The modern woman is very lucky in that there are plenty of options from where she can choose her lingerie. Fashion conscious women are very particular with the clothes, including the intimates that they wear next to their skin. The exquisitely beautiful collections of well-known designers are readily accessible to women who can afford the lofty price tags. Meanwhile, there are also high quality yet affordable fashionable lingerie pieces are available from boutiques that specialize in women’s underwear.

There is more to underwear than the sensuous texture and appearance of silk and lace, and women who know their lingerie are well aware of this. What goes on underneath, next to the skin, is as important as what a woman presents to the outside world. Now that Valentine’s Day is closely approaching, here are a few refreshing trends and concepts about modern lingerie that could inspire you in choosing the next lingerie items to wear and add to your collection.

“Underwear as outerwear”

One of the most successful trend “remakes” is the underwear-as-outerwear fashion trend. In the previous year, the catwalk has seen more than its usual share of intimates and RTW (ready-to-wear) combinations. These pieces are perfect for women who, in secret, want to show off their lingerie-subtly and elegantly, of course. According to some lingerie experts, the revival of the trend is just another contemporary homage to the feminine figure. Creations such as elegant suits with lace-trimmed camisoles for highlights, long skirts that reveal underwear, and various cuts and styles based on the concept of “sheer.”

For instance, Dolce and Gabbana openly expressed their desire to focus on femininity and showcase the beauty of the female figure by accentuating the qualities of the body rather than covering them up. If you want to give more than a hint of the sensuous goings-on underneath, then there are plenty of lingerie pieces out there that offer this particular effect to the beholder. Find out what options you have and choose a piece that highlights the very best aspects of your figure.

Lingerie fashion predictions for Spring 2015

Today, keeping on trend is not as difficult as it used to be in the years before Internet access became global. For the fashion savvy, predictions are leaning toward cool tones and away from pastel colors. As such, expect the Spring 2015 runway to have less pastel pinks and more cool blues and perhaps a generous smattering of metallics. Actually, this color forecast is not just a prediction for women’s lingerie, but for the overall look of Spring this year.

Online fashion resources

Lingerie is just one aspect of women’s fashion, but it is definitely one of the most important elements of a woman’s wardrobe. The modern woman is fortunate to have online resources at her disposal to keep her attuned with the latest concepts and trends in the world of fashion. A woman who is capable of making good use of the information found at websites and dedicated pages can then make great lingerie choices not just for herself but offer smart suggestions for her closet friends as well.

As summer fades into fall 2014, we thought it would be fun to consider what lies ahead for 2015 swimwear and bikini trends. 2015? Are we crazy? Not really as most of the big swimwear manufacturers are already preparing their 2015 swimwear catalogs. Maybe you have a cruise planned in the winter or spring or will be traveling to another warm weather destination. But whether you’re soaking up the sun’s rays in Aruba, or on the French Riviera, the most crucial decision won’t be the SPF of your sunscreen (Always 50+ SPF by the way!), but which swimwear pieces you’ll be wearing.

While the accessibility of classic swimwear styles (and the fact that swimwear trends move relatively slowly) means it’s not a requirement, it’s still always worthwhile to learn what styles will fit well with spring 2015 trends. Whether it’s creating a bold statement or simply perhaps taking your personal style credentials to the waterside, an update for your bikini selections will make holidays and hot weekends all the more exciting and enjoyable.

Read on to find out what cuts and styles are in fashion for 2015:

Swimwear trends don’t exactly move at as fast a pace as the cycles in other fashion trends. That’s because it’s not an easy thing to reinvent the bikini or the monokini. With a strong need to balance functionality with sex appeal, designers are restricted as to what they can really do. Regardless of this, one piece swimsuits and bikini trends are definitely still impacted by other fashion trends.

So what swimsuit trends can we expect for 2015? You’d be right in the event you guessed swimsuit styles will be strongly influenced by other key fashion trends for the year. So when it comes to selecting a new swimsuit, these represent the swimwear styles worth shopping for.

