Picking tomorrow’s tastes
Designer Kate Sylvester says she often comes to love what she hated.
Fashion is a business built on the shifting sands of people’s tastes and trends. It’s an area in which we’re constantly craving something new: the president of New York department store Saks Fifth Avenue told Vanderbilt that 60% of sales happen in the first four weeks the goods are on the floor.
For designers such as Kate Sylvester, who create looks a year ahead of when they’ll be on sale, anticipating what customers are going to like is an essential art.
Sylvester is fascinated by the way tastes change. “Everyone is exposed to so much and it’s interesting to see what filters down and impacts on us long term and what is a flash in the pan,” she says. “Fashion evolves and you can never predict how and I love that, otherwise life would be incredibly boring. When I say I hate something, you can guarantee at some point I’ll love it.”
Right now, she
The Kardashian factor is affecting fashion. “They’re having a big influence on aesthetics. I’m not a fan.”
is interested in the way the Kardashian factor is affecting fashion. “They’re having a big influence on aesthetics. I’m not a fan – it’s trashy, flashy and obvious. At the moment, I can’t imagine ever doing a glueon glitter dress with cutouts everywhere. But it might be that by the time I’m doing it, it’ll have evolved further. It could be in a different context and suddenly I’ll love it. And I’ll look back and laugh and say, ‘This was a Kardashian dress.’”
After 23 years in the business, Sylvester has learnt that it’s not about trying to predict what the trends will be. Instead, she relies on instinct and a strong sense of what her brand is.
“I’m constantly thinking about the woman I’m dressing. Early on I was more easily led astray by concepts. I remember being at Sydney Fashion Week with one collection inspired by a minimalist artist. It was all about simple shift dresses and suddenly boho exploded all around me. My God, what just happened? That was a huge learning curve. I’d been caught up in a particular concept and not looking at the world around me.”
Finding a balance between novelty and familiarity remains a challenge for Sylvester, a trusted brand with a core customer base that has been with her for years.
“I’ve got to keep progressing, otherwise my customers and I would lose interest,” she says. “So I always experiment and try new ideas, but I’d never turn around and design a radical, shocking collection. That’s not what I do and it’s not what people expect. I just want to make beautiful clothes for women to wear.”