2011’s most unavoidable fashion trends

Stripes
Thanks to the house of Prada, the streets hosted a parade of fat or skinny, vertical or horizontal, bold, bright and even neon stripes. It was enough to put a yesteryear beach scene to shame. The reason: Stripes are stylish and classic without resembling a one-woman fashion victim warning sign.

The Seventies  
You know the look: wide-leg jeans, floppy hat, sky-high platforms. Or a long, floaty dress with, you guessed it, a floppy hat. The ‘70s trend easily translated to the streets because it’s relatively easy to wear.  Consumers also loved the up-all-night clubbing look it conjured.


Polka Dots    
They were supposed to be the new stripes, appearing all over the autumn/winter ’11 runways — and then nothing happened. Witness the number of polka dot clothes and accessories left on clearance racks the world over.

Kitten Heels   
These were supposed to be the new platforms, giving women a reprieve from back-breaking stilts. Fashion editors loved them and duly pushed them in their magazine pages. But the rest of the world never quite bought it. 

Stacked bracelets
Blame Jak & Jil blogger Tommy Ton for all the male and female wrists you’ve been seeing weighed down with stacks of bling, neon-colored yarn and leather cords.

The Sixties  
Women had barely worn their ’70s maxi skirts when the runways began trying to push us into skimpy ’60s-style shift dresses. Too much too soon? Seeing as we’re all doing a bit of penny-pinching at the moment, it appears shoppers just weren’t ready for the fashion pendulum to swing in the other direction so fast.