Today in trendwatching on the podcast, Cathi Bond brings you a look at Fall fashion 2010.  Lots of luxe fabrics, like leather, a definite ’80s vibe, and also a real ‘hard looks for hard times’ sensibility, with lots of sci fi influences. (Via the rather awesome JC Report). Would you wear these fashions?  Nora likes the minimalism and the hard edge.

Meanwhile, Nora Young points out fun, gorgeous electric dune buggy-esque concept cars from Pugeot. Pacer meets Fifth Element meets dune buggy. Cool! (via Gizmodo)

 

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On this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young mentions Kibotzer, part of a definite trend towards body tracking and self-monitoring online (via Kevin Kelly)

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond has been checking out the Fall 2010 fashion shows for men (via New York Times).  What does all this grey flannel and military looks mean? Nora points out that shows themselves featured implied violence. Is fashion telling guys to ‘man up’? How about it, gents? Would you wear these styles?  What do you think is going on here?

 

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In today’s trendwatching podcast, Nora Young mentions State Farm’s promotional app for the iPhone, complete with tips for what to do in an emergency (via Springwise).

Cathi Bond found a great set of predictions by IBM for tech innovations in urban environments in the next five years.  (Via the ever-awesome Gizmag).  Nora thinks two of the trends in particular, related to responsive cities, are going to be huge, and cites Google Map’s Navigation as just one example of the coming trend.

 

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In today’s trendwatching podcast, Nora Young raises a trend they’ve been, er, tracking on thesniffer, since the podcast’s early days: monitoring and tracking.  Trendwatching lists “tracking and alerting” as one of their Crucial Consumer Trends for 2010, and, well, Nora thinks they’re right.  Check out the examples here.

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond points to these great examples of modding old technology.  (via Craziest Gadgets)

 

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In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young talks about Blellow, a new microblogging/social networking platform designed to connect freelancers and self-employed people.

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond talks about Popular Mechanics’ picks for top ten jobs for the future, noting how many are related to alternative energy, and how much of a return to skilled trades they represent.

 

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In this trendwatching podcast, Nora Young mentions Malcolm Gladwell’s article in The New Yorker, which disputes the artist-as-young-prodigy idea, in favour of two models: young stars and late bloomers. It reminds Nora of this study that suggests that the dot com world is not just peopled by 8 year olds, but features lots of seasoned entrepreneurs as well.

Meanwhile, Cathi Bond revisits the idea of nanny culture and how we draw the line between protecting kids on one hand, while still allowing them to grow up on the other. Consider MyKey, a new product that guarantees that teens can’t do things like speed or spin their wheels on gravel when out in the family car. (via BoingBoing)

 

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