How to wear the trends in S/S 2007

The Easter weekend is past, and now we're really stepping into spring (or so we hope in the North)....This Spring's trends are strong, bold, eye catching, and very modern, as well as difficult to pull off. On the body conscious side, we have skinny jeans and pants and sky-is-the-limit hemlines. On the other end of the spectrum, we have high waist wide leg trousers and jeans and volumous dresses. Along with the un-figure-flattering trend of shine, this season's looks are not necessarily friendly for people with less than perfect body shapes.

To kick start this season, it is highly recommended that us fashionista start getting active and drop off some of the bulk that we acquired during lazy winter. With this season's tricky trends, it is a challenge to camouflage flaws, especially those stubborn fat in the legs and hips area.

Nonetheless, all is not lost. With some creativity and understanding for your own bodies, it is always possible to update your looks in the most flattering way possible.

Trend 1: The mini dress

The mini dress is one of the key trend of the season. They come in all sort of shapes and colours: neon or vivid hues; the classic little white dress, monotone contrast, fun prints, and even metallic. For shapes, there are trapezoidal shape, body tight, shift dresses...etc. For those with toned bodies, the body conscious dresses are perfect to show off some curves. For those with imperfect waistline or tummies to hide (like myself -_-"), shift dresses and trapezoid shapes would be excellent choices to camouflage the little extra flesh in the mid section. Although the middle part is dealt with, this season's dresses mostly come in rather short length which exposes a gd part of your thighs. A dark washed skinny jeans or black skinny pants worn under mini dresses could help with this issue as they gives illusions of longer, leaner legs. Black tights (tights, no more leggings please) with sky high platforms would also have the same effect. And with the colour choice, go for prints involving darker colour, such as yellow on black or blue on black for more slimming effect. White actually can be a very good choice for volumous dresses with light fabric. White gives off a cooling effect and makes a person look lighter and more comfortable. On top of that, the LWD is always a summer wardrobe staple that never really goes out of fashion. Take advantage of this year's variety of choices and purchase one!

Trend 2: Skinny pants

The mere sound of the name "skinny pants" is intimidating to some as it seems to suggest who should be wearing them. However, they can be pulled off by average people with some skills. the first thing to do is obviously to find the right fit, don't be lazy and try on as many as you could before you make a purchase. Most skinny jeans/ pants tend to accentuate the hip and butt areas, which is what makes it rather unflattering for many. What is being unnoticed is, they tend to be quite flattering for the lower part of the legs and have a elongating effect. Pair a long tunic or a mini dress with the skinny pants/ jeans to take advantage of the elongated legs while covering the unflattered hips! For those who are unsatisfied with their lower legs, wear the skinny jeans with cute, lose fitting summer boots to create the illusion of slender legs.

Trend 3: All that glitters

Shines is another major trend for this season. Shines and metallics inevitably add visual bulk and is never the most flattering shade. The worst of all, they attract more light to all the bulks that are sticking out, making it impossible to hide. As a result, it is almost predestined to be a major miss if you do not have a perfectly slim body and you attempt to wear some kind of metallic tunic or shinny shift dress. The perfect way for most of us to wear this trend is via accessories, as I have been emphasizing. As shown below, the Philosophy di Alberta Ferretti sequin dress is stunning and glamorous, yet hard to pull off. The Doo.Ri simple white dress paired with a metallic belt is simple and more universally flattering. The incorporation of metallic or patent leather shoes and/or bags into an outfit could also serve as an instant update without being too risky.

Trend 4: Wide legs trousers/ jeans

This might seem friendly at the first sight, but that's far from the truth. Wide leg trousers and jeans are actually even harder to pull off than the skinnies. Angelina Jolie wore a pair of high waist wide leg trousers with shirt tucked in for a photo shoot, which is extremely hard to pull off as the love handle and tummy have nowhere to hide. For those with wide hip or large butt, the wide cut could potentially make your legs look like huge pillars found in the ruins in Athens. Wide legs also serve to shorten legs and can hardly look good on those with a petite frame. A more flattering way to wear the wide legs would be to emphasize the small upper body by wearing tops that fit close to the body, as loose fitting top on wide legs pants would cancel out the body shape completely and make you look clumsy. A waist coat (or vest for Americans) would also be a nice addition to accentuate the slender waist. Ensuring that no part of the pant fits too tight is also essential to avoid looking bulky in the bottom.

Chloe RTW F/W 2007 in Paris Fashion Week

This is the debut collection that Paolo Melim Andersson from Marni has designed for the house of Chloe. His timely arrival seriously saved Chloe from going down after Phoebe Philo's departure. His collection for Chloe incorporates the key trends of the season: the vivid colour with black and grey, patent leather, metallic...etc, yet it stands out from many of the other much similar collections. I love the way he uses orange as the key vivid hue throughout the collection and avoided the colours such as cobalt blue and fuschia, which are already almost overdone by everyone throughout S/S 2007 to F/W 2007. The bright orange that he used is a particularly fine colour for fall as wearing orange in summer makes a person appearing too hot, but worn in fall would give out a warm, meanwhile refreshing, feel. And I like the prints on the white top in the first picture a lot (it also appeared on other pieces, I love the version on a shift dress!), they are relatively subtle and has a bit of Parisienne poetic touch to it. I think Paolo has done a better job in this season as oppose to S/S 2007 in incorporating metallic details. The metallic decorations look much more comfortable and refined with the grey and black dresses, and they still look edgy, and very Chloe. Although I liked most of the clothing pieces, I'm not so sure about the accesories. I am a big fan of Chloe's matching romantic feminine flowy clothing with rough and edgy bag and shoes concept. I liked the chunky shoes by Chloe in the past seasons but I'm really not a fan of these Dr. Martin inspired chunky ankle boots and shoes. They look clumsy and simply not-feminine to me. Same with the bags, they look too bulky and difficult to carry around.