A Spring Fashion Gridlock - New York Times (blog)

Richard Drew/Associated Press; Luca Bruno/AP From left: Carolina Herrera; Marni; Ralph Lauren, spring 2014.

Few trends are to be found among clothing styles, with fashion houses now more interested in promoting an individual look or a brand image. But common themes do surface in colors and textiles. One that stands out is so-called optical patterns: grids, checks, stripes. At Fendi, Karl Lagerfeld took the idea to the max, with pieces of shaved fur arranged in grid patterns on organza.

Paula Cademartori bags.

But if you recall, Carolina Herrera also did a lot with layers of optical prints, and Ralph Lauren used stripes and checks in a clean, eye-popping way. Marni used a grid pattern on the flaps of handbags. And Paula Cademartori, a young handbag designer in Milan, used a laser-cut grid pattern on her leather bags, too, and added intense color. That’s a signature of Ms. Cademartori, who has been in business about four years. So far, she has about 100 sales locations, mostly in Europe and Asia. By the way, a handbag trend for fall seems to be some sort of print or graphic pattern, like Prada’s colorful illustrations.

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