We're just wrapping up Fashion Month, which means editors and buyers just viewed all the new clothing for Spring 2014.
Yes, spring. Of next year. Because as many attuned to fashion know, the "fashion calendar" is a dizzyingly complicated mess whereby "spring" clothes are presented while it's still warm in September, "fall" clothes are presented the winter before in February, and summer and winter clothes get their own peculiar seasons called "Pre-Fall" and "Resort." It's enough to make even the savviest fashion fan's head spin, including Blake Lively, who recently told Vogue UK at Milan Fashion Week:
"It was actually really funny leading up to it because I was saying: 'I wonder what the collection is like, I wonder if it will be bright, or dark,' and someone said: 'Well it might be bright because it's spring,' and I said: 'No, it's fall,' and they said: 'It's spring!' And of course they're not showing fall collections in the fall!" she told us. "It's funny, as involved as I am in fashion and as much a part of my life as it is, I still thought: 'Oh!'"
Aww, it's OK, Blake. We'll break it down for you.
Every September, Fashion Week presents gorgeous, colorful clothes that we can wear come next spring. Exciting, right?
Unfortunately, September is still pretty warm, meaning the spring clothes on the runway look pretty similar to the ones we're wearing right now.
Plus, because of the Internet, by the time the spring clothes hit stores and magazines in March, we've seen a lot of them already.
But it's OK! Because before the spring runways from September arrive in stores in March, we've got another Fashion Week in February! Those are clothes for the following fall.
So what are we going to wear in between the spring collections shown in September and the fall collections shown the following February? Resort! Those clothes were shown in early summer so they're ready to wear in, uh, December.
There, there. It's OK. There's always your local H&M and Forever 21, where you can get clothes that were made approximately yesterday.
Get a preview of next year with the Spring 2014 collections:
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