Trend Alert | Winged Beasts

Paul & Joe | Jil Sander | Mary Katrantzou | Thakoon | Background from Flickr

What's the latest trend? Put a bird on it!  Parrots, hummingbirds, butterflies and other winged creatures spread their wings on high fashion and street wear.

Pre-Fall 12: Thakoon

 

Pastel stripes look warm, fuzzy and comfy in Thakoon's latest collection.  Combine that with sophisticated and lady-like, and who wouldn't look and feel amazing in these outfits?

Getting Wild in the Heat

Inspired by Style.com's animal story, we decided to dig around and find our favorites in retail. Here they are!

1. Thakoon dress at barneys.com
2. Moschino Cheap & Chic blouse at outnet.com
3. Kate Spade bangle at katespade.com
4. Tucker dress at libery.co.uk
5. See by Chloé at farfetch.com
6. vintage shoes from modcloth.com

Fall 11: Hot Plaids

Moschino Cheap and Chic, Peter Pilotti, Thakoon, Marni

Plaids are still going strong and this season there are some bright plaids and some interesting executions, as with Marni. Deconstruct it, saturate it, mix it up, but don't neglect the plaid for your upcoming trend directions!

Pre-Fall 2011: Animal Print

Carolina Herrera, Thakoon, Temperly London, Carolina Herrera

Animal prints continue to have a big presence on the runways. See our previous post on leopard print in street fashion and retail.

Pre-Fall 2011: Neutral Geometries

Max Azria, Thakoon, Reed Krakoff, Jason Wu

Zero + Maria Cornejo, BCBG, Doo.Ri, Herve Leger

Pre-fall collections feature a heavy dose of geometrics in neutral beige tones and black and whites. Stark geometrics seem to be have a larger presence than softer techniques, but painterly prints are far from going out of style. They still look modern, especially in the black and white tones seen above.

Spring 11: Mesh, Lace, and Sheer

Proenza Schouler, Erdem, Thakoon, Jonathan Saunders

Vivienne Tam, Alberta Ferreti, Erdem, Marchesa

Alberta Feretti, Emilio de la Moreno, Louise Gray, Nicole Farhi

Mesh, lace, and sheer fabrics are all over the runways this season. The lace trend shows no signs of tapering off, and we're mostly seeing traditional lace patterns with lots of feminine whites. For a more modern, sportier look, mesh appears on necklines, sleeves and all over garments. Especially beautiful is Thakoon's white mesh and see-through fabrics together. Sheer textiles appear as layers that soften and add dimension to prints behind them, and as scrims that just subtly (and sometimes not so subtley) reveal the skin behind it. The nice thing about all this sheer-ness is how skin is not just covered by the outfit, but becomes part of it.

TREND | Swirling Universe

Helmut Lang, Rick Owens, Top Shop, Thakoon. background: Pattern People

We've been seeing these swirly, smokey, cosmological prints on runways and retail for a few seasons now, but they still feel very edgy and new. The mysterious nature of these prints lends a cool sophisticated edge to everything it touches, and so far its been mostly in the realm of the edgiest labels: Helmut Lang, Christopher Kane, Jean-Pierre Braganza, Threeasfour. In other words, if you're starting to think of Fall/Winter 2011, there's still lots of room to explore this direction.

Florals: Pre-Fall 10

Diane von Furstenberg, Carolina Herrera, Rachel Roy, Zac Pozen, Thakoon
Pre-fall is a small, safe, and market-friendly season; not too ground breaking, and with very little pomp and circumstance. Print-wise, not seeing any real trends here, just a bit more of the same, although I did like Rachel Roy's pixel floral print (reminds me of one of our favorites from the PP collection) But my goodness, those pink stretch pants with pleats! Why oh why? Also, the Carolina Herrera floral is quite beautiful and I already raved about the rest of the prints in her collection below.