SPRING '06 TREND REPORT
Spring 2006
We cleaned up a lot, non?” said a black-clad and still reed-thin Karl Lagerfeld, backstage after his spring 2006 Fendi show – a parade of fresh whites and icy pales punched up with judicious doses of serious color like tomato red and cobalt blue. Silhouettes were lovely and ladylike, but lighter in feel and unencumbered by extraneous detail. "It’s a new beginning,” the designer added. "I have the feeling I started all over.”
However, the breath of fresh air that whooshed through Lagerfeld’s Milan show didn’t stop there. In fact, that minimalist gust put in more than a few overtime hours throughout so many of the spring collections. Having taken maximalism to the nth degree, designers of every ilk felt the need to jettison the over-the-top embellishment that had become such an expected part of fashion.
It is doubly significant that a showman like Lagerfeld sought more in less. The same rings true for John Galliano and his collection for Christian Dior which was whisper-quiet in its theme of shades of nude, sometimes layered with black lace. Even the hair and makeup at Dior was light, loose and natural. It couldn’t have been a further cry from Galliano’s theme-driven extravaganzas of seasons past which tended to transform the leggy beauties on the runway into fantastical and often unrecognizable creatures.
It’s important to note that the new strain of minimalism that fashion-lovers will see in stores for spring is not a straightforward redux of the strict lines of the Nineties. This time around, it’s a touch less rigid,
a touch less severe. Designers haven’t sacrificed their sense of femininity to straight-legged black suits and man-tailored white shirts. Best of all, that lack of severity makes for a welcome point of difference so that the designers who all felt a similar sense of restraint for the spring season could turn out collections that don’t look as if they were created on a minimalist assembly line. For instance, there is a wide aesthetic expanse between the fluid, color-flecked dresses and softly architectural belted jackets at Donna Karan and the plain, but pretty shirtdresses and the simple pinafores at Prada. There is really a refreshed sense of the new everywhere you turn, no matter how one’s tastes run: simply luxurious at J. Mendel, graphically stark at Jil Sander, freshly-scrubbed at Ralph Lauren; elegantly uptown at Oscar de la Renta and Valentino; and gorgeously avant-garde at Balenciaga.
The movement of pared-down design is also afoot in the world of men’s wear. The same rules apply; simple does not equal boring. Instead, designers played with graphic, but subtly patterned shirts and ties, as Christopher Bailey did at Burberry and showed with a classic khaki-colored suit. And there is an austere beauty in, for instance, the simplicity of Jil Sander’s slim, slate grey cotton suit paired up with a white shirt and a skinny striped tie. But again, as it did for women’s designers, the clean trend registered in various places on the aesthetic spectrum. For the man who might prefer a more relaxed silhouette, John Ray’s palette of pales at Gucci cut into soft trousers and textured sweaters which oozed ease could be the perfect fit.
In the end, fashion functions much like any creative venture such as architecture or art. It’s inevitable that the time will come to break with old ideas and to seek the new. Donna Karan best sums up the mood of the season. "I wanted to look forward and not back to all of the retro stuff that had been going on,” she says. "And spring is such an easy time to clear the palette.”
