floral prints

The Fashion Statement: Everything That's Fit to Print

Sadly, the only media going to print in big numbers this fall is fashion.

Patchwork, zebra, leopard, floral, tweeds, plaids, psychedelic and Deco graphics, watercolors and paint-splattered fabrics all made a huge statement on the runways. Fait attention! This is the season to forget every rule you've learned about wearing prints. It's time to go Wild and Crazy Guys, not head-to-toe Pucci.

In other words, designers made an eye-popping show of mixing and matching multiple prints on one look. Much like Dan Aykroyd and Steve Martin's comedic get-ups on Saturday Night Live back in the late '70s, floral prints were shown with plaids. But then we saw tweeds hooking up with cougars (there must be a joke in there somewhere), leopards pairing up with stripes and stripes in primary colors working well with rich paisleys.

The Mulleavy sisters, designers of Rodarte, are perfect examples of the newest generation of print maestros. Their California-based label had catwalk models in big-cat prints, metallic and watercolor-like fabrics all pieced together on ethereal cocktail dresses (pictured above).

Gallery: The Fashion Statement 08/13/09