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Leave it to fashion editors to not do fashion correctly — most noticeably in the last few seasons when it became a thing to drape your blazer, jacket, or coat around your shoulders, cape-style. The actual benefits for this move were close to none. It was cumbersome, it didn't actually keep you all that warm, and it would constantly slip off if you weren't careful. Also, it wasn't practical — and sometimes fashion isn't — but the move has somewhat been replaced by another one that actually stays put.
We call it the exposed shoulder. You either pull the buttoned jacket down around your upper arms, like an off-the-shoulder blouse, or use your elbows to keep an unbuttoned coat up (which also forces you to adopt T-Rex arms to keep your coat from slipping off). The styling trick has been popular among the "I don't really need a coat because I have a private car that drives me everywhere" street style set, and it's being adopted onto the runway. At Demna Gvasalia's excellent debut collection for Balenciaga, he styled everything from oversized, exaggerated puffers and anoraks to boxy cut Perfectos and shearling bombers to sit just south of your collarbones. At Vetements, Gvasalia became well-known for deconstructing how a familiar fashion item (Levi's jeans, a plain hoodie, a flight jacket) looks and fits; at Balenciaga, he's advanced that concept to how clothes are meant to be worn, too. Wearing jackets this way treats average looking ski parkas like opera jackets: They're glamorous, fine items that are meant to be worn sensuously, which is a fun idea to play around with.
Click through to see examples of off-shouldering your jackets.
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