Time was the number of fashion points you earned depended on the height of your heel. Now a hero shoe can look humble, too. Few look more unassuming than the Céline skate shoes. The laundry bag print emphasises the everyday nature of the trainer and frames its pleasing utilitarian design. The check was a favourite on the catwalks this season at Stella McCartney and 3.1 Phillip Lim, among others, but Phoebe Philo’s design really put a spring in our step.
£385, matchesfashion.com
Words Imogen Fox
Styling Helen Seamons Photograph: Stephen Lenthall
There was once too much noise about bags and It bags. We no longer lust after tonnes of new designs; it feels a bit last decade. But Duffle 6 bag – which has been around for a year or so – is stunning. Based on designer Hedi Slimane’s own luggage, this has the gold typeface, just so. Two useful straps. Right amount of shine on the leather. A zip you can open one-handed. Elegant, but neither overtly feminine nor masculine. The bag bar has been reset, and then some.
£1,335, ysl.com
Words Imogen Fox
Styling Helen Seamons Photograph: Stephen Lenthall
The voluminous coats for men in this autumn’s collections are so intricately constructed and elegantly detailed they make us long for cold days. The best were at Salvatore Ferragamo where subtle variations of black and nearly black coats came in leather, rubberised leather and reversible felt. This year’s coats look like classics but the smart updates in fabric piqued our interest.These are overcoats 2.0.
£4,589, ferragamo.com
WordsAlice Fisher
Styling Helen Seamons Photograph: Stephen Lenthall
It’s an unlikely hero product: a Disney Bambi and a collage printed on a sweatshirt. But Riccardo Tisci’s sweetly streetwise top just works. The fashion sweatshirt is now a Big Deal. It is the latest in a line of everyday items – the T-shirt, the jumper – given a luxe makeover by designers. That Carine Roitfeld wore a lace version of this to the Met Ball adds to its cult status: it’s the sweatshirt in which Mademoiselle C conquered the red carpet.
£725, givenchy.com
Words Imogen Fox
Styling Helen Seamons Photograph: Stephen Lenthall
