The Biggest Trends from the Spring 2016 Runways

After four long weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris, the spring 2016 collections have finally come to a close. There were ups and there were downs, but most importantly, there were trends — a whole lot of them, actually. We've already covered what each city specialized in this month, and now it's time to take a look at the bigger picture. You may remember that the biggest trend of fall 2015 was the '70s, and while this did continue into spring, the nostalgia was a little more spread out this time around. For those of you who aren't as enamored with all things retro, don't fret — there was a lot more to the season than simply looking to the past. Read on to get a full rundown on spring's top trends.
'90s
From left to right: Calvin Klein Collection, Betsey Johnson, Acne Studios, Giamba, and Rag & Bone
From left to right: Calvin Klein Collection, Betsey Johnson, Acne Studios, Giamba, and Rag & Bone

Fashion is feeling pretty nostalgic these days, but of the decades referenced this season, the '90s were the biggest story — especially in Paris. Rave culture, minimalism, grunge and fanny packs all made appearances. You have been warned.

Top 10 looks from Rebel Wilson’s new line at Torrid ...

Rebel Wilson is the latest celebrity to partner with a brand to create a new line of clothing. The difference in Wilson’s line is that it is geared toward plus-sizes. Wilson partnered with Torrid on the collection. Torrid is one of the fastest growing fashion brands specializing in sizes 12-28. The limited edition collection will include over 30 pieces featuring tops, graphic tees, bottoms (such as cool motorcycle-inspired pants), dresses and evening wear, athleisure items, comfortable clothes and accessories such as shoes, purses and jewelry. All pieces are priced under $10 The line, which is available starting Nov. 1, will be sold exclusively at Torrid retail stores in the United States and Canada, as well as on the Torrid website.

Premiere Vision Autumn/Winter 2016 print trend predictions ok

Normally I get to go to Premiere Vision as part of my job to do trend research and see the textile studios' new collections. I absolutely love it- it's great for networking with other designer/fashion professionals and it really helps me get my head around the trends of the coming seasons. Unfortunately this year I moved to work in menswear and this meant I could not go to PV as my current company sends only shape designers not graphic designers.To say I was gutted about this is an understatement as Premiere Vision is, in a professional capacity, the highlight of my year.
In January, at the last PV event I attended, I was given a press pass after someone read my previous blog post reviewing the Premiere Vision print trends. This allowed me to take photos at the event and do a more thorough review(if you didn't see it originally you check it out here. After this Premiere Vision post, regrettably my blogging went downhill, became less frequent and I think you could definitely tell that I was becoming both frustrated and disenchanted with putting so much effort into writing a blog and creating moodboards that very few people saw. I very nearly quit blogging altogether. Then I reminded myself that I love writing. I love researching beautiful printed textiles. I love hearing peoples' trend predictions, learning the reasoning behind them and seeing them come to fruition. Above all else I love making fashion relevant to those who aren't interested in it and view it as unnecessary. That's it for the colour trends of Spring/Summer 2016. As you can see above there's quite a huge range on next season's colour palette- black, white and neutrals are still present and popular but bright colours are back(finally!!!) Hopefully I will have another trend post done by the end of the week,although my laptop seems to be fighting against me at the moment.

One of my favourite parts of the Premiere Vision events is attending the WGSN trend seminars. Although I do have a WGSN account and can view their trend predictions online, hearing the trend forecasters present and explain the background and inspiration for each new trend is incomparable to reading a brief trend outline on the internet.

So, despite not having been to the most recent Premiere Vision event, I have been able to look at the trend predictions for Autumn/Winter 2016 on the WGSN website and have decided to create some trend prediction boards anyway.

I have changed some of the trend names and have left out an 'old masters florals' trend as it isn't one I am in support of, but the majority of the trend names are exactly the same.

Holiday Stocking Stuffers

It's that time of year again. It's the season of indulging in holiday meals (hello, mashed potatoes!), sharing gifts with loved ones, attending holiday parties, and enjoying quality time with friends and family. When it comes to holiday gifts, that old saying that the best gifts come in small packages rings true. I love stylish accessories, beauty products, and jewelry as stocking stuffers because they allow the recipient to add a special finishing touch to their look. Whether it's a furry pom pom bag charm, a personalized pendant, or an animal print scarf, there are endless gifts that exude personality and charm (like this cute cat mug for $20) without draining your wallet. Below are ten of my favorite stocking stuffers under $130 plus other options under $35.
Holiday 2015 Stocking Stuffers gift ideas, holiday 2015 gift guide under $150
1. Smashbox 'step by step' contour kit, $45
2. Toms 'Dalston' 52mm sunglasses, $78
3. Wool blend beanie, $12.99
4. Kate Spade initial pendant locket necklace, $68
5. Faux fur pom pom charm, $15
6. Bow sequin pouch, $9.99
7. Artemis ear crawlers, $50
8. Animal print scarf, $6.99
9. UGG suede gloves, $79.99
10. Fit Bit activity and sleep tracker, $129.95
More ideas under $35:
$28.00
$20.00
$24.00
$25.00
$8.00
$10.00

