The changing season ignites a healthy urge to find newness in our wardrobes again. For many, this means refreshing the essentials: stocking up on your favorite T-shirts, perhaps trading in a few sweaters for a fresher batch, or replenishing your denim with styles that feel more current. Luckily, the fall/winter 2026 runways provided plenty of denim trends to play with this year.
Whether it’s dark inky indigo, slim silhouettes, or the seemingly ever-present slouchy jean, there’s something for every taste. And though designers have given us quite the feast of fresh and exciting styles, the preeminent question remains: How do you actually wear them?
Below, you’ll find seven of the season’s trending denim styles and how to style each of them.
Double Up on Dark Indigo
For fall, one of the more novel choices made by designers was opting for dark, inky indigo-hued jeans that will surely add some variety to your current denim rotation. To lean into the polished nature of this darker wash, go for a sleek denim-on-denim look. Add subtle Western flair with low-heeled booties and hammered gold-tone earrings and finish with a sophisticated oversized cashmere peacoat.
Elevating the Denim Dress
There’s something quite summery about a denim dress, but the beauty of early fall is that you can rework your summer clothes for the cooler months, something designers are showcasing more and more, as evidenced by some of the heavy outerwear we saw for spring/summer 2027. To bring your denim dress into the current season, throw on a longline knit cardigan in a neutral tone. Further, instead of going for a heel or a high-shaft boot, take a note from the Zimmermann show and opt for a loafer, which grounds the look and takes away any sense of preciousness from the dress. Finish things off with a sizable bag that can hold all your necessities for the day and more.
The Slimming Effect
For so many seasons, the mandate was bigger, baggier, and barrel-legged, and it seems like we are finally seeing the pendulum swing the other way, with brands like Khaite and Valentino advocating for a slimmer silhouette. For an outfit that leans more relaxed but still shows you put in effort, style your skinny jeans with an equally svelte short-sleeve knit. Pair it with calf-hair mules and a croc-embossed bag for added texture, and introduce a little color and interest with a brightly colored enamel bracelet.
Give Utility Jeans the Sporty Approach
To give your favorite utilitarian jeans a bit of cosmopolitan edge, smarten things up with a cropped leather jacket. For a more casual yet sporty approach, throw on a trendy quarter-zip and a pair of scrunch tennis shoes in optic white, which play nicely when paired with a a white tee peaking through underneath your sweater.
The Tried-and-True Slouchy Jeans
If you’re not a skinny jean fan, don’t worry, there were just as many slouchy, baggy options on the runway. However, this season, it seems designers were interested in giving the slouchy silhouette a sense of occasion by dressing it up a bit more. To keep that relaxed shape while still feeling elevated, pair it with a cognac suede wrap coat that feels inherently dressier and more special. To keep that momentum going, add a pop of red with a pair of textured flats. Add a striped T-shirt as a step up from your run-of-the-mill plain white tee.
Give the Denim Skirt the Preppy Treatment
Dior
The message for fall/winter 2026, and in many ways spring/summer 2027 (thanks in large part to Prada) is the skirt. However, these are not the ultra short miniskirts from the post-lockdown era, these newer iterations hit at the knee and, at times, extend all the way to the ankle. A denim skirt lets you straddle the line between something a bit more dressed up, but in a fabric tailored for everyday wear. Give the denim skirt the preppy treatment with a tweed blazer layered over a lived-in sweatshirt and plaid button-up shirt. Finish everything off with a second-skin suede boot.
Consider Colorful Jeans
Thanks in large part to Dario Vitale’s single runway collection for Versace, colorful denim feels excitingly fresh and desirable again. When it comes to styling it, keep the outfit to a handful of colors to avoid looking muddled. A gray henley offers a step up from a plain white T-shirt, with the muted tone allowing the red denim to stand out even more. Meanwhile, a darker, more subdued purple belt lets you dabble in the ever-popular combination of red and purple, while still looking polished. To top it off, a denim jacket lets you play with double denim, without necessarily looking like you are.
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