Cream of the crop!

Byline: Natalie Long, Deputy tabloid! Editor

Brace yourselves: The crop top has made a comeback.

It's so easy to inspire disgust with the mere mention of a few choice '80s fashion items: cycling shorts, shell suits, neon. Feeling slightly queasy? That's fashion throwback sickness, where you simultaneously remember how you looked in the offending garment 20 years ago, and imagine how much worse you'd look if you took it up again now. Then, like the true sickos fashion addicts are, we spot someone cool wearing it, and go out and buy it.

How time heals all fashion wounds.

But does anything cut quite as deep as cropped top trauma? Many of us will bare dimply, corned-beef thighs before revealing the belly-button area. That's all changing, thanks to the unstoppable influence of the '80s, and yes, even the '90s, on fashion. Ciara, breaktakingly, I might add, flaunts one in her new video for Work. Diane Kruger was an early adopter, and they cropped up (sorry) on spring catwalks at Henry Holland, Prada and Alexander Wang.

I have one fashion rule, which is this: When shopping, always try on one item I would never actually consider wearing. Often I'm pleasantly surprised, although it does make my wardrobe a little schitzo. But this was how I found myself in a Top Shop changing room recently, trying on several varieties of cropped top. There was a loose vest one, in peach, that was fastened from the top to the bottom (hardly a long way) with hook-and-eye closures. Then there was a gigantic flower print T-shirt, cut off above the navel.

H&M has a flower-print one too, this time looking more like an extended bra than an actual top - a reference to Muiccia Prada's spring-summer '09 collection.

Am I condoning the crop? I can't say I hate it. It's all in how you wear it - confidence is your No 1 accessory.

Don't take a shine. Avoid looking like you're about to run a marathon or do a dancercise class by getting your top in cotton (no spandex!)

Loosen up. Make sure the top is cut wide. It'll make your waist look smaller and you'll have few comparisons with Hooters waitresses.

Cover up, above and below. The fun thing about cropped tops is that they allow you to play with where your waistband hits. Follow Diane Kruger's lead and pair one with a high-waisted skirt, jeans or shorts. Top it with a long slouchy cardigan or a boyfriend blazer like at Alexander Wang.

Al Nisr Publishing LLC 2009. All rights reserved.

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