Vintage-inspired swimwear

The trend towards classic retro styled swimsuits continues to expand in today’s swimwear market. Needless to say it’s the bombshells, the pin-ups, of the same era we’re most likely to think of with regards to 1950s bathing suits especially – the Marilyn Monroe’s and the Jayne Mansfield’s. They’re playful, curvaceous, and steeped in sex appeal. So the reason we refer to the former is to balance out the latter: Vintage-style swimwear has its place in 2015’s swimwear trends, but it’s not always going to be about strawberry cheesecake and other cliches. Instead it’s a subtle infusion of retro cuts and prints – so while the right type of swimsuit for you could be as bombshell as Marilyn or as sophisticated and subtle as Grace, it may also sit squarely in between. Everything in swimwear doesn’t need to be about extremes and vintage swimwear is a great area to fuse the perfect combination between class and sexy. Most often for this coming year, it’s about high-waisted bikini bottoms in an effort to inject just a hint of vintage feel into otherwise modern swimsuits. Here are some other features to look out for in the 2015 vintage swimwear market:

one-pieces with cinched-in waists, sweetheart necklines and cute pockets
high-waist bikini bottoms
playful prints – kaleidoscopic, psychedelic, geometric – made in modern cuts in order to avoid vintage overkill
shirred sides that highlight the waist and hips
fuller-cupped tops
minimalist accents and elegant cuts.

Bikini Separates – Mix and match bikini tops and bottoms

The aura of nonchalance and effortlessness surrounding our clothing seeped into our bikinis for 2014 and you should expect more of the same for 2015. A clash of color and/or print between your bikini top and bikini bottoms not only creates an intriguing look, but inherently oozes a kind of eclectic, fun summer vibe. It’s not that you don’t care about your bathing suit being all properly matched, it’s that you’re way too cool to. Occasionally a bit of mismatching simply demonstrates that you’re throwing yourself headfirst into summer and squeezing every last drop of adventure out of the sunshine, not caring about uniformity. It’s also a fantastic way to get numerous and varied wears out of just a couple of different bikinis.

Here are a few additional pointers about bikini separates:

If you don’t choose to go for all-out clashes, start by selection a classic black bikini and blend in either the top or bottom along with other bright colors and prints. You can’t really get it wrong by taking this approach.

With bikini separates, the bolder and more obvious the clash the more desirable and unique the look. You don’t want to appear as if you’ve made an effort to match two similar pieces without success. Try picking any two of the following and mixing them without any trepidation: animal print, geometry, floral, stripes, or even digital patterned prints.

Elegant frilly swimwear

Feminine frills are twice as good on the subject of swimwear, and 2015’s collections are going to be inspired by that fact. Firstly, they provide a soft, dainty, summer vibe. And secondly, they can add volume where you need it making an effort to shape your figure in flattering ways.

Beautiful | Natural whites, soft pastels or colorful micro prints result in very fashionable choices with regards to the ruffled busts and mesh frills. One important thing that’s a given in terms of this style: you should definitely pick out quite possibly the most unexpected interpretations to both flatter your figure, and distinguish you from the rest of the crowd.

For many years cutout bathing suits, whether or not it was cutout detailing on bikinis or monokinis was the design and style of choice. Cutaway swimwear has since become something of an ever-green style, but if we’re to gauge based on the 2015 runways, the cutaways are marking a return to the frontline for swimwear trends. The sultry one piece swimsuits are all about marketing fresh and surprising shapes, with sexy cuts that seem to instantly flatter our bodies. Look for them within both vibrant prints and monochrome tones, but be sure that your choice translates to a modern day look.

Sporty swimwear styles

Yet another of last season’s highly-influential trends ended up incorporating the 2014 / 2015 swimwear styles with a sporty-chic attitude. The overall feel of this swimsuit style should still be high on sexy, the uniqueness lying in the super-slick silhouettes with trendy cutaways and vibrant colors.

Digital print swimwear
Digital prints were everywhere in spring / summer 2014 and we see this trend only growing in 2015 as women seek to avoid the dreaded moment when they take off their swimsuit cover up to reveal the exact same swimsuit as the women two blankets down. While printed swimsuits have always been popular, this coming year they will get their cues from street wear trends and discover the prints for swimwear that is functional in addition to being highly fashionable, often capable of being worn as outerwear.

For 2015 digital prints will take the shape of everything and anything from delicate floral designs to intense animal prints to abstract patterns or even cityscapes. There aren’t any real rules here: opt for whatever print strikes your heart with desire, and if you would like to get extra mileage go for a one-piece swimsuit that can also be used as a bodysuit.

On-trend swimwear for your figure type
The reality is that when it comes to swimwear, you cannot assume all cuts are going to flatter every figure. But between each of the trending 2014/2015 styles there’s certainly something for everybody. It will certainly always depend upon what you’re most comfortable with, but if you’re looking for a place to start below are several shape-based recommendations:

Full figure
Embrace the retro trend and utilize it to accentuate as an alternative to hiding your curves. You might try halter necks or cupped styles, and anything that brings in the waist to play to an hourglass shape.

