Every season the runway collections offer up fresh print directions, as well as interesting updates to the standard categories such as florals, animal skins, and geometrics. Here we bring you our favorite printwear collection picks from the AW 14 Runways. All are chosen for their innovative directions or techniques. And without further ado, here are Pattern People’s Best of the Best from this season’s runways!

ANIMAL

Mixing texture and abstraction with animal skins, Barbara Bui creates a modern interpretation of the age old classic.

FLORAL

Dark florals were all the rage last season, but Tia Cibani brings a lighter touch to her AW collection by applying a blur effect to her retro feeling floral prints.

OPTICAL

Popular also with the menswear collections, the optical theme is a great update for stripes. Bottega Veneta’s warp treatments add an extra layer of interest to this bold and graphic direction.

ABSTRACT TEXTURES

Akris, Christian Wijnants and others brought us some amazing textural prints. However, Sportmax’s designs do a great job at bridging the painterly patterns of last season.

CUT OUT COLOR BLOCK

Issa’s modern collection offers an organic update to the color block trend using bold splashes of color and graphic shapes to create a series of pop-tastic prints.

PRINT MIXING

Plaids are ever present in AW collections, but Clover Canyon’s approach mixes photographic elements with optical inlays for a fresh look.

COLLAGE

Carven’s clever use of cut out silhouettes coupled with vintage photographic elements taps into the Dadaist undercurrent flowing throughout many of the AW14 collections.

GEOMETRIC

Another inevitable category, geometrics this season vary from tessellating patterns, as seen at Temperley London, to simple, deco block forms like those at Chanel or Viktor & Rolf. Emma Cook manages to capture all of these key trends in her collection with aplomb.

– Jessie Whipple Vickery and Claudia Brown

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