Yea or Nay: Pleats

Pleating no contest.

Elie Tahari

From the "everything old is new again" file (cross-referenced with the "never really went away" file) the Spring '11 collections got their pleat on in a big way. It's officially a "thing." Let's peruse, shall we?

J. Mendel

Bensoni, Derek Lam, Erdem, Jonathan Saunders

Chloé

Miu Miu

Zucca

Richard Nicoll

Karen Walker, Milly by Michelle Smith, Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger

Sharon Wachoub

In what we hope is not a trend for the new year, we are of completely different minds about this. Blogging is so much easier when we're in creepy, Stepford, Children Gays of the Corn lockstep on all things. Tom is all "Yea or Nay? For pleated skirts? Isn't that like asking whether someone is for or against buttons?" Lorenzo shakes his head sadly at Tom's philistine ways. The point, Lorenzo explains, is that the fashion community collectively decided that they were back in and it is up to us, bitchy fashion bloggers, to determine whether or not We Approve. To Tom, it's shrug-worthy. As with anything else, it's all in how they're utilized. He likes most of the above, with the exception of everything in the Miu Miu row. Lorenzo agrees that the Miu Miu looks are horrendous and that pains us both deeply because we named our cat Miu Miu and now we can't look at her without seeing her in ugly satin pleated skirts.

Actually, that's kind of cute. But she's a kitten. Jeggings would look cute on her too.

Anyway, Lorenzo likes pleated skirts only when they're short n' sassy. He doesn't care for the long pleated skirts, deeming them, "too goddess-y." He is appalled that Tom actually kind of likes the pleated palazzo pants. We're both in agreement that it can be difficult to make them look modern and fresh, but that's why god invented stylists. We're also both in agreement that the tiered pleated dress in the Zucca collection is super-cute and the only look here that has any freshness to it. Although some of the Sharon Wachoub looks are interesting too. And the Bensoni and Erdem are kind of eye-catching too. Confusing, yes? Imagine what it was like for us, trying to discuss this over our first coffee of the day. We're giving this a provisional "YEA." Which even we admit is kind of silly since pleated skirts are pretty standard. We're making it provisional because, well, some of these skirts are downright ugly. We won't mention any names, but ... really, Stella McCartney? Really?

[Photo Credit: getty, elle.com, style.com]