The fashion industry expands much further than the pages of glossy magazines and boutique clothing stores. The creative professionals that ignite the latest trends in fashion also influence businesses that are far from the runway.

Home Décor

Like fashion, home décor is a way for people to express their personal style. Often the patterns and colors that are hot on the runway find their way to showroom floors each season. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is gorgeous wall murals that mimics the latest fabric from the trendiest fashion houses. Fashionistas and home décor enthusiasts can adorn a room just as they would a wardrobe.

Home décor is so closely tied to fashion a number of designers and even models like Cindy Crawford have come up with their own lines of furniture and accessories. People who are already familiar with and gravitate towards a designer’s clothing line will naturally be more inclined to also buy their home accessories and furniture.

High Design

Even though clothing makers are called designers, fashion and design are two separate things. However, design and fashion intersect at many points. The structures and silhouettes that are trending in fashion can serve as inspiration for architects, furniture makers and even car designers. On a concept level, you’ll notice many parallels between of the moment fashion and high designs.

Pop Culture Franchises

Even though the HBO series Sex and the City ended in 2004 it still has a profound influence on women of all ages. It’s one of those rare shows that transcends entertainment and creates cultural changes. The producers and stylist Patricia Field have famously said that fashion was the fifth character on the show. Each of the four women in Sex and the City had distinct styles, with the lead character Carrie was known for showing off the most cutting edge looks. The daring styles and looks made an impact and were considered a form of female empowerment.

Libations

The 2011 New York Fashion Week proved that even beverages could be influenced by clothing designers. Fashion shows are known to feature adult beverages behind the stage, in the audience and at the after parties. But all around America’s most populated city bars, mixologists come up with fashion inspired libations of their own like the Avante-garde-tini. Year after year you can now find fashion week drinks if you visit NYC in September or February.

Music Sounds and Styles

Music and fashion go hand-in-hand. Each one seems to feed the other, especially since music videos began being aired. Musicians create an on-stage persona that reflects the sound and mood of their songs. It can be based on the latest fashion trends or be something totally new that ultimately inspires designers to create a fashion following. It’s also common to see high profile models make their way into videos of both female and male music artists.

Movie Characters

It doesn’t take a movie as obvious as Zoolander to realize that movie characters are often sporting the latest fashion trends and spoofing fashion insiders. Cult favorites like Clueless make the fashion obsession of main characters a plot point. The movie perfectly captured the style and attitude of that era as well as the opulence of the characters’ lives.

Costume designer Mona May has said they used clothing in Clueless to touch on the grunge movement that had been usurped and made mainstream by the fashion world. This shows fashion is inspired by niche cultural movements that designers then make more accessible to the general public. The fashion trends then find their way into movies.

Advertising

Advertising executives have a very short amount of time to catch people’s attention. One way to relay information or an idea quickly is to create a mood for a piece of marketing material whether it be a print ad, online banner or commercial. Timely fashion trends are used to make the feel of an ad appeal to a certain market segment and support a specific concept. This is most commonly seen in the beauty industry when they’re advertising their latest products, but examples can be found in a variety of industries like tech and transportation as well.

Fashion trends are always going to influence other industries because it’s a reflection of the current lifestyle and mindset of people. The individuals that drive the fashion world understand how to embody it in a creative, expressive way that can go far beyond clothes.

Interior design photo by Jurgen Leckie