Setting the scene of today’s marketplace for basics, in an effort to understand their success, the tiers of brands that connect with consumers in their various markets, along with a look at how codes of minimalism are saturated to suit different clothing categories.
As the 2010s drew to a close, trend forecasters eagerly anticipated a 'roaring '20s' – a hopeful echo of the 1920s post-war boom. Despite the backdrop of political turbulence during Trump's presidency and sluggish post-recession economic growth, many envisioned a positive era on the horizon. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 catalyzed a wave of corporate diversity initiatives, though their long-term impact remains questionable four years later. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, disrupting these optimistic projections, forecasters pivoted, framing the global pause as a ‘blank page for new beginnings.’ While the message felt insensitive, this perspective wasn't entirely misplaced; the stillness of lockdowns sparked profound discussions about the fashion industry, environmental concerns, and societal values evident across the rise of 'big think talk culture,' which found its home on platforms like Clubhouse and fueled the explosive growth of podcast culture as we know it today.
As the world emerged from the pandemic's shadow, it became clear that its effects were far more complex and far-reaching than initially anticipated, reshaping economies, social structures, and future outlooks in unprecedented ways.
The pandemic's economic impact was far from uniform, resulting in what economists call a K-shaped[28] recovery. In this case, the top 1% of earners were largely insulated from the pandemic's financial fallout, often benefiting from the stock market's swift recovery and the shift to remote work. In contrast, the middle class faced significant challenges, with many sliding into lower income brackets. This widening wealth gap effectively hollowed out the middle class, pushing a substantial portion into the lower market. This divergence in economic fortunes has raised serious concerns about long-term social stability and the need for more equitable economic policies in the post-pandemic world.
The middle class experienced a sort of split: some managed to level up into the upper-earning class bracket, while others were pushed down into lower-income brackets. This inequality resulted in the share of adults who live in middle-class households falling from 61% in 1971 to 50% in 2021. This divergence effectively emptied the traditional middle market, creating a more polarized economic landscape. Interestingly, where these two income brackets meet is in the middle – or at least in how they present themselves.
The wealthy will always continue to have access to luxury goods and spaces, especially those who are not trend-oriented, however, an inconspicuous approach to wealth, along with topical trends like "Stealth Wealth" and "Quiet Luxury" gave rise to a 'Premium Mediocre[29]' approach to shopping and dressing across the board. This phenomenon reflects a complex interplay between economic realities and social presentation, where individuals across different income levels aspire to project a similar aesthetic, blurring the visible lines between economic classes.
While keeping in mind economic and fashion market conditions are constantly evolving, at present, there are interesting arenas of ‘middle’ emerging, in addition to this K-shaped economy.
First, we explore the placement of a contemporary ‘premium mediocre’.
We can illustrate the distinction of a ‘premium mediocre’ below:
Social media has revolutionized the relationship between fashion brands and consumers, challenging traditional wholesaling models and making obsolete traditional fashion media and their role in introducing new fashion to consumers. This direct-to-consumer approach via social platforms not only streamlines operations but also fosters more personalized customer experiences through sidestepping conventional distribution channels. As fashion brands increasingly leverage social media's vast reach and targeted capabilities, they're redefining marketing strategies and distribution methods, rendering traditional wholesaling practices less relevant in the digital age.
The social media arena has altered consumer engagement in terms of market excitement and prosumer knowledge discourse. While an online conversational trend of ‘If You Know You Know’ has not replaced a feeling of ‘hype’, previously associated with streetwear’, it has become an evolution of this buzzy type of consumer engagement.
We place the above exploration into to the below:
A stripped back approach to contemporary casualwear and basics, the integration of denim, and conceptual interpretations of minimalism brings together the below matrix of basics-focused brands. There is a congestion of brands within the Contemporary to Mid-Market range, representing a ‘middle-ground’ whereby both upper-luxury consumers and mass-market consumers often meet. This is a general overview, with many brands not included. Brands were placed by the price of their basic white t-shirt, cross referenced with their brand positioning. Also, keep in mind that the very exercise of placing brands on a matrix is a subjective one, and each brand’s placement could be subject to change.
