Trend-volution: Florals

Fashion like the flower, blooms and fades season to season. Yet each sartorial bud holds the seeds to future catwalk bouquets. The posy of the past continues to inspire the forsythia of the future. More veraciously than stating “fashion repeats itself,” fashion breeds its own posterity.

Take the floral print. At the dawn of the 15th century, only the flakey crust of the European upper class could afford the Ottoman price tag of Asian floral-flecked silk velvets and damasks. By the 16th Century, even the middle class coveted the floral textile of choice, block-printed Chintzes. But alas, stumped by the Indian calico cloth, the British mills banned the entry of expensive chintzes for nearly a century. By 1759, the British loom mastered the print, and paired with the boom of the Industrial Revolution, chintzey chintzes began pollinating wardrobes with wild abandon.

Jackie Kennedy in Marimekko, Inaugural Tour

However, up to the 1960’s, even the whimsical floral print continued to be contrived into a relatively restrictive costume for upper-class women. Around 1960 brands like Marimekko and Lily Pulitzer captured the organic freedom of the flower in simple shift dresses. Once modeled by Jackie Kennedy, both blossomed as icons of lifestyle fashion.

Lily Pulitzer Retrospective

Marimekko Spring/Summer 2012

2012 has seen the growth of florals once again, but with some fresh variations on the classic motif:

one-jcrew, two-send the trend, three-mary katrantzou

All-over: this time around the florals are applied head to toe matching suits or endless dresses. No inch is spared the decadence.

Bold: no dainty ditzy prints, the florals are electric and oversized, statements unto themselves

Digital: Many a floral print has been shared in futuristic flourish, not as a hand-blocked illustration, but an actual photograph printed onto the fabric.

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