culture and it’s influence on color, design and decor. The importance of what is on our screens, from the theater to our phones, is one of our strongest modern influencers.
Screen-culture trends and celebrity influencers are key to style in the modern world. Movies and television no longer just offer us the latest in kids action-figures and halloween costumes. What happens on our screens now leads into the lifestyle of everyone watching. It can be subtle or obvious, but it definitely affects culture as we know it. Paying attention to Hollywood and celebrity style can help us track trends that are on the horizon.
The LALA Land Difference: California is known for it’s sophisticated yet casual design. The design is inspired by the natural beauty of it’s surroundings and the fusion of it’s many cultures. Relaxed, organic, natural elements, a twist of exotic tastes and flavors combine with the sparkle and glamour of Tinseltown to create a very unique and distinctive style.
GM Floral company, in the Los Angeles Flower Market, caters to many facets of L.A. design. Gregory Switzer AIFD, CFD is GM’s Floral Director. He works with designers daily that are servicing high-profile clients and events. Businesses like GM pay close attention to trends and celebrity influencers so they can stay one step ahead of what the next big thing is going to be.
“Hollywood directly affects our business. Our customers include the movie studios and television networks. We strive to be on the “cutting edge” on a daily basis. Set Designers, Floral Directors, and Event Companies expect the latest and greatest products and ideas to be innovative.”
To keep up with the ever-changing trends of L.A., GM must constantly be ready with the right products to fulfill the needs of their clients with fresh flowers and trend-worthy supplies, no matter what season we are currently in. Greg points out that if a movie is filming in June and needs a Christmas scene for the set, GM’s goal is to be ready to meet the needs of the customer.
Current trends GM is paying close attention to are styles that are “good, clean metropolitan design.” This means the trend is staying classic and polished. Not too formal and not too crazy.
Greg reminds us that Pantone’s Ultra-Violet is well on it’s way into L.A. design. “Purple shades are definitely popular and you will find them in floral and interior design.”
Color and Decor: We watch for color in celebrity gowns at award shows. We study who’s wearing what and when there are repeated nods to certain colors we eventually see them pop up in bridesmaids dresses, and then wedding decor, including flowers.
Color makes an audience feel. Hollywood pays close attention to how it uses color design in film. Filmmakers chose colors to communicate a film’s ideas and emotion. It is used subtly and moves us on a subconscious level.
Film’s color and style, interior settings and even locations can have a huge influence on design and decor trends. Popularity of color and imagery in films create a familiarity that consumers are often drawn to, thus becoming a trend.
Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby 2013 and it’s abundance of lush gardens and rooms filled phalaenopsis, cymbidium and dendrobium orchids spurred a trend in the wedding and event world by putting them on the big screen to tantalize brides around the world.
2014 released Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel with it’s Photochrom, pastel-pastry, retro-kitch pink giving an unforgettable tone to the entire film. This was the public introduction to Millennial Pink.
The small screen also holds a powerful impact on consumers. Game of Thrones’ dark and textural atmosphere is a current design influence inspiring decor with furs, antlers, wrought iron and rich color palettes of royal blues, velvety reds and opulent burgundy.
Netflix period shows, like the retro-1980’s Stranger Things, spark a resurgence of nostalgic touchstones like classic arcade games, bright yellow wall-telephones, wood panelling and Eggo frozen waffles. All of these kitchy objects and their colorful retro-appeal are influencing trends in all facets of things we buy.
When the 2017 Beauty and the Beast live action film was released, it had an instant audience of people who were influenced by the animated film from their childhood. Now watching the story as adult consumers, the film’s colorful style and new human cast spurred a market for everything from New Balance and Asics athletic shoes to Williams-Sonoma Le Creuset pot; the same blue as the Beast’s velvet coat.
At the same time as Belle’s iconic marigold-color gown whirls through the Beast’s castle, another 2017 film reinforced this emerging trend color with Emma Stone in a bright, retro style dress, thus creating the new “it color”, La La Land-yellow.
Celebrity Influencers: Pop culture trends are highly influenced by celebrities. Celebrities are viewed as influential role models; their looks, fashion and lifestyles and studied and emulated. There has become a strong trend in companies replacing models with Hollywood stars to help market products. Companies love to have a celebrity at the focus of their branding.
In a world that heavily revolves around data; a celebrity influencer’s endorsement of a product, can help it to become a major trend. Kylie Jenner Snapchatted herself eating pomegranate seeds and launched a major wave of on-line searches for ‘pomegranates’ and how to eat them and where to get them.
We love to know where a celeb mom bought her baby decor, and we can’t help but wonder what sofa our favorite celeb sits on and what designer water they drink. The consumer’s desire for what they perceive as “celebrity-worthy” can have a major impact on driving trends and brand recognition.
A millennial celebrity like Natalie Portman, being the face of a classic company like Dior, not only brings influence to the product being sold, but refreshes the brand itself. The trend of Millennial Pink is reinforced by Dior with the Eau de Parfum Miss Dior 2018 campaign: the perfume is pink.
Kim Kardashian and her wedding flower-wall began a craze that has given the floral industry a trend still evolving today.
In September 2017, Jennifer Lawrence arrived at the premiere of her movie Mother with flowers in her hair, her social media followers clammer to do the same. In the floral industry, we have been watching floral hair designs for years, but this is consumer awareness and it makes a difference. This starts a wave of prom and wedding hair flower requests. A trend is ‘born’ or ‘reborn’, ‘revitalized’.
Trends are what you make of them. Most trends have their foundations in other areas of life. Many of them you may have already been using in your designs or marketing, but it is often the positioning of the nationally and/or internationally recognized celebrity that breeds consumer awareness. Do you really believe that Pantone’s Untra-Violet is the actual color of 2018? Does it matter? If you use their international notoriety as a springboard for your marketing campaign; you show your trend ‘awareness’ by putting your brand next to theirs and using their brand’s advertisements to boost your own. The same can be accomplished by using La-La-Land’s ‘star-power’ when posting your next creation on social media sites.
Originally published in the October 2017 Issue of Florists Review
