Sitting It Out: 3 Trends To Avoid
A selection of Jellies
Chasing trends can be tricky. I'm speaking as someone who foolishly paid top dollar for Jellies - the glitzy cousin of Crocs - at Filene's department store back in the 80's. I'm also speaking as someone who has had first-hand experience outfitting people for almost 18 years. I've seen people insist on styles that look horrid on them, simply because those styles were being heavily promoted in mags and stores that particular season.
Yeah, we've all done it.
It's easy to get sucked in.
You start out thinking a trend is your friend, but it's more like the friend who makes plans with you and flakes out at the last minute. You end up looking back regretfully and asking yourself, "Why didn't anyone warn me?"
Well, I'm here to warn you about 3 of this season's most dangerous trends:
Photo from Lucky Magazine
1. Mom Jeans
It all started with a recent article in Lucky about finding stylish clothes in thrift stores.The 'thrifter' appeared, smiling and gleeful (in the photo above), in a pair of high-waisted, stonewashed mom jeans. I don't care how cute her shoes are, she's still wearing mom jeans! Now Vogue.com is suddenly all about the mom jean too. Lesson here? Even Vogue makes mistakes. Avert your eyes, hold tight to your skinny, straight-leg or boyfriend jeans and just keep on moving.
Prince Harry's ex Cressida Bonas, wearing a Scrunchie (Photo from ravishingtheroyals.tumblr.com)
2. Scrunchies
Two wildly popular blogs (The Manrepeller and Into The Gloss) have been posting about Scrunchies like crazy lately. Take it from someone who once wore a neon pink sweatshirt with matching neon pink ankle socks: leave Scrunchies back in the 1980's where they totally belong. The only exceptions? The gym or pulling your hair back while you sleep. (They won't break or damage your hair as some elastics may do.) Otherwise, #JustSayNoToScrunchies.
SJP from S&TC
3. Crop Tops and Bare Midriffs
Blame Pat Field for creating several beautiful bare midriff–centric outfits for SJP's Carrie Bradshaw character on the original S&TC series. (See the HBO photos above.) Those outfits fooled many of us into thinking that bare midriffs in the city actually work. It's Tim Gunn (of Project Runway fame) though who brought us back to reality when he said recently that crop tops are "the worst trend ever." If you do insist on trying to pull this look off, save it for the beach. And it does help if you've spent the winter doing tons of planks at Essence Yoga or mat work at Pure Barre.
PS - While working on this, I learned that Jellies ARE apparently angling for a big comeback. Please Don't.
Ciao for Now,
Patty J
Photo Courtesy: Jellies photo, Pinterest; Thrifter Mom Jeans photo, Lucky Magazine; Prince Harry's Ex photo, Ravishing The Royals Tumblr; SJP photos, Pinterest