From Snoopy trainers to château-inspired ready-to-wear, autumn’s most interesting new fashion drops prove that a practical wardrobe does not need to be a predictable one.
Autumn fashion usually arrives with the same instructions: buy a coat, find a knit, prepare to layer. But this season’s most interesting releases are more concerned with what happens once you leave the house. There are nostalgic trainers for off-duty days, after-dark separates for plans that may or may not materialise, shirts made to travel from city desk to country pub, and tailoring that can handle a commute as comfortably as a dinner reservation.
The mood is practical, but never plain. Consider this the new-season wardrobe with a sense of humour.
Snoopy x Autry: Americana, With a Wink
There are collaborations that need a long explanation. Snoopy x Autry does not.
The American footwear label has brought Peanuts’ most recognisable duo, Snoopy and Woodstock, to its clean white Medalist sneakers — a silhouette with the right amount of retro tennis-court energy already built in. One version places the pair together on the midsole, looking skyward; another sees Snoopy resting while Woodstock appears on the opposite shoe. Snoopy’s name is embroidered on the heel tab, keeping the detail playful but not overdone.
The capsule goes beyond footwear with sweatshirts, T-shirts, caps and socks, all carrying co-branded illustrations. It is nostalgic, yes, but the all-white leather trainer keeps it from feeling costume-like.
Clean enough for the sneaker minimalist. Charming enough for everyone else.
Duke + Dexter: Evening Wear Without the Invitation
Duke + Dexter’s Midnight Chateau arrives for the person whose evening plans are vague, but whose footwear should not be.
The AW26 collection turns an imaginary manor house — one with decadent parties, vintage cars and no apparent closing time — into a series of shoes and accessories decorated with surreal, hand-drawn graphics by in-house artists Jess and Valentino. The Wilde loafers return with sketches, 3D kisses and bolder artwork, while the Lennon Derby and Plus Duke sneaker receive similarly mischievous updates.
The result is vintage glamour without the velvet-rope seriousness. Black crust leather, rubber-lug soles and Italian leather-and-suede uppers mean the shoes have enough substance beneath the theatre, but the mood remains deliberately unserious.
Come for the loafers. Stay out long enough to justify them.
With Nothing Underneath: The Layer You Will Actually Wear
With Nothing Underneath has built its reputation on the kind of shirt that quietly earns its place in every wardrobe, and its AW26 collection makes the case for buying fewer pieces that work harder.
The bestselling Boyfriend Shirt returns in rose-pink poplin with a contrasting collar and exaggerated cuffs, alongside a double burgundy stripe in TENCEL™ Lyocell. For colder days, there are heritage-check brushed shirts, navy wool Rampling trousers, khaki Alba trousers and wool knitwear designed to live over — rather than compete with — the brand’s tailoring.
The appeal is not reinvention. It is clarity. These are clothes for the person who wants to look prepared at 9am, relaxed by 6pm and vaguely rural by the weekend, without requiring three outfit changes in between.
The kind of layering that looks considered, even when the morning was not.
PINK HOUSE x Maison MIHARA YASUHIRO: Sweetness, With a Good Sole
PINK HOUSE’s bear has met Maison MIHARA YASUHIRO’s famously distorted footwear universe — and the result is exactly as charmingly strange as it sounds.
The first collaboration between the Japanese labels centres on MMY’s BLAKEY sneaker, available in white, red, black and black/black, with chenille embroidery bringing the PINK HOUSE bear to life across the upper. There are also two cardigans, in beige and black, which place the bear inside low-gauge cable knit with deliberately distressed detailing.
PINK HOUSE brings the gentle femininity; MMY supplies the warped sole, deconstructed edge and cult-fashion credibility. It is not simply cute. It is cute, but never saccharine — thanks to MMY’s exaggerated sole and deconstructed edge.
Sweetness, but with a very good sole.
HEYDUDE: The New Commute Has Better Shoes
The commute no longer ends at the office door. It now includes the coffee meeting, the gym class, the school run, the café desk and whatever happens after work — which is the logic behind HEYDUDE’s new-season push.
Earlier this month, the brand brought the idea to life through its Comfort Class Lounge at 180 The Strand, turning a working day in transit into a one-day co-working space. The footwear answer is the Paul Pro Classic for men, priced at £67.99, and the Austin Lift Clog for women, lightweight, casual styles designed for comfort across a full, non-linear day.
It is not runway footwear, and it does not pretend to be. It is a more honest proposition: shoes for people who have stopped dressing for one destination.
Less “commuter shoe,” more “whatever happens after 9am” shoe.
T.M. Lewin: Smart Dressing, Properly Done
Tailoring is back, but it has to work harder now. T.M. Lewin’s AW26 collection understands that the modern wardrobe moves between office, dinner, train platform and formal invitation — sometimes in a single day.
The standouts include a luxury gilet in Italian Guabello wool, a Thomas Mayes Lewin shirt in Italian Canclini twill with mother-of-pearl buttons, and a 100% Italian wool overcoat. For the commute, the Travel Trouser brings four-way stretch, water repellency and discreet reflective tape into a slim, work-ready cut. Then there is the Kew Velvet Dinner Jacket, for the evenings that still require one to make an effort.
The office may be hybrid. The need for a very good coat is not.
The best autumn wardrobes do not belong to one place or one version of the day. They move between all of them — and, ideally, make every stop look a little more interesting.
