Mare di Moda, the leading European exhibition for beach, swimwear and lingerie fabrics and accessories, introduces its Spring/Summer 2016 trends.

Divided into six different themes, the new colours and textures for swimwear and bodywear celebrate bright tones, Africa-inspired frenzy, clashing designs, sculptural, geometric, sporty leisure swimwear, romantic, bohemian looks and red-carpet elegance.

Jungle Fever

Jungle Fever swimwear is a celebration of Africa with all its diversity, extremes and contradictions. It is about mixing things that have never been mixed before - organic, man-made, natural and digital. North African kaftans, djellabas, tunics and ponchos inspire cover-ups for men and women.

Lacy fabrics with technical finishes together with traditional tribal patterns; dry cotton with wild jungle prints alongside skin hide effects; and techno laser cut openwork polyester with fake leather.

Colours depict the sensory rush of a tropical rain forest, vegetation shades with flashes of acid depicting flowers or tropical birds. The digitally pushed acid extremes are countered by khaki and deep Burgundy.

Rave Couture

SRave Couture swimwear is a celebration of op art, where optical illusions trick the eye and engender movement, warping and depth. Often in black and white, these optical designs immediately bring sophisticated glamour and opulence to simply designed outfits. Tight corsets and body shaping techniques celebrate hourglass feminine figures, while high-waist briefs expose bare upper midriffs.

Refined elegance requires silky satin and subtle sparkle; these fabrics work as chic grounds for expressive graphic patterns, based on embroidery, sequins or beads in muted metallic shades, or printed on digitally.

Optical illusions take centre stage; geometric patterns explore the celebration of op art and produce disorienting effects. Grounds of muted metallic shades exalt the modern, acid brights and flashes of silver are used for the optical designs.

Memphis Sport

This swimwear celebrates the humour and kitsch of the 1980s. This is overtly, even exaggeratedly sporty and performance oriented swimwear, so racy shapes, streamlining trims and bold colour blocking is used alongside ergonomic designs.

Sporty, go-faster swimwear fabrics are now used in neoprene and compact constructions. Performance enhancing effects, including racy colours, combine with compression panels, tech finishes and plastic sheen.

Mosaics sit alongside tangrams and colourful geometric shapes and designs, as a moratorium on floral patterning is declared. Playful, energetic and optimistic shades characterise the theme, slightly retro-kitsch sport staples contrast with each other and with black and white detailing.

Brutal Glam

A world of dark, fierce and severe cosmic goddesses, who stand proud and protected in their techno armour is depicted in this swimwear. Brutalist compositions inspire basic, rational shapes that translate into paired-down futuristic outfits in black monochrome or dark, nocturnal shades.

Leather and latex; rubber and studs, zips, nails, rings, beads and iron create armoured looks inspired by animal (elephant) and reptile skins or by beaten metal or chainmail. Skin relief patterns are counter-posed by inter galactic star sprays and digitally generated 3D mapping programme designs.

Cold, cosmic colours include black and intense saturated darks together with greenish black with an oily sheen form the backdrop to pearlescent silvers and lilacs. Swimwear is forged from strong, bold shapes with contouring, sharp lines.

Artist’s Garden

This bodywear is a celebration of romanticism and aesthetic pleasure. Languid silhouettes are produced from flowing fabrics and floating, loosely cut pyjamas and trousers. Flowers and botanical drawings of meandering flower stems and lush vegetation cover whole garments or are scattered tastefully.

Fabrics with a luxurious hand such as silk satins are used as the base for elegant, floral prints and jacquard designs. Modern finishing techniques produce fabrics with enamel-like or porcelain aspects.

Tones reminiscent of fabrics dyed with natural dyestuffs, earthy shades of terracotta, beeswax, shell and fern are used with radically new digital printing techniques.

Sensory

This bodywear represents a healthy and strong vision of feminine beauty. Lingerie garments are reminiscent of the clean, flowing sculptural lines of modernist architecture: forms are simple and minimalist, strict and pure, but sensual in their gentle contouring curves and white flawlessness.

Emo-fabrics employ perfume and sensory stimuli to calm the mood. Lightweight textiles with smooth surfaces have a cosmetic soapy, creamy or foamy hand to create a subtle, pleasurable sensation in wear.

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