Hawaiian shirts had a bit of a moment last summer. They coincided with a summer soundtrack from bands like Best Coast and The Drums with their lashings of musical 60s-Cali-Beach Boys-surfer vibes. Oversized Hawaiian shirts with their billowy armholes for optimum armpit ventilation and easy to throw on nature seemed to perfectly compliment that mini moment. My own shirt which I bought when I was traveling across the states to reinvigorate my traveling wardrobe which was getting both repetitive and a little bit smelly would probably have stayed tucked away this Summer if I hadn't seen Central St Martin's graduate Maarten Van Der Horst's collection and been inspired to wear tropical prints in a slightly different way.
This time sees the tropical prints in a smarter setting. Well cut trousers and matchy-matchy suits reminiscent of the starched pyjama sets 'proper' people (ie, not me) own seem a more mature alternative and the larger botanic prints- Birds of Paradise and large palm leaves pick up where Stella McCartney, Prada and House of Holland left off with their fruity, leafy Spring collections. The collection has that grown up air and comes off as remarkably 'simple' despite the huge prints. And despite the collection being a Winter one, the clothes themselves seem to be adaptable for summer. Associating Hawaiian prints with warm July breezes and the feeling of sunshine on your skin is perfectly justified in my books, and imagining wearing a pair of tropical slacks with leathery sandals and a bikini top on a beach is the epitome is excitement on a february day.
7 comments:
The belted one looks surprisingly chic! Not sure I'd go for it though!
www.dressingmissdolly.co.uk
i laud the attempt to invigorate and stylize a sort of inherently socially kitsch concept, but agreed, not a look i could personally sport (i may be bias; since retiring, my father exclusively wears tropical print shirts in the summer, buffet style).
http://dallianceswithsuitsandskirts.blogspot.com/
well cute, they look like pyjamas! kind of reminds me of being in cambodia last year - pjs as daywear is pretty normal out there. i saw one groovy lady wearing a hawaiian printed set not dissimilar to the top right outfit. wish i'd asked her where she bought it from now...
Oh but it's very similar to Dior isn't it? Well, the prints.
It kind of frustrates me how so many designers seem to have given up designing for the seasons. I mean, it's all very well slipping a minidress or two into a collection-people still go out in winter-but there are absolutely no circumstances imaginable where people would wear Hawaiian print suits in the middle of December! (Unless they're from the Southern hemisphere-but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be a Saint Martin's graduate's prime market...)
I have to say, Just Another Londoner, while I agree with you about the collections having slightly less differentiation between Summer and Winter, I see no reason why you wouldn't wear Hawaiian prints in winter? One of the things I liked about van der Horst's collection was that he took an element we would classically associate with hot weather and turned it into something that could make sense for cooler weather too in the form of suits. I think it's also down to the styling of the show, perhaps if there has been a lot of layering as it the standard for Autumn/Winter shows it would have been instantly identifiable as a winter collection. It's an interesting point you've raised though, you've got me thinking.
jesus mother of pearl I am obsessed as I have been squirreling away Hawaiian print recently...
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