Look for lots of denim, animal prints on local scene

9/4/2005

Toledo women are gearing up for what will be hot this fall.

Autumn officially begins Sept. 22, and area clothing store representatives are busy preparing for the cooler-weather season by changing display windows, folding clothes in heavier fabrics on shelves, and hanging on their racks new clothes that exude the style of autumn.

The word on the local scene for fall is glamour, glamour, glamour.

The season is very luxurious, with royal fabrics and velvet. We re going back to 1930s and 1940s glamour, very feminine and very girly, says Sarah Lyons, buyer and manager of Sophie s Sister, a women s clothing store in downtown Toledo.

We try to look at all sorts of Top 10 trends of the season and turn it toward the Toledo area and make it more realistic, she adds.

While national fall trends include luxury fabrics such as velvet; embellishments of sequins and pailettes; military jackets over sexy cocktail dresses; three-quarter car coats, and metallic threading running through just about everything from scarves to shoes, on the local scene, denim will rule.

We recently did a Denim 101 night to express why everyone is going so bonkers over denim. It s a trend that goes with everything and we hope that people are obviously wearing the right fit for themselves. Locally, this is very much the trend and it s going to continue that way for fall, says Ms. Lyons.

Todd Tucker, assistant store manager of Stein Mart in the Westgate Village Shopping Center, says favorite summer trends such as the bohemian look, including prairie skirts and Morrocan embellished tunics, will carry over for fall. Another carry-over will be animal prints, says Mr. Tucker.

The animal print trend, it slows down from time to time, but it doesn t go away there s a lot of leopard print and a little bit of zebra. They re mixing a lot of colors like torquise and pink tinted with the animal prints, he says. Mr. Tucker adds that shipments of fall clothing will arrive at the store over the next two weeks.

If this style is too trendy, Mr. Tucker says the preppy look with argyle sweaters in abudance for fall is another option.

Contact Rhonda B. Sewell at: rsewell@theblade.com or 419-724-6101.