Spring/Summer 2011

This time last week, we were driving up to Bradford for a talk about the annual textiles competition, which we had applied to the previous year. It was quite a long talk, and not all was completely relevant to us, and Bradford as a place was rather horrid, (a car crash taking place just outside the hall). But, what I did enjoy was seeing the winners work, as well as hearing all about Peclers Paris - a colour and trend forecasting company. Their job is to decide today's trends, to picture the future and to infuse added meaning to the product.

Anyway, I thought you may be interested in the trend forecast of Spring/Summer 2011. The forecast is divided into 4 sections. And in general, there is a lot about Print. Within each sub category there is always a section covering ethnic prints, floral prints, cheerful prints. Prints, prints, prints, prints. But here are all the trends:

Floreal - 'A romantic rock mood blows over a fresh flower bed. Spring.' It focuses a lot on flowers and soft, pale colourings, such as prairie green, periwinkle blue, candy pinks, pompadour bouquets with rose water, poppy red and bleached pastels; foamy pollen. Femininity, virgins, laces, bloomsbury and floral patternings are major themes.

Meanderings - 'Docker equipment for long haul travelers - an environment where a nomad lifestyle... takes us elsewhere'. Meanderings looks to army khakis and quite an earthy and ochre theme. Colourings, such as workwear blues and dusty grey. Some themes which will be focused on are workwear, transit, rusty, 50s and patterns.

Solaris - 'Away with grey! Lumino-therapy and renewable energy, use the sun to warm yourself. Splatter life with cheer and good will'. Solaris is looking to the sun, focusing on intense orange flashes, emerald foliage, and burned earth. It is inspired by images of India, and encompasses soft, gold rays, and the whole spectrum of beauty. Themes within Solaris are inferno cult, theatre costumes, nostal geek, hotmix, patterns.

Cheerful - 'Optimism and well being, regenerated simple modern graphics, structured silhouettes and ultra-fresh colours organise yesterdays chaos'. Cheerful encompasses nautical stripes, rosey cheeks and lipstick red. It is looking into pratical clothings, for an upbeat lifestyle. Flashy clashes under pure summer sky. The themes are mustache stripes, fun bondage, leather, sexy sport, padding, patterns.

I loved the forecasting journals - 'Pulse Generation', and spent most of the lectures reading them and flicking through them. The way the trends are laid out on the page is not only enjoyable to look through, almost like a magazine, but is very interesting to see how they describe and illustrate the upcoming trends. It will be interesting to come back to this blog in two years time and to see what exactly will be in the high street.

I hope you're inspired. Be inspired. Go.