There are a few trends amongst spring 2012′s fashions that aren’t new for the season. In a world where people increasingly feel that things are moving too fast, the fact that trends are wont to stick around for a few seasons is actually a nice thing. It not only offers continuity, but it also offers a longer lifespan to the quality statement pieces you include within your curated wardrobe.

This spring / summer we see the crop top stick around for another year, continuing to feel fresh simply for the fact that it’s a trend that can never become over-saturated – it’s not for everyone.

Read on after the break to see how to wear the crop top this summer, who is designing it, and tips on other trends to pair it with.

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As a spring fashion trend the crop top (and its variations including the boob tube / tube top) is not just about exposing your whole stomach – that’s how it was worn back in 2009 and fashion has moved on. Instead, in 2012 it’s about interpreting the crop top into elegant new looks that often show little more than a peep of a toned midriff. Yes, this season there’s the crop top of the sportswear-as-daywear trend, but there’s also the crop top as a sophisticated, refined statement that some will embrace as a look not to be feared.

How to wear a crop top in spring 2012

The vintage crop top.

There’s a 1950s fashion vibe aligning itself with the crop top in spring 2012, but don’t imagine it as a conservative one. Instead it’s the youthful, rockabilly fashion of the 1950s that the crop top is being interpreted through.

vintage crop top
Vintage inspired crop tops

Prada led the charge here, generally setting vintage-inspired crop tops / boob tubes against relaxed cuts and high-waisted skirts. If we’re honest, the loose cut outerwear gives the look something of a dowdy feel, downplaying the statement that is the crop top trend. Where it does work, however, is in showing that this is a look that needn’t be about showing your entire stomach – a mere peak will do.

The evening crop top

Often designed with a casual feel, crop tops and tube tops seldom shift from day to evening wear. There are options, however, and naturally you’re going to have to turn to the luxury designers for them – to make a crop top work for the evening means wearing one whose quality is overt.

crop tops evening
Crop tops for the evening

If a short and sexy summer is your style, then Versace is your go to label for style inspiration. Here the effect of what are effectively clean-cut boob tubes is downplayed, the eye drawn away from the skin. At times that’s through the pairing of a boob tube with more embellished bottoms (see the studded, black leather skirt as a key example), while at other times it’s through the styling of a complete look that’s head turning in its own right; don heels and carry a clutch, and the two piece, hot pants suit with a boob tube layered underneath is a complete look.

If Versace kept the trend crisp and clean, then Pucci embellished it to the nth degree. Paired with long hemmed, high-waisted dresses it’s obvious that Pucci’s take on the crop top isn’t evening wear in the traditional sense – these are no gowns. With lashings of lace and heapings of sheer, Pucci’s evening-ready interpretations of the trend are exquisite. The fashion house offered up daywear takes on the crop top too, so be sure to look through this article’s photo gallery for some high-summer interpretations.

The crop top as secondary statement

The crop top might be a spring 2012 fashion statement, but it needn’t be the only one you make when wearing the trend. In fact there are a whole host of options that purposefully downplay the exposed midriff and draw the eye elsewhere.

Weave and patterned / print crop tops

There are the sexualised takes, such as Altuzarra’s loose knit crop tops. Worn all in black, the loose knit reveals the chest and mightn’t be practical as is (a bra under such a knit runs the risk of looking daft), but when layered under a carefully placed jacket offers up a street look that will appeal to most, if not all. If it’s still too much though, you can also turn to Alexander Wang’s interpretations of a similar idea.

Then there are the prints. Prints are a staple of any modern spring / summer wardrobe, and designers have paired cropped tops and prints aplenty this season. And because the current school of thought is that, generally speaking, prints ought to be immeasurably loud, you’re left with a situation where the statement that is the crop top is severely downplayed in comparison to the printed fabrics its paired with. Labels D&G and Dolce & Gabbana both played to this interpretation and, in doing so, offered up one of the style rules for this particular take on the trend: whether it’s a skirt or shorts, make the bottom of the look home to the loudest print.

The sporty crop top.

Courtesy of the 2012 Olympics, sportswear is back in fashion. Unsurprisingly the crop top is one of its statement elements, with designers such as Helmut Lang interpreting the two styles with athletic abandon. At times cut like a bra, Lang’s cropped tank tops are some of the more revealing options, with his layering of what is effectively a bra over a crop top a style note to memorise. Equally worthy of working into the look is Lang’s styling of a crop top under an angled-blazer – it tones down the look, but never subverts it.

sport crop top
Fashion-focussed sporty crop tops

The sporty crop top isn’t all so revealing however. When he wasn’t dabbling in a mix of perforated leather and sheer sleeves, Alexander Wang gave insight into what a sporty, albeit subdued, take on the trend can look like. It’s what you might call the almost-not-a-crop top as, highly cut are pants it’s paired with, the crop factor is reduced to a reveal mere centimetres of skin.