12:13, Saturday 8 Apr., 2006 Link

Women's fashion update: After this winter's obsession with the signification of boots, I've been looking out for what's next, now the sun's out. What I'm seeing around today is flat, simple shoes (are they called pumps? They look a bit like plimsoles. No heels, plain design, and muted colours--no silver here). These are worn with ankle socks and a straight skirt, to the knee, with some kind of fairly dense pattern. Bare legs.

I'd predicted things like patchwork or lace, so in terms of that I'm not doing very well. But my overall sense of the direction - that the action was happening on the legs - is still good: with shoe, sock, skin and skirt there are four different surfaces below the waist. Rather than the frontier feel I was getting from last year, I'd say this is inspired by mid 20th century (the 1930s? I'm not very good on pinning fashion to decades) established, everyday fashion.

Early in 2005, I saw a young woman on the tube looking very inter-war: Flannel skirt, white cotton socks, plain black shoes. If we're going towards this, I'd expect to see more flannel, felt and tweed (I saw some of this last year too), but as accessories or ornament as this appears to be a summer trend. I'm also not expecting any particular item to catch on, as boots did last year--it's just too soon. Instead I think it'll be about visual texture.

I would also say that it's still too early to tell. I'm still seeing a lot of leggings, skirts over trousers, and so on, and I did hear last year that it was all going to be about the waist (so look out for big belts, was the implication). We'll see.