LONDON: Fashion trendsetters are officially loud and proud this year, but for once it's the trousers that are leading the colour explosion, for men and women alike.“Red jeans and pink jeans were our top searched terms for the last two weeks,” said Sarah Curren, chief executive of mywardrobe.com. Rival online retailer asos.com reports a 300 per cent uplift on sales of coloured jeans, with pink jeans selling most quickly. It's a look celebrities have been quick to pick up on. From the actor Sienna Miller at the stage door to Sarah Jessica Parker in Manhattan, bright denim is becoming as de rigueur as oversized sunglasses. The most popular celebrity choice is a style named Colour Pop 811 made by J Brand. The company's head, Jeff Rudes, said it had sold around 36,000 pairs so far.

It seems that men are not immune to the trend, either — albeit in a more subdued colour palette. In the UK Topman reports that one particular line of mustard chinos is the biggest selling trousers it has ever had.

Sales figures indicate that this isn't a celebrity fad. “Our core customer is a 37-year-old professional woman,” said Curren. “We are not talking about young hipsters here. It's grown-up women who are wanting this trend.”

Fiona Collins, director of communications at Tommy Hilfiger, where business is brisk on brightly coloured chinos, agrees. “It's a different demographic who are wearing the look this time around. It's 30- and 40-somethings drawn to a more polished but preppy style.”

The headline trend from the catwalks for spring was termed colour-blocking - a look that involves mixing bold, one-colour separates together.

“At our buying meeting we worked out that it was real women buying into the colour-blocking trend in a way they know how, because everyone wears jeans,” said Curren.

Spring optimism is playing its part, too. “People are simply drawn to colour in the sunshine,” said Collins.

Topman's design director, Gordon Richardson, said the trend is a reversal of areas where men have worn colour in recent years. “Guys have been getting into wearing coloured checked shirts with skinny jeans over the past few years and now shirts have gone plainer and suddenly the trousers need to change. It's flipped.”

Trendwatchers believe the loud-trousered look is unlikely to fade, being too useful to peter out. “I wear red ones as part of my work uniform, with heels and a blazer,” said Curren.

Nathalie Hartley, senior fashion editor at Instyle, said bright jeans can be worn for work or pleasure. “I saw a woman in her 40s wearing raspberry jeans, a twinset and stilettos in rush hour this morning. It was proof that bright jeans can look upstate.”— Dawn/Guardian News Service