Sewingplums

Do you look good wearing the strong yellow of Easter chicks ?

Many trends this season are more about colour and prints than shape (see trends post).

Strong pure colours are important : red, blue, yellow, plus the intermediate green, purple, orange. All in bright versions, not with a little white or black mixed in to soften their impact.

Colour reproduction on my screen isn’t good so this may not look ‘primary’, but hopefully you get the idea. Drawing the colour wheel this way shows it may be a good idea to choose the right red or green. Though the best colour may only be obvious if you’re clearly either cool or warm in colouring (which I’m not).

One way of being super trendy is to wear three or four strong colours combined. With each garment in a different colour. Or several colours in one item, perhaps body, sleeves, and neck band/ collar/ cuffs in different colours.
See Style.com on Hyper Color.

Or two colours, one of the strong colours combined with white.

Well, colour blocking has been suggested by high fashion magazines for some seasons now, but I can’t remember seeing anyone wearing these tropical colours in this quiet suburb in this cool rainy climate 😀

Care with strong colours

If you can’t decide whether to wear bright colours and bold prints, they’re probably not for you. Have a look at Nancy Nix-Rice’s excellent articles, 7, 8, 9 on colour and 10 on prints.

Perhaps you can wear one or two of the strong clear colours, but not all of them. I can wear red, though reds with a touch of blue, not a yellowy red (odd, as I’m mainly ‘autumn’ in colouring). Other strong colours completely overwhelm me.

White is also a key trend this year, but it’s too ‘strong’ for many people. Does it help if you wear a white slightly tinted with blue, or white tinted with cream ?

A touch of strong colour

What if you don’t look your best when wearing strong colours or strong contrasts ? Would you still like a little trendy brightness ? Add it in bag or shoes. Just not near your face.

Or use it for trim, perhaps binding, piping or frills. Personally I think that makes a garment rather inflexible about what it will combine with. So don’t use it unless you have several items this will look good with.

Pantone colours for this season

Here’s the pdf of Pantone’s colour suggestions for Spring 2011.

Goodness, you can even get a Pantone app. . . though it needs accurate colour pick up from your mobile phone camera.

Happily Pantone are aware that some of us need muted (with a touch of grey), or paler (with added white), or more subtle mixes. They don’t include all those brights. They choose colours with names like :
Coral Rose (“sophisticated orange”)
Beeswax
Honeysuckle (not sure what they mean by this, perhaps it’s a problem with colours on my screen, UK native honeysuckle is rose-red and cream.)
Russet
Peapod (yellow-green)
Blue Curacao (related to turquoise)
Regatta (blue)
Lavender
Silver Cloud
Silver Peony

Look also at the colours mentioned by the designers in the pdf, who use more colour names, and wonderfully luscious sounding colour combinations.

Pantone colour predictions for the coming Fall are also more muted.

So if you’re a ‘Summer’ or ‘Autumn’ feeling left out by the high fashion brights, not to worry. There are many other attractive colours relevant for this season.

Some Soft ‘Summers’ like the top-to-toe ‘nude’ shades that are another fashion theme. This is a grayed palest pink, Pantone’s Silver Peony. Another colour we can’t all look good in. Would it help if you use a muted bluey pink, or a muted peachy pink ?

Or try the palest most washed out shades of denim blue.

For Warm ‘Autumns’, refer to Pantone rather than Vogue ! The simple colour wheel doesn’t work well for browns.

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If you’re like me and the season’s brights and nudes don’t make you look your best, just stick to your most flattering colours, and choose to ignore being trendy about colour this season 😀

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Links available April 2011

Here are some capsules as examples of styling with a touch of trendy for summer 2011. The styling suggestions come from the editorial and ads in the March issues of UK Elle and In Style magazines, as well as US Vogue Style.com.

This post is in three sections, each with one key example :
– crisper shapes styled in many ways,
– softer lines,
– my personal reminder that you don’t need to be trendy to look good !

Choose your own group of patterns. Many current styles are basic classic shapes, made trendy because they’re in this season’s colours, prints, and trims. How about styling your own core patterns in one of the top looks for the summer.

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Here’s a casual grouping from Cutting Line, as a starter example for simple styling changes.

(not correct relative size)

Clockwise from top left : Cutting Line : My Hearts a Flutter shell/ Easy Ageless Cool shirt/ 2 x 4 tunic/ Fun with Fabric jacket/ Easy Ageless Cool pants/ Relax a Little skirt.

If ‘oversized’ doesn’t look good on you, think of closer fitting but similar styles for tops and bottoms. Or your own TNT basics.

And blazers and jeans jackets are both current, if you prefer them to a softer style jacket like the Cutting Line one. Perhaps recent patterns Butterick 5568 (upper below) for a pretty choice of blazers, or jeans jackets from Butterick 5616 (lower below) :

These patterns can give many different styles by changing colours, prints, and trims. How about these colour and print choices for this season :

– Make your whole capsule in black with touches of grey and ivory for edgy minimalism.

– Head to toe white or soft white. A new type of city minimalism (as in Style.com Seeing the light).
UK In Style magazine March issue says ‘white is the new black’. Hmm. Some people have amazing ability to keep white clean. And some of us look dreadful in black, some in white. Wear them if you look good. Not to worry if you don’t, there are many other current looks.

