Fashion Forward - Spring 2013

New York is abuzz as Fashion Week rolls into town! These runway shows symbolize the beginning of the spring! 

 

The Spring 2013 colors and styles are already well defined and are just now beginning to hit retail stores across the country. We thought perhaps a report on the fashion colors for Spring 2013 would help you – whether you are buying new clothes for yourself, products for a farm store or dyeing yarns and spring accessory items like we are.

It’s a good year to use those natural alpaca colors – particularly the beiges and light fawns, as well as silvers. You know, of course, that you can “create” your own silver by adding 10% black fibers to 90% white fibers. It is a perfect way to use what the alpaca industry has called “contaminated” grey or black fibers. Here at WoodsEdge we have been “creating” grey yarns since the late 70’s in sheep’s wool, as there were few light silver grey fleeces!

I particularly like to add my own signature to the beige or light fawn products by over dyeing with a pale pink Linen or soft Nectarine. I feel these over-dyed colors are more feminine, more saleable, and look better on more skin tones.

Handspun handknit shawl made from medium silver grey alpaca overdyed with a hint of blue.
Vintage WoodsEdge circa 1990's.

It is also definitely the season to over dye light silver grey. We are excited to have four new grey alpaca yarns to add to our repertoire this spring and look forward to over dyeing the pale silver grey as well as the variegated silver grey and soft brown tweed as soon as this arctic air mass dissipates. This is the perfect natural color to over dye to achieve the dusky blues, Grayed Jades and muted lavenders such as African Violet. In fact, many of the blues shown this season could be over dyed on pale silver. With blues being one of the easiest colors to wear by many different skin tones, it is sure to be the color you will want to stock up on if you are in retail.

The new bright colors on the scene are Emerald and Tender Shoots (aka chartreuse), which look fabulous with Monaco Blue or Dusk Blue. Poppy Red paired with white, navy or black continues to be a quintessential All American favorite.