Fashion Leather to Get More Colorful Through 2012
Clariant, the Swiss specialty chemical maker, is predicting that leather used by fashion designers will take a markedly colorful turn in 2011 and 2012.
Clariant has developed a “Global Color Card” and leather trend booklet to help inspire and guide designers working on future seasons.
Clariant is predicting Spring/Summer 2012 leather fashions will be inspired by a variety of themes, including sun-soaked exotic and ethnic influences; nostalgia for vintage luxe materials such as crackled leather, tarnished metal and worn pearls; surfer-tinged tropical prints and sporty, technical fabrics, such as neoprene; and minimalism inspired by modern architecture and pared-down silhouettes.
In contrast with the washed-out and faded hues of past seasons, color will make a comeback, Clariant opines. “The new colors are clearer and fresher,” the company said in a statement. “Bold and intense colors reflecting energy and dynamism stand side-by-side with light colors, inspired by the world of health and beauty. Natural colors are the neutralizing element between intense and delicate shades.”
That means designers are expected to take a shine to colors pulled straight from nature. At the top of the spectrum will be bold hues pulled from flowers, vegetation, fruits, birds and vegetables—specifically, orange and pink, tomato red, cobalt blue, turquoise, apple green, and sun yellow. Also at play will be light, barely there colors that denote modernity and purity, Clariant said. “Everything looks immaculate, clean, pure. Alongside these fragile-looking pastel shades, one sees white in a multiplicity of shades: Flour, milk, sugar or chalk serve as models.” Rounding out the color palette will be neutrals inspired by nature’s more-subtle tones. “Multi-layered colors of stone, the indefinable gray of algae, the blue of the sky or the grey of the clouds” will fill in the area between monochromatic whites and super-saturated hues.—Erin Barajas
