Runway Report: Part 1 (Colour)

Autumn/Winter 2006: The fashion season is about to change so it's time to plan what we will be wearing from September onwards. High street stores will bring their sales to an end by the start of August at the latest to make room for the new autumn lines. I'd like to be a little bit more prepared this time round and make sure I make the best fashion choices...so over the coming weeks I will report on the runway shows to see what's in store for us. Starting off today with COLOUR: If you wear head to toe black as a rule then you are going to be very fashionable. Most designers sent their models at some part of their show up the runway in just black...and when I say head to toe black that's what I mean - black dress, black shoes, black bag. Even when colour was introduced black seemed to be the base for most outfits. A serious, dark, somewhat murky colour story was carried across all but a few of the shows. Alongside black, grey was just as prominent. This, i'm pleased about. I like grey. When worn in the right way it looks classic and less harsh than black on paler skin tones. It's a great neutral colour and one that Jennifer Aniston works into her wardrobe really well. No particular shade of grey appeared to be favoured. All shades of grey from light to dark and metallic for eveningwear were evident. Designers used navy, red and white to work in with the base colours grey and black. Red seems to be the colour of the dress this coming season with numerous designers adopting it as the colour of choice for their WOW-factor runway dresses. Red was often teamed with black, navy or white, either as a contrasting garment or as an accessory (red beaded necklaces at Marc by Marc Jacobs). With blue being my favourite colour, I was delighted to see some of the gorgeous shades from cobalt blue to midnight blue to mid blues bordering on lilac, which broke up the expanse of black and grey. BLACK and WHITE worn together, I think, will be huge. Remember when everyone was wearing black and white stripe tops? Well, don't think about pulling those out the wardrobe. Wear the two colours together to make up an outfit like at Narciso Rodriguez or you could wear white with black accessories or vice versa (try a black v neck sweater over a white tank top with a white bag...get the picture?). Aside from working the trend this way, lots of garments were shown off in black and white prints and I think this is something we could see quite a lot of on the high street. This dress by Diane Von Furstenburg is to die for. A reccurent theme was a black and white check almost like the flags at car racing tracks!