Promises of a summer holiday adorn Stahl’s poster forecasting the colours of leather for spring and summer 2004. They take their inspiration from colourful English beach huts, southern Italian towns bathed in Mediterranean sunlight and Caribbean islands with colourful houses soaking up the tropical sun.
For the leather world, colours for spring and summer 2004 divide into four groups each with its own picture, each with its own sense:
Eau de Rose is a reminder of the colours of the feminine palette of roses. At its core is rose madder and surrounding it are varying hues of peach, lilac and rose resulting in an iridescent transparency of velvet skin tones and effects of tinted light and tender touch. Like colours by the sea, they seem fragile and shy while at the same time possessing a mature appearance with a blend of confidence and charm.
On the one hand these colours are feminine. On the other hand, when used on stronger materials they become masculine.
These warm and gentle colours provide a feeling of beauty, of romance and of intimacy. Their fashion is one of softness and warmth, perfect for summer cashmeres, for creamy leathers and suedes and for delicate organzas. Their feel is one of simple, clean life in a modern inviting world which also allows places of retreat into personal surroundings.
Gesture is a statement of raw, unfinished surfaces, of alabaster and plaster painted in ‘almost colours’. The subtlety of white contributes to the importance of colours themselves. It helps to define texture, materials and surfaces. It provides a choice between fragile fashion and handcrafted objects.
Relaxing and simple colours, they give a feeling of a relaxed simple life in surroundings that are painted, blanched, plastered and washed or unwashed. They bring a life in the sunshine, the safe bets of the blues of the Mediterranean, of turquoise and indigo used in traditional ethnic and folk patterns against strong white lines.
Being Colour uses brilliant colours reminiscent of the tropics and of natural plumage to produce metallics and iridescent effects. They evolve from the spontaneous ethnic colours of Asia and compliment classic greys, pewter and bronze. Rich in colour they are particularly amazing against a backdrop of low key neutrals and naturals.
Tones of the same colour can be used together, they can be slightly abraded or sun bleached. The starting points are the primitive colours of summer fruits such as raspberry, tangerine, lemon and olives as well as of the sky and chocolate.
Fashion is relaxed and laid-back with dyed and overdyed denims, brightly coloured cottons and a myriad range of summer brights. Patterns are ethnic and boldly traditional. Yet there are clashes and contrast of modern sculpture with Islamic carpet patterns and Indian tapestry, of bohemian and casual formality, of minimal and maximal, and of conventional meeting the bizarre.
Tang, traditional and modern, starts with the natural, with the use of green as the choice in fashion. The colours are fresh, zesty, fruity, a palette of greens that offers individual colours and combinations for every end use.
The effects become important with variations on green being used to create silkiness, rubberised, smooth gloss and gentle iridescence. More natural are the effects of crisp cellulose, of brushing grasses, of dried sun baked fibres, fluffiness and shiny leaves. Living is about an interactive state between indoors and outdoors.
