The meaning of Juxaposition I liked best this morning Wikipedia states:

Random juxtaposition, two random objects moving in parallel, a technique intended to stimulate creativity

Nice!

If you are a follower of clothing fashion trends you know that we're at a crossroads. The fashion creators have used up just about every ounce of inspiration they could out of the 1970's and now a shift is occurring.

The 1980's are now moving (again) into the spotlight, but the designers have yet really come up with their own signature version of that era and so they are mixing it up big time with a myriad of eras (with the 80's playing the biggest inspiration) to figure out what new remakes of those trends will hit big time and get us to buy - they are looking for the right juxapositions.

If you're old enough to remember many originally sneered at low rise hip hugging wider flare pants coming back into style in the 2000's you might also recall when those same women realized that worn right they can be very flattering to the female figure.

There is tremendous power that comes from giving something you've poo poo'ed, for yourself or someone else, a second thought, a new look, a fresh take.

If you were to glimpse through the September issue of Vogue (see above) as I did recently you would see the 1920's inspiration in Halle Berry's bob haircut and clothes for the cover story, you'd also see the 1950's look big time inspired by our love of all things "Mad Men," and the 1980's prep, rocker, militaryand geometric looks reimagined along with many many other things to the point that it's almost an overwhelming hodge podge.

I'm not going to predict which old trends reimagined will stick (I vote for anything with riding boots!) I'll leave that to fashionistas like Rose Apodaca, but I do know that the first versions of higher waisted pleat-front pants inspired by the 1980's probably won't be the ones that most women will clamor for. They won't be flattering to enough figures. They will be worn by the very young and the very trendy, while the designers find a way to make the silouette be flexible enough to work on a broader audience.  After all, fashion now has to pay court to a broader audience than ever a the Baby Boomers continue to be the generation with the largest amount of spending dollars and want to stay current.

But let's go back to the term juxtaposition and it's power in creativity.

Seeing yourself in a new light opens up all kinds of space. Right now I'm working on a vision and inspiration board for an upcoming bicycle project and I'm looking through a myriad of current fashion magazines to find words, phrases and looks that click for me and that I think will inspire our creative team for our marketing campaign.

As I do this it's reminding me of my younger self and how I put so many restrictions on her, how I painted my self into a corner. I was so very frightened of being wrong, ironically at a time when it's really okay to try different things on, to flub, to make wrong choices and to try again.

But what I'm getting out of this exercise is that it's always okay to try, fail, and try again. Succeeding right away at something gives you very little to learn from, in it's own way paints you into a straight jacket of thinking there is only one way.