BITS OF BERLIN

Rather small bits as my trip this time mainly consisted on the way between our Air Bn'B flat and the venues, stops by the closest falafel (four in four days!) stand and sewing for and reharsing another upcoming show at the apartment... Plus not bringing my camera with me either. Because of that and the late shows it was a rather tiring trip, which you notice when you are standing in confetti rain with people cheering and you don't really feel a thing except for that your make laysheavy and your feet feet aching. (And get a heay flu when you return home.)

Having that said, it was of course fun still - I do love Berlin!

I can't believe it's been five years since my last trip to Berlin. Went there a bit more often in the early 00's. Which is ten years ago. Ten years and beyond. (Scary, isn't it! Also, looking at old photos, damn one can age in five years.)

Rehearsal at Heimathafen.

Here's a shot of the number in question live, performed by Mama Ulita.

Backstage.

And onstage.

In between I had a little change to meet up with Frollein von Sofa for lunch in the sunshine!

An awesome lunch that is (here).

Wintergarten, the venue for the following nights, was just incredible. So pretty, with starts in the ceiling and old costumes and posters on the wall.

The backstage however not quite so for the moment. The inner yeard and containers.The glamour of showlife...

More rehersals/ soundchecking, which often is mainly just waiting. We did some chorus girl bathtubbing in those tubs on Saturday.

 This was beautiful. Sheila Wolf on Friday.

And this was totally fab. Tansy on Saturday.

And we came to realize that we actually celebrated seven years of performing on this very weekend!

Live photos by Tuomas Lairila.
Final shot of us taking a bow at the curtain call by IndieBerlin.

PIN-UPS AHOY!

Here are the official photos of our contestants for the Pin-Up Finland 2015 competition, which I am part of producing this year!

The pageant is a friendly contest looking to give girls interested in becoming a pin-up model a chace to get a foot in between the door and kick off a possible career.
You saw a little making-of earlier already. There is also an official making-of video which you can see here.

Cherry Star

Cherry La Teae

Carissa La Dame

Cherry Jo Candie

Honey de Rose

Ida von Dark

Inka La Vinda

Be Bop A Roosa

Sweet Honey Susan

Fanny White

Veda de Cadenza

Miss Candy Cat

Do you have a favourite?

Photos by Hannes Honkanen.
Concept and styling by me &Tinker.
Clothing by Vintag'Eijas / Eija Mannila (outfits sewn separately for each contenstant)
Make Up: VIP MakeUp Lounge Mia Sirén & Mercy Maybelle
Shot at Relandersgrund, Helsinki.

(Our clothes are mixed from out own wardrobes and not from Eija's.)

The winner will be chosen next weekend -October 3rd - by a panel of judges in Lahti at the American Car Show. The final is in three rounds featuring different (amazing!! - Eija is so talented to make repro and pick out vintage. Swoon.) outfits from Vintag'Eijas as well as accessories from Rockabilly Cherry and Sulokas. PinUp Helsinki will offer the winner a photoshoot.

There is also a separate social media vote going on on Facebook, which you can find here:
Pin-Up Finland finlaists, with styling by the contestants themselves and photos by Marika Kiviharju.

I am a bit sceptic of votes on social media as they usually just generate likes for the ones with the most active friends or followers... but everything should of course not be taken so seriously. So go ahead and give the photo and model you like the best your vote if you so like!

PASTEL AND PEACHY

Hello! I am in Berlin but last weekend we were at my sisters wedding!
It was warm and sunny  and I was wearing mint green. Could it get any better than that? Perhaps, because my hair was also pastel peach!* (Pastels can make a lot of things better. And you know I like competing with the cake on weddings, pastell-y and fluffy.)

My shoes are Minna Parikka, the purse vintage and the cherry blossom wrap dress is from PriscillaTokyo on Etsy, made of Japanese vintage fabric. Anastasia made me the hair flower by hand a few years back.

*) Was, well, is, still. A powdery peach.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW

I am changing my colours (and nails) into autumn mode. As usual there's an itch for darker colours and plaid patterns. And red wine. So wine red it is for me.

More colours! The last tomatoes from my garden pots. So cute you'd almost not want to eat th..munch munch nom! I like to mix them red and still green and fry them in a pan.

They got some feta cheese, garden herbs, salad and omelette to blend along with.

