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The Fashion Club Beats the Heat (8/1)

Welcome to the weekly Avocado Fashion Club, where you can read about style and fashion trends for all gender expressions, browse a selection of runway collections, and chat about style, accessories and more with your fellow Avocados.

Now that we’ve officially reached the start of August and some of the hottest weeks of the year, this week’s Fashion Club thread offers sartorial advice on how to deal with the dog days of summer in style. The Look Book features hairstyle tips for both men and women, as well as a look at Vans’ gorgeous upcoming collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum launching August 3rd. Lastly, we have pre-fall and fall collections from Zara and Gucci to provide some inspiration for your looks going into next season.

KEEPING IT COOL: STYLE FOR THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

Sandals aren’t the only way to anchor a summer dress. They may look elegant, but all-day excursions can lead to blisters and sore arches. For a more covered-up and comfortable—and unexpected—option, try sporting a dress with sneakers instead.

When most of us think of flip flops, we think of slim, inconsequential shoes with no real arch support that we mainly buy because they are cheap and simple. But these days there are plenty of comfortable options appropriate for more than just lounging poolside. Maybe you won’t wear them to the office, but these picks work for exercise, outdoor showers, and even lunch with friends on a hot day.

We can’t say we didn’t see this coming: Dior and Tommy Hilfiger were among the brands that predicted technicolor visors would soon be A Thing again, on their spring 2018 runways. The 2018 approach is fairly wearable—slightly less ostentatious than the tennis-camp garb once worn unironically, with more refined details like ribbon ties and thoughtful color-blocking.

It’s been spotted on men in the fashion industry more and more over the past few months, and is something that Mr David Beckham has been doing for years – it’s essentially the French tuck rotated 90 degrees, and involves tucking the bottom of the placket of a shirt into your trousers and leaving the other half out.

THE LOOK BOOK

Articles on clothes, hair and accessories for all your street style inspiration and needs. 

Other musicians, actresses, models, and teen activists are all giving the short hairdo a chance this summer, ranging from the near-shoulder-length lob, as in the case of Margot Robbie, to almost-pixie, as seen on Alicia Keys. And who can blame them for shearing some extra length? They say three’s a trend but 14 makes it a movement, and these 14 celebrities provide the perfect blueprint for anyone thinking of chopping their hair into a bob or lob before autumn rolls around. Why bother sweating through the dog days of summer, when you can just cut your hair off and give your neck a break?

For a cleaner look, Pearson recommends a loose cut that’s tight on the sides. “Because the back and sides are so short, it’s going be cooler temperature-wise,” he says. With a soft and natural top, the style offers “the best of both worlds,” he adds. To accomplish this shape, ask a barber for a  short back and the sides faded with the shortest length at .18 inches to keep a “soft look.” The top should have some noticeable length, to maintain body and texture. 

Emblazoned across an array of cult-status Vans’ classic silhouettes – such as the Sk8-Hi and Authentic – as well as a selection of premium apparel styles, are some of Van Gogh’s most recognizable pieces: Sunflowers, Almond Blossom and Old Vineyard with Peasant Woman. The artist’s unmistakable self-portrait is also splashed across the front of an oversized tee. For the footwear collection, each sneaker is rendered with custom footbed art that mirrors Van Gogh’s distinct brush strokes, as well as dual branding from both Vans and the Van Gogh Museum. As an additional detail, every item from the program is also accompanied with a special hangtag that outlines historical facts behind the complementing artwork from Vincent Van Gogh.

We’ve been keeping a close watch on said new arrivals, and one of the observations that we’ve made is that the very on-trend ankle boots that are about to be everywhere are of the leopard-print variety. Thanks to all things ’90s, leopard print is basically sweeping the nation right now, so it only makes sense that it’s made its way to ankle boots.

ON AND OFF THE RUNWAY

Some of the collections that caught my eye this week.

Those “the ’90s are back,” “the ’70s have returned,” and “the ’80s are seeing a revival” headlines that are going strong? Zara’s been taking stock. And instead of sticking to one, it’s combining our obsession for all decade comebacks with an epic collection that’s a blast from every era’s past. 

Gucci Pre-Fall 2018 is a now-standard explosion of color and print—except that it ups the ante on anything we’ve seen from the brand’s menswear lineup in recent memory. How does one outdo tiger prints and track suits? By tapping into one of the most colorful fashion decades ever: the 1980s. This collection has pieces we’ve come to expect from Gucci, like silk shirts, corduroy trousers, coats made in fabrics you last saw on your grandma’s couch, and suits in out-there hues. But this time, the Italian house adds primary-color gear and rainbow-patterned casualwear to the mix, along with retro accessories like one particularly sci-fi-inspired pair of sunglasses.

On a personal note, I really covet the clothes in Zara’s Fall 2018 menswear collection, particularly those jackets, coats and sweaters. They’re eye-catching but, at the same time, are seasonally appropriate and work well as part of one’s autumn wardrobe.

And now, this edition’s bonus question: What are your go-to clothes and accessories when you want to beat the heat?