Style post regeneration

I have decided to try and get back into doing daily style posts, I might not manage the daily part but I need to encourage myself to get into some kind of blogging routine!I'm not gonna lie, the main reason I want to start this up again is because I keep seeing amazing clothes that I just can't afford. One day....one day I will be able to shop on impulse!

So for today's outfit I have chosen to go for a casual look that can take you from the office to post work drinks. The loose sequin trousers from Topshop are the item in this outfit that demand the most attention! Comfortable enough to wear around the office but versatile enough to carry you through to post work/ Friday feeling drinks, whats not to love

I have teemed this with a top I found while browsing on Topshop's t-shirt section of their website. I'm a sucker for a loose fitting top and I just love the print combination of this one. It manages to combine feminine Hawaiian style florals with abstract brushstroke stripes- a perfect way to incorporate the painterly trend which was all over the SS14 catwalks into the British high street.

I am definitely keen on buying this top......maybe I will treat myself after work tomorrow!

In terms of accessories I have kept this outfit quite simple with silver midi rings, a silver statement necklace(I always make room for a statement necklace as we all know), an oversized bag and a pair of amazingly comfortable chunky heel gladiator sandal style boots. I think my enthusiasm for these shoes is generated by the fact that, for once, I actually purchased something I posted about on my blog....and now I feel like I have to justify this purchase!

Top £18.00(Topshop), Rings £12.50(Topshop), Shoes £38.00(Topshop), Sequin trousers £85.00(Topshop), Necklace £18.00(Urban Outfitters), Oversized bag £80.00(American Apparel).

So this is what I would wear today if I could....with the New Year coming up and my ensuing promise to tackle the gym looming, with any luck this time next year I will be posting about outfits I have actually purchased and worn to work...Here's hoping!

Despite that rather disheartening start, focussing, once again, on me wanting to live outside of my means, I'm actually extremely happy at the moment! I've just been offered a permanent contract as a print designer for knitwear in a well known fashion supply company in London- finally my future feels a bit more secure both professionally and financially!

In other news, I visited a warehouse in Stratford today to get my Christmas presents printed. I won't say who they're for, as that kind of defeats the point of a surprise, but here are the placement designs for them!Both are hand illustrated, and can be ordered at https://www.facebook.com/atoblondon

Boycott Angora!!!

It is quite rare that I feel extremely riled up about cases regarding animal welfare, not because I have no sensitivity towards the issues surrounding animal cruelty, it has just never been put directly in my path. The new expose on angora fur farming, however, has definitely caught my attention.

I work full-time in the design department of a notable knitwear supplier based in London. Since taking this position, Angora has become part of my day to day vocabulary and until now it has never crossed my mind to question where it is sourced. Judging by the office's reaction to the Angora expose over the past week, it hadn't crossed theirs either. In the fashion supply industry it seems that we get so caught up in meeting a competitive price range that we forget to question whether things are ethically sourced.

So, a little background on Angora for those of you who aren't familiar with it...Angora is the fibre from the soft coat of an angora rabbit. Not to be mistaken with cashmere and mohair which both come from goats.Fluffy and silky to the touch it is more lightweight than wool but equally warm, it is these qualities that have lead to its popularity in knitwear. Angora is generally used in a wool yarn blend with only 30-35% angora, more would cause serious jumper malting.

1. Topshop knitted jumper- £46.00 7%Angora, New Look jumper-£19.99 30%Angora, 3. Zara knitted jumper- £59.99 8%Angora, 4. Meadham Kirchoff for Topshop- £95.00 48% Angora!!!

At some point in our lives, the majority of us will have held/stroked a rabbit, usually on a mandatory school trip to a local farm/petting zoo. Imagine how soft the coat of the rabbit was and you can start to get an understanding of why angora fur is so popular.

Growing up, we never had a cat or dog, bunnies were the pet of choice in my family and I have very fond memories of watching them hop playfully around the garden. Naturally placid and carefree animals they make an ideal pet for a family with young children.This is why the news of the angora rabbit torture has struck a chord with me!

The PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has recently uncovered the reality behind angora rabbit farming in China. China is responsible for producing 90% of the worlds Angora. A country which has no limitations in regards to animal welfare and no penalty for animal cruelty. This is the outcome...

Angora rabbits are enclosed in tiny wire cages in darkened rooms. They are taken out at 3 month intervals when their fur is ripped out of their skin. This process is repeated for 2-5 years when the rabbit is then skinned, killed and sold for meat. The video below is quite disturbing to watch but demonstrates the torture these animals are enduring in the name of fashion.

This expose has recently been brought to the attention of the general public in Sara Malm's article for the Daily Mail(20/11/13)entitled "Cruel truths of the angora fur trade revealed in shocking footage which shows rabbits having hair PULLED out... because the traders make more money" see full article here:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2510641/Cruel-truths-angora-fur-trade-revealed-shocking-video.html

The title of this article highlights an issue in the fashion industry which seems to constantly lead to questionable ethics. The drive of money. Are we so desperate to produce "cost-effective" clothes with competitive prices that we neglect to question why the prices are so favorable?Aparrently so.

Beth Hale from the Daily Mail has also gone into further detail in her Daily Mail article

"Thinking of buying an angora sweater for Christmas? Read this chilling investigation... Agony of the rabbits plucked alive for your fluffy jumpers"where the majority of the images on this blog post are sourced: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2512072/Agony-rabbits-plucked-alive-fluffy-jumpers.html

In response to the expose of this cruelty high street chains like H&M are halting their angora production. In a recent press release, H&M said:

 “[We] will immediately stop the production of all angora products until we have secured that our strict Product Policy is being followed. H&M doesn’t accept that animals are treated badly. We only allow products made of angora hair from farms with good animal husbandry.”

How long H&M's production ban will continue is unknown, hopefully until Chinese fur farmers alter their fur harvesting methods.


With modern technology and the constant improving of synthetic fibres, we have man made replacements for natural fibres like Angora. Although some people like to feel like their social status is elevated because they are wearing a "real angora sweater", the majority of consumers wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an angora and a synthetic yarn. 

Maybe we should start to look a little closer at the care labels of our knitwear and question where our garments are actually sourced!As nice as angora feels, I am not ready to forfeit my morality for the sake of fashion!I would like to get dressed in the morning knowing that no living creature was tortured in order to provide me with a luxuriously soft cardigan.

I employ you all to stop buying Angora jumpers/hats/scarves and any other angora products until this brutal method of fur farming is stopped. Customer demand drives angora production, if we boycott angora we can bring this cruelty to an end.

New York, London, Milan, Paris- Overall trend reports!

After getting a little bit sick of making these boards on photoshop and spending hours on end erasing the backgrounds from behind catwalk models(not great for self esteem...or eyesight!)I decided to speed the process up a bit and instead of doing a set of boards for each fashion week I have made an overall collection of trend boards featuring designers from London, Milan, Paris and New York.

The first board is animal prints. A catwalk staple, regardless of season and location, this also means it can be quite difficult to produce a new take on the animal print. Generally leopard is the default animal print, but for SS14 designers seem to be leaning more towards zebra, giraffe and snake prints.

Temperley(shown below), however, decided to stick with the trusty leopard print. By combining the animal print with painterly orchids and merging the leopard and orchid spots, Temperley managed to produce a leopard floral hybrid, while retaining an overriding sense of class(as I'm sure we are all aware, leopard print doesn't always have associations with classy people).

The Linear trend I identified in the Paris trend reports, proved to be a strong trend across the board.I am really looking forward to using thin delicate lines such as these to add detail to my personal drawing work.

