Leather gloves — check. Feathered headband — double check. Riding boot — triple check. Make a list, and check it thrice. This fall, as last year’s blasé trend accessories are tucked away into closets and trunks, new styles fall in from the workshops of designers waiting to adorn the bodies of fashion-avid consumers. Evanston offers a playground of options to find the perfect boots or stylish scarf missing from your current fall wardrobe.
Keep your legs fashionable with boldly-colored and cutout tights. Photo by Geraint Warlow on Flickr, licensed under the Creative Commons.
If tights are what you need, go to Gap: All winter Gap will have all of their tights two-for-$20. Gap offers this essential for highlighting boots and cocktail dresses in solid, textured and footless styles and in colors ranging from bright yellow and peach, to the standard must-have opaque black. Designers such as Yves Saint Laurent, Proenza Schouler and Roberto Cavalli incorporated and highlighted the aforementioned basic black tights in their runway designs for this fall, while designers Zac Posen and Alexander McQueen utilized boldly-colored and asymmetrically-patterned tights over their fall 2009 creations.
Medill freshman Corinne Chin said that tights have become a “staple” rather than just a seasonal trend: “They’re no longer just a novelty; they’re becoming more sophisticated, and as always they’re functional, which is essential in Chicago. This year, I’m getting into those patterned, cutout tights—like pointelle and herringbone weaves because those have been gaining a lot of popularity,” Chin said.
Embrace runway trends with a cowl-neck scarf. Photo by smittenkittenorig on Flickr, licensed under the Creative Commons.
Urban Outfitters is a sanctum for belts/scarves: Walking into Urban Outfitters is an experience comparable to walking into a dream world where every scarf and belt you pass would go perfectly with something in your closet. In belts: “skinny” fattens the style factor. Louis Vuitton consistently used skinny belts in its fall line-up, with designer Chloé following suit, showing leather skinnies in shades of darker tans and cognac.
Braided, studded-detailing, chain, fringe, sleek metal closures—you name it, Urban carries a skinny belt in the style you’re thinking of. Urban’s belts stand up to even the most avid fashion aficionado’s expectations.
In terms of scarves this season, cowl-necks stood out on the catwalk, with everyone from Fendi, Vivienne Westwood, Missoni and Burberry wrapping their models in this tubular look. Women’s accessories manager at Urban Outfitters, Erin Gotwalls, said the store carries a scarf for any girl’s occasion from a night out on the town to braving the Evanston freeze.
“You got girls that come in here that just need like a really comfortable, big heavy scarf to stay warm, and then you also have girls that come in and are going out and they want to have a cute scarf to accessorize their outfit; you get a mixture of both. We have both the knit scarf [the trend scarf] and the fashion [cowl-neck] scarf too,” Gotwalls said.
Style that can take you miles: Williams’ boots offer the new “comfort chic”:
“Boot heaven” is a more befitting title for this nearby local shop, which offers “quality” and “comfort” in all of its boots, said Chelsea Rectanus, Williams sales associate.
“The owner definitely makes it a priority to have really unique footwear, but really comfortable too. Pretty much, we don’t carry things that don’t have some sort of redeemable comfort quality to them,” Rectanus said.
Williams’ boots are targeted toward a fashion-conscious consumer who still values functionality for making long treks across campus or downtown Evanston, no matter the weather conditions.
“We’ve sold a lot of the leather, water-proof boots, I think probably because they’re more fashionable, but they also have the rain boot quality of not being ruined in the rain,” Rectanus said. “I really love our waterproof Riekers [boots]. I think they look fashionable. My favorite — it’s very basic, it doesn’t have a lot of hoop-la going on, it’s just a really really nice classic brown water-proof boot, and like a little bit of a wide heel.”
Round it all out with the ‘Circle scarf’: In an age of “comfort chic,” American Apparel provides a versatile, unisex, tubular scarf “made ultra-soft through a burn-out process” that can be worn 12 different ways, according to americanapparel.com. Key holder at American Apparel, Daniel Martin, said the circle scarf is unparalleled.
“I’m big on the circle scarf; it’s our main new trend. I would definitely say the American Apparel circle scarf is the best just because of the material and the quality. It’s all made in America—it’s just the quality of the item that counts,” Martin said.
Correction: The original version of this article implied that Louis Vuitton the designer was still alive and involved in the brand’s fashion line.