Every year at around this time I see four or five articles exclaiming over the nautical trend of this summer. It’s hard not to think beachy, oceanic thoughts when the weather is warm and sunny out and the summer holidays are fast approaching … but I repeat, I see this every year—so at what point does a trend became a wardrobe staple that simply goes into hibernation for a few months out of the year?

This isn’t to say that there is a lack of innovation in the nautical look (though there will undoubtedly be about a dozen incarnations of the navy and white horizontal stripe top, not to mention the sailor pant).

So, what are the new themes for this season? There is a lot of sea creature inspired jewelry (see here here and here), and quite a bit of rope detailing (have a look at these Tory Burch Rope detailed flats and this St John sweater with rope and grommet detailing).

The nautical look isn’t tired, not just yet– but it has moved beyond trend status. I think it’s safe to say that nautical is a wardrobe staple that is here to stay—it just moves south to the tropics at the first sign of autumn.