Onto the florals. Florals seem to dominate the Spring/Summer collections every yearand the SS14 collections were no different. Despite my general lack of enthusiasm for floral prints, I actually really loved the stencil and linear florals that seemed to feature in the majority of designers collections. Cutout, blocked in floral shapes featured in the collections of Marc Jacobs, Desigual, Dries Van Noten and Vivienne Westwood and strong graphic linear florals took centre stage at Jonathan Saunders, Peter Pilotto and Tracy Reese. Gone are the weak ditsy Cath Kidston-esque florals, the new floral for SS14 is strong, graphic and not to be ignored.

One of my favourite collections from London fashion week, and from all the fashion weeks combined in fact, was that of Christopher Kane. Championing the new stencil floral, Kane also provides us with a biology class through a fashion context, with colourful labelled flower cross sections featuring on his dresses and jumpers. Such a new fresh take on the traditional flora, I don't remember ever having seen floral cross sections as a catwalk print. This is definitely something I will be looking into for my own work.

Apologies for the circles around bits on this board, I've been using them at work to decide what prints to focus on....but I forgot to save the board so had to scan it back in. Ignoring that, the painterly floral trend is a great commercial way of introducing the abstract painterly trend!Although all the below designs are equally beautiful, I particularly like the Dries Van Noten dress which layers cutout florals and the background the flowers have been cut from on top of each other to create an interesting cut-out painted effect.

Below is my favourite trend of the season by far!Fashion turns to art for inspiration using purposeful brushstrokes to produce an array of colourful, childlike and expressive designs. I love the illustrative faces used in the Prada and Antonio Marras collections and the Gauguin-esque paintings used on the dresses in the collection for Aquilano Rimondi. Such an inspirational trend, it's so nice to finally see paintings gaining some recognition through fashion. It almost seems to signify a return to more traditional design as opposed to the digital designs we are becoming so used to.

Novelty is always the most interesting aspect of the catwalks, I always love to see what novelty trends are emerging,particularly when it comes to animal imagery, and for SS14 I have identified 3 main ones. 

Firstly, championed by Kenzo and Holly Fulton, was the usage of fish. As mentioned in my Paris fashion week trend post (http://textilecandy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/paris-fashion-week-trend-report.html), there was a strong seaside/marine theme to the SS14 catwalks and the usage of fish imagery is an offshoot of this. Although fish are generally thought of as slimy creatures, definitely not generally associated with fashion, I think there are so many ways fish prints can be made more feminine by careful colour choices and by adding more detail to the scales. 

A second novelty trend is insects and butterflies. Butterflies are always present in Spring/Summer fashion and are a particular high street favourite, but designers such as Matthew Williamson, Nina Ricci and Beccaria all featured them in their SS14 collections.

Birds were also popular with a variety of designers featuring ravens, parrots, hummingbirds and storks. The final image trend I think is worth a mention is the zebra. Increasing in popularity in animal prints, the zebra as a whole has now worked it's way onto the catwalk in the collections of Suno, Orla Kiely and Marani, amongst others.

So there you have it- an overall trend report on New York, London, Milan and Paris fashion weeks!Hope you have enjoyed looking at them, I'll post again soon with some updates about what's going on in my life design wise and hopefully I'll find something inspirational to write a more intellectual blog post on soon :)

x

Paris fashion week trend report!

So I am finally getting round to posting about the fashion weeks and the amazing trends that have emerged. I may have taken my time blogging about them but I have made some pretty little trend boards for you all to break down the trends a bit!

First up for Paris is the Linear trend of which I am a huge fan. Abstract agate lines dominated the New York catwalks and this delicate linear trend seems to be the Parisienne interpretation. Thin scratchy/scribbly lines layered on top of each other contributed to the hand drawn, illustrative looked that seemed to dominate every catwalk this season. Supported by Kenzo, Akris, Guy Laroche and Agnes B, this trend was extremely popular  but I feel like the designers who worked this trend best were Andrew GN with his delicate line work and Luis Buchinho's layered scribble prints. 

