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Immaterial World
A dedicated and transparent space to re-center how we explore glamour, fashion, magic, wellness, culture, and everything else we love, together.
hosted by Jessica Richards and Jezmina Von Thiele
Immaterial World
FASHION ASTROLOGY FOR SPRING 2026 with Jessica Richards
In this bonus episode, Jessica reports on her thoughts coming out of “fashion month” and some of the trends from the runways of spring/summer 2026; with special attention to Matthieu Blazy’s premiere at Chanel, the Pisces North Node-coded existential show notes of designers, the many references to divination and the metaphysical that are coming up as Neptune moves into Aries, plus more.
Hosted by Jessica Richards and Jezmina Von Thiele
For more about Jessica visit: www.the12th.house and Instagram: @jessicaxrich
For more about Jezmina visit: www.jezminavonthiele.com and Instagram: @jezmina.vonthiele
Music and editing by DIA LUNA
Instagram: @dialunamusic
Artwork by Lane Friend
Instagram: @friendlane
Welcome to Immaterial World, a dedicated and transparent space to recenter how we explore glamour, magic, culture, and everything else we love together. Alright, well, I am very excited to be able to interview my co-host. We're gonna talk all about the things that you do, and we're centering it around Fashion Week, but also I just am such a fan of the way your brain works, and I can't wait to learn more about what you do with it and what you're doing in your life.
Speaker 2:Lovely. Thank you so much. Yeah, I feel like this is a great opportunity. We're coming at the end of, I call it Fashion Month, but we'll get that in into that in a second. But it's at the end. So this is like truly late breaking news.
Speaker 1:So I mean, I kind of laugh sometimes because it's a lot of us have friends where it's like we do know what they do for a living, but when it comes down to really actually explaining like the nitty-gritty of it, it's like, I don't, I'm not sure. And so which has inspired my question. I'd like to start with, what do you do exactly, Jess?
Speaker 2:You know, it's not just you. Sometimes it's me. Sometimes I say, what is it that I do? Uh the existentialism of this question. But I I think that it's a fair question. And so I'm going to try to make it as understandable as possible. So in the world of fashion, I am most prolifically known for my trend forecasting. Although I also do styling, I do some brand consulting, I do some marketing. Um, and when people ask what is trend forecasting, I always say, Have you seen the movie The Devil Wears Prada? So have you seen that movie? I have. Okay. So when Meryl Streep's character does this entire speech about you think that you picked that sweater, but it was actually chosen for you for you from the people in this room, that is the best way to describe my job and what I do. Although I would not put it as on high the message when I describe what I do. So if you're in the world of fashion or the world of design or product development, and truly this transcends fashion. It goes into cars, it goes into hospitality, it goes into pretty much any industry where there is product being created. You have trend forecasters that are sitting at the beginning part of the process. And so what information I put together lays the foundation for many end clients. In fashion, it could go to a designer, it could go to a product developer, it could go to a buyer or a marketer. But what it does is it informs what they need to think about based on the anecdotal evidence that I've put together to predict future seasons. And, you know, I'm finally at a place in my career where I'm very comfortable to say, you know, I'm very uh unique in the voice that I present this information in. It's very different. There are large trend forecasting agencies that make a lot of money, work with very high-end or even very large-scale commercial clients, and they charge a lot for their services. And it's it's very esoteric. I always thought that there was a space for someone to come in and do something more bespoke and work with clients that need assistance, but maybe don't have the budget to go to that kind of scale to afford those agencies, or they need something that's a little bit more unique and understandable to them. So rather than this, you know, one size fits all esoteric message that you're supposed to then discern into your business, what if there was someone who was creating this information with all of the same evidence, all of the same resources that the larger agencies have, but just told in a more commercial way. So I always refer to myself as a style storyteller. And I also say that everything that I done I do is done through a lens of sentience. So for me, trends and product and fashion, it has feelings, it has emotions. If you're looking for someone to give you data or to like give you percentages or numbers, I am definitely not your girl for that. I also personally feel that if there's a lot of data supporting a trend, then it's probably almost done because a lot of people have searched for it at that point. Um, so I I really believe more in this divination of trend, if you will. Um I learned pretty early on in my career too that what your personal taste is is very separate than what you do. And I think when people imagine someone working in fashion, they imagine someone who has like this luxury point of view and dresses very tailored and is very tall and very thin and has sort of like an angry look on their face. And I clearly was never any of those things when I started in this industry. And so I would say like one of my first lessons early on was to establish my own identity, but also know enough that what I presented to clients really had to fit what they were doing. And so, if a lot of people kind of fit into this stereotypical image of what it means to be in fashion, I was always going to be that outsider, that sort of like imposter feeling. And I was okay with the whimsy of what I was bringing into it, and it it challenged me in a way to find um archetypal figures or role models that were in the industry and looking at the same information but still maintaining themselves. So when I think about my earliest