For evenings or these cooler days before the Fourth of July fireworks are exploding, if you are feeling brave, fold up your skinny jeans and loosen up with some hip-hugging, high-waisted ’70s-style flare. As with politics, science and philosophy, fashion swings like a pendulum from one extreme to another – gradual evolutions occur in undertones, over time. It is the opposites, the distinctly different shapes and colors, that interest consumers. Black, dark red and tan are good choices for the new bell shape.
For some reason, ready-to-wear has, in recent years, been quite fixated on the bottom of the pant. The area is what is grounding us, after all. This has been base of an outfit, the deciding detail between comfort and discomfort, fashionable and out of date.
It doesn’t take a scientist to know that long shirts with these pants equates to the overdone hippy look. Instead, try a cropped jacket or mid-waist leather jacket. You will decidedly turn heads, but not out of discomfort or confusion.
Shorts are the epitome of summer fashion, but not surprisingly, not all shorts are created with equal fashion sense.
This summer, forget your Daisy-dukes and anything rendered from old jeans. The new classic is a mid-thigh or higher cuffed short. The trend started with the necessity of semi-opaque tights worn underneath, but now you can finally get away with bare legs if you choose.
Summer means change, and even if the change means going from laissez-faire afternoons spent doing the Times crossword puzzle on the quad to working 10 hours per day, there is no need to neglect yourself in the process.
On your days off and in the evenings, putting on a pretty dress or light summer slip is a timeless way to uplift your mood. If your summer engagements call for more classic looks and fewer trendy throw-aways, all the better for you.
Up the freeway, Anthropologie (the store that has been doing something seriously right for the past two seasons), has many pretty and flattering dresses with distinct personalities to whisk your mind off to Buenos Aires, Nice or Southern California. The independent girls of Portland, Holly Stalder, Elizabeth Dye and Anna Cohen, have designed well-made silk and cotton dresses that aren’t attempting to radically alter your wardrobe or fashion history, but are content (this summer) to just make you pretty and happy. If you won’t leave Eugene for a weekend, American Apparel on 13th Avenue has its perpetual array of soft, flowing classics.
This summer sees no era, aside from a nostalgic glance at the 1967 Summer of Love. We are ready to come back to now, I believe. And as is always the theme of summer, comfort reigns all trends – the perfect excuse to take a break from the constant swinging of fashion to pause and reflect.