This question provides an indication of where young people believe the freshest fashion is coming from, as well as providing insight about where various demographics are looking for fashion inspiration. Similar to the Fall Youth Culture Study 2006 and 2007, which has surpassed Japan at 17.5%. This is followed by France at 11.7%, then Italy at 4.2%, and China at 2.1%. Interesting to note is that China continues to increase (which is also seen in our other global youth culture studies) as more new designers, particularly denim brands, come out this county.
What’s telling about these results is that generally, 13-25-year-olds believe their own country is on-top of fresh fashion and leading others. This is especially true of our results from the USA and the UK, but not from countries such as Germany and China. The high UK percentages also indicate a strong group that’s very influenced from the indie rock and nu rave scenes coming out of the UK. Also notable are the high percentages for Japan, which continues to be a key source of influence, also as seen in fashion design and trends in footwear, entertainment patterns with anime and manga comics, jrock and jpop, and the increase in preferences for martial arts in sports. (See also charts and graphs for additional top country listings.)
By gender, females continue to have lower percentages that believe trends are coming from the USA at 30.6% compared with 52.8% of males. It’s also significant that females rank the UK at 22.8% then Japan at 20.2% which are both very high compared with 14.4% of males for the UK and 12.8% for Japan. What this indicates is a stronger potential for acceptance of cultural diversity and influences in fashion among females than males -which we’ve seen in fashion influences in general. So for introducing new cultural styles, for example, targeting young females first is an easier point of entry than young males. However changes that are gradually shifting percentages among males in North America are that Japan and the UK are increasing slightly as places they believe are producing the freshest fashion trends. This indicates a slightly more “open-minded” marketplace for such influences among young males in North America.
By age groups, the USA is high across the board, but peaks among 21-25-year-olds at now at 43.1% which has increased from 39% last year. The UK is highest among 15-17-year-olds at 21.7%, followed by 13-14-year-olds at 20.6%. Interestingly, Japan increases in percentages peaking at 18.6% of 15-17-year-olds. Again this indicates the Japanese influences of manga, fashion, sports on youth culture in North America and how this new generation is becoming more influenced by Japanese culture in general. France on the other hand, peaks among 18-20-year-olds at 12.4%.
“
