Final year Undergraduate in Fashion Business student Aleksandra Popova proposes a new approach to trend forecasting that focuses on connecting to human instinct rather than algorithms and archives, leading us to create something that is new and true.
Every few seasons there’s a new word of rising importance and recognition that also becomes an oversaturated slate from which brands draw inspiration without elaborating on its connotation. The fashion cycle is the experience of a movement or ideal breaking down and then breaking in; now that we’ve broken through the wall, authenticity appears as a potential way forward, the dust of debris stays, and with an unclear vision we ask our constantly anticipating minds, what is next? What words and motivations circulate the unconscious mechanisms to what every designer is preparing for Fall Winter 2026-7 ?
The psychology of fashion has always been pivotal to my understanding of such a competitive and visual landscape. Why are we attracted to the things we are attracted to? Why do we see our collective ideas on the runway? A new season emerges, its designs and philosophy begin to tug at us long before we step foot in its direction. Fashion is a dance, a dance between society and design. What we design is built through the lens of our experience and what we see in the world begins to echo out onto the runway. Fashion and society have a tendency to influence each other, a two way street, where manifestos and experiences shape the garment and the garment can be used as a filter through which we see the world.
For Spring Summer 2025, Li Edelkoort, top trend forecaster, circulated the idea of “the inner child,” an internal unconscious area of our psyche correlating to one’s childlike self. With her recognition of childlike silhouettes and brighter colors emerging, she pinpointed the term “Candy Craze,” to encapsulate the season’s focus. Your inner child evokes a sense of freedom and play, and this was being reflected in independent designers taking the stage as the ever so present fashion giants continued holding their place.
Edelkoort’s fashion and textile forecast to prepare for the upcoming Fall Winter 2026 season highlights “instinct”: an innate, patterned behavior for living organisms that does not require learning or experience. Edelkoort writes, “without instinct, we lose control of our inner selves and are prone to the accidents of existence; without the intuition needed to create new vision and innovative ideas, we are at risk of repeating the same patterns, becoming living algorithms ourselves, drawing from our internal data bank. A bank that isn’t bankable because it is rarely tried and tested, since our instinct for self-reflection seems to be numbed into oblivion. Therefore, the time has come to embrace that inner voice which defines our most intimate and primitive instincts, as original as our origins. To be rooted and respectful of all living matter, in the animistic sense of inclusion and belonging.”
Previous seasons have seen huge areas of expansion, such as brands majorly changing commercial and conceptual direction. In the human context, as we expand, the natural rhythm is to then retract. We have begun to sit with the body again, longing for our origin, away from artificial rhythms, syncing up to humanity’s tune rather than a commercial current. This was evident as I sat listening to the Polimoda Talent winners, Hatem Ben Hassine and Luigi Simonetti, in the Polimoda Aula Magna, who both spoke to a recognition of craft.
In Luigi’s process, he remembers the hands that built what we can so easily wear now. Simonetti, Master in Creative Direction alumnus and originating from the southern Italian region Molise, tells us a story of how tradition & cultural narratives build into the future, guiding us, and perpetuating a slow, natural pace. His brand’s goal being to create a limited collection that combines sportswear inspired silhouettes with meticulously made lace additions. In Hatem’s process, he recognizes the effort of model casting processes that take place behind a screen. A Master in Sustainable Fashion alumnus, he reminds us that behind the algorithms there are people. Syncroni is a digital runway casting solution designed to facilitate and expedite the casting process, allowing clarity in the chaos of producing a show. Both Hatem and Luigi’s intentionality and emphasis on the people behind the project, reinforced an ideal of humanity, and of fashion, that is slowly taking place.
Now, when we hear the incessant mention of AI we either shrivel up, or begin to feed into fantasy, but what if we ask ourselves “where are we”? If we are moving closer to technology, do we have to be moving away from humanity? Can technology be a part of instinct? I consulted Fashion Technology and Innovation professor, industry professional and alumna, Beatriz Barros: “we’ve optimized so hard that we find ourselves in algorithmic echoes,” she said, sharing her development on projects that incorporate the human senses, and directing me to seek ways that we can synthesize human craft and innovation. Technology can be a part of instinct, a collaborative approach in creating value. Instead of overriding the senses, it can create clarity and guidance. It can be a tool that can enhance and organize what we know, not replace it.
The vacant algorithms and emulation of trends leave us dry, as our thirst for something truer lingers, the flame that led to design in the first place. Host of the Fashion Archive Podcast, Amelie Stanescu states, “we’ve drained the archives dry, when you can’t look outward for direction, you start to look inward.” She continues, “this is the beginning of building a new language from scratch that doesn’t really borrow from subcultures or chasing validation but comes from personal instinct.”
Technological innovation in areas of creative output can be used as enhancement, not replacement. Tapping into instinct means resisting the comfort of pattern repetition, the safety of trend reports and the validation of what’s already proven to work. As the winners of Polimoda Talent demonstrated, fashion can enter a new phase of contraction, in which we return to the people behind the craft, and a truer rhythm and instinctual approach, while utilizing technology to help us get there. All the while, remembering that behind every algorithm and innovation, there is a human encoded with the knowledge, intuition and network to weave through the noise.
As complex as the world of trend forecasting is, we often dismiss our own inherent connectivity as indicator for what is unfolding. Maybe what we seek to embark on next is already here with us, uncovered by conversation and synchronicity with our colleagues and mentors. If pushing to prove our authenticity is out, is the strength to listen inward, in? Strength that invites us into our natural instinct, rather than dampening it, tucking it behind the piles labeled urgent. If all is urgent, what remains true?
CREDITS
Written by:
Images are the result of a photoshoot A Quiet Pulse:
- Fashion Advisor & Art Direction: Marius Madalin Musat
- Photographer: Angelo Guttadauro
- Photography Assistant: Odeon Davis Undergraduate in Fashion Styling
- Designers: Noe Falchi, Jadon Joukar, Claire Manley, Ian McDonald, and Alberto Repetti, Undergraduate in Fashion Design.
- Models: Lucky Sturm Undergraduate in Fashion Styling, Anton Ukolov, Diana Caro, and Anson Lorence Li.
- Art Direction: Julia Sette, Undergraduate in Fashion Art Direction
- Styling: Sasha Koreneff, Maeryn Lee, and Chiara Tonazzi, Undergraduate in Fashion Styling.
- Make Up: New Line Academy
- Cover image: Jacket Ian McDonald. Bottoms Claire Manley. Model Diana Caro. Photo by Angelo Guttadauro.
