MILANO UNICA – ANTEPRIMA TENDENZE FILATI E MATERIALI

If you work in a creative office you can’t miss twice a year Milano Unica, a fair in Milan that shows an anticipation on trends, materials and textile for the next seasons offering an interesting overview of what industry will produce and what will, little by little, become the hero on catwalks and in our wardrobe.

Every season, the appointment with Milano Unica is for me a great occasion of “self-confidence” on trends to come and at the same time it is a good platform of meetings with suppliers in order to choose the materials that best suit the collections I am working on.

A must see is the Swarovski stand that, for this occasion, introduces the new stone cuts, the new colors and applications, made possible by the constant research and trend observation that the Austrian Company makes every season – an important point of reference for all fashion and accessories brands.

Here are the new colors: Crystal Iridescent green e Tangerine.

For the new cuts, Swarovski continues the declination of stone shapes with the launch of “Fancy Stone Cushion” and ….. finally the Bead Skull, a bead emphasizing the “Memento Mori” trend: a master piece of crystal design, exclusive and unique. Always talking exclusivity, Swarovski continues with stones designed by important designers, after Putman, Versace, it is is now the turn of Maison Martin Margiela with a series of stones inspired by natural stalactites.

What to say about trends in general? For sure for S/S 2015 we will still be focusing about handicraft and hand made and at the same time about functionality and basics.

Talking handicraft, the focus is on all those faraway cultures like Indios and African populations and their special materials and colors. For basic trends, the pale colors and the natural materials will be important with a glance to the city panorama and its graffiti, landscape and sport chic style. Eco sustainability theme becomes more and more a focus and I believe important to mention the project of 19 companies that publicly committed to innovate materials, production processes and supply chain management with the aim to improve the environmental and social conditions in the fashion industry. (www.Sustainability-lab.net)

Among these 19 companies, a special mention goes to Astarte, a company from Mirandola ( one of the towns strongly hurt by the earthquake of May 2012)always ahead in supplying materials coming from all over the world to be used in jewelry and accessories. They do not keep goods in stock but through their production network, they can provide customers with goods for the entire work process, from raw materials, which can be modified according to specific design specifications, to the final packaged product. www.astarteaccessori.it