The trends cycle has declared thigh-grazing minis and sweeping maxi skirts en vogue and now, it’s time to meet in the middle: pencil skirts are back on the agenda. Having served as a workwear staple for decades, their fashion status was renewed at the autumn/winter 2023 shows.
Read more: The Key Autumn/Winter 2023 Trends To Know Now
The trick to making this office essential feel fresh? It’s all in the styling. See: Saint Laurent’s new season skirt-suits, which riffed on ’80s power tailoring without feeling clichéd. “Maybe elegance is something we have no sense of today. Maybe we don’t care about it. Maybe it has some other meaning, or maybe it has no meaning at all. But I really wanted to bring that idea of being dressed,” asserted Anthony Vaccarello backstage. For the record: his interpretation of modern elegance landed, as far as the front row were concerned.
Also in Milan: Miuccia Prada offered a fresh take on the pencil skirt, as seen at Miu Miu and Prada. While the designer admitted: “If I were younger, I would go out in panties!” (cue: bejewelled briefs and tights), she catered to the less daring customer with knee-length skirts fashioned from corduroy, zig-zagged wool and textured leather (also seen Prada). Feeling confident? Try Miu Miu’s cheeky sheer polka-dot iterations or Prada’s padded duvet style.
In line with the “quiet luxury” trend and universal draw towards investment buys, black skirts reigned supreme. Heather Diamond Strongarm was the first exit at Christian Dior, wearing a pencil skirt with an unbuttoned white shirt tucked in, while Gigi Hadid opened Donatella Versace’s LA showcase in a prim hourglass skirt-suit. “I wanted to go back to the cut and shape of the clothes, to concentrate on the perfect little black dress, the perfect black suit,” Versace noted.
But there was lots of experimentation too beyond the classic black pencil skirt. From the equestrian styles at Gucci and Hermès (the former debuted skirts with horsebit adornments that echoed the vintage-inspired bags), to Christopher Kane’s siren-red vinyl bustles and 16Arlington’s intricate beading, the pencil skirt was reimagined every which way for autumn/winter 2023.
