May these enormously amusing, super-fun fashion movements continue well into 2013 and beyond. (Except for two gaudy trends that need to die.)
1. Crazy pants were one of the biggest trends of the year — and they're not going away.
From left: Net-A-Porter.com, ShopBop.com, Bauer-Griffin (Beyoncé)
This summer was nothing but a giant blur of bizarre pants, if you ask me. Everything else I normally remember about summer — that one gross sunburn, dolphins frolicking in the ocean, snow cones — took a backseat to all the wonderfully fun pants apparent everywhere on everyone every single day. Probably because you could wear all those summer memories on your pants! Bright pink pants, dolphin-print pants, or even ombré pants. If you could dream it, or if it ever appeared on wallpaper, you could wear it on your legs.
Though the trend seems silly enough to be fleeting, it's not: Crazy pants remain more popular than ever. Printed denim will be a big trend into spring of next year, but instead of a predominance of florals and neon, expect to see more striped, tie-dyed, and — yes — snakeskin styles. Juicy Couture even currently offers a style of pants that is leopard and plaid at the same time. And as Maureen Lippe, marketing expert and CEO of Lippe Taylor, said to me the other day, "Aren't you dying for a pair of gold jeans?" Now that I think about it? Yes.
2. The rise of Zuhair Murad
Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively, and J. Lo all wearing Zuhair Murad.
From left: Tim Whitby/Getty Images, Michael Buckner/Getty Images
Zuhair Murad is a designer based in Lebanon who makes very sparkly, visually confusing formal dresses (and jumpsuits). His label is not a fashion person's label, meaning it's not "cool" in the intellectual way that labels like Givenchy or Suno are cool. Murad's clothes are not avant-garde or interesting as much as they are just very LOUD and SHINY and sort of perplexingly not pretty all the same. In other words, they're more pageant, less runway. But they've become a staple of leading actresses and divas who have to walk red carpets, even though I really doubt most fashion editors would suggest they wear this stuff.
But when you have Kristen Stewart, a face of Coolest Label Ever Balenciaga, wearing a sequined Zuhair Murad jumpsuit on the Twilight red carpet, you know the guy is a force — and more power to him, because nothing spices up a carpet and gives us Internet writers something to talk about like one of his bizarre creations. If his clothes do anything, they get you noticed, which in this age of social media– and reality TV–fueled solipsism, is a really important thing. So every time you see a really famous lady on a red carpet wearing a crazy, sparkly dress that is mesmerizing but not necessarily because it's good-looking, look up the designer and 90% chance it's Zuhair Murad.
