Sophistication is key to style this season

Tailored lines, deep hues and rich fabrics characterize fall styles.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SEATTLE -- If you spent the summer frolicking through meadows in flouncy peasant skirts and gypsy jewelry, it's time to retire the flip-flops and invest in something a little less carefree. (That was fun, though, wasn't it?)
It's fall. Time to be a grown-up.
"The girlishness and winsomeness (of spring and summer) have given way to a very adult approach to dressing," said Hal Rubenstein, fashion director for InStyle magazine. "It basically concentrates on a woman's curves, on sophistication, on 'getting dressed' as opposed to something casual."
Full-length brocade coats. Velvet blazers. Crisp white blouses. Even the military jacket. Yes, sir.
If previous seasons were about taking that tweed jacket and sexing it up or dressing it down, now is the time to let tweed be tweed: Deliberate. Tailored. Sophisticated.
"The major trends are definitely dressier than it has been, but it's very wearable," said Joan Kelly, co-founder of Fashion First, a local organization representing Seattle-area boutiques. "It's like a Katharine Hepburn look, a well-dressed-man look. But there's going to be some femininity in there."
Jeans, too
Even jeans are getting in on the act.
"Jeans are more polished, rather than rips and holes everywhere," said Francine Park, owner of the upscale-but-edgy new boutique Promesse in Kirkland, Wash. "It's not polished, as in a trouser jean; it's just less distressed, and the color tends to be darker."
Park sees that trend throughout the premium denim lines she carries at Promesse, including Rock and Republic, AG, Sacred Blue (by Blue Cult) and Tag+ -- which "is going to be the new 'It' jean -- it's sort of like True Religion, but the pocket is not so low."
Black is back -- as if it ever goes away -- and richer, boosted by fanciful textures, embroidery and brocade. Butternut, camel and olive tones are similarly decadent, and "that burgundy brown -- it's so rich you just want to eat it," Kelly said. "If they melted Hershey's chocolate, that's what it would look like."
Shades of blue are "everywhere," according to Linda Sabee, owner of Carmilia's in West Seattle. Fall standouts at her boutique include a teal-colored velvet jacket by Joie and a navy crushed-velvet coat by Nanette Lepore.
"Wearing navy with black, which people have steered away from in the past, I think looks so beautiful," Sabee said. Designers like Jean Paul Gaultier, Chloe and Marni seemingly agree; black-and-navy combinations stormed the runways like gendarmes in the fall collections.
Annie Sparrow, owner of Tulip in downtown Seattle, likes the "kind of an equestrian look" -- think gauchos, a fitted plaid jacket and tall boots.
Military look
"It takes that military style and reinterprets it a little bit," she said. "I am doing a lot of just-below-the-knee pants and that tall, gorgeous boot this year. I think the absolute key item this year is that almost-equestrian boot. It's a flat boot."
Other fall favorites: a crisp, white Victorian-style blouse and menswear pants -- not necessarily together.
"We're going for a stronger, more fitted look for fall," Sparrow said. "The jackets are tailored and then you put them with the looser-fitting trouser. The pants are more dramatic."
Impulse in Seattle's Fremont district has an olive-colored, wool military blazer by A.P.C. -- but if anything in there could be considered trendy, it's probably by accident.
"What I'm trying to do with my store is realize what the trends are and then go away from them," said owner Jill Wenger, who recently changed the name of her boutique from m:pulse. "You're not going to see flower pins in here."
Instead, Wenger's philosophy is to spend more and buy less: "I like to pick pieces that you can wear six different ways." To that end, Impulse carries hard-to-find lines like Jane Mayle (ruffled tuxedo blouses), Habitual (denim) and United Bamboo (black cocktail dresses).
"My core belief is that if something is special and unique, women will pay any amount for it," Wenger said.
To wit: Hanii YT-shirts -- with lace collars, by husband-and-wife design team Y & amp; Kei -- run $240.
Says Wenger: "I've already sold three of them in a week."