Trends for Fall '09: Sequins

Yes, it's sequins! That long-forgotten, little-used pop of shiny that went the way of the bustle and the snood. They're back!

Of course they never went away, but as ubiquitous as their usage is among the stagewear of Cher and the "costumes" of your average stripper, the number of appearances on the runway waxes and wanes and right now, we're on an upward trend. Let's judge!

3.1 Phillip Lim, Alberta Ferretti, Alexander McQueen, Badgley Mischka

These would all be judicious uses of the mighty sequin.

Balmain, Blumarine, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg

And some of these would NOT be. Good god, that Balmain is HIDEOUS. We're not loving that DVF either. We guess we're sequin purists at heart. Black, silver and (occasionally) gold work, but there's something about blue sequins that screams "tacky '80s MOB dress."

Gucci, Hervé Léger by Max Azria, Isaac Mizrahi, Matthew Williamson

These are all pure love. Even the Matthew Williamson, which surprises us a little.

Michael Kors, Rodarte, Stella McCartney, Thakoon

Ditto. Especially the Michael Kors. We're always going to love their partial use more than just covering an entire outfit with them.

Valentino, Vera Wang, Versace, Zac Posen

Valentino and Zac Posen, yes; Vera and Versace, no. Okay, we admit it. We're being totally arbitrary here. There aren't really any hard and fast rules as to when they work for us and when they don't. Like any embellishment, it depends not just on how much it's used, but on what the underlying garment looks like. You have to have a good base to embellish and then you have to make good choices as to how and how much you're going to embellish. The prettiest frock in the world can be ruined by over-embellishing or using the wrong embellishment and the plainest, most standard frock can be gloriously improved when you embellish it correctly.


[Photos: Style.com]


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