| April 1999
Professional Insider:Trend Spotting
Barely There
Sheer and clear fabrics, accessories and jewelry hit the streets
Smart investors may want to take stock in skin-care companies – the
fashionable will need a buffed and beautiful epidermis to wear the sheer
and clear looks hitting stores for spring and summer. This fashion movement
doesn't require tawdry flashes of flesh, rather a flirtatiously modest game
of peek-a-boo.
See-Through Fashion
Designer Vera Wang started it a few years back with dress designs that covered
the wearer's cleavage and arms in sheer fabric attached to a more conventional
strapless gown. This spring, summer and fall, sportswear designers such
as Calvin Klein use sheer fabrics in sweaters worn over solid tanks, camisoles
and tube-tops for modesty's sake.
The veer to clear doesn't stop with clothing – design house Anne
Klein shows a pair of sandals with leather soles at the heel and ball of
the foot sandwiching a footbed of clear plastic.
Spare Jewelry
Necklaces on thin cords that invisibly suspend pearls, diamonds or charms
are a natural extension of the trend to bare all. Honora's cultured pearl
floaters, Jeffrey Robert's diamond pendants and earrings and other jewelry
with monofilament cords complement this fashion trend.
The open styling can be found in a corner of the watch world as well.
Metal watchbands are showing up with lighter treatments – Fendi offers
a Swiss-made timepiece with cut-outs in its links in the shape of letters,
and Kenneth Cole's line of watches for women features open-link bands.
– by Liz Smutko
 
Invisible and barely visible materials allow a shimmer of
skin to peek through sweaters from CK Calvin Klein and Ellen Tracy, shoes
from Anne Klein and MicroCord jewelry from Honora (top) and Jeffrey Robert
(far right). Open links visually lighten already popular metal watches for
women, like the one from Kenneth Cole shown at right. |
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Copyright © 1999 by Bond Communications.
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