My colleague Kala and I were recently discussing coats—something we've been doing a lot of lately—and found ourselves on the office escalators nodding about pairing something like a metallic puffer jacket with a pair of ripped vintage jeans, or a fur coat with track pants. It started a thought process around my tendency to often opt for the "wrong" choice of something just to make an outfit feel complete. To dress it up—or tone it down—a notch.
We've seen this with the wrong shoe theory, a term coined by stylist Allison Bornstein, which found harmonious outfits in pieces that traditionally are mismatched, and stylistically, as we evolve, the same can be applied to many elements of a good outfit, in particular, the coat.
There are plenty of examples to be had in real life: techy jackets or bombers with ball gowns/formal wear, like Anthony Vaccarello showed us for Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 2025, when he sent a series of leather bomber jackets paired with silk ballgowns down the runway for the finale; or sports jackets/utility coats over hyper-feminine silhouettes, like Miuccia Prada did for Miu Miu Fall/Winter 2025, pairing knit sweaters and feminine pencil skirts with "dad" jackets embellished with blingy pins.
Saint Laurent FW25
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Miu Miu FW25
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The technique is a favourite of Tory Burch, too, who for both Fall/Winter 2025 and Spring/Summer 2026 has dabbled with the theory, pairing a fur jacket with grey sweatpants, or a techy utility windbreaker with a polo and formal slacks. Elsewhere for Spring Summer, Glenn Martens used a classic technique of underscoring a hyperfeminine lace slip with an oversized black biker jacket, to give everything a sense of toughness.
Tory Burch SS26
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Tory Burch FW25
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Maison Margiela SS26
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And then comes the topic of evening-adjacent pieces, like the elegance of pairing a dinner jacket with blue jeans to get coffee or an embellished gown with an oversized men's blazer to make it all feel a little looser. These approaches make us reframe classic, predictable outfits and urge us to consider the proposition of texture in an outfit: what happens when you pair a fur coat with low slung sweats? You could find yourself buying milk at the bodega or a martini at the bar, which is what happened to me this Saturday, when I stepped out at noon in a fur coat and sweats to get a blowout, and emerged from the bar at 9 p.m. in the same look. I hadn't gone home to change, nor did I feel the need to. After all, "so wrong, it's right" is a popular phrase for a reason...
