Trendspotting: Summer’s end on 7th and 27th

This is the first post in a series.  I’m hoping that you, our students, will contribute!  Because FIT is such a style-conscious place, I’m starting a street-reporting spot, based on trends I see here on 27th.

You may have noticed that this blogger is enamoured of the summer dress.  (Sure the fall semester has begun, but here in NYC, it’s still plenty summery by the thermometer.)  The summer dress is a perfect form, much like the chocolate-chip cookie.  Simple, one piece, cool and comfy, but can be dressed up for fancy nights out, or businesslike for the office.   More pieces can be added, like jackets, sweaters, jewelry, bags, and suddenly it’s a sophisticated statement (or dessert; of course cookies are also portable, but so is a dress.)

In a Tobe Report image I posted earlier this season, the reporter offered up this simple tank dress with a fuller skirt.

The Tobe Report definitely called it here, but I argue that the hottest (as in most popular) form of this dress actually has a circular-draped knee-length “skating skirt”.  And the best best versions of these are in loud, sometimes neon colors in allover lace.  I saw two, in different colors, on new FIT students the first morning of classes.

Here’s the dress to which I refer:

 

The Old Navy version (from Elle Canada here) on the left is the mass market version.  The one on the right, from Lula magazine, is Christian Dior, and thus more detailed.

 

 

 

 

This is the dress I saw all over this summer.  The two main fabrications I observed were bright colors, as shown above and here:

This is from the classic “Do’s and Don’ts” layout from Glamour.  I think it looked freshest this way:  in a bright summer color, with lace over a solid base.  Doesn’t the one on the right here look great?

 

I’ve seen a few FIT students wearing this dress in the last few weeks.  Most recently, I caught up with Kathryn Nishimoto, Visual Presentation and Exhibition Design, on the street Friday, August 30th.  She looks fresh, cool, and ready for the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

Here, the Limited Express version (from an ad in Teen Vogue), also seen often on the street:

 

Another important fabrication trend will doubtless carry into the fall.  In this variation, this dress shows up in black and white prints in ethnic or graphic prints.

 

 

Teen Vogue highlighted an ethnic-feeling tie-dye print by Guess in this layout:

 

And back at FIT, I asked FIT student Hannah Rice, Interior Design, to pose in her geometric-patterned version:

 

 

 

 

I love the way the stripes were used in different directions here.

 

 

 

 

 

As I demonstrated at the beginning, this is a style/body that can be used as the base for lot of different styling options.

 

Here are several print and styling options seen in the runway magazine, Collezioni Close Up: Suit and Dress for Summer 2013.  Here’s one with a distinctive geometric print and a funky leather half-corset, for Herve Legere:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This romantic version displays the continuation of mixed prints in traditionally-feminine color combinations to present a graphic but “girly” image:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing the theme of funky use of black and white prints, take this version  by Les Copains: This print combines the ethnic influence and the black-and-white graphic stripe idea beautifully.

I think this is the trend we’ll be seeing most of in the fall.

 

 

 

 

 

So here’s reminding you all that PERS on the 6th floor is the spot in FIT’s library where the print forecasting materials and magazines from all over the world can be found.  So I will leave you with this image, from the September issue of Glamour, of style maven Olivia Palermo in some dynamite black and white print combinations:


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