The Bigger and Bolder-The Better!

Forget about asking 'Does my butt look big in this?' This summer's big question is 'Does this dress/skirt/tunic/balloon-parka look big on me?' And of course it will, silly. It's meant to.

Dresses as big as barrage balloons, skirts which undulate like breaking rollers on a surf beach, maxis billowing like wind-socks at North Ave Beach, cocoon parkas cagouls and anoraks with the dimensions of a small tent. Everything is over-sized.

As if that were not traffic-stopping enough, then add swathes of big, bright, bold color. No question of blink-and-you'll miss it; eyes wide open and you'll be blinded by the sheer, eye-socking, sizzling shade of it.  Blame it on Raf Simons, the Belgian avant-garde designer and creative director at Jil Sander, who ignored his normal urban minimalist muse and cut loose with maximum impact clothes for a bold extrovert in shocking pink, neon-orange, jade and cobalt techno-silk and gabardine, counter-balanced with the plainest of white cotton Tees.

Simons was not the only one. Alber Elbaz at Lanvin and Albert Kriemler at the Swiss brand, Akris, also pumped-up the volume with the mother of all maxi-skirts in lipstick-red or electric blue, while Miuccia Prada's primary colors, marquee-stripes and prints of monkeys and bananas, all piled together in a hectic melange of big, square-cut, swing-back jackets and rumba-flounce skirts, were the ultimate in big, bold and beautiful.

Prabal Gurung, a favourite of Carey Mulligan, Blake Lively, and Michelle Obama, was just as daring with his clashes of red and pink or turquoise and yellow, and Marc Jacobs, in a voluminous homage to Yves Saint Laurent's 1979 peasant-chic collection, paired off-the-shoulder blouses in purple or pink with big, dirndal skirts in raspberry or tobacco.

So if there's one trend you embrace this summer, make it color done bigger and bolder; it's bound to cheer up the dullest of days... Especially if this Summer weather doesn't arrive soon!

ROKSANDA ILINCIC-SP/SU 2011

JIL SANDER-SP/SU 2011

JIL SANDER-SP/SU 2011

JIL SANDER-SP/SU 2011

AKRIS-SP/SU 2011

REISS-SP/SU 2011

MARC JACOBS-RESORT 2012

PRABAL GURUNG-RESORT 2012

PRABAL GURUNG-RESORT 2012