Close Up: Women Print Magazine

The spring / summer of 2011 promises to be a corolla of multicoloured and exotic precious prints, under the sign of flowers and colour. Malicious and bucolic atmospheres, patterns of fruit, floral dresses finished with a burst of bloom in warm colours, through clouds and light voile. Icon flowers, obsession flowers, like those of D & G, inseparable from flounces and frills in a farmer-chic style, or like those of Blugirl and Caroline Charles, ethereal watercolours. The clothes of Sportmax, Custo, Carlos Miele are full of multicoloured butterflies among silk and organza inlays, while Julien Macdonald and Erdem choose floral patterns in pastel colours for their delicacy. Always sticking to the world of nature, Tracy Reese and Alberta Ferretti offer patterns plucked from botanical references with retro-inspired floral prints, while a new passion for the volatile micro-cosmos joins Peter Jensen's clothes in bright buzzing swarms of bees, and fabrics chosen by designers such as Carolina Herrera and Karen Walker are invaded by a flock of swallows and sparrows. Not to be missed are the vintage references, the bouquets of oriental inspiration, the vibrant tropical Citeart nouveau patterns. Minimal or explosive, stylized or stolen from a herbarium, floral prints are therefore an inevitable part of next summer. But if flower power is rampant, the fashion for next season also feels the call of the jungle, leaving the Citebe conquered by a myriad of animal and colonial patterns, to be worn like a second skin. Python-like prints are added to the traditional tiger and leopard motifs offered by designers such as Burberry Prorsum and Just Cavalli, and reworked by Thakoon and Byblos, as well as the unusual plumage of Bensoni and Gabriele Colangelo. The punk animal version are fun: studded with sequins for Vivienne Westwood, sprayed graffiti effects for Basso & Brooke. The monkeys of the street art of Miuccia Prada feature large among the proposals in all this fauna, as do the stylized tigers of Krizia, accompanied by bushes of bright tropical ferns by Emporio Armani. Alongside this strong tendency for nature is the world of art that offers the greatest sources of inspiration for the prints for next spring-summer, through pictorial and colour references that have gained a following. Straight from the '60s, the optical patterns so dear to Andy Warhol return. Between geometric shapes and optical effects, the prints play with materials to create a new vibration style. Graphic patterns are imposed like a kaleidoscope in the collections of Prada and Missoni, while emerging names such as Fashion East and Holly Fulton do not hesitate to mix oblique and geometric prints for a black and white, psychedelic effect. In the range of the youth brands, pop art is revealed as the indisputable star: icons of Marilyn Monroe for Betsey Johnson, 'sixties' dolls for Philosophy, irreverent illustrations inspired by the cartoon world of Zac Posen and Jeremy Scott make these clothes real with their own style message. images: more than 800 pages: 144 format: cm. 24,5 x 33