The sheerness of spring

Already a week into October, the 2008 fall/winter collections have long stuffed boutiques and have taken prime spots in wardrobes. Now, they begin to invade the streets. But in no time at all, these, too, will be shed and the clothes from the only recently-concluded week’s worth of shows will emerge to take prominence. Spring’s sureness will dictate newer new trends.

These, in the spring/summer 2008 men’s collections, revolve mainly around six things: color, pattern, transparency, sheen, measure and detailing.

The inspiration for the vibrant and lively juxtapositions of jewel, shocking and fluorescent hues was the artist David Hockney with his uncanny and idiosyncratic combinations. The fashion shows used color not merely as accents in terms of shoes, belts, scarves and ties but also as centers of interest, jarring points of contrast, or instigations of rebellion. The colors were acidic, scintillating, hot, precious, and dominant.

Orange flamed brilliantly in the fluorescents of Alessandro Dell’Aqua’s shirt, Moschino’s shoes, and one of Marc Jacob’s ties in his Marc by Marc Jacobs collection. Fendi brought it out in a jacket. Green tingled in mint on the suit by Dsquared and flared its acidic hue in a zippered top by Burberry Prorsum. Duckie Brown’s coat was in canary yellow. Dries Van Noten unabashedly brandished fuchsia and Dsquared bright purple, while Van Noten also paraded imperial purple through a judo top, while also employing crisp oranges, indigo, neon yellow, apple green, violet, and tangerine. It is with this color that Gucci sent down its hot trousers, while lime green was also spotted in its pants, bags, and jackets. Purple announced itself in Roberto Cavalli’s henley.

Besides these, blue also filled a particular place as the color of summer: the unavoidable color of water and leisure. Its relaxing hues lounged in the collections of Calvin Klein, Giorgio Armani, Kris Van Assche and Louis Vuitton, where it appeared in shirts, belts, ties, pants, hats and carryalls, and sandals.

All of these colors were, of course, not only found in bold, separate pieces, but also in fantastic and sophisticated patterns, particularly in polka dots, florals and paisley. At one point or another, sheer and transparent fabrics lay the shade onto other trends. It also invaded a significant amount of runway airtime, finding form in shirts, veils, vests, jackets, mackintoshes and even over shoes; made from mousseline, knitted cotton, organza, nylon, neoprene and plastic; sewn over other fabrics, or laid simply on skin.

Transparency was evident in Alessandro Dell’Aqua’s work as sewn over shirt fabric and as a jacket at Jil Sander’s, with layers of translucent nylon. Also as the main material of shirts as sent down by Costume National. Transparent fabric appeared in smoked plastic shirts by Burberry Prorsum and Cerruti. Sheerness also manifested itself in loose-weave knits done by Neil Barrett.

As brave colors battled it out and transparent and sheer fabrics disappeared into each other, the war of the metallics raged on. See for yourself the victor.

Gold in a Bottega Veneta suit, a Burberry Prorsum trench in neoprene and coat in gold-foil snakeskin. Silver in a Calvin Klein Collection jacket, a shirt by Jean Paul Gaultier, and a nylon silver trench by Salvatore Ferragamo. Finally, decide if it may finally be this metal’s reign on the runway: copper in Lanvin’s shoes, Roberto Cavalli’s blouson, and in a jacket by Salvatore Ferragamo.

Also ubiquitous in the collections were articles of clothing in reduced or fitted measure, such as short shorts by Balenciaga, Lanvin and Marni; shrunken jackets by Junya Watanabe; and mid-forearm length jackets from Comme des Garçons and Thom Browne.

Other features from the collections were generous detailing of zippers, studs, and pockets by D&G, its older brother Dolce and Gabbana, Neil Barrett, Roberto Cavalli and Yohji Yamamoto.

With such a wide variety of trends to choose from, wardrobes have a lot to look forward to in the next season, which is bright with fresh courage. So before you completely forget yourself in this season’s fall-winter collection, remember that, certainly, more is yet to come.