Gone, baby, gone

The fashion industry spun out dozens of new looks in 2007, with highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view) including angular trapeze dresses, wide pants and jackets with voluminous sleeves. While fashion is famously fickle, retailers, historians and stylists say it's growing easier to predict which trends have staying power.

A trend's endurance is often determined by two factors: "comfort and sex appeal," says David Wolfe, creative director for Doneger Group, a retail trend-consulting company. "If it suits the way people live today," he says, a trend has staying power.

Another key to figuring out whether a trendy item will last is the level of exposure it gets. The swingy trapeze dress from this spring got so much attention following runway shows in fall 2006 that fast-fashion retailers -- who copy runway looks immediately -- produced many versions that hit stores at the same time as the designer pieces. As a result, the style became too ubiquitous quickly.

"It seemed really tired very fast," says Sass Brown, assistant professor of fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Trends often last two to three seasons at most today, compared with two to three years in the 1960s, says Beth Dincuff Charleston, a fashion history professor at Parsons, the New School for Design, in New York. But even in the fast-fashion era, some looks have staying power.

Here's a list of what's expected to stick around in 2008 and what's better off in the donation pile.

What to keep:

• Dressy suits, polished looks: This fall, pencil skirts, tailored dresses and expensive-looking, couture-inspired shapes in jackets and coats pushed aside loose, casual looks. Chic suits with matching tops and bottoms flooded retail stores.

The dressy pieces didn't always sell well. Michael Fink, vice president and women's fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue, says unseasonably warm weather in early fall hurt sales of the more polished pieces, as shoppers weren't in the mood for dressing up. "The charcoals and blacks made the idea of it very serious," Fink says.

Style experts predict that the polished, put-together aesthetic is going to continue through 2008 -- thanks in part to baby boomers.

"There are so many older people now who are too old to be playing the young fashion game and don't want to look like idiots," says Doneger's Wolfe.

Still, shoppers should store away pieces "with overtly feminine and sweet details such as rosettes and ruffles," says Jennifer Wheeler, Nordstrom's vice president for women's designer apparel, since 2008 styles will be more streamlined.

• Higher waistlines: The low-slung, hip-hugger look definitively went out this year, as designers from Marc Jacobs to Ralph Lauren showed skirts and pants with super-high waists on the runway. Some pants even extended several inches above the natural waistline.

Shoppers have embraced such looks because they work for more "realistic body types," says personal stylist Amy Salinger, who dresses business executives in Chicago and New York. "The reality is, most people can't do the low-waisted look because we have these things called 'love handles.' "

Style experts advise women to keep the higher-waisted pieces as the look will be trendy next year as well.

• Ballerina flats: Footwear followed designers' dressier looks for fall. The clunky platform shoes that complemented casual ensembles suddenly looked out of place, making way for a number of stiletto heels, sleek, ankle-high boots and ladylike pumps.

But the one style that caught fire this year was the ballerina flat. Labels from Tory Burch to Nine West churned out several styles of this comfortable, versatile shoe. It even managed to displace the flip-flop.

Experts across the board say the style is a keeper. "They are here to stay and are a strong staple for '08," says Wheeler.

• Bold colors: After years of neutrals dominating fashion trends, bright, rich colors were prominent this year in high-end runway shows, as well as middle-market stores. Sari Sloane, vice president for fashion merchandising at boutique chain Intermix, says ensembles in distinctive colors such as marigold, ruby and emerald sold well this year. At J.C. Penney, apparel in yellow and green has sold well in 2007, says Karolyn Wangstad, vice president of trend at the retailer.

These pieces have staying power for 2008. Neiman Marcus's spring accessory lineup includes bags and shoes from designers including Prada done in bright bubble-gum pink, orange and yellow.

• Eco-friendly clothing: Eco-friendly style -- apparel made of organic cotton or substances such as soy or milk protein -- came into its own in 2007. Large retailers from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to Marks & Spencer Group PLC now use organic cotton in their lines. At Los Angeles Fashion Week in October, a dozen eco-friendly designers, including Linda Loudermilk and London-based Gary Harvey, staged shows. And last month, Rogan Gregory, the New York designer of eco-friendly denim brands Edun, Loomstate and Rogan, won the top prize at the Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund.

Such pieces are unlikely to cycle out of style anytime soon, says Brown of the Fashion Institute of Technology. "Global warming is not going away," she says.

What to toss:

• Trapeze dresses: This year could mark the death of the baby-doll shape. Fitted at the bust and flaring out in an A-line cut, the baby-doll shape was an inescapable fashion silhouette in recent years as women embraced its youthful look and loose fit en masse. The look took an extreme turn this past spring when triangular trapeze-shaped dresses, last seen in a big way in the 1960s, suddenly were ubiquitous in stores from Target to Bergdorf Goodman. Women took to the streets "looking like they were pregnant with triplets," says Salinger. "You could be any size under those things and no one knew any better."

These tentlike silhouettes are now considered a big no-no. Hanging onto them for the next time the look will be back would be impractical, too, as the style is so youthful it might be harder to pull off the second time around.

• Puffy sleeves: This fall, volume shifted from the bodice to the sleeve. Jackets and dresses featuring voluminous raglan or leg-of-muttonlike sleeves began surfacing in stores like H&M and J.C. Penney. The look, while striking, didn't resonate with all shoppers, some retailers say.

"It didn't sell well," says Sloane of Intermix. "Women didn't want to look like that any more. They wanted more of a form-conscious look."

Style experts say jackets with big sleeves are so distinctly tied to 2007 that it might be best to shelve them for now. Stylist Anthea Tolomei, who dresses business executives in San Francisco, notes that for 2008, the jackets have a longer and leaner look.

• Giant handbags: Massive handbags, many as large as carryalls for weekend trips, were everywhere this year. "People are going to look back on 2007 and say that this was the peak of the oversized bag," says Hollywood stylist Cristina Erlich. "Women have been walking around with ginormous bags that are large enough to put themselves in."

Bags like that served as a good punctuation point on runways because "they're outrageous," says Fink of Saks. But they were too heavy and hard to walk with. "What really sells are medium-sized bags," he says, "not (bags large enough to be) overnighters or body bags."

If you have one, however, it might be worth keeping through spring. Clutches, too, are getting supersized -- just don't load them up.

• Flashy daytime pieces: Designers and retailers have been pushing metallics, sequins and baubles affixed to apparel for daytime. Not all shoppers have bitten, however. "It's a little far out there," says Wangstad at J.C. Penney, who noted that was "not a disaster but it wasn't a home run" for the retailer.

While the metallic looks may go out in 2008, stylist Tolomei advises hanging onto accessories, blouses or dresses in fabrics that have some shine, since the looks are likely to come back again soon. "Lames recycle through fashion all the time," she says, "and always come back really fast."