Small Bust Size or Pear Shaped

Use ruffles to your advantage by adding volume at the top half of your swimsuit. Ruffles across the bust can give an illusion that will make you seem visually larger. It’s also possible to use vintage cupped designs with padding to produce curves.

Large Bust
Once again, ruffles can help to cover up trouble spots by alternatively adding them to swimsuit bottoms to balance your hips together with your bust. Avoid unstructured crochets or even string bikinis if they don’t offer any support; instead stick to structured styles and halter necks to keep everything from sagging up top.

Short legs
To lengthen the appearance of your body in swimwear, pair a printed bikini top with a block-colored bottom, which will draw a person’s eye upwards. Avoid having your legs look like a little boys and go for high cut thighs instead in order to not shorten the legs further.

Athletic figures
If you’re slim but not big on the curves take full advantage of styles like push-up, backless styles and crochet that instead show off a toned physique.

The women’s swimwear market is a multi-billion dollar business every single year. That means good news for consumers with top manufactures always looking to innovate and inspire with bold new looks for at the beach or pool. While every swimsuit isn’t right for every body type, there is a swimsuit style out there that will meet mesh perfectly with your own personal style. After all, we are rarely more “exposed” to the world then we are while in a bikini walking down the shore line at the beach. Doesn’t it make sense that you choose a swimsuit style, color, print that absolutely conveys who you are as a person. It is possible.

The US fashion e-commerce industry has maintained a steep growth curve over the last four years. In 2013, apparel and accessories sales accounted for 17 percent of the total retail e-commerce sales in the US, and by 2016, it is predicted to become a 73 billion dollar market. The total revenues from the US fashion e-tail sector are expected to reach 86 billion dollars in 2018.

If you want to secure a lion’s share of the pie in this fast-growing industry, you cannot neglect your online audience. No wonder, from industry bigwigs to small luxury brands, all types of virtual fashion houses are striving to optimize their stores for new generation consumers, who are social media savvy, and essentially look into various online channels for inspiration.

The ‘optimum’ formula

Website optimization is all about enhancing your visibility among your target audience. As far as fashion sites are concerned, the task becomes doubly challenging for marketers, as they need to have an eye for fashion and a deep knowledge of digital marketing trends to be able to push products in markets that seem to get altered every six months.

Search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM) are the two pillars of any fashion website optimization strategy. However, before delving deeper into the subject of fashion site optimization, it is important to keep the following aspects of this niche industry in mind:

• Fashion industry is seasonal
• Creating real-life experience is the key
• Trends change here regularly
• Fashion is in the eye of the beholder

Fashion SEO

As ironical as it may sound, 19th century author and poet Oscar Wilde’s famous statement – Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months – holds true even to this day, which is why fashion store optimization becomes an overwhelming task for SEO companies. It takes time for websites to achieve organic ranking on the search engine results (SERP) page. Sometimes, it may even take six months to feature in the SERP page. The reason: Fashion trends are extremely short-lived, and are guided by the seasonal needs, while SEO companies are expected to get your website rank on the SERP page in less than three months time. To be able to rank on the first page of leading search engines – Google, Yahoo and Bing – by winter this year, when people will actually start searching for such keywords, companies have to start their SEO works at least three months in advance.

Given the unique nature of the industry, fashion SEO typically involves the following strategies for any given apparel category:

• In depth analysis of trend data to be months ahead of the industry with their optimization activities
• A lot of brainstorming to zero in on the right keywords, with an ability to predict the coming season’s top silhouettes, colors and product types
• Target keywords that are season-specific such as ‘Fall-winter fashion’, ‘Milan Fashion Week 2015′ and so on.
• Reference to fashion color report provided by Panton, the expert in color standardization

Bring In Real Life Experience

Online shopping is different from buying things in a brick and mortar store. In a real store, we can see and feel fabrics for their color and texture, or try clothes to check their fit. Fashion e-shops need to simulate these effects to present your product as realistically as you can. Recommend combinations to create a personalized look. For instance, if you are dealing with shades and glares you can use the virtual try-on facility, offered by some stores specializing in eye wear. The embedded software allows you to create a short video of your face, and then see how your chosen frame looks on you.