Paris also turned out some amazing novelty pieces this season!Galliano's beetle is a particular favourite of mine and I have already started working on my own interpretation of this print.I also really loved Miu Miu's abstract painterly faces which were hidden amongst other images and I am looking forward to using this idea to inspire some of my own work.

Seaside/swimming related imagery seemed to be incredibly popular for Paris's novelty prints this season. As a general rule I think we can now say that any trend that is backed by Kenzo is going to be a huge high street fad. After their recent takeover of the brand, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim(the design duo behind Opening Ceremony)have taken the fashion world by storm. Firstly with their Kenzo tiger design in SS13 and more recently with their all seeing eye in AW13, Kenzo's novelty pieces seem destined to become high streets fad's. Set against scribbly linear designs and wavy alabaster lines, Kenzo introduced koi carp prints which fit in perfectly with the seaside theme. Repeat prints of swimmers also featured strongly in the collections of Agnes B, Olympia Le Tan and Tsumori Chisato.

As a whole, this season's catwalk designers seem to have drawn inspiration from art and so every fashion week has had a very painterly/illustrative feel. As I come from a fine art  background, with a geekish fascination for art history, I could not love this trend more. I think it's great that fashion has turned to art for inspiration and, as a direct result of this, this season feels very colourful and expressive. I am so enamored by this trend that I intend to do an entirely separate post dedicated to it, but for now here is a trend board on the best painterly picks from Paris.

Florals are a staple catwalk trend for Spring/Summer but this year the painterly trend mentioned above has brought about a new floral development. Bright florals with purposeful brushstrokes featured alongside delicate illustrative linear florals causing designers to finally let go of the predictable ditsy floral prints.Expressive and often child like, this new floral is all about being playful. I'm very intrigued to see how this is interpreted for the high street and how much it gets diluted down!

Although it doesn't fit in with any of the above trends at Paris fashion week, one of my favourite collections was Valentino. Combining heavy colourful embroidery and folk art motifs, Valentino's SS14 collection was oozing with opulence. I love how Valentino has introduced this traditionally Autumnal aesthetic into Spring by layering the thick embroidery over sheer fabrics and using pops of blues/pinks to freshen up the collection. Another aspect of the collection that I am keen to see work it's way to the high street is the subtle introduction of the zodiac into the prints and through the necklaces. After researching future trends on Stylesight and WGSN, I am aware that obscure symbols such as the zodiac is set to become a major trend over the next year so it's really interesting to see how it is being introduced already. It also substantiates my belief that the majority of print/graphic related fashion trends are first introduced through accessories.

Here's a quick accessories overview showing some of the figures/shapes I found interesting. As you can see from this board there are a lot of bug and butterfly themed accessories over a variety of different catwalks/fashion weeks. Stars and celestial imagery is also becoming increasingly popular which I suppose is where Valentino's zodiac amulets tie in.

So that's Paris!I've been finding all these trend boards quite time consuming and so instead of doing a group of boards for each fashion week, as I have done with New York and Paris, I have decided to make some trend boards picking out my favourite collections from each fashion week and identifying trends across all countries.

Thank you :)

A big 'Hi' to all my followers/visitors!Sorry I have been so silent recently, I have had a heck of a lot going on but all will be revealed shortly!Just wanted to do a really quick blog to say thank you to everyone who has visited my page over the past 6 months, I have finally reached 10,000 visitors!YAY!

More posts will be coming shortly as I have a lot of things to update you all on! x

New York fashion week: Floral print trends

Florals, like animal prints, are a catwalk staple, particularly in the Spring/Summer season. In the SS14 New York collections, 3 different floral trends seem to have emerged. The first was a surprising move towards darker florals, generally epitomizing autumn/winter, painterly florals in deep colour combinations have seeped into Spring. Sally Lapointe did an amazing job of working this trnd into her collection with aged looking watercolour style florals reminiscient of the painting style of Michelangelo and the Renaissance masters.

