Style Panel: India Echos for Trends
I was recently approached by Diksha Sabbarwal for a Style Q&A for Fashion and Lifestyle magazine India Echos For Trends.
Excerpt:
Q1. What is the latest print and fabric in fashion this season?
Tanya Fontes: Print: Statement stripes and florals; from beautiful jacquard florals with brazenly raw edges to the 70’s style broad stripes, these cool prints are back with a bang! Then there is the creative trend of ripping-up & warping prints, which can be anything from taking a text slogan and transforming it into an aesthetically pleasing graphic. This season is really all about intrepid patterns with design leaning towards a new curve.
Fabric: Apart from seasonal favourites like cotton, linen, denim, and silk; this season sees a refreshing addition in the form of lamé, tulle, and nylon for when the summer sun dips below the horizon.
Q2. How to pair up accessories to give a stylish look?
Tanya Fontes: The accessory becomes an essential ornament this season. 2017’s trends are about exploring your unabashed side with statement cuffs, opulent choker necklaces, flamboyant pendants, and intricately constructed corset belts. Yes, this season’s accessories are all about making your presence felt as you walk down the street.
Here the key is to make different elements work to create sense in chaos. E.g. do away with the mundane by picking two different earrings or sport a waist-slimming corset belt with a suit jacket or over your favourite shirt. Rope into your creative spirit, and go with your gut to enjoy fashion instead of sticking by the rules.
Q3. What are your Do’s and Don’ts for Fashion 2017?
Tanya Fontes: Fashion in its own dreamy spirit creates vivid pictures in every mind ~ images that are beautiful in their own way for every person but hardly in the same sense ~ i.e. everyone has an alternate thought of what looks great. But that doesn’t mean that fashion doesn’t come with its own list of do’s and don’ts for 2017. Use these guidelines to update your current style with a few trend-setting augmentations.
- Do: Reveal Some Skin
Let airy, translucent fabrics bring in subtle sexiness to your wardrobe this season. I am not referring to a provocative show of your bust, but instead, add some elusiveness to your show of skin by baring it at the shoulders or showing off a beautiful midriff.
Don’t: Show too much skin
- Do: Add some 70s style designs to your closet
For a generation that loves to stay out till the break of dawn, we are heralding the time for punk clothing and ostentatious disco fashion. Bold and vibrant graphics combined with delicate ruffles and elegant fabric combinations are definitely in this season. Complete your look with knee-high laced sandals.
Don’t: Go unreasonably extreme or extend the 70s to your hairstyle. While I love it when people take trends seriously, remember, that there is a thin line between bringing back the 70s style to the modern fashion environment and going back completely into the 70s era.
- Do: Go Casual with “Normcore”
For the uninitiated, “Normcore” simply means “dressing normal.” E.g. pairing a sweatshirt with a maxi skirt.
Don’t: Keep it way too casual
Q4. What are the colours for this season?
Tanya Fontes: Colours can bring in a sea of change to your look as well as your mood. And since it’s an inherently upbeat season, get ready to add some exuberance via fuchsia and heliotrope, a fresh and zesty green, a hint of scarlet, and a wink of sunshine yellow and sunset orange. Bring in colour contrasts and textural clashes as well ~ like pairing pea-green shorts with a sheer, candy-pink chiffon blouse. The idea is to ditch simple touches for a bolder show of colour this season.
Q5. How will fashion look like for you this season? What is your fashion forecast for the season?
Tanya Fontes: Fashion has never lost its pace. And at this time, trends seem to be sprinting from one to another way too quickly for us to keep up. In real terms, that means a return to the age of intricately designed Dresses, Sportswear, and Street-Chic Utilitarianism.
- Exuberant and Elegant but with a Touch of Austerity ~ a summer dress trimmed with delicate lace equals easy dressing. Keep it casual by going out in jeans flaunting a bralette worn under a gossamer-light sheer dress, or slant towards your playfully brazen soul and style out with a flash of metallic!
- Sports Luxe ~ made sexy with crystal-embellished tracksuit tops, anoraks, and drawstring-pulled nylons to skin-skimming leggings.
- The Utilitarian Trend ~ army and safari-inspired prints continue to march on this season.
Trend alert: Exaggeration is another trend that is picking momentum this season. Make way for shoulder detailing, cinched waists, and oversized shirts.
Q6. What do you plan to opt for this season and what would you ditch this season in terms of fashion?
Tanya Fontes: Your shoulders are once more the erogenous zone to reveal; although you can choose how much you would want to bear. Pick a deep neckline with fulsome ruffles or choose asymmetric straps to expose those clavicles or flaunt an itsy-bitsy bandeau top ~ the freedom in choosing your own fashion strategy is an integral part of the mood in fashion right now.
Ditch: Mom Jeans and barely-there Shredded Jeans, the Drop Crotch, Stark-white Sneakers, and All-Black Nothing ensembles.
I hope you have enjoyed reading these style notes as much as I did writing them. 🙂