Thanks to street style and the instant documentation of it on social media, the gap between the runway and reality narrows every season. Revisiting the hundreds of street style photos Phil Oh shot in New York, London, Milan, and Paris, you can witness how women’s outfits gradually shift to reflect what they’ve seen at the shows. Victoria Beckham and Burberry’s new look of bourgeois elegance in London prompted several women to wear skirt suits and head-to-toe camel before the trend had even crystallized at Hedi Slimane’s Celine show. Whether those ladies remixed the clothes they’d packed in their suitcases or went out to buy brand-new looks—and fast!—it’s a good example of how runway trends and street style trends have started to overlap.
That explains the subversive, punk codes we saw on and off the runways, too. There was a tough, anti-establishment spirit in several collections, usually with a side of romantic florals (see: Prada, Valentino, Alexander McQueen). We saw guys and girls wearing studs, spikes, smudged eyeliner, dark lips, platforms, and, of course, head-to-toe black on the streets, too. There’s no arguing that’s where the trend started—decades and decades ago, in fact—before trickling up to the highest echelons of fashion. Maybe “trend” isn’t even the right word; Lily Gatins, for example, has been dressing this way forever, regardless of what’s happening in the zeitgeist.
A Fresh Way to Wear Your Blazer
Tailoring was a huge story on the Fall 2019 runways, but with spring around the corner, you might not feel inspired to wear a full-on pantsuit. Instead, we saw lots of women pairing their jackets—oversize or trim, leather or checked—with skirts. Occasionally, the look resembled an actual skirt suit. We also spotted a few women in full, pleated midis days before Hedi Slimane put them on the runway at Celine.
The New Statement Coat
For years, the streets outside the Fall runway shows were insanely plush. Fur was the dominant outerwear trend, from soft shearlings to rainbow-striped chubbies and everything in between. Maybe it has something to do with the real-versus-faux argument—many women have vowed to stop wearing both—or perhaps we’re all just ready for a change. This season’s most photogenic coats fell into two camps: long and lean in a bold color, or vividly printed. They made just as much of a statement—and were likely a lot easier to pack, too.
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