Autumn Winter Trends
Tea Party
This is a Forties and Fifties inspired trend. Everyone's fallen in love with tea dances, tea parties and everything that goes with them - from cupcakes to the fashions of the times. From Summer's tea dresses, we're now moving to full dresses in heavier fabrics like felt and wool, as well as suits with really fitted jackets and pencil skirts. If you're going to do trousers, these should be quite high waisted with a very, very wide leg.
The colours are jewel tones like teal, emerald and ruby - really intense, vibrant shades. With a suit, wear a pussy bow blouse for an outfit that's quite twee but also very elegant. This trend is very good for anyone with an hourglass figure; the cuts are designed to accommodate hips, waists and bosoms. The silhouette for dresses, for example, is a cinched waist with high neckline in the front and plunging V at the back.
Navajo
Going native with Navajo trends!
This Autumn the tribal trend is returning, this time with a Native American twist. With its bold patterns and vibrant colours, Navajo inspired clothing is the must-have trend to brighten up your wardrobe. Look for plenty of fringing, macrame, blanket ponchos, patchwork details, embroidered accessories, Navajo prints, fake sheepskin and faux fur.
Old English
This is an equestrian theme look, so riding boots are definitely coming back in, along with lots of tweed, tartan, cameo brooches and silk pussy bow blouses. An easy interpretation would be to wear skinny jeans with boots and a bit of sock showing at the knee.
Waists are quite high and tops are always tucked in. A thin quilted jacket will look great, or team your short fitted jacket with a waistcoat and silk blouse underneath. If you aren't keen on boots, you could wear brogues or loafers instead.
A key piece is the three-quarter length A-line skirt, borrowed from the side-saddle class as a country horse show. This garment may or may not be pleated, and fabrics range from felt to tweed to chiffon. For this trend, the palette is made up of traditional autumnal colours with pops of jewel tones.
Grunge
This look harks back to the Nineties and is popular with students or anyone looking for a really casual but tendy daytime look. A chiffon double-layered skirt that's longer in the back than the front is an essential, and this can be worn either with an oversized Aran jumper or a cropped jumper.
Other features include wooly socks, Doc Martens, printed tees and leather biker jackets. The colour scheme features autumnal hues with an emphasis on berry shades.
The Seventies
This is massive in all the stores. Whether you do this look with high waisted flares - and they must be high waisted - or with skinny jeans inside a high heeled boot, you need to find a Starsky and Hutch-style knitted jumper and create a real Abba kind a vibe.
For accessories, wear stack heeled loafers with your wide legged trousers or jeans, plus a floppy felt hat with a wide brim. You can also opt for shorts over tights and boots, either knee-high or ankle ones. Again, you'll see this whole trend interpreted in Autumn tones like mustards, rust, maroon and dark teal. Set the whole outfit off with long, flowing hair and blue eye shadow.
Accessories
There are three key hats this Autumn and Winter. First, you'll see a lot of Twenties era cloche hats in felt, which often have a bit of embellishment. Then there's the floppy felt hat that goes with the Seventies trend. Finally, the stores are full of fedoras. This can be very glamorous with the tea party trend. Get a tweed one with a feather and team it with a fitted jacket featuring a faux-fur collar - beautiful.
In terms of bags, satchels are really, really popular. Mahogany brown versions are especially pretty. Going forward, the next big thing will be the leather rucksuck. You're going to see these more and more.
For jewellery, bangles are still layered and large, while rings remain oversized. I'm also seeing a lot of very long statement pendants. For trendy motifs, owls seem to be the animal of choice this season.
Shoes
Little granny lace-up boots with hardly any heel work well with almost all the trends this season, so they are a nice staple to have. If you don't want flats, you could look for versions that have a stacked tapered heel.
To compliment the tea party trend, there are a lot of very pointy kitten heels in the stores. Meanwhile the Seventies trend ensures that high heeled loafers are pretty much everywhere. Suede versions with quite thick rubber soles are especially stylish this season.
Finally, brogues are still incredibly popular. Flat loafers are trendy too, with versions in patent leather making big news. A black or berry pair would make a strong addition to the autumn wardrobe.
