If you haven't caught wind already, 'Elements' by Lisa Clair (lisadale69) is our winner of the Color-A-Plaid Shirt Contest by Betabrand + COLOURlovers. 

To be noted: I [mollybermea] am not responsible for Lisa's palette combination. I simply needed it in palette form for a badge in this post.

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Congratulations to Lisa for her fantastic design!

Here's what she gets:

- A $100 Betabrand gift certificate.
- Recognition on our Web site.
- A Betabrand plaid flannel shirt based on her design — the very first of the batch that we're selling this Fall! Each shirt will have her name on the label (see below).

 WOW, 5,000+ Submissions!

Betabrand wants to thank the COLOURlovers community for the more than 5,000 design submissions they received as well as a big thanks to everyone who voted - five (5) voters also won something special.  Check out Betabrand's announcement here.

"We love collaborating in order to bring new expertise and fresh perspective to Betabrand's daily commitment to invention and this has been one of the most satisfying collaborations we've been involved with to date. We can't wait to see the finished flannel shirts this Fall and we're looking forward to keeping in touch with the COLOURlovers community." - Jared :: Head of Design at Betabrand

If you're just now tuning in, check out the initial contest post, plus here were our nine (9) finalists. That about covers it. Looking forward to the next one!

As the Summer (for most of us) comes to a close and we seep in to Fall, we take a look back at the Mercedes Miami Swim Fashion Week back in July. Noticeable neon Indian inspired Tribal Trends are seeping in to the 2012 RTW ("Ready To Wear") collections.

"From Fierce animal prints to safari suiting, spring is swinging to a tribal beat..." - Vogue.com

 

COLOURlovers themselves seem to be trending amongst pattern and palette designs. Take a look for yourself...

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Mara Hoffman

Mara Hoffman collaged complex patterns and playful color combinations, using cooler hues like ostrich feather green and sky blue as a base to feature rays of fluorescent warmer oranges, yellows, and pinks. Showing a flair for Egyptian patterns and colors, Hoffman cites her husband Javier Piñón’s last collection O Babalon as an influence for her tribal trend.

Dinelia Brazil & Luli Fama

Dinelia Brazil and Luli Fama chanelled their respective Brazilian and Cuban heritages, using similar heavily saturated palettes to create a modern spin on tribal lineated patterns.

Red Carter

Heavily saturated eye-popping brights are set to bleed into the next season, after being mastered this spring by fashion veterans from Haider Ackermann to Jill Sander, and Rachel Roy.  Red Carter used blocks of electric blue, lime green and flaming coral to create strong futuristic swimwear bound to turn heads.

Aqua Di Lara

On the other end of the color saturation spectrum, soft watercolors and bleeding patterns created a rainbow connection. Aqua Di Lara stayed true to its feminine style by evoking galaxy gazing, with midnight blues as a backdrop for whirls of soft pinks, mellow yellows and dewy greens.

Softer pastel prints were also channeled by White Sands Australia in Australian bushland inspired colors of soft olive, sweet peach and pale wattle yellow.  L*Space, Caffe Swimwear and A.Che also proved that pretty pops of posies on a light canvas are eternally classic.

Regardless of your penchant for neon or pastels, next Summer is set to sizzle with these colorful new trends.

All photos courtesy of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Swim

Betabrand, an online-only clothing company that produces limited-edition batches of clothing and accessories, recently paired up with COLOURlovers in the contest, Color-A-Plaid Shirt Contest by Betabrand + COLOURlovers. The contest turned out to be a huge success with over 5,000 entries!

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To enter the contest, COLOURlovers simply had to color a pre-picked plaid pattern - Betabrand2, which had been created by one of our very own Lovers, sec9586. After coloring the pattern it produced a plaid shirt mockup of the finished product.

VOTE HERE AT BETABRAND

The contest is closed and nine finalists were chosen by the Betabrand design team. Voting on these nine selections will be open until NOON (12pm PST) Monday, August 22, 2011.

The Finalists

Betabrand chose the finalists not by the amount of LOVES each pattern/palette got. Simply because this would have been unfair. COLOURlovers had added the ability to LOVE the designs and share them for the fun of the contest.

"Our design team narrowed it down to 9 finalists not based on the number of loves on Colourlovers - because patterns that were created at the beginning of the contest would have an unfair advantage to those created toward the end. As for not picking a winner, but rather narrowing it down to 9, we decided to do that because we were so thrilled with the volume and quality of submissions that we wanted to keep the love going!" - Jared @ Betabrand

The nine finalists in no particular order...

