5 trends you’ll be wearing in 2018 and you don’t even know it

Plastic fantastic.

Remember when skinny jeans came back in the 2000’s? We all swore we would never wear them. “Ewww!” we’d say, while we almost showed our pubic hair and tripped over our long bootleg hems for the fifteenth time that day. “They’ll never stick around.”

Look, I’m no fashion expert, but I’m gonna say it seems like skinny jeans have stuck around. Being more than a decade since we introduced them back into our wardrobes, skinny jeans seem completely normal. More than completely normal. It’s bootlegs that are the weird ones.

When trends arrive on the scene, we naturally pick and choose which ones we like and which ones we would never, ever wear. But sometimes, we don’t look twice at a trend, and after a few months of circulation, we’ve had a change of heart. The more you’re around it, the more it doesn’t seem so hideous anymore.

So, what trends will we be adding to our closets next year, that we couldn’t imagine wearing now?

Robot silver

2018 is just around the corner, and seeing as we’re still waiting for flying cars and Cher’s virtual close from Clueless, we’ve all banded together and come up with the most futuristic thing we can think of: silver. Lots of bloody silver.

Next year, expect to be dripping in hi-shine metallics, chrome and foil colours, fabrics and textures from head to toe. No, literally, head to toe – your hair and toenails will be silver too. 

Basically, if the future won’t come to us, we’ll f****ing go to the future.

Plastic fantastic

Last week I went and saw Blade Runner 2049, and like all well-prepared movie goers, I brushed up by watching the original Blade Runner beforehand (it was a long day; I was so exhausted I fell asleep in the cinema)

The original is set in the magical faraway time of 2019, and while it’s filled with everything we definitely won’t have in two years’ time, there is a lot of plastic clothes, which is scarily accurate to next year’s fashion predictions.

Trench coats, ponchos, blouses and over-the-knee boots – you name it, it’ll be plastic. You’ll basically become a big, plastic-covered couch from nanna’s house, which is great news for those of us who miss our mouth often.

Neon tropical

What’s more 2018 than tropical? Neon tropical.

The last time we wore neon, we were hitting up Summafieldayze 2005, but this time it’s been given a modern update with technicolour brights, blown-out tropical prints and pops of colour that will hurt your eyes.

Tropical not your thing? Neon doesn’t discriminate; it will also be seeping into other trends in your wardrobe – think acid green sheer gowns, fizzy orange twin sets and fluro pink cropped sweaters that look like the crazy aunty of Yeezy Season 2.

Sorbet shades

If you’re not keen on being a walking acid trip, maybe sweet-as-pie pastel shades are more your jam.

From The Row’s lavender floor-sweeping dresses, to Tom Ford’s musk bandage midis, to Sies Marjan’s mint relaxed suiting, 2018 will have you feeling like a nice bowl of Neapolitan all year long.

Don’t worry though; thanks to the grown-up shapes and draping fabrics, you’ll feel more editor-at-fashion-week than five-year-old-girl-at-birthday-party.

Matrix-inspired fabrics

If you too feel cheated by our lack of hoverboards at this point, fear not: the amount of Matrix-inspired fabrics will more than make up for our lack of future-y stuff.

You’ll notice we’re experiencing this trend now actually – mostly on Melbourne’s north side – which is awash with I Am Gia red PVC, high-shine baggy pants, wet-look hair and eyelids, and those sci-fi shades that nobody would’ve been caught dead in 12 months ago.