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Pre-Fall 17 Trends: Floral Dance

Sandra Halliday
12 December 2016

Pre-fall is one of the most important collections of the year, partly because it hangs around for such a long time. It drops in-store during the summer and is still (hopefully) generating sales just ahead of Christmas.

So it’s no surprise that pre-fall can come across as a bit of an all-things-to-all people offer as heavy coats jostle for rail space with sunshine-ready dresses, and as boots share shelf space with sandals.

But there’s one strand running through the season for pre-fall 17 that pulls it all neatly together and that’s florals. The print and pattern story most usually associated with spring and summer is blossoming all over for pre-fall and perhaps most surprisingly as a decorative feature on those cool climate coats, boots and knits that we wouldn’t usually expect to covered in petals and leaves.

Of course, they also crop up in more obvious places, as a favourite pattern motif for warm weather dresses and blouses. No surprise there. What's perhaps a bit more unexpected is how the 70s influence isn’t just still hanging in there but is actually riding high and syncs very well with the new florals.

The 70s boho style is a bit too Stevie Nicks for my liking and comes complete with frills, tiers, asymmetry. To add to the look, it has more than its fair share of rock chick headwear, plus heavy boots and shoes (to ensure the style is more trashy than girly), plus 70s-style slouchy or flared trousers.

This being pre-fall rather than spring/summer, there’s also an intensity to the prints that nods to a coming autumn rather than looking ahead to spring. These florals come printed (or stitched) on dark or richly toned grounds and are densely rather than lightly scattered.

Sounds a bit too much? Well there are alternatives. One is the power flower - a single statement motif on a knit or a bag. Another is the floral section (maybe a pocket) set against contrasting plains.

It allows those of us who don’t want to channel our inner Stevie Nicks to buy into the trend too. But whether it’s a floral pocket or a an explosion of allover floral tiers, simply underline pre-fall’s floral obsession.

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