Blame it on Seth Cohen, or the high-waisted revolution sparking images of Steve Urkel and Screech from Saved By The Bell. Either way, the Geeks are back in town and have never looked so good.

While summer fashion did slightly hint at a bookworm muse, as the weather gets colder, it is all about reclaiming your inner nerd with a mixture of innocent schoolgirl looks and science lab style. All this came as a breath of fresh air to me, a self-professed nerd ever since in 4th grade, a cat fight ending with “I bet you just read the dictionary at home” from my opponent forever solidified my nerd status in playground folklore. During high school, the “cool girls” tried to befriend me in order to copy my homework and as every true nerd knows, there is nothing like the lure of popularity to make you work twice as hard.

But as the schoolyard fades into a distant memory, it seems that rebellion now lies not in the overdone tight miniskirts and flesh-revealing garb of certain Hollywood socialites, but rather in the coke-bottle glasses and tweed garments of collegiate preps. It has become more daring and bold to wear slouchy man-style shorts with suspenders and knee socks than hot pants and stilettos. Modern day followers of geek chic such as Kirsten Dunst and Maggie Gyllenhaal channel Mia Farrow and Dianne Keaton, all four women incorporating garments typically associated with bookish qualities into their outfits. And who could forget the boys of geek: Clarke Kent is so much more sexier than Superman, Peter Parker more adorable and less creepy then Spiderman, Hiro from the TV show Heroes is so charmingly intelligent and comes with handy time-stopping powers. However, the title King of Geek Chic belongs to Adam Brody, proving there is nothing more attractive then a certain nerdy vulnerability mixed with encyclopaedic comic-book knowledge and a killer CD collection.

The catwalks have been awash with fashion straight out of a posh college, with argyle, tweed and tartan all making their presence felt. Man-style baggy trousers and matching waistcoats and blazers were seen Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney and there were an abundance of shirtdresses at Vivienne Westwood, Chloe and Michael Kors. Luella provided the ultimate statement, a t-shirt with the word “Geek” emblazoned across the front for girls who want to come out of the stationary closet and embrace their nerdy-leanings.
 
But in addition to the hallmarks of prep style, these nerdy statements were teamed with futuristic mod looks with shift dresses, high tech fabrics and geometric designs updating intellectual dressing by creating a “futuristic geek” look. This has also translated to the geek’s playground: the electronics market. Chances are, your mobile phone resembles a sleek contemporary art piece which can take calls, play music, videos, games, TV shows, surf the net and possibly perform heart surgery. I am betting your MP3 player can probably do the same. And what girl wouldn’t want a pink Nintendo DS lite, or have a Wii?

So, what makes the bespectacled girl in the corner or the guy with braces on his teeth and some technological gizmo in his pocket so appealing today? It could be a nostalgic yearn for innocent youth – when the most tragic event would be missing the school disco that everyone was going to. When going away to school camp could secure you a secret kiss with that boy you like behind the cabins and girly gossip fests about who is the cutest would keep you from getting any sleep, and when having posters of New Kids on the Block plastered all over your folder meant you were sorta cool. And with celebrity blogs giving us a front row seat to the deluge of trashy celeb behaviour, causing it to become de rigueur and accepted as normal, maybe the debauchery and decadence is just simply boring now.

There is nothing new to learn about somebody who bears all literally and figuratively. Once you get beyond the flesh and into the mind, encountering a lack of brain cells becomes amusing only so many times. And if teen movies have taught us anything, it is that the nerdy girl in the corner with the most intelligence is the one hiding the most beauty.