With the winters long gone from the city and colleges reopening, the semester is not the only thing new. Students everywhere in the city seem to have updated their wardrobes to bring in the new trends of the season while the old ones are unceremoniously stored in a far corner of the closet.  

Christmas and new year have passed but the cheerful party mood still seems to linger in the atmosphere. College students can be seen in all the colours of spring with a little bit of bling added on and patterns in vivid blues, crimson reds and parrot greens are the hot favourites. A few daring enough carry off canary yellow t-shirts or sneakers with attitude and panache.  Also girls on campus continue to wear chunky bangles in different textures.

In terms of patterns, we can see a lot of checked prints in tees, flowing tops and even a few slim fit check pants for girls as well as guys. These are available in shades of black, grey and brown would cost around Rs.700 to Rs.1500 a pair at Dubai plaza and Esprit stores. Though mostly teemed with t- shirts, they were also worn with plain shirts and a simple belt. Accessories are in this season and most of the students adorned oversized bags, high waist belts with a simple buckle or long neck pieces to turn a drab boring outfit into bling making it vibrant and eye catching. Not surprisingly, our Bollywood celebrities and movies influence the youth to quite an extent. It was most fascinating to see quite a horde of students (following the example of Amitabh Bachan, an actor of an older generation) sporting dorky glasses willingly, short sightedness or not!

   

Hair colour and extensions have found their way out however, one may catch a glimpse of a bright coloured streak every once in a while and most salons definitely have them in stock for the odd customer. A girl from the final year sporting extensions in red, blue and green all at once says, “ Even though coloured hair is out of style, I continue to keep them because they bring out my personal style preferences and chirpy personality. I follow trends from a lot of fashion magazines and often see colourful extensions on runway models and I think it is quite stylish.” Hair colour and extensions can be done at Jean Claude Biguine as well as La Belleza. 

When it comes to fashion it is usually the girls who have been at an advantage with the different designs and garments but it looks like off late, the guys have caught up at quite a rapid pace. They sure have no intentions of being left behind. It is, in fact true, that guys are more fashion conscious and open towards experimenting with different cuts, fits and looks. One of the college freshers said, “I often shop and buy clothes to suit my style and keep with trends. My idea of fashion is different kinds of shirts which, though they look good with jeans and sneakers, can also be teamed with scarves or jackets to create a look for all occasions.

 Dressing up with that in mind makes it quite hassle free actually.” Party shirts have off late been revamped and a lot of students sport them at events, gatherings and clubs. When asked for the one stop shop for party wear, pat comes the reply, “ Van Heusen, Allen Solly and even a few stores on commercial street have a variety of shirts ranging from slim fits to evening wear and I choose the colours and fits depending on where I plan to wear the shirt or the occasion I am shopping for. I admire the classic white shirts worn by Celebs at functions and found one exactly the same.”

Well, it certainly looks like this generation is keeping in vogue with the times and knows their trend charts a tad better than the statistical ones.