Future Think: How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change

Chapter 4. The Extremes Inform the Middle

Some years ago, we got a call from Harper's Bazaar, asking us to comment on the trend toward the “waif” look on the fashion runways—scrubbed faces, ankle socks, flat shoes, and childlike, innocent posturing. But at the time there was also a lot of the punk, nihilistic look as well—body piercing, spiked hair, and torn garments. So we said that the real story was the fashion designers' need to go to opposite extremes to get noticed in a world of hype and ever-present media messages. The reporter asked how she could place a business angle on that—”What can the fashion business do with that contradiction?” We said that in a couple of years, the woman on Main Street, having been repeatedly exposed to the two ...