Mouse Colour: Fashion Forecast or Fleeting Fad? –

Ever since Jasmeen Kaur became a viral sensation with her ‘Just looking like a wow’ reel, enough is being discussed and speculated about whether ‘mouse’ colour is the next major trend in fashion. But before we delve into this further, it is essential to acknowledge that the mother-daughter duo has brought to the fore a strong sense of ‘real advertising’, with no qualms pertaining to one’s originality. She might not have showcased her collection in the most traditional of formats, might not have conversed in the most proper language, but her utmost simplicity and relatable descriptions of colours almost immediately struck a chord with the world of internet. And it would not be an exaggeration to say that amid the cold concept of fashion, her quirkiness and confidence is indeed a defining moment with regard to meme marketing.

“This assumes all the more significance in the wake of widespread prevalence of false advertising, increased influence of westernization and stereotypical approach to beauty. Much in sync with the usual conversational language, especially across the Hindi belt of the country, she described the colours of her latest range in a manner that resonated with a vast majority of people. While a yellow colour suit was described as ‘laddoo peela’, purple was termed as ‘baingan’ while the pink snake cosmic tone was referred to as ‘kaleji’ and blue was ‘firozi’. And not to forget, the famous brown colour that is now a ‘trend’ as the ‘mouse color’,” says Anuradha Chandrashekar, co-founder, ICH Creative Consulting.

The point in question here is that ‘mouse colour’ is widely being touted as the next major trend in fashion; but is it really one? “The answer is no, for a fashion trend is much vast and beyond any viral meme trend. In fact, a fashion trend is a result of assimilation of innumerable elements that impact an individual at both micro and macro levels, both consciously as well as sub consciously. Fashion forecasting is actually a result of extensive multi-pronged research that takes into consideration factors such as media, celebrity impact, consumer sentiments, content, broadway trends, entertainment, geo-political scenario, socio-economic development and of course social media but not limited to just social media,” explains Chandrashekar.

It is equally important that the above elements of influences are sourced over a sustained duration of time from as diverse and extensive origins as possible. “At ICH NEXT for instance, we crawl more than 700 curated sources and the insights obtained are processed through applied human zeitgeist. This process enables a fashion curve for a particular season which eventually helps in determining the key trends. Also, the trends are pretty elaborative with multiple macro-themes, each predicting everything from design to colours, colour palettes, fabrics, motifs, silhouettes and patterns etc. To ensure that no message is lost in translation, the trends are explained with graphic illustrations and photographs. And most importantly, these reports are made available considering the lead time from conceptualization to execution and market readiness, which can vary from at least 5 to 7 or even more months,” shares Chandrashekar.

So is mouse colour the next big trend? It is perhaps a momentary fad, but not a long term fashion trend.