Collections: The modern woman’s guide to 2026’s most elevated autumn trends

The most refreshing silhouettes, colours, and textures worth adding to your wardrobe for autumn and seasons to come  

Autumn is the season where I feel my personal style comes alive. Summer is formulaic, and because this summer was obscenely hot in London, it’s also been repetitive. I tired of denim shorts, cotton tanks and Hermes Chypre sandals by mid-July, the styling options being limited, the silhouette being samey. Too many limitations with 32c city heat. Not even new purchases were going to satiate my hunger for proportion, volume or simply variation. 

Autumn allows for an entirely refreshed silhouette, sumptuous textures, exaggerated proportions, a colour palette cleanse. You can graduate slowly throughout September, oversized proportions and volume on top, slimline and dainty on bottom.  The silhouette is mastered perfectly: tapered denim, oversized leather jackets and strappy sandals where appropriate. 

This is my favourite styling season because you can play so much with colour, proportion and volume to strike the perfect balance in movement versus in winter where the coat envelopes you, the coat is the volume, the colour palette, the proportion, the entire silhouette. Autumn fashion is enlivening, emboldening and energising, a chance to quench our thirst after a long drought this summer. 

While I’m fairly impervious now to mainstream trends unless it truly speaks to my sense of style, long and short-term, I do integrate collections and perform my own methodical and thematic reviews to the point of infatuation. And not only collections, but equally as important is culture scanning (analogue and digital in modes) as well as my own personal observations in the city and in conversation with friends and colleagues. 

So what are the most exciting trends, pieces and styles to elevate your autumn wardrobe now while also ensuring timeless continuity into the future? 

1. Animal prints and embossed leathers

The wilds of animal print, mock croc, snake print and exotics have been trending for a few seasons now but reaching new heights for autumn 2026 with different varieties on offer. Leopard print is arguably timeless, and while it goes through waves of popularity: demure at Dior in the 1950s, textural at Oleg Cassini in the 1960s, playful at Biba in the 1970s, today’s leopard print is richly decorative, almost architectural as seen at Khaite and Alaia. 

Matthieu Blazy reintroduced us to mock croc for his debut collection at Chanel for a/w 2025 and embossed leathers continue to be a house code across shoes, bags and SLGs. Sumptuously rich and supple, embossed leathers add texture and curiosity, a certain moodiness and tension perfect for unpredictable autumn weather. Jimmy Choo is offering a wide selection of embossed leathers including mock croc, lizard and snakeskin in every heel height and bag configuration. The subtle accent, the tense texture.

And that’s precisely how I’d embrace this trend to elevate my style: subtle flecks through shoes and bags. Modern, sexy, unpredictable. 

From top left to bottom: Khaite; Celine; Fendi; Joseph; Marni; Jacqueumus; Calvin Klein; Chanel; Toteme

2. 80s cut denim and jackets 

Hear me out as this is a very specific aesthetic. Straight leg 90s jeans have been the style for the past 10yrs+. Again, the reason being they’re timeless, suit every body type, are utilitarian, minimal and androgynous. Denim cuts have floated in and out of favour while straight legs have strongly remained a constant. But I noticed a subtle embellishment across a number of denim and premium brands: cinched high waists, more volume than a straight leg, less than a balloon leg, but a more pronounced taper at the ankle. This is a fresh new silhouette for denim and allows for play with volume and proportion which has also been a trend for a number of seasons now. Chloe, Alaia, Celine and Agolde all have 80s cut denim on offer, in modern colours and washes. Steer clear of acid washes though, this isn’t cos play. 80s cuts need modern washes to strike the effortlessly cool and elevated look.  

And to perfectly complement the proportion of a cinched-in waist and a tapered leg, opt for an 80s cut jacket. What I mean by this is a silhouette first popularised in the 1940s: broader round shoulders, button-down, cinched waist, cropped at the hips. I started seeing this jacket silhouette around 2yrs ago, surely a direct pendulum swing from the oversized, masculine tailoring we’ve lived in for around 10yrs, but this autumn it has become far more mainstream. The star of this season is Magda Butrym’s leather jacket or Khaite’s military cropped jackets. But we all know Phoebe Philo is the mother of modern female tailoring and has the most divine styles as well as Jacquemus, Saint Laurent and Nour Hammour. Unequivocally, this more feminine 80s silhouette is my favourite autumn trend and one which I’ll be investing in for the long-term. 

From top left to bottom: Phoebe Philo; Dior; Magda Butrym; Altuzarra; Kallemeyer; Tibi; Kallemeyer; Tibi; Jacquemus; Khaite

3. Rich velvets 

Is there anything more alluring than black velvet? It absorbs all the light, fostering the blackest of blacks while it remains textural, still tactile, still rich. This season though isn’t just about black velvets, though Khaite showcased structured long velvet coats and black velvet skinny trousers. Chloe is offering jewel-toned velvet bags, unstructured and soft as well as shoes and trousers, adding accented textures, playing with light and movement in multi-dimensional colour ways. Fforme, in sharp contrast to the soft grey flannels, black wools and leathers in this collection, showed structured velvet dresses in black and amber. And Victoria Beckham finished her show with a series of royal blue velvet dresses, decadent enough to make Elizabeth Taylor’s eyes flutter.

