March 29, 2024

Time to curate and elevate your perfect winter wardrobe.

If you’re a fashion fanatic, you’ll be aware that living in Australia certainly has its pitfalls.

While our local fashion scene is thriving, when it comes to the major luxury fashion players we’re typically a little overlooked to say the least.
Not only are we a season behind the rest of the world, we’re generally the last to receive the latest collections plus all the limited-edition and exclusive collections and activations and major fashion shows are usually reserved for our European and North American counterparts.

There is one major benefit to this however. When it comes to styling and selecting pieces for the upcoming season, we have the advantage of looking to the recent collections presented at previous fashion months for inspiration.

Take the upcoming Fall/Winter fashion season for instance. From New York, London to Paris, Milan and even Copenhagen the world’s preeminent emerging and established fashion labels have provided the blueprint to how we should dress for the cooler months ahead.
But we hear you, re-watching all the runway shows and scrolling through endless street style galleries can be an overwhelming task for anyone, even the most devoted worshipper at the church of fashion.
That’s why we’ve tapped leading fashion experts at NET-A-PORTER to let us in on the five key trends that will be all the rage this season.

Chief Buying and Merchandising Officer, Lea Cranfield, and Senior Market Editor, Libby Page, have combined their data driven insights, understanding of consumer trends and expert fashion intuition and have shared their ones to watch with ELLE Australia—the covetable, trendy pieces that you’ll treasure for years.

From the reinvigorated everyday classics to the investment necessities, keep scrolling below for the five trends that will take over this season.

“After several seasons of bold, bright and optimistic colours, this mood signifies the return of fashion’s favourite colour: black”, explained Cranfield over Zoom.

“Black pops off our website like you wouldn’t believe, and it’s the top performing colour to date and our largest ever investment,” she continued.

As Libby and Lea have attested to, the return to black is a shift away from high octane dopamine dressing and a return to something familiar: we are creatures of comfort after all.

“Let’s remove the connotations that black is basic”, Page argued. Designers’ use of black in the FW/22 season meant they couldn’t rest on their laurels: no gimmicks or saturated tones or fanciful textures to hide behind.

But, the designers had two things in common— black maxi dresses and thigh high boots were everywhere.

From Saint Laurent to Nensi Dojaka, the scene stealing maxi dress focused on “long lean shapes that can show off and embrace the body in all its glory” as Libby explained. Elsewhere, thigh high boots were spotted from Balenciaga to Bottega. If you’re looking to go back to black, be sure you’re wearing one of those.
Zimmerman Stretch Leather Thigh Boots, $894 at The Outnet
Givenchy Ribbed Silk-jersey Maxi Dress, $3,135.48 at NET-A-PORTER

Don’t let the name fool you, these ‘foundational’ pieces are crucial to any wardrobe, but they’re not how you’d expect them.

Take LOEWE’s skin-tight anagram tank top for instance. Page explained that this piece almost sold out within a week of uploading, and if the buzz around Prada’s logo adorned tank from their FW/22 collection signals anything, we can expect that the tank is not going anywhere soon.

“These are the pieces that ooze understated luxury… do not underestimate their power”, said Page. This season, focus on curating a transeasonal capsule wardrobe that includes a flight jacket, go-to suit, the perfect shirt, a mini skirt, a platform heel and an investment bag. You can thank us later.
CHRISTOPHER ESBER Cropped crochet-trimmed cotton-poplin shirt, $545 at NET-A-porter
Therapy Jagger Boot, $119.95 at The Iconic

Guided by glamour, the trophy piece is the investment item that will appeal to the glitterati inclined.

The re-emergence of practical dressing saw trophy dressing as the evolution of the optimistic moods that we’ve seen over the past few seasons”, said Cranfield. “There’s a growing traction for evening wear…obviously the pandemic has expedited our need to get glammed up again”, she continued.

Fashion fans will know that the FW/22 season was filled to the brim with embellished ensembles and pieces embroidered with crystals, sequin and diamantes. Thankfully, NET-A-PORTER has stocked their proverbial shelves with over 60 sequined looks straight from the runway. Our next stand-out buy is a mere search away.

DRIES VAN NOTEN Beaded top, $1,410 at NET-A-PORTER
PACO RABANNE Nano 1969 paillette-embellished chainmail shoulder bag, $1,290 at NET-A-PORTER

Fashion is clear, sheer and here to stay.

The vibe shift is in no way pulling focus from fashion’s fixation with the body, despite what the cool weather may tell you. Of course, our first instinct when it comes to dressing for the freezing cold isn’t to put on a nearly-naked shirt, however the great reveal is more than just wearing lingerie as outerwear.

Victoria Beckham’s mother-of-the groom dress is a testament to that, as NET-A-PORTER’s experts explained.
In response to Beckham’s liquid metallic silk slip dress, they saw an increase of searches for slips by 200%. Just because it’s winter, it doesn’t mean you have to give up on your transparent ideals.
FLEUR MAXI DRESS, $380 at BEc & Bridge

While we don’t typically tend to associate winter dressing with romance, in fact we’d arguing that cold weather date night attire that aren’t jeans and a nice top is a mission within itself, the FW/22 season was actually more romantic than anticipated.

Not convinced? Well, according to NET-A-PORTER the overall theme of this season is one of love, unity and togetherness. Just look at the runways of Balenciaga, which Cranfield said was dedicated to “fearless resistance and the victory of love and peace”, or Valentino who paraded 40 looks of ‘P.P Pink’.

Jacquemus Le Chiquito Noeud leather shoulder bag, $1,120 at NET-A-PORTER
PETIT PALACE MIDI DRESS, $420 at SIR The Label