MarediModa, leading beachwear, intimates, athleisure fabrics and accessories show, which takes place from 6-8 November in Cannes, France, has highlighted six influential design themes – four swimwear oriented and two intimate apparel – to dominate the Spring/Summer 2020 season.

Developed by David Shah in collaboration with Anne Marie Commandeur from the Stijlinstituut of Amsterdam, each theme informs and inspires specialised and fully hybridised design. Choices made during the design process ensure that the variety appeals to all consumers, honouring diversity and addressing the importance of inclusivity.

“The shift towards hybrid fashion disrupts and transforms, but in a positive way. Athleisure opened Pandora’s box by bridging the gap between activewear and leisurewear – and now fashion goes beyond it,” say organisers. “Intimate apparel and swimwear have entered the melting pot to form a powerful and versatile fusion. Performance fibres and fabrics have transitioned into leisurewear, giving designers a far wider and deeper portfolio with which to work.”

Swimwear

The Paradise Found theme is about the longing for sensory stimulation. In this new Garden of Eden, fashion offers digitally inspired, sensitive, sensual, wearable garments. Colours are dominated by acid brights that flash against deep and dense nocturnal backgrounds. Silhouettes explore new frontiers for garment engineering, high-tech details and finishing for 1980s disco inspired opulent, glamorous looks.

Activism is about people hoping to make a difference using fashion to communicate. Meaningful outfits transmit coded and direct messages. Fabrics are perfect, plain grounds to show off pattern. Patterns represent a mishmash of streetwear inspired looks spanning comics, folk motifs and popular brands’ logos – everything spontaneous and exploring the ad hoc. Colours make a happy palette, facilitating the unbridled joy of material, shape and pattern play. Pink reigns supreme. Silhouettes are basic with rebellious disruptions.

Inspired by Art Deco, DecoLux addresses desire for decorative, meaningful beauty and elegance. Swimwear on a mission to raise awareness and appreciation of historic art movements and painstaking craft techniques. Fabrics are glamorous and ornate, honouring ongoing interest for shine and lustre. Carefully composed bold graphics and curved Deco engineered patterns meet small-scale and rhythmic Art Deco graphics in jacquards. Colours are dominated by rich and lush mid tones, dense and slightly shadowy with a black component in every shade. Silhouettes are glamorous and dramatic with artful tailoring creating asymmetric drape effects and cut-outs.

Finally, Iconic calls for archetypal, iconic maritime themes. Real, honest and straight forward aesthetics dominate the search for the perfect swimsuit. Fabrics help improve appearance by contouring, flattering and performing: crisp, matte surfaces form smooth and perfect silhouettes. Simple geometrics characterise this trend. Colours are pleasing, bold, primary basics that maintain an emphasis on black, white, red and blue. Silhouettes are clean-cut and sporty.

Intimate apparel

Sanctuary is about the search for the quiet, contemplation and self-actualisation. Yoga, dance and meditation have increasing appeal. For intimate apparel, this means reassessing values, pursuing a subtle, essential aesthetic, stripping back decoration and complication to reveal calm design in a sensitive colour and material palette. Fabrics are soft. Patterns are subtle, sophisticated and inspired by technology, showing graphic grids and digital mapping. Silhouettes are comfortable and make the body feel at ease in smooth second skins.

Bloom is dedicated to flowers that trigger emotions and generate that sense of connection we yearn for. Their perpetual romance manifests itself in contemporary intimate fashion, addressing the desire for beauty, embellishment and self-adornment. Fabrics are tender and soft with drape in fine and featherweight qualities. Patterns are about all things botanical – from the hyperreal to the painterly, informed by baroque, rococo, William Morris and art nouveau. A romantic palette celebrates the poetic qualities of flowers, from freshly bloomed to beautifully aged. Silhouettes are feminine, frilly and detailed with ruffles, drape effects, ruches, trims and buttons, laces and bows.

Athleisure

Called Touch Base, the athleisure theme invites you to lose yourself in sports, leisure and outdoor activities in natural and urban environments. Fabrics are tough, resilient, durable and with body mapped aspects through reinforced engineered zones. Patterns are inspired by nature – minerals, rocks and natural traces: cracked surface effects; marbling, granite and natural grain; planet surfaces, moon craters, volcanos and lava.

Colours are inspired by nature and outdoor gear; these strong camouflage shades have utilitarian appeal and focus on green and red tones. Silhouettes are sturdy and sporty – equipped with technical details, created via progressive engineering and smart tailoring and assembled using taping and welding techniques.

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