Trends

Trends tend to seep into each other like watercolors, spreading and blending throughout the canvas of life. It is this mingling that creates something new and moves trends forward. An illustrative example of this blending of trends is the growing and ever-changing world of metallics.

Remember when silver – just silver – was huge? After a while, silver became warmer toned as it shifted to weathered mercury glass. Then gold stepped back in, then brass, and then rose gold and copper. All this happened fairly rapidly, with consumers loving them all. So, the trend becomes a blend – something for everyone.

“Trends aren’t always completely new, and they don’t always appear out of nowhere and then disappear. Rather, existing trends most often evolve and blend, creating new trends. This give us, as floral retailers, a chance to catch our breath and analyze our current brand directions.”

Trend blending – “something for everyone” – has played a part in the decrease of “fads.” Fads often become micro trends, moving over a few years to become macro trends, and some even become mega trends that influence all aspects of life. Some of these mega trends are the urbanization of America, technology, environmental awareness and even demographic changes. As these mega trends solidify, they branch off into multiple macro trends that again birth micro trends – and the cycle continues.

The latest trend is that the world is “flat.” Okay, so the planet is not actually flat, but the design and décor worlds seem to be having a “flat” phase. We have spent year after year experiencing bold leaps in colors and patterns and shapes, only to be put on hold now. When this occurs, the innovation and introduction of new trends in our floral world appears to stall; yet, they actually continue to evolve – just slower than we typically witness, especially over this past decade.

Design and décor have become an eclectic blend of old and new, light and dark, bold and subtle, silver and gold. All of these contrasts blend together to tell an individual’s story – who they are and what they prefer to surround themselves with. This is great for mass market floral retailers. Why? Because it gives us a chance to catch up on the trends – an opportunity to strengthen the brands that we have by educating ourselves on how to react to an individual’s story.

There are so many trends. In just the past 12 months in Super Floral and Florists’ Review magazines, we have reported on the color of the year, living green, trending textures and textiles, dried and preserved botanicals (pampas grass is back in a huge way!), concepts of creativity, educating ourselves and our employees, wellness, the rise of yellow and more. We’ve also explained how these trends affect the floral industry.

All of this inspiration is strengthened and then diluted with a never-ending supply of imagery on social media, and that has given rise to the trend concept that “anything goes.” The story of the individual is not the only story to be told, and it is in these slower trend phases that we, as floral retailers, get a break to analyze our current brand direction, a chance to blend what we believe in, a chance to blend those trends that we choose to follow, and a chance to update or even create our own stories to tell our consumers.

In 2017, articles were being published that “Millennial Pink” has peaked. The fact is that Millennial Pink will not die. Pink is a macro color trend that finds new life in companies that have taken a step back to understand how their businesses can benefit from it. The “Drink Pink” marketing campaign by so many companies is growing (Google it!). The rise of pink continues with rosé wines, rosé vodka and so much more (see #roseallday). It is this slowdown in fads that allows these blends of trends and products to connect our stories with a consumer’s lifestyle story