Whenever I visit San Francisco I’m impressed with the high style quotient. This weekend was no different. Daytime street fashion was a uniform of jeans, trench coats, ballet flats or fashion sneakers, and funky accessories.

• Denim was either boot cut, straight or skinny.
• Trenches were short or just above the knee.
• Trapeze jackets and tailored blazers were a popular alternative to trenches.
• Ballet flats and Converse sneakers were everywhere.
• Large flat totes ruled supreme.
• Trendy specs were in abundance.
• The colours were black, white, cream, tan, grey, red, brown.

There were no heels or wide-legged pants, and very few T-shirts to be seen. I only spotted three people wearing their pants too short.

Things slipped once I was back at the airport. Velour sweats, oversized-T-shirts, clingy cropped hoodies, yoga pants, pajama pants, crocs, hiking boots, polar fleece, fanny packs, flip-flops, thick white athletic socks and big athletic sneakers were everywhere. And I stopped counting how many men and women were wearing their pant lengths too short.

Fashion goes in cycles, but fashion technology and comfort are always improving. Here are four breakthroughs for which I am eternally grateful:

• Denim: I cannot imagine a fashion season without jeans. They are the quintessential basic.
• Stretch: We enjoy Lycra, Spandex and Elastine in so many of our clothes and I still take it for granted. Think of how uncomfortable a bra would be without elastic.
• Knitted fabrics: Living in a world of woven fabric would be dreadful. Knits give us comfort and choice. Imagine wearing woven socks and woven underwear!
• Comfortable shoes: They are still hard to find, but they do exist.

Silhouettes and trends come and go, but technological advancement is here to stay. Which comfort breakthroughs make your world a happier place?

Ultra high-waisted jeans started coming through a year ago in skinny and straight-leg denim silhouettes. This season high-waisted, wide-legged jeans are the next big thing. They’re available in both faded “hippy” looks, and dark, streamlined modern styles.

I have fallen in love with this design. I do not have a bohemian element to my style and much prefer the smarter version in dark denim. It’s a great look when the strictness of a high-waisted jean is contrasted with a sophisticated and soft tucked-in blouse. This ensemble is all about tucking in tops to show off the mid section. You’ll therefore need the right body type to pull off the look and preferably a bit of height and a pair of heels. Am I alone in loving this look?

Dark high-waisted jeans and one faded high-waisted “hippy” style. I adore blouses and denim so I’m definitely giving this look a bash.

Spring and Summer 2008 introduces a tribal-rich trend that’s fresh and new. African inspired patterns, animal skin prints, natural fibers, safari looks, beaded ornamentation, gladiator sandals and wooden jewelry are what make the global trend a wearable and mainstream style.

You don’t need to wear this look from top to bottom to achieve a great effect. It can be interpreted in numerous ways and it’s all about mixing it up appropriately to suit your style. Simply add gladiator sandals to a modern black and white ensemble, or a safari jacket to a classic smart casual outfit. Match zebra print flats with a preppy look, or sport a tailored caftan over white skinnies and cork wedges.

Don’t choose beige items if the colour washes you out. Choose white, cream, mushroom brown, black and army green instead. I’ve added a tomato red belted safari jacket and an army green shirt dress to my Spring mix and they’re a nice change to the trapeze jackets and A-line jersey tunics I’ve been wearing for a while.

Athletic-inspired anoraks were fringe fashion last year, but are now mainstream. They’re a super lightweight, casual cover-up that’ll give your look a sporty edge with lots of style. You’ll find them shiny or matte, long or short, and neutral or coloured. Fabrications like nylon, polyester and acetate give them a particularly authentic active appearance.

I like anoraks best when they’re contrasted with dressy attire, like a little black dress, dark jeans, slacks, swanky walk shorts and fancy shoes. This is a rather avant-garde, high fashion look, so it’s a little tricky to pull off if you don’t get the components right.

I’ll bypass this trend – the less sporty trench is more my style. But If you’re an active zip-up-and-go kind of gal, than the fashion anorak look might be for you.

The best thing about the American retail industry is its lenient and convenient return policies. The luxury of being refunded for unused items months after acquiring them is the height of customer service and quite unprecedented. This is not common practice in Europe or Asia, where full refunds are few and far between and returning items is generally tricky. Certain retailers in Hong Kong and Singapore won’t even let you try on an item of clothing before you’ve purchased it, let alone return it later.

But the ease with which we can return items has its drawbacks. I have met people who get into a cycle of continually buying and returning items without keeping anything. They don’t wear their purchases because they might need to return them. And the option of making the return sparks doubt and buyer’s remorse. More often than not, the item goes back because there might be something slightly better. This is what I call “the return rut” and it’s a frustrating shopping strategy. More trips to the store and fewer successful purchases are the result.

Returning items because they don’t fit or match is perfectly acceptable, but constant returns because we can’t commit to our purchases is quite another thing. Are you in the return rut? How often do you return items? Do you frequently experience buyer’s remorse?

