Fashion designer Sarah Stevenson’s apartment in Toronto, Ontario, Friday February 21, 2014.Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail
The question
I love floral prints but worry that they are an expected spring look. What's a fresh way to wear them?
The answer
Spring is to florals as fall is to tartans, but that doesn't necessarily make them predictable. A designer's raison d'être is to give customers new incentive to purchase something familiar, after all.
But while there are as many ways to reinvent a floral print as there are flower species (see Christopher Kane's textbook-style iris illustrations and Dries van Noten's Flemish tulips for two of this spring's standout options), you should consider which blossoms work best for a given context and for your personality. Without knowing you, I can't entirely say whether you should opt for a subtle calico or something a little louder. Maybe a trip to Mulberry is in order?
The British brand's spring collection includes both demure options in a silvery brocade that mimics a field of blooms as well as a statement silk covered in painterly petals and leaves in shades of coral and navy. And if you're not a wallflower, Carven's neon camouflage version is a bold and fresh way to grow your wardrobe of posy prints.
Amy Verner is The Globe and Mail's Paris-based style reporter. Have a fashion question? E-mail style@globeandmail.com. Follow her on Twitter: @amyverner.