influences in fashion, it was someone like Annadello Russo, who was editor-in-chief of Japanese Vogue, or Giovanna Battaglia. You know, they would you would see them in these street style photos and they would have like a cherry like hat on their head. Like they would have the craziest things on, and I was like, yeah, like somebody I can relate to. So it wasn't really happening in America, in New York as much, or in some of the European cities. So when I then discerned from the publications that they were doing, you know, how are they looking at the same clothes, the same runway shows, the same brands, but through this very unique lens? And it's funny because I especially think with like Japanese Vogue, where you're opening it sort of in the opposite way than you do here in America, and it would be in Japanese, but all of the brand names would be written in English. So I would be, you know, searching those brands and understanding how they were looking at putting together the concepts and the trends and everything that they were speaking for in that season. And so what's interesting is by design, because I had to be so much more exploratory in the work that I was doing, rather than sort of copy and paste like other people that come from like a more archetypal way of thinking or a more traditional fashion lens, because I had to do extra work, if you think of it that way. Of course, it was a joy to me. My lens was always wider. And I was always thinking about more people and a larger end consumer and a larger story. And I think that that's really just set my brain to think about trend forecasting in a way that most people wouldn't do. So I've always had to go out on a limb and I've always had to do a little bit deeper dive. Um, you know, in early 2020, I started my own business, and I have been doing bespoke trend forecasting for clients since then. And my magic formula is this it's asking myself three questions. Where have we been? Where do we go? Then the next question is, what are people doing less of? What are they doing more of? And then the last is what is growing as a sentiment that must be expressed? And clearly these are very like existential kinds of questions, but they set the tone then for what I'm going to do. And the reports that I do for my clients are done in a way that I have this story that really responds to all of those questions in a way that relates back to the product or the end use of what they're looking for. And it's relevant to their business. You know, I'm not going to go to a sneaker company and start talking about all of the new shapes and high heels, right? I'm I'm really going to get into the whys and tell this story. But ultimately, my goal in trend forecasting is to empower the end user to be able to know not only what to do, but why they're doing it. I don't want to leave them with a feeling that they've been told on high by somebody in the ivory tower, this is what you must be doing. And that's sort of the end of the conversation. I want them to feel like they have enough information to go speak to the next person in the process and they have confidence to say, you know, here's what we're doing. And the the little, you know, whatever kind of catchphrase I give them or whatever. It's empowering to them. They can then retell the story and feel really good about it. That sentence needs to be translated into the way that people own that information going forward. So, you know, there's a lot of people that are editors, or I like, or I like to say there's a lot of like fashion keyboard keyboard warriors, their critics, like, you know, reporting all the time on fashion. But what I'm doing is so different because it's like sitting back with this information and turning turning it into like a beautiful story that people can relate to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes so much sense when you lay it out like that. And it really makes a lot of sense to me why divination appeals to you. Um but let's uh let's say in the in the moment, um, fashion week has happened. It it is also perhaps a fashion month. What what is it? I it's one of those things when I lived in New York, I was telling you um a few days ago that I almost got pulled into elements of it all the time, but I it never quite worked. And so I I haven't really experienced it. I know it's a big thing that everyone was talking about, but um love to hear from your perspective.
Speaker 2:Sure. What is it? At its core, what fashion week is, and the reason why I say fashion month is because I think each city has its own week. Like ultimately it adds up to a month. So you have New York Fashion Week, you have London Fashion Week, then Milan, and then Paris. So there is this month where you're having runway shows two times a year, you know, around February and September of each year. And historically, the reason that Fashion Week exists is so that there is a centralized place for designers to show their collections to buyers, whether they are buyers from the store or different major retailers or smaller boutiques that carry those designers around the world. Uh, it's also for the editors of all of the different fashion magazines. It's also for the stylists that will be pulling for their own clients or for, you know, editorials for those same magazines. And it's also a place for the, you know, high-roller clients to come in and, you know, cherry pick what they would like for the next season. Um, things have changed. I mean, now it's it's sort of become a place for influencers to go. Um, there's there's a lot of disruption happening in who goes to the fashion shows and why. And that's not really for me to particularly speak on. Um, but then in the same time period, there's something called a Reese where editors and stylists can then go to uh either the the offices of the house or some other centralized place and see all of the product that was on the runway show closer up in person, understand the details, and start working with the house to um pull for whatever they might need for the upcoming season.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool. That sounds so practical and like it makes sense why this is a big industry deal. What did you observe about this year's work?
