We look back and reminisce over some of the biggest trends that we fell in love this year…

Two words that brought a whole new meaning to the fashion world in 2012- Dip Dye. We found this trend in our hair, on our t-shirts, dresses, skirts and shorts. Okay so we admit it, we all went a little overboard and over excited with the dip dye trend. However, thanks to the arty farty trend, it inspired us to get creative and go all girlie D.I.Y, Oh Gok would be proud, and BOOM overnight the trend became accessible to anyone and we found this 2012 updated tie dye was easy peasy to achieve. Nadia Jabakhanji said: “I loved the whole dip dye of the hair!” From the indie lovers of the pink and green hair dip dyes to the posh girls sporting caramels and chestnut dip dyes, this playful festival trend allowed outrageous roots to look cool and took that whole British sexy undone bed head thing to another level.

Now really, before 2012, was the word ‘Peplum’ ever in your vocab? Didn’t think so. 2012 was the year the British Female went mad for Peplums and the wear-with-anything top exploded onto our radar. With its surprising versatility, it’s no wonder that the Peplum soon became a 2012 wardrobe staple. Beccy Cartwright said: “The peplum flatters everyone, whilst it’s an easy piece to dress up or down.” It gave curves to boyish figures and flattered pear shapes.

Finally, nail varnish got their year to sparkle, never before have women been so obsessed with Nail Art! 2012 truly was groundbreaking for nail varnishes, with over 531,000 nail art tutorials on YouTube, and thousands of never before seen nails it’s safe to say 2012 proved that when it comes to painting your nails, the sky is the limit! Favorites include newspaper nail art; glitter nail art and leopard nail art. Joanne Thomas said: “Thanks to this year I’m forever changing my nail varnish – I get bored easily and I’m always looking at new ways to make them stand out.”

Semi Sheer Skirts became our savior as we no longer faced the dilemmas of, ‘I want to wear a skirt but I can’t bear to show my legs off right now, need fake tanning/shaving etc.’ but with the semi sheer skirt, we were able to cover up and show off our legs. Winner. Making covering up with sheer that little bit sexier. Melissa Todd said: “I really hope the ‘half see through, half skirt’ trend carries on into 2013, I’m addicted to them because they go with everything.”

Thanks to the star studded Olympics and Queens Diamond Jubilee; it was the year of all things Embellishment for Britain! Ellena Mcguiness said: “I love embellishments and statement jewellery – I suppose it came from the Olympics and it had a real impact on fashion for 2012.” Studs became the new print of the A/W wardrobe appearing on shoulder pads, bags, boots and heels. Sarah Watson said: “I love studs, and sequins – anything to jazz up plain clothes.” With the stud look, the tough girl trend crept in as Pili Deus explains: “I’ve found that this year I’m constantly going for blacks all the time, leather and studs.” The whole combo of leather and embellishment created the perfect rock chick look.

The most unexpected trend of 2012 that kept popping up into our high street was the Space Trend. Love it or hate it, this trend was sure to turn heads and was worn for the fun factor. Natalie Mortimer said: “This trend is my favorite, I am so in love with the galactic leggings – I could wear them every day and be happy!”

Our unlikely style icons this year

Peter Pan, spreading his collar love all around our shirts, t-shirts and blouses. These collars became such a hit that the mini trend expanded to detachable collars which became popular to wear both in the day and the nighttime.

Ross Geller, (who would have thought?!) became another unlikely style muse for us, as them black leather pants that we once laughed so hard at, became fashionable, well… kinda. Black leather were thee sex this year and it became acceptable to wear leather skirts, leather hot pants, leather trousers and leather dresses giving even Ross’s tightest leather pants a run for their money.

The controversial 2012 piece that had us all divided. There’s always one…

The military trend brought in a whole host of items including fitted jackets and boots, however without a doubt the one leading piece that became trademark to the trend was the camouflage Army Jacket. Glorified fancy dress or fresh and cool spin to the 90s classic print. Eilish Anderson said: “I loved the military trend mainly because I liked how you could just throw everything together, leather skirt, Chelsea boots and the cameo jacket.”