USA Fashion

Fashion Week Fall 2008 trend watch: Turning purple

Nobody really knows how this all happened, but there's a purple haze hanging over Fashion Week in Manhattan and it's spreading.

It was spotted last Friday -- the first day of this eight-day event showcasing fall's new designs -- and we're definitely keeping an eye on it. The color purple is overtaking the runways, popping up as the new "it" hue everywhere. It's flashing peace signs in the Miss Sixty collection (inspired by the haute hippie Bohemian look of the '60s and '70s); it's flirting in a flapper-inspired fringed dress in the DKNY collection; and it's making accents in plaid trousers and jackets for men in offerings by R. Scott French.

Designers usually swear their inspirations are all their own and that they really don't know how they all come up with certain ideas at the same time, therefore giving birth to a trend. Unless there's just something in the water here -- maybe grape Kool-Aid -- this purple thing blows the lid off designer claims that they don't spy on each other.

If we're to keep them at their word, perhaps this has to do with the move away from the neutrals and other quiet tones that took over a couple of seasons back. The thinking then was that the public was in a terrorism-shock mindset and really wasn't in the mood for anything bold. At last September's spring previews, vivid colors came back, and maybe designers are expressing their optimistic outlook on the future this election year with something bright, cheerful, regal.

Whatever the case, it's being shown in so many forms that Barney and the Purple People Eater would get indigestion. In addition to the ones mentioned earlier, here's a rundown of just some of the designers we have seen use this traditionally regal color as their muse so far: Rock & Republic, Baby Phat, Perry Ellis, Jeremy Laing, Z Zegna, Tracy Johnson and Reyes.

We've seen purple pop up everywhere, with Miss Sixty's show on Sunday night being the purplest of them all, starting with the purple program folder. The first outfit was topped with a purple wool chunky knit beret, the second featured a grape mohair oversized knit shawl, a purple, brown and tan cotton cap sleeve tee and purple metallic nylon clutch with ruched detailing.

Miss Sixty displayed even more purpleitis in corduroy high-waisted shorts, a leather and velvet handbag, a knit tunic, plastic sunglasses with studded temples, leather boots with tonal piping and buckle detail, a embossed-reptile ruched leather belt, leather ankle boots with multi-strap detail, denim dip-dyed skinny trousers, and purple tie-dye tights!

Now excuse me while I kiss the sky...