Floral Prints Stay Bold Despite The Monsoons
Even last year this time, high street fashion brands across the globe (Zara, H&M, Topshop, Forever 21), were using separates and dresses in ditsy floral prints on their window mannequins. Two seasons hence, the ditsy print seems to be a thing of the past. It has made way for big, bold, graphic florals, placement florals, and those with an Oriental influence inspired by the famed cherry blossom season in Japan.
Just how did the age of the ditsy print, with all its vintage splendor, come to an end? Veteran designer and winner of the Cosmopolitan Designer of The Year Award Anupama Dayal, known for her affinity towards floral prints, explains fashion’s current bend towards the big, bold florals. “This is about the woman trying to be more assertive. It takes a lot of courage and confidence to wear big florals. Besides, it defies the age-old rule of big prints making you look big. Big florals will never go out of style as flowers are the ultimate source of beauty and joy.”
Runway fashion seems to have had a lot to do with the sudden shift in the floral prints story. Influential designers such as Nachiket Barve (who did a collection on graphic Tulips), Aneeth Arora (big red poppies), Masaba (sunflowers), Gauri, and Nayanika, and Dolce and Gabbana (roses) have all celebrated the big florals.
Trending on Runway
Big Bold Floral Prints
Given that high street brands are perennially inspired by runway trends, it’s no surprise that the top trending print styles in dresses across ASOS, Zara, H&M, Flipkart, Myntra, and Koovs are placement floral prints and big florals.
Big florals have raked in big engagement numbers on social media as well. When actress Alia Bhat Instagrammed a picture of herself in a cobalt blue dress with statement florals, she received a mind-boggling 368,000 likes. That’s almost double the average number of likes any of her posts receives, making it one of the best performing posts on her Insta feed.
Other Bollywood fashion influencers such as Sonam Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Jacqueline Fernandes, and Deepika Padukone have also turned to big floral prints. And here’s an interesting trivia. Deepika Padukone’s appearance in a rose printed Dolce and Gabbana number got her almost 50k more likes than her racy cover shoot for men’s magazine Maxim. Now, that’s saying something!
Consumer Search Trends
The power of the placement print is undeniable as well. A google trends search shows how placements print pips ditsy prints when it comes to search volumes.
Own your Stripes
And now, about the other major print trend in women’s top wear. The classic French Breton stripes seem to be back in a big way. Casual T-shirts and shirts in Breton stripes are some of the top-ranking styles as per Stylumia. And it’s the classic monochrome stripes that are really popular.
Bollywood’s owning the stripes too – and not just the horizontal Breton, but also vertical stripes. The collage below shows you how striped separates are all the rage among the tinsel town ladies.
And if their popularity on Pinterest is anything to go by (anything between 4k to 26k pins for monochrome T-shirts), then the monochromatic classic Breton stripes will rule the “smart casuals” space in high street fashion in the coming seasons.