The second floral trend that caught my attention was the stencil style floral. A simple cutout floral silhouette on a block base colour, effortless but effective. A potential move on for the 90's grunge daisy we have been seeing so much of lately?(http://textilecandy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/fresh-as-daisy.html)

1.Delpozo, 2.Alice+Olivia, 3.Creatures of Comfort, 4.Zimmermann, 5.Sally Lapointe, 6.Pam&Gela, 7.Michael Kors, 8.Suno, 9.Michael Kors, 10.Ralph Lauren, 11.Timo Weiland, 12.Oscar De La Renta, 13.Nicole Miller, 14.Rebecca Minkoff, 15.Clover Canyon, 16.Clover Canyon, 17.Richard Chai love.

The final floral trend from New York I want to focus on is the overlaying of florals on patterned, usually geometric, backgrounds.Polka dots at Oscar De La Renta, stripes at Nicole Miller and the popular grid print at Rebecca Minkoff. My favourite, however, has got to be Clover Canyon, with its striped/geometric shape backgrounds, transparent overlays and floral motifs it is the perfect combination of 3 of the most popular SS14 trends.

New York fashion week: Animal prints, typography and novelty prints!

Animal print is a fashion staple, it is constantly being re-worked and so always seems to be on trend! After Kenzo's fluoro spot animal prints and the high street imitations that followed, a love for leopard has become a global animal print pandemic.

 Although there was still a lot of leopard print at New York fashion week, new animal prints are being introduced and gaining catwalk popularity. Striking monochromatic zebra prints were shown in the collections of Alexandre Herchcovitch, Escada and Diane Von Furstenberg and tonal grey snake prints were prominent at Zac Posen, J.Mendel and Elie Tahari.

1.Tome, 2.Diane Von Furstenberg, 3.Zac Posen, 4.Elie Tahari, 5.J Mendel, 6.Crosby, 7.Adam Lippes, 8.Kenneth Cole, 9.Betsey Johnson,10.Rachel Roy, 11.Diane Von Furstenberg, 12.Veronica Beard, 13.Milly, 14.Escada, 15.Rachel Zoe, 16.,Alexandre Herchcovitch 17.Diane Von Furstenberg, 18.Escada, 19.Jeremy Scott.

I love the fact that designers are breaking away from more traditional spot-like animal prints and experimenting with reptilian inspired patterns. 

I was surprised to see that there weren't very many typographic prints and slogan garments on the SS14 catwalks. I managed to scrape a few together but was quite disappointed in the lack of variety!This being said I did like the Libertine Love typography and the way the eye was used in place of an 'o'.

1.A Detacher, 2.BLK DNM, 3.Libertine, 4.Parsons, 5.Alexander Wang, 6.DKNY, 7.DKNY, 8.Jeremy Scott, 9.Kenneth Cole.


This post is kind of a compilation of leftover trends that didn't quite fit alongside the others. In this spirit here is a random collection of novelty images from the New York catwalks. There are several humorous and inspirational pieces here, the Libertine crab and cocktail print(No.3) being one of my favourites. Nothing, however can beat Ostwald Helgason's humping balloon poodles- vulgar but hilarious. 

1.Libertine, 2.Catherine Malan, 3.Libertine, 4.Assembly, 5.Jeremy Scott, 6.Suno, 7.Mara Hoffman, 8.Red Valentino, 9.Diane Von Furstenberg, 10.Ostwald Helgason, 11.Ostwald Helgason.

I love Helgason's poodle prints so much that I just had to show you a close up of them...Whether or not this design will actually sell is questionable, but bonus points go out to Helgason for having the audacity to use sexualised animals in printed jumpers.

New York fashion week: Geometric prints, lines and polka dots!

Earlier this month, after a work shopping trip around London, I identified the popularity of the geometric trend. This has continued in New York fashion week with designers such as Tess Giberson and Jonathan Simkhai championing the juxtaposition of geometric shapes and lines. 