Speaker 2:Wow, I have to say it's so interesting because this was a season where I took the time to really read the show notes of most of the shows that had happened and to not just look at the garments but think about the stories. And I I was really inspired, I will say. So a lot of the designers really spoke to the idea of pulling back from maximalism, and they were talking about it. And there's certain designers like Alessandro McKelly, who's now at Valentino, and he is famously known for like, you know, garment upon garment upon garment with jewelry layered in, and you know, he's a hyper-stylized designer. There has to be a lot happening in each garment. And he was among this group of people saying, you know, why we can't do this, like it doesn't feel right in this moment. Um, a lot of designers speaking on the climate of the world, a lot of quotes around why am I even making clothes? Why am I participating in fashion? There was like a lot of existentialism happening, which to me was like, okay, so as much as I'm struggling personally to even be talking about fashion or participating, it's happening on every level. Everyone's going through this. And, you know, it's funny to me because it's like extremely Pisces coded. So Pisces being in the north note, I'm like, okay, all of the existential breakdowns happening. Like, yes, this is this is very much on time. Um, Alessandro Dell Aqua said something like, not in the mood for like excess or loudness. It's a time for melancholic creativity. And I was like, oh yes, baby, speak to me. So it was just so interesting to read all of these house notes because I would say 80%, safely I could say 80% of people felt like, look at me with a statistic and it's gonna be wrong because math doesn't exist in my world. But there was just such a majority, especially in the larger houses, of people speaking to how disconnected they're feeling from what they're doing right now. And to me, that reflected in the collections. We were also coming into a season where there had been a bit of tumult because a lot of creative directors were moving houses. But when I say that, I mean it's like the same few guys just going to a different house. And there was a lot of conversation around why is it the same players all the time? Why is it men? Why aren't we seeing more women in these creative director roles? Why aren't we seeing any disruption? So there were high expectations for a lot of these houses, knowing that people were already so angry because they thought that there should be more change or more thoughtful change. And of course, this goes back to the commercialization and like making the bottom dollar, you know, the bottom line work. And these are just my personal opinions. Also, it's great not to work for a trend forecasting agency because I can just really speak to how I feel about everything with without any kind of discretion. Um you know, it's interesting too, I would say, because then you have the disruption of someone like Sarah Burton, who was with Alexander McQueen for years and years and years, and she left and has come back and she's at Givenchi. This is her second season there. And I mean, you talk about someone who balances something that's so gorgeous, so feminine, um, really attached to like the anchors, the the history of the house, but feels like her and feels so lovely and so needed. Um it just it's so keeping that conversation open about why not more women. So there's a lot of existential questions happening that's sort of fueling the the conversations around this season as well.
Speaker 1:I love how you noted that the North Note in Pisces is uh so well matched for this kind of existentialism and this interest and melancholia and asking, you know, why are we doing this and what does this all mean? And to me, it seems like these two interests in your life really fit so well together. How did you find your way to astrology?
Speaker 2:You know, all of this starts to happen for me around the same time. Like I was saying in 2020, I had started my own business because a lot of personal life changes had led me to that path where being unemployed and then the pandemic had begun. And I always loved doing trend reports. I always loved talking about these stories. I love putting these things together. So I had the opportunity to be doing my own trend forecasting in the way that I wanted to. And at the same time, I was going through a lot of life change. You know, I was facing the most uncertainty that I had ever been through, uh, going through a divorce, losing my job, global pandemic, starting a new business, living a dream. Like there is a lot of chaos in that feeling. And so I was looking for spiritual answers. And just like anyone else, having the time at home during the pandemic and just sort of being a captive audience, uh, someone that I was really following a lot during that time was Aliza Kelly. And what I loved about the way Elisa did astrology was it was honest, but it wasn't fear-mongering. And I I think that I needed to hear that. And a question that I get asked a lot, you know, when we're talking about like how do astrology or forms of divination and fashion, how does it all work together? I think it comes down to this idea of you're exploring your identity and you want to find a brand or a healer that there's always someone that's right for you. And so I just would really relate to what she was saying about the astrology, never really like predicting the answers or trying to give an answer of what was going to happen through it, but working through the different factors. Um you know what's funny to me is that I I think that I am also doing that with trend forecasting. I'm I'm always saying, like, oh, I'm never wrong, like my my predictions are always correct, but it's more about the story and how we can serve the end consumer without getting too much into that predictive nature. And only in the past couple of years um have I felt empowered enough to take my astrology skills and match it into this idea of forecasting. You know, if as a Gemini moon, I like to like really break things apart and intellectual, intellectualize it, but it doesn't work for me unless I can put it back together or unless I can tell you how to put it back together and you understand the why. And that's really the beautiful part to me. So giving another level of nuance to