Fashion trends from Paris and Milan runways

A year on from the mass game of musical chairs in which almost every major luxury fashion house changed creative director, things are feeling good in fashion.

More designers – chief among them Michael Rider at Celine, Julian Klausner at Dries Van Noten and Jonathan Anderson at Dior – are joining Matthieu Blazy at Chanel in finding their stride, and the clothes are better for it.

There have been countless bras (worn under jackets, as tops or styled like tops) and abs-forward looks (if you weren’t doing your daily sit-ups, perhaps now is the time). Among it all there’s been a refreshing freakiness to the collections.

Nicole Kidman, a woman who understands the power of embracing your inner freak, modelled the feeling perfectly at the recent Chanel show in Paris – which she attended with daughter Faith Margaret Kidman Urban – in a blazer dress worn with sheer tights and heels.

In Australia we’re in a unique position where the current fashion month collections are well suited to the seasons we’re presently enjoying: spring and, soon, summer. Rather than wait six months to consider the ideas designers are wrestling with on the runways, we can do it in real time.

Here are three ways you can apply lessons from the runways to your spring wardrobe.

For years now, Miuccia Prada’s usual uniform has incorporated an A-line skirt with a simple shirt or jumper and a kitten heel. Backstage after the Prada show she explained she prefers skirts to dresses because they allow for an element of contrast: “The way I think and feel is complicated, contradictory. If I wear something feminine I want to wear something masculine, too. A dress is all one idea and we are never just one idea.”

So, with co-creative director Raf Simons, they demonstrated the versatility of the skirt by presenting 63 different kinds, all in various styles and styled variously.

Skirts in leather or harsh grey wool with a flash of polka dot, pleated ones in a sheer lemon fabric, or more structured white skirts with a panel of green. Skirts worn with bras, others with jumpers or shirts.

In pleasing news for most women over 25, not all skirts were mini or micro, either. They mostly fell to the knee.

Beyond Prada, skirts have been a recurring motif on recent runways.

At Dior, Anderson sent down fluid, feminine styles with layers of silk chiffon, while Anthony Vaccarello bid (an alleged) farewell to Saint Laurent with a collection rendered almost completely in gilded gold, including wrap skirts, often sliced open at the front.

Zimmermann had a denim circle skirt with butterfly embellishments, and more relaxed, asymmetrical ones that draped across the legs. Then Blazy continued his charm offensive at Chanel with a collection that riffed off the classic skirt suit and offered plenty of choice with sheer, leather, tweed and relaxed styles all included.

Prada had a point: you really can choose your own adventure with a skirt. Go practical and utilitarian to project a sense of seriousness, or choose one that feels fun and fanciful to make an otherwise pretty plain outfit interesting.

While oversized suiting has reigned supreme for a while now, designers are tightening things up this season. At The Row and Jil Sander, suits were tailored perfectly and, at times, cinched at the waist.

Strong suiting was also a big theme at Celine, Dior, Chanel, Tod’s and Dries, which encouraged going all-in on embellishments. A nice reminder: this can be fun!

Plus it’s never too late to remember tailoring can entirely change the way an outfit looks and, more importantly, how you feel in it.

Belts of all types have been the “it accessory” this season. At Celine alone Rider gave us exaggerated black buckle belts, a brown leather belt with a double buckle and one as dainty as a filament.

Blazy, too, had skinny belts, fat belts and faux croc belts holding up hip-grazing skirts, while Klausner offered belts in snake, crocodile and leopard prints, as well as shades of blue, brown and butter yellow.

Max Mara opted to keep things streamlined with a solid, practical leather style, and at Balenciaga, Pierpaolo Piccioli asked: why have one belt when you could wear two? Meanwhile at Miu Miu, Mrs Prada seemed to suggest anything can be a belt if you’re creative: a drawstring, for instance, will do just fine.

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