JONATHAN RHYS MEYERS FOR ENERGIE

Source:ENERGIE

VARIETY IN FASHION AT H&M THIS SEASON

Romance continues to be on trend. The look is well-groomed, coordinated and playful with pretty watercolour shades and light neutrals. But it’s not the only style this season. Pared down simplicity and uniform-inspired tailoring are at least as important, as are futuristic sporty influences.

“Style wise there’s a liberating variety of fashion right now. There are endless different ways for our creative customers to express themselves, which is extremely inspiring for the H&M design team. We’re also focusing on sustainability in design and production and investing in organic materials,” says H&M Head of Design Ann-Sofie Johansson.

INSPIRATION

Retro-romantic
The season’s most important retro reference is romantic and chic. It’s all about dresses and wide skirts, with the focus on the waistline, feminine blouses, tailored jackets and blazers, shirts and obvious classics such as chinos, denim and T-shirts.

Timeless tailoring
Tailoring is simple and often androgynous with uniform-inspired cuts and details à la 1970s elegant Parisian “Le Safari”. Styles are minimalist as well as over or under dimensioned and draping. But it’s mainly blends of materials with new finishes, and technical and organic materials that update tailoring this spring.

Art and architecture
Architectural forms and proportions continue to inspire, as does an experimentally futuristic and sometimes eccentric attitude. This reappears in references from the art world with everything from the fashion style of famous artists (with August Strindberg and David Hockney being diverse examples of style icons in art) to colourful motifs and patterns inspired by historic and contemporary art and architecture.


Silhouettes
Narrow, yet relaxed, experimental with new shapes and proportions, voluminous or curvy with the focus on the waist.

Colours
White and shades of white. Warm tones of beige. Coral. Saturated, watercolour transparent, or pastel pale shades of blue, green, pink and yellow. Neons.

Patterns and prints
Flowers, spots, checks, stripes, botanical designs, art-inspired patterns and prints, animal patterns and graphic prints.

Materials
Material mixes of natural materials or with synthetic and organic materials, lace, transparent or textured fabrics, shiny fabrics such as silk and polyester, sun-bleached and “worn” fabrics, jersey, classic cottons, linen, thin denim and chambray.

Details
Pleats, gathers, pin-tucks and yokes, rolled-up trouser legs and sleeves, three-quarter length, collarless, Nehru collars, shawl collars, ballerina necklines, uniform details.

Key pieces
Women: Skirts - wide or narrow pencil style, knee or ankle-length. Dresses with volume, 50s style with a waistline, sheath dresses or shirt dresses. Blazers, classic or short dress jackets. Romantic blouses and shirts. T-shirts. Rolled-up chinos and slacks.

Men: Tailored shorts, patterned shirts, ankle-length slacks, pyjama-inspired pieces. Blazers in colours, sometimes patterned, nylon lumber jackets, tunics, knee-length coats made from sport-inspired materials, patterned T-shirts and vests.

Accessories
Women: Belts, clutch bags, earrings, bracelets, sling-backs and scarves.

Men: Scarves, nylon bags, sunglasses with metal frames, sandals, sneakers and narrow belts.

Source:H&M

H&M SPRING 2009 WOMEN'S COLLECTION

Source:H&M

H&M SPRING 2009 MEN'S COLLECTION

Source: H&M

John Galliano Spring Summer 2009 Women's Collection

James Gillray and the Queen Mum. You had to be a bit of a British art-history nerd to get the references John Galliano was dispensing backstage to mostly blank looks from fashion correspondents. But thank goodness for Stephen Jones' erudition on historical headgear—and Google backup—because here we are at the source: outrageous Regency cartoons of silly fashions from the Napoleonic war era, giant plumed military helmets, overblown mob-caps, and indecently transparent dresses. Sorted. (Oh, apart from the Queen Mummery, which equals the sweet pea florals, of course.)

But did one actually need to know this to understand the collection? Hardly, because as accomplished as the backstage history boys may be, this was a show of tried-and-trusted Galliano classics put out at a moment when he's essentially brought his runway antics to a stop. What's walking out now are simplified, understandable pieces: parka-derived daywear with vestiges of military frogging in tape; little drapey jersey dresses; fragile rosette-sleeved cardigans; tiny, flippy ruffled floral skirts.

In one way, that challenges the idea that a fashion show has to be newsy to be worthwhile—though it's a harder case to make when a resentful, exhausted audience is expected to travel an hour on a cold Saturday night to an insalubrious quarter of Paris to view it. To justify this, Galliano needed to pull something special out of his hat. He did, eventually, in an evening section in which his fragile, sheer, spangled, romantically tinted and flower-printed dresses briefly settled onlookers into a serene state of appreciation. If there are parties to go to next season, these are the kinds of dresses many girls might dream of wearing to them. With an underslip, of course.

PARIS, October 4, 2008
By Sarah Mower（style.com)

Source: John Galliano