the trend forecasting that I do through an astrological lens, it might not be for everyone. It might not be for all of my clients, but the ones that enjoy it really enjoy it because then they can add, and again, I'm using the word that none of us like to use, prediction to it a little bit, or timing or framing in a different way. But it's so exciting, right? It just gives it a little bit more evidence and like a little bit more of an edge, maybe, than how other people are thinking about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I really love reading your newsletter for that reason. The interplay of astrology, astral weather, and fashion trends are fascinating to me because I enjoy fashion and beauty and jewelry and all these things, but I don't really know a lot about it. And um I also enjoy astrology and learning about astrology. And I'm still like, you know, I was raised doing um different types of divination. So this is one of those things where it's like, I'm learning this for me. And so I feel like I learn a lot about both when I read your work. Can you tell me about how this works for you when you're writing these reports or these newsletters or noticing these trends lining up?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm really excited too because I like I said, this has been me going out on a branch and it's I'm doing this for me. I I don't really expect that it's for many people. So the people that it does resonate with, when I like see their eyes light up because they've connected a dot, it really excites me. So I could go back and say that there are a few posts that I've done where I've talked about things, but because this is a special episode of our new podcast, I'm gonna drop some new ones here today. And I think that that's really cool and really exciting because I found as I was doing fashion month research that I was looking at things that I necessarily haven't done yet. So, for example, one of the trends that I will be presenting for spring summer 2026, which is what we just saw, is going to be about subversive silhouettes. And what I say when I'm talking about that is that I felt that overall this message of tailoring felt completely different than it ever has. It felt very wearable, nothing felt like tailoring through the perspective of times past. It didn't feel like suits that were old lady looking. I don't know, I don't know how to put it right now. Everything felt really fresh and modern. And some of the brands that I was looking at in particular. So the first one, I mean, there's there's a lot of converging ideas here. I need everyone to like just hold on as I try to walk through it. So as I was looking at all of the shows, I would be texting Jez and being like, oh my god, this is the season of the metaphysical. Like, we cannot. I was joking when I predicted that I was gonna be right on before, but then like especially as we started moving through Europe, I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And Chanel is one of the last shows to to show in Paris. And when I saw the opening scenes, you know, it's always like this huge, huge production, this very large-scale presentation for Chanel. And this year it was, or this season, it was just these enormous hanging planets. And like I have chills right now, just thinking. And I was like, okay, we're gonna see something like out of this world. We're gonna see something that's like beyond the galaxy of what we know, right? Like, I'm kind of like going through all these like little corny things in my head. And what's interesting to me is that, and also in the comments, I will get butchered because my French is terrible, so my pronunciations here forward will be absolutely hideous. I just need everyone to know, I'm very well aware. So Machu Machu Blazy, who is now the head designer, the creative director at Chanel, he's part of a group of designers that I have an eye on because they're between the ages of like 39, 40, 41. So that tells me, just like myself, we're going through some Neptune squares, we're going through some Pluto squares, we're gonna have a lot of existential questions about like what the legacy work is that we're doing in this world. You know, are we approaching the things that we love to do in the ways that we love to do them? Existential crisis abounds. So it even like double compounds into the story I was saying before about we have the Pisces North Node, which everyone would be in an existential crisis, anyways, but now you also have people going through their Neptune and Pluto squares. Like, so forget it. Everyone is in the show notes, like having this meltdown of like, what am I doing here? You know, very, very interesting. So you think of Chanel as being like classic tweed suits, classic, you know, handbags, everything is very proper, everything is very prim. And I will tell you, in there, every goosebump, every hair on my body is standing up right now because it was like, this is not that. It's not that. It's beautiful, it's modern, it's a Chanel suit done for someone that's not like an elderly white lady in the Upper East Side. Like, this is beautiful. This was thinking through the lens of what does it mean? What does Chanel feel like in the world now? Like, what does it mean to have this modern interpretation of such a storied brand? You had a lot of pressure doing this show because you can't I can't imagine what it's like to go to a house like that where the expectation is the history of Coco Chanel, the history of Carl Lagerfeld, and now you right? There's a lot there, but I think that that Neptune square, that Pluto square is probably guiding him to be like what feels right for you. And he did mention astrology was something that was very important to to Coco Chanel, and like there there was inspiration there, but ultimately he wanted to be part of what's now, and I loved that. And it's also funny because almost a year ago, so he he did not show in the last season his own collections, so we wouldn't have seen him until now, but last year he posted on Instagram in 2006, he had done his senior project, and it was based on a collection that he developed for the first French woman to go to space. And what's interesting about this to me, from like, okay, now we have like a tertiary astrological component happening. This is someone who is my age, so I know in 2006 Pisces