New York Fashion week: The colour post!

I have decided that, instead of waiting until the fashion weeks are over and then doing a mass blog post on the emerging trends, this season I am going to do a blog post for each fashion week and then do an overall trend summary when fashion week has finished.

I also might have to break these posts up a little to avoid them getting too lengthy. So here is the first part of New York fashion week: the colour post!

Judging by its huge presence in almost every catwalk collection, the monochrome trend is here to stay for another season. As a huge lover of colour, I was almost disappointed when Black and white took over the SS catwalk in 2012. A season that usually guarantees bursts of colour was 'taken over' by an army of black and white. Despite my initial opposition to black and white, I am now in complete support of this trend and I simply love the graphic print designs that have come to characterize it.  The monochromatic colour palette seems to lend itself perfectly to extremely linear and geometric designs, grids prints being a favourite(Kaelen, Sass&Bide,Vivienne Tam).

1.Kaelen, 2.Sass&Bide, 3.Zero+Maria Cornejo, 4.Reem Acra, 5.Rachel Roy, 6.Yigal Azrouel, 7.Suno, 8.10 Crosby Derek Lam, 9.Kate Spade, 10.Vivienne Tam, 11.Herve Leger, 12.Oscar De La Renta, 13.10 Crosby Derek Lam, 14.Proenza Schoeler, 15.Escada, 16.Cristiano Siriano, 17.Nicole Miller, 18.Edun.

I particularly love how the New York SS14 collections have begun to introduce this colour scheme into spring/summer florals. Gone is the naivety of the pastel, watercolour spring floral we have grown to expect, this new floral is strong,bold and screaming out for attention. 

1.Oscar De La Renta, 2.Tracy Reese, 3.Tibi, 4.Vivienne Tam, 5.Cushnie et Ochs, 6. Oscar De La Renta, 7.Dennis Basso, 8.Peter Som, 9.Dennis Basso, 10.Suno, 11.Ruffian.

In my opinion this trend is done best in linear form by Yigal Azrouel with his chaotic linear clusters which resemble scribbles; in grid form by Kaelen with their inverted white on black grids next to black on white grids;and in floral form by Dennis Basso with his huge stencil style florals.

Aside from the continuation of the black and white trend, designers at New York fashion week seemed to have centred their collections around bold primary colours. The catwalk collections had an abundance of yellow- a colour feared by most women,unless you have completely flawless olive skin, look like Naomi Campbell or have the complexion of snow white(none of which I posses). This dreaded colour has clambered back into the Spring/Summer collections. I, personally have no problem with yellow as a colour, but it is very difficult to wear well. 

1.Tocca, 2.Bibhu Mohapatra, 3.Veronica Beard, 4.Nanette Lepore, 5.Escada, 6.Tia Cibani, 7.Vera Wang, 8.Prabal Gurung, 9.Creatures of the Wind, 10.Cristiano Siriano, 11.Sally LaPointe, 12.Zac Posen, 13.Tracy Reese, 14.Sachin and Babi, 15.Band of Outsiders.

Although the majority of catwalk designers seemed to have gone down the yellow colour blocking route, I think Prabal Gurung absolutely nails this colour trend by breaking it up with a black and white floral print. Tia Cibani also demonstrates that yellow can be diluted down into a wearable colour trend by introducing strips of yellow into one of her jackets, maybe there is some hope for spring yellows.

The next colour that caught my attention was the introduction of green. Although not present in every designers collection, there was still a fair amount of it in a variety of shades- emerald green at ICB, forest green at Tess Giberson and paler tones at Calla.

1.Philosophy, 2.Band of Outsiders, 3.J.Mendel, 4.Rodebjer, 5.Maki Oh, 6.Tess Giberson, 7.Tibi, 8.Maison Martin Margiela, 9.ICB, 10.Prabal Gurung, 11.Richard Chai, 12.Sachin and Babi, 13.Kenneth Cole.

Sticking with the primary colours theme, red was another colour that featured in almost every collection. The red tones which were present at both the SS and AW catwalks of 2013 have continued through to SS14 but have taken on a new tone. Where before it was crimson,the colour has evolved into scarlet and red tones are now bordering on fiery orange.

1.Ostwald Helgerson, 2.Libertine, 3.Ralph Rucci, 4.Tommy Hilfiger, 5.Suno, 6.Brandon Sun, 7.Vera Wang, 8.Kaufmanfranco, 9.Jeremy Scott, 10.Victoria Beckham, 11.Reem Acra, 12.Nanette Lepore, 13.Tracy Reese, 14.L.A.M.B, 15.Tibi 16.Vivienne Tam

An unexpected offshoot of the primary colour trend is the blue+red/orange colour combination which I absolutely love! Exaggerated by Diane Von Furstenberg and Tracy Reese and toned down by Trina Turk and Lela Rose- either way, it works!

1.Milly, 2. Tracy Reese, 3.Nanette Lepore, 4.Tommy HIlfiger, 5.Diane Von Furstenberg, 6.Lela Rose, 7.Trina Turk, 8.Ostwald Helgerson, 9.Bibhu Mohapatra, 10.Suno, 11.Dennis Basso, 12.Catherine Malan, 13.Whit.

For AW13 jewel tones of royal blue and cobalt were the 'in' shades of blue, for SS14 blue has taken on a lighter, brighter feel with icy blue and cerulean shades. An odd decision for Spring as these colours are often thought of as wintery, but contemporary designers seem to love rebelling against our expectations of seasonal fashion.

1.Tocca, 2.Jil Sander, 3.Tracy Reese, 4.Prabal Gurung, 5.Jeremy Scott, 6.Calla, 7.Marc Jacobs, 8.Sophie Theallet, 9.Rag&Bone, 10.Creatures of the Wind, 11.Josie Natori, 12.Nanette Lepore, 13.Tommy Hilfiger, 14.Whit, 15.Costello Tagliapietra, 16.Bibhu Mohapatra,17.Ohne Titel, 18.Rachel Zoe.

Metallic!Metallic!Metallic!Not exactly a colour, but it's popularity on the New York fashion scene is incomparable. With practically every designer featuring at least one garment with a metallic edge to it, this will undoubtedly be a trend that receives acclamation from the high street. 

1.Suno, 2.Thakoon, 3.Jason Wu, 4.Altuzarra, 5.Josie Natori, 6.Proenza Schoeler, 7.Reem Acra, 8.Tory Burch, 9.Marc Joacbs, 10.Tadashi Shoji, 11.Zero+Maria Cornejo, 12.Rodejber, 13.Alexandre Herchcovitch, 14.Richard Chai, 15.Cristiano Siriano, 16.Assembly, 17.Kaufmanfranco, 18.Ralph Rucci, 19.Libertine, 20. Diane Von Furstenberg.

Appearing in a variety of different colours from the safe bronze and silver to more experimental shades of purple and blue. Designers have used a variety of different ways to create the furtutirstic metallic look in their collections, whether this be through fabrication, embellishment or foiling.