With unique installations that evocate visual and tactile suggestions, Milano Unica revealed the best fashion trend forecast for s/s 2020. Among surprisingly vivid colors and beautiful new texture, I was there to take a look to how will be the summer fashion of the next year.
Reference point for fashion designers and buyers, MILANO UNICA is one of the most important international trade fairs focused on fabrics and accessories. Flagship of the Made in Italy textile industry, this event collects the most creative productions and wants to enhance the dialogue between different productive realities.
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| Me at Milano Unica |
Visit Milano Unica means to make a dive into a fantastic world made of creativity and professionalism, but especially it’s like to have the occasion of taking a magic ball that shows the bright future of fashion. For every designer it’s a special moment, during which it’s very important understand what could be the most useful fabrics to use in the next collection, chosing colors and textures that better fits with our immagination. Following the very personal instict and sensitivity, a designer is able to choose among the thousands of new proposals showed by the textile companies, to win his special challenge and having success with his next clothing collection.
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| Textile panels that summerises the seasonal fashion trends at Milano Unica |
To support the designer’s choice, Milano Unica gives all the instruments to better understand what will be the future trends. The main inspirational theme of the season is explained through even more artistic installations and three thematical areas where are shown all the most important and suggestive fabric and accessoreis samples.
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| Buyers and fashion designers looking for the next trends of spring summer 2020 at Milano Unica |
The theme of this 28th edition is “Music Menu”, an experimental fusion between music and food that wants to stimulate the five senses transforming what we can hear, smell and taste into visual and tactile perceptions. This is not only a fusion, but a real intent to create a meltin’ pot between different cultures and moment of our history projecting this mix and match toward the future, imagining a not too far moment in which our cultures will peacefully live together.
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| “2070 Funky Tabbouleh” is one of the inspirative theme proposed by Milano Unica for spring summer 2020 fashion trends |
This main theme suggests a vision of future metropolis in which we can enjoy our life and leisure time. A mood of happiness, desire ef experimentation and of trying something new and different from us. That’s why the titles given to the three themes are:
“2050 Bon Bon Jazz”
“2070 Funky Tabbouleh”
“2080 Cous Cous Rap”
Are you ready to taste the next fashion trends?
2050 BON BON JAZZ
A cloud of white baloons creates a dreamy atmosphere that brings us into a far past of good memories following the music notes of the great masters of Jazz, but also to a sharp future made of clean elements and almost perfect elegance, apparently reassuring, but suffused with a rarefied nostalgia and a good dose of snobism.
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| “2050 Bon Bon Jazz” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
The inspiration come from the mythical Fifties and their good taste for luxury and refinery. The color palette is light, delicate and sweet as a candy, with many neutral shades like taupe, beige, nude and pale pink or peach just shimmered by smooth gold and silver touches. The colors are sophisticated, as for the cool mint green, the mauve and the maroon. Then there is the ethernal duo of black and white, that now has the aesthetic value of some architectural structure or of the first optical patterns.
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| “2050 Bon Bon Jazz” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 at Milano Unica |
The fabrics are sophisticated too, made without heavy works on textures, but preferring smooth surfaces and refine details. Among the traditional textiles, we see a return of the great classic like the Prince of Wales, the Gingham and the thin stripes for shirts. The prints are small and repetitive as geometrical patterns on plain backgrounds.
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| “2050 Bon Bon Jazz” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 at Milano Unica |
For the evening the lurex threads are combined to small sequins on tweed, to needle-tufted fabrics with a furry effect, to optical interweavings of nappa leather, to holographic “fil coupé” on organdie or to embroideries of maxi sequins that seem petals of romantic flowers.
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| “2050 Bon Bon Jazz” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 at Milano Unica |
Perfect icons of this trend could be Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant and Gene Kelly.
