Every summer witnesses silhouettes which are true to the essence of that particular year, and following the same ritual S/S ’17 will also witness an array of bodywear trends which will be staple items to all collections. Spring/Summer 2017 seems to be the hottest summer ever, not only in terms of climate conditions but also for the scorching silhouettes it brings with it. As the warmth from the runway translate to the streets, exporters get inspired and are ready to offer the season’s hottest trends. In the midst of summer sampling, exporters are making sure that they don’t miss the opportunity and offer their buyers the best of the summer trends at the perfect time. The following five styles are sure to go ahead and are guaranteed to make rounds in the industry.
Slip Dress
A slip dress is a woman’s dress that closely resembles an under-slip. It is traditionally cut on the bias, with spaghetti straps. Slip dresses first became widely worn in the last decade of the 20th century, as part of the underwear-as-outerwear trend, when they were made from layered chiffon, polyester satins and charmeuse, and often trimmed with lace. Karthik Gupta, Partner, Aadi International, agrees with the observation and shares that they are also working with chiffons and satins for their maxi slip dresses for the coming season. The slip dress looked like an undergarment, but was intended to be seen, and through the use of lace and sheer elements, offer glimpses of the body beneath. With increased upsurge of bralets, boy shorts and bandeau tops, the trend of underwear-as-outerwear has taken its full form again and the reason why the emergence of slip dresses is not a big surprise to the industry.
Bandeau Blouse
Whether worn over clothes, under layers or on their own bandeau tops put minimalistic yet revealing femininity on display. Worn underneath for a subtle hint of skin, worn with overalls with plunging necklines or under menswear-inspired suits, leather jackets and sheer tops, bandeaus in varied varieties of bows, frills, sparkles and sequins are expected to be seen in the S/S ’16 collections. Bandeau bralets are all set to replace the cropped top for the midriff bearing aficionados, and are following the bright colour-pop palette and super white textures.
For some exporters, orders have yet to come in, whereas, some others like Sangeeta Jain, Proprietor, Kuttu International, have already witnessed the bandeau obsession. “Concentrating on the European and US markets, we have developed a few samples in crochet, which we are hopeful that will do well,” shared Sangeeta. Starting from the sporty bandeau to an elaborately embroidered one, bandeaus were seen on the runways in all variations. Accentuating individuality, designers like Dsquared2 and Ermanno Servino created tops in leather and jute, whereas Michael Kors and Ports 1961 added additional straps to bandeaus to give way to myriad of options that can take on this trend from season to season.
Skirt Suit
Coming from the runways to the streets, suit skirts have proven to be a trend to try. Whistles’s collection conceded denim adaptations of wide front buttoned skirts with denim jacket, whereas, Ralph Lauren presented formal looking pencil skirt with beige blouse and cover-up. Suit-Skirt were officially named the ‘must have’ for the summer amongst designers. For the Spring/Summer season, skirts were seen in forefront and appeared as the best match for the blazers and jackets. Adding to the freshness is plenty of surface interesting applications, courtesy of lightweight pinstripes, seersucker and blurred plaids that were seen in many collections.
Paired with a matching jacket, the skirt has re-asserted its power as a component of the suit. Anant Agarwal, MD, Vaibhav International shared, “Coco Chanel made a signature of jacket and skirt suits constructed from soft tweeds and these suits suggest the kind of self-possession that has no aggression but an element of constant, low-keyed personal bodily delight. But for exporters to take up suit-skirt as a single commodity, it is definitely going to take time.” Already seen to be ruling the fashion front – suit-skirts in various fabrics and designs are predicted to continue impressing the world by an assortment of ground-breaking collections in the upcoming seasons as well.
Victorian Cuffs
One of my favourite trends this year is the throwback to the Victorian-inspired cuffs but with a modern twist. Translated mostly in whites and blacks, delicate laces can be seen being overlapped and ruffled as cuffs. Ramnik Singh Uppal, Director, RGC Industries Limited, talking about Victorian cuffs said, “We are incorporating loose cuffs in our shirts for women. These cuffs are not very flared, neither are they too tight. These cuffs are fuller than a straight cuff and narrower than a butterfly bell cuff.” The flipside to the freewheeling psychedelia trend is that it has filtered into Victoriana styles also. Often dismissed as priggish, the six decades of Queen Victoria’s reign were also an aesthetically rich time. And now that time has entered today’s collections in form of lace layered cuffs.
The Cut-out Shoulder
While off-the-shoulder exposure is continuing for the better, collections brought the trend back to forefront with discreet cut-out styles. Corroborating with the runway trend, the industry is also showing inclination towards working with laser cut on a large extent. Since last 3-4 seasons, all-over cut-work and laser-cut patters were in vogue but after the over-exhaustive use of this technique, now only certain parts are going through the cut-out effect, shoulder being one major area. Labels like Tibi, Rag & Bone, and Theory, are offering tonnes of pretty off-shoulder pieces, with varied cut-out effects.
