All Over Florals

Express your love for the warmer climates by wearing florals from head to toe

Flowers are always a dominant theme that is reinterpreted season after season, and it is about time that we devote ourselves truly to this blooming print this spring as a tribute to its distinguished past. It just makes sense that designers are going into overdrive and creating looks completely centered on these timeless florals. Dolce & Gabbana and Tory Burch showcased head-to-toe floral looks that were an eye-catching explosion of color, right in step with the season’s uplifting vibe.

To keep from looking too much like the wallpaper in your grandmother’s bathroom, wear two separate pieces in different but complementary floral prints. At Dolce & Gabbana, the floral looks were all about separates: Floral on a red blouse paired with floral on black bloomer shorts. This may seem like a clashing combination, but the hues of red within both pieces, the red roses on the shorts and the red background on the blouse, tie them together to create a unified look. Color coordination is a simple trick to make all-over florals look chic rather than over-the-top.

Juxtaposing differently sized florals together is another trick to break up the repetitiveness of an all-over floral look. If one piece has large florals scattered sparingly, balance the print out by pairing it with a piece that has a dense conglomeration of close-knit florals. Shape matters when it comes to flowers, and in this case opposites attract.

No matter what kind of floral prints you play with, make sure that you wear them on sharp and sophisticated shapes. Florals already keep the eye moving all on their own and don’t need any extra oomph from extroverted details like ruffles, bows, and pleats to stand out. Keep away from the frill and stick to clean lines and simple tailoring to bring this fun print down to earth. Sleek A-line skirts, classic crew neck blouses, and practical ankle length trousers covered in vibrant florals make for a hip balance of fashion conservatism and liberalism.

If you do decide that you want to take this look all the way and wear floral separates of the same pattern from head to toe, it is even more important to keep shapes extremely simple and clean. Take a cue from the Tory Burch show, where a model wore an overly abstract floral print on both a crisp button-up collared shirt and a pair of sleek drainpipe pants. No extra ruffles or pleats here; just a clean foundation for the pattern to build itself upon.

By taking this advice, you will soon be on your way to mastering the art of wearing all over florals that won’t leave you looking like a walking garden. Here is a runway-inspired floral look to get started with right now.

Published June 4, 2010 on LVCMag.com