"We don't believe for a minute that fashion is going to turn all austere, that consumers are going to start dressing all in black," Pascaline Wilhelm, fashion director at textile fair organiser Premiere Vision, told reporters.
From neon pink to deep ochre or metallic silver-blue, and a slew of synthetic greens from traffic light to pale mint or lime, the season will be "very colourful, serene, punchy without being aggressive," she forecast.
Fabrics for spring 2013 are all about graceful fluidity, with stretchy wool or supple, light-as-air blends of silks and synthetics -- or at the other extreme, thick, scrunchable fabrics that feel almost crunchy to the touch.
Each year Wilhelm's teams sort through 15,000 swatches from a global web of fabric suppliers, who pitch their creations to fashion designers at half a dozen annual fairs organised by the group in Paris and around the world.
For 2013, "we are betting on beauty and innovation," said Wilhelm, who each season puts together a stylebook of colours, textures and patterns, based on the samples and her visits to weavers around the world.
"The sector has really understood that fashion will wither and die if it does that, if it slows down, looks inward. This is a kind of consumption that is driven by desire -- not by necessity."
Geometric patterns come in soft, delicate shades that look as if they could have been drawn with colouring crayons -- or an iPad.
Accessory colours for spring-summer 2013 sweep from frosted pastels to bold primaries in geometric patterns -- but all with a big focus on mixing synthetics and natural materials, Liberati forecasts.
And finally, Liberati spots an accessories trend inspired by the sports world -- with ultra-light materials, and the primary colours of the Olympic rings offset against a pure, tennis white.
by kon
