Fashion Predictions 2008: Reading Cathy Horyn’s Tea Leaves

Took yesterday off (Christmas is an obligatory off day) but today and tomorrow and possibly Friday will continue with a look at what fashion experts are predicting for the New Year. Today I look at Cathy Horyn’s predictions for 2008. Reading Horyn’s tea leaves is particularly hard since she rarely makes overt mentions or prognostications of what to look forward to in the seasons to come. What I did was take a snapshot of some of her blog quotes to get a read on what she believes will be runway-worthy next year. By no means are these official prognostications from Horyn, it’s a Tim Russert-like effort to use her statements as to what she would like to see in 2008:

In regards to a trip Horyn took to Berlin where she found that certain fashion stores along a street were devoid of advertising displays. December 24, 2007 Horyn says:

We discovered things in nearly every shop we went into, but I can’t remember a name of a single place. These were not big-name stores, anyway. Half-way along, Ronnie said, almost jubilantly, “You know, it’s like they’ve never heard of ‘display’ here.” In other words, no imposed form or retail ideology got in the way of our own sense of discovery. What a strange lesson for stores to unlearn.

Could high-end fashion stores in 2008 be gaudy (or any) display-free in the new year? Horyn’s tea leaves hopes so.

On December 10, Horyn pulled some of her favorite looks from Narcisso Rodriguez’s pre-fall 2008 show. (a trend which in and of itself is unique, pre-fall that is) Horyn says

The winners in Rodriguez’s brisk collection were coats in washed cashmere with fleecy collars, the skinny black stretch pants, a loose Henley sweater in heather green wool (shown with a full silk faille skirt), and a slinky silk cocktail dress in a shade of army fatigue.

The Horyn tea leaves are possibly saying skinny black stretch pants are a must next fall, slinky cocktail dresses are also a great look (I’ll drop her “shade of army fatigue” statement as I have literary license to do so)

If we are reading her interview with David Downton right, her hopes that fashion illustration makes a comeback in all formats (magazines, shows, promo materials) are not just pie the sky but an actual foretelling of what’s to come in 2008. From her November 30, 2007 interview with David Downton:

Q: You know, I was thinking how Eula used to accompany Eugenia Sheppard to the shows in Paris and sketch—the immediacy and intimacy of his paper and pencil. And, of course, now we have sites like the Sartorialist, which does such a good job documenting the fashion scene and what people wear. But how cool would it be to have an entirely illustrated fashion blog—really using the point of view of the illustrator and obviously in reverse of the way everything is done digitally.

The tea leaves are saying that Horyn thinks that a fashion illustration blog will be on its way in 2008. Ms. Horyn we agree it indeed would be very cool.

Tomorrow we look at bloggers and their predictions for 2008.