* Made in good fun, please don’t come for us (although, we do have receipts...)
From our exploration of new ‘middle grounds’, it is evident that a pared-back modernist minimalism is a way to blanket our place in a cross-roads of the past and future, and our tension between opting into traditional trend cycles or a trend-less basics one. This is also a result of the industry-at-large, and the creative leaders within it, perhaps looking at the same information or sources of inspiration more than ever before.
Minimalism, as a design ethos and concept is intentionally or unintentionally applied to fashion design, product development, merchandising, and marketing strategy. It’s a way to create a point of intellectualism within design, as if minimalism is the result of a considered, thoughtful process, or on the flipside, as a starting point to streamline products to optimize accessibility and versatility. Either interpretation sells goods to the consumer, in their own arena from luxury to a ‘premium mediocre’ middle-market to a highly commercial mass-market.
* Made in good fun, please don’t come for us (although, we do have receipts...)
Viewing basics within the context of our K-shaped economic recovery and a basics brand matrix reveals how contemporary consumers have opted into a basics-first sensibility. This approach conveniently blurs the spectrum of minimalism-to-basic into a singular aesthetic profile, allowing consumers to shape-shift between Quiet Luxury and being downright basic with just a sharp tailored blazer, a t-shirt – or perhaps, personal style.
Exploring the consumer identities and their values to understand the saturation of basics.
Being called cheugy, corny, cringe - to being downright basic - is a cardinal trend sin as it confirms your conformity to being victim to mass commercial trends, or being a summation of brain rot purchasing. To being unable to be independent, or being ahead of the curve far enough to have never enabled the marker of being basic catch up to you. But, as we are steep within a cost of living crisis, a tough job economy and the marketing of new products and influencers inescapable, basics dressing - and being basic - has become a safeguard to simply opt out of trends. To be anonymous. To have some sort of thoughtless uniform, as a result of thoughtless purchasing from a life of decision fatigue and anxiety. Basics dressing are for the in-between silences between trends, the default choice in a world of too many -cores and not enough creativity.
Basics dressing is simply the fashioning of the overarching mundanity that is the truth of an ordinary life.
Of logging in, lying flat, and walking around. A safe incognito mode, where it’s better to blend in than stand out in an unpredictable economy. An acceptance that today, we are not extraordinary, and there is no need to be. Basics are for those who are not influencers, and don’t need to live a fashioned life. Yes, the cerulean blue monologue still rings true, but its this very monologue around the ambivalence to the effort - that is what basics dressing is, and that is what the work of the fashion business should be. Consumers should not need to know what trend attachments their dress should be, and that should be normalized again. For the everywoman to know that their basics are a little Coastal Grandmother, a little ‘90s minimalist is absurd. It’s become so ingrained to be able to cite references or marketing spiel to verify fashion attachment - phrases like “premium elevated essential iconic 90’s fit t-shirt” echo with every click into a product page.
As consumers become fatigued of trends, there is an emerging tension of giving into being basic, or chasing the trends through wanting to be a trend leader. With conversations around ‘under-consumption-core’ - which is really, consuming in a regular, non-upper-earning-class manner at top of mind, fashion conformists are becoming more discerning about what truly makes a basic need in clothing, and is warming to the idea of being ‘basic’ minus the tag. Being basic, or a fashion ‘normie’ or simply being a citizen - not a fashionista or fashion aficionado is key to understanding a commercial market.
While businesses chase the fashion forward, it’s become clear that it’s this very ‘basics’ focused segment who seek clothing over fashion that has driven our current contemporary understanding of casual dressing to what it is now. There’s no doubt minimalism and contemporary womenswear has influenced basics as we know it (insert cerulean blue monologue), however, their saturation, continued success, and ongoing ‘blanding’ of basics is a result of consumers shopping dress over fashion. Inflated views of a fashioned life full of trends is no longer relevant as our priorities have downgraded to simply stay atop of a life of multi-crisis. Who can afford to be a trend chameleon, leader, or a trended being, in a life of basic survival?