Optimize With Social Media

Reaching out to customers on social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can lead to massive increases in brand loyalty as well as in sales. Take a leaf out of fashion stalwarts including Burberry, Zara and Victoria’s Secret, who are capitalizing on the 400 million Facebook users and more than 22 million Twitter users to create ripples in the cyber world.

Below are a few inspiring strategies that top social media marketing companies are employing to enhance the viability of fashion brands:

Tailor your message for different demographics: Luxury handbag brand Michael Kors’ Instagram page boasts a combination of luxe product and lifestyle shots, while its Pinterest albums include topics like ‘style icons,’ ‘Michael’s style tips,’ and ‘history of American style’.

Provide an interactive experience: Burberry, the luxury couture brand makes it a point to unveil their collection on Twitter and Instagram before hitting the runway.

Tell an inspiring story about your brand: Christian Dior tried this by creating a ‘Secret Garden – Versatille’ storyline, painting a luxurious picture of its new collection.

Use stunning visuals: Zara that boasts 9,000 fans across their social channels, places great emphasis on sharing rich images of their latest collections, especially on Pinterest.

Provide real time customer service: Jeans and casual wear bigwig, Levi Strauss has really mastered the art of providing customer service in real-time.

“The best color in the whole world is the one that looks good, on you!” This statement by holds particularly true of fashion e-commerce website optimization. An impeccable fashion sense is not about following the trends blindly, but about taking cues from them, and tweaking them according to your looks and comfort to make a unique style statement. When you are optimizing a fashion e-commerce store, make sure you offer uniquely personalized fashion solutions. Remember, there is no one-size-fit-all dress in this world!

If you have been paying attention to the US national spending trends on clothing since 2011 you will notice that there has been some interesting changes in how the US, along with the rest of the world, shops for clothing. According to the US Department of Labor Statistics the Average Annual expenditures on Apparel shopping had been declining steadily since the 2011 annual average of $1,740 to a low point in 2013 annual average of $1,604, but in mid-2014 US apparel spending bounced back to annual average of $1,706 and is expected to continue to increase. During those same years a rebound trend was noticed in US made clothing which resulted in a 6.2% increase in sales.

Along with that The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) President and CEO Juanita D. Duggan announced in January/2015, “apparel and footwear contributed a record $361 billion to the U.S. economy in 2013, a bigger contribution than new cars, alcohol, toys, or practically any other industry.”

So what does all this mean exactly? Are we spending less but now have more clothes? Is the American clothing manufacturing industry back on top? Well not really, even with the record breaking increase 97% of all apparel sold in the US is still imported. What it does mean is that consumers are out there spending again and are buying more products. The recession mixed things up in all industries and as we continue to bounce back from it, more and more fashion trends get moved around in the mix. A new economy brings in new opportunities for new ideas, new brands and new designs to enter the picture.

But was this shifting in the fashion industry by accident or by design? Interestingly enough in early June/2015 during an agricultural forum held by the World Trade Organization the US accused China for the surging polyester content of wardrobes the world over as they claimed China has been stockpiling huge amounts of cotton for years which has led to “an increase in the use of polyester to the detriment of all cotton-producing countries.”

Other accusations said were that China is paying out huge subsidies to its cotton sector, about $5.1 billion in the 2013-2014 growing season. Between these outlays and its stockpiling, China is causing cotton prices to plunge on the international market altogether.

But is that the only reason prices have fallen? Maybe not, as China also cut back on its cotton imports which left much more cotton for the rest of the world to purchase and they also improved their polyester’s quality over the years thanks to declining oil prices, which would make polyester cheaper as China exports massive amounts of.

So what does this mean for the consumer? Well regardless of the country relations there is one thing that is evident, as clothing materials have gotten cheaper the quality for lesser known brands have gotten better. This has opened up the door for other international countries to sell their products to world consumers, such as the small up trend of the South American ‘Butt-lift’ jeans, which have found a market in Canada, Australia and certain parts of the US.

Another trend that has been seen is lesser known brands have benefitted from this quality increase which allows them to openly compete with bigger brands. Smaller brands also experienced a large growth in Google searches between mid-2014 and mid-2015 like; Cello Jeans (68% average search increase in 12 months), GJG Denim (31% average search increase in 12 months), Flying Monkey Jeans (86% average search increase in 12 months) and Silver Diva Jeans (24% average search increase in 12 months).

So what are you waiting for? Try a new bold or fierce brand today and open up your wardrobe to the new Fashion possibilities as 2015 promises to be the year of fashion trend changes.