September 2012

This summer peplum is again on the top of the fashion wave! And according to the fashion weeks taking turns in northern hemisphere this embellishment will be a trend at least one more season.

Now it is presented in the most refreshing and outstanding way since its appearance – it is teamed with pants and shorts.
I find this tendency to be a great subject for a field study.

Close observation of peplum+pants combination on the streets, fashion blogs and catwalk photos lead me to a number of ideas.

Peplum itself is a dominant feature highlighting the waist-thigh area and pants in their turn are doing the same. So, put together they make lower body the centre of attention.

There are several ways to make the look more balanced. Fist way to reduce the number of glances towards the hips would be to wear well-fitted pants without any visible fly-fronts, fasteners, pockets and other distractive details. The minimal number of lines and visible details creates lean appearance.

Second option is to use long peplum. This will help to conceal fragile to attention area.

Another method to attain a light image is to shift a focal point to the upper body.

This can be done by using colour, pattern or accessories. A waist accentuated by peplum and plain top emphasize slim torso and drive attention to other areas.
Inverse also works. Patterned pants with plain top help to create desired silhouette and disguise lower body. The trick is that decorated surface attracts attention and at the same time provides a camouflage.

The right arrangement of decorative motifs and colour blocks become crucial in this situation.

And the last, but not the least approach for the graceful peplum look is to use single-colour combination.
Add a pattern and we have even more streamlined silhouette.

Recently I’ve found a pair of wonderful shoes neglected for a couple of years after unsuccessful attempts to build a look around them.

I forgot about them because they are not quite my style – a kind of a variation of men’s classic shoes for women. Nevertheless I decided to give them another chance. Being convinced that footwear is the staple of one’s look I made meticulous research to classify men’s shoes and figure out what to wear with a particular style.

I’ve found out that men’s shoes come in four styles – oxford, derby, monks, loafers
(well, not exactly… The fourth category is slip-on’s, but for the sake of convenience and clarity let’s agree about loafers to be the part of this classification:).

Each of them calls for a particular dress style.

Now, the most formal shoes are oxford. These black patent leather shoes paired with tailcoat equals white tie affairs. For the black tie dress code it is appropriate to put on black leather oxfords with tuxedo. At the less official events derbies and monks are the best choice, whereas loafers are mostly considered as casual footwear.

Back to my shoes, they turned out to be derby:) But that’s not the end of the story and shoe classification.

Rochas Plain Toe Oxford Shoes — Costume National Homme Plain Toe Oxford Shoes

Cap Toe Oxford Lace Shoes — Doucal's Dark Brown Cap Toe Oxford Shoes — Doucal's Black Cap Toe Oxford Shoes

Derby shoes — Dsquared2 Cocoa Derby Shoes — Doucal's Dark Brown Derby Shoes

Monk Shoes, Buckle Shoes — Fratelli Rossetti Dark brown Suede Monk Shoes — Givenchy Light grey Suede Monk Shoes

Loafers, Moccasins — Malo Cocoa Loafers — Maison Martin Margiela 22 Loafers — Fratelli Rossetti Loafers

You may also like to read about:
Simple Shoe Classification, Part 2: Toe styles, Brogues

Month: September 2012

How to Wear Peplum With Pants

Simple Shoe Classification. Part 1: Shoe Styles