Basics dressing favors conventional body types. While it starts from production - brands typically sample from a standardized size US 0-4 (dependent on the brand, and their budget) - the truth is that the last reported average size is a US16. Despite this, since our collective gaze goes up to celebrity influencers and aspirational imagery, dressing in basics has meant that the focus goes toward the body.
Just like how a ‘no-make up’ look highlights the features and skin of the face, normalizing cosmetic procedures more and more, basics-driven looks of tops and jeans highlight the ‘couture’ body – baggy jeans are baggiest when you are thin, baby t-shirts fit like one, when your torso resembles one.
Many have called out the dangers of women’s diet culture reverting to that of the late ‘90s and early 2000s of being extremely thin, a time when low slung jeans guided Atkins diet trends, wheatgrass shots and lemon-maple-syrup detox drinks. Today, ‘that girl’ routines and baggy jeans replace this phenomena, masked as being a wellness lifestyle, or as an effortless look. Instead, it must be noted that unless you are a naturally thin person, basics are not-so-effortless, as it requires a maintenance or dieting of the body, for basics to fit in a desired way. While basics seem really simple, it can also be seen as a canvas of hedonism, a result of consumers focusing their efforts on their bodies, with basics the draped curtains that showcase the efforts in the body, the afforded leisure to workout and afford an Erewhon budget.
Both the influencer and creator economy has normalized the over-presence of sponsored content, the discussion of trends, and ‘inspirational’ assets, cultivating the very act of fashion persona identification along with the consumption of product. While ambivalent consumers still exist, the very marketing strategies and trend forecasting habits of industry professionals has seeped into consumer culture and lingo, with consumption and content becoming hand-in-hand with marketing speak. A sort of consumption triple speak where marketing, trend, and product all hit the consumer at the same time is evident as it’s no longer “minimalism” for e.g. its ‘Quiet Luxury for the minimalist girlies’ etc.
There is a struggle for trend authenticity and authority too, whereby influencers, equipped with the same digital mediums to source references, are able to look at the same collections, insider intel and streetstyle as stylists and creative directors do.
Both the influencer and creator economy has normalized the over-presence of sponsored content, the discussion of trends, and ‘inspirational’ assets, cultivating the very act of fashion persona identification along with the consumption of product. While ambivalent consumers still exist, the very marketing strategies and trend forecasting habits of industry professionals has seeped into consumer culture and lingo, with consumption and content becoming hand-in-hand with marketing speak. A sort of consumption triple speak where marketing, trend, and product all hit the consumer at the same time is evident as it’s no longer “minimalism” for e.g. its ‘Quiet Luxury for the minimalist girlies’ etc.
There is a struggle for trend authenticity and authority too, whereby influencers, equipped with the same digital mediums to source references, are able to look at the same collections, insider intel and streetstyle as stylists and creative directors do. While style and creativity is essentially democratic - anyone can become a style maven - those who rely on style to build celebrity are now competing with the every-person who can hack their way into creating their own styled looks, pitch looks that celebrities should wear, and even invent new terminology. Relevance via fashion is an easy win, and can draw resonance through relatable, or aspirational moments - think Katie Holmes and her Khaite knit twinset, or Hailey Bieber and her street stylist, Dani Michele.
While the everyday consumer may not identify with basics personas directly, we articulate the cohorts of consumers who are shopping into minimalist casualwear that is comprised of basics.
We identify five key consumers of minimalist basics, who are shaping the way contemporary casual fashion is worn today. We represent these consumers with their ideal social media influencer.
While it’s becoming harder to distinguish authentic style in the age of social media, we can view the phenomena of someone’s influential style through the binary lens of are they dressing for a public audience, or for their private self?
While it’s becoming harder to distinguish authentic style in the age of social media, we can view the phenomena of someone’s influential style through the binary lens of are they dressing for a public audience, or for their private self?
The Basics-As-Trend Equation
[Copy needs to change] We explore these customers in an imagined landscape of product concepts and personas.
By mapping out the key customers in relation to the key concepts and make up of the basics, we’re able to understand the granular factors that contribute to the overarching aesthetics of the basics today.
[text is going to be edited] While it’s becoming harder to distinguish authentic style in the age of social media, we can view the phenomena of someone’s influential style through the binary lens of are they dressing for a public audience, or for their private self?
