O F F T H E C U F F
What’s Up With Pants!
Sound Styles Soundings
The fashion industry is really efficient when it comes to stretching the range of normal, in evidence this spring by none other than pants. I noticed this stetch yet again a couple of weeks ago when several “second wave” customers (those that shop when the weather actually changes) began to request black pants that button at a waistband, are full length and plain and are simply functional. I had nothing to show them!
Aghhh, I thought. How could I have missed such a basic? It became even more evident when I began to show them what we did have in pants and I watched their eyebrows raise as far as they could and would go up on their foreheads.
- “Really?” they’d say. “Can’t wear them to work” or “I’m too old for that” or “What do I do for shoes?” or “Nothing to go with that color.” You get the picture!
So I knew change was afoot. Once again, fashion change was marching on. Has anyone figured out how to stop it? And fashion change can be a real bugger. I, for one, happen to like it as long as it’s not on full speed.
But, nonetheness, our (sometimes strange) job is to bring what we think of as the workable part of the changes in fashion to all of you who shop with us. Yes, it does feel strange to stand up and believe in what we are saying to be workable when we meet such “high eyebrows.” So thought I’d use my first “OFF THE CUFF” post to relay some new ideas about what’s happening in pants this season.
I was in Europe last summer and thought I was in “Pant Heaven” they were so cool! Pants were brite colored, all different lengths and often embellished at the ankle. Even guys were wearing colored capris! Now those concepts have reached our shores and are raising eyebrows in Edmonds. I recently told a customer who needed a bit of permission to wear a colored capri that “by the time it reaches both Edmonds and Sound Styles… it’s pretty safe.” She laughed and bought the capri. Another customer summed it all up this morning when we were once again passing along new ideas in pants. She asked, with raised eyebrows, “so the new normal is abnormal?” Yep, she got it right!
Off the Cuff is a periodic casual review of fashion styles, attitudes and trends by Jenny, owner of Sound Styles in Edmonds, WA
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