The fashion cycle has spun away from its former predictability, leaving you to decide the season's trends.

I've just returned home from the fashion capitals of the world where I got a glimpse of the latest collections from the industry's most influential designers. And there I sat, watching gorgeous models stomp up and down the catwalk in time to some trendy new tune parading the latest trends for the upcoming season. And after they trooped off, the designer stepped out to take a bow, everyone duly clapped, and then the process was repeated again an hour later in another converted factory-turned-designer warehouse somewhere in another part of town. After a while, it all became a little predictable and left me wondering if fashion is that predictable as well? The answer, simply, is yes and no.

You may not know this but the fashion cycle broke down in the early 1970s, leading the industry into a period of uncertainty and stress. For retailers, it caused erratic turnover, high markdowns, low profits and other problems. Fashion and style would eventually make a comeback, however, returning some degree of predictability, but they say those who explore the past to find the future are chasing ghosts; that in fashion, the past is dead and we cannot revive it. If that's the case, then how do we account for the periodic rise and fall of hemlines, the sporadic comeback of the shoulder pad, or the shift from one colour back to another?

In the past, when The Textile Colour Card Association issued its colour chart for the upcoming season, fashionistas were fast to follow religiously. There was order and predictability. Today, colour is a wild card as random and fluttering as a butterfly, fashion forecasters are virtually extinct and those who ply the trade are more tealeaf readers than reliable guides since fashion has about the lifespan of a firefly's flash. So, what has made the fashion cycle so difficult to forecast? It's simply the dramatic shift in lifestyles and demographics that began in the late 1960s and is still in a state of erratic growth and flux today. What's more, the growing do-your-own-thing credo of today's youth culture has virtually decapitated the traditional concept of fashion itself. But has it really?

While everyone tends to go her own way with fashion, the traditional laws of style are not lost, because without style there is no fashion in anything. So, while the choice of fashion may be unpredictable, I still say that fashion's influence is very predictable indeed... and don't the industry's most influential designers know it too! Fashion and style, like living, are something learned by maturing. When you combine erratic and peripatetic lifestyles with here-today-gone-tomorrow fads, the traditional patterns of predictable fashion cycles may collapse, but they are thankfully not destroyed. What this means is that those same designers are still an ‘influential' force in fashion trends - they quickly sense and adapt to directions, and the entire history of fashion itself confirms this. And while there have been long periods of fashion heresy and anarchy along the way, at some point it sobers up and returns to its roots.

If you need proof of this, you only have to look at this season's trends where the skinny jeans are back in fashion (and which I think is really here for the long-term). The vintage themes I've talked about all year are also still around this season, but this time with a touch of rock (remember the 80s?). The classic suit is still with us too (with finely cut trousers, cropped jackets, high necklines, and cinched waist panels), as well as exaggerated shoulders. Sound predictable? Probably... but what's unpredictable this season it that fashion is moving away from the traditional autumn/winter style of cosiness, with the pendulum swaying more toward all things light, transparent and very feminine. And, it's backed by the richness of full, bright colours - and as they say, ‘Be bold, be bright, and get high on head-to-toe colour.' The fashionable question might be whether fashion is predictable or not... it's all about style this season; it's all about you.

Bella Beauty Magazine #9