– Choose tans and khakis, chinos and twills, for a ‘safari’ look.

– Or all in denim blue (not stiff fabric). Very current casual – try light/ medium/ dark blue in the same garment. Or the cheerful casual of denim with gingham, or denim with large florals.

– Or all navy, an even newer blue.

But you haven’t got to wear a monochrome look. How about :

– Colour blocking of strong pink, bright yellow, primary-like green, orange, chartreuse, as well as primary blue, and purple, with clear white, This is not the old colour blocking of several colours in one garment. Each garment is a different strong colour. Much easier to manage. The coming summer looks as if it will be a good season if you like strong clear colour.
(see Style.com on Hyper Color)

– Large (hand sized) florals widely spaced on white background, a hot climate ‘Tropicana’ or ‘desert island’ look.

– Or head to toe closely spaced prints – abstract or floral.

Those three are ‘rich beach’ looks for the coming summer.

– Louise Cutting herself uses fabulous and subtle designer wools, silks and linens to make ‘Easy Luxe’ garments from her patterns.

For high fashion accessories, choose big bags and totes, and thick platform soled high heeled shoes. With the same attitude to colours and trims as your clothes.

Or for your own style, trim and embellish with your favourites – lace or fringe, ‘statement’ buttons, bows and ruffles, glitter, embroidery or appliqué, braid or ribbon, tucks and insertions, studs and grommets, bias or leather strips ? A little or a lot ? (I got a ruffler foot for Christmas, and expect I’ll be adding ruffles to everything 😀 )

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In contrast here’s a softer possibility, as it’s mainly in knits, from the December – January 2011 issues of La Mia Boutique pattern magazine. (Italian subscription). This could look edgy in blacks and greys, or pretty in light muted pastels.

Although the main silhouettes are the same as Eileen Fisher’s key winter capsule (see previous post), the style details give a very different effect.

Or find similar patterns but for wovens. Add long floaty skirts or maxi dresses.
(Style.com on Midi is the message)

Make a popular look for the coming summer by using light fluid fabrics with floral prints, or white batiste, with added frills, tucks, lacing, and heirloom stitching.
(Style.com on Lace embrace)

You can also do ‘mixed’ styling, combining blazers or jeans jackets with frills and soft fabrics instead of crisp classic shapes.

In the UK magazines there are two key types of floral print for the coming season :
– hand-sized flowers spread widely over a white background. Used brightly in more classic shapes, as in the previous capsule.
– 1-2 inch/ 3-5 cm size flowers, closely spaced on more fluid fabrics. Perhaps more gentle muted colours, with a hint of transparency. A ‘Garden Party’ look. Often used in softer, more flowing, frillier styles.
But you can use these muted shades in solid/ plain fabrics and softer classic shapes as well.

For more abstract all-over prints see Style.com on the Prints revolution.

Ideally, hold a print up against yourself and look in a mirror. Is the print in scale to your own proportions and the effect you’re looking for ?

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Apart from the blazers and maxi skirts, most of the trends are about colour and print, rather than shape. So you can apply them to any somewhat-classic shape that you like. There are a couple of other ‘shape’ trends :

This season’s retro style is the 70s, which Style.com calls The Yves standard.

The season’s big (literally) pant shape has high waist and relaxed leg. See Style.com We wear the pants.

(P.S. According to You Look Fab Angie’s review at the end of New York Fashion Week, the same trends continue in Fall 2011. Except she doesn’t mention white or prints, and she predicts pants will be ‘tapered’.)

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And here’s a reminder you haven’t got to be trendy to look good.

If I force myself to choose a basic capsule for my own use from one designer, rather than being distracted by my fascination with style and cut and instructions, I keep coming back to Loes Hinse – Textile Studio.

(not correct relative sizes)

Textile Studio (pink) : Tank Top Shell, Mandarin shirt, Florence jacket, Soho pant.
Loes Hinse (white) : Boat Neck top, Cowl Neck top, Tango skirt.

A soft quiet group if made in my favourite natural neutrals with touches of texture. Another monochromatic look, but not one that’s currently fashionable. Though it’s often found in ’boutique’ styles. This pattern group could of course be made in current monochromatics, or bright colour blocking, or the season’s florals and laces. Loes Hinse’s Hepburn pants have the high fashion shape. But most of this season’s trends aren’t for me, though I do like heirloom sewing on clothes. I love looking at what’s current, but wear only a little of it myself.

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What about dresses ? I haven’t mentioned them, but you may love them. If you do, I expect you’ve already looked at the inspiring new dress patterns from Vogue and McCall’s. Interesting shapes which again you can vary greatly by the colours, prints and laces you choose.

Do any of these possibilities make your heart beat faster ?
Or make you react ‘no ! no ! not for me !’
Which of these trends gives you the most inspiration, or makes you feel the most comfortable and ‘in your skin’ ?

If you’re uncertain about a style, start slowly with one piece, then a 2 to 3 piece outfit, to try things out.

And as usual, Enjoy (Joy In) your Quest.

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(P.S. And have a look at Style.com’s Spring Shopping Guide.
This season they actually suggest some wearable clothes 😀

P.P.S. Here’s YouLookFab’s list of trends for Spring 2011.

P.P.P.S. And here’s a link to In Style magazine’s Spring ideas.)

Patterns and links available February 2011