1.Tess Giberson, 2.Jonathan Simkhai, 3.Louise Goldin, 4.Louise Goldin, 5.Tibi, 6.Custo Barcelona, 7.Lela Rose, 8.Donna Karan, 9.Mara Hoffman, 10.Parsons, 11.Nicole Miller, 12. Herve Leger.

Another extremely popular trend at New York fashion week was the usage of structural lines. This falls into place perfectly with Stylesight's 'creed' trend for SS14 (http://textilecandy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/stylesights-trend-predictions-ss14.html) which was characterized by linear graphics, infinite lines and transparent layers.

1.Carolina Herrera, 2.Marc Jacobs, 3.Yigal Azrouel, 4.Ohne Titel, 5.Carolina Herrera, 6.Bibhu Mohapatra, 7.Ohne Titel, 8.Ohne Titel, 9.Clover Canyon,10.Dion Lee

Polka dot prints provided a softer print option to the linear and abstract geometric shape trends at New York. Varying in size, the most popular polka prints were in monochrome tones. Libertine and Oscar De La Renta have definitely worked this trend best,. They have both taken the traditional spot print and updated it by layering brightly coloured florals over the top. As you will see in my floral trend board, layering floral imagery over other prints was another popular catwalk trend.

1.Reem Acra, 2.Libertine, 3.Maki Oh, 4.Oscar De La Renta, 5.Charlotte Ronson, 6.Oscar De La Renta, 7.Diesel Black&Gold, 8.Zimmermann, 9.Sachin&Babi, 10.Wes Gordan, 11.Creatures of Comfort, 12.Maki Oh

New York fashion week: Tartan/Grid print trend

I recently did an AW13 trend post about red tartan and its increasing popularity, it was all over the AW13 catwalks back in January and sure enough is now extremely popular on the high street. I was, and still am, extremely excited to see whether catwalk designers have done a spring take on this trend or abandoned it altogether.

1.A Detahcer, 2.Tadashi Shoji, 3.Kaelen, 4.Richard Chai Love, 5.Jen Kao, 6.The Elder Statesmen, 7.Araks, 8.Tadashi  Shoji, 9.Tess Giberson.

There were only a few designers at New York fashion week who used brightened up tartans in their collections(Richard Chai and A Detacher to name just a few). This being said there was an abundance of grid prints resembling tartans, possible move on?

1.Cristiano Siriano, 2.Suno, 3.Timo Weiland, 4.Dion Lee, 5.Carolina Herrera, 6.Rachel Comey, 7. A Detacher, 8.Jenny Packham,9 10.L.A.M.B, 11.Carolina Herrera, 12.Derek Lam, 13.Sally Lapointe, 14.Rodarte, 15.L.A.M.B, 16.Kaelen

Kaelen and L.A.M.B were my favourite grid print designers, both using large scale grid prints in striking black and white. It will be extremely interesting to see whether any of the British designers at London fashion week are advocating this tartan/grid pint trend.

New York fashion week print report:abstract prints.

Fashion trends tend to react to one another in a similar way to art movements. We seem to enjoy rebelling against the most recent trends and this is the nature of fashion. The Art Deco movement with its minimalist angular shapes is a perfect example of a movement in reaction to its predecessor-Art Nouveau's which was characterised by curved lines and floral tendrils. The punk subculture with its starched mohicans and studded clothing was a reaction to the hippies. 

Punk vs Hippie

I believe print design works in a similar way and that this abstract trend embracing curved lines and lacking in obvious form is a reaction to the structured grid/ geometric prints that have recently controlled the catwalk.

For SS14, designers seem to have gone incredibly abstract with their choice of prints. I  have categorized these abstract prints as abstract agate prints,made up of curvilinear shapes and colour bands resembling mineral formations and agate rocks and painterly abstract print is which use blurred imagery and obvious brushstrokes. 

If we look at the stylesight trend predictions for SS14 (posted here:  http://textilecandy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/stylesights-trend-predictions-ss14.html) we can see that this trend fits perfectly with the 'rational' trend prediction and it's 'mineral geometric structures'. This was the trend I was most looking forward to seeing interpreted on the catwalk and I'm extremely happy that this is the direction so many designers are going  for in SS14.

