ART ATTACK - Painterly Brushstrokes

For spring 2008 fashion trends, prints are painterly with joyful expressive marks that suggest the luxuriant artist brushstrokes only found in hand painting. The ethereal coloured effects are of vibrant watercolour paints that are ripe with the botanical succulence of a cascading flower filled jardinière.
Watch for fabrics with super size cabbage roses, daisies, tea roses, orchids, poppies and exotic blooms. Part of this look is enhanced by tie dye watercolour effects where pattern fades into watercolour runs or colour bleeding.


Think of fabrics and accessories that have the appearance of a work-of-art canvas. These hand painted fabrics often have prints and textures that concentrate on flowers, blooms, buds and blossoms, but some prints are more abstract. Look out for mass market versions of hand painted effects.
These blooms have varying tactile characteristics, ranging from flower petals that appear paper-dry like a pastel, silken like a wet paint petal, or like a vibrant effusion of watercolour like tints. Others have the chalky sheerness of pressed flowers.





To add to the floral effect that is so fashionable, many dresses are trimmed with fabric roses, or flowers made of silk chiffon and attached as a corsage to a belt sash.
Right - Fabulously floral, Wallis Spring Summer 2008 Floral georgette dress with corsage £35, €55.
Blossoms with paper-thin petal texture, glossy satin smooth buds and tightly bunched sprigs of every horticultural bloom imaginable, tumble down fabrics in summer garden profusion.
Since foliage is a feature of many floral prints, keep a close eye on the colour green. Green is working well as a stand alone hue, so be sure to add some to your wardrobe soon, but of course only if you look great in it, rather than look ill. Blues right through to the green spectrum have gained ground as popular colour trends this past year. You are reading an original fashion article by Pauline Weston Thomas at www.fashion-era.com