For Autumn Winter, opposites and all things organic will be textiles’ key trends.
Opening Texworld USA Tuesday at the Jacob K. Javitz Center in New York City, art directors Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud presented “Polarity,” the trend story for Autumn Winter 2017-18 textiles.
“A universe has been woven beneath our feet,” Gérin said. “Reality has appeared. New and ancestral. Never seen and yet present since always.”
The idea, as Gérin explained, is that opposites attract and everything moves in the organic way of the world. Shapes will mix, lines will blur, patterns and prints will overlap and all the constraints once known will come together to create a new aesthetic.
Fabrics will be woven, light, flexible, rich and natural, while colors channel pinks and blues, mineral hues and an abundance of gold.
The season’s pinks will look like lips, reflect love and represent lusciousness differently than in trends past.
“Pink is no more just the girl color or the outdated color. It is omniscient, velvety, un-tragic,” Gérin said, adding, “We have to rediscover everything and we have to rethink everything.”
Here are the season’s four major trends.
Fundamental Kinematics
Fundamental Kinematics is about ceaseless revolutions, the idea that things are spinning and layered. Colors are primary and vibrant.
“Let us trace the forms of nature. An arc, an angle. A line, a curve. To and fro. Up or down. Yesterday or today. The dancefloor has no more limits,” Gérin said.
The combined color palette is almost rainbow like in its range, though singularly, each color is vibrant without being shocking. Degraded Flash of Lightning, a deep turquoise of sorts, Arc of Sky, an at once bright and subdued blue, Scaled Copy, a soft rosy pink, and Solar Reflection, a spirited golden yellow, make the palette.
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Fabrics reflect the most playful elements of the 60s, 70s and 80s, all with the optimism those periods brought with them. Chromatic effects and new weaves from recycled sportswear fabric are present, large dots come into play for patterns, camo gets a vivid redo and bonded fabrics come with two faces for a fun effect.
Perpetual Vertigo
With Perpetual Vertigo, fantasy, safety, spirals and swirls all fit together, mixing to create a different vision, a concrete impossibility. Prints are free form with mineral aspects and hues that are strong but always relate back to nature.
“It’s the feeling of being strong but to merge with natural, this really raw element,” Gérin said.
Colors are cool, a balance of inert and vibrant. Tactile Nothingness, a deep, cold purple, Mineral Kiss, a sophisticated marriage of violet and rose, Steamed Route, a cool blue based in the grey of fog and Sandy Fumigation, a green-hued sand neutral make up the palette.
Fabrics are transparent and delicate with cellular dots, fuzzy hands and blurred patterns. Traditional camouflage is done in geo patterns with lasered micro dots for a new spin, jacquards are mixed with knits, floral patterns are outlined in raised textures, crinkle looks are key and denim and denim effects largely make up the story’s blue-based textiles.
Sideral Tumult
Sidereal Tumult is the story that channels natural and stellar energy, genetic transformation, the sea and its stories.
“No more rules. No more laws. Nobody knows what tomorrow will look like, so we have to prepare. For anything,” Gérin said. “This is life because life is not predictable, evolution is not predictable, it’s evolution, that’s what we are.”
The color range expresses a burning feeling, steeped in reds, oranges and ambers.
“Just like fire, life burning in our veins, it’s emotion projected into colors,” Gérin explained.
Burning Interlacing is the palette’s deepest red, with the softer Skin-to-Skin following. Organic Ceramic is the season’s slate, but dipped in more blue, and Crackling Branch, a burnt orange and Sculptural Wax, a rich almost green gold make up the palette, with a dark almost black Enigmatic Depth rounding it out.
Fabrics feature an abundance of shiny, metallic threads, lace comes unstructured, there’s a printed veil like fabric with dot pattern flocking, larger more raw knits, technical fabrics dotted with gold and embroidery with a spider web inspired pattern, and vintage elements that are a mix between rough and precious make up the story.
Chimeric Confluence
The final Polarity trend story, Chimeric Confluence, is about being natural, mixing cultures, tribal elements and roots.
“Beliefs are certainties. And certainties limit the field of possibilities. One must be able to try anything. Attempt everything,” Gérin said. “It’s a really strong desire to live together in a very global and common world of love.”
Colors are oriented in a natural feeling, channeling flesh.
Rose-based hues like Mystic Nectar, Tropical Oration and Forbidden Fruit make up three parts of the nine-color palette. Singular Acidity, a rich, luscious green, Vegetable Illumination, a lighter, more yellowed green and Sanctuary Cement like red dirt, balance the palette.
Fabrics like velvet fleece will be present and lace where geometric forms sub in for standard florals. There’s a big return of very rich jacquards where gold is ever-present and sequin fabrics are one color on one face and another on the opposite side, creating a playful changeable effect. Patterns are tribal and florals are bold and bright on black backgrounds (think: Dolce & Gabbana).
In essence, Autumn Winter 2017-18 will be about freedom from design constraints.
“Break the rules and just go forward to create your perfect world,” Gérin said.