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Spring 2011 fashion trends: Spring / Summer 2011

Written by Daniel P Dykes

One day we'll let next season start before we begin looking beyond it. I promise. Fingers firmly crossed. In this case the next season is Autumn / Fall 2010, but we're already looking beyond it to Spring / Summer 2011.

Given some fashionisers are still living through Spring / Summer 2010 and others are yet to encounter this year's Spring, looking so far forwards towards 2011 fashion trends seem optimistic. And yet the unveiling of the Spring 2011 collections is mere months away. So what might Spring 2011 have in store for we fashionisers?

Read on for inspiration for the Spring 2011 season and coming year.

And don't forget: if you'd like to be kept up to date with all the latest fashion trends and how they're being worn, as opposed to the preview below, be sure to subscribe to our fashion newsletter or our RSS feed.

spring 2011 fashion trends

Spring/Summer 2011 Clothing: Key Looks

lace dresses and skirts

Lace clothing

No, it's not new. But, like all trends that span multiple seasons, it has evolved. Lace influences for Spring 2010 are more to the classic side with quality antique-style fabrics the key to the trend. Less of the allover, stretch lace and more of the unique takes. Click to read more about the lace dress trend.

60s ladylike

60s ladylike

The silhouettes of the 1950s and 1960s make a strong return, with shapes that accentuate curves and foster femininity. A hip-hugging sheath dress with a below-the-knee hem is the ultimate in hourglass dressing, while the full circle skirt and dress remain at the core of the trend. For Spring 2010 introduce fresh colours, prints and light summery fabrics. Click to read about the '60s dress trend.
clogs

Clogs

Clunky wooden shoes. It doesn't sound like the most glamorous or practical of footwear trends, and yet the clog reached new heights in 2010 and will continue into 2011. Heeled versions are by far the best, with a preference for Swedish styles. For Spring experiment with lighter fabrics like canvas or linen, as well as open-toed styles. Click to read about the clogs fashion trend.
kitten heels

Kitten heels

Kitten heels are making a somewhat controversial return, spurred on by the trend of '50s and '60s dressing. More comfortable yet less appealing than their higher counterparts, kitten heels can work particularly well when dainty, pointed, and either retro-inspired or minimalist. When it comes to the kitten heel in 2011 it's all about the theming. For Spring, kitten heeled sandals are also an option. Click to read about the kitten heels shoe trend.

Spring / Summer 2011 themes

Interfiliere: Spring / Summer 2011 trend motifs

Interfiliere, a fashion industry body dedicated to lingerie and beachwear correctly peg Spring 2011's fashion trends as an evolution of several recent fashion trends; key amongst them is the continued reinterpretation of classic styles along all heavily influenced by the 'lingerie as outerwear' trend that Fashionising.com has been touting for some time now.

Key look: loungerie

For the latter, they've coined a new term: loungerie. With the elements of lingerie, be it girly or overtly sexual, so prominent in street fashion, Interfiliere see Spring 2011's key street wear trends as a mixture between lingerie, swimwear and streetwear (which they group as loungewear), and lingerie. Hence the portmanteau.

In their own words:

The new Loungerie takes a leaf out of, and gets the best of, lingerie for an alternative, parallel wardrobe; [one that is] light, intimate, and impossible to "classify."

For more on the look see our lingerie as outerwear trend inspiration page.

loungerie

Over-all themes

Lingerie as street wear aside, there are four themes that Interfiliere believe will be key to Spring / Summer 2011 fashion trends:

Tendresse (fondness)

spring 2011 fondness

An atmosphere heavily loaded with, memories but reinvented by using, technical innovations. To maintain the feeling of softness and a nostalgia of charm, there are sophisticated constructions, digital prints, placed jacquards, audacious accents, and subtle featherweight effects, silks, fine cottons, blends.

Then there are the refined, luxury lines of coordinates made to last: it's the triumphant return of the camisole, bodices, teddies: all expressions of an eternal seduction.

spring 2011 fondness

Antidote

spring 2011 antidote

Happiness lies in non conformity. It's not a question of being good or reasonable, but the passion colours evoke, the explosions of prints, geometrical accents, Indian flowers, folk music kitsch, cartoon influences and the naive primitives that all mix create a wild patchwork of fashion.

A liberated celebration of all that everyday life is about. Amusing creativity, beachwear influences, mixes of ethnic and otherworld, ardour and femininity, the whole trend being based on strong lines.

spring 2011 antidote

Oasis

spring 2011 oasis

Pleasure gorged on the sun and freshness you'll want from Spring / Summer 2011.

On the one hand, the exotic: exuberant nature inspired by Gauguin, luxuriant foliage and cat-like beachwear motifs. On the other hand, the desert: a landscape of sand, primitive embroideries, Berber stripes, beautiful laces patinated by the years, ikats and metal accents.

For ample shapes such as caftans or djellabahs, dry knits, charming linens and cottons for the loungerie trend.

spring 2011 oasis

Sublime

spring 2011 sublime

The essence of a new luxury, ostentatious and astonishing with a hint of theatrical and urban roughness.

