fashion

Take a more simplified approach to your Fall floral designs, as seen here with these stylized Art Nouveau inspired motifs. One delicately detailed flower is repeated throughout the design in a simple, yet compact, layout, which keeps the eyes moving but doesn’t overwhelm the viewer. We actually see it as a subset of a larger Fall 2015 trend rooted in Interior Design, which we’ll explore further a little later on in our review of Fall collections.

Wes Gordon, Rachel Comey, Issa all via Style.com
Background print © Aaryn West

Here’s a trend that is guaranteed to put you in a groovy mood. Graphic, eye-popping prints in stark shades of black and white evoke a complex mixture of playful and serious, and can often be a challenge to create; the trick is to find the perfect combination of scale and level of detail. Such dazzling optical prints were spotted in various Fall 2015 collections, with examples coming from Trina Turk, Protagonist, and Custo Barcelona in addition to the designers credited below.

Emilio Pucci, Zero + Maria Cornejo, Christian Dior all via Style.com
Background print © Aaryn West

With each Fall season we inevitably see a resurgence of plaid parading down the catwalk, often within the clean and crisp domain of menswear. This season we are seeing a more feminine, perhaps even free spirited, approach to plaid. Plaids are being juxtaposed against whimsical paisleys, sweetly naive florals, and in the case of Stella Jean’s brilliant collection, ornately detailed folkloric illustrations of animals. Think about inserting a does of grunge into your next bohemain collection, by way of the simple punky plaid.

Red Valentino, Stella Jean, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi all via Style.com
Background print © Aaryn West

Textured prints take a turn for the lighter side in this nature-driven trend. Some examples resemble cracked ice, some look more like striations found in marble, others even take on the swirling formations found in radar images of weather systems. What they all have in common are their intricate, organic details and simple, limited color palette.

The example we used in our background was made with watercolor paints, but manipulating photographs of tree bark or experimenting with paints designed for a crackle effect would be great places to start when you’re ready to make your own Cracked Ice print.

Jonathan Simkhai, J. Mendel, Tory Burch all via Style.com
Background print © Aaryn West

Baby, it’s cold outside. And several fashion designers must be predicting next Fall will be no different, because the colorful ski-style Fair Isle sweater is making a come back. Chevron stripes combined with clean, geometric elements in bright, youthful color combinations make this a great trend to start with when designing your A/W 2016 print collection.

Vivienne Westwood Red Label, Stella Jean, Sibling all via Style.com
Background print © Aaryn West