STYLES Look to celebs, military for latest fashion trends

If it's seen on TV, it'll soon be in the stores.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Seeking the latest fashion trend? Look no further than your television screen or the local multiplex, because nothing gauges the world of popular fashion quite like the world of celebrity.
They come from the fashion magazines and the hottest new show. For generations, current trends have often been determined by costume designers and fashionistas on the sets of programming like "Friends," "Smallville" and "Dawson's Creek." Today, it's more evident than ever that if it's on a celebrity it's soon going to be on the shelves and in the hands of teen-agers.
Screening process
"About 90 percent of what you see in stores was inspired by someone on TV or in the movies," said Jerry Szezepanski, CEO of Gadzooks. "They see it on the screen and they want it for themselves. So the store stocks it and it becomes a trend."
Szezepanski said right now athletic gear is all the rage for students. It's fitted, it's comfortable and it's trendy, three things that make a fad a full-fledged must-have item. Theresa Miller, manager at Aeropostale, agreed. She said the athletic trend started with Jennifer Lopez. She started wearing fitted, classy sweatpants and form-fitting hoodies to premieres and the craze took off from there.
Now, Miller continued, the workout gear and "butt shorts" are clasping to youngsters from middle school up to college and are here to stay, at least through the fall.
Other than J.Lo, anything associated with MTV and The WB is bound to find its way to store hangers. Carson Daly can start a trend by wearing a shirt for 15 minutes on TRL. Pro basketball phenom Lebron James made retro jerseys the in-thing when he got a couple for free from a local vendor. And when every model, actress and female sports star is wearing low rise jeans, the average Jane is sure to be looking for them in her own closet.
Marketing a trend
Stores can also start a stir through marketing alone. Student Kim Dane said it's difficult to avoid trends like the retro, graphic T-shirt when every store has their own version of them. The shirts sport everything from a store's name to fictional production to '80s cult movies, but they all have one thing in common: Everybody wants one.
"They have it all: Strawberry Shortcake, American Eagle, The Flintstones, everything," Dane said. "Some are just slogans and some just have sporty numbers on them. Anything you want, they got."
Even the government is getting into the act. Szezepanski said that with all the talk and exposure going to American troops overseas, their styles and colors have made it to the storeroom.
Right now, the military look -- from khakis to green fatigues -- is really hot. People are looking for cargo pants, military style shirts and all aspects of the military life to emulate.
"For the past six months we have been selling military-inspired clothes more than anything," he said. "Fashion is all about who is in the limelight and the military is definitely there right now."
As popular culture shifts, so goes the fashion world. Sometimes it's for the best (cargo pants) other times it's a no-no (leg warmers), but the technological age will always look to the spotlight for the next big thing.
"There is no next thing just yet," Szezepanski said, "but I have no doubt it's out there."