The interesting thing is trends are not as disposable as the word would suggest. Organic (as opposed to designer) trends often times have very real roots in the fertile soil of everyday living. Its all about -- y'know-- life as seen on the streets, at the galleries, at parties and in the clubs. You can really tell where the world is going by what we are wearing, you can sense how we're feeling, you can deduce what we've been aching for. I think virtually every young person leaves their house thinking they're trendy. That's why trends rotate themselves in perpetual cycles. Look at that the "baggy" trend or the work boot trend, or the sportswear-as-day-wear trend. They've been in heavy rotation for what...six years now? The irony is trends linger cause people don't discard their whole wauldrobe on a seasonal basis. And when trends linger long enough they grow up to be a cultural moment.

You see trends are the visual equivalent -- if I may get unfashionably semiotic for a second -- of streetslang, namely a language that ruthlessly replenishes itself so that it always remains in the present. I find trends to be terribly revealing, terribly subversive things. I love the fact that they have no sense of cultural sentimentality. The time for being idiotic and dismissive about trends is over. Of course the last person you should listen to about trends is a magazine editor. If I had to choose between a magazine editor and go-go girl for a trend tip, I'd choose the go-go girl. But that's another story. It was called Showgirls.