We all know designers run in packs, miraculously producing the same collective look season after season. One minute, we’re at Studio 54, the next we’re back at the Stork Club. Do designers share a collective brain? On some level, yes, and most of them look for inspiration in the same place. They haunt the same vintage shops, attend the same fabric fair, shop at the same photography bookstores, and rely on a small band of top stylists who double as editors for the fashion magazines. In an effort to take the mystery out of what designers will come up with for next season—and by extension to find out what we’ll be wearing next spring—we went looking for clues. Here’s what we came up with . . .

Related:

• Archive: “Features”
• Articles by Jacob Bernstein
• Table of Contents: August 23, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!