Top Row (left to right): Endovanera, Yves Saint Laurent, Dolce and Gabbana, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Perry Ellis Signature

Bottom Row (left to right): Unconditional, KTZ, Robert Geller, Richard Lindqvist

The Trend: Inside These Pants

What: Switch out the jeans and traditional trousers.  This season is all about mixing it up.  With a new collision of materials, silhouettes, and a splash of color, nothing is off limits.  Be on the look out for tapered sweats, excessive pleating, and relaxed loose fits.

With: Focus on your overall silhouette.  If going with a super relaxed bottom, bring the top half in and make it slim.  If you’re working with tapered bottoms, the options are endless depending on your individual style.  Keep it slim, but not as narrow as your bottom or wear exaggerated portions; skinny bottom, oversized top.

Endovanera caught my interest with their spring 2008 collection, but this collection cements the brand in my mind as a label to watch.  In one quick season, I feel that their entire look has matured.  The label has moved from sharp hit and miss cuts to less severe cuts that are edgy, yet still soft to the eye.  The silhouettes are particularly nice, whether viewing slim or relaxed.  The fall collection provides a lot of options to play with when it comes to pants.  It’s a breath of fresh air to see the wider, more relaxed pants, but also nice to have as an option the trendy tapered pants that have become a staple.
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I recommend owning at least one dress coat and one casual jacket in a solid color that compliments the majority of your wardrobe.  A good staple coat can be dressed up or down depending on what you’re wearing underneath, while a casual jacket is great for throwing on with a pair of jeans.

When purchasing these pieces, it is very important to take into consideration the intended use of outerwear.  If you know that you need protection from the cold, you should be looking for outerwear made of wool.  If you are just looking for a jacket for that windy day, you are going to want to look for cotton or a synthetic blend of man produced materials like polyester.

Your intial purchases should be geared towards what you need immediately.  Once that is done and you have some room to build your wardrobe more freely, I recommend owning two jackets and two coats; one light weight, and one heavy for each.  This is also the point, where you can get creative and venture into the world of patterns, prints, etc.

For starting out, I definitely recommend taking a look at A.P.C., who has reasonably priced outerwear.  Also, if you’re looking to pick up some extra pieces that are not necessary at the moment, wait until February when the price of outerwear is slashed tremendously.

Ending this piece, I’ll give you an example of a wardrobe, by listing what outerwear I have.  In my wardrobe, I have one black wool coat, one blue wool duffel, one plaid (earth tones: brown, olive green, etc.) coat, one red cropped peacoat, and two oversized blazers that double as jackets.  I recently had a lightweight military inspired jacket, but had to ditch it, because it was way too big.  I will be on the hunt for a jacket this season that fits the criteria of this post.  Happy shopping!