THE MINIMAL MOVEMENT
THIS SEASON, SIMPLICITY SAYS THE MOST
Minimalists take pride, because this season, whether it’s with clothing or accessories, the freshest style items out there are making even the most embellished of fashionistas want to go back to basics. But calling these confidently cut-down designs basic is actually an insult. To arrive at such pleasing and eye-catching sleekness, designers easily spent double the time and effort considering how to say the most with the least. So let’s take the time to appreciate a few brands who are leading this hot trend.
Uniqlo is known for being people’s go-to store for basics and, to be honest, their staying inventory is usually nothing worth mentioning. The subtleties of their recent seasonal collection, however, pose a reason to visit the chain for more than just undershirts and work-appropriate button-downs. Spearheaded once again by artistic director Christophe Lemaire, the second Uniqlo U collection redefines the fashionability of function. The line is full of garments that communicate exactly what their meant for — breathability for sweaters, incubation and light weighted ness for windbreakers, durability and storage for denim and anti-resistance for swimwear. Rather than cover these “nuts and bolts” up with extra design, Uniqlo allows them to stare us in the face, and it’s damn mesmerising. Along with a smart selection of colours that aren’t boring, we feel this collection of minimal “lifewear” is a step into the future of style.
On that note, the decision on colour options has become such a powerful factor of retail attraction this season, as brands strip down on prints, texture and volume. We’re also noticing a pattern. The most eye-catching minimalist collections have a little bit of everything — a dark colour, a light colour, a bright colour, a neutral colour, a warm colour and a cool colour. They do just enough to cover all the bases so that the palette offers variety but still seems focused and sophisticated.
Besides Uniqlo U, Calvin Klein Platinum’s sleek spring summer collection exemplifies this design concept. We’re obsessed with how the brand plays with black and white and essentially two accent colours — pink and blue — in various tones.
A major look for the season: one colour per outfit
DKNY offers very similar vibes in its spring-summer collection of oversized looks for women. We’re in love with not only the contemporary form and functionality of the pieces in the collection, but how Donna Karen plays matchy-matchy with the colour choices. This is definitely going to be a major look for the season: one colour per outfit.
Now if you’re wondering about how to accessorise in minimal mode, consider an accessory such as a watch. Watches embody exactly what we’ve been talking about: items that are first and foremost functional but have the potential to make a fashion statement. We look to Swatch this season to dress up our wrists because they’re totally doing the sleek-chic thing right. Under the tagline #YourMove, Swatch has just launched their second generation of Skin, a line of timepieces designed to give you the freedom to make “your move” stylewise. Besides the fact that these are the slimmest watches on the market, what’s impressive to us about Skin’s design is, once again, variety within selectivity. We had a personal chat with the Creative Director of Swatch, Carlo Giordanetti, who described Skin to us as a “whispering accessory”. It doesn’t shout and perhaps it isn’t as loud as what’s out there, “but it has more substance in my opinion”.
Word. He basically sums up why minimal is so cool right now.