What’s more fun than a road trip with a girlfriend? A road trip with Fashion Friday material, that’s what! One of my dearest friends, Cathryn, and I took off for the Texas Hill Country last Thursday for the primary purpose of going to a leadership conference where I was speaking.
But we had so much fun!
And identified a few fashion nuggets along the way.
I know this will sound counter-intuitive, but the biggest trend we’re seeing is bright color (reds, yellows, blues) alongside very subdued neutrals like grays and blacks. So much of what’s out there is either all one way or the other. But I think it will ultimately yield sophisticated fashion. It leads more shoppers to unique pairings of color and keeps the outfit from looking utterly bland or like a rainbow explosion.
While we unpacked, we found the same concept held true in our own suitcases. Neutral colors blended with bright colors. Cathryn’s reds and robin’s egg blue (which I will try to single-handedly make into the “it” color for spring) were the pops in her otherwise neutral suitcase and my greens and blues were paired with blacks and grays. Ignore our travel look, we had on no make up and had just driven four hours, but look how she wasn’t the only one sporting robin’s egg blue at the conference!
After our “work” day, we had an all play day on the way home. We stopped and shopped. While we exercised remarkable restraint, we are moms on budgets after all, we spotted that color and neutral trend in many stores. We both opted for color purchases. Cathryn with this killer color block handbag from Kate Spade and me with these chartreuse ankle pants from Banana Republic (I can’t wear this color on top, but it will pair with tons of colors I can wear) and a bright blue t-shirt for summer. If there’s a color you love but which doesn’t marry well with your skin tone, handbags and pants are great ways to inject it in your wardrobe!
There were other trends we saw. Ones which may warrant their own blog post. I’d love to hear your thoughts as I’m still mulling mine. Those naked shoulder sleeves are EVERYWHERE. I won’t mention I’m still seeing rompers because you know my feelings on that (far less pervasive though). Ruffles are on EVERYTHING. Ruffles on bottoms of shirts and on dresses and on sleeves. Cathryn is circumspect on this trend. I even saw this on my Nordstrom catalogue cover this week:
As further evidence of the color next to neutral store trend, I popped into the new ModCloth store in Austin with a friend after meetings yesterday (such fun stuff!) and it was the same look. Peacock dresses next to gray and black. (I feel I need a peacock dress. Someone going to talk me out of this?) Bright green raincoats next to denim. I left so cheery after seeing so many happy choices.
So how about you? What are you seeing as you adventure out to shop?
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