Friday, July 18, 2008

Of Angels and Trends

It started with the nature trend: sticks, trees, leaves, birds. All of these used as design motifs in fashion and home decor... Then the bird trend got big: sparrows, single birds, flocks of birds, a wing, a feather... At the same time there is the whole spiritual trend happening: Oprah's online school of spiritualism (don't even get me started on that!); magazine articles about teens "cherry-picking" from many religions to create their own spirituality; finding your 'zen' place by unplugging and tuning in to yourself, etc... If you watch trends long enough you start to see the bleed-over between them. The bird trend leads to the sparrow motif that leads you to the retro tattoo trend. The bird trend also leads to the feather trend that leads to the Native American trend that also may have spiritual connotations. I blogged a while back about Sundance catalog selling t-shirts with Cherokee symbols printed on them that are messages to inspire power, grace and philosophical conversations. The latest link I have found between the two trends seems to be the emergence of angels. They are showing up on clothing and in ads to sell products from fragrances to shoes. They are not everywhere, yet, but I found enough of them to wonder if all things angelic, beyond just their wings, will be an emerging icon.


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