My latest contribution for the ACCESS magazine, The Hague based expat publication
They say fashion is a cultural barometer of our times. It gauges the zeitgeist of an epoch. In the 60-s, for example, the mini skirt and the flower power became the symbols of liberation, and in the 80-s it was all about “excess-orising” a la Dynasty – big hair, big shoulders, glitzy jewellery, only to be followed by Japanese minimalism and the deconstruction ushered in by the Antwerp six.
As society’s mirror, fashion reflects the cultural and social trends prevalent at a given time. So it is not surprising that when the financial crisis hit in 2008, the fashion world turned from bling and logo mania to sobriety and restraint.
Three years on and at the backdrop of sobriety a new trend is emerging: a flowering garden of earthly delights. Exotic blooms, prim roses, wildflowers and all sorts of floral prints ranging from huge motifs to stylized graphic patterns ruled the catwalks from New York to Paris, from London to Milan heralding the return of the pretty and the feminine. The trend has been so pervasive that even menswear has had a healthy injection of floral cheer.
