Every season, a new crop of trends arrives, or an old one suddenly feels relevant again. And with it comes a familiar set of questions: Do I need to shop? Could I actually pull that off? Where would I even start?
There is a particular kind of pressure that comes with wanting to look current. You see a woman whose outfit feels fresh and completely her own, and it can seem as though she possesses some innate ability to know exactly what goes with what. Meanwhile, you are standing in your closet wondering whether the piece you just bought will become a brilliant addition to your wardrobe or an expensive one-time experiment.
This is where I think the conversation around trends gets interesting.
The first job is not deciding whether you like something. It is deciding whether it has a role to play in your wardrobe.
I ask my clients two questions whenever we are considering something new: Does this give your wardrobe more optionality? And does it move your style forward in a way that feels relevant to who you are now?
If the answer is no to both, the trend can stay on the runway. You are likely to wear it once, exactly as you saw it styled, and then wonder what possessed you to buy it.
But when the answer is yes, the more interesting work begins. Because the question becomes: How do we make this yours?
That is the part of styling I love. Taking a piece that initially feels intimidating and finding the combination that makes it suddenly feel obvious.
This fall, there are three pieces in particular that I keep hearing women describe as tricky. I happen to love all three for my corporate clients, when they align with the woman wearing them. So rather than telling you to buy them, I am going to show you how I would approach them.
01. The Personality Pencil Skirt
The pencil skirt is back, and I am all for it.
There is something incredibly powerful about a sharply tailored skirt. It has the structure and polish that makes sense in a professional wardrobe, particularly when the rest of your closet has drifted toward looser proportions. But there is a catch: the traditional black pencil skirt can feel overly familiar. Add a fitted jacket and a lady jacket and suddenly you have a very literal interpretation of “polished.”
My approach is to keep the silhouette and change the attitude.
This is where I want the pencil skirt to have some personality. A print, an unexpected texture, a richer color. Something that makes the skirt feel like a deliberate expression of style rather than a uniform.
Then I would resist the instinct to layer on more tailoring. Instead, pair it with a colored blouse that can hold its own. A silk blouse with a pussy bow, an interesting neckline, or some other detail gives the top enough presence that you do not need a jacket to finish the outfit.
The shoe matters here more than you might expect.
One of my favorite styling principles is what I call the power of three. I want the eye to move through an outfit rather than landing on one piece and stopping. In this case, the skirt is the obvious focal point, so the blouse and shoe need to participate in the story. The color of the blouse creates another visual point of interest, while an intentional shoe gives the look a finished endpoint.
The result is still polished enough for the office, but there is a little more fashion intelligence happening.
You are using one traditionally corporate silhouette and giving it a more modern point of view.
The formula:
Personality skirt + colored blouse + intentional shoe
That is often all it takes.
Shop the pieces:
02. The Return of Art Deco
There is a good chance you already own some version of this trend.
Maybe it is a vintage jacket you inherited. Maybe it is an embellished blazer you bought years ago because you loved it, only to discover that every time you put it on, it felt slightly too “old lady.” It has been sitting in your closet, waiting for its moment.
I think this fall might be it.
The return of Art Deco brings with it all of the things that can make a vintage-inspired jacket feel difficult: ornate details, feminine shaping, embellishment, decorative buttons. The instinct is often to lean into those qualities and style the jacket with similarly feminine pieces.
That is precisely where I would go in the opposite direction.
Let the jacket be the statement, then introduce something distinctly modern around it.
A graphic or geometric tee is one of my favorite ways to do this because it creates a little tension between the eras. The jacket says another time; the print brings it firmly into the present. A blouse can work just as well if you want something more polished.
Then look to the trouser for another opportunity to modernize the outfit. A crisp wide leg or barrel silhouette changes the proportions completely. Suddenly, the jacket is no longer reading as a costume from another decade. It is one element in a contemporary outfit.
This is one of the stylist’s secrets I come back to often: when a piece feels dated, you do not necessarily need to replace the piece. You may simply need to change the context around it.
The right contrast can make something you have considered “too old” feel remarkably current.
And there is a wardrobe lesson here that I think is more valuable than the trend itself. Before buying something new, look at the pieces you already own that have never quite worked. Sometimes the missing ingredient is not another purchase. It is a different proportion, a different era, or a little more tension.
The formula:
Vintage-inspired statement jacket + modern graphic or geometric print + contemporary trouser
Let the jacket have the personality. Everything else gives it context.
Shop the pieces:
03. Culottes: You Love Them or Hate Them
I will admit it: this was one I was on the fence about.
I have come around.
For evening, the culotte can feel incredibly chic with a lace camisole and cropped leather jacket. There is something feminine about exposing a little ankle while keeping the overall silhouette substantial.
But for work, I think the culotte has another advantage entirely.
It is the answer to the I do not want to think about what I am wearing today day.
The trick is understanding what the volume needs from the rest of the outfit.
A wide-leg cropped trouser creates a lot of visual volume through the lower half of the body, so I want to give the upper half some structure. A crisp cotton button-down, fully tucked, does exactly that. It creates a clean line through the waist and keeps the outfit from becoming oversized from head to toe.
Then add a sweater over the top. Push the sleeves up and give the front tuck a little intention so the waist remains visible.
The shoe is equally important. A heel gives the cropped wide leg somewhere to go. It lengthens the line of the leg and brings some refinement to what could otherwise become a very relaxed silhouette.
And this is one of those outfits where color is completely optional. A monochromatic version in shades of cream, camel, navy, gray, or chocolate would be just as sophisticated. In fact, if you are intimidated by the proportion, monochrome is a particularly easy way to make the silhouette feel intentional because the eye reads the outfit as one continuous line.
What I like about this look is that it feels considered without requiring much consideration.
That is a distinction I care about deeply when I am styling a wardrobe. The goal is not to create outfits that look complicated. The goal is to create outfits where the complexity has already been solved.
The formula:
Cropped wide-leg trouser + crisp tucked shirt + waist-defining sweater + heel
Once the proportions are right, the outfit practically styles itself.
Shop the pieces:
The point of styling a trend is not to prove that you can wear it.
It is to determine whether the piece adds something meaningful to the way you already dress.
That is why I rarely want my clients looking at a trend in isolation. A skirt is never just a skirt. We need to know what it does with the jackets already in your closet, whether it works with the shoes you actually wear, whether it gives you another option for the workday, whether it can move into dinner, travel, or an important presentation. Most importantly, we need to know whether it feels like you.
The women whose style looks effortless to me are rarely wearing the most obvious version of a trend. They have made decisions. They have edited. They understand which elements of a look create impact and which ones simply create noise.
That is how you become current without becoming trendy.
So if one of these formulas makes sense with what you already own, experiment with it. Change the color. Swap the shoe. Try the jacket you have been saving. See what happens when you give one intimidating piece the right supporting cast.
And if none of them make sense for your wardrobe, that is useful information too.
You do not need to participate in every trend. You need to know how to recognize the ones that can move your wardrobe forward.
Because ultimately, great personal style is not about having more clothes or knowing every new thing the fashion industry is telling you to want. It is about understanding what works, why it works, and how to make it feel unmistakably your own.
That is the part that takes an outfit from current to distinctive.
xx,
