A look back at 2007 and a glimpse into 2008

Floral prints, feathers, crayola colors, modernist impressions, gleam, beams, and legs - those are the words that come to mind when one thinks about this year in fashion. 2007 has been a very diverse and exciting year marking the anniversaries of the world’s most notorious designers (Velentino Garavani and Ralph Lauren among others), the new age of designer technologies (LG’s Prada phone, Giorgio Armani’s Samsung phone and virtual online store and plenty more innovative ideas), the birth of fashion show extravaganza (Fendi on the great wall of China, Diesel Holographic runway show) and plenty of new exciting designers to be reckoned with just to name a few things. This post proposes to take a step back and look at trends that have marked this years and will, without any doubt, mark the next.

Floral prints
With floral prints showing up on almost every runway, the usual black, white and beige urban uniforms are going to look like a Michael Kors basic on a Galliano show next Spring. From Gucci to Valentino, New York to London, whether they came in single tight demure bouquets or big extravagant pastel blooms, you could have sworn you were on a futuristic resort in global-warming re-invented Tahiti.

Roberto Cavalli

Valentino

Ralph Lauren


Legs
With Dolce and Gabbana going to art school, we didn’t expect to see much sex appeal on the runways this year – save the Victoria’s Secret fashion show and the kick-off of the Spice Girls reunion tour. But Posh Spice will have plenty of choice to show off her legs since Derek Lam, McQueen and a dozen other designers have made legs the new cleavage, thereby moving the erogenous zone south. Only a few will have the legs to pull off some of the styles but if you are among that lucky group why deny men of the pleasure of observation and women of the propensity to envy.

Hermes

Emporio Armani

Alexander McQueen


Modern Art
Imagine an art gallery when paintings come to life at night in the form of cocktail and pouf-shaped party dresses, ball gowns and chiffons. Dolce and Gabbana obviously comes to mind as the most art-oriented show this year but Prada, Marni, Lacroix and many others featured modern-art inspired pieces on their runways.

Christian Lacroix

Miu Miu

Dolce & Gabbana


Low beams
Shine that blinds is so last season. But not to worry, you will still be seeing some gleam but more subtle than the full-frontal metallics we have witnessed this year. Bright shining pieces are hard to match and therefore less wearable. Introducing low beams from Marni, Prada, Calvin Klein and even Micheal Kors, because true fashion is, ultimately, about wearability.

Michael Kors

Prada


Crayola colors
Rumor has it the little black dress sitting in your closet will have to wait a little while longer because this spring the hippest girls in town will be in the most vibrant colors of the rainbow and the brighter and shorter the better. Feel free to pair that with plain or embroidered black leggings to dramatize the contrast.

Versace

Jil Sander