Grey fashion clothes are all set to be one of mainstay
fashion looks of the working girl's
wardrobe this winter 2006/7. Begin your search at
Wallis Fashion, which is part of the Arcadia group in UK. Wallis Fashion
have some attractive grey pieces on cue with current fashion
looks and which are smart, understated
and very wearable.
If you are thinking of doing mannish fashion looks, then look no further than
Wallis Fashion shops where you will find plenty of grey clothes
amid red, purple, citrus green,
dog's tooth checks
and tartan plaids fashion colours.
Loose wide slouchy trousers really are the fashion alternative for
many women to the tightest fitting of jeans. Realistically, such slender jeans are often
best suited to models, tweens, teens and twenties.
The nicest mannish grey look I've
come across is this photo, see left, of a fashion model wearing
the Wallis 'W' Limited Edition Range slouchy trousers.
This is trouser volume done in an attractive way. The grey
slouch pants are mannish in wide cut, yet here are styled to
retain a feminine appealing look.
The grey look shown left is relaxed, yet because of the sober
colouration, can also be business smart, making it a perfect
fashion choice for work. You get two fashion looks all rolled into one. Wallis Limited Edition Range grey check wide leg trousers £45
(65 Euros). Mustard knitted beret £8 (12 Euros). Bag £30 (44
Euros). Accessories from a selection at Wallis. All
Wallis, Principle and Dorothy Perkins images
are courtesy of Arcadia.
This particular fashion look, above, is from the selected pieces in the new
range called
W -
A Limited Edition Range by Wallis. This unique collection for
Wallis Fashion, consisted of thirty statement pieces and was
first launched in September 2006. The
W items are exclusively available in the top 10 Wallis stores and
from their fashion clothing website. Wallis Fashion really do mean
Limited Edition with any W garments - they are only producing a maximum of 300 for each
fashion style.
If you hate skinny jeans or sprayed on leggings, you may soon
find yourself opting for this sophisticated alternative of wide
slouchy 40s style grey mannish trousers. This fashion look was made famous by
the film star Katherine Hepburn
and the trousers were often borrowed from the boyfriend.
These
fine grey check trousers can be bought as separates or a total
fashion look. There is
also a jacket and dress in the same fabric, making mixing and
matching a no brainer.
If you take to Mannish fashion try not to overdo the
fashion look by
teaming the trousers with over masculine looking jackets and
men's ties. There are plenty of feminine looking jackets
around especially those with large big collars and nipped in
waists like this coordinating separate from Wallis stock right
and the curvy waist defining jacket left.
This charcoal grey trouser suit left from NEXT DIRECTORY has new wider revers to the collar style. The trouser legs
are fuller, but there is no turn up. Turn ups can make you look
even shorter if you are shorter than average. So unless
you are short in the body and have long legs, shorter women
should check carefully if turn up trousers enhance their body
silhouette. You may look terrific in them, but this
is certainly point you must watch. Image courtesy of Next
Directory.
Both NEXT and Wallis fashion can be relied upon to cater to a
wide age and broad size range of UK sizes 8 to 20. Next
make some items like this grey trouser suit to size 22.
Both retailers just touch the plus size fashion market.
Both fashion sellers also do a petite fashion range designed for
the woman or girl of 5'3" and under. Wallis Fashion
Winter 2006/7 Check trousers £45 (€70), Wallis Check
jacket £75 (€120).
Just as with volume
fashion rules, mannish rules mean one main
garment, like the mannish turn up trousers. The resulting look can be quite masculine, but remember you are a woman and need to add soft feminine touches.
For the best fashion and feminine effect, mix and match masculine elements with lace blouses, soft cashmere sweaters,
angora knits, lace knits and figure curving tops.
Over sized slouchy cowl neck tops are on offer at several
shops. I particularly like these versions of the grey
cowl neck long sweater tunics.
Above left - Grey cowl neck sweater £30 (45 Euros).
Grey crop trousers £35 (51 Euros). Accessories from a selection
at Wallis.
Wallis Autumn/Winter 2006. Again these first 2 items are part of the
new W Limited Edition Range mentioned
above.
Above right - Principles outfit. Principles like Wallis and
Dorothy Perkins is also part of the Arcadia group. This
lovely Principles cowl tunic is £45 and the Ruskin chocolate boots are £125.
The two greys are quite different, thus the high street is offering
a good selection of tonal values in grey fashion looks.
An extension of the long slouch top is the mini
sweater dress which can be worn as dress or double up as a
tunic. This Matalan grey knit dress below at just £14 is a more
fitting figure hugging example of the sweater dress.
