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• July 1, 2008
• Trend Spotting

Different Strokes: Brush Patterns That Slather on the Color

By Sydney Pfaff

Dripping with color, recent collections have featured more paintbrush strokes than your average Franz Kline canvas. On a recent research trip to Germany, we spied evidence of thick brushes and bold tones while touring its top fashion haunts.

Anntian, a Berlin-based collection designed by Anne Hilken and Christian Kurt (Anne plus Christian, get it?), created mellow, screen-printed dresses, tops and pants by painting simple bands of pastels across the garments. Their current collection, White Caps, was inspired by different horizons, such as sunrise and sunset, and a day by the seashore. Very Rothko, one might say (and we do.)

Hamburg-based Powley specializes in sharp, architecturally inspired graphics. This season, however, they added a touch of artistic abandon with their numerous paintbrush patterns. Strokes of bold-colored paint splash brightly against the black and white garments in the line. Again, Mr. Klein comes to mind. As well, Starstyling, a new company out of Berlin, has introduced a line of white shirts and hoodies that have benefited greatly from the ol' Jackson Pollack treatment (albeit with a neon palette he never attempted.)

Over on our side of the Atlantic, Ms. Wendy Mullin of Built by Wendy, included both a shirt and a camisole in her spring collection that were literally dripping in hot pink pigment. Add to that the "wet paint" script and their light fabrics, and you've got something between an iced cupcake and a hot mess.

And it's not just indie labels or small collections that have picked up the brush. Heavy hitters like Dolce & Gabbana covered white dresses in red and yellow, while Diesel used skinny pants as their canvas. Even Yves St. Laurent and Sergio Rossi took part in the painted trend with handbags and heels. So grab a brush and slather on some color. Of course, we mean this only figuratively—as with so many big painting jobs, touch ups like these are best left to trained professionals.

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