Print: The New Neutral

For the past few seasons, prints have just been getting more and more powerful. They're basically the new neutral - or have they been all along? You most likely wore a print within the first few days of your life, and come to think of it, if it happened to be a sleeper covered in cartoon flowers, dinosaurs, cars or teddy bears, that print would actually be very on trend right now. Look at you, fashion pioneer before you could talk. 

If you're looking to work a really fresh, hot-from-the-runway twist on prints and florals and the like just aren't cutting it for you, fear not. As you know, the hottest print trend lately has been super innovative motifs - landscapes (some actually taken by the designer themselves, like Zero+MariaCornejo), blown-up digital images, even science experiments like Helmut Lang's skirt featuring the pattern created by caffeinated spiders during a 1960s project. Maybe this is old news to you, but I really don't care because this is my blog and I don't come to your house and tell you to stop dancing around to Annie Lennox in your pajamas, do I? I am obsessed with prints and I'd like to spotlight my favorite destinations for them. Lots of designers have been stepping up with stellar print offerings - hello, Altuzarra tropicals - but these are the labels that can always be relied on every season for some serious pattern.

(Image via Style.com)

Duh, Mary Katrantzou. She is a freak of nature, I don't even understand where her genius vision comes from. She makes you realize how amazing things are, from sea life to the possibility of being a human typewriter.

(Image via Style.com)

Oh, haaai, Christopher Kane. Your presence on the list is a given, because your take on prints - whether they're pretty flowers or frightening roaring animals - is delightfully warped in a very chic and colorful way.

(Image via Style.com)

Peter Pilotto, because season after season, it's hands-down the best acid trip I've ever had.

(Image via Polyvore.com)

Dion Lee's prints are like the highest quality photographs you'll ever see, and of really cool things. I still pray to this skirt every night before I go to bed.

(Image via TheOutnet.com)

Julie Haus's modern graphics and subtle landscapes strike just the right balance between contemporary and feminine.

(Image via http://thisblogisreserved.com/post/24341908108)

The line Marios was introduced to me by the amazingly chic girls behind the blog Rachel Et Nicole. Every one of their recommendations is brilliant, so it's no surprise that this one had me dreaming of landscape prints for a week. This discovery was nothing short of life-changing. Marios combines some of the most unique photographic prints you will ever see with cool, contemporary silhouettes for modern-art results. See for yourself: http://www.marios.eu/

Handbags and Hugs,

Astor