Friday, September 26, 2008

Ethnic Influences on Apparel Design

Alexander Wang's Retro Spring 2009 collection


Designers are constantly influenced by different things around them. cultures,
ethnic groups, and certainly location all play an important roll in the designs and
motifs behind the designer's collection that season. But with research on these things for their latest collections they don't always have to get their passport to find inspiration. For instance, Miami is a very important destination that hot, up and coming designers go to for inspiration.

Alexander Wang's spring 2009 ready-to-wear collection was inspired by the bright and vibrant city of Miami. Miami vice to be exact was his major source of influence and this was shown through the bright and sharp colors in his collection that exuded the 80's. These bright pastel colors infused with dark blacks were very much fashion forward and an interesting take on a 80's retro redo, if you will. His mix of bright and dark colors were appealing to the eye and you could have easily seen them on the streets of New York or LA today.
So location and ethnic influence most definitely make up a lot of the influence in a designers collection whether it be Milan, Italy, Brooklyn, or Japan the cultural background is apparent in the clothes we wear every day. In American most of the clothes that we were on a regular basis are a mixture of different cultures, country's, and ethnic backgrounds. But the sad part is that probably 90% of us don't even realize this because it never crosses our minds that we could be wearing the same thing that a girl in the 3rd world country of Ethiopia would wear. It just goes to show you that such great influence goes into the way we dress everyday.

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