It’s Cocktail Gowns and Parkas for Spring, According to these Runways

Category is: “I took the subway here.” It’s the Carrie Bradshaw–type throwing on a mismatched coat over a sparkly dress to go across town in the middle of a snowstorm. It’s that one early 2010 Raf Simons show for Jil Sander where he paired white tees with taffeta mermaid skirts. It’s Nicolas Ghesquière in the early aughts styling sparkly going-out tops with military green cargos and strappy sandals at Balenciaga. It’s Veronica Webb slowly removing an orange fur-trimmed puffer jacket to reveal a shiny corset and skirt on Isaac Mizrahi’s runway in the mid ’90s. It’s Dries Van Noten partnering with Christian Lacroix a few years back, and now it’s Mrs. Prada and many more at the spring 2025 shows.

Now just over halfway through the spring 2025 collections it is safe to identify one of the season’s most decisive styling trends—and perhaps the most realistic: Going-out dresses under technical outerwear. And yes, there is nothing new under the sun and this is no exception. And yes, we’ve definitely been here before. And yes, every New Yorker does it in the winter, throwing on a puffer jacket over the clubby dress, but this season, it’s back on the runways, and it feels right.

In New York, Brandon Maxwell threw a khaki raincoat over a silvery sequin ensemble. In London, Daniel Lee proposed wearing his Burberry anoraks over resplendent going-out dresses. In Milan, Mrs. Prada and Raf Simons decisively—and quite fabulously—paired orange and yellow windbreakers over feathery and sequined frocks.

This is one of the oldest tricks in the styling book, and one of the most effective. It works because the mere idea of merging evening wear with casual wear and functional outerwear makes these most glamorous of fashions familiar. This is how we dress: A tank top paired with a taffeta skirt, sequin tops under puffer jackets, a sparkly going-out dress under an anorak. It’s all very New York, and very “it’s snowing outside and I walked here,” or as my Vogue colleague and loyal ferry commuter Willow Lindley put it this morning after the Prada show: “It’s ferry couture!” It’s fascinating how far a touch of practicality can get us. Mixing pragmatism with frivolity to make things “real.”