Men in pink, the return of the dress, the skinny pants and more 2006 fashion trends If it can be defined in one sentence, 2006 would be the return to femininity with sugar and spice and everything nice. After decades of boyish elegance, trendsetters decided to jazz up the classic concept of a woman, unleashing an avalanche of ruffles, bows and soft colors onto the catwalk. The spring collection kick-started the blooming fashion season by reinforcing the feminine mystique in a variety of skirts and dresses. Spring carried lots of knee length tulip-style skirts, A-lines and pleats featuring bold wallpaper prints, and light-colored, oversized floral prints good to wear day and night. There was also a big comeback for dresses not only for special occasions. A slew of casual dresses for work and other social occasions have graced the rails throughout the year using a variety of fabrics to match the season and they're still going strong. In the fall and winter dresses with fuller dropped waist skirts and empire bra-shaped slip tops were available in heavier fabric and accented with black opaque stockings and a cropped jacket or denim shirt to give them a more casual look. For men, the word in spring was pink, pink and more pink. The 2005 male explosion spilled over strongly in 2006. It may be hard to explain why, but perhaps it's because pink flatters almost all skin tones, or because psychologically it's a relaxing color that exudes confidence and sensitivity. So far so good, but 2006 was not free of crimes of fashion, namely those teeny weenie shorts worn "elegantly over opaque tights and stilettos. Come on there is nothing fancy about looking like a go-go dancer. The summer saw nothing particularly shocking for women. Bright colors were all over the place on beaches, at night, and on the nails. And it was hard not to notice that men's swimming trunks were shrinking with the ultra fashionable studs strutting along the North Coast in tight little shorts as if they were at the Côte d Azur, while the "real men made fun of them in their typical "Egyptian Man attitude. After packing up the minis, swimsuits, sandals and string tops it was time for the fall signature pieces: over-sized sweaters, skinny jeans, leggings, riding boots and a waist belt. The skinny jeans are probably the biggest fashion diversion this year, as the past decade was big on wider bell-bottoms and flares. The new wave jeans, known as the drainpipes or cigarette jeans are not only super tight, but are also tapered at the bottom. Talking of skinny, you may have noticed how models, celebrities and girls in general got even skinnier in 2006. This has led to wide criticism of the international fashion industry spearheaded by Spanish designers who took steps to kick the underweight beauties off the catwalk. So let's just hope that in 2007, sizes will go up discouraging anorexia. But for now, super skinny is still the ideal. As silhouettes have been longer and leaner, necklaces followed with mid-chest lengths, layers and tassels. Everything from layers of beads to chunky gold chains looked right in 2006. One craze that has been going in and out of fashion constantly is animal and reptile prints. This year the trend went all the way down to your feet with a thong of leopard and zebra boots and shoes. Another big comeback this year were the metallics, whether gold dress, silver shoes or bronze Chloe handbag. These have appeared big and soft, mostly in leather, some in denim and large prints. Details include big, bold gold chains and buckles, studs and patent leather. A fashion piece would be incomplete without mentioning Paris Hilton, one trendsetter that everyone loves to hate. Ok so she's the heir to the Hilton chain, parades down runways, is on every billboard, movie theater and has her own reality TV show, and a sex video scandal to boot, not to mention her music record release. It looks like there's nothing left for her to do, so we hope her 15 minutes of fame are over and in 2007 she will be "so last year .
