2013 - The end of trendy?

NEW YORK (AP):

The biggest trend in fashion for the new year might just be that there isn't anything especially trendy.

Based on runway and retailer previews, the must-have look in 2013 could be menswear-inspired and tailored, or ladylike chic. Colours are bold and bright, or graphic black and white; fabrics are slinky and silky, or textured and tough.

And pick your silhouette: There are both short sexy minis and long flowing maxis to be had. Check off dressed-up shorts, jumpsuits and slinky mermaid gowns.

Right now there is movement towards sophisticated, grown-up clothes in rich jewel tones  It was largely the same story for fall 2012 - and spring before that.
2011, too.

"The problem with trends is that we are trended out.
... We are so exhausted by overload that we just don't have a way to
process anything new," says trend analyst Marian Salzman, CEO of ad
agency Havas PR North America.

Remember the days when a new
fashion season meant a new must-have and a corresponding closet purge?
Out with boy-cut jeans, in with skinnies. Out with skinnies, in with
bell-bottoms.

Years ago, there was often a single muse
who dominated the season. If she were a bohemian free spirit in the
spring, she might be a tough biker chick in the fall. It seemed as if
every designer was courting her at the same time.

Now
the models on one catwalk seem like they were dressed personally by the
designer from his or her singular point of view. Looks aren't stagnant,
and you can see tastes evolving - right now there certainly is movement
towards sophisticated, grown-up clothes in rich jewel tones and sultry
touches - but there isn't a feeling that it's being done
frenetically.

One style might be more "in" than
another, but nothing is quite "out".

"When I started
in this industry over 20 years ago, we'd be on the plane after the shows
and talking about the trends of next season," says Elle
creative director Joe Zee. "We really lived in the bubble. You
could say, 'It's all about the miniskirt,' and immediately you'd hear,
'Oh, well, there's nothing for me.' Now, I can say it's all about the
'60s and miniskirts again, but there are still a lot of palazzo pants,
and jeans, and everything else, so you'll find
something."

Do a search for high-waisted bell-bottoms
on any given day, and you'll find a million pairs out there - and that's
a season when they weren't deemed "trendy," says Zee, who also is
curator for the online shopping destination
Vente-Privee.

Of course, the Internet has played a
huge role in this. Shoppers see new styles more or less at the same time
as the retailers and editors sitting in the front row, so fashion has
become more democratised. There's still a role for insiders, but it's
more as style interpreters instead of final
arbiters.

Stores have a much bigger selling space with
their websites, so they don't have to choose between the wide-leg pants
or the skinny ones. And consumers don't have to wait for the big
deliveries a few times a year. There's always a rolling supply of new
items - and things headed for clearance racks.

This
isn't necessarily a bad thing for fashion.

It was a
stretch for a designer long respected for career clothes to tout hot
pants. The same could be said for the wunderkind doing embellished
ballskirts. Now they don't have to. This allows for more creativity, not
less.

No one has to look alike. No one has to squeeze
into an unflattering must-have item just because a few fashion insiders
deemed it must have. After years of the industry preaching personal
style, it seems it's taking its own advice, and designers seem more
concerned with carving out their own look - and gaining fans of it -
than jumping on an inauthentic trend.

Women can
approach fashion as if they have options, Zee says. Take colour
blocking, for example.

"I've said that's a 'trend' for
five seasons. This season I'll say it's black and white, and maybe last
year I said it was red and pink, but the look hangs out, has a longer
life, and that gives you a broader sense of style," Zee
says.

When tastemakers began touting "personal style,"
Zee says he's not fully sure they meant it. But say something often
enough, and people start believing it.

"In the moment
maybe it was a marketing ploy," he says, "but then came Sex and
the City - which I think was a tent pole of personal style -
and then the Internet and the popularity of 'street style,' and now I
think women are saying, 'I'm going to do what I like to
do.'"

There's also the importance of value in fashion
now, and there's not just a dollar sign attached to that. Quality,
heritage and integrity are factors.

Going into 2013,
Salzman says consumers have developed a mindset that will focus on a
bigger picture than one snapped at the end of a
catwalk.

"We're going to spend more time thinking
about what it means to buy something, and we're much more engaged about
what our clothing says as our signature," she
says.