With new seasons come a change in the weather, a change in leaf color and a change in your wardrobe. Trends are always coming and going, and I know sometimes you can feel overwhelmed with deciding what trends to invest in and what trends to skip. Personally, I think trends tend to be a fun way to push yourself out of your aesthetic element, so remember fashion is about having fun and expressing yourself. You don’t have to adhere to trends to be fashionable, but if you’re looking to try something new and push your fashion boundaries, here are five trends you are going to want to test out for fall.
Seeing Spots
Polka dots had a big showing during the fall fashion season. Designers like Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney used circle shapes and polka dot patterns to play with texture, create bold statements and make outfits have a sophisticated appeal. Now, with fall officially here, you can mix polka dots into your outfits by picking up a pair of spotted tights for a simple, bold statement or layering a polka dot shirt under a blazer or sweater. Forever21 is a great place to find polka dot pattern pieces for reasonable prices, and American Apparel almost always designs some of their classic pieces with a black and white spot combination. Another great thing about polka dots is that even though they were especially big this season, the pattern can be worn any time of the year and is a classic, wearable look that won’t fade out in the spring.
Animal Instinct
When you think animal prints, your mind probably goes straight to cheetah and leopard spots. This fall, designers shook things up and took this trend a little more literal. Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci played with the animal trend by putting images of panthers on his designs, and Marc Jacobs created statement-making pieces like deer-print dresses, shirts and skirts for Marc by Marc Jacobs. He also created handbags with a blue and gold panther print, which makes the perfect bold accessory. If you’ve got a little extra money to spend, you can always invest in one of the $188 panther-print tote bags from the fall line at Saks Fifth Avenue or Neiman Marcus. However, if you’re trying to look trendy on a budget, the best places to go would be Forever 21, Urban Outfitters or Topshop, which has graphic T-shirts with wolves on them and knit sweaters accentuated with Dalmatian dogs.
Mix it Up
While this trend is probably the most intimidating because it can either look really awesome or totally wrong, the easiest prints to mix tend to be floral, stripes and animal. One benefit of this trend is you probably have all the things you need for it in your closet. It’s definitely a great way to prove that you’re style savvy, but if you’re not quite sure what looks good together and want to avoid a potential fashion faux pas, my suggestion would be to look at street style blogs, personal style blogs and the runway shows from the fall. Few designers mix prints as well as Mary Katrantzou, and in the fall, lines like rag & bone and Rodarte also spiced up their outfits by mixing prints. Another way to mix up your style is to play with textures, which tends to be easier than mixing prints. You can combine chunky knits with silk skirts or leather with lace. It’s a fun way to experiment with hard and soft forms, and you probably already own pieces you can use to try it out. It’s a great way to liven up some of the clothes that have been sitting in your closet.
Primary Palettes
Similar to the color blocking trend that blew up during the spring 2011 shows, this season’s use of color includes a lot of red, blue and yellow that definitely make any look pop. The bold and bright hues of the primary palette are classic colors that will help you stand out when everyone else breaks out their black winter clothes. Try spicing up your winter wardrobe with a blue jacket or rocking some red on red pieces like the ladies of Rodarte showcased in their fall collection. You may be thinking no one wears yellow, but come spring you’ll be glad you invested in it before the masses – yellow had a major moment at the spring shows. A great way to play with this trend is to layer blue on blue or red on red, but if you’re not sure you want to push it that far, just try pairing a rich-colored red shirt under a black jacket or a yellow or mustard color dress with black tights.
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It’s a Plaid, Plaid World
Thanks to the creative genius of Marcus Wainwright and David Neville of rag & bone, the world of plaid clothing has evolved past flannel shirts into shearling jackets, dresses and skirts. Another designer who helped break a generalization about plaid for fall is Tory Burch. By showing us that plaid does not have to be red, Burch created a perfect seasonal collection that was chock full of brown plaid in the form of sweaters, dresses and suits. Plaid is a classic and easy-to-rock look that often reoccurs, so if you already have plaid from a few seasons ago when it was huge, break it out, and if you didn’t jump on the bandwagon then, now’s your chance to take the look a little further. Some great places to find unique plaid pieces are American Apparel, which has great plaid skirts and shirts, and Free People, which tends to experiment with plaid in funky forms and colors. Also, you can always throw a plaid button up over your outfit to mix it up, and the best thing about plaid over shirts is that you can get them at your local Goodwill or Salvation Army, so it’s not necessary to go out and spend $40 when you can get a broken-in shirt for $4.