FashBlog.com

By Christina VanGinkel

Have you ever noticed how fashion sometimes follows television? Take for example all the new shows this past and current season that are about dance. Suddenly, swingy style, even bohemian inspired skirts are once again making a strong comeback. We watch these shows, and see all these lovely, trim women, out on the dance floor, looking elegant, very ladylike, and oftentimes they are dressed in skirts very similarly styled to what are now becoming must-haves for every woman's wardrobe. Well, who would not want to have at least a bit of the style many of these young women display? We may not be able to dance like them, but there are no rules saying we cannot wear some of the same fashions they are sporting about in.

Along with the skirts also come smart looking, strappy little sandals. The sort you would see some long legged beauty in, doing the Samba. And do not even think to forget the tops. How could you miss them, what little there is of them, that is, with spaghetti straps, or barely there shoulders, though often paired with a smart looking cover-up or blazer? Keep in mind I am not talking about summer clothing either, these are styles I am seeing hitting the stores for fall wear. Check out Old Navy's trendsetter pages for some examples. They show tanks, even lace camisoles, to be paired with your favorite jacket and jeans!

When I considered why these styles might be so popular, even though they are about as off the mark as one might think they would be, what with fall just around the corner, there were two messages that kept popping into my head, and the first one was comfort.
The busier we all become with our lives, we are smartly assigning one necessity to our clothing needs, and that is comfort where our essential clothing is concerned. Why should we struggle in bulky clothing, just because the temperatures outside say so, especially when layering is so much more fun? And if skirts seem to defy the cold also, many of us do not live where the temperatures are a factor, or we are willing to be chilled a bit between well-heated buildings, for the sake of comfort once we are at our desks or hitting the malls.

Secondly, television is a factor in our modern age that very much defines what we as a society consider fashion. Keep in mind that a lot of us are suddenly watching with envy the elegant steps of Ballroom dance and the fun of Hip Hop, or the sensuality of Samba, and the fun of all the other dances. Plus, we know our chances of ever stepping out like the contestants on these shows is nil to none, so we take the next best thing from the shows that we can copy, and that is the clothing. Let's just hope the majority of us stop at what we consider the comfort level achieved from many of the styles, before we have a run on rhinestones though!