It can’t have escaped your notice that big sleeves are a massively important trend for the next season. Not just sleeves as we know them, but unusual sleeve designs, being experimental with your arm decoration and brightening up an otherwise everyday outfit with a sneaky sleeve that adds a pop of colour or a design that inspires.

It’s an exciting time for Wingz – for so long it’s all been about sleeveless and strapless but the sleeve is at last having its day!

The current ‘It’ dress, the Margot, is a case in point, we love it. Have you seen the sleeves on it? The Margot dress by London-based designer Roksanda Ilincic features this season’s statement giant bell sleeves, a sexy cinched-in waist, elegant midi-length and feminine colours, and it’s currently overtaking the Roland Mouret Galaxy and Herve Leger Bandage dresses to become top of fashion’s most wanted.

The Times are talking about ‘Power sleeves’ – saying this week that;

“Frilled, bell, extra-long or with a statement cuff — attached to an otherwise workaday jumper, shirt, dress or top. Wear with your usual jeans or trousers as an outfit’s main event or peeking from under a jacket. Super-sleeves are easily styled and set to stay hip long after the wintry weather has receded.”

What’s the deal about Big Sleeves?

So what is it about the sleeve that’s making it this season’s must-have feature? There’s a feeling that people are getting bored with showing everything to gain column inches, probably because there’s only so far you can go with cleavage, leg and bum cheek before you go too far and get featured in the Daily Mail’s sidebar of shame. People are looking for more inventive and creative ways to get noticed. Big sleeves are a good way to do that.

We’ve featured the Modesty Movement before on the Wingz blog and it’s possible that an influx of modest fashion is paving the way for sleeves to become high fashion in their own right too.

Mariah Idrissi, the first hijab-wearing model to be signed to a major modelling agency, recently said that she thinks the modesty trend is ‘incredible’ – not just for Muslim women, but for all women bored with having to expose more of their body than they want to.

Mariah started the #ModestMonday hashtag on Instagram, because she wanted to show ‘that she wasn’t the only woman getting excited about the trend – it’s a big movement.

Whatever it is that’s driving the trend, it’s one we’re keeping a really close eye on at the moment, and hopefully tapping into as sleeves become a major fashion item in 2017!