When did everyone decide we wear big coats with sheer stockings? I don’t know, but I’m always here for a little sartorial juxtaposition. To understand lightweight dressing, I guess we should really start with a little fashion history lesson.
In 2015, “The Skimm” defined the term lampshade like wearing an oversized T-shirt long enough to cover your shorts, making it look like you weren’t wearing pants. For a while, everyone from Kim Kardashian to Bella Hadid was doing it, with most of them adding knee-high or thigh-high boots to the equation, taking the look from a lazy girl’s uniform to a dad-walk moment. In this case you can think of the boots as the lamp stem I guess.
In 2018, Ariana Grande became the unofficial queen of lampshading, trading in her T-shirts for oversized hoodies and crewnecks whenever she went out with then-boyfriend Pete Davidson. Seven years later, Grande showed us what a lampshade should be. Really will look like Schiaparelli at the Oscars in March 2025.
Now, in fall 2025, an outfit formula is emerging that seems to fall under the same umbrella. In a sort of amalgamation of Grande’s two lampshade-inspired looks, more and more designers are sending models down the runway in oversized outerwear and sheer skirts.
This jumpsuit creates an ethereal, moody take on the no-pants trend: a look Charm nicknamed “light dressing room” or “mood lighting”. And we’ve already seen the look move from the runways to street style experts, some of whom have given the look their stamp of approval with warmer jackets and sweaters for fall and winter.
Of course, Dakota Johnson was an early adopter, pairing a sheer dress with a leather jacket last fall.
