The autumn 2018 fashion trends to invest in now

Welcome to your winter wardrobe 101
The key trends from the AW18 runways
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Chloe Street6 September 2018

The holidays are over and the chill is setting in.

What better way to fend off the impending gloom than with some seriously chic sartorial investments?

Before you put chip to pin, take a look at our round-up of the key trends to know for autumn/winter 2018.

Invest in any of these sartorial statements and you really can’t go wrong.

Get the Gloss

Vinyl, latex, plastic and patent, high-shine and splash-proof is the dominatrix dish du jour this season. Metallics came full-gloss at Chanel, while plaids came patent at Badgley Mischa, and at Miu Miu and Adam Selman red leather was waxed until it shone lyrical. Fendi and Tods meanwhile demonstrated that a high-shine trench could provide a wonderfully glamorous alternative to its gabardine cousin.

Spill-proof and rain-proof, as the weather changes don’t lament, laminate people, laminate.

Tods AW18
AFP/Getty Images
Nicopanda AW18
Getty Images for Nicopanda
Adam Selman AW18
Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows
Miu Miu AW18
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Check Please

It’s back to school, and plaid shows no signs of checking out.

In fact, this term the perennially popular print was adopted across the class, from perfectly prim frosty pink plaid maxi dresses at Emilia Wickstead to Clueless-esque clashing yellow and blue kilts and jackets at Versace. For ultimate plaid rad, make like Michael Kors and clash red and yellow tartans with leopard-print trims.

Make like Cher Horowitz and play head-to-toe tartan truant for fall.

Emilia Wickstead AW18
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Mansur Gavriel AW18
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Versace AW18
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Michael Kors AW18
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80s Cocktail Power Hour

Mini skirts, bandage dresses, foil and big shoulders – this season’s party wear is all about the 80s va-va-voom. At Saint Laurent exaggerated shoulders on blazers and mini dresses made for perfect dancefloor space makers, while puffball mini skirts at Marques'Almeida were every bit the Material Girl.

Embrace sequins and the miniest of minis and pair with a perm, platforms and the sheerest denier you can find.

Saint Laurent AW18
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Marques'Almeida AW18
Marques Almeida
Chanel AW18
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Leather dresses

You know those moments in life that demand you look chic, sexy and more than a little bit badass? No? Invest in an autumn runway-approved leather dress and good money says you start experiencing those moments all the time.

Belted and zip-embellished at Sonia Rykiel and Alexander McQueen; ankle-length yet tantalisingly seductive at Loewe; shirt-shaped and smart at Hermès, Tod's, and Givenchy, this season the leather dress will become your saviour when it comes to those difficult-to-dress-for invites. Best invest now.

Tod's AW18
Tods
Alexander McQueen AW18 (Getty ImagesAlexander McQueen )
Getty ImagesAlexander McQueen

Grandpa Party

Been saving your grandad jumper for a country walk? Considered pairing it with jeans for the office, perhaps? Think again. For this season Argyle knits were given a party-ready twist. Erdem threw cable knit cardigans over brocade cocktail dresses and paired a silver sequinned skirt with a Fair Isle knit, while Simone Rocha knotted argyle knits around necks over feminine floral dresses. Meanwhile at Preen they were sliced and diced and pinned over shimmering opalescent gowns.

Tory Burch AW18
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Erdem AW18
Erdem
Preen AW18
Preen

Cut the slacks

Trouser suits were big news for autumn/winter 2017 and while the popularity of a good pastel suit or a broad lapelled tux looks set to be sustained into this season, the real power players will be swapping their slacks for skirts. At Chanel structural boucle jackets cocooned skimpy minis, while at Louis Vuitton demure pencil skirt suits were given energy with leather tasseling and sporty knitwear.

Chanel AW18
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Taoray Wang AW18
Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows
Louis Vuitton AW18
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Priscavera AW18
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Brown is the new Black

There were many very literal takes on '70s fashion on the A/W 18 runways, but the way it will affect your personal style is via the colour brown. Everyone from Sies Marjan, Rochas, Dior and Etro sent tonal, caramel, chocolate and terracotta hues down the runway, while the Chloé show was an ode to the colour in all its myriad hues. The trick to keeping this all-over sepia sexy? Slashed necklines, raised hemlines and seriously sheer shirts and skirts prove that brick, bronze and bister are there to fawn over.

Tod's AW18
Tods
Chloe AW18
Dion Lee AW18
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Boss Girl Tweed

Last season, every influencer and editor on the front row wore a checked tweed blazer; this season the catwalks firmly confirmed the heritage check's comeback.

Flecked with lilac on boyish belted jumpsuits at Emilia Wickstead, blown into exaggerated eighties' proportions at Marc Jacobs, blurred through boucle at Chanel and given pink and black supersized punkiness at Miu Miu, this season’s tweed is best paired with something unexpected; a slouchy granddad jacket paired with a pretty prairie dress a la Calvin Klein, or a prim tweed pencil skirt paired with sporty intarsia knits a la Louis Vuitton.

More amoral than Balmoral, this season’s tweed is unapologetically punchy.

 Marc Jacobs AW18
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Miu Miu AW18
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Emilia Wicksted AW18
AFP/Getty Images
Chanel AW18
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Animal Magic

Our collective love-in with animal print shows no sign of slowing for autumn/winter, but after the leopard overload we witnessed over the summer, why not keep things fresh with a dash of zebra or a zing of snakeskin?

The runways were awash with pelt and skin prints of all kinds. From neon red, lilac and acid green giraffe prints at Marc Jacobs to seriously sophisticated swooshing snakeskin chiffon at Emilia Wickstead and bold tiger prints seen at Adam Selman and Dolce & Gabanna, this season we’re on safari.

But could the leopard have lost top spot?

Carolina Herrera AW18
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Dolce & Gabbana AW18
AFP/Getty Images
Adam Selman AW18
Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows

Emilia Wicksted AW18
AFP/Getty Images

Double Coated

Have two favourite coats? Luckily this winter there’s really no need to choose for the runways have decreed that the best outerwear came in twos.

First came Balenciaga’s brilliantly bonkers double-duvet coat situation, quickly followed by Margiela and Roksanda's equally OTT puffer layering.

Elsewhere Alexander McQueen topped mannish blazers with cropped leather biker jackets and Givenchy layered fur capes over tweed. How to avoid looking like a walking duvet? Cinch your waist with a belted underlayer as demonstrated at Rochas and on sunnier days don’t discount trench coats, denim and leather.

Rochas AW18
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Vivienne Tam AW18
Getty Images for New York Fashion Week: The Shows
Maison Margiela AW18
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Calvin Klein AW18
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Alexander Wang AW18
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Best Western

Lose the suede tasselling and push any oversized flannel shirts to the back of your cupboard, for as the Western trend rides into autumn, summer’s rough-and-ready rodeo vibes are replaced by an eveningwear-appropriate aesthetic.

Embrace sharply tailored full denim looks, like those seen at Tom Ford, seriously svelte satin shirts and high-glam embellishment.

Raf Simons continued his fresh take on Americana at Calvin Klein with sheer satin Western shirts and fabulous paint-splattered cowboy boots, while at Chloe, pretty prairie tops were paired with tight riding trousers or chic snakeskin minis. At Fendi, silky prairie dresses were paired with colourful croc cowboy boots and at Dolce and Gabbana, diamante-encrusted cowboy boots gave edge to sequinned suiting, proving this look is less rodeo-girl and more Rodeo Drive.

Calvin Klein AW18
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Fendi AW18
AFP/Getty Images
Dolce & Gabbana AW18
AFP/Getty Images

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