It's a new season and time to update those basics in your wardrobe that you fall back on time after time, year after year. It seems to happen gradually, but one morning you look in the mirror and know it's time to give up the khakis and the T-shirts. They've had a good run, but it's time to move on and add a little glamour to your fashion life. Dressing up is back in style, even if casual is more your style. Yes, visions of those '80s are still with us, but this time around, it's a gentler, kinder kind of look. The exaggerated shoulder pads are gone. Glitz and glitter are much more subtle. Fabrics are more luxurious than ever in featherweight, seasonless blends that give us more for our money and work all year long in our wardrobes.
It pays to invest in a few of fall's new basics. Here's a shopping list of some of the best items that will make the transition from fall into winter easy on your budget as well as your style calendar. Start with five days of new looks, and you'll be on your way.
MONDAY: The work week begins with a suit for most of us, and the newest looks this fall are softly structured and beautifully tailored for a polished, feminine slant on menswear-inspired tweeds, checks, plaids and pinstripes. Choose a plaid jacket with a belted trench silhouette paired with a slim knee-length skirt. Layer a silky tie blouse underneath for a change. Accessorize with a pearl necklace and earrings, sheer hose and animal-print-embossed sling backs. Slip a crocodile-embossed clutch inside a larger tote bag for more convenience and after-work functions.
TUESDAY: For that appointment out of the office, a more relaxed jacket - the shapely five-button blazer - is perfect in a windowpane plaid or solid neutral teamed with a pair of slim, cuffed pants and topping off a slinky sleeveless turtleneck. Sheer hosiery and low-heeled pumps are viable options for more dressed-up days; opaque tights and slip-on flats for more casual style. Accessorize with gold hoop earrings and a larger bowling bag tote.
WEDNESDAY: Today is leather weather, and one of the year's best new basics is the leather skirt. It's fast becoming a classic in black, brown or red. Choose a color that works with the most pieces in your wardrobe, and watch this leather item become one of your favorite things to wear. Knee-length skirts are probably your best bets. Wear with longer jackets, shorter knit tops or knee-high boots. The choices are endless.
THURSDAY: Give yourself a color lift. Whether it's a cardigan sweater in lilac, a knit tank top in sky blue, a glimmering trench coat in gold or a pashmina scarf in ruby red, there are lots of ways to add some spark to those old basics with one of the season's newest shades. Put color, even if it's in a new accessory, high on your shopping list.
FRIDAY: For those days when you can let your fashion guard down at the office, there are lots of new ways to get casual and still feel ready for any impromptu sales call. Knits are it, when it comes to comfort that looks good. Long knit sweaters, short chunky turtlenecks, lightweight knit T-shirts, the season's newest cowl necks are all great Friday partners with longer knit skirts and ankle boots, leather pants and flats or even jeans.
Add a touch of snakeskin, pony, giraffe or tiger in fun faux prints for a single, exotic accent - shoes, handbags, scarves, etc. Carry these pieces into the weekend, and you'll be ready to start all over again, mixing and matching your new pieces with your other favorite basics that are sure to become new classics for a new season.
Sharon Mosley is a former fashion editor of the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock and executive director of the Fashion Editors and Reporters Association.
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