Pink Rock Candy – Top fashion trends, news and shopping of 2010

From left to right: 3.1 Phillip Lim S/S 2010 – Style.com; ‘The Vanna Grey Dress’, $63 – Modcloth.com; Fendi Blouse, $960 – Net-A-Porter.com; 3.1 Phillip Lim Tiered Silk Mini Skirt, $550 – Net-A-Porter.com

I’ve grown up in a time of platform sneakers and boy-bashing tees, bell bottom jeans and cropped tops, and of late, shoulder pads and metal overload. The only thing I’ve yet to truly experience in my short lifetime is pretty sophistication. Sure, I had pretty as a baby with my itchy crinoline dresses and patent leather mary janes, and there is always some level of sophistication, but it’s never been trendy, and in 2010, I hope my cravings for what I lack will be satiated.

For spring, it seems the fashion industry is divided. The editors will quite obviously fill their magazines with the underwear as outwear trends seen all over the runway, while the rest of the world looks on in horror or at least confused amusement. New York Magazine’s The Cut Blog even describes spring’s look as “a lot of panty bottoms and feminine ruffles and bras we’re supposed to wear as tops. You know, conventional femininity of yore, skank gear [...]“, but I’m not exactly sure that’s what spring will be.

Sure, that may be what slinky models wore down the runway and what will be on display in a Vogue of your choice, but I’m not sure designers or editors, for that matter, are as incredibly out of touch as people are making them seem. I’m sure they realize the proletariat masses aren’t going to be seen wearing a boudoir style bra while walking down Broadway— unless it’s a work uniform of course.

I think… I hope… the boudoir movement is less about getting naked and more about how it feels to be naked, the sexiness and apprehension you feel when peeling off your clothes for another person, the delicateness of a woman’s body. We’ve experienced an eternity, at least in fashion years, of geometric silhouettes, skinny jeans, and sharp shoulders, but now it’s time to be pretty. It’s time to strip away all the armor and replace it with amour, to work with the natural, soft, feminine beauty, and this doesn’t mean every fabric worn should be sheer, garters should show, or actual shirts should disappear. It just means, the clothes created and worn should feel good against your skin and make you feel as if you’re baring it all without having to bare anything, all things I personally feel Phillip Lim, though a young designer, does quite well.

Lim’s spring 2010 collection is going to be my personal guide to nudity because not only are the designs pretty, something I’ve longed for, but they evoke a certain boudoir feel without actually going that extra mile and put panties on preview.