Now packing for Berlin; going there to perform in the weekend. There will be lots of pastel coloured things in the bag. Not for me, not for the trip nor the show, but for next week - we still have some work to finish off on the costumes for the Norma book release show; when we are performing the custom ordered numbers based on the themes of the book. Phew!

I heard it will be real warm in Berlin this weekend so might have to lighten up on my plaid-autumn-beret-and-kints mode then. Hmmm.

AT THE SALON

Meep meep!

Here I am at Pinkki Paplari getting my hair done. Because every now and then you need a little variation! Plus some of those yolo-vibes (or something like that) too.

(And oh yes I love aloe juice!)

AT THE STUDIO

Late night at the studio with a cup of the after the classes.

We are very happy with how the space turned out and also proud that we did it by ourselves (if you don't count building two walls which we had a builder do), stage and all!

Here's how it looked before:

And now:

(Our landlord said he was surprised too see what we managed to do with the space.)

Here in action rehearsing with one of our performing troupes!

The dressing room. We also have another smaller mirrored rehearsal space with storage for our costumes but that space is still just filled with said costumes, suitcases and props everywhere waiting for some law and order...

One thins I still find hard to believe is that we managed to do this without any external funding.  That was never the plan though, but as we did not start a new business - we've been doing all of this on a smaller scale for years - but was going about things the normal way while setting the studio up, and as we stumbled across the space rather quickly (suitably in the same building we have been in for years) we just did not have the time to get any. We had worked hard the years before this that made it possible - now it's time work even harder -and hope- it will continue to be so!

I will confess that the start has been rather slow though. And that is just due to ourselves. Getting our website up and running would be rather (read:very) important (NO it is still not properly up in it's final form, I know!), and doing actual marketing as well, not just running everything trough Facebok as we've done (and done well) the past years, is next on our agenda. After Along with traveling to Berlin to perform next week, doing the once-in-a-lifetime custom ordered show for Sofi Oksanen's release of her new novel Norma and producing the Pin-Up Finland competition. Oh yeah and setting up Spectac-O-Rama for this year! The autumn of stress.

But. Yes. Our studio is in Lauttasaari and we have classes from Monday to Thursday with special courses those weekends we are not away performing! Buy your classes *here*  and schedule+book them **here**! Pilates on Tuesday mornings and Thursday nights, Seasonal Yoga the other way around and burlesque dance classes every night! It is also possible to book the studio for personal practice (daytime, evenings available in the smaller room) or for teaching during the weekends.

FOUR THINGS RIGHT NOW - MESSY, MAGAZINE AND MOROTSKAKA

Trying to figure out what to wear today.
Everything is a mess at home and it seems I have somehow managed to magically hide away all my autumn clothes. The agony of living at two addresses.

But there has been times that it was not messy at home. Proof of that in the latest issue of Glorian Koti for example, where there is a short feature on the farm house. The pictures were taken a year ago.

 Breakfast.

Includes this too.
Carrot-zuccini-date cake (=breakfast worthy.) Not sure if it's very good or just ok; the price you pay when you never measure and just randomly throw things in a pot and stir and bake. After a night in the fridge this could be quite chunky though.

SAY CHEESE! / THE PIN-UP FINLAND FINALISTS' PHOTO SHOOT

Last week we organised the official photo shoot for the twelve Pin-Up Finland finalists!
As you  may remember from earlier, I am part of producing and hosting the competition this year,

The day started at our studio for hair and make up. The contestants arrived from all corners of the country for their big day. On big shoots like this, there is always a lot of waiting.

We are very proud to have Béseame Cosmetics as one of our sponsors for the finals!

Make up artists Mercy and Mia in full action.

Me rolling some hair. (Photo by @ruskarieban)

We had one shoot on location in our studio. But for our main calendar pictures we headed elsewhere!

Here are our fabulous  outfits for the ladies, put together by our clothing sponsor Vintag'Eijas! Vintag'Eijas is a vintage store as well a seamstress (that I am sure many of you have heard of in blogs and such, even if you may not be Finnish) and she had done an amazing job making outfits for the girls!

And then we headed over to our actual location; the old lighthouse ship Relandersgrund! It serves as a café nowadays. Worth a stop if you are in town; it's details and the  surroundings are very nice.

 And then it started raining...

 Waiting out the rain on board.

So on to plan B, taking the rest of the pictures inside the ship.

 Hannes at work.

At the end of the* (very long) day it was time for us to get out of the comfy wear and into the little shorts and do one last round of posing ourselves. Here's an instagram shot of that, the real pictures are to be revealed later.

(...And we've seen them already and they are just great! Meep meep!)

*) well, almost at the end of. We still had to dig out staples (from posters) from and paint one wall back at our old studio. Phew!