From top left to bottom: Fforme; Victoria Beckham; Fforme; Khaite; Givenchy; Alaia; Chloe

4. Black and red palette 

Black is the old black. It’s perennial. Who doesn’t lust after the perfect pair of black trousers, an uncompromised LBD, an elegant black bag? It’s foundational. Inevitable. But how you wear black, that is the new black. This season, it’s the power couple: black and red. There’s a coolness but sophistication, there’s edge but romanticism. It’s punk and glamour. My absolute favourite use of this colour palette was Michael Rider’s Celine: red turtlenecks and black flared trousers; black double-breasted coats and elaborate scarves. The colour contrast and proportion tension is perfection. Chanel also beautifully juxtaposes red and black, red now being a signature colour for Blazy’s Chanel universe. But it’s not simple colour blocking at Chanel, it’s abstract tweed prints, textural, creating movement and intrigue. Exceptional. 

Proenza Schouler alternated between LBDs and red accessories, and contoured red dresses with bold black shoes. Structured edge with an insouciant flair. 

And at Chloe, red denim paired with slim gillets (see also: 80s denim and jackets). Red itself has been a trending colour for the past few seasons, its genesis possibly at The Row, possibly at Ferragamo, Alaia or Givenchy. The point isn’t about its genesis, rather its evolution from curious red gloves draped over the lip of your handbag to red jumpers, button-down shirts and shoes, now all being quintessential staples in our wardrobe. Expect to be seeing red. 

From top left to bottom: Celine; Proenza Schouler; Chanel; Chloe; Givenchy; Proenza Schouler; Jacquemus; Givenchy

5. Haute Grunge 

How do I define exceptional, modern style? It’s elevated, effortless, involves tension, evokes power, embraces romance. The coexistence of contradictions through cohesion. This season, these tensions are playing together through the mix of clashing prints, styling execution and fabrics. 

Dries Van Noten’s popular silk-embroidery pieces are back again this season, now paired with patchwork florals creating the perfect haute tension. The Row’s collection while perennially elegant had a grungier edge: plaids, mohair, a looser overall silhouette. Prada’s exceptionally executed runway show: intellectually, philosophically and practically, was textural, worn-in, lived-in and wholly romantic. Loewe and Chloe both showed plaids and ginghams in robust yet romantic dress shapes and proportions. Saint Laurent had sensual lace in slim-line silhouettes, but in grungier colours including mustard yellows and sallow burgundies. Again the clothes and the colours are lived-in, haute, edgy and romantic. Alessandro Michele’s Valentino, at the maximal end, reinvents clashing prints, textures and colours as part of his design language irrespective of his House. Eclectic, tense, pretty and perfectly elevated. 

From top left to bottom: Dries Van Noten; Loewe; Prada; Celine; Chloe; The Row; Khaite; Valentino; Celine; Dior; Bottega Veneta

6. Styling for movement 

This might be the simplest to apply to our day to day wardrobes even if ironically it’s the one most connected to a fashion runway. We live our lives in movement. Clothes need to live in movement too, and styling needs to enhance that movement. The existential question which currently is being posed across a shrinking fashion luxury landscape: what is the purpose of a modern fashion runway show, what value does it add? The answer is movement. And a meaningful integration of that movement. Because movement creates emotion, and emotion drives connection. 

Styling for movement is the volume, proportions, textures and the accessories which anchor the looks. Givenchy had these incredibly voluminous gloves, adding individuality to the looks and truly anchoring the styling through their movement. Similar with Chanel’s belted dropped waists: it’s a challenging silhouette to wear unless you’re lithe, but through movement, through the integration of that movement, there’s an emotional pull, a near relatability. Kallmeyer and Fforme both showed oversized blazers and funnel neck jackets zipped to the top: more modern styling which only makes sense when in transit. Standing static, zipped up to your nose feels stand-offish, abrasive. In transit, it’s cool, practical and powerful. Valentino styled truncated silhouettes and jewel-toned contrasts with silk cummerbunds, bringing colour, texture and form back with his maximalist expression.  

Michael Rider’s Celine arguably has the best styling for their runway shows, for life’s movements. It’s so incredibly deliberate without even feeling contrived. It’s perfectly eclectic and organic: the rings; the oversized scarves, the hats, the movement of the palette dresses under mushroom-toned trench coats. The pieces, their volume and its motility, in perfect concert. 

From top left to bottom: Prada; Chanel; Fforme; Valentino; Bottega Veneta; Celine; Khaite; Bottega Veneta; Fforme; Dior; Calvin Klein