I have always found Agate rocks extremely beautiful with their tonal coloured bands and crystallized centres, and after recently visiting the Natural history museum and seeing their agate and precious stones collection found myself wondering why these natural formations have never inspired catwalk fashion.

1.Philip Lim, 2.Robert Rodriguez, 3.Philip Lim, 4.Jeremy Laing, 5.Clover Canyon, 6.Rachel Comey, 7.Philip Lim, 8.ICB, 9.Peter Som, 10.Rachel Comey, 11.Peter Som.

In my opinion the designers which champion this trend are Peter Som with his liquefied blue colour bands and Robert Rodriguez who has combined the curved abstract lines with a very structured garment- I love the contrast!

                                   ...................

Alongside the agate inspired band abstract trend is the painterly abstract designs. Ink wash fabric, tie dye and unrecognizable blurred shapes are the main aspects of this branch of the abstract trend. Embodying colours adopted by romanticism; greys, pale blues and pastel pinks, and the electric brights of tie dye, there is so much scope for creative interpretation with this trend.

1.Lela Rose, 2.Y-3, 3.Josie Natori, 4.Mara Hoffman, 5.Monique Lhuillier, 6.Diane Von Furstenberg, 7.Libertine, 8.Zero and Maria Cornejo, 9.Cakka,10.Misha Nonoo, 11.Adeam, 12.Marissa Webb, 13.Creatures of Comfort, 14.BCBG Max Azria, 15.Kaelen, 16.Honor.

 Josie Natori with her vibrant digital ink ombre fabric champions the bright side of this trend and Misha Nonoo exudes femenine romanticism in her collection. Another designer that falls into this trend is Zimmermann, although his collection wasn't my favourite, I just want to draw your attention to one of his print designs which is abstract yet figurative and still extremely romantic.

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.

Stylesight's trend predictions SS14

Below are some boards I have put together using images from stylesight's predicted trends for SS14. They're pretty self explanatory. The trend I'm looking forward to seeing interpreted on the catwalk most is the 'rational' trend. I am really interested to see which of these 3 trends make it to the catwalks over the next few weeks!

CREED trend Spring/Summer2014

EDEN trend Spring/Summer2014

RATIONAL trend Spring/Summer2014

I have also started collating the images from New York fashion week into emerging trends and will post them on here before the weekend. I can't post them quite yet until all of the shows have finished.

V&A trip, insta obsession and Markus Lupfer

On Sunday I decided to give myself an overdue gallery/museum fix and went on a visit to the V&A. I absolutely love it there and have been waiting for ages for them to get their Fashion and Textiles section back up and running. It seemed a perfect time to go and visit as it's literally right next door to my church in South Kensington.

Not only are the exhibits in the museum amazing, I also love the interior architecture  the carved stone arches and the decorative ceiling domes. The carved patterns in the stonework are so inspirational and I could see them being easily interpreted into repeat fabric prints.

It seems that on every trip to the V&A something new catches my attention and, although I am predominantly a textile/fashion designer, it was the detailed architectural sketches made up of tiny lines and the curling wrought iron that caught my attention the most. 

The keys in the iron section of the museum were of particular interest to me and I was amazed by how intricate the handles were, definitely puts our dull minimalist style keys to shame.

I got a little bit carried away instagramming while I was there - I have only just discovered the instagram app and am now completely hooked. It's such a great way to record everything from image research to memories and I love the different filters you can add to your photos. Anyway, If any wants to follow me on instagram I've put the link below so you can see all of the above images and the information that goes with them:

http://instagram.com/beckyloisburns/

Markus Lupfer is a London based designer whose designs were recently brought to my attention at work. His collection of sequin trims on knitted jumpers are a great way to interpret print into knitwear. I have really enjoyed experimenting with this technique at work and can't wait to see what the samples look like!