Noelle Loh

Here are three of the season's hottest trends inspired by the era of disco. A piece of advice: The best accessory to go with them is attitude.

Since fall/winter 2008, the likes of French luxury fashion house Balmain and Belgian-based avant garde label Maison Martin Margiela have been taking cues from the Dynasty cast to show that it's indeed hip (for your shoulders) to be square. Two seasons later, more have jumped into the boulder shoulder trend.

Both French bad boy Jean Paul Gaultier and the refined house of Nina Ricci literally got a chip off the old block, putting shoulder pads on classic shift dresses, tuxedo jackets and trench coats that stopped short of looking retrograde with their sexy, sleek silhouettes. The Italian duo of Dolce & Gabbana meanwhile threw a curve, arching the humeral head to new heights to create shoulders with a delightful pom pom effect.

Balmain's Christophe Decarnin continued to create buzz topping off his signature blazers and body-con dresses with sharp, pointed shoulders for a look with edge. Throw in the fact that shoulder pads were a hallmark of eighties power dressing and you have a trend that you just can't give the cold shoulder to.

Work it: The key to channeling Linda Evangelista, not Linda Evans (who played Krystle Carrington in Dynasty), lies in proportion. Today's shoulder-padded tops come short, slim and sleek, unlike the oversized, overly long incarnations of yesteryear. Pair vintage or thrift store versions with trendier, more up-to-date pieces like safari shorts, mini denim skirts and skinny jeans.

Fashion's future sure is looking bright, what with designers slapping sequins onto everything from jackets to stockings for a shine that'll have you stealing the disco ball's limelight.

The house of Balmain continued on its disco trip with fully sequined mini dresses, tube skirts and knit sweaters - its combination with metallic, wet-look or pailletted separates only turning up the glow. The likes of British designer Matthew Williamson, Singapore-born Andrew Gn and Italian luxe label Versace went for a more elegant soiree, their slinky, sequined gowns as fit for a debutante as they would a disco dolly.

We particularly loved the heavily encrusted leggings - what with beads, bauble and, of course, more sequins - from fashion giants Louis Vuitton and Miu Miu but the prize for offering fashion fiends a true night (out) in shining armor goes to Topshop Unique. The higher end line from British high street label Topshop closed its show with a galactic warrior princess-inspired series of jumpsuits, sweatshirts and dresses entirely emblazoned in sequins in various shades of day-glo. 

The original disco diva Diana Ross and her sequin-loving songbird sisters, The Supremes, would only glower in envy.

Work it: It's easy to look like a blinking idiot with such an over-the-top fashion statement. Unless you've the attitude - or guts - stick to one sequined item and pair with separates and accessories in basic block colors for a look that's easier to carry off.

It's easy shaping up your wardrobe this season as designers play with the zany geometric prints and patterns once found on the faces of glam metal bands or the sides of a Rubix cube. The result: A look that's pure fun and totally on form.

Wunderkind, the second label from German designer Wolfgang Joop of Joop! fame, seemed to have taken inspiration from the aforementioned brainteaser of a toy, covering trench coats, wrap skirts and leggings in colorful, childlike checks for an Alice in Wonderland appeal.

At Italian labels Gucci and Emilio Pucci, things were more of an adult affair. The former's usually hippie-chic creative director Frida Gianini turned up the disco, putting giant polka dots, bold stripes and colored panels onto short silk shifts and shirts of vibrant peacock shades. Teamed up with skin-tight, wet-look leather separates like thigh-high boots and pants, the overall look was as much rock chick as it was glamazon. Palais Pucci - well known for its prints - meanwhile electrified with lightning bolt patterns and a graffiti art-inspired swirl, lending a cheeky pop art feel to its signature sensual-meets-sophisticated style. 

Work it: Mixing prints might be all the rage but one too many and your look is likely to be as much of a puzzle as a Rubix cube. To attract compliments, not confusion, play with no more than two, or contrast similar ones of various sizes - such as large and small polka dots - for a look that's interesting but not over-the-top.

There's indeed nothing quite like going back to J-school to inspirit yourself with all the principles that first inspired you to join the profession.

It's however equally sobering an experience, a painful reminder of how you might have failed in upholding those very same principles.

But who or what is to blame? The corporation model? Is there even a need to find fault?

a) Met celebrity multi-hyphenate Janice Dickson at the Barney's Warehouse Sale (chekkit! It's fab!) and got her to give us her two-cents-worth on reporting. (Slightly embarrassed to be accosting her when she was out with her family, I mistakenly told her to speak facing the camera. Oops!)

b) Was allowed to video the deejay playing at the pool at The Standard Downtown.

Warning: Not meant to be serious stuff.

  

By that I mean that if a less-than-media-savvy source is clearly unaware of the repercussions or what he/she said should go to print, I would clarify the money quote and try get him/her to re-establish it. ("Did you just say this, this and this?", "Please explain that again...")

I go in for the chase but when a source is clearly uncomfortable and reticent with the big questions, I pull back and hope that he/she would yield on his/her own will. It's a tactic that has proven successful approximately 85 per cent of the time, but I also know that it's simply because I have been lucky.

And when interview mode has clearly shifted into conversation mode and I've put my pen and notebook away, I too turn from interviewer to friend. (Unless my new pal has something truly quote-worthy to share.)

Which was why I was extremely bothered when Professor Suro mentioned today that journalists have every right to keep writing even though an interview has come to its end. To some extent, I even think it's deceitful to do so.