There's change in the air. Last season's styles captured the free loving 60's and 70's with hippie-inspired looks. For Fall/Back-to-School 2006, designers are finding gold in the Ukraine.

Nesting dolls known as Matriochka, the little egg-shaped pieces that fit inside one another are used as a motif on T-shirts and dresses, and the bright, multi-patterned designs painted on the dolls, show up as patterns on skirts, dresses, pants, and even coats.

Nesting doll T-shirt and folkloric skirt from Oilily

Embroidery is more important now than in previous seasons. Much of it is irregular and hand-sewn to create an artisanal, made-by-villagers feeling. The cross-stitch, most often seen on peasant costumes and hand-worked samplers, is the "it" motif.

An opulent Russian winter inspired heavily embroidered coats, often seen in collections in earthy colors and trimmed with fur.

Outfits by Mimi & Maggie

TRENDS

Girls:

Just folks: Bright patterns, layers, cross-stitching add up to a happy peasant.

Iisli works the cross-stitched look with aplomb

Subtly Asian: Prints with an all-over kimono pattern, wrap sweaters, toggle closing exhibit a light hand with Asian themes.

A little romance: Puckers a plenty and "Juliet" sleeves - a puff at the shoulder followed by a straight or bell ending at the wrist - lend a feminine note to tees, sweaters and dresses.

Dressing 1-2-3: A dress over pants; long sleeves under short-sleeved tees; abbreviated sweaters over blouses; the more layers the merrier.

Cape couture: Knit capes or short capelets keep chilly shoulders warm.

Capelet by Kico Kids

Rock on babe: Tie-dyed tees, glitter tees and jeans with a distressed look keep rock in the forefront.

Ruffles for all: Even designers who pride themselves on unadorned shapes worked ruffles into their collections.

A sea change: Sailor pants worn with narrow pea coats are a streamlined alternative to multi-layered styles.

Boys:

Big man on campus: Varsity letters and team numbers are appliquéd to T-shirts, some with wide, horizontal stripes. Argyle sweaters spin the preppie-chic feeling.

Argyle T-shirt from Fooey

Lean and mean: Boys' leather jackets have a Dirty Harry appeal with sleek tab collars and zippered fronts.

Racer jackets from Brycewear

Rock on dude: Skulls, guitars, tattoo motifs - anything with a heavy metal vibe - let bad boys rock.

Am I blue?: Jeans that is. When it comes to denim, distressed, appliquéd and embellished pants made a showing at all price points.

Edge him on: Basic plaid shirts get an up-market twist with frayed cuffs, collars and along plackets.

SILHOUETTES

-Circle skirts - either knee length or to the ankle - provide a fresh alternative to the tiered style.

-The multi-tiered skirt or dress is still going strong.

-Bubble skirts are showing up here and there.

Light as air bubble skirt from Nano

-Wide legged gaucho or to the ankle length pants with multi-buttoned, sailor styled fronts look fresh.

-Short sweaters, capes and capelets add a new dimension to knits.

-Wrap styled sweaters and dresses are worn over leggings and skirts and look best with Asian inspired prints.

It's a wrap at Rose Spice Kids

-Distressed denim is seen in girls' and boys' collections.

COLORS

Hot chocolate: Brown is still hot. The tone appeared in layette to junior collections, as solids and in patterns.

Brown combos: Brown/deep red; Brown/pumpkin or orange; brown/light dusty pink to rich rose; Brown/aqua, sky or teal; Brown/plums and lilacs; Brown/olive and lime.

Kidscase works turquoise and brown in this kimono sweater

Plum pretty: Dusty plums as solids or mixed with lilac tones are especially elegant.

Plum combos: Plum/lilac; plum/chocolate; plum/celery and olives

Greenmarket: Greens appeared in warm yellow-toned casts such as mustard, olive, khaki and lime.

Tina Neumann tosses the greens

Green combos: Green/chocolate; green/sky; green/charcoal; lime/khaki

Sky's the limit: Sky blue, blue-cast aqua, turquoise and teal made a strong showing in layette to outerwear and even shoes.

Blue combos: Turquoise/chocolate; teal/chocolate; teal/mustard; sky/red; sky/chocolate; sky/charcoal; sky/beige

In the red: Red, rose, dusty pink and fuchsia appeared as solids as in prints.

Red/pink combos: Rose/plum; red/rose; red/brown; red/sky; melon/wine and red; fuchsia/lime (at a lower price-point).

A warm trend at Zutano by Uli Belenky

TEXTILES

-Real leather and suede

-Faux leather and suede

-Faux fur in natural tones or funky pastels

-Silk velvet

-Cashmere has become as common as cotton in knit collections

-Pinwale and widewale corduroy

-Crinkly cotton

-Distressed denim

-Vegetable dyed thermal

-Plush

-Tulle

PATTERNS

Living dolls: The nesting doll as a motif on T-shirts or as inspiration for brightly colored, folkloric patterns influenced many collections.

Russian dressing: Felt or velvet appliqués with a hand sewn look form all-over patterns or borders atop dresses, jumpers, sweaters even coats and shoes.

Retro renegades: 60's-70's stylized florals with very little detail on the motifs updated the still-popular retro prints.

Jacobean jive: The swirling motifs of Jacobean patterns are the natural evolution of the toile. Ditto for scrolling tone-on-tone florals and architectural motifs.

Jacobean prints add warmth to Succo's separates

Paisley power: The motif is blown up and given a folkloric twist.

Pumped up plaid: Plaid has punk appeal mixed with hip prints and argyles in boys' wear, or paired with denim in girls' skirts.

The geisha: Subtle Asian motifs appeared on prints.

Stripe it: Wide horizontal stripes give boys' tees a collegiate look.

Peaceable kingdom: Doves and hummingbirds sing a song of peace atop T-shirts and knit into sweaters.

It's a zoo: Kids love photos of animals screen-printed or used as flat, graphic motifs on hip T-shirts.

Not so incognito: Designers are giving the masculine camouflage pattern a feminine twist by printing it on girls' underwear, dresses and separates.

To dye for: Tie-dye is still popular as a backdrop for glitter, sequins and appliqués in girls' activewear.

OUTERWEAR

-Opulent, fur-edged coats, jackets and vests

-Quilted parkas with a 70's feeling

-Racing jackets

FOOTWEAR

No plain (Mary) Janes: Whether it's a slipper, shoe or boot, the item will be embellished, embroidered and bejeweled.

Twinkle toes at Oilily

Rhinestone cowgirl: Western gals go glam with heavily stitched embroidered and appliquéd boots.

TRIM

-Serged seams

-Sequined ribbon

-Embroidered ribbon

-Tiny pompoms

-Mini puppets or stuffed animals in pockets

-Ruffles