As many of us know, September is the biggest month in fashion. Fashion magazines are bringing out their biggest issues, and designers have brought out their big cold-weather collections.
So we thought we’d look at the fashion write-ups and wrap up the major autumn 2013 fashion trends. Then we found high street equivalents that you might love. So read on to learn what we’ll all be wearing in the next five months.
Grunge/Punk
Autumn 2013 fashion keeps looking back, and many designers are obsessed with the 1990s these days.
Grunge and punk styles are everywhere, including deconstructed styles at Martin Margiela and Vivienne Westwood. Orla Kiely showed a lot of cute schoolgirl dresses that 1990’s Courtney Love would wear. Vinyl also makes an appearace at shows by Mugler, Burberry Prorsum, Jonathan Saunders and Versace.
Zara is usually known for its grown-up fashion-forward tailoring, but this year it is breaking things up with a large collection of grunge prints like these.
Luxe materials and prints
Fashion is reacting against the long-term international trend for austerity by becoming unapologetically luxe.
Giles had embroidered dresses with high necklines, whilst Oscar de la Renta featured baroque-style symetrical flower prints and brightly-coloured, embroidered ballgowns.
Dolce & Gabbana more than nodded to royalty with lace coats, chandelier earrings and decorative crowns. Finally, fur was everywhere. Topshop Unique’s show included a fur-topped blouse, and fur coats were seen at Preen, Tom Ford, PPQ, Mulberry and many others.
Topshop has a great range of luxury styles without the luxury price, including this lace kimono.
Masculine
There were masculine touches throughout the runways, with military stylings, masculine tailoring and sporty outfits showing up.
Christopher Kane in particular had lots of military touches: there was a coat dress with a fur collar and camoflague print, and sheer coats with militaristic collars and shoulders. In the masculine tailoring corner, Michael Kors featured oversized double-breasted coats, and Dior showed a particularly lovely black suit with a fitted jacked and large trousers. Sports-luxe was the name of the game at JW Anderson and at Lacoste, as models wore luxury trainers and sportswear-inspired dresses.
All the masculine trends are ticked off in this coat from Next: it’s got sporty quilting, a military collar and tailoring.
Traditional materials and prints
Many designers found comfort in the traditional materials, prints and shapes that still look great.
Tommy Hilfiger was very fond of houndstooth this season, as his coats and hats were covered in the print. The New New Look was featured at new designer Raf Simons’s show, where the nipped-in waists and flaired circle skirts of the 1940s have been brought up to date. Romantic gothic styling featured at Erdem and Meadham Kirchhoff, amongst others. The biggest traditional trend this year, however, was tartan. Tartan was everywhere, including Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Saint Laurent, because it fits with so many other trends this year, including grunge/punk, masculine and luxe materials.
John Lewis has this tartan top from Lauren by Ralph Lauren. It mixes a few of autmn’s trends but mostly stands out for its traditional tartan print.
Fun prints
Autumn and winter is usually a pretty sombre time for fashion, but this year, designers brought out a range of eye-catching, fun prints.
The red leopard print jumper and pencil skirt combo at DKNY has been featured in most magazines’ fashion week coverage. Tom Ford showed gigantic clashing star prints on his clothes, and House of Holland dresses featured retro-referencing but thoroughly modern prints. Burberry Prorsum has everyone drooling over the heavily featured heart prints at that show, and Louis Vuitton is backing the luxury daytime pajama look with its brightly printed silk tops and trousers.
Because DKNY’s red leopard print has been such a big hit, you can expect to see red leopard print all over the high street. Warehouse has already got in on the trend with this jumper.
Unexpected colours
Designers are also fighting against the often dreary traditional autumn/winter colour palette this year with colours associated more with spring and summer.
Kate Spade played with brights in her typical style, featuring a bright citrus skirt and top. Richard Nicoll showed jumpers and skirts in a reddish orange, and Jasper Conran had monochromatic outfits in a bright pink. A purple slightly brighter than those shades traditionally associated with autumn was everywhere on Gucci’s runway. Meanwhile, soft pastels – and in particular a blush pink – seemed to be the biggest colour of the season, being shown at Mulberry, Roksanda Ilincic, Miu Miu and Jonathan Saunders, amongst many others.
Asos features a lot of autumn pastels this year, but this soft pink midi-length skirt is really on trend.
Sheer materials
Perhaps most unexpected this year is fashion’s turn to sheer materials as the temperature drops.
Erdem showed digital print dresses with sheer overlays, including sheer sleeves and high necklines. Christopher Kane had a dress in an interesting material that is made opaque by layering up sheer panels. Sheer netting made a few appearances, too. John Rocha’s sheer netting dress was fitted at the waist and flaired out, whilst Julian MacDonald’s sheer netting dress hds more of a 90s-style slim line and a halter neck.
Luckily, all the designers had gorgeous coats amongst their collections, so you can wear sheer outfits without freezing.
House of Fraser has this Phase Eight dress, which includes a sheer neckline and overlay, bringing the flattering shape and print up to date.
Many of the collections this year actually combine several trends in one piece or in one outfit, so feel free to mix and match as much as you like. As ever with fashion, the point is to enjoy putting together outfits and feeling great when you get dressed.
Now that we know the establishment’s trends for autumn 2013 fashion, what are your top fashion trends for autumn and winter this year?
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