FASHION

What You’ll be Wearing Next Season, According To Paris Fashion Week

Start writing your wish list
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Florals. For Spring. Ground-breaking, we know, but Alexander McQueen, Giambattista Valli, Johanna Ortiz and Miu Miu presented compelling cases for revisiting the old seasonal favourite. Sometimes we just want to look pretty.

For those days when we don’t, behold the new bad-good-taste. Demna Gvasalia, we’re looking at your clunky tartans and dollar-bill prints for Balenciaga…

spring
Giambatista Valli

Talking of bad taste: platform Crocs! If you can’t afford Balenciaga’s bejewelled version, regular Crocs now have fashion’s tick of approval. Yep, it’s the new ugly-hot shoe. Unless you prefer Saint Laurent’s yeti boots?

Saint Laurent Spring '18
Saint Laurent

More bad/good? PVC, though it pains me to say it (let’s just say it’s far from an environmentally friendly material), is back. Karl splashed it across the Chanel runway in the form of rain-proof accessories (long clear boots!). Expect the chain store copies. And sweaty toes.

Chanel Spring '18
Chanel

Good luck trying to copy Dries Van Noten’s nuanced way with a pattern clash. The Belgian master had us swooning over his mismatched scarf prints and brocades. Have you seen the doco about him yet? It’s fab.

Sacai Spring '18
Sacai

The most wearable trend actually has its roots in the inaccessible. Fashion’s weird like that. Some of the most serious designers (for example Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen) flexed their couture-standard pattern cutting muscles to deconstruct tailoring on a grand scale. But the trend has already filtered down in the form of tricked up shirting. Or simply tie your jacket around your chest to make a bustier, Sacai-style.

Christian Dior Spring '18
Christian Dior

Even simpler? Throw on a shiny thing. Yay! Who doesn’t love shiny things? Metallics, sequins, lurex… it’s glamour 101. Pop Christian Dior’s sparkly prom dresses on your mood board. Or pretty much any outfit from Balmain.

Thom Browne Spring '18
Thom Browne

Finally, ditch the slim silhouettes – and order extra pasta! Big will be beautiful next season. Think giant jackets, pumped up sleeves, and cocoon-like tricks with outsized proportions. In terms of why all this extra volume, it feels like a reaction to the scary state of the world right now – these are giant clothes to hide in. The most extreme cases were seen at art-meets-fashion labels Commes des Garçons and Thom Browne, but there were plenty of wearable takes. Look to our own queen of volume, Ellery, for example – her beautiful big-shouldered coats and poet sleeves are top of our wish list.

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