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Be more fashion, live more Vespa

New York, London, Milan, Paris: we attended (virtually) all four women’s fashion weeks, so we could tell you about the hottest trends for Spring-Summer 2022.

Slowing down, reconsidering, breaking old habits, simplifying. The designers whose work animated the fashion calendar this past month seem to be in agreement on an important point: namely, the pandemic’s forced slow-down has infused their creative process with new energy, correcting the mistakes of past seasons and delivering an innovative vision, from luxury to fast fashion.

In New York, London, Milan and Paris, women’s fashion weeks provided a much-needed breath of fresh air. This was a manifesto for new beginnings and an occasion to celebrate the return to life.
The common thread in these shows – whether streaming or live and in-person, with a blitz of celebrities and influencers elbowing one another for seats in the front row – was a shared commitment to a more inclusive, sustainable and healthy fashion.

We attended runway shows in these four fashion capitals with the spirit and perspective of Vespa, which has always been synonymous with cutting-edge style. Here, we’ve identified 7 season trends that align with our philosophy.

So, what should you look out for in women’s fashion next spring?
Take your seats: the show is about to begin.

Fashion Changes the Rules

Inclusive, sustainable, genderless and edgy, fashion is breaking all its taboos, proving that it has finally gotten on board with the various socio-cultural changes that have taken hold in recent years. There are no more ideal sizes, weights and shapes for women. Instead, the idea is to be unique, to follow your instinct, and to embrace a long-awaited and well-deserved freedom.

Fashion is less snobby and inviting a larger audience to attend its shows thanks to live-streaming. In the process, it’s adopting a new audio-visual language, playing with video, music and art and drawing inspiration not just from the streets (yes, street style is still a favorite sport for photographers), but also from TV series, environmental activists and powerful women leaders.

You have to wonder: in this world that’s coming back to life, is there any room left for haute couture? Based on the fascination it instils in industry veterans and the general public alike, the answer is a resounding yes!

Fashion Is Joyful

This will be a Spring-Summer season brimming with enthusiasm, a time for mixing and matching, juxtaposing urban and romantic styles. Go ahead, indulge yourself with a pair of sky-high platform sandals, show off your legs with barely-there mini-skirts (even if your 20s were – ehem – a while ago), and haul out those old clothes with funky prints from the back of your closet. This will be a body-positive season full of optimism. And we say, bring it on!

Fashion Is Effortlessly Cool

While it’s true that fashion’s new mantra is “all women are beautiful,” we still need to learn to choose styles that suit us, that make us feel comfortable and, at the same time, are trendy and fresh, with a bit of a wow factor.
The secret is simple: simplify and emphasize.
Choose one style at a time (daily, weekly, monthly, for life) and build an outfit around that.

Then, try to turn your own quirks into defining strong points. What’s the most effortlessly cool accessory this season?
A brightly colored Vespa.

Fashion is Colorful

There’s a lot of yellow, but also fuchsia, lime green and orange. Think vibrant, joyful solids, or prints with flowers, leaves or mushrooms, on light, ample fabrics, with sharp but ultra-feminine cuts. Next season’s looks are for the green-at-heart city woman. At Vespa, we’ve always been color aficionados, so we can only salute this almost uncontainable color explosion.

Which designer provides the best inspiration? Prabal Gurung and his intensely bright color palette, as well as emerging designers from the New York and London fashion scenes.

Fashion is Timeless

What’s old is often new again on the catwalk, as designers frequently look to the past for inspiration, reinterpreting old trends, dusting off dated cuts/colors/fabrics/accessories and making them relevant again. The most recent runway shows in Milan placed great emphasis on the early 2000s, with opulent, experimental styles full of audacious sensuality.

From Dolce&Gabbana, to Blumarine, and Roberto Cavalli, these collections conveyed a yearning for new beginnings, with a lot of sauciness and optimism thrown in for good measure, in tiny silhouettes, sequins, feathers, bandanas, platform shoes and other “girly” footwear styles. Millennials may suddenly feel old as they see the must-have trends of their teenage years reemerge.

Fashion Is Classy

We said it once and we’ll say it again: inclusiveness was the hallmark of this fashion month, with the spotlight on women of all shapes and sizes. The desire to showcase individual femininity, to celebrate personal style, translated to a lot of classic looks on the catwalk: the sort of elegance that relies on crochet, high heels, loosely cut dresses and sharply tailored jackets with lace bralettes underneath (hello, Fendi).

These looks were for the modern city woman, who is sensual and self-possessed and rejects clichés about what it means to be feminine.

Fashion Is Irreverent

The Balenciaga show was a real French Revolution.
Guest at the Théâtre du Châtelet were seated before a big screen as the runway show took place outside, on a fake red carpet, with models, celebrities and fashion house employees showing off the clothes before a disoriented general public, passers-by and photographers.

Immediately after the show, the audience was treated to a big screen viewing of a never-before-seen Simpsons episode, in which Homer and family are transported to the Balenciaga world. The brand understood before others that it was time to admit publicly what everyone had been whispering for years: fashion is pure entertainment, a kind of communication that pulls together different languages, a form of storytelling that alters our view of the world and – finally! – addresses everyone rather than a select few.

Though fall has just begun, if you’re already itching to get your wardrobe ready for spring, here’s our advice: don’t go anywhere without a leather biker jacket, which is a must-have item; keep an eye out for dresses with fringe and micro shorts (and micro skirts); and stock up on a few arm cuffs (those upper arm bracelet bands Etro dragged out of the attic).