Thoughts for the Trend-Free: Trendlessness as a Brand Goal

Many brands want to integrate trends into their marketing. But what about brands that want to remain trend-free? How can they do it, and can – or should – they do it at all?

How Can Brands Avoid Trends?

Can a brand be fully free from trends? That’s a philosophical question that we’ll deal with later in this article. But at a practical level, there are certainly ways to avoid them.

·       Hyper-uniqueness: Remember the “hyper-niche-ification” that I referenced in my previous post? This is similar. Some brands take part in a niche that already exists. But hyper-unique brands create their own niche – only for themselves.

·       Timelessness: A timeless brand may share elements with other brands (think Coca Cola), but these elements remain the same as trends come and go because they aren’t linked to any specific temporary preferences.

Of course, these two aren’t mutually exclusive. And yes, they can apply to any industry. Let’s look at Chopova Lowena, a decade-old fashion brand that does both. Show Studio describes the brand’s aesthetic as a “calm symbiosis of recycled textiles, punk tartan taffeta and prim pleating with carabiners [which] lock their Bulgarian-stitch-British-crafted folklore concept together”. This definition speaks for itself: Chopova Lowena has crafted a category-defying style which fits into no less than twenty words.

In contrast to the shifting niches that dominate platforms like Instagram and TikTok, Chopova Lowena’s niche seems to be enduring. Founded in 2017, the brand has weathered multiple big changes in fashion as well as numerous cycles of trends and microtrends. If you scroll back to its early Instagram posts like I did, you’ll see that the brand’s image – particularly the carabiner skirt – has remained largely the same. By existing at the intersection of hyper-uniqueness and timelessness, Chopova Lowena has found a way to escape many trends.

Is Trendlessness a Viable Goal?

Some brands, like Coca Cola, have managed to remain timeless for decades. And Chopova Lowena seems well on its way to achieving something similar, albeit in a more fluctuating industry. But even a brand like Chopova Lowena can become associated with the culture of a certain time as the years pass by. Is it possible to create a brand that is fully free from trends, and is that even a desirable goal?

Let’s consider the alternative scene. Hailed as being innovative, anti-mainstream, and even anti-trend, alternativeness can be broken down into categories with predictable aesthetics. According to Merriam Webster, a trend is “a current style or preference”. While alternative styles may fit this definition at a superficial level, it is incorrect to label them simply as trends: at their core, they demonstrate belonging to a social movement, lifestyle, or set of values. So what does this mean for our discussion of trends? Ultimately, no brand can ever be completely free of trends insofar as we define them as a grouping of similar styles or behaviors. But if people and brands are embracing a similar aesthetic because they want to share an authentic and important message with the world, that isn’t a bad thing. Crafting a hyper-unique, timeless-in-a-vacuum brand image isn’t the path that everyone needs to follow.

Takeaways 

Ultimately, there are several strategies brands can take to avoid as many trends as possible. But trends can’t always be escaped, and grouping together with others can be a good thing if it’s done for the right reasons.

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