Back to Cool

As New York Fashion Week is around the corner, and chunky September issues of your favorite mag rags are on newsstands that are chocked full of fall styles, I have decided to put together a list of trends of what will be hitting the streets in the next few months.

EARTH TONES

Nudes (think tan, beige, caramel, mocha, off-white) and even pale-pinks have seem to be a trend this past spring and summer. But as the summer sun dwindles into an autumn haze, we will see nudes being slowly carried into the early autumn but will mutate into darker, warmer earth tones such as army greens and dark browns with a splash of off-white. To add a dash of amazing, I suggest throwing in a sapphire blue piece, like a top, in fabrics like viscose and silk.

Photos from iLikeMyStyle.net

90s / GRUNGE

The Nineties are back. Fashionistas will be looking to TV shows such as Clarissa Explains It All, My So-Called Life, and Daria for inspiration. Key pieces/accessories/looks include:

• Men’s flannel shirts
• Oversized T shirts
• Shredded crop tops
• Light/acid wash denim
• High-waisted denim cut offs
• Bodysuits
• Bed-head hair
• Floral print floor length tank dresses cinched with a belt and/or with a pair of fierce high heeled shoes
• Cotton-lycra bike shorts
• Long dangling chains with rustic rings and bracelets
• Backpacks
• Perforated sweaters/tops
• Doc Marten shoes
• Palladium shoes

Additional inspiration can be found in the movies Mallrats, Clueless, Reality Bites, Encino Man, and Empire Records.

TEXTURE

Over the last few seasons there has been more of an emphasis on the texture and the fit of garments as opposed to focusing on prints and graphics. More solid colored pieces are popping up everywhere but with a focus on the way the clothing is cut and the shape/form it has draped on a body. To help these solid colors “pop” is to choose a piece with textured fabric giving a 3-D visual effect to the outfit.

Even though the influence of the 90s Grunge look is making a resurgence into street style, we seem to be slowly moving away from the minimalist trend of the 90s (think Calvin Klein) of solid, body-hugging forms with clean and straight lines. In this new decade we will probably move the minimalist design of yesteryear and push it forward into the future by adding 3-D textural elements to garments and more shape/flow. And I’m not talking about just fabric paint and bedazzled jewellery via the 80s, but geometric and realistic shapes such as pyramids, concaves, chain-links, flowers, and spheres for example.

American Apparel (L); Henrik Vibskov (R)

In the realms of beauty, we will be seeing fair skin with red glossy lips and burgundy eye shadow. In addition, there will probably be less emphasis on excessively filled-in eye brows, but rather creating a more natural eyebrow shape to frame the face. This season should also bring more attention to lip and cheek colors (I would personally love to see dark purple blush on all skin tones!) Oh, and did I mention black and dark purple lips are also hot-to-trot? ‘Cause they are in my book!

As for sunglasses which are one accessory whose shape should change each season, I expect to see more John Lennon-esque shaped glasses. Some variations could include red lenses in black, thin frames, or even jet black lenses in thick, metallic frames. Also, there needs to be more mixed-shaped frames like the ones Grace Jones wore in the Zorin airplane meeting scene in the James Bond film A View to a Kill.

The following is a list of trends that I hope and will most likely die soon:

• Dresses and over-sized dress shirts belted at the waist to form an hourglass figure – more likely to see an emphasis on flow + oversize fits or tight + long garments
• Flat, pin-straight hair is out – natural, wavy, messy hair with volume on the side is in
• Neon-colored wayfarers – It’s so done like the Jersey Shore cast in 10 months time, which reminds me…
• Anything from Ed Hardy

To see more up-to-date, daily trends from the streets of New York and beyond, check out my street style blog, CLICK/CLASH: http://www.clickclash.blogspot.com