Sad story – I had to throw away my favorite winter boots. It seems like they can’t handle any more snow and neither can I. So let’s take a look at what the spring and summer have for us, maybe that will help change the weather for the better. Nothing major. A local warming would do.
CHECK that out!
Sandals ready for the new season – check! What’s the pattern of SS 2012? Also check! Checkered pants, blazers, shirts of all possible colors and shades. The main guideline here is once again ‘less is more’: solid color pants are the only choice if you picked a checkered blazer and the other way around. A dash of common sense and you’ll turn heads in amazement rather than mockery.
Blazers with shorts
Clearly spring-summer 2012 takes the classics to certain extremes, but real life sometimes leaves no room for this avant garde. That’s where informal suits come in handy and, more importantly, trendy. Designers offer lighter and more relaxed interpretations of the standard suit. For the office workers among us I would stick to beige, light grey and all the possible variations of caramel and sand. The perfectionist planners may even try combining pants and blazers as separates: the trick here is to pick darker pants if the two items are the same color or go for same-intensity colors if you decided to mix more than just one tone. Neons are a very interesting choice here but only for a more ‘party-slash-clubbing’ type of setting.
Shiny fabrics
Who said shiny suits are tacky? This season shiny fabrics are everywhere: suits, tees, cardigans even some footwear. This may sound like one of the extremes mentioned before, but properly ‘tamed’ the shiny spirit adds a much needed relish to the casual summer looks. Now to the glue that holds us fashion-mongers all together – the RULES. Total looks are forbidden fruit here, if you are going for shiny suits remember it will give away your ‘missed workout’ secrets in no time so don’t risk if you can’t boast a perfect physique. Go for accessories or items easily combined with standard basics. Shine on!
Informal suits
I’ve always wanted to work at a home office and talk to my boss via video-conferencing. I could just throw a blazer on and stay in my favorite shorts: luckily, this season we can do the same on a daily basis. The formality and dressiness of a blazer is accentuated trough the summer mood of the shorts. There are several rules to bear in mind though. First, shorts are – as strange as it sounds – a shorter version of dress pants. Your casual Hawaiian print surfer bermudas are not shorts hence they don’t go together with blazers. Gym shorts also don’t mix with blazers. Once you have the proper kind of shorts you can play around with colors and length. The latter depends on the occasion and how daring you are; the former is based on the colors of the other items in your outfit.
Leather & Denim
Leather is in but in a new non-hard-rock interpretation: light grey leather trenches for those occasional gloomy Sundays in April, minimalistic aged leather jackets with an air of adventure to them . . . and leather pants. Wait! Don’t pull your Oktoberfest Lederhosen out of the wardrobe just yet (How did he know I have them?). The most up-to-date fashion item is slightly shortened dress pants with a classical crease made of fine leather. If things get too toasty in those the most daring of us may and should switch to formal shorts. Yes, also in leather. Should your personal beliefs or lack of audacity keep you from wearing all of the above, try denim. Against all rules this season allows us to mix and match different denims: shirts with shorts, jeans and jackets, even tees and waistcoats. Just avoid total looks. Word of caution.