The extreme heat of last summer is behind many of the fashion trends of spring 2027. Almost across the board, designers responded to the record-breaking temperatures by chasing lightness—in terms of color, transparency, and weightlessness. The higher the mercury, after all, the fewer clothes you want to wear. Bra tops are one solution. For the slightly more modest, there’s lace, crochet, and semi-sheer fabrics that play a coquettish reveal/conceal game à la the scrim in Unzipped. Babydoll dresses in the spirit of the 1960s model Twiggy and their accompanying endless stretches of leg are another possible alternative.
“The season of the skirt” was the headline after a Prada show in which 63 variations on the theme were presented. Rugbys and polo shirts were also in the spotlight, while jeans, the foundation of the global wardrobe, got a glow-up through elaborate decoration, dyes, and finishes. These three trends answer the question of what to wear.
Two others—mad pattern mixes and deliberately awkward fits—focus more on how we wear clothes, which is a preoccupation of Celine’s Michael Rider and professor Ross Posnock whose latest book American Sophistication: How the Casual Became Cool was published in September. The present ideal isn’t perfection, but a kind of rule-breaking individualism, preferably with an IYKYK spin. Offness, which feels anti-AI, is the turn on.
That glamour has no expiration date in fashion was demonstrated by the predominance of metallics, notably at Antony Vaccarello’s Midas-touched swansong at Saint Laurent. The golden age of Hollywood—and the Oscar statuette—was conjured by gilded designs. (File this under the ‘Dress for the Award You Want’ school of method dressing.) Feathers and strass brought to mind showgirls with their high-stepping can-do flair.
The Stand-Alone Skirt
At Prada, the singular object of Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’s obsession was the skirt. In sending 63 variations down the runway, they effectively proposed the garment as object. Object of desire. Marc Jacobs and Junya Watanabe, meanwhile, used the bodysuit as the basis for a modular system of dressing.
L’Air du Temps
Welcome to waftcore. Chanel’s Mathieu Blazy initiated a tendency toward lightness a year ago, and it has since been taken up broadly, partly in response to extreme heat waves of the summer. Designers achieved a feeling of weightlessness with floaty fabrics and semi-sheer looks that don’t give everything away.
Clash Conscious
When it comes to taste this season, bad means good. Thirty-one years after Prada’s vibe changing pretty/ugly show (for spring 1996) the mad mix has become the ultimate marker of individual in-the-know style at Dries Van Noten, Alberta Ferretti, Maison Margiela, and co. Polka-dots and plaid? Plaid on plaid? Kilts in July? Go for all of it.
Pointed Messages
“The bra top is the new T-shirt” is right up there with “Bring Back Shame” as one of the season’s slogans. With Madonna so much in the news and much chatter about the coming of a matriarchal age, breasts have come to the fore and the brassiere has once again come out from under.
The Misfits
Complementing spring’s embrace of graphic havoc is an intriguing offness of fit, as seen at Jil Sander, Givenchy, and Lii. Jackets pull at the waist, while lapels scallop and swerve. And not only that; shirts and jeans were occasionally worn backwards on the runways, or were designed to have that effect.
Jeansmaxxing
Even in a season of skirts, jeans hold their own. We’re not talking classics. This denim is highly ornamented, coated, dyed, or otherwise creatively embellished. Jeans were smothered in coral at Dolce & Gabbana and festooned with feathers and appliqués at Roberto Cavalli. Balenciaga’s Pierpaolo Piccioli brought a couture twist to the subject by cutting denim on the bias.
Youthquake
The season’s A-line mini dresses and moon boots were influenced by André Courrèges, while the revival of the babydoll dress evokes the 1960s model Twiggy, though of course it was the contemporary pop icon Olivia Rodrigo who jumpstarted its comeback.
Team Spirit
Prepare to pop your collar come spring. Preppy staples with athletic connotations will be in heavy rotation. At Lacoste, the classic crocodile logo was inverted on polos, while Gucci’s Demna and Dries Van Noten’s Julian Klausner gave rugbys a bougie Euro spin.
Net Gains
Designers used openwork fabrics like crochet and broderie anglaise to provide both ventilation and romance. Frothy swathes of lace that floated cloud-like around exposed skin brought a sense of texture to the idea of lightness.
That’s Showbiz
The heat of the sun was of less interest to some designers than the glare of the spotlight. Glamour writ large was the takeaway from Anthony Vaccarello’s final collection for Saint Laurent, while showgirls’ feathers and strass kicked up excitement at Erdem and Matières Fécales.