Haute couture meets high-tech. The scene is ostentatious, emphatically astonishing, and unique. In the corridors of this new theatricality surface effects, contrasts of opaque and transparency. Think transfer prints, graphics and bondage accents.

This is the essence of the new luxury, exceptional beauty ready to conquer the land of modernity.

spring 2011 sublime

Spring 2011 colour trends

Cloth / Fabric Colour Trends: Spring 2011

For their take on the colours for Spring 2011 clothing trends, cloth manufacturers Lenzing believe that we won't just be throwing off the darker colours of Fall 2010's trends but possibly even the mentality that has gone with recent financially tough times. Thus they see Spring / Summer 2011 colours as those which are "uplifting" and "soften, energise, and excite."

For the Spring / Summer 2011 season they've put forwards five key colour trends.

Celebration
Spring personified in a palette, the colors that make up this Spring 2011 color trend are mostly named after flowers: iris, viola, daffodil, poppy, and geranium. Unsurprisingly, should this color scheme take your fancy, this one should be worked into your Spring 2011 wardrobe as a part of your florals.

spring 2011 color celebration

Abstraction

I must confess to not liking this color palette in the leastl the turquoise clashes with the maroon to my eye, and how yellow green made it in there has left me stumped. This is one color trend for those who are loud and proud.

spring 2011 clothing colors

New Classic
According to Lenzing new and unexpected twists on classic elements, and naturally bright pigments, will develop into new classics. "Fabrics are classic, materials the same but all elements are somewhat twisted: fibers in unusual yarn-spinning and -counts, classical weave patterns in atypical materials clashed with a curious checkered design, an embroidery where you didn't expect it - nothing loud, just enough to make you startle."

summer 2011 colors

Aqueous
Sitting as our favourite Spring / Summer 2011 color trend 'aqueous' is also the most dangerous. An obvious color theme for Spring 2011 because of its nautical tones, such obviousness is also what is likely to see it lazily interpreted and applied - a danger for designers and labels looking to apply seasonal colors to their basics. To avoid such misapplication Lenzing believe it should be used with "floating" pieces where the fabric is the focus; an interpretation of the sheer clothing trend seems a strong contender if you intend to work this color theme through your wardrobe.

spring 2011 nautical colors

Perleage
Subtle colours, bar for the jet black, this is a color trend all about sheen; in effect, luxurious and radiant colors menat to match with your radiant Summer tan.

spring 2011 color

Lingerie / Swimwear Colour Trends: Spring 2011

Along with their take on the motifs that we'll be wearing in Spring 2011, Interfiliere have also released their interpretation of the season's colour trends. Their choice for the colours you should be picking for your swimwear and lingerie are an eclectic range of hues, and ones better suited to swimwear than they are to the boudoir.

spring 2011 color

Leather Colour Trends: Spring 2011

Le Cuir A Paris is another fashion trend based event, though different to Interfiliere in that it concentrates on leather and fur trends. Their picks for Spring / Summer 2011 colour trends are divided into five separate motifs:

Archaic Garden
"The range is whitened, stony, mineral or delicately fruity. The softness of faded, evanescent, light and serious colors."

spring 2011 color

Underwater Variation
"The range delves into the blue, and extends to an aqua green. Sea anemone pink is enhanced by inky blues and purples. Navy and brown darken the landscape. White soap bubbles refresh the saturated atmosphere."

underwater color

Tropical Dramaturgy
"The range is solar, incandescent, spicy and suffocating. Yellow singing at the top of its voice, uninhibited parrot green, the orange of Tibetan monks, the entire spectrum of reds from purple to salmon pink. Bushy brown, deep blue."

tropical color

Enchanted Picnic
"The range sets your teeth on edge. The neon colors are whitened. Jelly pink is transparent, the pastels are over-bright. The brights are on fire, tempered by a reasonable grey and a measured beige."

picnic color

Shadowy Shores
"The range is tinged with vegetal colors. Bathed in red, boat hull; dark navy, hut; strong green, canvas. Or lightened colors, bleached by the salt, faded by the sun and the sea."

beach color

Written: 8th July 2010 at 07.50

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choikeen
choikeen wrote on 20th July 2010 at 19.59:
HI,

It will help us tremendously if the forecast colour tone is labeled, for instance pantone colour code, for accurate reference.

Best regards,
choi keen
grace
grace wrote on 22nd August 2010 at 23.27:
thanks for the great info!
Beverleigh
Beverleigh wrote on 1st September 2010 at 04.46:
Great one stop for information, but I agree with Choikeen......we need pantone codes.
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Daniel P DykesWritten by Daniel P Dykes.

Traditionalist and futurist are two of the labels applied to Daniel, but he sees the two as being in perfect balance. With a keen eye on the future and his finger on the pulse he helps keep fashionisers everywhere ahead in the fashion stakes as Fashionising.com's lead fashion trend analyst. Believing that the late-2000s credit crisis will be ultimately good for fashion, Daniel sees a future for fashion where grounded in traditional values; where luxury fashion again comes to represent quality production as opposed to being solely label driven.

Currently based in Melbourne, Daniel is Fashionising.com's Editor in Chief and Chairman.

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