obsession : micro-florals

At the mall yesterday, I noticed a growing trend getting more and more prominent in unexpected places: micro-florals, which are, simply as the name explains, tiny floral prints.  Typically these prints are found on cotton skirts and dresses, but it was hard to miss the few pairs of pastel skinny jeans bearing tightly clustered flowers and even the never-to-be-seen floral prints on underwear.

A little bit country, these prints are growing to be a hipster staple in the forms of printed and cuffed denim shorts, bustier dresses, and printed leggings or tights.  Wearing this trend is simple - it looks amazing with white.  However for the more daring, pick out a color in the print - either the background, or even the "pop" color, and work with that.  The most daring girl, however, would pair a micro-floral with a larger or oversize-floral print of the same color palette (or not, even!) or something more graphic to keep the look from going overly girly.

Examples of micro-floral prints at Rebecca Taylor and Donna Karan respectively, both Spring 2011 RTW

And onto the real girls, and some printed jeans, of course.

 

I can see a pair of micro-floral shorts sewing their way into my near future.  I'm not daring though - I'd stick with the white tank.

And I promise the fashionable real-people of the world are not all Asian.  It just so happens to be that they are.  Or so it seems, from the photos I post.

obsession : thigh high socks

I've been in love with thigh high socks for a while now, and finally took the plunge today (because American Apparel is a block from my house. "Have you shopped with us before?" "Uhh..")

Anyway, I've been thinking about them a lot and whether or not I should take the plunge (obviously my reasons convinced me to) and I realized they are a pretty good idea afterall. Why? They're like the 3-in-1 for your legs.

Option 1

Obviously the first way to wear them are ... as thigh high socks! Don't let this trend keep you away though, there are plenty of ways to wear them without looking like a schoolgirl or a stripper. It's really all about the shoes here. Big towering heels, and you get stripper. Little mary janes? Schoolgirl. The best way to play this trend off are with simple flats, any sort of boot (tall or short), or chunky summer sandals, with or without a heel. They keep the proportions balanced, and don't have any negative image associations.

Option 2

If you get the right kind, you can pull them ALL the way up your leg, and when worn with a skirt, dress, or longer shorts, they transform into tights. The perk? Why not wear tights? You avoid that horribly gravity dilemma between your legs completely. And because they are socks, they come with additional warmth and thickness, and that cute sweatery appearance too.

Option 3

The longer your socks to begin with, the more satisfying "scrunch" they make when you push them all the way down. This is best to do with boots - you get wonderful warmth, and that legwarmer look around your ankles. You can keep the scrunch from ankle to knee, or push them all the way down to the bottom. (For a "real legwarmer" look, fold down your sock from the hem, and pull that over your boot).

And, just for fun ... you can't do this with tights.

fall 2011 rtw : interesting parallels

While browsing through some of the newer fall shows today, I happened upon 3 shows with striking overlaps (and oddly, they were the first 3 I looked at for the night). It was too unusual to pass up writing about, and it will be interesting to see where this shows up in our wardrobes in terms of trending.

Trend one : the sheer underskirt

Givenchy; Commuun

I love this trend. It's unusual - we've seen sheer before, from the past few seasons, and we've seen sheer layers under opaque layers, so this is a fresh new spin on it. These two shows do it very differently; Givenchy switches up volume with a tighter sheer skirt under a printed, full skirt, while Commuun lets the shapes melt together. The result plays with sex appeal in a new way - the opaque layer is very short, but the silhouette is long.

Trend two : the animal graphic

Emanuel Ungaro; Givenchy

In third or fourth grade, I had this cool t-shirt with glow-in-the-dark bats on it, and I also had a t-shirt with a bunch of wolves covering the front. High fashion at an early age? My classmates may not have thought so, but I was just too ahead of their time for them to understand. But really, another interesting similarity, this time with a nod to the 90s. And again, both done very differently. Ungaro keeps the graphic very bold, almost kitschy, while Givenchy abstracts the image (when I first saw this skirt, I had to stare at it for a few moments before laughing when I realized what they were - panthers).

Trend three - horizontal cut-out striping

Givenchy; Commuun

I am completely taken with both of these dresses. An interesting look to see in two different shows, sheer striping along side opaque striping. The stripe widths vary, and the layering in the Commuun dress creates a fantastic and unique silhouette. Givenchy has decided to keep the shape simple, playing with volume around the body and complete transparency for visual interest.

Anyone else find these overlaps fascinating? Three such different designers, all creating a triangle of three very different trends. Fashion always keeps you on your toes!

outfits of the week, 3/6

I know, I failed at doing my little week summary on Saturday! I had a busy weekend so words were hard to come by. But, pictures are worth 1000x that!

Varying shades of pale nudes are just beautiful; a perfectly disheveled dress with an unexpected belt

I love that paper bag shorts are back - and the pink is fabulous with the stripes; it's all about what's around the dress in this one: purple socks, a perfectly matched trench

source: chictopia.com