Five reasons to look forward to spring

I know it's bad that in the middle of winter all my thoughts have turned to what we'll all be wearing in the spring. It doesn't seem natural somehow to be thinking that far forward. But seeing as I'm going to be very broke for the rest of the winter and it is all bleak and dark outside, I'll clutch at anything to cheer me up. And bright colours, big prints and kookie looks tend to do that for me, so there you go.

Presenting... my five trend and style reasons to look forward to spring:

1. Florals. A big trend for spring, on everything from clothes to shoes to bags to accessories. Small and ditsy or big and bold, anything goes. I will keeping them as far as possible from twee and feminine by wearing the bold prints with black leather, bright coloured but tough accessories like the the Doc Martens Neons or my lovely, clumpy purple platforms. The ditsy prints will look great mismatched with some clashing colours and patterns - tartan, checks and stripes.

2. Sheer fabrics. Apparently next season we will be showing off our underwear or what ever we are wearing under the sheer shirts, skirsts, dresses and other superfluous cover-ups that we will be wearing (now say that really fast a couple of times... hard isn't it?) . I can't wait to try it out. I am still determined to wear that sheer skirt and big pants combo before the year is out. I might as well do it while it's warm.

3. Colour blocking and bold, blocky prints. I'm happy with colour. I'm comfortable with colour. Colour is my friend. Colour is the one thing that is gauranteed to lift my spirits and I don't care if it's matched perfection or it's clashing Crayola. I say, bring on the colour blocks and let me bask in their warmth like a big fat colourful lizard.

4. Swishy skirts. Yes. We were all over them last summer and now they're back for more. This time with a bit more variety. Different fabrics, different shapes and diffrent lengths, as long as they're super-sized and super-bouffy, it's all good and I can play at being a fairy princess (or should that be fairy godmother?)

5. Stripes. I have far too many black and white/ navy and white striped tops and things already but I can definitely get with this trend especially if the stripes are as multi-coloured and bold as the ones I've seen so far. If I do have to do boring old regular stripes then I'll keep them subtle - a touch here and there.

Click on images to enlarge. Images courtesy: style bubble, Vogue, New Look, River Island, Dorothy Perkins, Matalan