fashion inn 4us: Floral fantasy.

It’s raining flowers all the way this fashion season. Designers in the west at the CPD Fashion Fair in Dusseldorf, Germany have brought in a bouquet of the best flowers and sprinkled them on summer dresses, blouses, skirts, gowns and tunics to make summer 2012 one of the most colourful seasons on the runway.

It’s quite amazing how flower prints in natural or abstract forms have been on the top of the style charts for years. They are a great favourite with women and some of the men’s wear designers too are using them for shirts, jackets and even trousers which are ideal for resort and holiday wear.
What makes floral foliage motifs great is the happy and vibrant feel that they give to garments. Wear a floral print and it is the most uplifting feeling that one can achieve in a very short time. But wearing floral prints needs care and dress sense. For the perfectly proportioned lady all sizes of floral prints work. But when it is the more endowed lady, then small and medium ones are perfect.

How to match floral prints is also important. If it is a dress then a fully printed one is great but giant sized flowers should be restricted to a smaller area of the garment or it will overpower the dress. When it comes to coordinates then mixing a solid colour with a floral jacket, helps. Don’t wear a floral printed trouser and shirt or it will be a very busy picture to look at. On the other hand a flower print palazzo looks great with a solid coloured tunic or vice versa. Skirts look fabulous when then are full circle though a pencil one too will be ideal with small prints of dainty flowers.

This season roses seem to be the favoured flower for prints but small posies as well as beautiful tropical flowers are appearing on cool summer strappy dresses or kaftans which are all ideal beach and resortwear.

So pick your favourite flower and splash it all over your dress and you will feel really happy and fashionable as you stroll down the street with admiring glances following you.

Men’s wear fabrics don’t offer much of a choice when it comes to patterns. The stronger sex has to choose between stripes, checks, abstracts, geometrics, floral and at times polka dots. Thankfully the first two options in the list seem to keep the male of the species very happy. Each season one or the other of the duo is a hot favourite with brands and designers.

At the recently concluded Van Huesen India Men’s Week organised by the Fashion Design Council of India, many designers gave their thumbs up to checks. So it is these squares that are going to be the hot sellers in different sizes, colours and combinations.

Decades ago checks were used in a discreet manner by designers. There were pin checks, gingham, window pane checks or plaids. In the past it was pastel muted checks, for shirts while only an occasional sporty jacket had subdued checks. For the coming season the sky is the limit as far as checks are concerned since men have become great trend setters too.

Manoviraj Khosla has large checks for jackets and teams them with smaller checked trousers. Rajvi Mohan gets really bold as she uses window pane checks in brighter hues for kurtas. Abraham and Thakore have houndstooth checked trousers that are very stylish. Rajesh Pratap uses checks for his shirts which look quite smart.

Troy Costa’s very retro suits are checked all over to fit into an era that speaks of days gone by while Abhishek Gupta goes for simple checked trousers.

Checks definitely have a more masculine appeal and when used in sombre colours like brown, black, white, navy and grey, they look very elegant. Of course it is the size of the checks that makes all the difference to the garment and the way the wearer looks. Sober colours are for formal wear, while the brighter tones give a casual touch to the garments. Ready-to-wear labels like Zodiac, Indian Terrain, Indus League and many others have plaid shirts in myriad colours that are flying off the racks.

So if you want to follow the current trend in fabrics then ‘check’ out the designers and labels whose collections will give you the right fashion directions.