Today is the last day of my week-long stay in Germany, and I thought it might be fun to share some fashion observations. I’ve spent 5 days in Cologne for work, and 1 day in Duesseldorf for fun. I’ve had a grand time (it’s pretty much home for me, as I come from this area) and I am sad to leave. My stay here is also the reason I’ve been completely silent on YLF, I’ve just been too busy working, meeting family and old friends, shopping (not just clothes, but also books, chocolate, household linens…), and enjoying German food and cold beer. Anyway, I’ll focus on the fashion now

One disappointing takeaway for me –consistent with other trips in the last couple years- was that Germans are becoming less stylish. 5-10 years ago I found big differences in the way Germans (both women and men) dress, in that Germans tended to be more “put together” even in casual settings, looking like they put real effort into looking “smart” and stylish. No sneakers (except fashion sneakers), baggy jeans, plain t-shirts, etc. While the people I saw in Cologne are still better dressed on average than people in Seattle, I found them to be much more casual looking in recent years. Cologne is a pretty laid-back city, but I found the same trend towards more casual dressing in Duesseldorf, which is a much more stylish city. The overall picture looked closer to America than it used to.

Of course there still were many well-dressed women, and these are some of the trends I saw:
• The most trendy color is a light, often silvery, grey. Lots of it in the stores and on the street. It’s a hard color to pull off (I for instance look washed-out in grey and pass on it), but some women looked fantastic in grey, very elegant.
• Lots and lots of white. Plenty of white denim (jeans, skirts, shorts), but also generally a lot of white tops and bottoms. Sometimes combined with black, sometimes all white outfits, and most often combined with other colors. White was very prevalent.
• In terms of other colors, I saw many reds, often pinkish reds, and a lot of yellow just like in the US this spring. Lots of florals. Also a number of tops in a shade between turquoise and teal.
• Skinny jeans prevailed, with tunic tops or short dresses, including some shirt dresses (didn’t see as many shirt dress styles as in the US.) Wide legged pants are not popular.
• Angie will be pleased to hear that Capri length pants were not very prevalent, except that they seem to be the “uniform” for women over 60 (often with a sporty vest and a blouse.)
• Lots of voluminous tops, mostly with very wide and deep round necks, often gathered at the neckline, often falling down one shoulder. Worn belted.
• Wide belts were huge, mostly in black, brown, and white, often in patent. I liked that look of voluminous tops with wide belts over skinny jeans.
• Didn’t see too many walk shorts besides skinny clamdiggers (which were mostly denim, often white denim).
• Skirts are popular, and I saw a lot of summer dresses as well, both during the day and in the evening (the weather has been quite warm.)
• I didn’t identify any specific shoe trends, although I did spot one pair of grey Converse on the train today – but I don’t know if I would have noticed it if Angie hadn’t pointed it out in her Paris entry. They looked quite fab on the wearer, worn with skinny jeans and a white tunic top.
• Okay, I’ll end with the worst “trend” I saw (I saw it three times, so it doesn’t seem to be an isolated phenomenon): white shorts over black leggings. It looked awful.

Ciao from Germany, I’ll be back on the other side of the ocean soon…