The French-Girl Trench Coats at Fashion Week Are My Fall Go-To

Can I speak French? Despite taking classes for six years straight, no. I am, however, fluent in the language of French girl fashion. I didn’t learn the lingo by keeping my eyes fixed on the celebrity-filled front rows at Paris Fashion Week. For the real master classes, I had to (metaphorically) step outside the Spring/Summer 2027 shows, where the street style circuit translated the secret to getting dressed like a Parisienne: trench coats.

When I say trench coats are everywhere this season, I mean everywhere: Balenciaga. Schiaparelli. Chloé. Dior. While there is certainly no shortage of Jane Birkin-approved pieces (with their slightly oversized silhouettes and in chic neutrals), French girls are giving the storied classic a modern-day makeover.

The trenches around town feature cropped hems, glossy leather, funnel-neck collars, pops of prints, and anything-but-khaki colors. See? Being French doesn’t automatically make you a minimalist.

Take everything you think you know about trench coats (calf length, camel-colored) and widen your horizons. For instance, cropped trenches, featuring extra-large lapels and double-breasted buttons, are covering only a portion of French girl outfits. Because the waist-high hem are already outside the norm, most showgoers stick to timeless neutral tints.

Getting bolder as the days go on, patterned trenches soon appeared One guest, while en route to Chloé, wore a chocolate brown coat with peekaboo plaid along the calf-sweeping interior. Another style setter confirmed that Sienna Miller and New York fashion editors aren’t the only ones obsessed with Sézane’s sold-out Clyde Trench Coat, known for its brown-and-blue gingham lining. It’s truly a French girl favorite, too. Meanwhile, maximalists are letting their fully patterned pieces (see: a black-and-white houndstooth trench) do all the talking.

Now, leather is all over the recent spring runways, but I never expected it to swallow street-style trenches, too. Calfskin coats bring the drama and, as such, are popular among A-listers like Kim Kardashian, Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and more. But fashion insiders are showing off burgundy, black, green, charcoal gray, and even croc-embossed trenches like the street style celebrities that they are, too.

Back to Birkin, who in the ’70s preferred her trench coats large and in charge. It seems some of that energy rubbed off on today’s Fashion Week fans: high-collar coats are putting scarves out of a job. It seems French girls sourced style inspiration from the pre-Paris fashion shows in New York City—that way, by the time the style parade reached France, they were on trend. Funnel-neck coats covered the catwalks at Altuzarra, Khaite, and Ralph Lauren, before flocking to coat racks across the pond.

While high-collar coats came straight from NYC, the colorful trench trend emerged a little closer to home. Everyone from Chloé and Tom Ford to Dries Van Noten and Saint Laurent doused their Spring 2027 styles in shocking shades of yellow, blue, green, and gold. Outside the shows, attendees are following suit, co-signing trenches in tangerine brocade, terracotta canvas, burgundy, cobalt blue, and more.

On the simpler side, some showgoers are expanding their color stories with unconventional neutrals—not necessarily hues that would make you stop and stare. This is an easy, effortlessly chic way for minimalists like me to warm up to trench coats beyond the borders of beige, camel, and ecru.

Thus concludes our French (girl fashion) lesson of the day. All that to say? There is one universal language—or look, rather—that all style setters understand: trench coats. So, join me in shopping the made-for-Fashion-Month styles below, and I guarantee someone will mistake you for a local before the Fall/Winter 2027 season next February.