From the runways of New York to London, a few delicious trends emerged for the spring fashion season that are truly fabulous for the modern woman.
These fashionable trends revolve around the design elements of peplum, culottes, floral and leather that assist the modern woman in translating seamlessly from the office to the evening.
Lessons From The Runway
When it comes to fashion weeks, the fashion lines and collections shown at New York Fashion Week are among the most wearable and trend-setting as a rule.
As Galen Hardy, head buyer for the very popular online retailer Zappos.com says “New York is the end-all-be-all. You have to be a part of it, not only to see the trends from the new designers, but to see what’s happening on the street.”
In terms of the pieces that you see on the runways of New York Fashion Week, I tend to find a majority of collections shown very wearable. It is thanks to iconic designers like Donna Karen and Vera Wang, who have focused their individual collections on helping the modern woman update her wardrobe that New York Fashion Week is so wearable.
Key Designs – Culottes and Peplum
According to Sheila Aimette, VP of North America content for the trending forecast firm, WGSN, the most have fashion piece for the spring season are a pair of culottes.
Sheila points out that culottes are very easy to wear and entirely perfect for work. Culottes come out the fashion trend towards minimalist in sports wear, they are a flowing loose trousers that are cut to end between the knee and mid-calf.
Fashion icons like Alexander Wang and Victoria Beckham have recently been photographed sporting culottes, yet in very unique ways. Wang likes loose, flowing culottes, and Beckham wears hers tight and fitted to her legs, usually worn with a peplum top.
Many of us, fashion insiders were taken by surprise to see peplum on the runways of New York, London and even Paris, since it was popular design element a couple season ago.
Peplums are fast on their way to becoming an essential wardrobe basic for the modern woman along side classics like the little black dress and the wrap dress.
As fellow fashion writer Laura Nay, of Splash Magazine is fond of saying “You’re way out of the loop, if you don’t have something with a peplum cut.”
If you are wearing a peplum top I like to suggest pairing with a pair of wedge heels and a slim, fitted, knee length pencil skirt or skinny jeans. You can see this style in the new collections of Kate Spade and Noon by Noor.
New Classic – Flower Prints
One of my personal favorite trends for the new spring season are flower prints. Flower prints evoke a purely feminine flair and bring a quality of lightness to any outfit their are part of.
Well known designer Joanna Mastroianni says “Color is important this season, more then ever before. It’s happy. It feels right.”
Joanna’s gowns are alight with a play of vibrant colors like pink, purple and yellow, all in a floral prints. Mastroianni is not alone in her use of bright floral prints this season, designers like Tracy Reese, Christian Siriano and Ostwald Helgason.
Ryan Baker, a stylist for Nordstrom, says “A great floral blouse under a fitted blazer is a playful piece that makes your look exciting. It reinvents your wardrobe basics.”
Leather Is The New Black
Leather, as a fabric is one of the corner stones of modern fashion design. It is the one fabric you see in use every season and never seems to lose it’s popularity. As fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld says “In a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and even clothes, the discussion of fur is childish.”
Yet this season designer Alexander Wang managed to put a new twist on this popular fabric by introducing leather pieces with laser cut-outs onto this catwalk.
It was the french fashion house Lacoste, who during their New York Fashion Week show, pushed this new trend into the mainstream by introducing pieces that alternated strips of solid leather with blocks of sheer material.
When shopping for your new wardrobe remember the immortal words of Coco Chanel “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”
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