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| “2050 Bon Bon Jazz” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
2070 FUNKY TABBOULEH
The atmosphere is that funny of a party in some Disco Club of the Seventies and in fact the installation is made with giant lamps, colored lights and mirror balls and the music that welcomes the visitors is immersive and up-tempo. But the visual suggestions have the taste of rich Middle East‘s menu, flavourful and spicy, in an incredibly joyful mash-up of past and present, far and close cultures.
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| “2070 Funky Tabblouleh” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
The color palette is like a kaleidoscope, with colors divided into two parts, with warm shades of orange, saffron, burgundy and yellow mixed to cool shades of fuchsia, hot pink, violet, turquoise and shining black. Bu these tones rarely are solid, preferring to be matched into eclectic patterns and games of textures.
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| “2070 Funky Tabblouleh” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
Strong points of this theme is the funny and carefree mood expressed by the prints, that following the fast pace of the music are a crescendo of intersected stripes, magnetic ethnic prints made with acid colors, 70s tapestry-style geometric patterns, psychedelic patterns on satin, flowers printed on tweed.
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| “2070 Funky Tabblouleh” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
The work made on textures is no less important, with shining surfaces that reflect the light through lurex threads, varnish effects on coated fabrics, embroideries of round or enlongated multicolor sequins, long ostrich feathers that create a almost african-style three-dimensional decoration, holographic crunchy textures and birght vinyl effects.
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| “2070 Funky Tabblouleh” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
As you can imagine, on stage we could see the most wild beauties of Disco Music, like Diana Ross, Donna Summer, the Bee Gees and the Abba, all toghether dancing all night long.
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| “2070 Funky Tabblouleh” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
2080 COUS COUS RAP
Looking back to the origin of Rap Music, our memories return to the Eighties. We could almost hear the frentic rhythm of voices and electronic drum’s beats coming from the giant music boxes and the vintage radio. The set brings us back in some bad neighborhood of New York, with the buildings’ walls defaced by the first graffiti artists and colored barrels supporting the fabric samples.
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| “2080 Cous Cous Rap” inspirational theme area |
The colors are those of the chromatic wheel, with primary tones of Cyan, Magenta Red and Yellow that mixed together form all the other shades of the spectrum. All the shades are bright and sharp, incredibly rich and bold, emphasized by a large use of gold and few touches of dark shades used just to underline the prints or the textures.
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| “2080 Cous Cous Rap” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
The final effect given by all these colors is more accentuated by the flashy and almost disturbing impact of the prints, that are too exaggerated and very interesting. There are the animal prints tranformed by colors into optical patterns, multicolor stripes wixed with lettering prints, kaleidoscopic camouflage alternated to patterns made with the iconic characters of the 80s advertising campaign and logos everywhere.
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| “2080 Cous Cous Rap” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
This is the most eclectic, strange and excessive theme. A real hymn to opulence and exaggeration, in which everything is over. The textures are three-dimensional, with cords used as embroideries, colored jute ribbons interwined with hemp canvas, gold chains as accessories, big and small sequins of many shades of colors that practically cover completely the surface of the fabrics not only for the evening but especially for cotton plush destined to street-style hoodies and sweatshirts, plastic accessories, vinyl and eco-leather interwined to create chaotic textures and Moroccan-style embroideries.
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| “2080 Cous Cous Rap” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
In all this messy trend, the reference icons are not famous, but you can find them among the streets of NY.
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| “2080 Cous Cous Rap” inspirational theme of spring summer 2020 |
Is that all?
No, because a large part of the exhibition space was dedicated to sustainability, seen as real trend of the fashion’s future. Arrived at its third edition, the “Sustainability Project” by Milano Unica is becoming even more relevant in full respect of the widespread sensitivity for the care of our environment.
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| “Sustainability Project” area at Milano Unica |
Textile industry is demostrating a new approach to ecologic themes, through the use of renewable energetic sources, the reduction of chemical solvents and of the waste of water, the use of organic fibers. If green fashion has always had the reputation of something good but ugly, this was the confirm of the exact opposite, with beautiful and trendy fabrics often derived from recycle.
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| “Sustainability Project” fabric samples at Milano Unica |
