I’ve decided to gather a list of layering trends from recent years and compile them into one. These layering trends are based off the ones I personally love and would love to try again in 2020. Included are turtlenecks, silk satin dresses, wool coats, knitted cardigans, and my favourite white prairie poplin blouse. There’s no better time to mix all of these up and see what new styles can come out of it.
Trend #1: Inner Turtleneck + Vintage(-inspired) Button-down top
As if you haven’t been reminded enough already, I’m flagging this pairing up at you right now to remind you to try this age-old-yet-still-so-stylish combination. Give your female figure a little bit of pizzazz with an inner turtleneck and a crisp, vintage-inspired button-down top, preferably boyfriend-ish in silhouette. In other words: a touch of masculinity to ignite the senses of attraction that everyday dressers put no thought to.
This look will look particularly flattering on two body types. First, the petite-sized woman, and second, the woman with a straight frame whose figure sits somewhere on the scale androgyny.
For the former type, slouchy shoulders gained from the oversized shoulders of the shirt reveal the woman’s mini figure. This is done merely by contrast. Put on some bold, feminine gold jewellery and you’ll turn that mannish look into one that’s unforgivably female.
As for the latter, the broad shoulders of the straight body type coupled with the baggy shoulders of the shirt screams boyishness with its own non-conforming charm. Beautiful, different and artistic. Just the right taste to pique the people watchers’ curiosity.
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Trend #2: Chunky Boyfriend(-ish) Knitted Cardigan
Unlike the oversized button-down shirt, the chunky boyfriend-ish knitted cardigan remains an enigma to me. Why? Because it doesn’t give off any effect on its own. You can’t claim it feminine or masculine, or even androgynous. It’s completely void of category and that’s what makes it so special as a piece of garment. More particularly, in style talk, as a key accessory (this is not a pun) in an outfit’s overall look.
This cardigan sets that base for more charactered pieces to give the chunky knitted cardigan some flavour. You could literally pull your in every direction you set it to. Want to look feminine? Pair it with midi or maxi skirts or dresses. You’ll get a look that brings up feelings of sensuality while keeping you cozy at the same time. Want to kick up the tomboy look? Pair it with a plain white tee and a pair of work trousers. Darted trousers are finer options. Want to feel like a home girl? Put on some joggers and fabulous chunky dad shoes.
Maybe you want to feel like a college student again. Pair it with skinny jeans and a fun t-shirt cinched at the waist with a black vintage belt. Drop a notch down by pairing it with high-cut Converse sneakers and you’ll be back in the 70s. The list goes on. You’ll never be out of options again even with only one pair of chunky knitted cardigan.
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Trend #3: The Mary-Kate & Ashley Layer (Bulk & Sticks)
Since I was seven, I have always admired the Olsen twins. They were my idols when I was a kid because they were the only ones I knew then. Back then, my family wasn’t rich enough to get cable TV, so I didn’t know Hannah Montana until I was twelve.
And at this age, Mary-Kate and Ashley have remained my true style icons because they too are petite in size. Thankfully, they are the textbook versions of how I’d like to develop my personal style into.
Something I find extremely cool that the twins are dripping in is their ability to carry extremely heavy and bulky outerwear on their excruciatingly small frame. They will then have the outerwears be contrasted against even smaller legs peeping from the ends of their coats in black skinny jeans or leggings and into masculine shoes. This combination of massive coats, skinny jeans and leather shoes is the ultimate Petite Girls Takeover for me ever. It shows me what small-sized people can really pull off. You don’t have to be model material to show the world your version of a certain famed trend.
At the very least, what the twins have taught me in their series of fashion don’ts-become-dos is to trust my body and my frame, put on the clothes—any piece of clothing—on my person in the right proportions and watch the magic of intuitive styling happen.
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Trend #4: Silk Satin Spaghetti Strap Dress + Plain Inner-top
One of the most classical casual styles to have survived decades of fashion revolutions is this layering pair: the inner white tee and the overlayer spaghetti-strapped dress, the latter being mostly floral cotton dresses. But as of recent years, the spaghetti-strapped cotton dress has gradually evolved to become a silk or satin one. It mostly favours the glamorous side of life. For us normal folk, we incorporate it to get a taste of the life we can’t truly reach. Not because we haven’t got the bucks to get it (there are plenty of faux-glamour clothes out there for us to don and mimic that life). But because the glamorous life requires commitment and internal will and energy to make it. It’s basically not for the faint-hearted.
