Painterly Perfection

Since I have been interning at magazines I have taken a strong liking to reading trend analysis and attempting to put my own together. I go through all of the shows for the season and make folders on my desk top of different pieces I see that tie some of the shows together. Sometimes my ideas do not come to fruition and I don’t gather enough examples to really make it a runway trend. But other times I end up spotting a trend that will be huge for the season and everyone will be reporting on. It is something I enjoy doing and wanted to share with you all to get your opinions on one of this upcoming spring’s biggest trends, which is painterly or art inspiration. This trend really hit home with me, partly due to my extreme interest in art history as well as my being able to understand where these pieces of fashion were coming from. Partially because of the variation of interpretations of this trend, there were soft romantic feelings, high-energy art pop, as well as prints of artwork adorning the pieces presented. All of these things made the trend extremely versatile and fun for people to play up for Spring 14.

While watching the runways this spring we almost felt as though we were taking a walk through the MoMa on a summer Sunday. With almost every show we found more and more painterly strokes splashed upon the garments like a Claude Monet piece. The soft strokes in shows like Bottega Veneta had a feminine flow to them that played on this trend to perfection. It was dreamy, womanly and everything we want to be this spring.

Other shows went more the modern art approach, such as Celine .The Celine show featured painterly swirls where you could actually see the brush strokes wisp off the patterns, emblazoned on the garments throughout the show. The accessories at hand, another type of art turned fashion this season; sculpture. Cuffs that look like metal box sculptures stacked upon one another, mule heals balanced upon a metal ball that look like something you would see in a sculpture garden instead of on someone’s foot.

Chanel had a presentation that screamed art in a pop sense. The bold thick brush strokes plastered upon the garments certainly had a painterly feeling. Other garments mocked being dipped into dirty paintbrush water, of course in the most marvelous way achievable.  The accessories were also no exception to the painterly motif. Backpacks that mocked a spray paint effect where a big hit, as well as a continuation of the sculptural Lego bag we saw in the fall.

At Giles it was another art country heard from. We saw photographs resembling classical middle age Italian art, another creative interpretation of the theme of art in fashion. This one a more literal plastering of what we would consider art on the garment.

This trend is certainly versatile and a fun carry through to update your spring look with. The real question that all of this addresses is, this spring do you want to see your art or wear it?