Runway favourites!

As many of you will know, over the past few weeks it has been the New York and London fashion weeks and Milan fashion week is currently well under way. 

I always do a series of runway trend boards during/after fashion weeks to document the trends for the new season. For AW14 I intend to wait until all of the fashion weeks have taken place before doing these trend boards, instead of doing a different set of trend boards for location. Hopefully this will help me give an overall trend report documenting the bigger trends!

Until then, here are a few of my favourites from New York and London.

New York

In all honesty I don't usually rate New York fashion week as much as the others. I'm not sure if this is because I'm a print designer and New York tends not to be as print orientated as London or whether it is because the designers in New York aren't as experimental. Despite this, as with all of the fashion weeks, I have a few favourites that never seem to disappoint. Anna Sui(above) is one of these!

Sui's current collection of opulent oriental florals and intricate Indian paisley combined with polished 1920's gatsby-esque styling is definitely a hit. 

 The collection oozes glamour and decadence and contains looks that fit into several of the key trends for this season which I will be posting about over the next few weeks.

Hoffman is another of my 'go-to' New York fashion week designers. As has come to be expected, Mara Hoffman delivered a colourful array of geometric patterns and quirky novelty pieces. With an Egyptian/Arabian theme to this collection, Hoffmans' pieces took obvious inspiration from Islamic geometry and pyramidic shapes. My favourite piece in this collection has to be the knitted jumper with the camel head intarsia design, an excellent novelty piece.

I was pleasantly surprised by Proenza Schoulers' collection and now I'm borderline obsessed. Two of the trends I will be posting about shortly are fingerprint inspired lines and abstract prints and this collection is the perfect embodiment of both of these. I am probably partially swayed by the fact that the majority of this collection is in shades of blue and turquoise, which are two of my favourite colours. 

London

I have noticed, along with the rest of the fashion industry, that the Burberry collections seem to be becoming increasingly experimental- which I absolutely LOVE!!!Finally an established British fashion house that doesn't shy away from  playing with new ideas and creating new trends. The AW14 Burberry collection embraces the recently introduced painterly trend. Abstract shapes and loosely painted natural forms with obvious brushstrokes. Burberry has amalgamated art with fashion, just as I was beginning to fear that we were about to see a return to minimalism(my reaction to the collections at New York fashion week), Burberry injected a naive, fun approach to fashion.

It will definitely be interesting to see how this trend filters down to the high street, and, for that matter, how I can make it applicable to knitwear in my day job!!!

I am unsure why I liked the Giles collection so much, I think I am very easily swayed by colour and I really love the orange and blue combination presented in his show. I also am completely fascinated by the usage of 3D texture in his beetle dresses, extremely different to the other collections I have seen so far!

It's quite difficult to talk about the Giles collection without giving away all of the trends I intend to post about so, for now, I will keep schtum!

 KTZs' collections always tend to be a little dark and mysterious and once again the usage of indecipherable symbols is strong throughout all the looks. With hints at an Eqyptian theme(like Mara Hoffman) through the gold striped garments, reminiscent of an Egyptian sarcophagus, and a strong sense of Islamic geometry and Moroccan tiles, this collection manages to show overseas and ethnic inspirations while retaining a graphic and fresh overall look. 

Aside from the prints I absolutely LOVE the statement jewellery KTZ collections always include. Unfortunately it is inspiring me to go shopping for costume jewellery, and it's nearly payday!

Veering away from her trademark digital prints, Mary Katrantzou has built up a collection using applique and embellishment with a very modern day mechanical inspiration.

. Although I love her prints, I think it is great that Katrantzou has decided to experiment with different techniques- this gamble definitely paid off! I particularly love how the embellishments create a trompe l'oeil effect by resembling characters/almost human figures.

Peter Pilotto, a master of digital printing, has created an amazing digital collection once again. Combining bright florals and imagery with dark canvasses, Pilotto has given a nod to the colour scheme used in the folk arts paintings that have been becoming so popular recently. My favourite thing about this collection, however, is the usage of Oriental figures in uniformed poses to create interesting linear structures in the prints.It would be interesting to see what their inspiration was for this collection.

So...last of my London favourites is Temperley. Temperley can always be relied upon to provide a beautiful and feminine collection and this season proved to be no exception. Drawing on inspiration from Islamic tiles(anyone see a theme coming along here... :P)and brightly coloured folkloric florals, Temperleys' collection is an interesting combination of the artwork of two different cultures. 

Well, that's all for now! I will upload more of my favourites from Milan and Paris when they have finished, and then come then the trend boards!