Fall 2023 Trend Report

As usual, Parisian designer Julie de Libran held her fall couture show in the garden of her apartment, this time casting burgeoning young models – some of whom are the daughters of her best friends – to don her haute confections. This nonchalant exuberance mirrors this season’s three trends. Amusez-vous bien!

It’s not every day you see a haute couture show with blue jeans. Though if anyone can pull it off, it’s supermodel royal Kaia Gerber opening for Valentino, who married a white blouse and roomy denim with gilded accessories and kitten heels. Subsequent looks paired lush raspberry, emerald, and cobalt pants with statement tops loaded with ease, femininity, and class, making this a fabulous trend to take for a spin on the dance floor.

Take a style note from model Lori Harvey, who layered a glitzy Chanel jumpsuit with a symphony of pearls. And also elevating pants on the red carpet, actress Emma Corrin turned heads in a Bode look comprised of hazelnut trousers, a lacy black bodice, and a draping of Chantilly fabric.

For your dance dresses this fall, try out one of our ballroom dance rentals with a pant-forward look in a dramatic rouge or stunning silver and spin till your heart’s content.

Truth be told, this trend begins with indecision. We lapped up the sumptuous guava and grapefruit gowns of couturier Rami Al Ali’s autumnal collection, and we took just as much pleasure in the blue bell-and-periwinkle dresses billowing down the runways. So we’re calling this petal-pretty color trend “Bébé Vibes,” since it has all the hopeful optimism of rosebud pink and the peaceful youthfulness of sky baby blue.

Taking this trend to the streets, Amal Clooney sported a playful cerulean sweater and shorts combination from the luxury Italian brand Missoni, managing to tap into a regal beachy and boho vibe. And celebrating the magenta side of this pastel trend, singer Florence Welch stole the stage in a cascading bubble gum pink gown by Overthesea with peasant chic sleeve treatments and teared ruffles around the scooping neckline.

Just like fairies, this trend is everywhere, if only you open your eyes (and heart!) to seeing it. Though often subtle in the real world, in Iris Van Herpen’s fall couture collection, the celestial woodland inspo is as loud as the wind beneath a dance fairy wings. In one look, white spears of diamonds seemed to shoot from an onyx slip like pixie dust. In another look, chartreuse silk curled and morphed around the intricate verbena bodice evoking a moth in metamorphosis. Magical, otherworldly, and yet entirely natural—or nature-full.

On the streets of this universe, the woodland fairy trend offers glittering, youthful, feminine inspiration. Just look at actress Anya Taylor-Joy’s structured cream gown, which cut a distinct shape like a bird in flight, and curled and morphed like moving clouds. Equally charismatic, actress Cailee Spaeny radiated in a neat Rodarte slip with a peridot jewel motif arranged like florals and vines, with a light chiffon accent hanging off the shoulders, as thin, delicate, and translucent as a rare fairy wing.

This trend is a joy to translate into the world of waltz dresses. Look for ballroom dance dresses with sunny, gilded accents and fairy-light whites, with embroidered or bedazzled floral motifs sprinting along the hems, ready to take flight with every leap and bound.