I’ve been writing about clothes and doing the cheap outfit
posts long enough for you to know that I’m generally a late adopter when it
comes to trends. I didn’t get my first pair of flare jeans (remember when they were still called "flare jeans"?) until junior high:
at least two years after my classmates had given up their tapered jeans. I
didn’t own skinny jeans until I was a senior in college, and I only bought them
to tuck into my new riding boots: two trends that everyone else had managed to
embrace before me. It took an awfully long time for me to warm up to the idea
of a maxi dress – as I didn’t want to be mistaken for a sister wife – but
eventually, I came around.
The thing about trends is that they come and go so fast.
Personally, I’m not willing to invest my hard-earned clothing money on a fad
that I’m not sure about. I like to be sure that the particular clothing trend
is not going anywhere before I accept it into my closet. And those trends I
took so long to accept? They’re still fashionable today. (Flare jeans have
morphed into bootcut jeans, but I’m counting them all the same.)
However, every once in a while, I’m either ahead of or right
on top of the curve. When this happens – albeit rarely – it’s usually for
something that I’ve loved all along. The rest of the world just had to catch up
to me.
Inexplicably, there are currently five trends that I am all
for. I hopped on three of these trends right away, and I was sporting the other
two long before it was the thing to do.
I’ll start with the three that I got into immediately. These
three trends are utilitarian, and that’s why I love them so much. Most of the
time, you are forced to choose between fashion and function. For these three
delightful fashions, they go hand-in-hand.
blanket
cardigans/scarves – warmth
When I refer to a blanket cardigan or a blanket scarf, I’m
talking about a gigantic fuzzy drapey thing that keeps you incredibly warm. As
we are entering yet ANOTHER winter, it’s very important that you have enough
sweaters and scarves to keep from freezing to death. Blanket cardigans are
gigantic and have tons of extra material, so you can cocoon yourself into a
cozy ball of warmth. The blanket scarves tend to be used as a decorative
accessory, but in a pinch, you can take it off and use it as a – you guys it –
blanket.
fancy sweatshirts –
comfort
When you think of comfortable clothing, what is one of the
first things that comes to mind? If you ask me, it’s a sweatshirt. Unfortunately
for me, sweatshirts are not work appropriate… until now! Sweatshirt choices are
no longer limited to the kind with sports teams and hoods. There are such a
thing as embellished sweatshirts – they have patterns and embellishments and
are pretty snappy. They’re dressy enough to wear on casual Friday, but comfy
enough so that you still feel like you’re wearing a sweatshirt. It’s a win-win.
giant glasses –
better vision
I have had glasses since I was five, and believe me when I
tell you that having the vision of a bat in the daytime is not easy. My first
pair of glasses was an enormous set of frames that took up half my face, but
you’d better believe that I could see everything around me. As I got older, the
trendy glasses got smaller. That meant that in order to look cool (or as cool
as I could with thick glasses and colorful braces), I had to sacrifice some
valuable lens real estate. I did get contacts when I was a junior in high
school, and those helped immensely. But as you fellow contact-wearers will
know, sometimes, you just really want to wear glasses. Thankfully, my salvation
was imminent. Gigantic hipster glasses suddenly became cool, which meant that I
could go back to having more lens to cover more of my eye, therefore giving me
better peripheral vision. I am well aware that this trend won’t last forever
and that my future children will someday laugh at pictures of my huge hipster
glasses like we laugh at Mom’s glasses from the 80s. But I’m willing to take
the risk.
The last two trends on the agenda today are two that I’d
been seeking all along. And one day, BAM! They’re everywhere. Allow me to be a
hipster for a second and tell you that I liked fair isle and dresses with
pockets before they were cool.
dresses and skirts
with pockets
This just seemed like common sense to me. Pants have pockets
for you to keep your Chapstick in – why wouldn’t dresses and skirts want to do
the same? I didn’t really wear dresses until college, and when I started
hunting for dresses with pockets, I came up short. I would find a pocketed
dress one once in a very great while, but it was a rare treasure. But just few
years ago, it seemed like every dress in every store was be-pocketed. And that
was a great day for me and other dress-wearing pocket-appreciating people
everywhere. Now, when shopping for dresses and skirts, that’s the first thing
that I look for. Does it have pockets? No? Then back it goes.
fair isle
As a Scandinavian, it’s in my DNA to be attracted to fair
isle. I wanted an authentic Norwegian sweater so badly, but they always were
(and still are) way out of my price range. My grandma Lorraine gave my siblings
and me some of her old Norwegian sweaters, which were goofy – to say the least.
Goofy enough to warrant a Christmas card. What I wanted was some respectable
fair isle that I could wear without looking like I’d raided Goodwill. For the
longest time, the best I could do was socks. But then – fair isle was all over
the place. Sweaters, scarves, hats, mittens, you name it. I’m up to my eyeballs
in fair isle, and I LOVE IT.
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So those are my five trends. Chances are pretty slim that
I’ll be an early adopter of this many
trends ever again, but I’ll be sure and keep you informed.
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