Latest fashion trends

The latest fashion trends

Fashion's LATEST REDUX has a new audience sitting up (straight) and TAKING NOTICE.

WORDS: GENEVRA LEEK

Hanneli Mustaparta

What are the latest fashion trends

Attention, ladies: there's a new kind of cool latest fashion trends on the scene and it doesn't involve distressed denim or dishevelment worthy of Courtney Love. Glamour is back in the latest fashion trends spotlight, with faultless styling and impeccable grooming once again de rigtteur.

It's a latest fashion trend that's been simmering for seasons now, most notably on the streets,
where the fashion-loving crowd has been rediscovering the classics: a tapered coat, a refined dress, demure shoes. Prada's retro-fuelled collection last summer opened carryall-clouded eyes to the joys of the pyramid framed bag, the kind of structured purse your great-aunt might have propped on her knee. Meanwhile, a plethora of peplums and pencil skirts are promoting the straightening of posture in the latest fashion trends 2013 and fostering a ladylike glide.

While there are some who have long subscribed to the latest fashion trends look, shoe designer Charlotte Dellal for example, whose scarlet lips, Rita Hayworth waves and penchant for a quirky hat seem second nature, others have had to make the adjustment to a more polished approach. Jeweller Delfina Delettrez found motherhood to be the catalyst. Her prior preference towards an edgier look defined by rock'n' roll or gothic influences wasn't cutting it in her new role of the latest fashion trends. "1 adopted a more old-style look because everyone was looking at me strangely when I used to go out with [my daughter] — I was fed up with being taken for the nanny!"

Taylor Tomas-Hill, Natalia Vodianova

The message has never been clearer than at the close of New York's spring/summer 2013 fashion week, when Francisco Costa sent out a series of strong, sexually charge looks for Calvin Klein Collection, inspired by the inimitable style of the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and the provocative works of Alberto Vargas. "All the women he drew were such Amazons, there was no
apology for the body," said Costa of the artist. "It was: 'Yes, I have a waist, I have hips' ... so having a bra with every single outfit, having a corset, it really tells a woman there's no apologies for it."

Indeed, Costa celebrated in the latest fashion trends the female form with body-sculpted dresses that a 1950s femme would be proud to shimmy into. But although there was a revival of the hourglass figure and a focus on several new erogenous zones, he was quick to point out his fashion designs never came close to "vulgar". These ladies, just like their mid-century counterparts, were all class, with a generous helping of sass thrown in, Style.com's Nicole Phelps nailed it at the time,
reporting that: "Calvin Klein's girl may be a pin-up next season, but she's an intellectual, too."

 What are the latest fashion 

Which brings us to why this modern-day version of glamour is resonating with a new generation of women who feel they've otherwise moved on from the Mad Men days of wasp waists and hobble skirts. It'sthe addition of the irreverent twist making the latest fashion trends this return to elegance so appealing. Costas girls may have flirted with the past, but their outfits employed highly developed bonded fabrics that looked wav into the future. Delettrez may have made over her latest fashion wardrobe, yet a subversive jewel or kohl liner is always present to hint at her rebellious streak.

Perhaps the most convincing argument for the  latest fashion trends 2013 comes, after all, from rock front woman Love. Even the original grunge-era poster girl has shifted focus from her alternative aesthetic of late. Appearing at Elton Johns recent Aids benefit in New York City,
Love may as well have stepped straight of the silver screen and onto the red carpet, wearing a figure-skimming column of black silk, the modest neckline dusted with crystals, her look finished with a neat chignon, diamond earrings and decidedly prim clutch. The effect was ravishing, all
the more for knowing that beneath the immaculate exterior, a complex character lay bubbling beneath. And that's enough to make any girl want to turn up the glamour dial in  the latest fashion trends 2013.