Stripe/Floral/Stripe/Floral....

Preen 

Resort 2013

Balmain 

Resort 2013

3.1 Philip Lim

Resort 2013

I have been lusting incessantly over the Resort 13 collections recently (oh and Men's, Couture and whatever else I can get my grubby mitts on...) and I have noticed a little micro trend peeking through a few collections...

There seems or be a kinky old fetish for layering stripes and florals... Or giant, luscious bursts of botanical wonderment carling out from stripes. Whether they be vertical or horizontal them damn roses want a piece of the pie. And my oh my it's a tasty pie.... Preen layering bold photographic like flowers over bold, heavy horizontal stripes which was a graphic move from their darker, more pixelated autumn/winter offerings... This is their third season in a row delving into the world of horticulture and it's various guises and I have loved every single incarnation. Spring/summer 12 was all oversized, pixelated graphic cubes teamed with florals and other myriad of prints and colours and with each collection their use of floral has only progressed.

Balmain and Philip Lim opted for a softer approach the graphic/bouquet look and kept their colour palettes soft and pastel based, and their florals had a watercolours feel to them, despite this they still made an impact layered with stripes, and giving off a crazy updated Baroque/Gianni Versace scarf print circa 1989 hybrid mood thingy... I loved it! Especially since this collection was so soft and gently, almost like a fashion whisper for Lim... Compared to the upcoming pop art/superhero offering for Pre Fall 12 that Lim was rocking. As for Balmain I was simply shocked.... It seems that the Pierre Balmain girl has grown up and opted for a more polished minimal(ish well Balmain minimal) approach... There was still denim, it was just structured and not peppered with studs, rips and shoulder pads.

All hail the stripe/floral bastard child hybrid thingy that Resort has going on, it's a match made in man repelling. I for one will be freaking the boy out with this...

All images courtesy of Style.com