Lace has rules. So do ruffles. Mostly, they say, wear them under everything or after dark, for events with cocktails and a seating chart. For much of the last century, that rule has held, and the presence of either in daylight has broadly been read as a mistake or a provocation.
This season the rule is off. On the fall 2026 runways, romantic clothes arrived styled like everything else in your closet—a lace skirt with a cotton shirt, a gown with a combat boot, a ruffled collar over plain velvet trousers—and the shift is visible on the street too.
Vogue’s Guide to Styling Lace:
The Cashmere Crewneck
Massimo Dutti crewneck knit sweater
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What changed on the fall runways isn’t the volume of lace and ruffles, which recur every few seasons, but the styling around them. The simplest approach was to pair. In her debut collection for Fendi, Maria Grazia Chiuri showed a black lace midiskirt with a crisp white cotton shirt and black socks worn with pumps—an outfit that could easily pass at the office. At Christian Dior, Jonathan Anderson sent a tier of ivory ruffles spilling out from under the hem of a sharp black jacket and put the whole thing over pale, bleached jeans. Valentino’s Alessandro Michele went furthest, proposing lace trousers outright: a beaded midnight blue flare worn under a camel blouson, styled as if running out for coffee.
The more useful idea was layering. At Chloé, Chemena Kamali put a white ruffled corset blouse over a plain gray turtleneck. At McQueen, Seán McGirr layered a black-and-white floral lace slip over a white openwork knit and sent it out with tall black riding boots. Matthieu Blazy did the same thing in reverse at Chanel, putting a pink lace shirt under a great slouchy tweed coat. And Colleen Allen draped a sheer ivory lace top over a severe black column, the inversion worth noticing: Here, the lace isn’t made wearable by something plain; it makes something plain romantic.
Below are 11 ways to bring romance into daylight—and the pieces to buy to do it.
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
