Top Trend: High Waist

If there’s one go-to style to remember from the runways of New York, Milan and Paris this season, it is that high-waisted silhouettes are back.  If you research the trend on the Internet, you’re in for hours and hours of scrolling through runway pictures, many of them giving an Eighties-inspired slant to the shape. But in this sea of fashion, we did manage to sort out the looks that truly elevated the high waist look to new heights.

Thinking of a high-waisted silhouette, the first image that goes through your mind is usually one of trousers – and that’s fair. Big names like Max Mara and Dries Van Noten did capitalize on the tension between masculine and feminine. The Italian House chooses rich textures like velvet and a monochrome color palette for a very luxurious feeling, while the Belgian designer shows a perfectly contemporary working woman with her white shirt tucked in her wide-legged high-waisted trousers. For both of them, the high waist comes with an attitude, as seen also on Stella McCartney’s runway: hands in her pockets, this is a woman who knows how to rock a power suit.

Max Mara

Dries Van Noten

Stella McCartney

A more daring yet very successful take on the power silhouette is Raf Simons’ mix of textiles and transparency. For his first collection at the creative helm of Calvin Klein, Simons pairs a knee-length grey checked skirt with a see-through top with knitted sleeves and a transparent heel. Other bold statements are found in Nadège Vanhee-Cybulski’s collection for Hermès. The French designer takes the high waist to the extreme with skirts emulating dungarees, whether buttoned-up or paired with extra-large leather belts.

Belts are another great way for designers to pull the eye upwards. Whether cinching close a coat at Louis Vuitton, enhancing the silhouette of a snakeskin coat at Gucci, or used as a handbag holder at Nina Ricci, they are good for one thing: sharpening up the overall silhouette when worn proudly over the finished look. Still, some designers like Karl Lagerfeld at Fendi manage to achieve that precise look without the use of any belt at all. Instead, a contrasting wide waistband did the trick just as effectively.

Louis Vuitton

Nina Ricci

Fendi

If there’s one thing we can learn from this top trend it is that its possible to pull off a high waist silhouette without ever running the risk of looking like Barb from Stranger Things.

Maxime Der Nahabedian

Initially trained to become a specialized translator from English and German to French, Maxime has been writing for fashion and lifestyle publications for about three years. First as a Managing Editor for the quarterly fashion & art magazine Crash where he worked on ten issues, then most recently for the French online media Saywho.fr. His topics of choice go from fashion shows and exhibitions reviews to interviews with various cultural figures (Beth Ditto, Lilly Collins, Aitor Throup).