You might not have heard of steampunk just yet, but expect to see mannequins in the windows of the biggest mall stores sporting the feminized-military, retro/futuristic look this year like never before.
So says IBM's social sentiment index, which measures what's trending on social networks and blogs.
Steampunk is a science fiction/fantasy sub-genre that's a style mash-up of 19th century industrialized looks and Victorian flourishes, drawing from the work of authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
And in fashion, steampunk "kind of looks like engineering work clothes meets Victorian high fashion," Dr. Trevor Davis, consumer products expert of global business services for IBM, told Forbes.
Long Term Trend?
Using its proprietary analysis, IBM tracks the spread of trends geographically, chronologically and now culturally. And it found steampunk -- popular of late in fiction and the visual arts -- is already inching its way into mainstream fashion, and is poised to blow up for a mass-market audience this year.
According to IBM, 55 percent of social sentiment chatter for steampunk was generated by blogs. Meanwhile, Twitter was the #1 social network for steampunk buzz, and 33 percent of the fashion chatter on gaming sites was steampunk centric.
These are telling indicators that the steampunk trend will expand from small manufacturing on sites such as Etsy and collections from high-end designers like Prada and Alexander McQueen, to mass production by major fashion labels, jewelry and accessories makers, and to national chains such as H&M and Zara, Davis said. "It won't be long before the mainstream catches up to this.
"Most people are very interested in fast moving trends. We're interested in slow-moving trends that [reflect] some social demographic change" -- which in the end are more meaningful to retailers as they have a longer shelf life, he said.
So how will steampunk show up in mall stores this year? In jewelry and accessories, "you'll see finishes that look more metallic, more use of woods that are associated with the Victorian era, like teak and mahogany, and we'll see some very ornate features on them," Davis said. Steampunk is also characterized by showing the inner workings of an item, such as cogs and gears, as a design element.
In apparel, expect to see heavy use of black and gray, and "clothing details that look like they belong on a military uniform, such as braiding," as well as the use of lace, multi-layered skirts "and changes to stitching more consistent with a Victorian look," he said.
