Strip to Stripes

As a buyer for Valentina a North Shore/Chicago boutique, one of the perks of my job is being able to sneak peek the approaching trends for future seasons.  It has also been a habit of mine to keep track of the upcoming trends by reading Vogue, WWD, W, InStyle, and any fashion websites bookmarked on my mac. I have to say that in my opinion stripes seem to join the Spring 2011 trend just as much as florals.  However, the stripes that are hitting the scene are not the nautical stripes you except.  These seasonal stripes are a horse of another color.  Bold color.  Bright stripes are appearing everywhere and are shown vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and even sporadically...taking color-blocking to a whole new level.  Although I can't reveal the rainbow bright stripes used by lines like ella moss, Spendid, or Joie until they put up the Spring collection on their sites...here are a few examples of these lovely lines in Spring 2011 runway shows:

Prada - S/S RTW 2011

Marc by Marc Jacobs - S/S RTW 2011

 

Jill Sander {S/S 2011 RTW} Fendi

{great example of a stripe/color-block combo} 

Prabal Gurung  S/S 2011