The Power Suits of Paris Fashion Week
And the peplums, polka dots, sculptural sleeves, moto boho...
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It’s officially the last fashion week of the AW25 season. I don’t know about you, but I’m casually searching for a preloved cow print jacket in the style of this stunner and am ready to stack my belts, wear a kitten heel and maybe even a mini skirt.
The same trends from across the first four Fashion Weeks continued into Paris: bag charms, alt animal prints, fur1, plaid2, ladylike, cinched waists, red, black and white, moto details, ties, brooches, statement rings, etc etc etc. Paris Fashion Week (PFW) also brought us the addition of Boho Romanticism inspired by the Chloe runway, which I’ll dig into below with some other key trends.
Love fashion week street style? You can read my trend recaps of Copenhagen here, New York here, London here, and Milan here.
Sculptural, Peplums, Polka Dots, & Boho
Sculptural shapes were all over PFW street style from subtle to truly OTT silhouettes. The two standouts for everyday ease were sculptural sleeves (continuing from Milan) and peplums. Polka dots were seen in every incarnation from casual to dressy, but boho was definitely the trend to watch in Paris.
Sculptural Sleeves
Sculptural sleeves are made tailoring feel fresh again at PFW. The oversized, gently sloped shape offset cinched waists, while extra visual interest was added through buttons, texture, and seaming.
Peplums
Peplums have come a long way from the 2010s business casual peplum inexplicably worn with a bandage skirt. Today’s peplum is the hero piece of a low-key outfit, with asymmetry, seaming, and flouncing drawing the eye downward to a minimalist bottom. Even the maximalist-leaning peplums had an air of simplicity in a soft pastel color or as part of a matching set.
Polka Dots
Polka dots were sprinkled across all of the cities this fashion month, but really came into their own in Paris. Polka dot prints in clothing were dressed down with denim and chunky knits, elevated with bow and cinched waist details, and received both twee and formal treatment in dresses.
Polka dot accessories were giving big collar energy between the tights, the gloves, the bags, and the scarves (and of course the actual big collars). If you’re not ready for a full-on polka dot look, an accessory is the way to go.
Boho
I love what Chemena Kamali3 is doing at Chloe. It’s what I envisioned everyone wearing in Scruples4, but modernized for 2025. Paris’ street style served up so many variations what boho is today from the literal (floaty dress ✔️, tassels ✔️, lace ✔️) to the contemporary pairing of a boho bag and blazer.
All serving to underscore how we can interpret trends through the lens of personal style instead of trying to slot ourselves into the identikit microtrends that have permeated fashion over the last few years.
Vogue Business' Moto Boho was out in full force for Paris street style. This is a strong marketing opportunity for resale platforms to keep existing boho pieces in circulation and out of landfills5. The Paddington reissue buzz makes Moto Boho an especially key theme for platforms that sell luxury bags.
Power Suiting in Paris
First, a quick explainer of the cultural trends shaping the rise of power suiting and #CorporateCore that have dominated AW25 runways and street style:
[The] resurgence of structured, office-inspired fashion mirrors a societal shift toward reclaiming stability and authority in an era marked by uncertainty and blurred professional boundaries….Corp-core first rose up in the 1980s with power dressing. It was then reimagined in the 1990s, driven by minimalist suiting from brands like Calvin Klein and Armani during a time of economic prosperity. Its resurgence reflects a response to post-pandemic work culture shifts and a rejection of casual luxury.
Zofia Zwieglinska, Glossy
#STELLACORP
It’s no secret that I love Stella McCartney. She lives by her values as the only cruelty-free luxury designer, an industry leader in sustainable fashion, and a champion of next-gen fabric innovation. I was eagerly awaiting her AW25 show and it promptly blew me away as the definition of power suiting. If I win the lottery, I’m buying this suit, the tonal brown outfit in the fourth image, and a Ryder handbag5.
