In Paris, Stella McCartney, Lutz Huelle, Sacai and Rokh reinvent the working girl

An intense program characterized the penultimate days of the Parisian fashion shows dedicated to women’s ready-to-wear. For spring-summer 2025, sensual romanticism competes with tailoring masculine for free and independent women. The “working girl” trend in particular is making a notable comeback on the catwalks, as we have seen, among others, at Stella McCartney, Lutz Huelle, Sacai and Rokh, who each revisit the genre in their own way.

Chirps, chirps and birdsong greet the guests of Stella McCartney, who parades in a Parisian market square. A white cap with the slogan of its latest campaign “About fucking time!” is distributed to the public to protect themselves from the threatening drizzle, with a copy of The Stella Timesa sort of replica of New York Timeswhere the stylist gives us the latest news from her brand and the planet.

We learn that nearly 50% of volatile species are endangered and that the fashion industry alone “kills and harms 3.4 billion ducks, geese and chickens and roosters, just for down” . As always, the British designer, committed from the start to the animal cause and sustainable fashion, warns about the misdeeds of industry and man, taking advantage of Fashion Week to send the message through her collection entitled ” Save what you love.” This time she shines the spotlight on the fate of birds.

If we note a few doves taking flight on silk stoles transformed into tops, sculpted in gold in necklaces and bras, or embroidered at breast height on a black tulle top, the collection, 91% made with eco-responsible materials, seems above all designed to emancipate women with designer looks. working girl New York, where costumes take the lion’s share. In a long trench coat, newspaper under her arm, the Stella McCartney woman splits the asphalt on her high-heeled pumps, holding her newspaper and the “Stella Ryder”, the brand’s new vegan bag in the shape of a horse’s back. She is dressed in loose pants and double-breasted jackets with very pronounced square shoulders, in a 1980s spirit.

She brightens up her wardrobe by improvising an off-the-shoulder top with her blue office shirt, the sleeves of which are tied at the back, or covering the front of her light gray banker-striped pants with a cloud of crystals. She likes to mix genres letting sports influences take over her looks, via shorts, Bermuda shorts, vegan leather sets, baggy jeans or by slipping a hooded sweater under her blazer, while in the evening, she opt for cocoon outfits like clouds or light and flowing chiffon dresses.

Lutz Huelle is inspired by the same business woman style, which he twists with the glamorous evening universe, delivering an inventive hybrid collection, which nevertheless remains easy to wear. The costume jacket is shortened, as are its sleeves, to better make the woman’s arms sparkle with long gold sequin gloves. Men’s shirts are also narrowed at the waist with gathers and pleats to take the shape of corsets. Or they are mixed with silver brocade fabric. Elsewhere, white lace borders an austere navy striped suit jacket or appears in a long cardigan.

The wardrobe offers a mix and match of “two in one” clothes full of details or modifications which, placed in unexpected places, surprise by bringing a twist to the whole. The German designer, for example, lengthens the silhouette by attaching Bermuda shorts to viscose jogging pants to accentuate the low-waisted side. He also uses strips of black or sequined jersey as bustiers, which extend into dresses with the addition of halves of men’s shirts or jackets. This elastic band is sometimes tight around the waist, becoming embedded in a white shirt.

“I wanted to take the two archetypes of the man in a suit and the woman in an evening dress and mix them in one and the same garment,” explains the stylist, who also offers a series of more feminine pieces. He collects vintage scarves to make tops or fluid bags by sewing two squares on top of each other. He also makes off-the-shoulder tops and dresses draped in impalpable silk chiffons and crepes that slide against the skin, as well as opera coats in vibrant colors adorned with pleats reminiscent of tuxedo shirts.

See the parade

For next summer, Sacai is taking wardrobe classics, particularly men’s, with the sailor jacket, the tuxedo, the white suit, the trench coat, the military parka or even the khaki nylon bomber, and turning everything upside down with energy. Japanese designer Chitose Abe cuts the garment, completely deconstructs it to reassemble it in a new light, working on volumes and constructions.

She shortens the sleeves of a boat captain’s jacket, with its gold buttons and embroidered initials on the chest. It is worn as a dress, but as if it were placed on the front of the body, decorated with a white collar. These removable collars made of a handkerchief are added here and there in many looks like floating bibs. Elsewhere, the sailor takes place in a white jacket transformed into a dress.

The top of some coats opens and falls over the body, the garment being just supported by thin straps. In other models, like this mechanic’s suit, the upper part is just attached to the front, sewn onto a base in transparent flesh-colored tulle, while being enriched with ruffles that wrap into volutes on the front or sides, creating bubbling volumes, which are also sometimes available in mesh. These same flounces layered in millefeuille make up skirts with the consistency of petticoats.

The Sacai girls move across a ground covered in salt and silver dust in heeled leather boots, which they sometimes cover with a kind of Yeti fur with long, fluffy fringes. They flash imposing metal rings with distorted ovals on their wrists. The result is a desirable, chic and effortless collection with bold proportions, yet completely wearable.

Rokh plays the same game as Sacai, with clothes cut into strips, which are unfastened, unbuttoned, unzipped, and untied to be undone and reassembled better. Korean designer Rok Hwang also likes to start with wardrobe classics, in particular the trench coat and suits, which he embellishes this season with couture details and textured ornaments.

“I always work on formal clothes, from the masculine world with careful cuts, but I wanted to enhance clothing this season with three-dimensional effects and great craftsmanship,” he confided to us backstage, evoking “a more romantic, fresh and young vein”. The designer uses recycled fibers, linen, cotton, but also heavier woolen sheets, which he works in contrast between the ethereal and candid effect of more airy materials and darker tailored pieces.

Strings of light smoky fabric wrap in several turns, at the waist of pants or jackets, which they also cross diagonally. Sometimes they transform into petticoats placed over pants or fluctuating negligees. The same goes for garlands of ruffles or pleated ribbons, which float around the clothes. Tops or bustiers are ruffled with 3D textile flowers. Loose jeans ripped at the knees are decorated with sparkling studs. Wool gaiters slip over dancer’s slippers.