Everything We Learned from Street Style at the Latest Fashion Weeks

If there is one scene from The Devil Wears Prada that we all know by heart, it is the cerulean sweater monologue: Miranda Priestly explains to Andy that even that light blue sweater, chosen with apparent nonchalance, is the result of decisions made much higher up, on the catwalks and in editorial offices.

Twenty years later, however, that speech needs an update: during Fashion Week, fashion no longer travels in just one direction. Sometimes the most useful lesson does not come from the runway, but from the pavement just outside.

For years we were taught that when wearing a pattern, everything else should remain quiet. Street style took this rule and stuffed it into a bag already full of polka dots, stripes, florals, checks, and animal prints. That is printmaxxing: not choosing a single hero print, but letting multiple patterns coexist.

If a pencil skirt makes you think of overly serious suits, corporate badges, and meetings that could have been an email, it is time to give it another chance. In Milan, it was among the most seen silhouettes, with Prada placing it back at the centre of the runway by pairing midi skirts with stripped-back, essential tops.

It is precisely this contrast that makes it interesting: a composed skirt with something very simple, almost intimate.

Fortunately, street style has also thought of those who, in the morning, lack the emotional energy to pair three different patterns. Monochrome remains, but it no longer means "I'll wear all black and hope for the best": a single colour family is constructed through different shades, materials, and volumes.

The easiest way to copy this is to pick a colour and not be too strict. Dark chocolate brown, camel, and beige can live in the same outfit; olive green and sage dialogue beautifully;

And here we arrive at the most divisive trend: capri pants. Across Copenhagen, New York, and London, they have stopped looking like an early-2000s accident.

How do you wear them when summer is over? Treat them like classic trousers: pair them with a blazer and a fine-knit jumper, a long trench coat, or a leather jacket.

More than four trends, the latest Fashion Weeks have given us permission to complicate our outfits a little without complicating our lives: mixing prints, pairing an elegant skirt with a super simple top, dressing in shades of the same colour, or reclaiming a pair of trousers we thought were unwearable.There is no need to replicate the looks word for word: in real life, we rarely have a car waiting for us outside the show, and much more often a tube missed by thirty seconds.