This Spring Summer 2017 will be about two things: the present, the future and how they’ll play together.
At the opening day of Texworld USA in New York City Sunday, art directors Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud presented the coming season’s trends.
The overarching theme for Spring Summer ’17 is “Contact,” which according to Gérin, is a glance or a thought, the idea that things aren’t the way we knew them, and that concepts will become at once simple and complex.
Transparency also plays a major role, playing into its increasing importance in society as consumers demand greater transparency and as people’s lives become less private in the world of social sharing.
“Knowledge has become the global identity. The zones of shades have disappeared. The light invades each corner of our spirit. We now have all the tools to build our tomorrow,” the directors’ trend book notes.
There are four major themes emerging out of the concept of Contact.
Integration
For SS17, different elements will begin to be integrated together to create new aesthetics and new perspectives will engender creations that hadn’t existed before.
Artists painting on cellophane, 3D printed formations and paintings overlaid with acid serve as inspiration for the trend.
Colors will express the idea of change of space, the sky marrying the earth, holographic insinuation.
“All colors that bring us back to this idea of this new dimension that we can explore,” Gérin said.
A charcoal hue called dark transparency, a rich blue dubbed calm ocean and a bright blush called tactile pigment color the palette.
Fabrics will channel imperfection, with subtle burnout stripes that aren’t entirely straight and random dot prints with uneven circles. Texture will serve as pattern over prints in some cases and transparency will play a leading role. Lace will come with a laser-cut look, metallics will have an iridescent appearance and florals will be more fluid.
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Combination
Combination is about the association of different elements, and finding a new aesthetic in something considered ugly before.
The trend channels elements we can’t quite feel or see but that are part of every day life.
Colors are rusty with warm, bright oranges like flat vermilion and sedimentary dawn with touches of flesh tones like dirtied rope and glued dermis. A vibrant but earthy yellow hue called radiant mixture tops off the palette.
Paint splatter prints will grace fabrics, lace will come adorned with raised floral textures, floral prints will be a bit larger scale in the modern color palette, but following the looking of vintage embroidery. Even chambray will get a lace look in keeping with the season’s transparent trend.
Relation
Reality gets turned on its head with Reality as common things become inspiration.
The lines on sports courts, tracks and field are inspiring textile prints and patterns and providing a new perspective and a new way of relating.
Colors are earthy and classic, and as Gérin put it, “A little bit vintage but with a new strong arrangement.”
A straightforward, sporty blue aptly called athletic horizon and subdued tans like neutral ground and a grey-based khaki called concrete corridor make up the trend’s palette.
Texture will create geometric effects in fabric, color-blocked engineered stripes will show up and herringbone will be as it hasn’t been before—imperfect with lines that don’t quite match up.
Die-cut dot patterns will give a new nod to texture, knits will still be chunky and eyelet will come in a more graphic design. Raw, natural fabrics will look rough and course but have a soft hand and light quality. Prints inspired by motherboards and elements found in technology will also be apparent.
Extension
The idea here is, as Gérin explained, “The extension of ourselves to go in a new dimension but with this link to nature. It’s a marriage between this old mechanical life and this new digital life.”
Extension is about being freed from obstacles and the color story is rooted in nature.
Greens make for most of the palette, with a rich forest green called inverted panorama, a cooler, grassy hue dubbed agathe emerald and more blue-infused green called lagoon landscape. A softer opaline osmosis blue and a bright peach called mature floor-tile brighten the palette.
Fabrics will showcase forces twisting, waves and delicate sparkles in the form of knits with metallic threads. Stripes will be textured, and again, imperfect, while velvet will take on a lace-look and fabrics that are transparent in some areas and textured in a pattern will also be present.
Overall, star colors for the season, according to Gérin are: mineral toxin, decompressed asphalt, tactile pigment, mature floor-tile, flat vermilion, collective warning, ethereal forest, distorted border and unifier court, making for a much heavier palette than spring’s past.
“Skin is really big for the season,” Gérin added, “More fleshy colors.”