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Resort Report 2012

A peek at the winter get-away season's six key style trends and the on-trend sunwear looks to pair with them

Erinn Morgan

The Cruise/Resort 2012 season turns up the heat on sunwear with flirtatious cat eyes, luscious colors, eye-popping embellishments, and heritage designs inspired by the freelovin' 1960s. “Beautiful acetate colors are quite strong and you will see that embellishment and logos are making a comeback,” says Pierre Bessez, senior vice president of designer brands at Marchon. “People are now trying to find styles that are special and different than the average frame out there.”

Soft and strong looks for seasonal escapes. 1. Floral Dolce & Gabbana style DG411 from Luxottica; 2. Retro cat Fendi style FS5219; 3. Structured round chic style TB-001, Thom Browne x Dita Eyewear

With sunwear offerings all over the map, clothing trends follow suit with a handful of key looks ranging from feminine to high-tech and modern. “Style trends are a bit all over the place for Resort 2012,” says Blake Kuwahara, designer and president of Focus Group West, an eyewear design firm, “ranging from solids to prints, color to black and white, form-fitting to loose, and above the knee to way below the knee.”

The good news is that sunwear offers an equal diversity of styles, shapes, and colors that will work for the season. “Looks are definitely trending toward the feminine with cat-eye and upsweep shapes finally overtaking the traditional go-to aviator looks of the past several seasons,” Kuwahara continues.

“Round, too, is making a strong comeback with looks from the 30s and 40s being especially ‘of the moment.'”

Here, we take a peek at the Resort 2012 season's top six fashion trends with suggestions from Kuwahara on the best sunwear pairings.

4. Soft and round Chloe style CL 2241 from L'Amy; 5. A classic tortoise with a sports-infused wrap, style LIttle Harbor by Costa del Mar; 6. Color blocked sunglasses blend bright pops with neutrals style Avrum by Mykita

THE TREND: MIRRORED FLORALS

This blossoming style direction reveals floral patterns mirrored on shirts and jackets, as well as skirts.

SUNWEAR PAIRING: Flirty, feminine cat-eyes are the perfect accessory, especially when paired with full, box-pleated skirts.

THE TREND: LACE

Lovely in all-white or off-white shades, lace is a key look for skirts, dresses, and tops.

SUNWEAR PAIRING: Go with an epoxy-covered metal frame to keep the look light and white.

THE TREND: SCUBA-INSPIRED SUITS

Neoprene takes to the streets in form-fitting, ultra-modern, and boldly colored suits, jackets, and skirts.

SUNWEAR PAIRING: Look to modern, wrap-around sunwear masks with a metal chassis, but stay away from plastic shields, which could easily make the wearer look like they're really going for a dunk.

THE TREND: COLORBLOCKING

Big, bold colors in geometric shapes make a statement on skirts, tops, and jackets for the season.

SUNWEAR PAIRING: Choose big, chunky acetate or metal suns with similar colors to play off of the geometry of the colorblocking. Vintage-inspired looks and larger, square silhouettes circa the late 1970s work well with the architectural tone of this style trend.

THE TREND: HEAD-TO-TOE PRINTS

A busy, fashion-forward look that somehow works on suits, pant suits, and more casual dress silhouettes.

SUNWEAR PAIRING: With so much pattern going on, it's best to choose a simple, round silhouette to keep the look pulled together.

THE TREND: PALE YELLOW

Pretty, light yellows paint flowy skirts, wide-legged pantsuits, and trim blazers.

SUNWEAR PAIRING: Stay away from matchy-matchy yellow sunglasses. Opt instead for a contrasting pair in vintage tortoise with brown or G-15 lenses. EB