Please please dress me now 

Fashion trends can be sneaky bastards. Sometimes you know they're coming, and you're rewarded for keeping your legwarmers from those '80s aerobics classes. But sometimes they sneak up on you, like when a cover model is wearing the exact same fringe boots that the other kids made fun of you for wearing when you were 13. In case you're not into wild surprises, we're offering our take on this season's looks.

This spring, it seems that you don't have to wear balloon-bottomed skirts or skinny pants--you have more choices, and the emerging themes are broad: crafty, neutrals, new wave and '50s European.

I asked Anne Cousineau, Andrea Love and Julia Sull, of the synthy, electro-pop dance band Natasha, if they wanted to play dress-up.

The musicians recently returned to Durham after living in Portland and Boston. They've brought big-city fashions and their own creative style back to the Triangle, so they're prime candidates to cast their votes on the latest trends for spring.

They all showed up wearing their own handmade clothes, so I put a check in the "crafty" box and proceeded to dress them in the next theme. They made each style their own and shared their thoughts on the get-ups.

Andrea wears her Grandfather Mountain sweatshirt-turned-miniskirt. Closer inspection reveals her hand-sewn colorful stitching around each and every elk and bear. Anne sports a handcrafted fanny pack/cummerbund (I know there’s going to be a name for this soon) with a sweatshirt that she enlarged by adding a tan panel down the front. Julia made her entire dress, fit to her body, no pattern required.<

Julia: "Natasha is fancy. Natasha goes to church! Remember when we said that lace wasn't for you, Anne? We were wrong. The pink and green look great together and somehow makes me think about prom."

Anne: "This look makes me more uncomfortable with short hair, but I can push through that. This dress--it's not revealing, and if I want to wear a dress, it should be revealing."

Julia: "This would be the dress that I could wear any day. Andrea, your hair is such a good match for this look."

Andrea: "Matching a lot seems important, and unusual headwear. I feel great in this outfit. That's a good cut for you, too, Julia. I have good feelings about this style, though it's more feminine than we usually are."

Andrea: "New Wave has bright colors, and this is what I usually wear, but mixing all the patterns can get confusing."

Julia: "I like to throw lots of primary colors together. I'm not offended by a surplus of colors. Surplus? I don't usually use that word."

Anne: "I wish these jeans were tighter."

Andrea: "I like the birds on the shirt, birds in the hair."

Anne: "I don't think I'd wear one earring outside of this photo shoot. Black and white with a little color--that's how it should be done."

Andrea: "Julia, your outfit suits your body type--it takes my breath away." (Berlin song sung by all.)

Julia: "When would I wear the neutrals? Probably for an afternoon photo shoot, or a job at a coffee shop."

Anne: "I really like thick, long scarves."

Julia: "I want more lace in my life now that I've worn this shirt for half an hour."

Andrea: "There's lots of buttoning each other into this style. I don't think I'm going to keep up with the neutrals. I feel a little too antique."

Anne: "Neutrals aren't new territory for me, but I feel like I'm in pajamas."