As fashion weeks draw to a close, the industry looks forward to a season of black fabrics and high necklines
A bright, sunny summer will be followed by a dark and gloomy winter. That's the long-range forecast from the fashion industry, as a month of catwalk shows filled with the designer collections for this autumn draws to a close.
The pastel shades and perky full-skirted shapes currently on shopfloors will seem a distant memory by September, when the new collections go on sale.
"This has been a season defined by a mood rather than a trend – a darker mood, which has shaped the majority of the shows," says Anne-Marie Curtis, fashion director of Elle. "When Valentino, usually the prettiest and lightest of labels, opens with sharp black leather, that tells you something."
Justin O'Shea, buying director of the online retailer MyTheresa, agrees. "What Miuccia [Prada] called the 'celebration of prettiness' in fashion is over for now. The pastels are gone and there's lots of black, bottle-green, aubergine. Velvet and brocade and leather – rich fabrics that are not overly feminine – are going to take over when autumn comes."
Pistachio, apricot and lemon, the ice-cream parlour colours of summer 2012, are set to be replaced by bluebottle shades of black, green, purple and cobalt.
The abrupt change is not, however, seen as likely to confuse customers. As Paula Reed, style director of Grazia, puts it: "It's hard to wear layered black in the summertime. And our reader will enjoy her broderie anglaise moment all the more for knowing that it won't last."
High necklines are a headline trend for next season, seen at Chanel and Stella McCartney – and in the second collection by Kanye West, who might be expected to prefer a more overtly sexy silhouette. "The clothes we have seen are very unfleshy, even for winter," notes Alexandra Shulman, editor of British Vogue. "It is austere, almost puritanical, with high necklines. We have seen more coats worn over trousers, than dresses."
Ruth Runberg, buying director of Browns Boutique, agrees that "high necks, long sleeves and floor-length hemlines are everywhere".
Some in the industry see a parallel with the newly covered-up silhouette, and the expansion of fashion into markets with a more modest aesthetic. "The high collars, the coats worn over trousers – I think you can see evidence of fashion looking at other cultures and finding beauty there," says O'Shea.
Curtis agrees that "the Asian market is having a real impact. We have seen a shift since Asia has overtaken Russia as the important new market. It was interesting to see how covered-up Dior was this season. I thought that was a strong statement about who their customer is."
Shulman has a different interpretation. "I don't think it is a new customer dictating this aesthetic," she says. "Growth is coming from lots of different countries and cultures, including South America. It seems to me that designers in Europe are making clothes for a new European age of austerity."
The darker note struck by this season's catwalks reflect the fact that "it's bleak out there," says Shulman. "But it's complicated, because the fabrics and the techniques are expensive, so it is still a lavish aesthetic rather than a belt-tightening one."
The resurgent London fashion scene has had repercussions on the catwalks of Milan and Paris. "London designers have led the maximalist revival over the last few seasons with increasingly strong, vivid prints," says Runberg, "and this season, we've seen the collections take the next logical step from two-dimensional prints to three-dimensional embellishments like pearls, sequins, rhinestones and embroidery. The effect is almost baroque in some cases."
Pointing at Prada and Vuitton as evidence of the trend, O'Shea agrees that "there is a regal feeling, with lots of embellishment."
British fashion design has also been instrumental in steering Paris fashion week. A quartet of British women – Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen, Phoebe Philo at Céline, Clare Waight Keller at Chloé and Stella McCartney – produced hit collections this week.
"There's a healthy tension you can explore as a British designer working in Paris," said Waight Keller before her Chloé show, "between the very correct sensibility of the French and the more relaxed view of style that Brits have. When you mix the two you get an easy sophistication that I love."
With the autumn catwalk season finished, the industry is now looking ahead to 2013. "Many collections played it a bit too safe this season," laments Runberg. "I am hoping the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute exhibit on the radical, boundary-breaking work of Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada [opening in May] will inspire a bit more risk-taking next season."