There’s been a trend quietly growing – perhaps the beady-eyed crafters among you will already have noticed, but zips have been coming out of the shade and into the limelight. And they’re a far cry from the zips of the punk days – this time they’re less grunge, more gorgeous...

This year’s Dancing on Ice created rather a stir in the office when it was noticed that Jason Gardiner (TV judge, fashion expert and choreographer) was wearing a zip as a tie. That certainly got us thinking... what could we do with that fabulous newly revamped Opti Zips range?

You may have already noticed we have hopped right on to this trend with this month’s free project for a zip corsage to decorate a pair of ballet pumps.

Shopping round town we were struck by the trend for zips and creative usage. No longer are zips necessarily to be hidden and inset. You can make a feature of them. Wallis has an asymmetrical dress which features bold use of zips, and Warehouse has cargo pants with zips plainly on display at the ankle.

Accessories are also a key area for zips. Top Shop has a cute corsage made from a rolled up zip, and zip pulls feature as stud earrings. So easy for the crafter to make! Accessorize even features a simple headband from a zip. Just add a length of our Milward elastic to an Opti zip and you can recreate this simply effective fashion accessory in next to no time.

Elsewhere we found zips on show on dresses and shoes at Dorothy Perkins. One simple idea, which is good to steal, is to decorate a pocket on a t-shirt with a very visible coloured zip.

Opti has a wide range of metal zips available for creating fashion accessories and more traditional purposes. You’ll find a range of colours, lengths and different metal finishes – get ready to customise and have fun with zips.