New trends from fashion weeks

The fashion weeks in New York, London, Milan and Paris that show trends for fall 2012 (collections are always shown 6 months in advance) wrapped up earlier this week. The exact looks shown at these shows won’t be worn by the average person, so why should we care? I’m glad you asked.

The fashion world and industry revolves around these shows and the trends for the next season are created from them. This means, at your local department store or even mass marketer like Wal-Mart, you’ll see a version of the trends that were shown. Of course, they won’t be as strong as the runway originals, but there will be some sort of resemblance of them.

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lace, Tadashi Shoji. (Photo: Frazer Harrison Getty Image.net)

Lace had a huge presence in quite a few of the designer collections. There was lace from head to toe and sometimes just lace accents. There were lace tops and lace skirts. There were a lot of dresses with the lace overlay somewhat hiding a mini dress behind it. Ladies, be discreet when wearing lace. Unless you’re a major celebrity (and sometimes not even then), it’s not appropriate to wear lace with only undergarments beneath it.

Capes are huge this season. I personally love capes. They come in all different styles, sizes and lengths, so there’s one for everybody. I even saw a few modeled in the men’s fashions. Yep, you can be manly and wear a cape. In case you’ve forgotten, in many centuries gone by, men wore them on a daily basis. In my wardrobe, the more dramatic, the better, but there are short ones that go to either chest or waist length. You may even be able to find one in a vintage store.

Military inspired jackets were another trend that was seen lots during these fashion weeks. In my mind, military looks never go out of style, and these are fresh, updated versions that are very eye catching. They have plenty of large shiny buttons that every good military coat has. There are different colors to choose from instead of just the usual neutrals.

Fur, Michael Kors (Photo: Frank Harrison, Getty Image.net)

Fur is very hot this season. Fur never goes out of style, but it was shown by many designers in different, modern, beautiful ways, shown as whole coats, as accents on sleeves and around collars. It was even shown as trim on pants — different but cool. It was also being shown in many different bright colors including purple, green and orange. One look I didn’t like, however, was the patchwork look. Putting all different types, lengths and colors of fur together looked like a tabby cat that had been in a brawl– not a good look.

Peplums were shown in the majority of fall collections. Sometimes they were full peplums and sometimes partial peplums, either on each side or in the back with the front being more straight and tailored. I’ve always loved peplums. They look great on a variety of different body types. The one body type I’d caution wearing peplums is an oval (stomach is largest part). A peplum will just accentuate this.

Prints including the whole outfit (not necessarily matching), are hot. They could be the same pattern on all pieces of the outfit or the patterns could be different on each piece. The patterns shown most are florals and bold geometric, digital prints. If you’re print adverse, try an accent such as a scarf or just your top. Be careful when putting various prints together; it can be done very effectively but you need to know what you’re doing.

Embellishment, Falguni & Shane Peacock (Photo: Frazer Harrison Getty Image.net)

Last but not least, and my favorite trend, is embellishment. I’m all about the bling, so the more refined embellishment, the better. There were so many designers that showed embellishment in their collections, it was kind of amazing. I loved analyzing each one. Each one of these garments is a piece of art due in part that each of the crystals was hand sewn on. You can’t go wrong if you purchase a garment that has high quality, sewn on embellishments. Skip the cheap, glued-on bling. They’ll just fall off.

So what trends will you incorporate into your look for fall? A valuable piece of advice: only use the trends that are right for your color palette, body type and lifestyle, or you’ll waste money and be disappointed.