Autumn workwear trends: six ways to spruce up your office looks this September

At what age does September stop feeling like the start of the school year? Our guess is never. And certainly not this September, when the prevailing autumn/winter trends are making us dress like actual schoolchildren. Ties, shirts, tights, pulled up socks, ballet flats — the lot. We might as well be posing in front of our front doors before the first day of year seven, or next to a measurement etching showing our growth (purely personal at this point).

Let’s be clear: while prep-school styling may be back, it’s more Scandi-chic than Gossip Girl. If anything, we’re oscillating between pupil and teacher. Never before as an exam invigilator’s distinctive style been so coveted.

For refreshed officewear, we’re taking tips from Mary-Kate and Ashley-helmed brand The Row, as well as the enviable street style of Copenhagen Fashion Week and, of course, the autumn/winter runways. Don’t fall behind in class: here’s how to keep up with the coolest.

Anyone who spent the entire summer living in their ballet flats only to be brought crashing down to autumnal earth with the British rain will know two things. One, fabric ballet flats do not fare well in wet weather. Two, soft shoes that were worn throughout the entire summer probably require replacing anyway. Opt for a leather version, or go more outlandish with silver and red patent Mary Janes, à la Simone Rocha autumn/winter 2025. To conserve precious body heat, wear them with crisp white socks or go colourful and coordinated.

Blue was the stand-out colour of Copenhagen Fashion Week this August, with cerulean, cobalt and sapphire blues all over the runways. It’s like Andy Sachs’s jumper has made a return just in time for The Devil Wears Prada 2. But don’t fret, cherry red and its sister shades are still as coveted as they were last year, especially if Tolu Coker’s buzzy AW25 collection has anything to say about it. As for how to wear these colours: knitwear, socks and accessories are your best bets. For high-street purchases, Arket has plentiful blue items this season, while Damson Madder is ever-reliable when it comes to crimson.

This allows you to elongate summer items well into autumn and winter without freezing your pins off. Lace-lined slips aren’t going anywhere soon, which means layering is the only option to keep these styles alive as the mercury drops. This could be seen on The Row’s spring/summer 2025 runway, with a cascading lace slip skirt covering long, puddle-hem jeans. Or on Jennifer Lawrence, who wore another The Row tunic-trouser creation for her Chicken Shop Date interview. I said it when I was 12 and I’ll say it again now: when in doubt, ask yourself, “What would Mary-Kate and Ashley do?”

Put simply: if you don’t have a beautifully crafted white shirt this autumn, get one. Sarah Burton’s much-lauded first collection for Givenchy featured a gorgeous example: a sloping shirt dress with a perfectly pert collar and layers of extra fabric carefully draped from one shoulder. As for bottoms, it’s going to be a chilly one. With flats and biker boots still the dominant shoes, trousers largely absent from a lot of AW25 LFW womenswear and midi skirts cropping up all over CPHFW, there’s only one thing for it. It’s shaping up to be a big skirt winter. Prepare your legs and invest in coloured or even patterned hosiery (for the PinkPantheress-aligned among us) to go full schoolgirl.

Everyone and their nan will be wearing polka dots this autumn, especially with major sportswear brands now hopping on the trend. This is all well and good, but anyone looking to stand out from the crowd should side with stripes over spots. The best inspiration can be found at the hands of Jamaican designer Jawara Alleyne, a favourite of Charli xcx and Rihanna. His mindbending, distressed manipulation of stripes was all anyone could talk about at London Fashion Week this February. Then there’s the ever-reliable Paul Smith, whose trademark multi-coloured stripes are having something of a revival.

Last winter, leather bomber jackets became so ubiquitous everyone in London started looking like they’d been recruited to the T-Birds. Leather remains prominent for AW25, helping to add a little edge to the preppiness, which means the key is picking an interesting style or colourway. Consider crocodile-style textures or deep, autumnal hues such as green and brown. It’ll be quite the task, but finding the perfect leather trench could sort you out for life. Burberry is, predictably, the brand to turn to in this instance. But thrifting is a perfectly possible alternative.