Skirt Lengths Dropping for Fall?

Don't panic. Doesn't mean you've got to ship all your mini skirts and baby-doll dresses to the Salvation Army. Yes, designers in the fashion heavens have decreed that skirt lengths need to fall - fall at the knee or slightly below it. But a few exceptions here and there is perfectly ok (sigh!).

Alright, but I'd like to shed some light on how to wear these new lengths and not look like you've aged 20 years!

The Fall season as you know means more somber colours mixed with nudes. Black, grey, maroon, blue (not pastels), red and camel is the order of the day. Christopher Kane leads the way (dress above) in that, he cuts the dress to just skim the body while embellishing it with bold embroidered floral designs.

Next in line is Micheal Kors that showed a strong Fall collection 2010 incorporating typical American wear. The dress below is a camel/nude ensemble but notice how he cleverly dips the neckline and finishes off with strong double leather belt to hold it all together. A little feminity and masculanity together sends a very sexy vibe.

Love Dries Van Noten's work. He loves mixing up colours and challenges our expectation of the norm. However, I found this one piece in his Fall 2010 collection a little disturbing - well in a good way, really. Because it has only ONE colour, grey. The dress is in no way brilliant from an artistic point of view. But its simplicity and classic cut is actually cleverly done to make it look chic and youthful.

The crowning glory of this trend just has to be (drum roll....) Victoria Beckham. And I'm not saying this because football fever is in the air. Victoria's style has always been body hugging pieces - as if the dress is second skin. For Fall, she had stolen the show by splashing colours like salmon and bright blue. This piece below is truly stunning and goes to show that just because you're not flashing your thighs, doesn't mean you can't look hot when the temperature (and skirt length) drops!