here are mrs Alexander's takes for the new year 
i think she got it quite right.. what's your opinion?
Style 2004: new year's honours
(Filed: 30/12/2003)
Next season's fashion is coming over all girly. It's goodbye combats, hello frills and flounces, says Hilary Alexander
Fashion will undergo a big change for spring/summer 2004. It's time to ditch the combat trousers, the space age look and those pieces that hark back to the Eighties, i.e. Op Art prints and batwing sleeves. (absolutely)
The key words for next season are pretty, womanly and feminine, and the strongest trends are inspired by fairies (wispy, soft and sprinkled with glitter), The Great Gatsby (drop-waists and sashes), the Forties and Fifties (halternecks and full skirts with optional petticoats) and Marlene Dietrich, who was showcased as a vamp at Dior and in full Hollywood glam mode at Viktor & Rolf.
Be prepared for frills and flounces, ribbon ties and bows, pin-tucks and pleating, fluttering hems and trailing scarves. Dresses, whether empire-line, drop-waisted or fitted to the waist, will have much more shape than the ubiquitous shift or slip-dress. Tailoring will be sweet and fresh, and worn with lingerie-look pieces, such as lacy camisoles.
The print and pattern phenomenon, which emerged this winter, will reach gigantic proportions. Expect a riot of florals – country garden as well as tropical paradise – butterfly motifs, pavement artist sketches and picture postcard scenes, splashes of rain, tie-dye, polka dots, nautical and Aztec stripes and quaint geometrics.
Although the print story is a rainbow parade of colour, relief will be provided by a palette of soft pastels and boudoir hues. Expect to find bows on everything from little, sweetheart-neck sweaters to pretty, mid-heel slingbacks in sherbet colours. Gold replaces silver as the metal of choice – perhaps thanks to the impending Olympics.
Key pieces• Lightweight pastel trench coats, including Burberry's micro-mini mac, which covers only the shoulders
• Wrap or waisted dresses
• Capes, cardigans, boleros, shawls
• Cropped trousers
• Full skirts
• Sweet suits
The labels to wear
Marc Jacobs, Pucci, Christopher Bailey of Burberry Prorsum, Eley Kishimoto, Dior, Viktor & Rolf, Prada, Helmut Lang and, particularly, Gucci and YSL Rive Gauche, as they will be Tom Ford's last spring/summer collections.
New labels to look out for
Jonathan Saunders, the young Paris-based, Colombian-born, Antwerp-trained minimalist
.
i think she got it quite right.. what's your opinion?
