Hello - Anne C here, and this week we have a post which is just a little different. Rather than writing about our own dressing style and favourite travels, I am writing about trends for the summer.
As a freelance PR and writer (albeit semi-retired now), I still have a couple of clients, one of whom is no stranger to our blog, and that is Liz Devine-Wright, owner of the gorgeous Simply Devine Hatshop in Tadcaster, between Leeds and York, where I'm often to be found updating their website, changing the window displays, writing press releases, organising photo-shoots, placing ads, updating social media and generally helping Liz. Regular readers of our blog will have seen us doing our own shoots in her shop while looking for inspiration for weddings we have attended.
Last year was a momentous one for Liz, who has been a retailer for the past 14 years, but to expand her business, she decided to design a new range of hats, hatinators and fascinators herself, and take them to the trade - basically cutting out the middle-man. She still runs her physical and online shop though, so still open to the public.
For months we worked on the launch, photographing, cataloguing, pricing and preparing for the launch last summer at Moda 2017 - one of the largest wholesale fashion buying events in the country.
Many years ago as a young reporter, I wanted to be a fashion writer, but fate took me in another direction - mainly into technology - but I always had a keen interest in clothes, as you know from our blog. So I was delighted to work on the Simply Devine stand at Moda, and took some time browsing around and looking at the colours and trends for spring/summer.
The good news is that colours are vibrant - there are still lots of lime greens, yellows, pinks and bright reds, (good news for me!) but next year will see a lot of black and white mono vibes as well as the every-popular navy (good news for Anne H!)
There are still lots of asymmetric shapes for casual clothing, and fluid poncho/capes in the knitwear section, but not so much of the cold shoulders from what I could see. Sports wear was mainly dark colours with bright contrasting edging in lime green or shocking pink. Styles haven't really changed too much, but tartan looks to be making a come-back, while feminine frills and flounces are very much still in vogue.
Formal wear tended to stay safe with lots of creams, vanillas, peaches, pale pinks and baby blue - this year adding a touch of lilac, while evening wear, surprisingly tended towards darker shades in jewel colours - jade, teal, magenta, burgundy, purple, cobalt blue, and of course, black.
Prom dresses are now big business. It seems our American cousins have imported yet another tradition over the pond. There were stunning creations featuring crinolines over shorts, bralet tops with long skirts, beautiful bejewelled gowns, and completely over-the-top princess dresses.
Jewellery trends were towards the metallic style for the coming year - mostly silver jewellery - both chunky and slim varieties rather than heavily coloured stones.
Of course we were there selling hats to boutiques and hat shop owners, and the colours are mainly in line with the colour palettes of summer-wear for next season too, though our showpiece feathered hatinator was rainbow colours and attracted the most attention (and fortunately some sales too!)
Browsing the show from a trade perspective was a completely new experience for me. The show follows fashion weeks from major couture designers, so they're the ones who largely determine what colours will be in vogue for the coming year.
Clearly hat colours have to mirror the colours which mothers of the brides and bridegrooms will be wearing during the year, and fortunately for Simply Devine, their sinemay and crin supplier (the stuff hats and fascinators are made from) can offer 30 different colours, so there will be something for everyone.
The names at the show were often brands I had never heard of, so it was interesting to see who buys them - from independent boutiques to specialist shops to department stores - wholesalers such as Ginger Toby to White Vanilla, Veromia to more well-known names such as James Lakeland, Isabella and John Charles. There are no links as these are mostly wholesalers so you need a login to view.
* With apologies that some of the catwalk photographs are a little blurred - obviously the models were not static and my camera isn't a professional one.
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