Your Stylist: Summer’s super-colorful jean pool
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Resident Image stylist and market editor Melissa Magsaysay soothes your sartorial woes in the weekly Your Stylist blog column:
In this installment of Your Stylist we discuss the evolution of denim for spring/summer. Jeans have gone from basic blues and intense indigo to Technicolor versions of playful sherbet shades. It’s all very ‘80s a la Esprit or Benetton but this time there’s nothing junior about colored denim. It’s coming in sleek skinny shapes and cropped lengths that liven up simple T-shirts or buttons downs and work well with neutral sandals or flats, rather than a pair of old-school high-top Reeboks.
The most popular color seems to be red. Celebrities from Rihanna to Rachel Bilson have all been sporting skinny red pants that are certainly attention-grabbing. For colder months, red jeans look saucy paired with leopard accessories and a sharp black blazer, but for summer they’re good with a simple white T-shirt or black and white striped tank top and some black flats. Basically, the jeans are the focal point and you don’t have to do much else in the way of styling because too much pattern or additional color worn with brightly colored pants will have you looking like a box of crayons that’s exploded and perhaps melted.
Labels like Rag & Bone, Paige, 7 for all Mankind, J Brand and Current/Elliott are serving up an array of rainbow shades for spring/summer. And besides red, many of them are also doing lighter hues like teal, lemon yellow, lavender and salmon pink. The colors are an unexpected pop of something different when it comes to denim and of course, the bright and sunny days of summer are the perfect time to start sporting this trend.
Colored jeans make it easy to wear the denim on denim trend. Any of these styles would look great with a basic blue jean jacket or simple chambray shirt. Also, try dressing up a pair with a crisp white shirt tucked in, a skinny belt and a sexy pair of heels or wedge sandals. Basically, any simple top, mostly solid, though there are some exceptions –- please be conservative when pairing these with a pattern. A graphic pattern can work, but make sure it’s not too busy. Stripes are your best bet. And please make sure not to wear a color in your top or accessories that matches the color of the jeans.
Colorful pants with any kind of matching top will make you look like you’re in a trendy version of a Hot Dog on a Stick uniform rather than taking a spin on summer’s denim color wheel.
Send your style queries to Melissa Magsaysay
Photos, from top: Rachel Bilson in red jeans/Denimology; colorful jeans from Rag & Bone, $165 at www.rag-bone.com / Rag & Bone; below left, colorful jeans from J Brand, $176/J Brand; right, Paige jeans in Flare, $149 at Paige on Robertson Boulevard/Paige; left, 7 for all Mankind jeans in Dark Spice, $189 at 7 For All Mankind on Robertson Boulevard/7 for all Mankind; right, Current/Elliott ankle skinny jean in Dahlia, $168 at www.revolveclothing.com/Current/Elliott.