Bright Times Ahead
Those clunky steel watches wrapped around every fashionable wrist suddenly look too overbearing with this season’s floral dresses. The first sign of the times was Concord’s satin-strapped watch created for Oscar-goers like Angela Bassett; this fall brings a model with colored straps in turquoise and magenta ($7,250). Rolex’s new Daytona, available this summer, has pastel dials and matching straps ($19,450, pictured). With Hermès’s Belt watch ($1,300), you don’t have to choose: Extra straps come in red, light blue, or apple green ($200 each). Or just go to FAO Schwarz, where kid-size Flik Flaks in every imaginable color are only $23.
SHYAMA PATEL
The Little Match Girls
Matching your headband to your shoes might be a bit too Park Avenue princess for most of us, but apparently not for those young enough to actually be Park Avenue princesses. The eclectically embroidered elastic headbands stitched up by ex-Saks shoe buyer Laura Siegel to coordinate with every pair of her own summer slides have become the latest accessory for the platforms-and-baby-tees set ($20-$22, available at Bloomingdale’s, at Bendel, and on Siegel’s own Website, levla.com; sold out at Scoop). But there may be a simpler reason for Siegel’s schoolgirl success: The headbands have already been spotted on teen idols Natalie Portman and Britney Spears.
NAN PARRY
Plus-Size Pants
With a bumper crop of boldfaced names announcing their expectations, stores and designers are competing to outfit the stars during their high-profile pregnancies. A Pea in the Pod, where Madonna, Cindy Crawford, and Jodie Foster have all rifled through the racks, is custom-making black leather pants with a stretch panel up front ($250) exclusively for celebrities like Felicity Huffman, Marlee Matlin, and Kristin Scott Thomas. Yes, civilians will be able to buy them, too – but they’ll have to wait till August.
BETH LANDMAN KEIL
Out of the Blue
“It’s the trend that will not die,” says Beth Shepherd, co-owner of Kirna Zabête. While most fashion trends get a brief bask in the limelight before knockoff saturation relegates them to the consignment shops, the jean jacket has become the Manhattan uniform, worn to work, cocktail parties, and movie premieres. Now, with even the hoi polloi outfitted in standard-issue dark denim, industry insiders are attempting to distinguish themselves from the masses with upmarket interpretations like Celine’s cropped tie-dye, Wink’s studded white, and Hussein Chalayan’s asymmetrically stitched jacket. “I have one in tan leather, one in white denim, one in dark denim,” says Language owner Ana Abdul, who adds that she sells several Earl versions a day. But to stay ahead of the hordes, you might need more than three: “Right now,” confesses WWD’s Roxanne Robinson, “I have six different kinds in my closet.”
SARAH BERNARD