Tag Archives: trends

Ankle: The New Hip Length

Posted in business, clothing, dressing for work and dressing for an interview, Fashion, personal style, travel, travel clothing, trends by

When I mention an ankle length pant to a tall woman, she usually responds with a pained look and a determined shake of the head indicated she’d rather die.  At only 5:2, I can only imagine what it would be like to fear short pants.  I’m on the other end

Ankle length pant from Lisette L. Pantalon.

Ankle length pant from Lisette L. Pantalon.

of the spectrum and at that wonderful height where petite is too short and average is too long.  That’s why I LOVE ankle pants. I can usually get an ankle pant to be just the right full length for me.  But, if I want to wear the hippest new length for the season, its off to the seamstress I go to get my pant hemmed to the perfect ankle pant length.  So you lucky tall ladies, this blog is here to encourage you to put aside your horrific memories of too short pants when you were a kid, and embrace a new trend this season.

So let’s talk about the right length.  The picture on the left shows the optimum length for an ankle pant.  You want that hemline to fall an inch above your ankle bone.  Any higher,and your pant becomes a cropped pant.  Any lower, and the look is all wrong. This style looks great with heels, as pictured or with shoe boots.  See my blog from last week for more information about these.  Notice that this style usually coincides with a slim legged 60’s inspired cigarette pant.  Wider legged ankle pants look better with tall boots, and are trickier to pull off.

Full length hemline

Full length hemline

Conversely, the picture on the right shows the optimal hemline for a full length pant.  Hopefully this will help you visualize the difference between the two hemlines. Notice that the full length pant falls about midway down the back of the shoe or at the bony part of your heel. This is the perfect length for a slim legged pant because the fabric won’t pool or “break” too much on the top of the foot, creating extra and unnecessary bulk.

I find that ankle pants work better on me if I wear some type of a heel, wedge or dressier shoe boot.  I think its important to keep your shoe sleek and not boxy. Too chunky of a shoe creates a “cankle” (when your calf goes right into your ankle) and ruins the style.  Taller ladies can get away with more shoe options like ballerina flats, for example.  They already have the leg length to make the look work perfectly for them.

Fall is the perfect time to wear this style as the temperature is dropping but there isn’t snow on the ground forcing us into boots and socks.  This style can be a great work look, as it is dressy and chic.

Don’t know where to buy an ankle pant?  Check out our Lisette L. ankle pant on our online store at Fashion Crossroads Inc. This is a great jet black, all stretch, pant that will fit slim through the legs just like the styles shown in this blog as well as tuck your tummy.  The fabric is dressy so it can take you from work to evening to travel.

Posting From Market- Women’s Wear in Nevada (WINN) Show

Posted in clothing, Fashion, spring 2015 fashion trends, trends by

Today we shopped the WINN Show, short for Women’s Wear in Nevada, at the Rio Convention Center.  The WINN show is focused on speciality stores and has many of our best lines.  Today we saw Foxcroft, Tribal, Multiples, Alisha D, Belldini, Weavz, Keren Hart, and Lior.  It was a very full day, beginning at 9 a.m. and ending at 8:15 p.m.  We stopped for an hour lunch but otherwise were working lines the rest of the time.

Foxcroft had beautiful tencel blouses as well as their fabulous wrinkle free cotton blouses.  I wore my Foxcroft blouse yesterday.  It came out of my suit case wrinkle free and was still crisp and beautiful when I hung it back in the closet at the end of the day.  Ladies, if you want a great blouse, there is none better in the market!  The picture on the left shows an upcoming “blouse tunic” or “big shirt” from Foxcroft.  This is the next big tunic style.  It looks great with leggins, skinny or straight jeans.  You will also be seeing Blouse Tunics this summer so be sure to add at least one style to your summer wardrobe.

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Early fall grouping from Foxcroft with blouses and sweaters.

Foxcroft Blouses

Sales Representative for Fox Croft modelling a blouse tunic that will be in Fashion Crossroads in September.

We also saw Tribal today.  We were so excited about the fall line.  It looks amazing.  Tribal hit a home run in balancing casual jean looks with dressy work looks for a very functional line with a ton of fashion and practical pieces.  The challenge will be deciding what not to buy!  You Tribal lovers will be so happy with what you see from the line both for spring and fall of 2015.  It is also worth pointing out that the company expanded their booth and were booked solid all day, with every seat filled with buyers.  That’s a good sign both for the line and for the market as a whole.

Tribal booth at the WINN Show in Las Vegas

Tribal booth at the WINN Show in Las Vegas

Based upon the number of buyers at both the Off Price Show and the Winn Show, I thnk it is fair to say that buyers are feeling good about the economy which means customers are shopping all across the country.  That’s good news for all of us!

Thinspo and Fitspo

Posted in Fashion by

So maybe I am totally out of it, but this is the first I have heard of ‘thinspo” and “fitspo” which to define the most simply are images and quotes that women post to encourage themselves to be thin and fit.  So, curious, I googled the words and came across whole websites devoted to the topic.  Many of the postings were phone pics taken by real women in seductive poses showing off their, admittedly, quite thin and often very fit bodies.  I learned from Glamour magazine that Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram have banned “scary pro-anorexia images known as thinspiration” (August, 97).  Not being much of a pinner and still new to Tumblr and Instagram, I was amazed at the seductive photos I saw on these websites.  I’m not sure if the motivation is to get attention, a date or to just show off their bodies, but many of the women were dangerously thin.  It used to be that we worried how women’s magazines gave an unrealistic body image to girls, all the while knowing that these bodies were air brushed to hide flaws.  But the pictures I saw were not airbrushed.  They were real, true hard bodies.

So we’re back to it again, aren’t we?  Where is the line between fit and anorexia?  What is the message these kinds of photos are sending to our kids?  Can the average woman really look like that without starving herself or spending two hours at the gym every day?  Is this the definition of modern beautiful?  I am 40 years old and all for fitness.  I work out three times a week and count my calories.  At 5″3, it takes a lot of effort to stay at 120 lbs or less.  I can’t imagine the kind of effort it would take me to look anywhere near as fit as many of these women looked.  I know its possible, but at what cost?  Here’s the deal – the definition of beautiful is a moving target and has been since the beginning of time.  Whether is was cor-setts designed to make women’s waists look impossibly small or Renaissance painters immortalizing the delightfully plump woman of ease, what we find beautiful is always changing.  And that’s okay.  But when the definition of beautiful inspires women to unhealthy places, something needs to change.