Summer Fashion Trends Review

As sumptuous camel tones, chunky knits and luxurious fabrics dominate the catwalks and start to infiltrate the high street; it’s easy to forget the trends we embraced for the summer months. Why dwell on the past season you may cry; why not, I say! We loved the styles which carried us through to autumn, so lets take a while to reflect on some of them; celebrate the successes (and pray they return next year) and laugh at the disasters, while praying they don’t!

Firstly there’s denim which popped up embellished, bleached and in the ubiquitous “jegging”… Oh and we can’t leave out the controversial foray back into the 70’s world of double denim, a move that left the fashion pack completely divided. While some praised the bravery and confidence of wearers, others saw it as a fashion car crash. Then there’s bleached denim, which, for me, proved a summer staple mainly in shorts and shirts. Embellished metallic jeans seemed like an interesting concept but in reality only took off on the Balmain catwalk, however an inch or two of roll up at the bottom of your jeans was definitely the most foolproof and fabulous way to update your look. Lastly, pretending to be denim - jeggings… I’ll leave you to remember them how you will!

Without a doubt, the biggest success story of summer trends was the pastel colour palette with fashionistas up and down the country stylishly modelling themselves on ice cream sundaes and bags of pick and mix. With shades that flattered everyone, this was one trend that was unavoidable no matter how hard you tried. And even if you weren’t convinced by the clothes, candy coloured nail polish was an easy and chic way to tap into the trend.

Hemlines seriously dropped for the season as everything went maxi. The old favourite floaty maxi dress reappeared, but as did a new species that is the skin-tight, floor sweeping jersey sheath, in both dress and skirt forms. While some people just hated them, I mean, they were difficult to walk in, they did hide a killer tan, and were possibly the most unforgiving styles on the market, overall they proved to be a surprising hit in eye-catching stripes and patterns as well as easy to wear black, grey and khaki tones. I loved my dresses paired with a twisted and knotted belt.

Finally for shoes, we had clogs. They were an interesting one. After Chanel sent its brave takes down the runway, everyone was talking about the return of the clog. Then Alexa Chung appears on the cover of Vogue sporting said Chanel pair and the hysteria only builds. With advice popping up left, right and centre as to how to wear them and clogs being dubbed as “the only shoe to wear this season” it seemed like they were going to become just that. Though I think looking back now, they were actually more of a minority trend than was intended. Creeping up from behind, from the Sport Luxe trend, were shoe boots with missing heels and peep toes, which overshadowed the remodelled clogs. And though I did hear them branded stupid and pointless, they completely took off and were the easy footwear of choice for summer in flat, wedge and heel styles! I loved my perforated lace up wedge boots and will be wearing them right into autumn teamed with my classic trench coat. That said I loved my clogs too, they were far comfier than they looked, but they still didn’t get worn as much as my boots…