Richard Spiegel/Lucire

Q: I want to do some serious outlet shopping on my vacation. What's the hottest trend for fall?

A: Forget waifs and Greek widows and fashion nuns and meter maids. Fashion's new best friend is the Park Avenue princess. Expensiveness is back in style. Or, as Gucci's Tom Ford told one reporter: "Think a little Barbie, a little Duchess of Windsor, a little Jackie Kennedy."

The runways were awash in fur. Not just fur coats and jackets, but miles of fur trim. Designers still liked snake, but they liked alligator and crocodile better, and not just for shoes and bags. Don't expect to find Hermes' $40,000 croc jacket or $30,900 croc wrap skirt in an outlet just yet, but keep an eye out for realistic croc-embossed leathers and pleathers.

Suedes and leathers replaced cashmere as the fabric of choice. And, after a couple of years of way too many twinsets, designers rehabilitated the ladylike suit and the genteel silk blouse with a pussycat bow at the neck. Tweed was major. After a few years of silver and platinum, gold is back -- the more the merrier. And haul out your pearls from the back of your jewelry box.

Patricia McLaughlin is a nationally syndicated fashion columnist.
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