Fashion Month Street Style, and the High-Street Versions
New York ran from 10 to 15 September, London took over from the 17th to the 21st, and everything that walked down either set of runways was spring/summer 2027....
New York ran from 10 to 15 September, London took over from the 17th to the 21st, and everything that walked down either set of runways was spring/summer 2027. Clothes for next June. Useful if you are a buyer, useless if you want something to wear on Thursday.
The pavement outside is the part that transfers. Street style at fashion month is people dressing for actual September weather, which makes it the only bit of the whole circus you can copy the same week. Four things New York and London both landed on.
“The runway was for next summer. The pavement was for this Thursday.”
London, by colour
Pulled from what people actually turned up in at the LFW shows.
Deep Plum
#4A2338
Slate Grey
#6E7076
Cream
#EFE7D8
Chestnut Suede
#8A5A3B
Pewter
#A9A6A1
Statement skirts, in every print
The single most repeated thing on the New York pavement was a skirt with something going on. Marie Claire called it statement skirt season off the back of the SS27 shows and that reads right: polka dots, plaid, florals, every length, worn with a flat shoe and a jacket rather than dressed up with a heel.
This is the easiest one to copy because the high street is already deep into autumn skirts. Verdict: worth it, but buy the print. A plain black midi is a different and considerably more boring purchase.
The leather jacket got shorter
Cropped bombers, waist-length moto jackets, funnel necks, balloon sleeves. The long straight biker had a quiet fortnight and the short ones took over completely.
It is a proportion thing more than a fabric thing. A jacket that stops at your natural waist makes everything underneath look longer, which is exactly why it works over the skirts above and over wide-leg jeans. The high street has already copied it, so there is no reason to pay designer money for the shape.
Preppy, but the knitted kind
New York went properly preppy: rugby stripes, polo collars, sweater vests, a lot of navy and red. I would take this one in small doses. A striped knitted polo over a printed skirt is good. Head to toe is a school uniform.
One colour, top to bottom
London did monochrome, and did it with conviction. Cat Burns wore a deep plum shirt with matching trousers to Burberry. Gemma Chan went head to toe black in leather. Jorja Smith wore a slate grey leather trench with a teal silk scarf as the only interruption in the whole outfit.
The co-ord is the shortcut version. One purchase, one colour, no decisions about whether the top works with the bottoms, and it splits into two separate outfits afterwards.
How to wear it without looking like you went to the shows
One loud piece, everything else quiet
The printed skirt or the co-ord, not both. Street style photographs well because the photographer picked one person out of a crowd, not because that person was wearing four trends.
Flat shoes with the skirt
The whole reason this looks current rather than occasion-wear is the footwear. Loafers, ballet flats, a flat ankle boot. A heel sends it somewhere else entirely.
Crop the jacket, lengthen the leg
Waist-length jacket over a long skirt or wide trousers. The shorter the jacket, the longer everything under it reads.
Milan and Paris are still to come and some of this will move again by October. I have stuck to the four that showed up in both New York and London, because a trend that survives the flight tends to survive the season. The grids above pull live from what our retailers have in stock, so sizes disappear faster than the trend will.