OUT is the new IN!

Get OUT! (picture Elaine screaming this while pushing George on Seinfeld.)

I have always been intrigued and inspired by William Safire’s New York Times Magazine grammar and word usage commentaries, so I thought I’d try my own version, inspired by the omnipresent root word “out” (as in “out there”, “get out”, “outsize”, “outré”, etc.) as it applies to fashion.

It seems that out is really in.

1. When it comes to large accessories, it is so OUT to call them oversize. The new term is outsize, to describe the chunky bangle, multistrand paste bauble necklace, the shopping-bag size envelope clutch, or Victoria Beckham's I'm a Superstar Shades.

2. Things are no longer strange or unique. They are simply outré (violating convention or propriety; bizarre).

3. Thanks to Heidi Klum and her Project Runway catchphrases, “You are out” has become even more embedded in the national lexicon. So much so, in fact, that it even appeared in the color comics section of my local newspaper this Sunday, in “Fox Trot,” of all places, in reference to baseball!! I love it when fashion pops up (or out!) in unexpected places.

While OUT has numerous negative connotations [he was “outed”; she’s so “out there”; I was “down & out”], it carries some positive meaning as well. For example, we all aspire to be invited on a lovely “outing”. And on Saturday nights we head “out on the town”. Find the right man and “go out” with him, etc. Etymology is nearly as exciting as fashion! CoutureCarrie OUT!

Fashion Credits: Images from Project Runway courtesy bravotv.com.