As hot as the weather

While summer is typically a season to show off colours and prints, this season is especially vibrant and upbeat. The 1980s are back with jumbo frills, brighter-than-bright hues, bling and bare shoulders combined with one of the most vivid colour palettes in recent memory. Think fuschia, topto-bottom canary yellow, construction worker orange, candy pink and anything that glitters.

As Canadians, we’re predisposed towards sartorial modesty, but the best part of summer 2017 is that there are no rules. It’s all about self-empowerment and DIY aesthetics. Mix and match to your heart’s content with the knowledge that bolder is better. There were mismatched shoes, sequin pyjamas paired with giant tulle floral brooches and headto-toe neon prints on fashion week runways.

The best homegrown takes on this crazy-meets-cool craze come from Hayley Elsaesser, known for mixing neon colours in previously unthinkable ways and making prints out of planets, snakes, beer cans and retro-style pink cars for men and women. There is no wrong way to wear a Hayley Elsaesser piece. This intensely individual aesthetic is fashion’s reaction to the populist surge seen across North America and Europe. It’s anti-authoritarian, eschews elitist style rules and demands your attention.

The fashion industry is particularly focused on the power of women. The anti-establishment slogans of yesterseason like “The worst” and “Anti-social social club” have been replaced with tees bearing messaging like “Girls can do anything” and “We should all be feminists.” Toronto-based designer Hilary Macmillan offers up “feminist guy” and “riots not diets” pins in her summer collection and a varsity jacket with “FEMINIST” in large block letters across the back for her fall collection. This protest aesthetic, with a feminist flourish can be seen in designers’ obsession with largerthan-life florals worn from head to toe. Florals, as once infamously stated by Meryl Streep playing Devil Wears Prada editrix Miranda Priestly, aren’t shocking for spring or summer. However, this season’s flowers are louder and prouder than ever, looking more revolutionary than pretty, recognizing its history as powerful symbols in moments of civil unrest, such as when Martin Luther King Jr. led the Selma-to-Montgomery march wearing a floral lei and the famous images of anti-Vietnam War protesters placing flowers in the rifle barrels of National Guardsmen.

In an era when everybody wants to make a statement, this season’s fashion encourages fighting for your best self – without forgetting about everyone else.