Color me hip:

‘ Black is dead. This season will see bright, vibrant colors with a lot of big, bold floral prints.’

Living light:

‘ As global warming continues to take hold, we’re moving towards one-season lines of clothing that can be worn all year, with lighter fabrics and without the heavy bulky sweaters we saw a few years back.’

Fashion for the feet:

‘ A new running shoe line from Australia called Royal looks like it’ll be really strong. The line has many different styles in lots of funky colors, but most of them don’t have laces-they’re slide-on running shoes.’

‘ For girls, the wedgie thing is finished now, and the new trend in shoes is to wear sandals all year round.’

In accessories:

‘ Beaded bracelets and necklaces with feathers will be really big, and earrings are going to go dangly, with feathers and beads to match.’

Masculine makeup:

‘ The male youth market is really focused on looking good and staying young-look at the number of gyms as compared to 10 years ago and the number of men who are obviously dying their hair. Teen boys are also starting to get into skincare products, so that might be a new cosmetics niche for this year.’

The next handbag honcho:

‘ Two guys in New York called Patch New York are getting a lot of plugs from celebrities like Madonna and Sarah Jessica Parker. I think they’re going to be really big. Also, there’s a female designer named Isabel Fiori who gets a lot of press on TV shows like Friends, etc. because her studio is right next to Paramount’s lot.’

Tease up your tees:

‘ We’re moving away from the basic T-shirt look-even the Gap is getting out of basics this year-and adding some detail like a little fringe or embroidery. There’s a T-shirt line called Evil from a woman in New York called The Queen of Evil-Jennifer Lopez was seen wearing a shirt from that line with the logo ‘Little Miss Drama’ recently. Three Dot T-shirts are also getting huge right now.’

Waxing knowledgeable:

‘ Trends don’t last very long today-it’s three months and that’s it. Everything gets copied so quickly today that the market becomes saturated. It’s an item business, and if you can hit the right item quickly, you can make a lot of money.’

‘ Today’s teens want to be the trendsetter, the first one on the block. There’s room in the market for a lot of stores that offer unique merchandise to do very well.’