The Basics-As-Trend Equation
[text is going to be edited] While it’s becoming harder to distinguish authentic style in the age of social media, we can view the phenomena of someone’s influential style through the binary lens of are they dressing for a public audience, or for their private self?
Proves that it’s both the clothes and the consumer that make up the anatomy of a trend or culture of dress.
Breaking down basics fashion from a production perspective to build them back up into an original brand universe, or into your own existing business.
Like the endless products trickling through our lifestyles, so is the merch of our lives.
Beyond the Avocado toast
Dressing for the life you want, in increments of affordability. The Tom Ford coffee table book, the Erewhon smoothie.
Building inventory upon the princple of ‘the hoodie reflex’
Body Text Box
Body Text Box
Just as the universe expands from the Big Bang only to potentially contract into the Big Crunch, basics fashion erupts with infinite possibilities before distilling into a singular look of timeless, essential pieces.
From our learnings, we can zoom out and build a connected ‘brain map’ of basics-focused inventory. Products that are typically incorporated in an ‘essentials’ or minimalist-focused brand. These brands exist across our Marketplace matrix, and can be focused in Womenswear, Menswear, Denim, or everything above.
Build your basics with a pyramid approach to design. While other concepts build on emerging details and points of interest such as the ruffle, the basics sticks to the traditional approach to apparel design, starting with silhouettes first.
Illustrating how the above strategic planning trickles down into the creative process, typically started with a moodboard.
Edit Text Illustrating how the above strategic planning trickles down into the creative process, typically started with a moodboard.
Reflecting on our basics work (simple intro body text)
Just as the universe expands from the Big Bang only to potentially contract into the Big Crunch, basics fashion erupts with infinite possibilities before distilling into a singular look of timeless, essential pieces.
Enter Body Text
It appears like a sea of sameness, but really, it’s basics in each brand universe, each arena
Basics fashion endures through time, unlike trendy fashion, by embodying the timeless principles of Pathos, Logos, and Ethos. These philosophical foundations explain why basics remain a wardrobe cornerstone:
Pathos (Emotional Appeal) in basics evokes a sense of comfort and confidence, transcending fleeting trends.
Logos (Logical Appeal) manifests in the versatility and practicality of basics, offering enduring value and adaptability.
Ethos (Ethical Appeal) is reflected in the sustainability and timeless quality of well-made basics, aligning with evolving consumer values.
Together, these principles create a powerful trifecta: basics that feel good, make sense, and stand for something. This combination satisfies our emotional needs, practical requirements, and ethical concerns, ensuring that basics fashion remains relevant and desirable across changing times and tastes, unlike trend-driven pieces that often lack this holistic appeal.
Let’s not fool ourselves: The premiumization of everything has not improved life in this economy. The tide is rising, but where are the darn boats? When premium becomes the primary marketing tactic or even worse, our pervasive vibe, it leads The New York Times to question, “Is the whole economy gentrifying?” Life is not without its contradictions, which is how we end up with things like “premium basics.”
Worse yet, we’ve looked the gift horse in the mouth and now the marketplace for basics is rife with “timeless” and “classic” goods. It’s bad. Bad copy. Bad marketing. Once the usage ceases to be helpful or is meaningless to the point of confusion, we stumble and lose sight of what we were ever discussing. A t-shirt? A beverage? A piece of interior decoration? Words like “awesome” have lost a lot of their initial gravitas, but much was gained in bringing it to street level, so to speak. It doesn’t appear that “timeless,” “classic,” or even “essentials” have the same half-life. Fallen from the same word tree, they’ve gone to seed.
Along with the big nothing sandwich that is premiumization, recommendation culture has gotten out of hand. Sure, there’s value in a good rec, but mostly when it enables you to be small market in the big city. By “small,” I mean like a minor league baseball team. When reacted to or acted upon, a rec is a catalyst for taste making (hopefully your own). To literally try something on for size is incremental in getting to know whether it makes sense for you. You don’t have to like everything, go every place, be everywhere. Be small market in your discernment, joys, and trivialities, and you’ll be hard-pressed to ever let premium basics dictate your worldview again.
