Color on the Runway: Custo Barcelona

Ever since I first walked into Custo Barcelona's Soho store, I have been in love with their line of clothing. The brand was founded by brothers Custo and David Dalmau in 1981 and began as a collection of screen-printed T-shirts for men and women in Barcelona. Today, Custo is the sole designer and the popular international brand has expanded to include swimwear, dresses, leggings, coats, and pretty much every type of clothing known to man.
Custo Barcelona is most well-known for its signature one-of-the-kind prints collaged together with a truly dazzling color palette, so it seems almost like cheating to feature them in the "Color on the Runway" segment. But their spring 2011 show was simply fantastic, so I can't say no.

The spring 2011 show stayed true to the line's style with its use of print and color, mixing them together on skin-tight minidresses and bright cardigans. There were dresses and tunics that fluttered in the wind of models walking down the runway, heavily coated in colorful fringe. Feather-like texture was heavily present throughout, showing up subtly on miniskirts and in bold, voluminous, rainbow clouds on dresses. For an extra pop, the clothes were matched with platform sandals with chunky straps in colorful prints. Some models even carried fun, patterned totes. Every look was intriguing and playful, making it extremely difficult to choose which looks to feature here.

Photos from nymag.com

Menswear is generally bland in color and in silhouette, but in staying true to their signature, Custo Barcelona presented stunning pieces for their menswear line as well.

Photo from nymag.com

Overall, I really admire Custo Barcelona for staying consistent with their playful, colorful aesthetic, especially in this economic climate, where fashion designers have had to cut down on risk-taking in order to make enough sales to survive. Custo Barcelona is really the king of print-on-print, one of the newer and more difficult trends, and always manages to present new, exciting and whimsical clothing in a seemingly effortless manner.

Seeing these looks makes me want to rush right down to their store and buy it all!

Visit custo-barcelona.com to learn more or click here to shop online.