Hipster Plaid by bcrider

cloud nine by martino

*colour hunter* by Sunny21327

Introducing...PLYWERK, an eco-conscious photo mounting and art panel company based in Portland Oregon. They work with professional artists, photographers, interior designers, point and shoot photographers, parents, and everyone in between!

Art pieces are a made up of your print adhered to a Plywerk Panel to create a beautifully natural piece of wall art. Gorgeous bamboo or maple are offered for the wood options.

Plywerk Anatomy 101

Bamboo & Maple Plywerk Panels

COLOURlovers has recently become a Pro Partner of PLYWERK. Why is this super notable to mention? Because you're going to get the best, most amazing deals ever when you create an account (which is free). These deals are customized to COLOURlovers Members Only under the Prodeal membership (which is also free). Pretty sweet huh?

Have you ever wanted to apply your color design abilities to a real-life product? Well here's your big opportunity! Rev up your color coordination skills and become the next palette designer for a plaid shirt offered through Betabrand! You'll get the unique opportunity to color a plaid pattern, see the design in action (applied to a template shirt) and the possibility of having your colors picked for print. How cool is that?!

Betabrand is an online-only clothing company based in San Francisco that produces unique designs in limited-edition batches every week. They make Cordarounds, Japants, DARPA hoodies, Farmer's Market backpacks, disco pants, and much, much more.

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Ready, Set, Contest Time!

We've had our very own, sec9586 create a pattern template for a new plaid flannel shirt that Betabrand plans to release in two versions for the 2011 holiday season. Betabrand has already chosen the colors for one version - the other is up to you!

How it works...

Easy, color the Betabrand plaid pattern template, Betabrand2.

Your colored pattern will automatically appear with the rest of the entries on the contest gallery page. You may color as many versions of the pattern template as you like.

If your colors are chosen...

The Betabrand design team will select one winner, who'll receive the following:

• - A real-life finished plaid flannel shirt;
• - Your COLOURlovers user name on the shirt label (for this 2011 production run - see above image);
• - $100 Betabrand Gift Card;
• - Recognition on the Betabrand web site and in all company communications; this includes photo of the winner in his/her winning shirt (optional).

The contest runs August 2nd - 11th (2011). Anyone who submits an entry will receive a coupon code for 20% OFF any Betabrand product - offer only valid during the contest timeline.

View the Contest Gallery

Color this plaid pattern template to enter (Betabrand2)

I think we can all agree that fashion lives in a pretty little bubble, untouched by the issues that we as its consumers must face on a daily basis.  But where there is art there is heart and the fashion industry is no exception.

Due to the disaster that recently devastated Japan, the country is in desperate need of assistance from the global community, and many designers and online retailers have joined forces with aid organizations such as the American Red Cross and the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. Proceeds from sales of select items will go to these groups among others!

Threadless.com Rebuild Japan Tee's. 100% of net proceeds from the sale of this tee will go to the American Red Cross Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund.

Threadless, well known for it's community-designed, community-picked (aka "scored") t-shirt designs, is partnering up with Steven Alan for a fun, Fall Pattern Design Challenge. We LOVE Threadless because they empower artists and create portholes of success, no matter who you are or where you are at in your art career/hobby. In turn, this produces a wide range of awesomely unique clothing for the rest of us to wear.

Spring is here and to usher in the warmer weather, feast your eyes on these lovely spring dresses. Some upcoming color trends that you can expect to see are uplifting and energizing colors like coral and magenta. You will also see some soft, pastel hues like lilac and sage and nautical colors like cobalt blue and aqua. The classic muted, subtle tones like black and white are almost always in style and this spring is no exception.

One of the biggest trends is the 50s and 60s silhouettes coming back. (Think Jackie Onassis Kennedy and full 50s prom skirts.) The 60s housewife look is definitely hitting the runway in sheath hourglass-shape dresses that cinch in the waist and hips. Other current trends to look out for include lace, crochet, macrame, asymmetrical necklines, and tail hems (that's when the back of the dress is longer than the front.)

The serene and cozy, but heavy and monotonous black, blue, grey and brown shades of Winter are melting from our minds and we're ready for those bright, warm colors of Spring. Undoubtably, we won't be short on color options, and telling from these three designers not everyone is on the same page when it comes to Spring colors. So, we'll just have to wait and see what colors flourish on the street this spring.

Mini Market

The Last Range of Colours by Miles Aldridge was shot for Vogue Italia back in 2007. These playful, ultra saturated photos are quite fun despite the confused, uninterested, insensate, comatose, insensible looks of the models--all great adjectives, and pretty much the complete opposite of any that would be used to describe these colors.

Click on any of the images to create your own palette.