TREND ALERT: TROPICAL HEATWAVE

Right, i'm back in the habit with researching trends for Spring/Summer 2013 to create a print collection for Indigo in Paris and i've fallen in love Stella McCartney's resort 2012 collection. I think it's fresh and fun with the mirrored tropical prints, colourful strips and also the blazers and trousers works really well with the mix of print, creating a smart but playful collection. So this made me look at other designers which have had a tropical influence in their collections, for example... Givenchy, Pedro Lourenço, Suno, Peter Pilotto and Salvatore Ferragamo.

After looking at these designers and their collections i decided to go the Kew Gardens in london for some tropical inspiration for my print collection. I took as many pictures as possible and what a great place to take photos. The palm house was the most relevant to my topic and It was a giant room with cover crowded palms trees in with the odd tropical flowers poking through the leaves. Looking back on the photos i took i now feel i have a good family of tropical photos as a starting point for my collection. I've also looked a beaches and sunsets for a primary influence to get the colours of the ocean blue's, hot oranges and bright yellows as a base for my collection

I'v now started to play in my sketchbook with painting for the photos and starting to get a feel of the prints and colours. After that i'll scan the paintings into photoshop and play with the placement and repeat pattern to see what works and what doesn't.

I've put together a research map for an idea of what i want to create.

I want this collection to be bright, colourful and playful but only time will tell...