Searching the streets of Cardiff to find the latest trends as well as what we can expect to see in Spring/Summer 2022 and beyond

Words and pictures by Laura Chapman and Kate Rossini

Walking around Cardiff, you can expect to see a variety of dress senses providing inspiration for your wardrobe must haves. We searched for individuals who we felt embodied the current trends, and took pictures of them.

Elinor and Imogen, both 21 , currently studying history and philosophy

Elinor and Imogen are embodying the current fashion trends. Recently the early 2000’s fashion trends, shortened to “Y2K” have made a comeback. This means cargo trousers, oversized puffer coats, small sunglasses and a classic chunky trainer.

Bottega green is the colour that seems to have stuck around since summer 2021. Sophie is showcasing this trend with her North face puffer jacket. North face was once seen as a brand for outdoor enthusiasts but has now become more mainstream as a streetwear classic.

Formal wear can be seen being dressed down to make it a more casual, everyday item. Here we can this with the mix of the hoodie and trainers giving a streetwear, dressed down look to the more formal skirt.

Varsity tops & low rise jeans were something we saw a lot of around the city. Again inspired by the 2000’s era.

Layering is something we have seen a lot of this season, with people valuing comfort and warmth in the winter. Tennis skirts are also reemerging as well as a more preppy style returning for Spring. Doc Martens are also here to stay with the item being a wardrobe staple for many.

Male fashion currently is also taking a lot of inspiration from the 2000’s. With baggy jeans in, oversized shirts, graphic T-shirts and chunky jewellery.

After finding out what was popular amongst the general public, we wanted to go into the high street shops and take a look at upcoming trends

The current fashion in stores for Spring is full of colours, refreshing to see after a cold winter. We spotted a pattern of key items as follows; varsity jackets, leather coloured blazers, chunky boots, bright shoulder bags, pastel colours and tie dye.

We made a trend board for inspiration & names of places to buy the items we have listed above.

Along with looking at the current trends bracing the streets of Cardiff, we looked into future trends ranging from trend forecasting websites to straight from the catwalk, giving insight to what we can expect to see in Autumn 2023 and spring of 2022.  We created future trend mood boards to showcase the upcoming trends based on colour and looking at high street websites to see what will be in fashion int the upcoming seasons. 

Women’s Autumn/Winter 23 displayed key colours such as oat milk, showing a shift towards a warm, rich hue of oat milk. Knitwear is a prominent trend for this colour, terracotta was another transitional colour, slightly developed from the usual brown shade it exhibits a warmer tone. Pink Guava is seen to present joy which neutralises stress and anxieties. Pink Guava can be paired with a lime to make a striking statement. 

At the opposite end of the colour spectrum we see dusted pastels. Pastel purple was a popular colour on the spring/summer 22 catwalks. Now they find their way back into mainstream fashion for autumn/winter 23 as these colours provide calming and soothing elements. Another strong colour forecast for autumn/winter 23 carried over from spring/summer 22 is Butter. Butter drives newness through materials and comfort through knitwear. As well as these colours there were luscious reds, French navy’s  and tranquil blues in the forecast for the upcoming seasons. 

Similar to the colour pallet for A/W 23, S/S 22 displays pinks, whites, greens, lilac, butter and oranges. 

Moving on to Men’s future colour trend predictions there were elements of purples, off-whites, luscious reds, greens and sonny yellow. There was a blending combinations between Women’s and Men’s colour pallets. Below is a mood-board we created to display the predicted colour trends with items of clothing taken from high street fashion retailers.

A trend forecasting website stated that trends from Paris Fashion Week that were seen on the catwalk that will make it to the high street included: 

1. Fantasy resort – Elegant trousers and stylish knits
2. Supreme comfort – combining cosines, easy shapes and visually appealing 
3. 90s festival – less polished, grungy, hippy-esque 
4. 70s – bootcut trousers, pointed colours and ringer T-shirts 
5. Hyper functional – protective, cosseting and comfy.