Before you even think about shopping next season, memorise Givenchy’s look No 9 : an oversized zebra-print turtle-neck sweater worn over a high-shine black pencil skirt with monochrome court shoes. This photo appears twice in the first three pages of Vogue’s trend report, so if you keep that front of mind you can’t go far wrong. The press samples of Victoria Beckham’s leopard-print coat must have racked up a lot of air miles, too.
“The dress continutes to reign as fashion’s universal go-to, making a stripy maxi or midi design your one-stop autumn update,” says Vogue, tipping Boden’s £130 Alba midi dress in mulled-wine stripes. Red also tips the long, printed dress, featuring a Ganni style (a maxi shirt dress in the same print is already on sale). All the September issues agree that the “heritage coat” – conker-brown or charcoal grey; checked, tweedy, trenchy, or all three – is an essential this season. Harper’s Bazaar’s No 1 of 10-things-to-love-about-the-season is the Saint Laurent tweed coat, which is absolutely gorgeous, but is also £12,995. However, Vogue has check trench coats at Arket (£250) and Warehouse (£99, on sale 8 October). A honey-toned corduroy blazer, £99 from Marks & Spencer, features in Red.
Back in March, long before she was “royal wedding dress designer Clare Waight Keller”, the Givenchy designer had all of Paris fashion week swooning over what she called the “police boot” backstage after her show: a slick, zippered, cone-heeled 80s take on the cowboy-boot shape. At £1,150, these turn up in white in Vogue, and in beige in Bazaar, and are sure to spawn some high-street imitators. Jimmy Choo’s £850 Leanne booties – white ankle-strap court shoes with an ankle-sock puff of polka dot lace – are another 80s glamazon trophy piece. You can get a similar vibe via the £89 zebra-stripe high-cut court shoes from And/Or at John Lewis, which appear in Red, and go on sale this Friday.
I know, I know – after a record-breaking heatwave you can barely recall what a jacket is, let alone a coat, so this feels way too theoretical. Nonetheless, two important styling points to bookmark. No 1: you will want to wear your coat with a belt. In a double-page spread of coats featured in Vogue, more than half come with incorporated belts; in Bazaar, camel coats by Versace and Alberta Ferretti are cinched by tan leather belts. No 2: the rich-girl just-stepped-out-of-a-limo, shoulder-robing thing is totally over. (Too Melania.) Wear your coat straight-up, sleeves and all.
