 Stahl’s colourful Fashion Colour Forecast for Autumn/Winter 2010/2011 should brighten these two seasons, especially for those living in the Northern Hemisphere, where, once the leaves have fallen, it can be a pretty colourless time of the year. The forecast comes in two forms, an eye-catching poster and a more detailed booklet.
The poster features a grey-eyed blonde dressed in a bright yellow scarf and shoes, red blouse and purple leggings that will brighten any office. Below the photograph is the usual series of colour swatches, grouped under six colour groups.
These colour groups are repeated in the Colour Forecast booklet, which leads with Alan Kay’s quotation “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”. The theme that follows says that morphing the past and the present, the old and the new, leads to a creative and innovative future that is help by new technology. This idea is demonstrated throughout the booklet which uses a fascinating and extensive selection of photographs to illustrate the thoughts behind each chapter.
This year the colour selection covers the whole spectrum. Almost any colour in the rainbow can be found somewhere, even it is toned down a little for winter. There are even one or two metallic shades to brighten playful fashions.
Starting with a look back at history, “Nobility Code” is the first group and within it “Strictly Class” are the colours that give the past a modern look of class and quality. It’s not necessarily old world, an era of the grand house; dashing modern fashions need these colours too if they are to be really striking. The colours? Here is everything from rubber through sable, the colours of red wine and grapes, classic pale and dark blues and pineneedle green.
Playfulness, evening glamour, and cool modern fashion, call the group “Experimental Existentialism” to give an air of excitement, Stahl has a range of metallic colours to suite the occasion. “Metallic Rhapsody” is a world of its own. Metallics glint under the lights of an autumn or winter evening, always catching the eye. Here are the metallic effects played out on silver, gold, copper browns, gunmetals and the almost black colours of the night, leading from antique shimmer to theatrical flashes of light that unhesitatingly brighten up the shades.
“Asian Fascination” immediately calls to mind the colours and magic of the Far East. Think of the peoples of Asia, the way they dress, the way they move and the way they perform and dance. The effects are hypnotic as ancient and modern cross and recross in both landscape and townscape. This is reflected in the “Hypnotic Shadow Play” group. Here pale khaki, pale dusky pinks and frosty greys interplay with dark colours, ebony, puce, jet black and red earth.
These days, no colour palette seems complete without references to history, without harking back to the natural dyes of medieval times and earlier. Grand living was one aspect but inthis sector of Stahl’s colour grouping, “Smash of Styles” uses “History Brights” to create a reminders of days of early exploration, travel and settlement.
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