How to Dress Like Ming Xi: Six Off-Duty Outfits and What to Buy
Ming Xi walked the Victoria's Secret show in Los Angeles this month for the first time since 2018, so your feed is about to fill up with wings and corsetry....
Ming Xi walked the Victoria's Secret show in Los Angeles this month for the first time since 2018, so your feed is about to fill up with wings and corsetry. Between shows, Ming Xi dresses very differently, and that is what this guide covers: six outfits photographed on the street in New York, Milan, Paris and Shanghai between 2013 and 2018, five of them by Phil Oh for Vogue. Nobody is selling the exact pieces any more, which doesn't matter much, because the formula is the useful bit and it hasn't dated at all.
The Ming Xi off-duty palette
Mostly black and white, with navy or khaki on top and the odd flash of red.
Black
#141414
Optic white
#F3F1EC
Navy
#1F2A55
Khaki
#6B6A4E
Cuff red
#C8102E
Cartoon sweatshirt, black ruffle mini
Outside a New York show in September 2013, Ming Xi wore a vintage sweatshirt printed all over with Goofy (black, white and red, with red ribbed cuffs) over a black J.W. Anderson mini with a ruffled hem and a long tie trailing off one side. Then black ankle socks, pointed black flats with white toes and a big black Miu Miu bowling bag. A cartoon top on its own could look like a dare, and the grown-up skirt and bag stop it going that far. The skirt is the piece to buy, since a plain black mini keeps earning its place long after the novelty sweatshirt has gone back in the drawer.
Shop black mini skirts
What Ming Xi's off-duty outfits have in common
Line the six up and the socks jump out first. Black ankle socks with flats in New York, striped knee socks with trainers in the snow, black socks with Nikes in Paris. Asked by Vogue in 2013 about their long-haul travel outfit, Ming Xi had one rule, and it clearly didn't stay at the airport.
“I have to have socks on.”
— Ming Xi on long-distance travel outfits, Vogue, 2013
The other habits are as easy to borrow. The colours rarely go past black, white, navy and khaki. There is usually one slightly silly thing (a Goofy sweatshirt, eye-print trousers, a bag charm with a face) and everything else is plain enough to calm it down. Shoes are flat or chunky far more often than they are high. And when it's cold, a long plain coat goes over the top and does most of the work.
How to borrow Ming Xi's off-duty style
Wear socks where you'd wear tights
Black ankle socks with a mini and flat shoes turns up again and again in these photos. It's also the cheapest idea here to try.
Let one piece be silly
A cartoon print or a daft bag charm is fine if everything around it is plain. Pick the silly piece first and dress the rest down.
Keep to two colours, three at most
The Kenzo look puts two prints together and gets away with it only because both are black and white.
Spend on the coat
Three of the six outfits are mostly coat. One long navy, khaki or black coat covers a lot of winter by itself, so that is where the budget should go.
None of the original pieces are in the shops now, and you don't need them. A black mini, a white shirt and one long plain coat get you most of the way, and the socks are probably in your drawer already.
Stock and prices on these rails change week to week, so if something turns up in your size, don't leave it too long.