It’s like the fashion designers of Paris came together (virtually, via Zoom) to decree one giant anti-loungewear campaign for autumn/winter 2021—and I’m so glad they did.
Providing the very opposite to the comfortable, easy, athleisure-led clothes we’ve all been leaning into over the past year, French brands are putting a firm stop on that for the end of this year, providing cooler-than-ever workwear options, outrageous party dresses and the kind of loud daytime looks that we would never have imagined on the streets of this fashion capital pre-Covid. But that’s what being restricted and trapped in one’s rotation of leggings can do; many of us are now dreaming of something more joyful, more elaborate and more agenda-setting to wear when life stops being “unprecedented” and monotonous and just starts being more full again. Ballgowns down the pub? Yes, please! Shocking-pink suit for the office? You betcha.
Below you’ll find five trends coming direct from the Paris Fashion Week collections—from bouclé jackets reborn at Schiaparelli through to the fanciest of frocks from Paco Rabanne, there’s a lot here that I love and want to wear already. So for inspiration I found a few available-now alternatives if you can’t wait to strip off the trackies and put on the ol’ razzamatazz for a trip to Tesco.
