French fancy: from micro-miniskirts to evening athleisure, all the top trends hot off the Paris Fashion Week catwalk

We round up 13 of the best trends spotted during a week on the f'row
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1. The double trench

Anyone who has ever wanted to protect their precious handbag from the rain will rejoice at Céline’s ingenious trench coats.

Designer Phoebe Philo had the idea to make the double coats - with a tailored inner layer and looser cape-style outer, joined at the bottom hem in a loop - while shoulder robing a jacket in order to keep her own bag dry during a downpour.

Meanwhile, at Balenciaga, bags were individually catered for and had their own rain ponchos. Cute.

Céline SS18 at Paris Fashion Week

2. The front shoulder robe

...Speaking of shoulder robing, Balenciaga invented a whole new way to wear your coat for next season.

Treating the wearer more like a coat hanger, rather than a person who might want to actually keep dry and warm, coats were worn only at the front of the body with sleeves hanging loosely and empty at the front.

Balenciaga SS18 at Paris Fashion Week
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This somewhat abstract effect was achieved by attaching the coat at the neck to another garment, such as a waistcoat.

3. Seventies suits

For Chloé’s new girl Natacha Ramsay-Levi, the past informed the future as the Parisian designer called upon the sun-scorched landscape of founder Gaby Aghion’s native Egypt and the house’s Seventies heyday to inspire her debut collection.

Chloé SS18 at Paris Fashion Week

The result was an offering brimming with leather safari jackets, denim jodhpurs and a series of standout velvet suits emblazoned with a tiny horse motif which chimed beautifully with how the modern-day It-Girl wants to dress.

4. Scarf dresses

While many of the Paris catwalks were concerned with show-stopping drama - think fairytale gowns (Rochas) and thigh-high feathered boots (Saint Laurent) - for Dries Van Noten a beautiful sense of realism - see effortless tailoring and relaxed eveningwear - took centre stage.

Dries Van Noten SS18 at Paris Fashion Week
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The star of the show was a series of scarf dresses which fell in fluid, flattering folds down the body and offered a viable alternative for grown-ups who would prefer to leave the slip dress in the Nineties.

Paris Fashion Week SS18 - street style

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5. Micro minis

Following seasons of demure calf-grazing hemlines, French fashion has decided it’s high time we got reacquainted with our thighs.

At Lanvin, new creative head Olivier Lapidus presented classic LBDs and logo-print shirt dresses in micro-mini lengths, while at Saint Laurent, legs were the hottest accessory - second perhaps only to those amazing feathered boots - thanks to a host of leather hot pants and high-rise scalloped skirts.

Lanvin SS18 at Paris Fashion Week
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For those who don’t have legs capable of putting Kaia Gerber to shame, Dior’s open-front mullet skirts may prove a (slightly) less terrifying solution.

6. Evening athleisure

If you have become comfortable with fashion’s athleisure movement - ie. donning your yoga pants and sports bra just to eat brunch - will find an affinity with Isabel Marant’s latest collection.

For next spring, the designer took Eighties-inspired sportswear and - with the addition of a puff-sleeve and strappy sandal - somehow made it an appropriate after-dark proposition.

Isabel Marant SS18 at Paris Fashion Week
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Meanwhile, at both Lacoste and Rochas, the cocktail polo shirt also offered a sporty-smart solution for those who don’t do dress codes.

7. Parka life

Sporty hooded jackets were key to Valentino’s daywear offering for SS18, though this being Valentino they were way more luxe than your average parka.

Block-coloured macs in soft pastel shades were embellished with lashings of oversized sequins and teamed with silky shorts and skirts in matching shades of lemon and mint.

Valentino SS18 at Paris Fashion Week
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Dresses took a leisurely turn too, with cropped racer-front bralettes forming visible under layers to lace gowns and sequin frocks.

8. Get your claws out

When a new designer joins a fashion house, they tend to look back at the archives to settle in, and this was the case for Clare Waight Keller, who showed her first collection for Givenchy this weekend having left Chloé in May.

Givenchy SS18 at Paris Fashion Week

Though they are a lesser known signature for the brand, it was the animal prints of leopard, tiger and zebra that she used on tops, skirts and dresses, while patterns resembling claw marks were incorporated in some fabrics.

9. The cocktail T-shirt

For rhinestone-loving, new-gen designer Olivier Rousteing, Balmain’s latest offering was decidedly more restrained than usual.

Not because the show was lacking in the crystal-encrusted cage dresses and studded leather jackets which have become synonymous with the 32-year-old’s Kardashian fanbase, but because the humble T-shirt made a rare catwalk appearance.

Balmain SS18 at Paris Fashion Week

Of course, never one to miss an opportunity to inject a dose of high-octane glamour, logo tees came paired with vinyl leather ruffle skirts while one not-so-plain V-neck style came crafted entirely from sequins. Casual.

10. Art smocks

Last season gave us librarian chic. This season, geography teachers provided style’s latest muse.

Next spring, high-school art class will supply the canvas from which fashion intellects can draw.

Lemaire SS18 at Paris Fashion Week
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At Lemaire, voluminous high-collared smock blouses in dusty blue and pristine white offered a new incarnation of the enduring statement shirt trend in a collection which also unveiled apron dresses and high-fashion workmen’s jackets.

11. Tank girls

Thoughts turned to Jarvis Cocker’s eclectic style as the retro patterned tank-top knit made a welcome appearance at Giambattista Valli.

Giambattista Valli SS18 at Paris Fashion Week

Worn cropped, and teamed with clashing striped shirts, the look was reminiscent of the decor in a Seventies living room – in a totally good way.

Perhaps most successfully, tank tops were layered over airy ruffled floral dresses with puffed sleeves and mullet hems. Certainly not clothing for common people.

12. Check yourself

Clashing different types of checks is going to be a thing next season - we saw multiple clan tartan trousers at Balenciaga, for example - but nowhere was it more masterfully achieved than at Hermès.

Hermès SS18 at Paris Fashion Week
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A small plaid with a bigger, angled square print here; a chic delicate checked shirt with a woven “tartan” there.

Even the walls leading from the entrance to the catwalk were papered with mathematical-style grids. Clever.

13. Sheer skirts

For Dior’s first female designer, Maria Grazia Chiuri, identifying the new face of feminism has become a chief concern.

Dior SS18 at Paris Fashion Week

This season, a question posed by art scholar Linda Nochlin in 1971 - “Why have there been no great women artists?” - was answered in a collection peppered with motifs from the work of female sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle, seen on sheer tulle skirts teamed with striped knitted bodysuits and tough leather moto jackets.

In other words, a women’s femininity is often one of her greatest strengths.

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