NYC Lingerie Market A/W 2014 - The 4 Biggest Color Trends for Next Season

Unless attributed otherwise, all photos copyright of The Lingerie Addict.

Now that we've covered Lingerie Fashion Week, it's time to get into the "meat and potatoes" of the lingerie market season... trends!

This year, I'm doing something a bit different with our trend reports. As opposed to covering just a handful of my fave brands, I want to start giving more general trend overviews for the entire market, and then focusing on a few specific designs or designers I liked after that. That'll mean more articles (which is part of why this year's market report has taken forever), but it should mean better and more comprehensive coverage. Though I make no claims of being a fashion journalist (my background isn't a secret, after all), I'd really like to move TLA in the direction of more serious lingerie commentary. There just isn't enough of that, and I believe that if we're going to treat lingerie as fashion then it's important to talk about lingerie in the same way we talk about fashion. My only frustration is that I'm still developing the right vocabulary. If only I'd gone to fashion school instead...

Ah well, enough prattling. Time for the trend report!

The 4 Big Color Trends for Autumn/Winter 2014

When it comes to colors, we all know the usual Fall/Winter favorites --- namely, black and red & black. The former has been a lingerie staple for decades, and the latter is one of the most popular colorways for Christmas and Valentine's Day alike. So the fact that many designers are incorporating variations on black, scarlet, rust, burgundy, and other deep red tones is no great surprise.

However, the next big colorway for Fall/Winter is blue, usually midnight blue or navy blue, and very often combined with black, as you can see from the sampling of designers below. Navy is such an elegant color; it really speaks to refinement and luxury.  It's sumptuous, but not overdone. I'm really looking forward to seeing this color, and it's various combinations, in stores come September or so.

 

Another major color trend for F/W 2014 is shades of neutral or nude, and I'm not talking about the usual beige here. Instead, we're seeing lots of chocolate, blush, peach, and tan. That's incredibly exciting to me, not only because these shades offer a range of nudes for many different skintones, but also many of them work very well as beautiful fashion colors on their own. I'm particularly smitten with all things blush.

Finally, A/W 2014 is bringing a ton of fun, creative prints. There are slightly different takes on classic fall/winter favorites, like animal print, as well as marvelous brand new prints, like Dear Bowie's eyelash pattern. Florals are always a big deal in lingerie, to the point where I'm almost reluctant to call it a trend (like lace), but I did see a couple of really great floral prints I liked... they almost felt out of place for winter!

Aside from these four major color trends, I always spot a few what I call "one-off" trends, which are usually interesting color or design elements that only appear in a handful of brands (if that). Cosabella's ombré lace was probably my favorite one-off trend of market. That's not to say Cosabella invented this trend (I've seen a few indie designers use it before), but it is an interesting design element nonetheless.

And that's it for colors and prints, but we're just getting starting with lingerie market reports! Next up? Design trends and technological innovations.

What are your thoughts on the color trends shown here? Anything you're especially excited about for next season?