was in the North Node for the last time, and here we are now, and we're like on like what has this journey been for you? So, whether or not I don't know if he knew that the Pisces North Node was like going to be revisited at this time, and that was part of why he was bringing space and you know, this thought of uh, you know, intergalactic travel to this collection. But wow, I mean, that was like wild for me to see, and I was so proud of him in that moment, it just felt like so beautiful. I was watching a video that that someone had created and they started crying talking about this collection, and then I started crying because I was like, you don't even know the half of it. This is like a dream come true 18 years later for him. It was so wonderful. And there's I mean, there's a few other designers like Olivier Rostig, who's been at Baal Mont, and he said this, and I loved it. You know, he's been there forever, he has he has built his career there. And him being in this age group and saying this was so beautiful to me. You can build a new era and a new beginning being in the same house and challenging yourself. And he showed things that were not typical of how he normally designs. And I thought that that felt prolific as well. It felt like a big step out to try something that was not against the brand's DNA, but like really felt again uh, you know, different than how he normally would approach things. Um, Jonathan Anderson, also in my age group at Dior. I mean, this was like personally one of my top shows. Another person that like was taking on a huge role, and he's done so much for Luayve, and just it's been he created such a fan following. So it was beautiful to see him doing this in Dior in a completely different aesthetic. Um Daniel Lee is also part of this age group, but I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about him in a little bit. We're gonna like put a pin in him, but you know, just such beautiful astrological tie-ins happening for us, like uh some more obvious, some clearly like a more deeper excavation, but there's a lot happening there, and it just sort of depends on how you want to uh break it down, but lots of really beautiful insights, I think.
Speaker 1:That's so cool. I hadn't even thought of looking at the astrology of the designers. Um, so I'm so glad I asked. I'm learning so much. Do you have a few of your favorite or like the coolest trend predictions that you've made that have been confirmed by? Astrology or vice versa.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay, so I'm gonna I'm gonna throw out some some new ones. I think that I started on my subvert first of silhouettes and then I went into something completely different, which is fine. Um, so I think that just one of the trends we're going to see is like a reimagining of tailoring and how people want to dress. Um, my second prediction that I have for spring 26, and I'm gonna make this a multi-part answer. So spring 26, second prediction, I'm calling it video vixen. And what I mean by that is that because there's such a proliferation of video versus still photography, that we're going to see a lot of details and designs that look better moving than they do just in a still photo. Um crazy amounts of fringe this season. And I could like when people were doing the videos from the shows, it was like so gorgeous, like watching them all twirl and you know, the shapes that were so different front and back, and you can get lost in just looking at still photography. So I do think that there's quite a bit being created for video versus um stills. And then my last thought around the spring 26 shows, and it's very much in line with Neptune and Aries, we're seeing a lot of divination, we're seeing a lot of um exploring spirituality, and much like in real life, some of it is beautiful and very authentic, and some of it was horrible and did not hit for me at all. And I really had some questions. Um, I mentioned Chanel had set up the solar system as their um set, but then within some of the Reese photos I've seen, um, here we go with another French word that I'm gonna butcher. Menoterie, like these hard bags that are really beautiful, um, a lot with constellations and very like celestial designs on them. At Chaparelli, you know, they're known for these big, giant, surrealist kind of jewelry pieces. Um, the jewelry was salt lamp, and they had little LED lights and batteries inside of it, and the show was dark. Oh my god, it was like incredible. It was so, so beautiful. Um, yeah, Baumon had like these like very geoded, and I couldn't figure out what it was, but it looks like geod print question mark. Um, I don't know what kind of effects or what kind of embellishments it might have been. Uh Tom Brown, God bless, literal aliens walking down the runway. Some of them had cards that said we come in peace and would hand them to random audience members, one of them being Anna Wintour. The thought of that makes me laugh so much. Oh fun. Because I can't imagine she likes likes a joke, especially coming from an alien. Um of the harder things, uh, Burberry had prolifically done a tarot print trench that on first impressions, I was like, okay. And then I had a lot of questions about it. And then I saw that they had done sort of like a little insect print with tarot. They had done like a little sickeny scarf with tarot. The more I started to look at it, I had a lot of questions. So they did a bomber jacket that had like a blind embossed sun from the sun card on the back. And then, and I'm curious your thoughts on this. It was like the zodiac wheel, but just the numbers of the 12 houses and the astrology girlies were fried online because it was going in like clockwise order, whereas in astrology, the numbers of the houses would go counterclockwise. Oh, the girlies were not happy about that. Also, I wouldn't necessarily think of the sun as a card. Not that they don't all go back to astrology in some way, but I was like, that was a that was a choice. Does that feel like a it does not feel like an informed choice to me? I don't know. Do you have any plans?
Speaker 1:I mean, I I love an informed choice. What can I say? I love it when the details are right. Um, and I understand like, you know, the the sun being the center of the things, but there's um there are too many little misses there for me to be really excited about it.
