‘Extraordinary everyday’: fashion experts declare the easy pieces you need to update your wardrobe

Now that the dust has settled on fashion month, we checked in with those who know on what you can actually wear.

Trench coats and utility styles were a key theme this season. Picture: Getty Images

Asked recently how he thought women would want to dress in the coming seasons, Ian Griffiths, the long-time creative director of luxury Italian label Max Mara, said: easily.

“I think women will want to dress in a way which is easy, which is not too starchy, if you know what I mean. The clothes that you can live in and breathe in,” Griffiths said last month after his Milan show, which took inspiration from the pragmatic chic of the so-called land girls of Britain’s Women’s Land Army, who volunteered to grow food during World War II.

“I don’t think that women are prepared any more to put up with clothes that are difficult. You can’t breathe. You have to sit in a certain way. You can’t sit down because you’re frightened of creasing them. Clothes have to be easy to live in these days,”

If you looked closely at the shows this past season, minus the abundance of rather short shorts, you could see this sense of ease throughout many collections. Not only in how clothes are worn but also how you think about them.

David Jones general manager womenswear Bridget Veals says the “post-Covid party boom” of getting dressed up is over and people instead are looking for clothes “they will get use out of”.

Add in the cost-of-living crunch and busy lives, well, don’t you want to have plenty of options but also for them to make sense?

Veals says some of the biggest trends of the season spoke to this sense of “wearability”, including trench coats, ballet flats (what other shoe could convey a sense of simply zipping about?) and the slew of denim, spied everywhere from Loewe to Valentino and every mode from slouchy jeans to shirts and skirts.

Shorts of all lengths were everywhere. Picture: Getty Images

Some of Veals’s favourite shows this season included Stella McCartney, Zimmermann and Louis Vuitton.

“It was about making clothes easy, taking clothes with you – more versatile, you can wear them at home, take them away – it’s about making the clothes work harder for you,” Veals says of the Louis Vuitton show in Paris.

The curious thing about fashion month is that designers mostly are showing clothes that won’t be on shop floors for six months or so. Australia, of course, is also the exact opposite in terms of seasons.

However, Veals says this works in our favour with the collections shown in September and October – the focus on utility, such as the boiler suits at Saint Laurent and the “modular” knits at Hermes that can be unbuttoned or unzipped to create a new silhouette, suits our often in-between climate. With the changeable springtime weather, you could wear a lot of it now, when one may need a medium to light coat, a swimsuit, a party dress and fuzzy slides all in one day.

Ballet flats were spied on and off the runways. Picture: Getty Images

What’s more, many of the key trends of the season you probably already own – and definitely could spy on the street-style set milling about outside the shows should you be in need of styling inspiration. Yes, there were plenty of those short-shorts (and in some cases, simply no pants at all) but plenty of guests were wearing white T-shirts with tailored pants, roomy Bermuda shorts and denim in all manner of ways.

Eva Galambos, director and buyer at luxury Sydney boutique Parlour X, says some of the biggest trends she has noticed include cropped jackets, pencil skirts, longer suiting-style shorts, pointed shoes, waistcoats and “non-obvious branded bags (and) art bags or industrial-looking – bags that look like art”.

What’s out? According to Galambos, logos.

Yes, the so-called quiet luxury trend is persisting. But, really, all it means is that there’s a desire for well-made clothes that you can wear over and again. It doesn’t have to be boring (and shows such as Miu Miu, with its blend of classic wardrobe essentials such as polos with a bit of kook in frilly shorts, demonstrate how). There’s always room for fabulousness.

Pencil skirts are a ladylike option. Picture: Getty Images

Indeed, Net-a-Porter market director Libby Page says her biggest takeout from the month was “the extraordinary everyday”.

“Loewe turned the high-waisted pant and polo top into a fashion-forward desirable piece. Saint Laurent did spring in the best way, showcasing a uniform of utility sets and jumpsuits,” she says.

The colour palette for the new season, says Page, is all about “Bauhaus hues”.

“Red was the colour of the season for autumn. For spring, red has been built out with strong pops of cobalt blue, yellow, and green.”

Page says she appreciated the wearability of the collection and “looks you immediately want to buy”.

As for the must-have items, Page says it’s all about the fisherman sandal – “the shoe of the season, and we loved The Row’s jelly sandal too” – and sheer organza, a line-through trend that Page suggests styling with matching high-waisted knicker and bra sets or with a jumper thrown over the top.

For The Outnet head of buying Georgina Coulter it was the details that she found most interesting this season.

“I loved the varied use of interesting and versatile fabrics, especially metallics and sheer materials, from brands such as Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford and Ferragamo. They all offered a super-modern and fresh take for the spring season,” she says.

Eva Galambos says she saw T-shirts worn with everything this season. Picture: Getty Images

Coulter advocates investing in pieces such as neutral tailoring – a favourite this season was from Jil Sander – and pieces that can be mixed and matched.

“I love investing in pieces which I know will last season on season,” Coulter says. “I’m a huge fan of beautiful yet casual suiting in a neutral palette and the Jil Sander show was a key favourite of mine.

“Luke and Lucie Meier’s complementary womenswear and menswear collections featured minimalist, layered tailoring and trans-seasonal looks that were super versatile and wearable.

“I’ll be coveting lots of these styles next season.”