Day two of Milan fashion week further convinced us of two things; firstly we would need to invest in St Tropez fake tan – and plenty of it, to create a healthy version of the tanned skin tan necessary for wearing thecreations we were seeing on the catwalk. And secondly, we really are going to need to put that gym membership into good use or we don’t stand a chance.
The day started at Blumarine, where there were two distinct themes and two different decades woven throughout the spring 2010 show. The first look was distinctly ‘cocktail beach Barbie’, where we were presented with a kaleidoscope of fruity, girly treats in a variety of tie-dyed forms.
The Barbie beach cocktail theme saw the runway filled with aqua combined with orange and yellow, in the form of shorts and tiny fitted tee shirts,strapless ruched mini dresses in candy pinks mixed with fruity orange, pant suits, cropped leggings and matching scarves in very hippy aqua and purple. There were also less fitted and longer flirty and floaty purple dresses with dashes of pinks and orange. And finally, more dramatic dresses in red and black tie-dyed prints.
If the candy Barbie hues make you gasp in horror and want to run to the nearest hairdresser to dye your hair deep brunette, fear not. The other fun but more serious option was combat ‘G.I. Jane’/ safari themed clothes, such as belted jackets and short suits, combat trousers, camouflage print dresses and full length army bustier dresses. Here, the green camouflage prints were highlighted with patches of coral and muted yellow for a fresh and colourful twist.
The entire Blumarine Spring 2010 collection, part short and tight and part draped and floating, took elements from the seventies, with a psychedelic, hippy, ‘free love’ feel, and part nineties, an era of hyper-colour tee shirts and G.I. Jane styled clothes. If only we hadn’t binned those fluro ‘slap bands’ a decade ago. They might have come in quite handy to accessories this collection.
