Sign up for email newsletters

Sign up for email newsletters

We now find ourselves at that transition point between summer and fall wardrobes. A fork in the road of fashion. So it’s time to take a look at a few key pieces — both clothing and accessories — to help you make the leap. Some of these are evergreen (i.e., they’ll work every year) and some are based on trends specific to this fall. And all of them will make the transition a bit easier and a lot more fun.

1: Dresses with sleeves (as opposed to summer’s tanks and spaghetti straps). They’re still comfy and not too covered up, but are a bit more polished and structured, with just the right amount of coverage in case nascent fall weather dips into the 60s. But as with numbers like the Blooming Botanical Ginger Dress ($298 on tnuck.com), it’s still bright and flirty, with big and colorful blooms that say summer just as easily as autumn.

2: The bucket bag. It hasn’t been this big in decades (the last time was just after 2000, when it was a retro nod to the ’60s trend), and they’ve been missed. Not only are they showing up in modernized shapes that still evoke hippie chic (thank you, Ulla Johnson and Louis Vuitton), but they still fit just about everything you could possible want to carry. Splurge on the Vuitton version — the NÉONOÉ MM ($2,840 on us.louisvuitton.com) — or grab a deal with the Eden Bucket Bag ($205 on ableclothing.com).

3: Leather jackets. They’re back, bigger than ever this fall (after design houses like Khaite showed them on runways), and they’re so incredibly easy to slide on over an otherwise summer-y outfit, to take the entire look into the new season. Versions like As By DF’s Mercury Recycled Leather Jacket ($243 on neimanmarcus.com) have unexpected flourishes like rounded sleeves, and look terrific over flowy peasant skirts, a pencil pant, fancy shorts on still-warm evenings out or a casual cropped pant.

4: Long hems. Nothing is more relevant this season than the maxi skirt or dress, after a handful of heavyweight designers (Yves St. Laurent, for starters) showed them again for fall. They’re an excellent silver bullet to have in your transition wardrobe, too, to pull out on days when it’s too cool for shorts but not cool enough for pants. And they’re among the most flexible kind of look you can get — a spot-on match with defined blazers and bomber jackets, with just a simple T or tank top underneath. Bonus points if you find a great one in fall’s preferred pattern, plaid — as in the Lily Cotton Maxi Skirt ($286 on freepeople.com), which comes in eight distinct plaid patterns.

5: Men’s vests. Yes, I mean the business suit kind, mixed in with pieces that are definitely not a business suit. Nothing says I’m no longer on vacation than a suit reference, but mix it cheekily with jeans and a T-shirt, or over a lacy skirt for a cool masculine-feminine contrast. And they don’t need to be Savile Row-level expensive, either; Zara’s Classic Pocketed Vest ($69 on zara.com) is a terrific example of the genre — and it looks as good with those jeans as it does over a body-skimming dress.

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

Sign up for email newsletters