What works
Compare this graphic to the post via Wired about new data-mining research methods shortening the time to market for new drugs. Both employ a more or less circular timeline. This one works because it is meant to discuss a proper cycle – the same hat is seen through a sort of fashion kaleidoscope of attitudes but the hat doesn’t change and the attitudes follow a more or less predictable pattern that is cyclical, not linear.
What needs work
I was expecting more hipster sensibility in the graphic – maybe a discussion about the ironic use of emoticons. The oblique reference to trucker hats didn’t quite do it for me because I spent the whole time wondering if I was wrong about trucker hats and she really meant fedoras. A bit of hipster fashion signposting would have been useful. For example, are super skinny jeans for young men mainstream cool or ironically cool or not at all cool any more among hipsters?
Reference
Miethner, Emily. (28 June 2010) Hipster Fashion Cycle. Courtesy of flavorpill via notcot.
Comments 3
ben — July 3, 2010
Much better:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070711200644/www.fried.com/pics/trend.gif
ccc — July 5, 2010
^^^^Agreed.
With regards to the graphic, my main problem is that the circular "timeline" seems to imply, well, circularity in the associations with a single article of fashion. As it stands, you must start at the top of the circle for it to make sense (a decidedly non-circular proposition), and articles of fashion appear to just disappear once they reach the conservative phase. Why isn't this just a line from start to finish? What happened to the hat after it became conservative? The circle makes it confusing.
More quibbling (with content, not with design):
1. Am I wrong in thinking that "good taste" is commonly thought to be somewhere between Precipice and Mainstream? This might just be my own bias.
2. I'm not entirely convinced that "nostalgia" and "irony" happen before "conservative."
3. I'm entirely unconvinced that all fashions eventually reach the conservative stage and are seen as being in good taste. Are we to assume that Ed Hardy shirts are still working their way there?