On the Street
I’ve reviewed hundreds of PFW images in the last nine days and the one constant theme across each day of street style has been suiting and tailoring, which further solidified itself as a key trend with Stella McCartney’s show Day 3. The looks below are a more directional, imaginative, or playful take on how suiting is evolving in today’s landscape, outgrowing the early 2020s oversized look that arose from the pandemic comfort dressing era.
The Day To Night Suit
This Stella McCartney suit on Angel Arutura stopped me in my tracks: the deep v-neck and the wide leg pants perfectly skimming the ground, accessorized with a Falabella. This is the suit that takes you from work to a night out. Over the last year I’ve been wearing my small rotation of suits with a cami tucked underneath for the most streamlined look possible and feel all the more chic for it.
The Structured Blazer Dress
It all comes back to a structured look for AW25, and the sculptural shape of this peplum blazer dress (see another angle here) is the next iteration of the oversized blazer. The statement shoulders, collarless neckline, curved waist, and double breasted closure all come together for a minimalist look that’s given textural interest with the addition of tonal tights.
The Moto Suit
With Moto Boho comes Moto Tailoring. This look is centered on styling and is a true shop your closet moment: take the suit already living in your wardrobe and throw a drapey preloved leather jacket over it for extra edge6. Layer a white tee underneath and pair it back to a belt with gold hardware for the right amount of business casual.
The Not-Suit
Not quite a matching set, not quite a suit - more the suggestion of a suit. This shirt/skirt/pant look from Birrot on Moda Operandi’s Chief Merchandising & Marketing Officer April Hennig is made even better by the styling: the opera-length gloves, the pointy white shoes, and the Juju Vera necklace7 come together for a sophisticated tailored look.
The Denim Suit
This denim suit captures the 2024/2025 zeitgeist with a slightly oversized fit, cinched waist, and soft barrel leg. Womenswear is in a transition period where we’re moving away from overtly casual to dressier outfitting, evidenced by the women’s suiting industry growth as a whole. This suit is equal parts smart and casual, and I’ve tracked it down as Damson Madder, a responsible brand which used waterless technology to create the striped effect.
Preloved Power Suiting
As I was putting the finishing touches on my post, I came across a Substack by
on power suiting with a stellar roundup of secondhand and vintage finds. Even better? It includes sizing tips, a notoriously tricky area to navigate when shopping resale. A true magnum opus on preloved suits, I immediately scrapped my own links because this post from has you covered.
Hilliary’s suiting curation is top notch and I’m eyeing the Camilla and Marc butter yellow suit and the Dries shorts set. There are so many options to choose from and I’d love to know if you buy one of these gems.
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading as always! And a huge thank you for coming along on this five week journey into fashion month street style. Which week was your favorite? I’m still team Copenhagen, but Paris is a close second. I couldn’t fit everything Paris-related into this post, so be on the lookout for more Notes with sub-trends that caught my eye. See you next week!
Again, my vegan brain can only comprehend the fur trend as either vintage fur or secondhand faux fur.
Some punk, but mostly classic plaids.
I’m also beyond intrigued by her 1,500 piece vintage blouse collection.
Minus Maggie ofc.
I’ve perfected the art of layering from living in a city with a different microclimates in every neighborhood. Wearing a jacket over a blazer is my go-to look and when I stumble into a warmer microclimate, I just throw my jacket over my shoulders to give my arms a breather.
First of all- so many incredible observations here!! I can’t wait to give some of them a whirl asap. Secondly- I feel like I can maybe retire now bc the automatic association I’ve created with myself and that necklace is honestly #goals 😂 - loved reading this Tina!
What an awesome roundup, Tina! I found myself mentally going through my closet thinking about all the things I already own that fit these trends. Wait till you see my Kenzo denim suit that I wore this past week, and my emerald green Escada coat dress with the sculpted sleeves, you’re gonna die.😁💕
I absolutely adore, vintage suiting, and there is so much good stuff out there secondhand. Thanks for including the excellent article on sizing vintage, you’re a rockstar.