A big brand can be repeatably successful in being small market with its fans. There’s nothing inherently wrong or out of vogue with basics.
Just don’t market them like they’re dressed up in a way that’s implausible (no life-changing magic guarantee) or untoward (see: above discussion on premium mediocrity). It’s simple: get dressed, have a coffee, save the deck as a PDF, and turn off the lights when you leave the room. There’s work to do.
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It’s also through the exploration of style and styling that basics are able to exude an added commercial, wearable appeal.
While I address influencers again later, we can zoom into the aforementioned ‘It Moments’ as micro drivers of a basics moment, for e.g. celebrity streetstyle from Hailey Bieber to ZendayaMuses too: it’s usually not just basics or minimalist fashion it is their entire lifestyle that is aspirational.
Sustainability influences style ‘outfit repeating’ or wearing items that are not that memorable due to its simplicity.
Additionally, through the storytelling and narratives in fashion that weave in basics fashion, there is a key glossary of ‘basics buzzwords’ that sell, illustrate, and help consumers navigate codes of basics dressing.
Just when we thought streetwear as we know it was distinctively tied to Millennials (Gen–Z are too cool for such a generic sub-cultural term, of course, preferring more hybridized micro-iterations of the term), a Millennial mom who shares her Alpha child’s trend notes became viral. Hoodies were the cool thing du jour for these young teens. When looking further into hoodies specifically this past A/W 23/24 season, in fact, hoodies were trending. Hoodies were a conversation. Hoodies became lore. The question of ‘Is your hoodie hoodie–ing’ became a trending topic for the fashion-conscious, debating, sharing, and reviewing hoodies for their shape, weight, comfort, and details as well. It was a public peer-to-peer design sync, and you couldn’t ask for a free consumer insights report like this thread of videos that were being shared online.
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Y2K business casual
Post-modern minimalism
Ideas of a digital future
Innovations in ‘softwear’
Normcore origins: hipsterdom basics
Gender–Inclusive Fashion*
Passive Designs
Statement Graphic
T-Shirts
Contemporary Minimalism
Innerwear as Outerwear
Athleisure
Growth of Cut & Sew
Shifts in Product Categories
Streetwear 2.0
Millennial Pink Fatigue
Influencer Economy Boom
Fast Fashion Re-Org
Sustainability Initiatives
While the above table demostrates the key influential brands and designers who shaped our understanding of basics dressing today, we must not forget the influence of mass retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch, The GAP and American Apparel, their correlating youth customers and image of the all-American girl next door who bought into this at their local mall.
Today, this same influence is seen in DTC brands such as Everlane.
Just as the universe expands from the Big Bang only to potentially contract into the Big Crunch, basics fashion erupts with infinite possibilities before distilling into a singular look of timeless, essential pieces.
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Additional Notes:
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Today, a call for no new trends, and a fatigue of micro trends is more prevalent than ever. At the same time, consumers are desiring newness in creativity and freedom from the effect of being constantly marketed to via new trends and their products. It’s manifesting primarily in nostalgia and exploration of ‘personal style’ – an individualistic reaction to algorithms that look at us as singular collectives in this context collapse. It’s a value-action gap or a trend double-speak by a market that doesn’t seem to know what they want, but they won’t stop talking in spirals about it and know that they want it in 3-5 business days.
This tension between need (newness) and want (staying in-the-know) is creating a deadlock state - a state basics-focused brands are capitalizing on as a point of neutrality.
Neutral casual fashion based on the 1990s will undoubtedly continue since they can be both a trend-driven Quiet Luxury and a trend-less versatile basic. The items themselves from this time are generally accessible and approachable from a body-diversity standpoint. For e.g. bootleg jeans are hard to cater to various heights, since the flare from the ankle requires individual attention at the production stage from size to size and length to length (which is costly), and the 2000s low-waisted hipster jean is not a favorable shape across both size ranges and age demographics. Evidently, the modernity and minimalism of the 1990s fashion look is the Helvetica font of fashion – timeless, utilitarian, and when used right, fashion.
