Sporty-casual

Kenzo Cloud-print sweatshirt; J Brand Low-rise denim shorts; Chan Luu Cashmere silk-blend scarf; New Balance 420 classics unisex trainers.

You must have, at some point in time, heard of the sneaker trend. Celebrities, fashion gurus and style bloggers were all spotted pairing sneakers / trainers with everything and at the helm of notoriety was Isabel Marant's ubiquitous wedge sneakers (virtually copied everywhere by now — slightly pissing Ms. Marant off, so I've read). While I am very sure clunky wedged sneakers will only serve to visually shorten my petite stature, there is so denying that some normal sneakers have caught my eye, namely the ones from New Balance.

I of course was slightly hesitant to jump on the sneaker-bandwagon and figured though cool and trendy, the sneaker + everything look wasn't for me. Fast-forward a couple of months later, I gave in to temptation after spotting some nice black NB 410s on Asos.com and bought a pair of New Balance 420s from my local NB outlet. Yes, I've been reduced to that of trend-sheep *only kidding, well sort of*. I love the way these sneakers fit and how they are low-rise on the ankles. "Ankle cleavage" is a thing of value for short girls like me (I'm 5'1) as showing more skin in that area serves to lengthen the leg.

The pair pictured is the one I bought and though I wanted them to be fully black, the store did not have them so this should suffice. When thinking of a casual look, I wasn't at all going to pair the sneakers with a sundress or skirt-suit / pant-suit / shorts-suit — that has been done and there are very nicely styled examples shown on Google images. Instead I went with the above look featuring light colours up top, accented with a grey scarf and grey on the shoes. Loosely curled hair draping down under a black beanie and a pair of sunnies will complete this casual look with a hint of sporty cool. 

I initially envisioned a —very— cool all-black look with the sneakers but not everybody shares the same level of infatuation I have with the colour black so to save from such tedium and repetition, I found neutrals like white and grey helpful to keep the look interesting but still centered around few colours.