Formal might seem far away (as you trudge between snow piles towering over your head every day on your way to class) but in reality its right around the corner. Dress hunting season is upon us and you might be brave enough to delve into department stores among the prom queens or your bargain intuition has you swapping dresses with your friends from high school. Either way the decision can be tricky, so having New York Fashion Week last week is the perfect time for a little inspiration.
There were a few trends that were pretty popular on the runway. Two big ones that popped up in the Monique Lhullier Fall 2015 collection were draped jewel tones and metallics.
The great thing about all three of these dresses is that they can all be used as ideas for both long and short dresses depending on what you prefer. Jewel tones are great for early spring because its not quite bright spring colors that you think of but still has rich color and a more brings mature look to a formal dress. The metallics are super glam and fun to play with as well bringing a little bit of a “Great Gatsby” feel to a look.
The Badgley Mischka show had a section with mainly cool colors, some muted colors, fun combinations of textures and some beading as well.
Again, you see some colors that aren’t often you first thought with a formal dress making them stand out. Theres a lot of different textures combined between the intricate beading and nude paneling as well. Nude paneling is definitely a piece of this show that you will be able to find in department stores easily and probably one of your friends closets as well since that trend became popular when a lot of us were in high school.
Herve Ledger is known for their gorgeous banded dresses, this year they played with earth tones and some fun geometric beading and ribbing.
The fun shapes and paneling open up new ideas for especially short dresses but can obviously be translated to long dresses a well!
Have fun shopping and hopefully these fashion week inspirations help you think outside the box no matter where your dress is coming from!