Wednesday 29 February 2012

Trend Research for Spring / Summer 2012

This week (well, since Sunday) I've been doing two lots of research.
First into summer millinery in general looking at lots and lots of pictures of hats, as well as the summer collections (this year and previous years) of a selection of milliners.  More of that in another post a little later.
And secondly, into assorted trends for Spring / Summer 2012.

I've just spent some time looking at fashiontrendsetter.com, at the fashion forecasts for this summer, and at the show pages on Vogue.co.uk.

The Vogue website has identified the key trends for S/S.  I'm not going to cover all of them here, just the ones that 'spoke' to me the most:

'Water World' - everything seascape.  Conch shell clutch bags and sea urchin rings at Chanel, shell, wave and ocean prints everywhere, liquid sea blue coloured satins and organzas at Armani.  http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/trends/2012-spring-summer/water-world/gallery#/image/1
image from vogue.co.uk


'Graphic and Girlish White' - either precision tailoring in pure whites, or girly and sheer (broderie anglaise, lace, sheer silks).  http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/trends/2012-spring-summer/graphic-and-girlish-white/gallery#/image/1
image from vogue.co.uk



'Darling Buds' - this years florals!   Stickers underneath sheer organza (Christopher Kane), 3d plastic flowers on organza (Louis Vuitton).  http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/trends/2012-spring-summer/darling-buds/gallery#/image/2
image from vogue.co.uk

'Decorative Day' - broderie anglaise, brocades, sequins, jewels, lace, all as daywear.   http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/trends/2012-spring-summer/decorative-day/gallery#/image/1
image from vogue.co.uk

'Gatsby Glamour' - 1920s bright young things recycled for the modern day.  http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/trends/2012-spring-summer/gatsby-glamour/gallery#/image/4
image from vogue.co.uk




Trends I looked at at fashiontrendsetter include the Pantone colours for S/S 2012:
image from fashiontrendsetter.com

Others that caught my eye were these two Lenzing colour trend sheets (both images from fashiontrendsetter.com):




Première Vision (at fashiontrendsetter.com again) has 'concepts', rather than trends.  These are 'open mind', 'perspectives' and 'sense and essence'.
Sentences I pulled out from the descriptions of each of these are as follows:
'Open mind' - delight in impertinence - a taste for a certain disorder - bold confrontation - imperfect harmonies - eclectic open fashions - plastic shines and naturals - paradox.
'Perspectives' - innovation textile perspectives - fabrics allying technology and refinement - unbalanced tailored clothing - fabrics with paradoxical behaviours are combined, bonded or glued.
'Sense and essence' - enriched by modernity - naturals and eco-friendly synthetics combined - clothing unadorned, almost overly simplified to showcase the material.

Sunday 26 February 2012

A New Brief

We were given the new brief this week, (or last week, depending how you look at it - Wednesday, anyway), at   college.

The brief title is 'Summer Collection', and the module is all about contextual and cultural referencing.

The basic idea is that we should concentrate on a period of history (modernish history), a decade or more, and that we should look at the ways that design has been influenced by the wider social, cultural and political  happenings of that time.

At the same time, we'll take part in a series of workshops using millinery materials more usually used in summer (eg sinamay).

From these starting points, we'll be creating a capsule collection of three pieces of summer headwear (at least one of which must be a full hat).

It may be assumed that I would have a natural advantage when it comes to the historical stuff, but I don't want to take anything for granted, so will be doing the research.  (I probably do have an advantage as far as the research goes, because of the tranche of books that I have at my fingertips).  But in a way that makes it harder, doesn't it, because I have no excuses!

At this stage, I'm thinking of looking at the early 20th century as my base for research.  I've always loved the 20s and 30s.  That said, I'm thinking of basing it around the dates between roughly 1900 (or possibly 1910), and 1950.  There were huge social changes in those years, even if you forget about the two wars - revolutions and socialism spreading across Europe, the rise of Fascism, the emancipation of women, the democratisation of fashion (with the beginnings of ready-to-wear), the introduction of labour laws, paid holiday and the welfare state, etc, etc.


But anyway, that's all for next week.  This weeks homework is research into 'summer millinery', so lots of looking at hats!