Every season has two verdicts. The first comes from the runway, months before anyone can buy a thing. The second comes later, when the clothes reach the shop floor and the people who attend the shows start wearing them in the street. For autumn/winter 2026, both verdicts are now in.
The collections first shown in February and March are arriving in stores across the northern hemisphere, and the September and October shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris have given street-style photographers a month of evidence. Read side by side, the runway reports and the street-style round-ups agree on more than usual. This is a guide to where they meet.
For the spring/summer 2027 collections shown this September and October, see our separate report, The Five Ideas That Defined Spring/Summer 2027.
The mood: expectations, subverted
Harper's Bazaar, in its autumn/winter 2026 trend report published on 20 October, sums up the season in a phrase: the best trends "were all about disrupting expectations". Knitwear became an evening layer, and tuxedos "took a spin in the sunlight". In the magazine's words, "so-wrong-it's-right statement dressing ruled the runways".
Who What Wear UK reached a similar conclusion from a different angle. After "a previous autumn season obsessed with '90s minimalism and years of quiet luxury", it argued, the most popular unexpected trend of the season is colour-clashing, with "everyone from Valentino and Versace to Tory Burch and Prada ripping up the rulebook when it comes to pairing colours".
The common thread is a move away from the safe, tonal wardrobe of recent years. The ideas below are the most wearable expressions of it.
1. Red as a neutral
The single clearest colour message of the season is red, used not as a statement but as a finishing touch. Harper's Bazaar says "red became a new neutral this season", pointing to Michael Rider at Celine and Cate Holstein at Khaite, who "made the case for pulling your outfit together with pops of red", along with Chanel and Tory Burch. Brooches, belts and jewellery came in crimson; sweaters and denim in scarlet.
The street agreed. British Vogue's Paris street-style report noted leather skirts and glossy patent jackets "in distinctly autumnal shades like deep aubergine, fire-engine red, and wine-tinged burgundy", bringing "a welcome hit of colour" in place of head-to-toe black. PORTER singled out Jeanne Damas, who wore "an oversized red coat as a dress" in Paris.
How to wear it: start small. A red belt, brooch or bag against navy, grey or black does the work without asking you to rethink a whole outfit.
2. Plaid, dressed up
Plaid is an autumn perennial. What changed this season is the register. "This season, plaids were not giving your typical pumpkin patch energy," writes Harper's Bazaar. "Plaid was chic. Dressed up. Sophisticated." The magazine cites Chanel, Dries Van Noten, Celine, Tory Burch and Chloé, whose chiffon skirts came "in folksy plaid", and notes that the colours were brighter than usual and the fabrics often chiffon and silk.
How to wear it: treat a plaid skirt or dress as you would a print, not as country tweed. A silk plaid skirt with knee boots and a neutral blazer reads as office wear; the same skirt with a fine knit and heels reads as evening.
3. The drop waist and the cummerbund
If there is a defining silhouette, it is the drop waist. Harper's Bazaar credits Simone Rocha, Tory Burch and Chanel's Matthieu Blazy with dropping waistlines "lower than we've seen before, giving us the shape of the season", and lists Lanvin and Marni among the houses showing it.
Around the natural waist, meanwhile, the menswear cummerbund has become the season's insider accessory. Harper's Bazaar names it "a hero accessory of fall" and credits Julian Klausner at Dries Van Noten with reviving it. PORTER reports the same from the street: the pleated satin sash "has become a hit on and off the runways", appearing in both the autumn/winter collections and the new spring/summer 2027 shows. It suggests wearing one over a shirt and pencil skirt, or even with jeans.
How to wear it: a drop-waist dress is balanced by a classic pump; a cummerbund, or a statement belt, can make a plain shirt and trousers look considered.
4. Knits after dark, and tuxedos by day
Two inversions recur in the reports. The first is knitwear for evening. Harper's Bazaar describes "satin dresses worn with sweaters and chunky knit scarves", citing Prada, Chloé, Altuzarra, Dior and Dries Van Noten's Fair Isle sweater set. The second is tuxedo dressing for daytime: a tuxedo shirt in place of oversized shirting, or a tuxedo jacket with jeans, with examples from Boss, Emporio Armani, Emilia Wickstead, Khaite and Dior.
PORTER's street-style report adds a related idea: lingerie dressing, carried over from last season, styled for colder weather "with knitwear, jackets and tights". The lace-trimmed slip skirt also appears on Vogue's list of Paris street-style trends.
5. The statement coat
"From animal-print to fringed leather, statement coats were a recurring theme on the streets of New York, London, Milan and Paris," PORTER reports. Its argument is practical: a coat "does all the heavy lifting", so the rest of the outfit can stay simple. It cites Tamu McPherson, who wore a leopard-print coat and matching skirt to the Sacai show.
How to wear it: if you buy one considered piece this season, this is the one that changes the most outfits.
The textures and the shapes
Three further notes appear across the street-style reports.
- Suede, and leather with shine. PORTER calls suede the texture of the month, citing Ella Beatty in tobacco suede trousers at Balenciaga and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley carrying a terracotta Bottega Veneta Barbara tote. Vogue adds polished leather skirts and patent jackets.
- Purple. "Purple prevailed on the streets in every city this season," according to PORTER, from violet knitwear to royal-purple accessories.
- Volume below the waist. Vogue lists balloon-leg trousers, a "voluminous alternative to the ubiquitous wide-leg trouser", and the continuing comeback of the capri. It also observed that jeans differed by city: low-rise in London, straight-leg and high-rise in Milan, and patchworked, riveted or spliced in Paris.
The wild cards
Not everything is for everyone. Who What Wear UK lists the season's more surprising ideas: sequinned trainers (Miu Miu, Simone Rocha, Dries Van Noten and Cecilie Bahnsen's collaboration with Asics), the return of a looser bodycon dress led by Alaïa, folk-inflected knits at Chloé, trapper hats at Miu Miu, Hermès and Dsquared2, and paisley at Etro, Dries Van Noten and Boss.
And the house everyone was carrying
One label recurs in the street-style coverage. Vogue notes that, as has been the case "since Matthieu Blazy took the helm at Chanel", the house was "a major talking point in Paris": on the street, "those investment quilted bags and two-tone pumps certainly made the rounds". We looked at Blazy's first year in our report on Chanel's growth under its new leadership. Two-tone heels are, unsurprisingly, on Vogue's list of Paris street-style trends.
The Casadi view
The most useful trends this season are the ones that update what you already own rather than replace it. Red works as an accent on a dark wardrobe. A belt or cummerbund changes the proportion of a familiar shirt. A good coat lifts everything beneath it. The more extreme ideas, from sequinned trainers to trapper hats, are best treated as a single gesture rather than a uniform.
For readers in the southern hemisphere, where spring has just begun, these are the clothes that will reach Australian stores and online boutiques as the weather turns next year. To try any of these colour pairings before you buy, use Casadi's outfit and colour tester.
Featured image: Cristian Bortes, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped for this page.
