Fashion Week crept up on me this season. I’ve been so busy starting senior year I almost missed it! As I write, models are still walking down the runway and have been since Sept. 6, with the final runway on Sept. 13. As with every season, designers take to the NY runway to preview the following season’s styles. That means in Fall 2017, we’re actually seeing the clothes for Spring 2018. With the weather still warm, you might even be able to start sporting these looks ahead of the game!
Normally in spring, I look for light wash denims, bold patterns, and even bolder colors, but mostly found more subdued collections in neutrals and pastels with pops of colors and small floral prints. One of the exceptions to this trend, and my favorite runway this season, was Diane Von Furstenberg. Her spring collection has a 70’s vibe without feeling dated and is peppered with gorgeous bold colors from royal blue to aqua, bright orange, and cranberry red. The first few dressed glittered with sequins and featured geometric, color blocking patterns in the aforementioned colors. The accessories mirrored these patterns and many of the models carried printed bags adorned with fringes and chains. A later look featured a familiar zip front suede skirt that was popular last season, but now in bright blue. There were also details aplenty in fringe, ruching, and empire waist crop tops.
The Derek Lam 10 Crosby runway, on the other hand, featured breezy, romantic style in a more subdued, pastel color palette, similar to the styles emulated by Anthropologie and Free People. Many of Lam’s looks featured loose, wide leg pants layered under long tunics, dresses or… other pants! This gave the models long, flowing silhouettes. What caught my eye, however, were the mustard colored leather culottes, skirt and top with laser-cut flowers at the hem. Bold but flirty, they were the most romantic statement pieces of NYFW. In fact, yellow seemed to be the color of spring with appearances on a fuzzy, stripped dress coat in Carolina Herrera, a wrap dress in Tome, a few pairs of vibrant pants in Oscar de la Renta, as well as on many other runways.
Plaid also had its moment with Monse and Public School each giving it a classic sporty twist. The Monse models walked a runway fashioned to look like a high school gym and wore deconstructed suit jackets, pants and trench coats in bright red, navy and tan windowpane plaid. They also had Monse sequined basketball jerseys with fringed bottoms and collegiate striped sweaters with cold shoulder cutouts. Public School’s plaid was more akin to flannel and was made into a full romper with a bomber jacket styled top. They also had huge, oversized hoodies and very high-waisted running shorts as well as leather track pants with athletic stripes down the sides.
My favorite moment of plaid, however, was in the whimsical spring looks of Rosie Assoulin. She paired white and yellow plaid ankle pants with a thin-strapped black and white plaid, peplum top that buttoned down the front. This was layered over a plain white, balloon-sleeved blouse. I am a huge fan of matching pieces that have the same pattern in different colors. Another look I loved from this runway included a pair of cobalt blue pants with side striped of purple and orange that split at the ankle paired with a tie-front blouse that had cutouts with matching blue trim. There was also a floor length white, short sleeved dress with a hand-drawn shell pattern in a rainbow of colors that reminded me of another one of my favorite looks in Oscar de la Renta.
The Oscar de la Renta show could only be described as “artsy” with what at first appeared to be plenty of acid-wash denim but was actually embroidered paint splotches. From denim jackets to denim skirts, long blouses and dresses, quite a few pieces were white with a rainbow of paints flecks speckled across. Suiting pieces were devoid of interesting texture or pattern but made up for it with solid splashes of bright red, pink and sunshine yellow. Some of the later dresses were interesting pieces of sheer fabric decorated with printed patterns mimicking cut paper, what appeared to be hand drawn tulips and scribbles of Oscar de la Renta.
Finally, stripes are never out of season, but next spring you can add a new look next to your Bretons and opt for a candy stripe, reminiscent of a Barber’s pole. Monse had candy stripes on extra long deconstructed button downs and sparkly fringe skirts while Self-Portrait had matching sets of shiny, blue and red, wide stripes. Jason Wu had a more subdued pinstripe pattern on twist front dresses, loose high-waisted pants and any reimagined form of blouse you can think of. Tome took the cake for stripes though, with a bright, rainbow pattern decorating wrap skirts, frilly dresses and tie front pants.
Can’t wait for next Spring? Try incorporating these styles into your wardrobe early! There’s still time for a pop of color before fall settles in.
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