Spring Trends for the Person Who Doesn't Care About Spring Trends

By Kate Carraway | March 21, 2014 | 4:44pm

Style

Let’s be real: it’s spring, but it’s not spring. It’s spring but it’s not. It’s not. But, no weather-based reality stops the high tides of fashion/shopping/desperate newness that follow a North-of-the-Wall-style winter like that one, so let’s review what you’ll be wearing or baffled by in the next li’l bit.

Spring Sandies

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In Givenchy’s rad, rad, rad floral-printed double-buckle sandals we see an adorable coalescence of: a) the ongoing Birkenstocks-y trend (tip: if you want to know what to wear in a year, look at what the higher-end private-school kiddos have on after school on a Friday; girls were doing Birks and camp socks forever ago), b) normcore and c) the kind of floral that I associate with my sisters, who got to be twentysomethings in the go-go Beverly Hills, 90210-nineties.

See also: mules, clogs (is this like a post-Crocs, Mario Batali thing?); those Isabel Marant slides.

Separates

Matching tops (I like the word “tops”! It’s so wholesome!), many of which are cropped (see: nineties) and bottoms (“bottoms”!) are happening this spring; for some examples, see freshly-minty Vogue cover girl Kim Kardashian‘s recent matching-separates-in-Miami looks. (LISTEN, she should be on that cover! Kanye is right about this/her.)

Iridescent

Forget animal print, you guys: “Iridescent is a neutral” is the truth as well as the best thing I tweeted in the last twelve months. Here’s why iridescent and holographic (a.k.a. “Shiny” if you’re not into syllables) are both great: while the twee-er aesthetics of cupcakey culture have mostly been driven out of style, except maybe in Portlandia (the psychic place, not the excellent IFC show) (wait: why is Carrie Brownstein never listed with JLaw, Mindy et al as a dream bestie? Or is she? Google this for me), it remains pretty fun to incorporate silly, kid-ish, unserious visual elements into dressing. This is why galaxy prints, outer-space themes, and sci-fi whatever stuff has been hot in the streets for a while, and why you’ll be hosting some kind of iridescent aspect on your body this spring.

White

Yep.

Shirts

This is different than “tops” OK? By shirts we mean button-ups and button-downs, in crispy whites (see: “White”) or shades of blue; this spring they’ll be every-place. Maybe do a fitted, more delicate Oxford shirt with a longish skirt like a Whit Stillman heroine, or a looser, to-the-neck shirt with cut-offs. I feel like this is a natural evolution away from all of the cute-printed silky blouses? Either way: phew/finally.

Width

Skirts are pleated; pants are wide-legged; sunglasses are thicker (and weirder). Even the crop tops are loose over the boobs for a kind of boxy silhouette, and then a sneak-attack of skin underneath.

Fringe

I guess? Not into it, because when I see a lot of fringe, even the contained, short-ish kind happening on dresses and tops (“TOPS”!), I think of two things: 1) when Carrie had to go to Brooklyn to see Smith’s play, and 2) what the practical implications of so much fringe might be, a.k.a. public-bathroom logistics. But, you know, you do you (#YDY).

Image via Getty