Print, Pattern & Colour Trend Forecasting Report Autumn Winter 2015/2016
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Introduction With the release of Star Wars Episode 7 in December 2015, fashion will take its inspiration from a technology fuelled, futuristic imagination. In the Autumn 2014 catwalk shows we have already seen fashion take very obvious inspiration from the upcoming film release, as both the Rodarte and Preen collections showcased large-scale print designs of iconic Star Wars characters and scenes. There will be three key concepts within the idea of a futuristic imagination, these are; Hyper Nature, Lost Transmission and Luminous. There will also be an additional, more subtle and grounded trend as a backlash against this technological overstep, this trend is Desaturated Watercolour. Desaturated Watercolour brings the idea of the artisan’s skills through hand painted illustration and free form blending. Over the next 12 pages these four trend messages will be explored in more detail through the micro trends within each. These micro trends work together to give a full overview of the print and pattern designs, which will inform the Autumn Winter 2015/16 collections.
Rodarte catwalk show, Autumn 2014
Hyper Nature
Luminous
Desaturated Watercolour
Lost Transmission Preen catwalk show, Autumn 2014
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Hyper Nature The natural world is sent into technological hyper-speed as all aspects of subtlety are disregarded creating an extreme, abstract and unrealistic environment. Colours are flamboyant and exaggerated by highly saturated hues and the fusion of clashing colours.
Surreal landscapes
Over-saturated and over-worked landscapes create mystical new worlds with clashing colour schemes.
Colossal nature
Over scaled blooms and larger than life photographic images create extraordinary placement designs.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Hyper Nature The natural world is sent into technological hyper-speed as all aspects of subtlety are disregarded creating an extreme, abstract and unrealistic environment. Colours are flamboyant and exaggerated by highly saturated hues and the fusion of clashing colours.
Mirrored worlds
Parallel images and rotated sections create a remarkable formula for regulated and systematic print designs.
Digital florals
Flower patterns are digitally warped through purposely pixelated images, filters and layering.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Hyper Nature The natural world is sent into technological hyper-speed as all aspects of subtlety are disregarded creating an extreme, abstract and unrealistic environment. Colours are flamboyant and exaggerated by highly saturated hues and the fusion of clashing colours.
Smudge brushed florals
Photoshop effects are used to create a smudged, distorted and blurred image aesthetic.
Hyper nature colour palette
Brilliant and bold synthetic tones feature in this colour palette through matt surfaces or taken to new lustrous levels through high gloss finishes. Pops of neon colours give an energetic and charged option.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Lost Transmission Digital despair as images and information dissolve into obscure patterns. A contrasting palette of darker saturated colours and greyscale shades dominate this trend.
Digital drip
Colours and detail melt into each other and drip in vertical lines.
Image extrusion
Colour is dragged and drawn across photographic images.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Lost Tranmission Digital despair as images and information dissolve into obscure patterns. A contrasting palette of darker saturated colours and greyscale shades dominate this trend.
Lost Transmission colour palette
Black, grey and white matt finishes are the core colours in this palette. Intermittent pops of darker artificial shades filtering through creating ambiguous colour combinations.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Luminous Digitally rendered light is used to create glowing stripes and illuminated geometric forms. The colour palette is more dreamlike and hazy than Hyper Nature, reining in the saturated hues with more subtle tones.
Light blur
Unfocused photographic prints create subtly illuminated geometric all over patterns.
Reflective water
Holographic prints are updated with the idea of watery light reflections, creating abstract interweaving waves.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Luminous Digitally rendered light is used to create glowing stripes and illuminated geometric forms. The colour palette is more dreamlike and hazy than Hyper nature reining in the saturated hues with more subtle tones.
Luminous colour palette
Sugary synthetic tones create a unique lustre of light gleaming against more mystical darker shades of blue.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Desaturated Watercolours A move forward from the hand drawn mark making trend, desaturated watercolour aspires to a simple and clear message of delicate, feminine beauty. A restrained, soft and minimal colour palette is used to create a faded translucent aesthetic.
Transparent florals
Fine florals overlap and dissolve into each other creating a sense of softness and fragility.
Painterly brush marks
Hand painted brush strokes are used to create soft sweeps and tinted overlays.
AW 15/16 Print & Pattern Trend: Desaturated Watercolours A move forward from the hand drawn mark making trend, desaturated watercolour aspires to a simple and clear message of delicate, feminine beauty. A restrained, soft and minimal colour palette is used to create a faded translucent aesthetic.
Bleach out
Blends of colour bleed and mix with bleached out areas to create abstract designs.
Desaturated watercolour colour palette
Pastel tones and light, powdery tints contrast against darker shades of midnight and royal blue to create a wintery, natural-based nuance with a modern direction.
AW 15/16 Print and Pattern Layout Trends For Autumn Winter 2015/16, the key trends for placement of the print designs will inherently continue with the bombastic themes of the print trends for this season. Therefore bold forms, unusual placements and exaggerated scales of the print and pattern designs will be seen. Print placements will be mirrored on either side of the garment and will grow inwards spreading towards the centre front from the side seams. The prints will be set against block colour backgrounds to really emphasise and enhance the colours within the prints and also highlight the contours of the wearer’s waist and the silhouette of the body. We will also see a large proportion of prints and patterns being blocked and patch worked together in randomly interlinking designs creating loud statement prints. Hyper Nature also contains the macro trend colossal nature which shows large-scale placement prints covering the whole of the garment. This will also be a placement trend we will see throughout Autumn Winter 2015/16.
Mirror imaging with the majority of detail placed at the side seams
Blocked and patchwork patterns as all over prints
AW 15/16 Main Colour Trend For Autumn Winter 2015/16, the main colour trend will show a varied and rich palette of earthy, raw colours sitting alongside unexpected pinks and near neutral pastels. Shades of red, brown and green create warmth, while Violet and Navy add a strange and ambiguous atmosphere. Summery pink tones infuse winter with luminosity and freshness. Soft pinks blend with everything, especially black, giving the monochrome trend an invigorating update. Neutral and icy tints of white, grey, cream and blue create a cooling juxtaposition against the richer hues.
Artwork by Maries Rime showing how the colours can combine.
Colour palette names from left to right
Neutral and Icy: Butter, winter white, oyster grey, sky blue, glaucous, mauve, dusty pink and pale pink. Rich and warm: Salmon pink, scarlet, garment, burgundy, aubergine, navy, pine, forest, moss, coffee and mushroom.
Black and pink, the new monochrome.