Speaker 2:This was like many, many misses. I also had a lot of thoughts, like for example, when you print a garment, typically, if you're in a mass market, you do the print two ways so that no matter how the fabric is cut, the print doesn't look upside down. When you're in a really high-end brand, prints are typically just done in one direction because you they don't really care. Like the there can be wastage, there can be whatever there needs to be so that everything looks consistent, but it's all facing up. Some of the I don't know, on the print, it was like some of the cards were upside down. I was like, is there a reversal on purpose? The more I think about this, I don't think anything was done right. And that's when I start to get bothered because I'm like, what was even the point of this? There wasn't there wasn't much in the show notes about it either. So I feel like it was a gimmick, and I'm okay to say that. Um, and then there was also the model Jerry Hall. Um, a jewelry brand had done a presentation, a jewelry brand called Completed Works. I love this. I'm like, I'm just absolutely naming the names. And Jerry Hall was on stage doing a performance as a psychic and making predictions. And I was like, okay, like so there's so many metaphysical inroads happening and divination inroads, but the people that did it poorly, it felt flat and it felt unnecessary. Interesting again, like because we're we're going into Neptune and Aries. We have been in it since March and we'll be in it until October, and then we'll be back in January. If I look at that from a product development and design calendar, that means that these collections were actually designed in Neptune and Aries and they'll be sold in Neptune and Aries. So this is like the first taste of what that will be like. Does that make sense? Like we're gonna have that retrograde period, but it will not have affect the designing or the shows themselves, like when we do that last bit in Pisces, and then we'll come back and then the clothes will be on the floor, which is like fascinating to me from like a design fashion perspective. Um yeah, I also think that you know we're seeing quite a bit of um these like Pisces North Node moments. Like I said, like there's like these deeply like existential questions in the show notes. Um there's this like deep empathy for humanity. Uh, Alessandro McKelly for Valentino had sent out an invitation to the show. The invite was a package of fireflies, and it was sent with the note that it was meant to represent glimmers so elusive so that we can survive the darkness of the ruling fascism. And when attendees went to the show, the show opened up with Pamela Anderson doing a spoken word, and part of that was saying, in this very dark moment, we have to not turn off the light. And you know, I mentioned him before, he's very much known for maximalism and overstyling. And I think he struggled this season, like from hearing what he said and like his thoughts going into the show, and then looking at the collection, the empathy in me says the things might have fallen short because he didn't really know how to present in this world. And I think that there's an immense amount of pressure on designers to have a DNA and to like participate in fashion, but I can't imagine what it looks like to be on the world stage right now and have to work in that. Um so again, that Pisces and North Node, that empathy is so beautiful. Um, because we all have to have a little bit of space for each other. Um, you'd asked before about my newsletters, and I wanted to say thank you again. But one thing that I had talked about in a past newsletter was Uranus and Gemini, and specifically the idea that cowboy core and Western styling has been so prolific in America for the past few seasons. And it was funny to me, again, brands that I'm like, ooh, uh, Hermes in showing in Paris had done some show notes about the idea of if America has the wild west and the cowboy, then France has the wild south. And they did this whole interpretation of like equestrian cowboy dressing and the art of bohemia. And I was like, ooh, this is this is this is interesting coming from perhaps the most expensive brand. And it felt like just that, you know, La V Bohem cosplay, and that felt bad to me. And I it just goes to show you that you know, the knife can slice both ways. The Uranus and Gemini can bring out this idea of like questioning cowboys and like what does it mean to have Western wear in America and who's an American, and then it can have that kind of feeling as well. Um, there is a brand, there's a brand called Jacmu. Um, it is one of my favorite brands. And this young designer, um, he's created this brand and self-funded it since 2019. And the most gorgeous, fun, prolific ad campaigns. The product is always like very viral. He gets a lot of attention and he just seems like the sweetest, kindest person. And he came out to to do his show, and it was really funny because on the on the other side of that, right, you have this brand that plays in emotion. So you have like this stoic Hermes brand that's kind of like speaking in this cheeky way and it's not hitting. And then you have Jacques Mu and he like always gets it right, and it's always so emotional and fun and beautiful. My gosh, this is I'm like, please don't cry when you say this. So he opens his show and he has like this little boy, this actor who looks like him, like run the length of the show and like fling open the doors, and then all the models start coming out. And he had done a show dedication to his family, who were for generations past, peasant farmers in that same south of France that Hermes had been talking about. And he was like, This show is for them. They worked so hard. He had photos of them, he was really like speaking to their life. And he said, you know, when I told them I wanted to be a designer, they said, Oh, this is so good. Like, you will, and you will actually be the best designer. And he always believed in himself, and he never, so there's something so beautiful of like him telling this story about the same group of people that were sort of being like, I'm gonna say mocked in a way from from a different house. And so that idea of of empathy and beauty and like really understanding people and humanity feels like deeply Piscean coded.