The continuance of 1990s basics fashion can also be attributed to an unquantifiable third thing – attitude. A sort of effortless, carefree nonchalance attitude towards being on trend and off of it - an ambivalence tied to nothing other than being a person valuing womenswear, and dressing for her own womanhood with a modernist approach to dress. While capitalism pushed new products in 1994 with messages around new modern lifestyles for Gen-X, the staunch minimalism of Millennials in a mise-en-scene of late-capitalism and projected girlbosshoods meant that advertisers became less emotive around consumer identities tied to lifestyles, and targeted consumers via identities tied to consumption.That is, it became less about ‘you run to work, therefore you need these sneakers’ to ‘you are a wellness girlie, therefore you need this lululemon dupe that will change your pilates-to-brunch life’.
The romancing of perusing womenswear has become lost as algorithms push hauls and hacks, and influencers systematically ‘shoe pop’ and selfie onto our screens. It’s as if the womenswear market has lost confidence in the art of self-directed fashion, and have therefore become more susceptible to trends, a Stockholm syndrome situation with our algorithms and sponsored recommendations. Marketing has become direct – an exchange of power where strategies out-influence consumers in terms of authoritative voice. Review cultures and the way products are shared communally has meant that shopping, or product awareness is rarely a solo journey – there are so many more touchpoints now than flicking through a magazine or noticing a billboard on the street. We won’t go too deep into that, but this advert by Donna Karan in 1994 encapsulates this idea of romancing the womenswear customer well.
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Today, a call for no new trends, and a fatigue of micro trends is more prevalent than ever. At the same time, consumers are desiring newness in creativity and freedom from the effect of being constantly marketed to via new trends and their products. It’s manifesting primarily in nostalgia and exploration of ‘personal style’ – an individualistic reaction to algorithms that look at us as singular collectives in this context collapse. It’s a value-action gap or a trend double-speak by a market that doesn’t seem to know what they want, but they won’t stop talking in spirals about it and know that they want it in 3-5 business days.
This tension between need (newness) and want (staying in-the-know) is creating a deadlock state - a state basics-focused brands are capitalizing on as a point of neutrality.
Neutral casual fashion based on the 1990s will undoubtedly continue since they can be both a trend-driven Quiet Luxury and a trend-less versatile basic. The items themselves from this time are generally accessible and approachable from a body-diversity standpoint. For e.g. bootleg jeans are hard to cater to various heights, since the flare from the ankle requires individual attention at the production stage from size to size and length to length (which is costly), and the 2000s low-waisted hipster jean is not a favorable shape across both size ranges and age demographics. Evidently, the modernity and minimalism of the 1990s fashion look is the Helvetica font of fashion – timeless, utilitarian, and when used right, fashion.
The continuance of 1990s basics fashion can also be attributed to an unquantifiable third thing – attitude. A sort of effortless, carefree nonchalance attitude towards being on trend and off of it - an ambivalence tied to nothing other than being a person valuing womenswear, and dressing for her own womanhood with a modernist approach to dress. While capitalism pushed new products in 1994 with messages around new modern lifestyles for Gen-X, the staunch minimalism of Millennials in a mise-en-scene of late-capitalism and projected girlbosshoods meant that advertisers became less emotive around consumer identities tied to lifestyles, and targeted consumers via identities tied to consumption.That is, it became less about ‘you run to work, therefore you need these sneakers’ to ‘you are a wellness girlie, therefore you need this lululemon dupe that will change your pilates-to-brunch life’.
The romancing of perusing womenswear has become lost as algorithms push hauls and hacks, and influencers systematically ‘shoe pop’ and selfie onto our screens. It’s as if the womenswear market has lost confidence in the art of self-directed fashion, and have therefore become more susceptible to trends, a Stockholm syndrome situation with our algorithms and sponsored recommendations. Marketing has become direct – an exchange of power where strategies out-influence consumers in terms of authoritative voice. Review cultures and the way products are shared communally has meant that shopping, or product awareness is rarely a solo journey – there are so many more touchpoints now than flicking through a magazine or noticing a billboard on the street. We won’t go too deep into that, but this advert by Donna Karan in 1994 encapsulates this idea of romancing the womenswear customer well.
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