Scrubs used to be pale blue or green—period—offering all the glamour of a paper grocery bag. You’ve probably noticed that’s changing, but pink hearts and teddy bears are only the beginning. Ready to vogue your ward? Check out these trends!
Scrubs
If bling is your thing, try Baby Phat’s Bling Basics, studded with tiny gold nailheads and foil accents. And Baby Phat’s Life Crown, Endo, and Phat Phab Max sneakers bring street to your feet. Landau’s FX low-rise stretch pants have a wide waistband and flared legs featuring four large functional steel snaps on the outer seam: not exactly bling, but pretty darn cute.
Get your Boop on! If you love Betty, most retailers offer scrubs featuring la Boop, also Spongebob Squarepants, Hello Kitty, Disney characters, and many other cartoon critters. Cherokee has an entire line called Tooniforms; White Cross offers a top with Loony silhouettes rocking Tunes on colored squares so vivid you’d swear they were animated.
Looking for something more feminine? Some of Black Star’s embroidered tops, like the Province style, even have scalloped hems. Cherokee’s Poetry tops offer lace accents; their Earthly Delight collection has ruffled edges. Koi pulls out all the femme stops with their embroidered, ruffled, baby-doll Emily top. Dickies and Barco both carry Asian-style tops with flattering Mandarin-collar necklines and contrasting piping.
Tired of pastels and itty bitty flowers? You’ve got options, starting with Baby Phat’s leopard prints. If bold classic floral patterns are more your speed, check out Cherokee’s Frenchy and Bellini prints. White Cross’ batik-style “India Moonlit” pattern features gold accents. For bright modern prints, check Dickies’ Hip Flip collection; these scrubs have modishly short sleeves too.
Shoes and Accessories
“Comfortable” doesn’t have to mean “orthopedic.” Anywear’s Bermuda slingback clogs are wicked cute, vented for coolth, and available in 15 colors. Nurse Mate’s ultralight Quark V-sport clog offers two knockout patterns: Bubble, a witty design that makes shoes appear wet, and Carbon, a futuristic scored-graphite look. Skechers’ Oswald Candystripe clogs are marbled with swirls of pink or blue.
A recent fad for shoes with holes in them (Crocs, pierced and vented clogs) is to decorate them with shoe charms. You can even get your own custom charms made!
Use your head: Baby Phat’s surgical skull caps match some of their their scrub tops (sadly, not leopard or bling). Grey’s Anatomy makes surgeons’ caps in many prints and colors; they coordinate with but don’t match Grey’s Anatomy scrubs.
Dress up that dowdy stethoscope! Ultrascopes lets you customize by mixing and matching 15 tubing colors and a wild variety of heads in transparent and translucent colors and patterns including camo, watermelon, and holstein. Be still, my foolish heart!
Hey, what about the guys?
Enterprising fashionistas might want to take note: men’s scrubs haven’t undergone the transformation that women’s have. An occasional top shows some contrasting panels or trim, but that’s as wild as it gets. Sorry, fellas!
By Alison Darrow
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