5-8 FEB, 2025, Istanbul Expo Center
Trends in women’s and men’s wear
Fashion designers from across the world came together in Istanbul to unveil their Autumn/Winter 2023-2024 collections. The latest outing of The Core Istanbul design exhibition, which used to be held as part of the fashion weeks organized in Istanbul in the past years, took place under the umbrella of Istanbul Fashion Connection (IFCO), Europe’s largest ready wear and fashion fair, on 8 – 11 February 2023.
Welcoming its visitors at the specially designed hall located in the IFCO fashion fair venue, The Core Istanbul served as a fruitful B2B platform where Türkiye’s leading fashion designers and apparel brands in the field of women’s wear and men’s wear, as well as Turkish brands manufacturing women’s and men’s shoes, bags and accessories, met with international buyers.
Kids clothing trends and color palettes
Sharing her insights about the autumn/winter 2023-2024 kids clothing trends and color palettes, Meryem Özyılmaz, Trainer at Istanbul Moda Academy (İMA), outlined the main themes characterizing the trends shaping the kids and toddler clothing industry as follows:
Personal needs have become a bigger priority, and people have started to look for ways to lead a more peaceful and healthier life
Little Voyager
With the shift in value judgments following the pandemic and in line with the increasing awareness on climate crisis, people have started to focus more on their wellbeing rather than on the material values imposed by the competition-based economy system. Accordingly, personal needs have become a bigger priority, and people have started to look for ways to lead a more peaceful and healthier life.
These developments have made it valuable to migrate from the city to the countryside, to create comfortable spaces, and to reconnect to nature by means of the healing and tactile textile materials that would fit the needs of contemporary nomads.
The theme Little Voyager is represented by a color palette, in which natural tones come to the fore in the dominance of pastel tones inspired by calm blues, autumn leaves, sweet spices and orange candy.
High Creativity color palette features high-impact tones including fig green, galactic blue, bitter lemon, bright pink, purple light, malachite, deep sea, apricot paste, and scarlet
High Creativity
The concept of creativity, which feeds designers, brands and many sectors, appears with the healing aspect of minimalist and fun designs. Following the chaos of the last two years, creativity seems to have regained its value, in line with the contemporary approach seeing it as a solution to complex problems.
While sectoral collaborations that are strong in terms of creativity keep leading to positive outcomes, the concepts of people, nature and artificial intelligence have become equally important and interconnected in the context of the fashion industry. The fact that designers handle the concept of happiness as an “active component” is seen as a good and necessary key performance indicator both for humanity and our planet.
Focused on energy and vitality, the High Creativity color palette features high-impact tones including fig green, galactic blue, bitter lemon, bright pink, purple light, malachite, deep sea, apricot paste, and scarlet. Meanwhile, the colors black, gray and white keep their position as basic tones on the calm side of the palette.
Digital Universe is inspired by various ideas and utopias that put not only humans but also the entire nature at the core of design
Digital Universe
In this gripping theme, the aspects of digital and physical worlds are combined in a way that they are both reflected in the designs that explore ways of transitioning to another world between nature and meta universe. Focusing on the commonalities between technology and the organic, the theme Digital Universe is inspired by various ideas and utopias that put not only humans but also the entire nature at the core of design.
Offering the opportunity to experience various novelties in the fields of education, health and creativity, the metaverse and the virtual world go beyond everyday habits. They come up with new ideas to make the world safer, fairer, more inclusive and more sustainable for all.
Inspired by the digital and natural worlds in its color palette, the theme Digital Universe blends digital and blurry tones with contrasts and pastels, and mainly features bright pink, lime, galactic blue, and metallic chrome colors that are used together.
Future fashion trends to be shaped at the soon to be held IFCO
The fourth outing of IFCO, organized by İTKİB fairs, a subsidiary of Istanbul Apparel Exporters’ Association (İHKİB), will be held on 9 – 11 August 2023, featuring trend areas, seminars, workshops and fashion shows that will bring together design, interaction and experience especially in the topics of digital transformation, smart clothing, technical textiles and sustainability.
At the fashion exhibition, product groups of women's, men's and children's apparel, as well as denim and sportswear, evening dresses, wedding dresses, underwear, socks, leather and fur garments, shoes and saddlery will be on display for fashion lovers and sector representatives including fashion brands, textile vendors, retailers, textile manufacturers, sourcing providers and designers from around the world.
