Fashion’s Latest Comeback? Actually Wearable Clothes

That outfit (see the shirt above, and Kendall Jenner wearing a version of the look below) embodies an aesthetic shift that’s sweeping the fashion industry. After two years of dressing for Zoom screens during lockdown, and at least a decade of ostentatious “like me!” outfits spamming our Instagram feeds, many women are looking to make an impact IRL, not online. Instead of buying trendy frippery to flaunt in social-media posts, stylish sorts are craving wearable clothes with subtle details like hand-stitched hems, carefully sculpted silhouettes or luxe textures—details that they, and anyone within a 5-foot radius, can appreciate in the moment. And designers are delivering. 

“Fashion is resetting itself,” said Roopal Patel, the fashion director at Saks Fifth Avenue. In recent seasons, she’s noticed an “effortless, easy and chic approach emerge on the runways,” with designers focusing on quality, craftsmanship and luxury fabrics instead of gimmicky garb calculated to go viral (like impossible-to-sit-in mini skirts, intentionally heinous shoes and boisterously branded bags). “There’s no logo, there’s no branding, it’s just the cut of the jacket or the jean” that stands out, said Ms. Patel, citing labels including Khaite, Nili Lotan and Theory as go-tos for freshly elegant spring staples. “I think the transition from being at home [during the pandemic] and easing back into our everyday lives has caused a real shift,” she added. 

New York stylist Caitlin Burke considers the shift a reaction against social media. While working for an online retailer in 2020, she saw a spike in “flashy, Instagrammy things,” she said. “Maybe people thought they could manifest a party or just needed something they could post on Instagram.” She calls that period a “flash in the pan,” a sentiment supported by purchase patterns at e-commerce site Net-a-Porter. During a May trends presentation, the retailer’s market director Libby Paige reported a recent “decline in interest” for screen-friendly sequins and shine, and an uptick in demand for “sleek, elevated styles.”

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Carolyn Mair, a London behavioral psychologist who advises fashion brands, also believes that social-media backlash is helping drive fashion’s 180. “Now that we’re able to meet in person,” she said, “people want to put in that effort to have closeness and community—a real sense of touching.” Beautiful fabrics not only delight the wearer, she added, they also offer a frisson of pleasure to others in their orbit in a way social media can’t allow. Clothes with slyly distinctive details offer an IRL “element of surprise as well.” 

Those elements of surprise differentiate this new mode of dressing from the overplayed “quiet luxury” trend that’s come out of “Succession” and the Gwyneth Paltrow ski-accident trial. Stealthily snobbish, quiet luxury befits blasé billionaires with a penchant for discretion. Typically inaccessible items include: four-figure sweaters, $500 baseball caps and spendy suits as exciting as tree bark. The ascending anti-Instagram look—let’s call it un-shouty chic—is “quite different than quiet luxury,” said Emily Gordon-Smith, content director at trends and insights company Stylus. “It’s not about 1990s minimalism or an invasion of gray…the coloration is far more creative and there are more interesting things going on in terms of silhouettes.” She first noticed this look on Gen-Zers in 2020, and found spring’s streamlined separates “far more refreshing than another season of frozen ruffles and prairie frocks.” 

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Libby Gray, 39, a beauty executive in Los Angeles, favors a softly expressive look—western-style boots, denim and detailed, often vintage shirts—that aligns more with un-shouty chic than quiet luxury. In terms of “Succession”-character parallels, she said, it skews less Shiv Roy (bland, boardroom beiges) and more Naomi Pierce (stylish, confident separates). Michelle Matland, the HBO show’s costume designer, explained: “I think Shiv was a rule follower,” whereas Naomi, the heiress of a competing media empire, doesn’t follow any rules. “Shiv’s clothes are a reflection of the people around her…what Naomi wears allows her to move in her own reflection,” Ms. Matland said of the character played by real-life socialite Annabelle Dexter-Jones. Signature Naomi pieces: a gold-button Celine blazer worthy of Napoleon; breezy white pleat-front slacks; and a Proenza Schouler strapless suiting-inspired top. 

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Dr. Mair stresses that un-shouty chic “might be understated, but absolutely needn’t be boring.” Adrienne Macksood, an interior designer in Paradise Valley, Ariz., who adheres to this subdued style approach, agrees: “Adding contrast to your outfit,” whether that’s combining masculine and feminine pieces, different colors or opposing textures, like nubby knits against denim or silk, “adds a lot of interest.” Ms. Macksood, 49, spends most of her days in cigarette jeans or flowing, feminine skirts and structured blazers, like a vintage Dior Bar jacket. 

Since launching her line of sublimely cut suits and separates (among other offerings) over a decade ago, New York designer Daniella Kallmeyer has always prioritized IRL impact and her clients’ comfort. “If you aren’t touching it and feeling it, if it’s not draping well on you, if you can’t move your legs in your pants or move your arms in your jacket, it doesn’t matter how well something shoots in a photo,” she said. “You’re still a real person after that photo is taken.”

Though some of the least-shouty, post-Instagram designer pieces are far from affordable, Ms. Burke, the stylist, insists that this look needn’t deplete your nest egg. “It just needs to be quality material,” she said, advocating $130 Uniqlo cashmere sweaters and Ms. Kallmeyer’s tailoring, which starts at about $595 for a scrumptiously cut blazer. And even if you are prepared to spend, why blow your money on overpriced basics like Shiv Roy, when you can own something well beyond basic?

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Styling by Lizzy Wholley, Talent: Genevieve for Jag Models

MADE YA LOOK

Un-obnoxious, enjoyable clothes that garner attention beyond the ’gram

MADE YA LOOK From Left: Pants, $679, Blaze-Milano.com; Drawstring Shirt, $590, Toteme-Studio.com; Dress, $580, MerletteNYC.com; Shoes, $495, SandyLiang.info

POST-INSTAGRAM PIECES From Left: Shoulder Bag, $395, Altuzarra.com; Sweater, $300, Babaa.es; Blazer, $1,461, Blaze-Milano.com; Silk Skirt, $895, ShopAttersee.com 

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