Fashion: First look for 2015

Once branded the decade that style forgot, the 1970s are back for spring with a bang, so keep this at the forefront of your mind as you trail the sales in search of discounted pieces that just might come into their own for 2015.

There is a haute hippy vibe that’s bringing in embroidered, appliqued and fringed finery. Note, this is an uptown look, with Roberto Cavelli featuring head to toe sheer lace white layers and Alberta Ferretti showing luxuriously fringed lace capes.

The current winter’s fantasy trend might throw up a few pieces that can be recycled, as both trends share a love of opulent embellishment and a theme of escapist drama.

There’s another side to the ‘70s trend, however – a preppie, college girl look (think Ali McGraw in Love Story) with knee-length A-line skirts, socks and sandals, little jackets and V-neck knits over shirts and blouses. The colour palette includes those muted retro shades of conker brown, mid blue, cabbage green and dull red and orange.

Meanwhile, stripes are going to be massive for spring and summer, and will be seen in a hippyish way, perhaps in the form of Moroccan style blue and white striped longline tunics and jackets, and also in sleeker form on brightly coloured silks and more structured pieces.

Then there’s white, white, white – big last summer, massive this winter and still going strong for summer 2015, seen in many different guises across the trends, from structured to optical, muted to ethereal. All of which means, snap up the white stuff – and pronto.

Denim is another story that just keeps on getting bigger and stronger and cleverer as the seasons continue. There’s quite a tailored twist coming to denim for the spring, with Fendi sending down the catwalk pegstyle trousers with matching shirt and crop jacket – denim on denim on denim.

Flat shoes and sandals are the way to go for spring and summer 2015, so see what you can find in the sales.

Look out too for cropped trousers, as these will continue to grow, so to speak, while flares will get wider and new for spring is the fisherman style trouser, tied at the front with a big bow.

Blue continues, so look out for that, and pleats are also worth investing in, especially shiny pleated skirts in both midi and mini lengths.

Happy hunting.