My Reflection on text 'Trickle down Bubble up' By Ted Polhemus

1. Summarize, in your own words, what you think is the difference between fashion and street style.

Fashion is constructed ideas of fashionable and trendy clothing that designers put out every season.

Street style is what people actually wear, how do they combine clothing and form they personal style while combining clothes from different shops, labels, designers.

2. Polhemus says that what people wear is now more ‘plural’ than it was in the 1950s and 1960s. Briefly explain what you think he means by this and why you think this has happened.

People used to wear similar thing, because there wasn’t much variety back then. One massive trend comes in and everyone follows it. There weren’t many designers back then also that would dictate what is the trend. Right now there are so many designers, shop, brands, styles and alternatives for everything and everyone, that massive trends is not that noticeable anymore. I believe that happened as people and society in general started to live better, earn more money, there are a lot more people in the world then it was in the 50s or 60s also. Just a well-being of human kind is a reason why.

3. Can you give one example from contemporary or historical fashion of a trend that has ‘trickled down’ and one that has ‘bubbled up’? Please include images to illustrate these trends.

The first thing that poped into my head was a Chanel woven jackets that are so traditional for Chanel brand, but not so affordable for people. That is why it has a trickle down effect. Similar things like iconic Chanel jackets you can find in Zara and see in street style very often also.

CHANEL Spring 2004 RTW

Zara Blazer that you can find at online shop right now.

Moreover, the corset trend trickled down very quickly from Prada show to the street fashionistas in the past year.

Prada Fall 2016 RTW

Corset search in Asos.com

Thinking about the bubble up effect the first thing that comes to mind is subculture(s) style(s). I think they made and still makes a impact to the designer collection and are inspiration sources for artists. So bubble up effect is clear in Vivienne Westwood's collections that are inspired by Punks.