Summer is coming to an end, students are heading back to school, work is ramping up again and that tan that you worked so hard on over summer is starting to fade. For some of us, it’s also a time of moving out with the old and in with the new and, for me at least, that means a wardrobe overhaul. Clearing out the spring/summer dresses and re-filling my wardrobe with warmer, deeper toned clothing makes me feel as though I’m putting one era to bed and starting a new one.
It has always intrigued me as to why we choose to fill our wardrobes with certain colours and trends, and what influences the decisions of designers and consumers alike. Months have now passed since the runways displayed the trends and colours for Autumn/Winter 2018, and in fact, we’ve just started a whole new season of fashion week in New York, showcasing Spring/Summer 2019. I thought that now might be a good time to run through the top trends that we are seeing for Autumn/Winter 2018, as a little refresher, as well as how these colours and trends make it into our wardrobes.
What many might not know about me is that I have had a long-standing affair with fashion, the designing of clothing lines and understanding the influences behind each collection. Last year, my husband had enrolled me in an Intensive Design Course at the London College of Fashion, and I hope to share some of the things I learnt here. So before we kick off with the colours for Autumn/Winter 2018, let’s look at the influences driving the decisions of the designers behind the clothing lines.
Colours make up such a huge part of any collection, with the choice of colours that you are wearing subconsciously being a reflection of our current mood and state of mind. Bright colours of yellow and orange to make us feel happy, blues and aquamarines for fighting stress, charcoals, greens and browns for those more serious occasions. Pastels shades of peach and pink to look more welcoming. There is now so much to choose from, yet selecting colours is not the first part of the designing process.
Once the collection has been designed, tweaked and perfected, it is only then that the designers start to put together their mood boards – a collage of images, textiles, fabrics and colours that they want their upcoming collection to embody. So I guess that’s the first step in the colour selection process – what do the designers want us to feel from their collection? What mood are they trying to set? Ever wonder why Millennial Pink and Generation Yellow were all that you would see in store windows for a while? Read more about that here and here but in summary, the shades represent where we are at this point in time.
A huge influence of this is Pantone’s colour of the year, and the subsequent colour palettes that they release alongside it. Think about Millenial Pink again, it’s no coincidence that Pantone started with Rose Quartz as one half of their colour of the year for 2016, which was then followed by Pale Dogwood in 2017.
When considering its next colour of the year, Pantone looks across a multitude of industries such as fashion, film, travel, art and technology to come up with a colour that they feel represents the year we are in. Think of 2002’s colour of the year, True Red. It was a colour symbolising power, passion and patriotism following the 9/11 terror attacks. This year, Pantone selected Ultra Violet, a blue-based cosmic purple symbolising intrigue and complexity. Again, you probably saw this in store windows over the course of the summer, with names such as Gucci, Balenciaga, Mango and Zara all making use of the electric shade.
But this is an article on what the colours are for Autumn/Winter 2018, and aside from Pantone and mood boards, seasons do play another big role in what colours are chosen. Whilst spring and summer were the times for pastel hues of greens, lavenders and pinks, as well as bright yellows and and tomato reds, autumn/winter is a time for more subdued and warm tones for those colder climates.
So, without further ado, here are the shades of Autumn/Winter 2018. You’ll likely already find some of these in your wardrobe. This was indeed the case for me with this suit I recently bought from Zara – my own take on Autumn/Winter 2018’s quetzal green.
Animal Print
Red Pear and Valiant Poppy
70’s Browns
Queztal Green
Neutrals
What are your favourite colours for Autumn/Winter 2018? Leave your favourites or top purchases in the comments below! xxx
