Fashion: Here Today, Gone or Staying Tomorrow
Help! You yell as the change of another season comes and there’s the newspaper headline – Real trends for real women – and has the top 10 trends for the upcoming season. Only 10, you think sarcastically. You read on and there’s an eleventh in there, as well as five more fashion trends in another article in the newspaper supplement.
It’s no wonder you’re confused about what to buy to feel modern and look good without turning your guest room into a giant walk-in closet.
This is my no-nonsense guide to help business and professional women over 40 interpret the fashion trends of the new season.
Don’t believe all the words
These kinds of articles often tell us to forget about unwearable fashions and runway trends. Ten seems to be a favorite number. So they are going to look for examples of how to interpret the trends chosen for the next season. Sounds useful, but to get ten of them, they mix trends with fads and classics.
A fad is a short-lived, one-season fashion or color that suits only a limited number of women. It is definitely aimed at young and thin or women who can wear the particular color of that season.
A trend is a fashion or color that looks good on most women and lasts for one to three years. It goes from being a fad to a trend in its second year.
When a fashion suits all women and can be interpreted in many different variations, it becomes a modern classic like wrap styles. These are the modern dressing skills that every business and professional woman needs to learn.
Fashion writers prefer to call most fashion ideas trends instead of mania because women will buy into a trend. We convince ourselves that it’s a good cheap buy because everyone is wearing it. When someone close to you asks why the heck you bought that, she can reply that she’ll be wearing it a lot since it’s trendy and trendy.
Go beyond the hype
When you see and read these articles, be critical and go beyond the hype. If there is a seasonal color, for example gold, it is because gold is a color that people with warm colors can wear well. Choose carefully: gold skinny jeans are a trend, while gold accessories are a classic style that suits most women.
Ask yourself these two questions. Will I be happy using this next year and the year after? Are the women whose fashion sense I admire wearing this?’ if you can answer Yeah, to both questions, buy them. if you answer not, return them. Life is too short to spend money on clothes with no real value. You want versatility so you can wear the new item with other clothes you currently have in your wardrobe.
Find the royal treasures
The true treasures of fashion are not fads or trends. They are modern classics or old classics used in a modern way. This is where you learn and apply modern dress skills to your professional and business attire.
An often overlooked classic is the trench coat. If you don’t have one, look for one in a color other than black to go over your dresses or skirts/pants and tops. A red or beige trench coat will look stylish for years and years. Wear your old or new trench coat with a matching or contrasting color narrow or medium width leather belt as an alternative to the cloth belt that comes with the coat.
Sheer fabric jackets are also a modern classic. They can be interpreted differently for various seasons. The material adds interesting texture, allows the colors underneath to shine in a new light, and covers, but doesn’t completely hide, the arms; good for those who care about flabby arms and wrinkles.
Of course, read and watch any article about the main trends of each season. Don’t believe all the words. Go beyond the hype. Find the real treasures. Let your true personality shine through.