Looking around in some of the most fashionable cities, such as Berlin, London and New York, only one conclusion can be made: neon is everywhere. Formerly only vaguely remembered as something from the 80s, neon is currently enjoying a huge revival. Neon colors are featured in every brand’s summer collection, from bikinis by H&M, to bright neon colored pants by Mango, to the colorful green and yellow bags designed by Marc Jacobs. It almost seems like every important fashion designer got together and decided that neon needed the be the next best thing. Although there was already a fair amount neon presented at the last London fashion week, it was at the time still very much in moderation, with only one neon color or item per outfit. However, during the last months, neon has expanded itself, leading to full head-to-toe neon outfits that seemed to be adored by almost every fashion lover.
I personally never expected neon to be such a great hit. My biggest concern at the time was that neon colors can look really harsh on anyone who is not gifted with a perfectly bronzed skin, and therefore I did not deem the trend to be for me. I am convinced that in the large part, the success of the neon colors is do to clever advertising. Looking closely to the ads of, for example, H&M and MIU MIU, it shows that all featured models are insanely tanned. So tanned, that H&M was even criticized by multiple agencies for promoting unhealthy tanning habits, and hereby indirectly promoting skin cancer. Whether or not this is true, it does make me wonder: do you need to be tanned in order to pull off the neon trend, or can we also rock neon with a pale skin?
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