With the spaghetti-strapped silk satin dress, one could easily reach the glamorous life, get a slice of it, then put it down if one doesn’t like it at anymore. I’m not saying this beautiful silk satin dress is a reason for anyone to think that they can be lazy in their dressing and commitment to their own style. I’m saying you could give yourself a chance to try it out. Then put it away if you don’t like the feeling it gives you. It’s all about experimentation and trying out different styles to finally reach the end point that is your personal preference.
And, if you find that you actually like the sensuous feeling this soft, womanly dress gives you, get on the bandwagon and make this dress yours. Spin it any way you want, according to what makes you feel good. Honestly, there is no other way to go about fashion but to practically try things out until you feel good in it.
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Trend #5: Silk Satin Dress + Wool Over-layer
What I absolutely love about fashion is that it gives us a mountain of choices to choose from. It allows us to mix and match different textures and silhouettes to produce something different from what we already see. We get this eureka moment and think to ourselves, “Why did no one ever do this before?” when in fact the tools had been laid out in front of us to literally put one and one together.
And with the silk satin dress, one could match it a thousand times over with so many options. One of the many options that I find I love is the long or calf-length wool coat or cardigan. Pairing it with the silk satin dress exudes images of autumnal or wintery sensuousness. It brings to mind images of the Jazz Age, those flapper women in their skinny dresses and thick fur coats. That’s on top of the fact that they are bedecked with various kinds of gems and jewellery.
For us, the silk satin dress and the wool coat or cardigan is our version of the Jazz Age, brought back to life in a different experience. For one, I think it has to do with the weather. As the days get hotter, there is little reason for us to be wearing fur coats. On top of that, the fashion industry is finally turning around from sacrificing animals for their work-of-nature fur coats. A lot of fashion brands, companies and houses are now converting into the use of faux fur. Of course, faux is definitely not real. It will require time and science to achieve the realness of real fur.
In the meantime, wool overlays are a good option. Firstly because it doesn’t require animal sacrifice, and second, it’s our modern day equivalent of the thick fur coat. If you’d like to try out that Jazz Age flapper look, deck yourself in statement jewellery. You might also find use for those unworn statement jewellery.
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Trend #6: Socks + Stockings = Return to Gabrielle Chanel’s Childhood Days
This week’s Paris Haute Couture Week was graced by the iconic Chanel fashion show. I’m not going to give a little documentary about the classically beautiful show here, but I am going to point out one obvious thing from the show which I knew existed but never paid it any attention. And that is the layering of thick white socks over sheer stockings in black school girl shoes. This is a direct extraction from Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s own childhood spent at Aubazine, an abbey she grew up in. Deeply inspired by the life Coco Chanel had as a child, designer Virginie Viard recreated the experience for Spring/Summer 2020 Couture based on her own visitation to the abbey. And she sure didn’t leave out the layering of socks and stockings trend.
Especially with the spring season coming up in a few months, this look feels like a breath of fresh air. Put it in a suite with light-weight gossamer-esque materials, it definitely gives me feelings of midsummer. (I’ve never experienced midsummer before, so I’m basing this sensation off of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, both the play and the film adaptation.) Ideas of puckish playfulness, youthful romance, and the generally light narrative is a feeling we don’t quite get anymore. This collection puts a stop to time, absorbing everyone’s attention into it, coaxing viewers to leave the fast-paced present. It wants viewers to experience a simpler time and internalise peace from long ago. (Though Coco Chanel didn’t have a peaceful childhood at Aubazine, let’s branch off to the side of history where times were simpler and take that as our basis for peace.)
We know for sure that history was never really clean, it was a mess, really. But perhaps the reason why a phrase such as “simpler times” exist is because we compare the difficulties we face in our present to the difficulties our ancestors faced in their present. We jump too quickly into thinking that our grandparents had an easier time, but the truth is, both sides experience different realities, and both sides had their fair share of difficulties. Because of this, we’re made to think that we’d prefer whatever suffering our grandparents experienced in their youth. Lo, and behold, situations have changed, and with every change comes a new set of problems. We can’t truly escape. Maybe that’s why fantasies are created in the first place. And maybe that’s what Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2020 Haute Couture show is trying to do to you.
Trend #7: The White Prairie Blouse Under-layer
Speaking about “simpler times”, another piece of clothing comes into mind: the white prairie poplin blouse with puffy shoulders. In the days when the roles of milkmaids still exist as a norm of past societies, milkmaids would be wearing these blouses under pinafore dresses with big skirts. In today’s fashion, you could easily swap out the plain white tee underlayer with a puffy poplin blouse to give the layered look a bit of character. Accessorize it with jewellery, shoes and bags from a similar era. Don them all in a contemporary twist and you’ll have achieved a look made by you for you.
Read more: How to Wear Oversized Babydoll Sleeves
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