Trend: Tenderness

Before you - the updated format of the heading "Trend". Here, as before, we pay attention to trends that somehow affect our appearance every six months, but we reflect on them in the context of more significant trends - trends. In our first trend, "Tenderness", we understand why designers at once turned to romantic girlish images, from what epochs they drew inspiration and how they interpreted the motives of tenderness into their new collections.

Last season corsets, stockings, handcuffs and other fetish attributes flashed on the catwalks. But on the eve of spring, the mood of many designers has changed diametrically: now their collections are dominated by tenderness. “After the harshness of autumn, we wanted to create something kind and soft,” says Marc Jacobs about the Louis Vuitton spring-summer collection. Karl Lagerfeld also changed the darkness to light. If his last collection for Chanel was based on the idea of post-apocalypse, then the new one almost entirely consisted of pastel bows. Perhaps, fatigue from ostentatious sexuality and all-embracing gloom was the main reason why designers turned to romance and sentimentality. The general picture of events in the world (the Arab coup, rallies from Wall Street to Russia, the crisis in Greece and not only) ignores this trend. You should not be surprised: not all fashion figures dare to engage in dialogue with politics.

From left to right: Kate Moss in the filming of Tim Walker for American Vogue; showing Nicole Farhi SS 2012; a girl in a dress from the collection of Louis Vuitton SS 2012; filming the line of lingerie by The Cherry Blossom Girl blog author for the brand Etam; collection Asos SS 2012 in the lens of the author of the blog Park & Cube

Naturally, the elements of tenderness were always present in women's clothes: they are in Elizaveta Petrovna's dresses and in the bows of the author of The Cherry Blossom Girl blog Alix Bankur. Some features of this tendency are inherent in both the Belle Époque and the 1920s that followed it, with their floppers and Art Deco, and the postwar 1940 and 1950. In the second half of the last century, the houses of Halston and Madame Gres created flying dresses with pleated skirts to the floor, which in our time are quoted every season. Meanwhile, Christian Dior showed dresses of floral shades, and in Lanvin they were also decorated with famous embroideries from beads. In the 1990s, Calvin Klein led models to the catwalk in silk dresses with thin straps that reminded of nightgowns.

From left to right: advertising campaign Jil Sander SS 1996; ballerina Maya Plisetskaya; showing Chanel SS 2008 Haute Couture; advertising campaign Prada SS 2001; the Alexander McQueen FW 1999 show; advertising campaign Prada SS 2001; show Dolce & Gabbana SS 2008;

Tenderness in the trends of the current season

The main trends of past seasons like lace and transparent fabrics do not lose their relevance, but now they do not reflect sexuality, but romance and femininity. The same thing happens with the linen theme: these are no longer bondage with stockings, but light combinations. The picture is complemented by omnipresent pleating and appliqués and embroidery in the form of flowers.

Applique and embroidery

Creating a spring-summer collection, Christopher Kane talked about the image of a girl studying at school, but who did not like her. The source of inspiration is deceptive: along with metallized tops and skirts, the designer showed multi-layered dresses and organza coats with appliqués of assorted colors. Maria Grazia Kyuri and Pierre Paolo Piccholli from Valentino decorated dresses of transparent fabrics with lace appliqués and rose embroidery. Aquilano.Rimondi, Marchesa and Temperley London dresses are embroidered with sequins and silver threads. But on Vionnet dresses they stuck butterflies.

Linen

Recently, designers are increasingly talking about underwear. Tops have long been indistinguishable from the bustier, and shorts from the pants with high waist. This season Calvin Klein, Phylosophy and Ralph Lauren dresses are reminiscent of nightgowns, and tops Richard Nicoll and Nina Ricci look like combinations. In this sense, the Giles show is interesting: on it, Gertrude Hegelund came out in a beige dress with a feather print that resembles a bathrobe, and with a styling indicating that she had just woken up. A model that opened the show Maison Martin Margiela, as if wrapped in a silk sheet.

Lace and perforation

Lace now expresses not sexuality, as, for example, in the latest collection of the Russian brand Bohemique, but tenderness. The tone is set by white Erdem lace and pink Miu Miu, while the perforation is best obtained by Valentino. However, the masters of lace and perforation Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are not far behind them.

Pastel

Without seeking to find complex analogies, critics compared pastel bows from the new collections with sweets. Someone is unlikely to argue with the fact that the outfits of Louis Vuitton are reminiscent of lemon and mint candies, and the volume dresses of Alexander McQueen and Chado Ralp Rucci of natural colors are cakes. Yes, and opening bows 3.1 Phillip Lim can be compared with peach and blueberry cream.

Pleating

Pleating does not just lose positions, but also confidently gains points. More recently, the pleats sent to school uniforms, and now white pleated skirts are reminiscent of tennis players from the first half of the last century, and pleated dresses suggest the heritage of the houses of Halston and Madame Gres. Jil Stuart, Sonia Rykiel and Prada have pleated this season.

Transparent fabrics

Transparent fabrics are not new to anyone: they are now sewing both blouses and trousers. In the new season, preference is given to transparent fabrics not with a matte, but with an iridescent surface. So, along with traditional chiffon, designers, for example Christopher Kane, use brilliant organza with a high aluminum content: it is almost invisible, so multilayered things are made of it especially beautifully.

Tenderness in the images of the movie

Tenderness was characteristic both for the 1960s and for the beginning of the two thousandths; therefore, it is always reflected in films of different times and different times. The images of Marie Antoinette or the five virgins-suicides from the films of Coppola tell about eras with a difference of two centuries and clearly show that the tenderness of women's fashion does not disappear for centuries.

The heroine Scarlett Johansson in the film "The Good Woman", based on the play by Oscar Wilde's "Fan Lady Windermere", happens a whole series of love experiences, and she still wears dresses with floral prints and ruffles.

In the birdland drama "The Magic Country", which tells the story of the author of "Peter Pen" by James Barry, Kate Winslet plays the terminally ill mother of four sons, Sylvia Llewelyn Davis, who wears caps with flowers and snow-white dresses on the floor.

In the French Queen Marie-Antoinette's biopic, filmed by Sophia Coppola, actress Kirsten Dunst wears lush dresses of pastel shades with delicate floral prints and many ruches, typical of the 18th century.

The drama "Servant", which tells about one of the main social problems of America of the last century, is perfectly stylized: housewives struggling with their dark-skinned maidservants wear dresses with fluffy skirts and floral patterns as if for a copy, their antipode Celia Futol is dressed in lemon overalls.

In the romantic film “Diary of Memory”, Ellie Hamilton performed by Rachel McAdams is remembered with a headband with a flower and a blue dress with lace trimming, and Ryan Gosling also plays in the picture.

The atmospheric "Virgin Suicides", the directorial debut of Coppola, narrates about the unusual growing up of five sisters, who, although they commit suicide, wear romantic floral dresses.

Alice Ruban stylist and designer of the RUBAN brand

In our rhythm of life, women often do not have time to be women. Plus, sometimes fashion dictates completely unfeminine trends. Therefore, now many designers allow fashionable women to be light, romantic. In my opinion, fine lace, matte silk, caramel tones, white color. Frankly romantic outfits "in the forehead" are not close to me, without mixing, without adding something from myself, without interesting details. Wearing tender things is quite nice only if you feel comfortable in them. It seems to me that I do not really know how to wear very gentle outfits, I always want to add something, for example, a leather top.

Things that reflect the tendency of tenderness appear in the lookbooks of every other brand. In order not to get lost in the pastel-floral abundance, go in search of the most interesting in online shopping.