Printed matter

After the claustrophobic feel brought on by the somber palette and high-necked fashion of the recent fall/winter collections, we now have the threat of vertigo to deal with in the upcoming spring/summer offerings. Besides the onslaught of at-least-three-inch platform heels and wedges, the new season’s obsession with graphic prints is sure to put us in a dizzy tizzy.

Illustrative prints are cropping up on tops, pants, jackets, jewelry, and bags but the most inspiring canvas for these manifestations of fashionable art is footwear. You might be loathe to wear a coat that’s entirely dotted in indecipherable shapes, but the same prints on round-toe pumps present an entirely different style theory: big prints do come better in smaller packages.

The usual paisley print and geometric structures are never absent, but printed matter is also headlining in other forms. Fruits and vegetables are undergoing a stylish upheaval, with Gucci glorifying the inexplicable artichoke, putting it on sky-high stilettos and printed fabric bags. The floral print is also having its heyday, and not just because it’s spring season, with each designer coming up with an interpretation: dainty and fit for the prairie for Anna Sui, big and blooming for Sergio Rossi, in bouquets or as singular buds, abstracted, or in pop-art fashion.

Hotwind, the newest purveyor of stylish footwear in Manila, is also fostering floral fancy – buds in every size brighten up wedge and platform heels. Another local haunt, Schu, takes the bloom burst a step further; a must from their new collection is a denim round-toe shoe with a floral platform heel and charming button appliqués.

Even the basic pump is seeking a graphic makeover. Michael Kors is reviving the rather grotty camouflage print with a full fabric pump in military musts. Nine West is heating up with jungle fever, with animal prints on women execs’ favored footwear, as well as on platforms and ballerina flats.

In a season that schizophrenically combines sedate trends such as all-white wear and nautical stripes with fiercer looks such as rocker, punk, and pirate, graphic prints fit in to provide the requisite texture, splashes of color, and the guarantee that we are moving into beach season. Let’s just hope we read the fine – and large – print right.

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