Milan Fashion Week

As the summer sunshine dwindles and cool breezes and colorful autumn leaves prevail, the international fashion shows have been keeping the summer fun alive showing off designer collections for Spring/Summer 2015. The Italian designers showed an eclectic mélange of themes in their collections at last week’s Milan Fashion Week (MFW) with nostalgia, romance, comfort, and power dressing making an appearance on the runways. Here is a breakdown of the top trends from MFW that we can look forward to for next spring as we start to bundle up for fall.

Sheer fabrics continue their time in the limelight, but in the MFW collections, they get a romantic makeover – rather than being used for an overt sex appeal that we’ve seen heretofore. Blumarine and Alberta Ferretti used flowing sheer fabrics in pastel and other light colors often with floral embroideries and 3 dimensional floral appliques in their feminine, romantic collections.

Monochromic ensembles were a common look seen parading down the MFW runways, particularly white-on-white, a color that is forecasted to be a big trend of the spring 2015 season.

Color blocking was another common trend among the Italian fashion designers, a continuation from past seasons. The colors used were in a vast array from big, bright and bold colors (as in the case of Dsquared2) to more subtle neutrals (like Jil Sander’s collection).

Culottes are making a comeback – they started to show up this past summer, but if MFW is any indication (which, of course, it is), culottes and other wide-legged trousers will be in a full-blown fad by next summer. And lucky for us… so comfortable and super easy to sew!

The far out fabrics, groovy prints and hippie styles from the 1970s were in full-fledged fashion at Milan, showing up as key elements in a number of designer’s collections. Designers like Marco de Vincenzo, Proenza Schouler, and Etro used psychedelic prints, fringed suede, and leather with intricate ornamentation reminiscent of the ‘70s like beading, macramé, and crochet.

A mainstay classic, denim appeared in a number of collections at MFW. This spring, expect to see a variety of wide-legged, cropped denim bottoms stocking the retailers shelves.

The Italian designers of MFW dressed up denim using lace panels, floral appliques, brocade and rhinestones to adorn distressed and ripped denim; a fun and quirky juxtaposition to look forward to for next spring!