Speaker 1:Um, wow, that's so so cool. I have to pop in just to like say Romani things. Um, but yeah, I mean the phenomenon of of like bohemia as uh inspo without connecting it to bohemia is just the the dress of the Romani people who were being pushed out of the Czech Republic or you know, what is now the Czech Republic into France, who are still so uh deeply mistreated and um especially in Europe, and then hyper commodified with the these sort of like waves of when like the bohemian style is in trend. And it's just like, y'all, you were dressing like Roma. You are just dressing like Roma. That just makes me so angry. So I love that there was that moment um with him representing, you know, his his family, you know, working on the land and having this authentic moment. I would love to see more Romani designers on the main stage for this reason and really showing people what Romani fashion is and representing our culture and like having those moments of payoff too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you know, if I have to make a prediction and I don't want to, I would say I'm hesitant that we might see a moment of problematic dressing coming through with this because I I think if we're making jokes about divination and there is like some of like we might see that play out. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, and I think that there will that sometimes things happen on that scale because like they need to, and I think again, going through this, like Neptune and Aries, we might be able to have these conversations in a very different way. Um, you know, I was talking about the the Uranus and Gemini transit and like all of these outer planets going into very different places is like large-scale conversation shaping um, you know, things are gonna be very different. I also think that the way that fashion journalism itself is done could be up for reinvention as well. Like I think that because Gemini rules communication, we were talking about, you know, historically it's been buyers and it's been uh editors and stylists have gone to the shows, and I'm seeing some of them that are not on the invite list that they have typically been because influence influencer taking their seats. I think there'll be a pushback around that. Um, I think that a lot of these like people that are keyboard critics that are are doing fashion reporting without really understanding or or coming from a true fashion background or understanding design, I think that there'll be less of that that's permissible. I won't say that there'll be less of it, but there'll definitely be a question mark on that. Uh, Pluto and Aquarius, I think is gonna help with this too. I think that this idea that I've presented before, where you've seen like a lot of celebrity brands, celebrity endorsements of brands, this very singular voice being like, do it this way, or like it's not worth it. Um, even thinking about like I had written about the gap cat's eye denim campaign versus the Sydney Sweeney denim campaign. And one of the many reasons why I don't think that the Sydney Sweeney campaign worked is because you have her in one look and saying, like, this is the best and this is the only way to do it, which it's not hitting in Pluto and Aquarius. Aquarius is all about the collective, it's about understanding what the people want. And so I think that we're going to see the marketing campaigns change. I think that we're going to see the wisdom of the collective in how we want to relate to other people versus just having one voice on high. So this is all um really fascinating to me. On a lighter note, um, you know, I was thinking about some other trends that I wasn't really doing anything around this at the time. But when uh Aries was in the North Node, like the naked trend or the naked dressing, like people were naked all the time. And like every runway was like, why is everything sheer? Why am I like seeing so much body? Aries loves the body. So now it's funny too, like Aries ruling the body, and everybody, like even myself, I like could not get enough of myself on the internet when you know Aries was in the north node. But now Neptune moving into Aries, I was like, oh, what will this look like? Because you know, we're still gonna have that body consciousness. So it's all this like very like dreamy, siffani, gauzy shears, but like there's still a lot of midrifts, and like I can still see your body like through all of these like giant chiffny, gauzy kind of shapes, which is hilarious to me. I'm like, okay, so we have we have a little bit more like body ahead of us, but it's going to be like covered up in a more like ethereal kind of way. That's fascinating. Yeah, I have another good one that I think you'll like. So I was also noticing that there were almost no curve models or mid-size models, which this has been a conversation for a long time. And the last season that was it felt like it was going to be a turning point. So it would have been September of 2019. It was the spring 2020 shows. And at the time, the North Node was in cancer, and cancer rules the breasts and the stomach. And I was like, that's really interesting that we were in such a place to be more open to bodies and seeing bodies that were unlike what was on the runway. And then we went into again like this idea of like North Node and Aries that was just like sex, sex, sex, but it was very specific about what the body should look like. And I do think that unfortunately, it's probably a backwards trend that will continue to happen there.
