To the lay person, it is always a curiosity how trends catch hold in any given year. Sometimes it’s a matter of the major designers following the lead of others within their market and other times it’s a matter of something unexpected that consumers latch onto that becomes a fashion statement its own right. This year Ax Paris has noted that prints are back in style with a vengeance and there are several reasons why summer dresses will mostly be done up in prints of various colour combinations.
Retro Is Trending
One of the main reasons why prints are so big this summer is because of the emphasis on retro fashions. The sixties and seventies were huge on prints and many were designed after natural elements. Some prints were fashioned after animal skins with leopards and tigers being amongst the most popular. Other prints from that era were small pebbles and scenery such as waterfalls, ponds and pictures of wildlife captured on fabric. If you were to go back in time to look at the sewing patterns for sale at the time, you would see the ‘sample’ dresses being fashioned from prints that were taken from nature.
Bright Colours Are In
It goes without saying that clothing crafted from bright, bold colours can be a little overwhelming when big blocks of colour hit you in the eye. The best way to make use of bright colours is to work them into prints where a lot of colour is used but a bit more subliminally. There are those who dabble in the psychology of colour who say that bold colours trend whenever the economy looks bleak.
Consumers seek to add a bit of ‘spice’ to their lives and the easiest way to do that is with the use colour in the clothing they wear. This could be closer to the truth than you would imagine, especially with recent events in Brexit. Is the economy really as bleak as it seems with the devaluation of the pound? Perhaps not and if colour has anything to do with it, the pound will soon be right back up where it was before all this controversy began.
Brightening Up Your Days after the Long, Cold Days of Winter
Prints are always in style in the spring and summer months, more so than in autumn and winter for a very good reason. All winter long when the winds are blowing and the snow is falling, everything seems to be in black and white and shades of grey. There are no colourful flowers, the trees have yet to begin budding and the beautiful and colourful autumn leaves are buried under mounds of snow.
So then, yes prints are in in 2016, maybe bigger and bolder than in any recent year but the one thing you should know is that prints are always in during summer months, some years more so than others. This is one of those ‘more so’ years so find prints you like in your favourite colours and you’ll not only be in style but you’ll be happily wearing prints that brighten your days. Why are prints in? Because they add that extra something that would otherwise be lacking – and that is a very good reason indeed!
Bill is a freelance journalist who specialises in writing about culture and the arts, however will write about anything that piques his interest including business, travel and lifestyle.
