by Achala Ganesan
The past year has seen a tremendous number of trends in both fashion and beauty. While some of them have us all hooked and will probably be around for a while, others need to be put to rest and burned at the stake.
Let’s take a look at some of fashion’s hits from the past year.
1. Oxblood is the new black
This color had us all swooning at the start of the year. It’s a rich, deep red that looks insanely polished and expensive no matter what the price.
It’s a brilliant alternative to black, and is definitely making its way up there to the staple colors men and women need in their wardrobes. I can see this sticking around for a long time!
2. Denim on Denim
This is definitely a nod to that 90s trend of wearing head to toe denim just because Jennifer Aniston wore it on Friends. The new, fresh, 2015 interpretations are casual, comfortable and chic. The silhouettes were more contemporary and we saw models like Kendall Jenner channelling this too by mixing up shades and weights of denim to create a put together look.
3. Athleisure's hot minute
The idea wearing your gym wear to places that well, weren’t the gym, had a lot of people wondering what was going on. But it definitely started to grow on people with brands like Lulu Lemon and Nike offering people a more fashionable alternative to saggy sweatpants and oversized t-shirts.
This also led people to realize that they don’t need to bring a change of clothes to the gym, and could just head out for a bite to eat in their work-out wear without people looking at them funny.
I personally love the paneled legging trend that came out of this, and I will definitely be getting some soon!
And now for the misses...
1. Fur Overload
Fur (both real and faux) has been having their moment on trims and details over the past couple of years. But come 2015, designers responded to the positive reception and went a little overboard. Scratch that, they went completely overboard. Fur started appearing in places that fur need not be. It served no functional nor aesthetic purpose and it needs to stop.
2. Normcore is not the new normal
This trend (or lack of) is quite the anti-fashion statement. It reflects how non-conformance to style can still be chic and statement-making in itself. Although I do understand what it’s trying to convey, and I get where it’s coming from. However, some of the clothing items that have been worn in the name of normcore are quite painful to the eyes. The weird, almost unsaturated colors paired with the complete lack of silhouette or shaping in some cases make me wonder why anyone would manufacture these items in bulk. On purpose.
3. Overly Aggressive Statement Tees
When statement and graphic tees came out they were a brilliant staple. You could throw them on during your lazy days, layer it up with a jacket and some ripped jeans and you were definitely the cool kid on the block.
But then, this trend started to get a tiny bit absurd with overly passive-ggressive messages being printed on them which, far from being cool, looked a lot like attention seeking, and not in the good way. The lesson learned here, folks, is that if you can’t say it to someone in person, don’t put it on a t-shirt!
Topics: fashion trends, Fashion Culture