Summertrend 2012: embrace your femininity

Blossomed, pencil, pleated, patterned, maxi, mini… For this summer female elegance is all about the skirt. But there’s only one that’s the star of the show this season: the over-the-knee skirt.

The classic skirt with the below-knee hemline, who had his highest point in the fifties, is making a huge comeback this season and has a key-role in many collections. Donna Karan, Burberry, Erdem, Jonathan Saunders, Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, Celine, Dolce&Gabanna, Chloé, Hermès, they all showed their own version of this evergreen. And the message seems clear: embrace your femininity, which results in body- con, pencil skirts on one hand or wide swing skirts on the other hand. This last one is probably the most popular one: high waisted and blossoming, preferably pleated, pastel colored and made out of silk or cotton.

How to wear it? Combine it with a classic blouse, or some chunky knitwear to give it some more edge. Even a baseball jacket could work, to give it an unusual twist and make it less girly.

Just take a look at these catwalk pictures or at all these women we’ve spotted on the street wearing this classic piece. Enough inspiration, we would say.

(Eva Dusch)

Trends ss2010: endless variations

Since a white blouse is one of the most popular basic items, we spotted a lot of these in almost each summer collection. They appeared in three main versions: blouses that looked like jackets, tight waisted blouses and loose-fitting men’s shirts.

New details that were added to these blouses were rolled up sleeves, puff sleeves and collars decorated with ruffles and extra layers. Although designer Gianfranco Ferré has always been honoured for his multiple variations of the white blouse, I’ll bet he couldn’t come up with all the versions we saw for summer 2010.

The models wore their feminine blouses with ruffles and puff sleeves mostly in their pants or skirts (Moschino, Sophia Kokosalaki, Derek Lam, Max Mara), so the waist was accentuated. On the other hand, there were blouses that showed no bodyshape at all at the Junya Watanabe, Cacharel and Chloé fashion show.

There were a few outstanding white blouses. Stella McCartney designed an ultra-long, loose version. At the LoveSexMoney show there was a white blouse with an extremely big collar made of several layers of airy fabric. The white blouses at Girbaud looked like straightjackets. The best white blouse was shown by Aquilano & Rimondi. They made a super feminine white blouse with puff sleeves, large ruffles and ribbons… so classy.

Tess van Daelen

Trends ss2010: shine on!

Putting on an extra sparkle won’t hurt next summer. It’s become obvious that shiny sequins and sparkling details are no longer exclusively used for special events like New Year’s Eve. You can put on a sparkling outfit any day of the week.

Past fashion season the sequins were carefully introduced, yet this season they’re all over the place. Many fashion designers (Oscar de la Renta, Dior, Issa, Lanvin) used sequins and other shiny little details like studs or beads all over their clothing. They made the designs look super expensive and the models looked like princesses or movie stars.

The shiny details mostly came in silver, gold or bronze. Vivienne Tam, Pucci, Blugirl, Ungaro, Matthew Williamson and Asish made theirs in all kinds of colors and patterns. For example Asish had his colored sequins placed in the shape of Mona Lisa and at Ungaro they were heartshaped.

Elie Saab presented a showstopping evening gown sequined from the bottom to the top. Burberry showed us a glittery coat with sparkles looking as sharp as glass. At Aquilano Rimondi we could see several shiny outfits that had sparkling flowers in different shapes and sizes in gold and silver.

Making those items must have taken hours and hours of crafting. So next July when it’s steaming hot outside we will all be walking around with heavy, stiff, fragile, unwashable but oh so glamorous outfits. Shine on you crazy sequin!

Tess van Daelen

Thanks Michael!

Say what you want about Michael Jackson (50) during the last years of his life, but he left us more fashiontrends than we realize. During the Eighties and Nineties Jackson – who died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles june 25th 2009 – was not only a trendsetter in music but also in fashion. Remember his red motorcycle jacket in Beat It, his white ankle socks and black loafers (we saw plenty of those in Milan last week), the too-short trousers (big trend for ss2010), the military-style jacket (Balmain!) and aviator-sunglasses he wore during the Thriller-tour, the white V-neck T-shirts, the Fedora-hat, the smoking, and off course that glitter glove. Jackson was the first to wear a robot inspired outfit before Nicolas Ghesquiere introduced it at Balenciaga. And his dandy-style also inspired menswear-designers over the years. He will be a recognized as a style-icon next to Elvis Presley, Jim Morrisson and  Frank Sinatra. Or like Andy Warhol said: ‘You have to die  first to become an icon’.