Changing profiles

As you probably have gathered I am a pretty astute follower of high fashion.  

I have after all made a peplum top, even if I was the last sewer to do so, and have made a leatherette skirt which only looks mildly like it came out of an autobody shop although sadly it no longer fits me since the moderate weight loss - and no one in their right mind (which I often am) would bother to take apart and resew any garment that is still off gassing that much.

However a lifetime of following trends when they are about to leave the station, and being on the vanguard of those new trends that never actually caught, I have learned a few things.

OK, I have learned one thing.

It makes sense to watch the way the wind blows because nothing ever looks as dated as something that was most in last year.

Which, if you sew sturdy, is really quite the pain.

So I try in my own way to stay alert to the Big Shifts when they are about to occur.

You know what I mean. 

Those about changes that the clothing czars and czarinas decide to pull once they are well and truly confident that everyone is finally comfortable with a silhouette and maybe even knows how to fit it.

So operating as an early warning system I have been looking at the Spring 2014 collections and can detect one of those big changes on the horizon. You know just when you have refined the TNT patterns.

The New Shape seems so far ( and I have only just skimmed the collections to date - sooo many slideshows) to have this going on:

1. The skirts are fuller (these allows them to declare, no surprise, in about 6 months that the pencil skirt has come back). By fuller I mean a) circle skirts, or semicircles, you know the big hems and no darts and b) your basic A line and even the inverted pleat jobs.

2. Tops are wider, like in 80s wider. This is going to cause those of us who have sort of figured out the full bust alteration something else to thing about.

I figure both of these trends have legs, despite the fact I usually call these things wrong.

My reasoning is that they are easy to wear.  Women tend to clutch tightly to things that are comfortable.

Remember capris? 

They came back for about 2 weeks and then the fashion world and all the What Not To Wear folks declared them total no nos, but guess what?

Everyone is still wearing them, in or not in.

Listen, designers once you let something back into the system that covers up varicose veins you are going to have a damn hard time getting it out again.

This might be a good time to let the pictures say a thousand words, from designer Lam and Lim:

We have all sewn shapes like those before (assuming you are of the generation that remembers working around a fax machine) and we can do it again.

The thing is once a new shape starts taking shape it takes a while for a person's eyes to get used to it. On her own body I mean.

But to dress you must be brave. And to sew even braver.

So I jumped off the cliff this week and made this outfit - one that last year I would have told you was too ugly because the top was shapeless.

In full transparency I must disclose I was pushed off the cliff by the fact I am still in that anti black frame of mind and I have a ton of red wool garbardine that no way in this lifetime is going to get tailored into any suit. Listen I would be retired from suits completely by the time that was ever done, I am so busy, a project like that.

And as shapeless as it was I knew, and was right about this, that this would be an easy sew.

At least I didn't do it in beige.

I actually really like wearing this outfit. It is suit like enough when I need that and easy and comfortable to wear.

But best of all I finally got to use these buttons, and how cool are they:

Best part of the project.