Bloggers, Fashion Forecasters, and Stylists

As much as I have searched the web to find out where colorblocking stands for this season, I haven't been able to find many articles that discuss solely color blocking. Therefore, I don't feel as though it is that big of a focus right now and do feel as though it is slowly in the decline. The first website below is a link to a website that indicates colorblocking is a trend right now, and it shows us the different ways to colorblock. The second link is one to style.com from 2011, when colorblocking was hot on the scene and being talked about everywhere. The last article was saying that the black and white colorblock trend was in for Spring 2013, and tells us how to wear the trend to pull it off best.

http://www.fashioncincy.com/fashioncincy-weekly-trend-alert-summer-to-fall-2013-color-blocking/

http://www.style.com/trendsshopping/trendreport/011811_Trend_Reports/HyperColor/

http://www.examiner.com/article/black-and-white-color-blocking

Evolution of Colorblocking

The concept of colorblocking first started with the artist Piet Mondrian in the 1930s, who painted a geometrical painting of different colored blocks separated by black lines. In 1965, Yves Saint Laurent turned this painting into a dress. Therefore, this trend has been around for over 10 decades. The trend has moved through the fashion cycle several times, and its popularity both risen and declined. The most recent peak in popularity was for color colorblocking in 2011 and 2012, largely due to Gucci's Spring 2011 line. As for black and white colorblocking, I believe that it is currently in mass acceptance on the fashion cycle, which is why fashion designers aren't using it as much because they think that it is slowly on its way out.

Public Opinion

Upon asking a few different people about colorblocking, whether they thought it was popular right now, and whether they liked the trend, these are the responses that I got:

"Personally I don't really colorblock just because that's not my style but I could see that being flattering and definitely appealing for a lot of people I just personally don't make an effort to colorblock." - Morgan Walsh

"I tend to colorblock when a dress comes already made that way... it's safer than putting  two items together. I don't think that colorblocking is as in right now as it was a few years ago. Back like two or three years ago color blocking with color was really big and I was into it because I love lots of bright colors, but I don't wear that much black and white." - Stephanie Hegedus

"I think a lot of people wear black and white dresses to achieve a classic look. Sometimes they may not realize that they are colorblocking, they just put on the dress because it looks good."

    - Emily Higginbottom

"I love pairing black and white together, but I'm not sure that I truly know what it means to colorblock. I might buy a dress that was colorblocked but I don't think I could put anything together myself. Definitely a nice concept though."- Bethany (woman on the street in Athens)

"I don't think color blocking is big anymore, you'll find a few pieces here and there but the fact that there are so few means its not a big trend right now. As far as the black and white goes, I think a black and white colorblock dress was probably made more for the fact that its black and white than for the fact that its colorblocked."- Shawnia (salesperson at Macy's at Lenox)

"I think colorblocking is cool. We don't have anything in our store that's colorblocked right now, or I would wear it." -Dakota Hammond, store salesperson at American Threads