Today I am writing about fashion. As in, clothes, cut, color, shoes, etc. Before my tesosterone-laden friends run screaming away to look at electronics, power tools and edged weapons, here is some fashion for you:

See, that wasn’t so painful, was it? Although I can’t imagine spending $140 on a swimsuit – ouch!

Now, for those of you that are still here. I wandered into one of my favorite stores about ten days ago, and was annoyed and dismayed by what I saw on display. You see, I do like to shop, occasionally, and enjoy finding good deals on comfortable, flattering clothes. Still, sometimes I seem to have seasons, even years, when the fashion industry and I are through, professionally.

This year, I detested the colors. They were all summery, cool-toned brights, announcing, “Hello, I’m a day-glo snow-cone” to the world. See the color chart below – according to entertaining image blog You Look Fab, they are supposedly the colors for spring/summer 2010.

These are decidedly not my colors. I prefer earth tones – every shade of beige, khaki and brown, with warm reds, oranges, greens and golds.

When looking at actual clothing, I saw lots of polka dots, stripes and garish retro prints. And, not only are short shirts and excessive ruffles still the trend, now it seems that retailers are pushing one-shoulder styles and skinny jeans. (I predict they’ll also be plentiful on the clearance racks this fall!)

Below are a couple of stores’ representative assortments. I started with my favorite – Lane Bryant – the reasonably priced, relatively modern friend of the tall, curvy woman.

And when I struck out there, I went on to Nordstrom (below) and Macys, thinking I might have better luck with more classic colors there.

Nope. Eye-searing brights are, unfortunately, in.

I’m not going to be spending much on clothes this season. I may even get reacquainted with my sewing machine.