From the sumptuary laws of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, to our present day understanding of ‘power dressing’, dress codes have been created to promote or preserve authority, status and respect. More recently, this ‘code’ has also come to mean a way of “deciphering” our identity and what we communicate through our clothing. The dress codes likely to emerge from our post-COVID, climate-challenged, digital world will be different from anything we have experienced before, even developing their own form of agency as part of a totally new approach to how we value, use and wear clothing. - Essay by Susan Muncey

Dress codes are as old as clothing itself. For centuries, clothing has been a wearable status symbol; fashion, a weapon in struggles for social change; and dress codes, a way to maintain political control. Have you ever thought about the message your clothes send and how your environment shapes what you wear?

Back in February, the Trend Atelier community launched its Monthly future theme curation, kicking it off with "Rewilding", as part of 2021's theme for the Trend Atelier community: "The biggest innovation is philosophical". Rewilding set the tone for all of our events in February, from our Future Vision interactive presentation, our Reading club, Live Session, to our monthly workshop.