COOL KID TIKI

In fashion, trends always come a full circle. For example the tropical trend started in the 1950's when people were intrigued by the Polynesian tiki culture and started building restaurants and clubs inspired by it. Eventually fashion also took inspiration, and throughout the years the trend evolved, becoming mod and boho, and finding its current form in many of todays resort collections. But, many times designers don't want to take this route, and only be inspired by one trend from back in the day. They want to make everything as current and interesting as possible, so its no surprise that tiki has also been an inspiration to a lot of street style and sports fashion lately.

So, today designers are mixing these two elements and making them work as a whole new trend. Who would've thought that something so bright, beachy, and even sometimes tacky could work in the cool kid streetwear environment. These tropical colorways and patterns like florals and tie dye, bring  newness to not only resort collections but also ready to wear collections. Designers like Moncler are bringing this trend to even ski inspired wear, which shows well how two completely different climates and their trends can come together as one. 

This trend is fairly new, and its been shown mostly in the most recent collections on the runway, so who knows if within the next few seasons it'll evolve to something even more extreme or interesting. Surely, designers know how to break the usual fashion "rules" and mix trends how they want to, and that's what after all, makes fashion interesting.

STITCHED UP

Cut-outs in clothing are definitely not anything new. For example ripped jeans have been a huge trend for a long time now, and cut-outs in places like hips, under the chest and even right under the butt have been the more recent cut-out trends we've been seeing around the streets and on the runway. Designers are always finding new ways to make clothing more interesting, and another huge trend similar to the do it yourself aesthetic the cut out trend has, has also been reconstructed clothing, and making something new out of something old. So what happens when you add these two trends together, so you in a way cut out something, but then reconstruct it back together. You get a whole new, fun trend, that looks something like this.

Back in 1994, Gianni Versace created his iconic safety pin dress, and who knows if this is what may have been an inspiration for many designers creating modern fashion with this technique. Or in the other hand it might be the punk movement back in the day, and its DIY aesthetic, which is very relevant in our lives today too. But whether it was safety pins, yarn or other interesting materials that are used to stitch up the clothing back together, I'm sure this trend will develop even further within the next few seasons. We've already seen the lace up trend being extremely popular, sometimes even going as far as pants or skirts being laced up all the way from bottom to the top, so its just a matter of time when more designers will take this route and even take this trend to the next level. Designers like Christopher Kane, MISBHV and Y/Project are definitely leading the way.