Cape Town - Flirty and feminine dresses and skirts in bold colours are back, and women will find themselves renewing their relationship with neon, eye-popping brights this spring and summer.
Designers Danielle Margaux, Habits and Lazuli led the colour revolution at a fashion event held in the city at the weekend.
Their designs came in crop-tops, jumpsuits, kimono-style dresses and boho gypsy skirts.
Another trend, as seen on the international runways, is wearing sneakers with dresses, skirts and suits, and presentations by local designers Adriaan Kuiters, Jody Paulsen and Leigh Schubert showed us how to get the trend just right.
Kuiters and Paulsen’s collection, inspired by the artistic patterns of David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and Sol Lewitt, presented an impressive sports-luxe collection of soft, neutral and bold prints paired with sneakers.
Schubert paired romantic floral dresses with palladium sneakers.
Industry experts and fashionistas converged on the V&A Waterfront’s Watershed and North Wharf for the annual Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Cape Town (MBFWCT).
Twenty-four of the country’s top designers unveiled their spring and summer 2016 collections with multiple shows over the three-day period.
The collections included a range of ready-to-wear pieces, sports wear and swimwear, as well as wedding couture.
Other noticeable trends included shoulder-baring silhouettes, and prints and patterns such as stripes, lace, floral and African prints on everything from dresses to jumpsuits.
Highlights included the David Tlale showcase held on Saturday morning at the Gallery MOMO in Buitengracht Street.
The fashion guru launched his bridal collection, combining sheer and see-through silhouettes in powder blue, yellow, multi-coloured animal print and metallic emerald-green for the adventurous bride.
“We are breaking all the rules of the traditional bride, but we are still keeping it chic and bold. People have been brainwashed to wear white dresses with your typical lace adorned with Swarovski crystals to look like Cinderella,” says Tlale.
“Launching bridal-wear was a natural progression as a brand. We are known for high-end couture and beautiful ready-to-wear pieces and it’s time we started embracing our brides because we have had big business on bridal wear that we never launched,” he adds.
Designer duo Malcolm Kluk and Christiaan Gabriel du Toit of Klûk CGDT opted out of the traditional runway show, instead staging an exhibition at CAAM Collective Gallery at the De Waterkant Fringe.
The exhibition, KLuKCGD Tartisan, held in collaboration with Levi’s, includes photographic prints by 10 of South Africa’s leading fashion photographers, among them: Trevor Stuurman, Sivan Miller, Neil Roberts and Simon Deiner.
It runs until Saturday.
“This is a huge denim season and although it is something we toy with often, we have never really experimented with the options.
“We also wanted to show our clothes in a different way, something more lasting that allows the client to get a longer impression of the garments,” says Kluk.
“We chose the creatives based on our experience with them.
“They are energetic and passionate about what they do, they have been proactive in their careers and this excited us.
“We also love the diversity in their work and personalities and it was important to let them shine,” he says.
Regarding the trends for the summer, Du Toit says that these are so diverse that they always take a southern hemisphere perspective on what is happening internationally.
“We take trends as a guide, not a bible. We know our customers and their lifestyle and their likes and dislikes and tailor the trends to suit them.
“We love fabric and sometimes that dictates what we make.”
Cape Argus