Color Me A Rainbow

Pick a color from the crayon box and get ready for fashion in living Technicolor. This season designers dipped their paintbrushes into an array of vibrant pop and primary colors, creating a fashion backdrop like a multicolor vision from the Jacques Demy movie, The Young Girls of Rochefort.

Escapist in its cartoon boldness, the trend was evident in both grown-up sleek chic silhouettes and playful, gamine looks. Rebelling against the soft and muted palettes of recent collections, Marc Jacobs punctuated his new, sedate midi-length hemline with bursts of cobalt blue and Tickle-Me-Elmo red. Long elegant coats were made fresh and modern in vibrant orange.

Electrifying contrasts of Big Bird yellow were used at Doo Ri, Gucci and Vera Wang. While at Pucci, bright tonal colors emblazoned abbreviated dresses in purple and magenta. At Stella McCartney a hot pink long romper suit hit the runway, while Diane Von Furstenburg kept things mod, using Miro-like modernist designs in red and black.


Call it nostalgia for the rebellious 1960's when fabric technology first made such bold color play possible, or just simple fashion whim. But as the style pendulum swings from soft shades to Kindergartner colors, the message is clear: young means chic. After all, with the Tween demographic growing in influence and the huge Baby Boomer generation entering retirement with teenage gusto and a desire to relive younger days, the cult of youth is strong.



So if 40 really is the new 30, why not paint fall's shorter, chillier days and longer, colder nights with a splash of color? Ditch the demure tones and give your wardrobe a welcome break from the subdued– it'll take years off you.

Brace Yourself

Long before the world had met Paris Hilton or Nicole Richie. In fact, way before stylists like Rachel Zoe had stepped on to the fashion scene, there was Nancy Cunard, style-setter, über socialite and original bad-girl heiress.

Perez Hilton fodder of the 1920’s, details of her infamous parties and famous paramours were never far from the headlines – and her love for the latest fashion never short on coverage in the social pages.



But unlike her 21st century counterparts, Nancy’s forward-thinking and trend-setting ways also attracted attention from some of the era’s most promising artists. She hadn’t been living in Paris long before becoming muse to Man Ray and Ernest Hemingway.

A Jazz Age radical, Nancy created her own eclectic style hallmark, stacking dozens of African bracelets from wrist to elbow with the same passion Dadaists were showing for African sculpture. For Cunard, fashion meant expression and during a colonial age when African culture was seen as little more than primitive, her personal style was a canvas for communicating rebellious and thought-provoking ideas.

So before you get your hands on next spring and summer’s riffs on African patterns and Ikat prints from the likes of Oscar de la Renta and Osman Yousefada, why not make like Nancy with fall’s art deco offerings? Slip on opulent 1920s inspired bangles and sleek cuffs in wood, lacquer or precious metal, then pair with autumn’s bracelet-sleeved jackets for a fresh and rebellious slant on deco refinement.


Bracelets from top to bottom:
Mark Davis, Barneys.com; Stella McCartney, Net-a-porter.com; Vivre Ebony Collection, Vivre.com; Camilla Sarp, Vivre.com.

Looking Chouette in the City

Sex and the City, as clichéd as it has become, spurred many a trend -- some lasting longer than others. First there was that third season fancy for over-sized silk flowers pinned onto lapels. (From the looks of Isaac Mizrahi's Spring 2008 collection, he's still into it.)



Then came the million and one Sex-and-the-City-isms, and the rise in popularity of the straight-talking blogger. After all, who didn't want to incarnate Carrie as she sat draped over her laptop, tapping away with a sassy, diary-like narration of life in the Big Apple? Well, if not only for just one short Manolo-obsessed, Cosmo-slurping second.




So to use that very Bradshaw-like device, I got to thinking…with flower pins cast aside, if I don't want to personify the style of SJP, who would my personal fashion muse for coffeehouse pondering and laptop draping be?



Take one part Brigitte Bardot in Bonnie and Clyde, mix in modern echoes from Marc Jacobs' Fall 2007 RTW Collection, and, for autumn I'll look no further for the perfect twist on café couture. Add lashings of Bonnie's sultry cinched-waist style and just-plucked-from- a-sidewalk-cafe demeanor, et voilà. Just pass me the Gauloises, because with a belted trench and a slick of rouge there’s surely no better way to be seen pulling up a chair at a wannabe Café de Flore.

Which, as Miss Bradshaw would say, gets me to thinking about something else, Garçon where's my Pastis?