Emma Zajdela

This just goes up and down over time.

But then something happens in the mid-1980s.

In the mid-1980s, you have this oscillation, and then this actually starts to split.

So instead of having two clusters where you had sort of short skirts that would oscillate and then floor-length skirts, now you have three clusters.

You have many skirts.

midi or these kind of ankle length skirts and then floor length skirts.

If fashion does kind of oscillate like that, what could be the reason for it?

Is that we're looking for like novelty, something different, but also something a little bit familiar as well?

Yeah, that's exactly our idea.

So the model that we developed to explain these cycles is based on an idea from psychology called optimal distinctiveness.

And the idea of optimal distinctiveness is that for innovations to be successful, they need to be different from others, but not too different.

There's actually evidence of this in a variety of different

human societal aspects.

So in music, for example, we've found this.

We've also found this in art and in literature, that the ones that are successful are these innovations that are different, but not too different.

So our idea for the model is based off of this optimal distinctiveness.

And we find that you need to be optimally distinct from three factors.

So you need to be different from the past, but not too different.

There's this quote by this French stylist that I really like, Agnes B, that says, the problem with fashion is that it goes out of fashion.

So intrinsically, fashion always needs to be different from the past.