2021 Spring Runway Trends & Color Forecast

This month we’ve been poring over the 2021 Spring Ready-to-Wear collections looking for inspiration and trends to share. This year was particularly interesting given the collections were all created in the early days of the pandemic and there were few traditional runway shows. Designers responded creatively in both their collections and how they presented them to the press and public. As always, we created a Pinterest board highlighting the biggest 2021 spring runway trends we spotted. (Be sure to give us a follow over there if you haven’t already!)

So, what trends are we seeing?

Florals were everywhere! Romantic and feminine, florals this season have room to breathe in both large and small scales. Whether modern or traditional, they all exude a grounding feeling. Other top trends spotted were breezy and romantic looks, often with a hint of nostalgia. Silhouettes generally are still quite oversized, but this season saw more volume with fabric flowing, pleating, and ruffling. There is also a lot of cut out lace used both on its own or sometimes as trim.

If there was one overarching theme to all the collections, it was the lockdown designers worked through. Some chose not to put a collection out at all, others worked from home. Some were alone, others surrounded by their kids. Many spoke of looking inward for inspiration, of tapping into where their creativity comes from. 

As a result, collections felt much more personal this year. For example, Versace gave us an escape to the underwater ruins of Atlantis. Antonio Marras intimately reflected on his home island of Sardinia. Christian Siriano remembered youthful dreams of becoming a fashion designer and Issey Miyaki‘s team worked with materials and constructions easy to ship to each other in small packages as they worked remotely.

Our favorite though was the Moschino fashion show. Unable to gather around a runway, he went for a very creative alternative. See for yourself! 

Here are our latest findings from the 2021 spring runway shows:

Solid black and solid white were everywhere, as well as lots of black and white together. It wasn’t all dark though, yellow was shining through both on its own and in pops of color. In general, colors were rich and saturated, whether leaning light or bright. 

Download your own FREE color card, with hex numbers added for easy use.

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