I used to be one of “those girls” who would spend $20 on fashion magazines every month, analyzing each page of Vogue, and marking important facts and trends with post-it notes. Now that I’ve been in the fashion industry for nearly ten years and currently work for a magazine myself, you could say that I’ve chilled out a bit. Since I have the luxury of working from home and no longer have to look like a Hawaiian Barbie at work, I don’t focus as much on wearing the latest trends every single day of my life. It’s also way too expensive to constantly update your wardrobe and, often, I find myself having to choose between paying my electric bill or buying a new pair of Dior sunglasses (electric bill wins, unfortunately). That being said, I like to see what the UK edition of Vogue is listing as the “it” trends for every season and choose my favorites just in case I find myself with a few extra dollars to spend. [Side Note: I prefer the UK Vogue to the American edition. It’s much more edgy, effortless, and worldly.]

Although we haven’t had much of a spring so far in NYC – it was snowing just a couple weeks ago – I’ve picked out my top five favorite trends for spring/summer 2014. Some are continued trends from the past few seasons, but slightly updated. And now that I’ve spent time flipping through designer look books, I’m purposely going to avoid Barney’s and Bloomingdale’s this week so I don’t give in to impulse shopping.