Skulls Jump Shark & the Rise of the Closed Loop

Pictured above are the "Skull and Crossbone Baby Booties," from coochicoos.

Skull and crossbone baby booties? Cripes.

So, the skull as a design motif has truly and officially jumped the shark.

If you, like us, have clothing and other items decorated with skulls, now is the time to make a trip over to Goodwill.

But have no fear! For the New Best Thing is here!

Horizontal stripes!

Seriously, everywhere you look in Manhattan, it seems two in ten people are wearing horizontal stripes.

Why is that? It's very interesting.

Here's our theory.

Folks are tired of death. It's inevitable, we all know it, we've acknowledged it and are moving on.
Death isn't all that glamorous. It's actually pretty mundane. It happens to every living thing: celebrities, window washers, kings, fishermen, oysters, banana plants.
And what's elite about something that everyone gets?

Nada.

What is interesting now is the closed loop, which is represented by the horizontal stripe.

The closed loop encircles, protects, restrains.



The closed loop is a perfect system, never ending, never beginning, never losing energy.



Cover yourself in closed loops, fashion seems to be saying, and help ward off the scourge of the wasteful open loop.

Our current culture and way of life is an open loop system.
But that is rapidly changing as more and more people clue into the fact that our lifestyle is totally unsustainable.

The horizontal stripe/closed loop represents sustainability. Order. Equity.

Here's one we really like:



It is great fun for us here at SF to try to parse information out of the things we encounter everyday. When we noticed the horizontal stripe trend supplanting the Skull motif trend we wondered what it might be saying about us culturally.

And we take it as a very good sign.

And here's our prediction for the next hot bit of iconography. A symbol that truly represents the closed loop system. A symbol that reminds us of where true power lies and to what we should give thanks for our very existence.

Ready for it?


(photo via flickr user flopper)

Love to All and have a great day!


And believe in the power of the closed loop!

-Team SuperForest