The loose highway
I only wish I could capture this on camera because it's quite hard to be eloquent/succint when talking about what I have been witnessing. In the last week or so, I've noticed a number of women (4 to be precise...) wearing their blazers, loose, single breasted and slightly wrinkled, smacking of the early 90s' and most likely found in the charity shop and high waisted trousers that are wide at the top and taper down, with some of them rolling them up at the cuffs, with a loose t-shirt tucked into the trousers and some square toed or driving flats. The look was saying 'competent, successful casual career women of the 90s' which should all be a bit wrong but somehow, it looked really right and refreshing, as the wearers had spot-on accessorising in the bags/sunnies or the t-shirts were a bit luxe looking or they, the people were just making it all work.
YSL SS08 might have been a contributant factor but some veered to a rather zany palette with one example wearing a dusty pink blazer, a sherbet yellow loose t-shirt and large red gingham-patterned trousers, with the shape as described above and a pair of grey square toed patent shoes. So together and wonderful, this outfit looked that I stood gawping for about two minutes and was tempted to lock her down and get her email address so that I could implore The Sart to hunt her down and snap her (my ropy camera work wouldn't do the outfit justice...).
Whilst I muse on this welcome and emerging trend, alas, for me to embrace it would require the trouser hunt which is the bane of my life, hence why you see me wearing so few trousers on this blog.... but for those who find the trew hunt a doddle, I'd say go forth with the polished daytime 'Vivian Ward' from Pretty Woman look... semi-illustrated by this image from Wonderland Spring 2008 magazine.
('Dungaree Dolls', shot by Ben Weller, styled by Anthony Unwin)
Wow. My mom has been dressing like that for years, she'll be thrilled when I tell her she's "in".
Posted by: Amy | 29 March 2008 at 22:33
I don't think those pants are for any silhouette. Not for mine, anyway... :)
Posted by: Dana Constantin | 29 March 2008 at 23:56
ooh love the idea. perhaps with changes made to the proportions of each element, this look may just work on different body shapes? give it a go amy!
Posted by: soon lee | 30 March 2008 at 03:33
oops. i meant dana. :)
Posted by: soon lee | 30 March 2008 at 03:35
I love the blazer part of the look, but I think only some people can pull the look off with the pants(trousers) too.
Definitely would look weird on someone as short as me!
The blazer look though I'm desperate to try out. I've been drooling over blazers in blogs for a while now. I just need to find time and money for shopping...hehe.
Posted by: mica | 30 March 2008 at 04:42
Personally i love this look and havent been parted from my cropped trousers since i first saw the YSL SS08 collection! I wear my cropped beige khaki's with a baggy grey wool jumper and pink/red/beige New Look brogue pumps!
Susie, ive found quite a few pairs of perfectly tailored 'crop-able' trousers in Topshop's Unique or Boutique collections, incase you get tempted to try!
Posted by: katie m | 30 March 2008 at 16:04
Mmm, me too, I'm loving this Working Girl look. Just nabbed a Helmut Lang blazer last week so waiting for this wretched weather to warm up so I can wear it!
Posted by: rollergirl | 30 March 2008 at 17:54
awwww, cute! personally, I could never pull it off (well maybe) but I too have an aversion to "pants". Mostly I just stick to my leggings, tights and dress/booty shorts ;-)
Posted by: Giselle | 30 March 2008 at 18:07
funny enough, I sewed 4 pairs of similar pants for my new fall 2008 collection. :) cyclic fashion here it comes again:)
Posted by: diana | 31 March 2008 at 14:38
I've been noticing this as well, although only online, not out and about since we still have lots of snow here and everyone is still wearing their big boots.
I say go to the mens pants section of the thrift shop and do a little experimenting, you can make it work, I'm sure!
Posted by: Angie Montreal | 31 March 2008 at 15:30
Like Diana of sofashon, I've only seen this online as of yet. Although I have to mention that on our corner of the globe a 90s time warp is noticeable so she may have overlooked it due to overexposure.
It's so hard to get right! No one wants the high-wasted-loose-legged trousers of doom, they wreak havoc with one's proportions.
Posted by: Tina | 01 April 2008 at 17:33