Is Navy The New Black? And Other Important Questions I Have About Summer Fashion This Year

Directly from the Miami Swim Week runways.

Last week, I had the pleasure of traveling to Miami to attend and cover my first ever Miami Swim Week. Similar to other international fashion week calendars, Swim Week brings the best of the best in its category, with many of the world’s most prominent swim and resort-wear brands staging runway shows right on Miami’s South Beach.

And, as we are now heading into warmer, more humid months, it was certainly interesting to see what colors and silhouettes and accessories might inspire and dominate summer wardrobes this year. Are we finally ready to put “quiet luxury” aside and embrace loud, shimmering patterns? What’s the verdict on heels versus flip flops? And, most importantly, is navy the new black???

So, as the pool chairs at Miami’s recently-reopened Delano hotel are a fabulous place to analyze runway footage, below are some of the notable moments that took place on Miami Swim Week’s runways, and what they might mean for summer fashion this year. And, of course, what they can tell us about today’s broader fashion industry; where we are and where we’re not. Let’s get into it.

NEUTRALS AND EARTH TONES AND MONOCHROME, OH MY!

Interestingly, many of the models who walked down Miami Swim Week’s runways wore monochromatic looks in neutral and earth tones. Given summer is often considered the season for brighter, bolder colors and patterns to shine, I was not expecting to see as many more restrained takes on resort-wear.