Moving away from smudged eyeliner, the trend of smudging can now be seen on apparel too. Having varied effects ‘smudged’ as a trend is defined as ikat effects, ink saturation, rippled and wavy, distorted imagery, filtered prints, twisted and warped. The technique is simple and also accidental – think of drawing straight lines and the hand suddenly shakes, leaving behind something imperfect. Traditionally looked upon as an error, the error today is made to look appealing on the S/S’14 runways by many designers.
While Fendi gave the trend a futuristic look, playing only with earthy tones, Mathew Williamson and Antoni and Alison went for the distorted stretched look with a bright palette, and House of Holland played with both, a smudged and saturated look. The key is to keep the silhouettes mostly simple since the print itself makes quite a statement, favourable for pants, dresses, jackets, and loose flowy tops.
