The Nordstrom Sale — the big summer preseason markdown of fall and winter fashions — opened today.
Actually, it’s the presale, which starts early for those of us with Nordstrom accounts. I’m not near one of the stores, so I looked online to see what might be interesting.
Nordstrom is not always an out-front leader in every new fashion, but it’s always reliably attuned into the looks of the moment.
Here are some themes I noticed in women’s clothing.
Shirts
There are many plaid shirts. Some are shown tucked, but I mostly have seen them worn loose unbuttoned over tank tops or tee shirts. These have been popular with college girls for a couple years now, and my impression is that they are mostly aimed at younger women.
Jeans
Jeans are still skinny and tight. Most end above the ankle, but some are a slightly looser “boyfriend” variety that end at mid calf or so. Some, like the pair below still feature rips and tears.
Nothing new here.
Pants
Pants are mostly black and also skinny.
There is also a smaller sampling of wide-leg, cropped pants, sometimes called gauchos or culottes.
Designers have been trotting these out for a couple years now, but women still are buying and wearing the skinny pants and, occasionally, wider numbers in black. We’ll see.
Coats
Three trends stick out.
One is 3/4 length coats, straight or almost bloated looking in the middle. These also are called walking coats or reefers.
Another theme is black leather and faux leather jackets, more of them than I would have expected. The motorcycle jacket has been around forever, but a particular variation — with wide lapels — seems to be favored this year.
Then there are the longer sweaters or sweater coats, popular last year and still so now. (Last year, these were sometimes called “dusters;” no more.)
Scarves
The look seems to be big, big scarves –some of them infinity scarves, big circles with no hems — that wrap around the neck like large clouds.
Shoes
If Nordstrom is reading the trends right, the shoe to own this fall is a beige suede ankle boot with a block heel. Here is one. There are many others.
There are also ankle boots in black. Other variations include peep toes, and mesh or gladiator uppers. Some have two-inch block heels, and some are platforms. There still are over-the-knee boots for women who wear very short skirts.
Shopping
The official sale opening is July 22 and continues until early August. Since I cannot make it to a store this year, I set aside some items that looked interesting in an online shopping cart. By the time I was finished perusing the selections, at least one of the items in my shopping cart had sold out.
If you want to consider shopping the sale, I’d suggest doing it sooner rather than later.
theidiosyncratist 