Speaker 1:Interesting. Wow. It's are there intersections between the magical world and the fashion world at play right now that you feel like are working so so well, like are like good examples of how to do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think everybody just wants to feel better. And I think that I've mentioned it a few times, but this idea of empathy, um, I think we're all trying our best. Most people are trying their best. And it's it's nice to see so many people be vulnerable, to speak up, um, to say, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Like, why am I making clothes while the world is on fire? But then for us to remember that fashion is a way that we express ourselves and that we express our identity. And especially when the world feels really dark, it's like we want to know who we are. And and I would like to see more of the the magical world playing into fashion in a way so that we can have authentic, like well-shaped conversations about identity, if that makes sense. Like the way that magic can really let us like explore who we are and our power and what we're capable of. Like, I would like fashion to sort of take a cue and be more human and and more in line with like how we express our desire and how we express ourselves. Um, I would it's it's curious to me because I feel also that because magic played such a part in the seasons collections, I think it will have a larger part in like how we'll see it activated in the stores, like in-store experiences, and sort of acting as a bridge between the person, the consumer, and the product. I don't know how yet, but I I think that that's probably on the mind of marketers right now. Or maybe I do know some ideas and those marketing people should call me. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And also I just wanted to double back and say, too, for any listeners who are like, you know, how should we be engaging with any kind of bohemian fashion in a way that's ethical? Um, buying from Romani fashion brands is the best way to honor Romani fashion. Romani design, um, which is a house out of Hungary, is beautiful. Loli by Zita Moldovan, which is a house out of Romania, is beautiful. And they're probably two of the best known brands, but then there are also lots of little ones. And you can go to romanistamp podcast.com. We have a businesses um page uh where we we shout out Roma Businesses, so you can check it out there. Just a little side note. Yeah, I love those brands so much. What would you like to see happening in the fashion industry moving forward? Which is a different question than like what are we likely to see? But like, what would you love to see happening moving forward?
Speaker 2:I you know what I'm gonna bring it right back to the thing that you were just saying. I think that when people are in a space of empathy, they tend to ask more questions and they they tend to do things the right way. I would love to move away from this idea of fantasy and exploitation and more into genuine partnership between brands and the origins of the the cultures that they're borrowing from. I would like to see people do better. Like, even going back to that Burberry Tarot print, I was like, why was no one consulted about this? Like, I like I mean, just from like a very basic astrology knowledge. Like, I'm like, too many people looked at the zodiac wheel and like nobody said it was wrong. Like it that really bothers me. I like I come to this a lot, and I've worked for large corporations. When you see something walking down a runway, when you see a marketing campaign, a lot of people have had eyes on that, and a lot of people have voted on that. And that to me is terrifying to wonder if there's one voice that has to like rule the way that things are going, or is just everyone really that out of touch. I think if we're in a place where we're asking for compassion and empathy and we're like questioning what we're doing, then maybe the next step is to feel a genuine collective tie to the communities of people that we work with, that we create with, the end consumer, to remember the why of what we're why we're doing something and not not just make something for our ego and for the way that we want to see it, but to do it in a real way. Um a very unfavorable prediction that I have is that people will continue to vote with their dollars and align with the brands and the um the, I mean, this this goes beyond fashion, but just to spend in places that they know that their dollar is aligned with the values of the company. And I think that overall we'll see some of these conglomerates start to really break down in ways that they couldn't have in other times, like definitely not in Pluto and Capricorn. Um, but there is this need for transformation. And I think that I had a lot of hope reading these show notes because I could feel the true desire to want to be connected to your work and like feel like you were doing the right thing in this world. And I I hope that this feels like the beginning of that. And sometimes it is like those super dark times that we need those glimmers.
Speaker 1:So yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think it's one of those things where while it might feel strange to try to talk about the rise of fascism during a fashion show, I think it's stranger not to talk about it at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. I agree, and I think that I think that this is not an industry where you typically see people willing to put themselves out there, especially, I mean, like the the politics of working in a large conglomerate house, you know, like you're not working as an independent designer or trend forecaster that you can say what you want. Like there are people that you have to answer to. You do have to answer to a sales plan and a bottom dollar. And to me, I think that that's it's not just an act of courage, it's like it's it's opening the door for other people to do the right thing. And it resonated heavily, and I mean, even though it's just me as like one person, you know, keyboard critic, but it it felt so right, and then it made the wrong things feel extremely wrong. Like, how could you be so off? So it's very interesting to me, and I hope that that will empower more people as we start moving into the next year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, thank you so much for doing this deep dive. This is so interesting. Yeah, I could talk about this forever.
Speaker 2:So thank you for for asking me all these questions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and listeners, if you want to hear more about um us or any particular topic or any if there's a guest you would love us to have on, you can absolutely write to us um at immaterialpod at gmail dot com. We're always interested in what you want to know, and it's nice to hear um your feedback. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Immaterial world is hosted by Jessica Richards and Jessina Montila. Music by Dia Luna, artwork by Lane Friend. Follow us at Immaterial World Pod on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Visit our website at www.immaterial-world dot com. Or send us an email at Immaterial World Pod at gmail.com. Thank you for being part of our immaterial world.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the immaterial world.