Why you can safely ignore most trends in Fashion Magazines

The pointy-toe shoe. In, out, shake it all about? Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian

Many titles cover fashion with a level-of-intelligence that would give a brick a superiority complex. Are pointy-toe-shoes in? Is anything?

By Hadley Freeman

guardian.co.uk

I see in a magazine that pointed-toe shoes are "back". What does this mean?

Geraldine, by email

What this means, Geraldine, is that a hapless work experiencer came into the office one day and, instead of being alternately ignored and sent-out for the coffee run, an overstressed fashion assistant told her to ring round every shoe designer she could think of and ask them to send over whatever pointed shoes they had in the store room because they'd look good on a double-page spread. And that, boys and girls, is how fashion journalism works.

Hat contests, trunk shows, bra fittings

Designers from New York and Los Angeles descend on the Triangle this weekend for the Trendsetting Fashion and Trunk Show, Saturday from 6 to 9:30 p.m., at ArtSpace in downtown Raleigh. The event's featured designer is Brooklyn native Swiyyah Akhtab whose Swiyyah Couture line is filled with street chic pieces in leather, bold prints and color block designs.

Tickets are $20 and available at 339-1605. ArtSpace is at 201 Davie St., Raleigh.

Go with hat in hand

Ladies and gentlemen, break out your hats. Even if you're not going to the Derby, you can still get in on the millinery fun at Capital Club 16's Kentucky Derby Party and Hat Contest, Saturday from 3 to 7 p.m. Hats will be judged on overall style and originality, and contestants are encouraged to be extravagant and flamboyant. The restaurant will also serve a special Derby menu, complete with mint juleps. Capital Club 16 is at 16 W. Martin St., Raleigh.

Why I'm glad the It bag is over

As Jil Sander's £90 Market Bag is hailed as having killed off the It bag, Celia Walden explain why her own infatuation with expensive designer holdalls was only ever short lived

Victoria Beckham, who single-handedly killed off the It Bag

 

 

Fashion - hyperbolic beast that it is  loves to declare trends "dead". Only then can there be the immense pleasure of bringing them back. Maxis are dead.. and now they're back! Double denim is dead.. but lo and behold, it's back! Years ago, I read that "bottoms" were back. Imagine how mortified I felt, having walked around with my derriere for months, completely oblivious to my enduring faux pas.

But if the vagaries of fashion magazines leave you dizzied, you can seek comfort from the fact that on one subject, at least, they are unanimous: the It bag is dead. Not just dead, but putrid and decomposing, with the interlinked golden Cs on a Chanel flap bag left only to be dug up by archeologists.