Capri pants, tulle and cropped leather: why the most stylish women are done hiding their lingerie

Something shifted on the Spring/Summer 2026 runways. The capri came back. The lingerie came out. And somewhere between the two, a new silhouette emerged that has nothing to do with modesty and everything to do with knowing exactly who you are.

The capri, rewritten

Let’s be honest: the capri carried baggage. For years, it was the pant you associated with airport lounges and resort buffets. The early-2000s version, low-slung and vaguely athletic, didn’t help. But the Spring/Summer 2026 runways have rewritten the story entirely.

At Versace, capris came out in bold colour blocks and sharp proportions, channelling 80s glamour with a modern cut. Ralph Lauren went the opposite route, dressing them up in tailored wool for a look that could walk into a boardroom without flinching. Isabel Marant took hers bohemian, longer, looser, in neutral tones that whispered the Côte d’Azur. And at Proenza Schouler, black capris with ruffled hems were styled under dresses, proving that the silhouette plays well with others.

The 2026 difference? Everything is in the proportion. Higher waist. Slimmer cut. The hem hits the narrowest point of the calf, not the widest, which changes everything. Vogue France spotted the shift early, dedicating features to the three ways to wear the capri this spring and the shoes that make the silhouette sing.

Off the runway, Bella Hadid confirmed the move. Photographed in a pair of red and white Vichy check capris with a backless top and scarlet ballet flats, she turned the silhouette into something that could have walked off a 1950s film set. Hailey Bieber went sleeker, pairing polka-dot capris with heeled thong mules for that "I’m not trying but I know exactly what I’m doing" energy. Emily Ratajkowski proved the silhouette works in total black: a plunging jacket, matching capris, heeled mules. Pure simplicity. Pure impact.

Lingerie, finally free

The other revolution of spring 2026 has been slower to build but is now impossible to ignore. Lingerie has left the bedroom. Not provocatively, not rebelliously, but with the quiet confidence of something that was always meant to be seen.

Vogue France explored this shift in depth, examining how bodysuits, corsets and sheer layers have moved from intimacy to outfit centrepiece. The key is never exposure for its own sake. It is always about the layering, the reveal, the suggestion. A lace bralette glimpsed under a half-open blazer tells a different story than a bralette worn alone. The first is style. The second is a choice. Both are valid, but they are not the same gesture.

This is precisely the territory that Lumey has been working since its founding. The French house designs every piece to exist at the intersection of lingerie and ready-to-wear, using materials that make the question "is this lingerie or a top?" genuinely unanswerable. Their velvet flocked tulle is the perfect example: a fabric where the velvet motif creates zones of opacity and transparency that shift as the wearer moves. In one light, it’s a top. In another, it’s lingerie. In every light, it’s the most interesting texture in the room.

The woman behind the look

Picture her. She takes the metro but she wears perfume to do it. She reads Sagan on her phone and Didion in paperback. She works in an industry where the dress code was written by men, and she rewrites it every morning without saying a word about it. She owns one excellent leather jacket, two pairs of shoes she actually wears, and a lingerie drawer that stopped being a secret the day she realised that hiding it was the same as hiding herself.

She is not interested in "effortless." She knows what effort means. She is interested in intention. The right tulle under the right leather, the right heel with the right crop. Not because someone told her, but because she looked in the mirror and the mirror agreed.

If Diana Vreeland were alive, she would probably like her. "You don’t have to be born beautiful to be wildly attractive," Vreeland once said. This woman wouldn’t argue. She’d just smile and order a coffee at Grave in Le Marais, wearing tulle at 2pm on a Tuesday, because no one told her she couldn’t.

Our spring edit

We built this selection around one idea: a woman who wears lingerie as outerwear, not because it’s trending, but because she was already doing it before anyone called it a trend.

The starting point: the Halter Top 11.14 by Lumey, in velvet flocked tulle. Halter cut, tied at the neck, made in France. The flocked velvet plays with light in a way that makes it impossible to look away. Under a jacket, the tulle peeks through at the collar and the waist, revealing just enough. Without the jacket, it becomes the entire statement.

Over it: a cropped leather trench by Reformation, one of the standout arrivals of the season according to Vogue France’s spring edit. The shorter cut frees the waist, which means the tulle is visible in exactly the right places. Leather and tulle together create that tension between hard and soft, structure and transparency, that defines the most compelling spring silhouettes.

Below: capri pants by Totême. Black, high-waisted, slim. The monochrome keeps everything focused on the tulle. The cropped length, paired with the right shoe, creates an unbroken vertical line that elongates the silhouette. This is the capri at its most refined.

The bag: Khaite’s Donna, a cylindrical shoulder bag that has quietly become one of the most covetable shapes of the year. Architectural and minimal, it serves the outfit without competing with it.

The shoes: Gucci’s Vittoria sandals, a thong kitten heel that does exactly what the capri demands. Slight elevation, minimal design, maximum leg. The shoe disappears into the look, which is the highest compliment a shoe can receive.

Where she goes

Vogue France recently published a guide to the best tea time and date spots in Paris. The kind of addresses where the interior is as considered as the menu, and where no one looks out of place because everyone looks like they belong. Grave, tucked into the Marais, is one of those places. Dark wood tables, handmade ceramic cups, an espresso that tastes like it takes itself seriously.

Imagine her there. Cropped trench draped over the chair. Tulle catching the afternoon light through the window. A lipstick mark on a napkin. She is not waiting for anyone. She is exactly where she wants to be, wearing exactly what she chose, and that quiet certainty is the most compelling accessory of all.

One piece, several lives

What makes this kind of styling work beyond a single look is the versatility of the anchor piece. The same halter top, under a navy blazer with straight-leg trousers and loafers, becomes sharp enough for a dinner that matters. With vintage denim and flat sandals, it’s a Saturday at the marché. With nothing else and a pair of heels, it’s midnight in the 6ème.

That range is the promise of clothes designed where lingerie meets ready-to-wear. Clothes that understand a woman is never just one version of herself.

The full Lumey collection is designed and crafted in France