Long Tall Sally caters for the taller woman. At Long Tall Sally their
winter range also features two quite different cowl neck
grey tops that have caught my attention.
At Dorothy Perkins, the 'back to work' style replaced summer
dressing. For work-wear at Dorothy Perkins, masculine
tailoring with a feminine touch has been a key theme for Winter 2006/7. Look out for their endless
combinations of fashion conscious work-wear.
The Dorothy Perkins basic range starts at only £15.
What you get in this range is a soft-feel trouser in bootleg,
wide leg or straight leg shapes. The best colours are this
season’s black, charcoal or chocolate. Dorothy Perkins say
you can put together your own capsule wardrobe to suit your
budget. Just £25 will buy you a formal suit jacket with
pink stitch detail inside and it's possible to create a full
look, including suit, blouse, and heels for as little as £80.
I especially like their grey Donegal tweed suit – comprising
a sharp pencil skirt with cute cropped swing jacket and it is
guaranteed to bring a touch of 40s glamour to your office.
You may already have seen the photo on site in
fashion
looks, of the Dorothy Perkins relaxed grey fashion outfit
with the model wearing grey tones all topped with a beanie hat.
HATS are big fashion news. See the Dorothy Perkins grey
fashion outfit with beanie on the
Hats
page.
Just as Dorothy Perkins suggest that grey is a great back to
work fashion look. I think grey
is a good and practical colour for a city winter coat or jacket.
Grey adapts well to the grubbier facts of the daily commute and
you need not run screaming to the dry cleaners at the hint of
sitting on a less than pristine bus seat.
Grey
mixes well with black, red, pink, citrus and many of the
fashionable tartan plaids
and checks available. This coat from Wallis Fashion has
generous cape like sleeves, this makes it better able to sit over slightly
bulkier swing jackets, which in turn have roomy sleeves.
If grey is a difficult colour for you to wear, then consider
if you merely need to find the correct tone. Fashionable grey
ranges from the palest ice grey to soft silver, through to the
deepest of charcoal, anthracite and pewter. Blondes generally fair better in the
palest silver tones of grey and dark tones rather than mid
tones. Their brunette sisters can wear
more varied tones of grey and their silver haired grandmothers
look great in many silver grey tones which can also be teamed
with pastel pink, mauve, lemon and blue very easily.
Metallic tones of silver grey are also more uplifting than
dull mid-elephant grey colours. When buying knits look for
yarns that have been spun from blends of different grey tones. This always makes for a livelier colour than a one tone grey
which can be flat.
Another way to wear grey well, even though the
colour really does not suit you, is to wear it only on the bottom
half of your outfit as these models do.
This way of wearing a grey skirt, is an excellent choice
for those who long to follow the grey trend, but cannot wear
grey close to their complexion.
See left photo from Phase Eight and right from Matalan. A white or coloured top
could look just as good teamed with either skirt.
Phase Eight top £60, skirt £75, belt £35, bag £25.
Matalan skirt and top, half sleeve gathered roll neck £6, belt
£3, embellished peplum skirt £16, metallic cross strap heels
£14.
This
is a similar soft look from NEXT Directory.
Deep Waist Roll Neck Sweater in Black is £14.99. No.
102-207-X38.
Grey Circle Skirt is £29.99. No. 109-809-X38.
Black Ring Long Charm Necklace Chain length 72cm, £12.99.
Demi Wedge Court Shoes, Heel height 7cm approx. £29.99
These images courtesy of Phase Eight, NEXT and Matalan.
We flirted with grey fashion looks briefly last autumn, but now this
understated palette has taken hold and is strong at the start of
2007 as pastel silver. Grey can be classy and
fits in with the new elegance of the understated look, where bling is now so often overdone, banal and boring. The new
subtlety of grey is polished and cool.
The main new winter 2006/7 fashion colour combo colours are greys, charcoals, earthen browns, ochre and rust tones, red, burgundy, purple, plum, deep blue, khaki olive, black and white. BUT you can read more about these colours and
about fabrics on the
Winter 2006/7 colour page and see the colour moodboard page I made for fashion-era.
Fashion-Era.com looks at women's costume and fashion history and analyses the mood of an era. Changes in technology, leisure, work, cultural and moral values. Homelife and politics also
contribute to lifestyle trends, which in turn influence the clothes we wear. These are the changes that make any era of society special in relation to the study of the costume of a period.
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'W'
- A
Limited Edition Range from Wallis
