Cry on my shoulder (pad)

How do you like them shoulders? This season the fashion zone of focus is not the waist, not the legs, not the hem nor the Obama arms, rather its the shoulder. You may have wondered why outfits on the catwalk have been saddled with outsize shoulder pads to cry upon, however these were the concoction of the some of the world's most coveted designers, including Dolce & Gabbana, Balenciaga and Balmain.

Come September, they’ll still be all over the high street and there’s barely been a collection worth mentioning that doesn’t feature expressive shoulders. According to the Daily Mail, the shoulder can't be ignored next season. It has come back for winter 2009, bigger, bolder and weirder than before.

So what's so great about exaggerated shoulder details? A strong shoulder can really alter the proportions of a body – and thus carve off unwanted visual baggage from elsewhere, says Mimi Spencer in her Mail on Sunday column. Big shoulders will, through a delightful trick of the eye, make your waist, hips and bottom look smaller. They also lend undeniable power to an outfit.

Indeed, according to designer Gareth Pugh, this shoulder evokes pure power. ‘The inverted triangle is a strong, anti-feminine silhouette,’ he says. ‘When shown on a female body, it creates an interesting friction between two poles. It’s the mixture of masculine and feminine within one image that fascinates me.’

Source: Daily Mail