There’s a lot to like about the ongoing voluminous trend, but I continue to see voluminous pieces worn and advertised in unflattering combinations. It’s the retail industry’s responsibility to inform and educate consumers about new trends and how to wear them. The latter is severely lacking.

It’s imperative that you wear only one voluminous piece at a time (volume on volume does not work). Keep it sleek and fitted on top if you wear volume on the bottom and vice versa. This season’s resurgence of the wide-legged pant alongside swingy tops and trapeze jackets is interesting. These items are not meant to be worn together and yet it’s happening on mannequins in stores and on models online.

The model in the blue Rachel Pally outfit looks awful. Add a row of pompoms to the front of this outfit and she’s Bozo the clown. The pants should have been paired with a streamlined top, and the top would look better with a pair of straight or skinny jeans. I don’t like the wide-legged jumpsuit on the model on the right either, but at least the top part of her outfit is sleek which complements its voluminous bottom.

I’m surprised that the blue Rachel Pally outfit has made Oprah’s list of favourite things. Not so stylish.

If you like the structure of a jacket but the comfort of a sweater, then the knitted jacket or “sweater jacket” is for you. Some styles look more like cardigans while others are more like jackets. Either way, these items are knits, which makes them stretchy, soft and relaxed. Tailored or trapeze, collared or collarless, classic or trendy, smart or casual and plain or patterned, there’s a style to pull together your look in a cozy and comfortable way.

Knitted jackets won’t work if your Springs are warm. But they’re ideal for chilly Spring days, which are plentiful in Seattle.

An assortment of knitted jackets.

Achieving a casual, yet stylish appearance is hard to accomplish. It’s easier to look fab in dressier pieces with a “wow factor”. But looking good in casual settings is achievable if you’re mindful about the pieces that you select and how you put them together. Retaining a level of polish in casual attire goes a long way and getting that part right is just as important.

Like all dress codes, “casual” style is about following a formula. Here are the components:

• Pants, skirts and walk shorts: Casual bottoms are great in denim, corduroy, cotton twill, cotton blends, micro- checks or linen. Stick to dark blue denim if you’re over the age of 35 and stay away from the dreaded capri look.
• Tops: It’s essential that you wear the right casual top to ensure a high style quotient. Choose knitted tops, knitted tunics, knitwear and woven tops over T-shirts because they’re versatile and a lot more interesting. T-shirts don’t pop, whereas other casual top options do.
• Jackets: Adding a denim friendly, lined or unlined jacket to a casual ensemble increases your style quotient. This can’t be done in hot weather but is a must when it’s chilly. Jackets in denim, corduroy, cotton twill, cotton blends, rayon blends, acetate, polyester bends and linen are good choices.
• Cardigans: They’re the perfect light weight cover-up for dresses or sleeveless tops. Chunky knits are always casual but finer gauges will also work.
• Coat: Tailored puffer jackets, parkas or casual trenches worn to the thigh or knee are super.
• Dresses: Short jersey or cotton rich A-line day dresses are ideal.
• Shoes: Flats are generally more casual than heels so non-athletic fashion sneakers, ballet flats, espadrilles, casual sandals, thong sandals, casual short or knee-high boots and low wedges are great. Low heels can be informal if the styling is casual.
• Handbag: Sling bags are perfect, but totes, hobos, wicker or canvas bags are equally good options.

The casual dress code is often abused in the name of “comfort”. Items like sweat pants, hooded sweat tops, yoga-type pants, yoga tops, polar fleece tops, sporty windbreakers, basic T-shirts, lycra tank tops, athletic sneakers and any other type of clothing or shoe that is meant for sport or exercise does not make it into the casual wear category. This look is beyond casual wear. It’s what I call “gear” which is what you wear when you’re working out, engaging in a sport, or lounging at home. Do not wear these items in public as a form of casual wear. It’s poor style.

Casual outfit ideas from Boden.

An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reports how Dallas product designer and marketer, Cricket Lee, attempts to standardize women’s clothing sizes and fits in the US. She has created a sizing system called Fitlogic, which sets a universal standard for sizing women’s clothes based on measurements and body types. The Fitlogic system categorizes women into three shapes:

• Thick waist and thin hips (Straight)
• Curvy but proportional (Curvy)
• Thin waist and round bottom (Round)

You can find your fitlogic fit by answering a few simple questions. I entered my measurements and received the following response:

“The Fitlogic Fitfinder cannot find a size meeting the measurements you have entered. We understand how important the proper fit is and how difficult measuring yourself can often be. Please take a moment to double-check your entries and proceed with the Fitlogic Fitfinder once more”.

I can assure you that I measured myself properly and entered the data correctly. Perhaps I’m in the 10% minority (the article does say that the algorithm currently works for 90% of women), but the reality is that women’s bodies defy standardization. If you struggle to find pants that fit, the best remedy is to get as close as possible and then do alterations to perfect the fit.

Watch this video to get a simple explanation of the Fitlogic system.