Paris Fashion Week: 5 clever styling tips from the first Fall 2015 shows

Date March 5, 2015

Lemaire Fall 2015 — Photography by Peter Stigter

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” seemed to be the mantra during the first batch of Fall 2015 shows of Paris Fashion Week. But who says playing it safe is always a bad thing? Bright and early yesterday morning, ex-Hermès designer Christoph Lemaire and his design partner Sarah-Linh Tran showed a pretty near flawless collection of one understated, sultry look after the next. Save for a pretty true-to-life T and A bag, the appeal of the collection was in that no one piece was a showstopper—they all worked together in harmony. Styled to perfection, yet street style proof.

And from what we’ve been seeing so far, it’s how you put it together that counts rather that statement pieces taking the spotlight. Here we recount some of the best styling tips we learned from Paris Fashion Week:

Cedric Charlier Fall 2015 — Photography by Peter Stigter

Wear a turtleneck under your dress
So simple, so perfect! Cédric Charlier easily elevated colour block mini dresses, taking them from party staple to sporty statement all by layering a simple white piece underneath.

An unexpected hue goes a long way
Not since Michelle Williams’s Vera Wang Oscars dress has mustard yellow had such impact than at Rochas Fall 2015. The vivid shade acted as a punctuation mark amidst a flurry of bird-print dresses in black, brown and pale blue.

HM Studio Fall 2015 — Photography courtesy of H&M

You can actually layer puffers
If you had suggested this to me sans photographic proof, I would have been all like “absolutely not!” but H&M’s Studio show (read: the fancy collection) showed models layering different lengths, textures and puffiness together perfectly.

Make a scarf out of a sweater
Up the ante on fashion’s accessory du jour by creating the look of a front-hanging scarf out of a sweater. At Lemaire, a bright red chunky knit was tied cleverly, and wrapped overtop of a slouchy grey suit.

Dries Van Noten Fall 2015 — Photography by Peter Stigter

Skirts over pants isn’t just a nineties thing
Dries Van Noten showed thin cotton wrap skirts overtop loose pants and safari dresses, prompting us to wonder—is this finally the time to wear our bathrobes outside of the house? All signs point to yes, if indeed that bathrobe is of the silk and/or designer variety.