Think spring and you probably imagine florals and pastels among fluid dresses. Refreshing as it is, the fashion industry needs a floral breakthrough beyond the basic prints and colors we normally see associated with the season. It seems as though fall always steals the spotlight to showcase true innovation, while spring collections get left behind in a blur of baby pinks and blues. So how do designers develop a spring collection unlike what we’ve seen before? Upon analyzing the botany in the spring 2017 ready-to-wear collections, it appears that the coming season will be all about ornamented decoration and high contrast.
Anna Sui, a print-mixing master, took the common peach and periwinkle colors and paired them with cobalt and poppy red, for seamlessly matching separates. Floral adorned sheer black panels were among draped silhouettes as many of her looks were juxtaposed with a black background or trimming under intricate patterns. Naeem Khan took a similar approach, with bold colors and strong florals offset by black, and it was all about the detail with major sequin embellishment. The range of colors throughout the collection, including light pink and sunny yellows, were taken up a notch with herbaceous texture and shine.
Not surprisingly, Marchesa was particularly stunning, with layers of volume and sheer nothingness somehow working together harmoniously. Floral garnishes decorated almost every garment and one black dress, with flowers falling from the shoulder, was especially divine.
Tanya Taylor, Kate Spade, Sachin Babi, Jason Wu, Markus Lupfur, and Tadashi Shoji are a few designers who also followed suit, with a strong black presence and three-dimensional decoration. Perhaps the most innovative, Delpozo captured the ornamental trend with an extremely modern line, using colored shapes pieced together into contemporary flowers. Known for its architectural silhouettes, many of the looks stayed quite simple, with the luminous detail showing off over structured shapes, subdued with white.
Now you can restore your faith in Fashion Week. The dullness of predictable daisy prints has been invigorated and there is hope for spring with daring colors and fabrics with character.