Staple pieces: Denim

Classic denims never out of fashion, they're like the canvass for your fashionable painting. A sure fire bet is to go with dark denim, although, as seen in the picture above, a pair of light jeans are great for summer outfits.

Quality jeans are important, and I would suggest going into a jean shop and try on loads of different shapes, colors and so on... Make sure you take a pair of heels and flats so you can see what your legs look like when wearing either.  Once you've found your colors and shapes, you can mix and match to work up a good jean wardrobe. 

Here is my ultimate guide to buying jeans that fit:

• Set aside a decent amount of time (45min to an hour) to try on jeans.

• Go with a good friend, who will give you an honest opinion.

• Don't be ashamed to go up or down a size: a 10 in one shop can be the same measurements as a 12 or an 8 in another.

• When trying on jeans, make sure you sit down, bend down and so on, you won't only wear them when looking in a mirror if you buy them!

• If you're looking for a sliming effect, go dark: darker shades hide lumps and bumps.

• If you find it hard to find jeans that fit, buy a couple of pairs when you find a good fit.

Très Chic!

Some of you may, or may not know, that I've lived in France for the past 12 years. So I thought I bring a touch of  parisian chic to this post.

As much as French style moves with fashions, the basic style is very different. It's a simple ethos of less is more.

As we've seen, color blocking is the in-thing this season, so I've put together a completely stereotypical French outfit above, which applies the color blocking ethos but keeps the classic french chic style.

What I'm trying to say, is that even though trends change every season, you don't need to change your staple pieces. The best way to work is by having staple pieces in your wardrobe, which are simple colors and classic shapes. To those, you add your on trend pieces each season. 

The next few posts will be on staple wardrobe pieces.

By India Bottomley, @SimplyStyleMag

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Summer 2012 Trends - Trends: Workwear.

I have to say I'm a classic girl when it comes to workwear. You can apply trends to your working wardrobe by adding a pastel colored blazer for example. Although I feel that workwear is about channeling "power-dressing". 

It isn't hard to find nice pieces of tailoring on the British high street, it's a big trend this season and shops have cottoned on to a new, younger style of workwear. In these collection, you can find girly colors, in classic cuts, which you can accessorize to dress them up or down depending on your needs.

By India Bottomley, @SimplyStyleMag

Summer 2012 Trends - Trends: Sporting Chic.

Sporting chic comes hand in hand with the color blocking trend that I covered earlier this week. It's an easy to put together look and can be achieved this season from buying on the high-street and by adding vintage pieces to it. 

Tank tops, stretch cotton fabrics and bright colors are what this trend is made of. By assembling sporting pieces with glamorous accessories (as seen above) you can achieve a look which is bang on trend for this season.  Just make sure you add that touch of glam so you don't look like you're on your way to the gym every day!

By India Bottomley, @SimplyStyleMag

Summer 2012 Trends - Fabrics: sheer.

As seen here by Christian Dior, sheer fabrics are another key trend this year. As you know, pastels and color blocking are in as well, you can combine the sheer trend with either of these to be bang on trend this summer.

So stock up on your basic tops, tough these pieces are beautiful, you do need to cover up underneath.

By India Bottomley, @SimplySyleMag

Summer 2012 Trends - Colors: blocking.

Another huge trend this summer is color blocking. Using bold, usually clashing, colors, it's very easy to go wrong. Bellow you'll find a great video by the stylists at Bloomingdales about the subject, specifying how important it is to counteract bold colors with some neutral tones.

I would say, go for this look, but be careful, don't use patterns when color blocking and don't use too many bold colors in one outfit.

By India Bottomley, @SimplyStyleMag

Summer 2012 Trends - Colors: pastels.

As you probably know, pastels are one of the main trends for this season. It's a very girly and easy going look. It's a trend that easily compatible with other key looks for the season (which I'll be covering this week). 

You need to be careful to not make yourself look too pale if you have fair skin. If you do have pale skin, you can embrace this look by not choosing such pale pastels. There are lots of pieces out there which are sill pastel tones without being very, very pale. If you have darker skin, you can create great contrast with this trend. 

By India Bottomley, @SimplyStyleMag

Introducing...

Over the next week I will be posting every day on the trends for summer 2012.

The schedule is as follows:

Monday -> Colors - pastels
Tuesday -> Colors - color blocking
Wednesday -> Key looks - sheer fabrics
Thursday -> Key looks - sporting chic
Friday -> Workwear

Stay tuned for these articles, see you tomorrow for the first installment!

By India Bottomley, @SimplyStyleMag