It’s official: Capes are in for fall 2020

Los Angeles Times

PARIS — The fashion message was clear: Capes aren’t just for magicians anymore. If you don’t think you can rock one with all the confidence of a runway model or Billy Porter or even Count von Count, you’ve got about six months to practice throwing one over your shoulders with calculated nonchalance.

That’s because the trend, one of the major takeaways of New York Fashion Week last month, gained major traction on the catwalks here. Another mini-trend we noticed coming out of New York, novel knitwear, caught its stride here as well, making for some of the coziest clothes we’ve seen in a long time.

Here you’ll find a look at those fall and winter 2020 trends — and a few others that caught our attention — that designers and labels hope you’ll stock your wardrobe with in advance of next autumn.

There wasn’t just a lot of leather on the Paris runways this season. There was a lot of head-to-toe leather. Oddly, the one label that seemed to dial back on the level of leather was Hermes, a brand that made its name in the leather goods space.

At Dior, the abundance of luxe leather came by way of a black zip-front jumpsuit worn with a dress shirt and necktie. And at Louis Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquiere’s lineup included motocross-inspired color-blocked leather skirts and dresses and a handful of pin-striped leather pieces perfect for the banker-by-day/biker-by-night crowd.

Balmain managed to tap into the secondskin trend twice over; once with molded leather bustiers and a second time with a couple of head-to-toe shiny latex looks.

Another designer keeping the latex factories working around the clock was Anthony Vaccarello at Saint Laurent, where models were clad in practically painted-on latex leggings.