The red carpet photo that has completely derailed everything we knew: Introducing the new blazer rules

Fellow millennials, let me cast your minds back to the “office chic days” where we wore our best blouses with our shortest skirts (or sequinned shorts) and a blazer.

To the nightclub.

If you’ve spent the last decade trying to erase those memories (and evidence of that era from your Instagram accounts), don’t freak out when I tell you this. But the trend is back. Kinda.

Blazers have been given a new life outside the workplace once again, paired with skirts that have personality, in a sartorial movement reinvented for the 2020s.

Don’t take my word for it – take a long look at English Esmé Creed-Miles, who arrived at the Sense and Sensibility London premiere in a cropped black blazer and voluminous white skirt by American designer Thom Browne.

The look, pieced together by celebrity stylist Karla Welch, strikes the perfect balance between whimsy and structure. It’s business on top, party on the bottom for a new generation.

A new trend means a whole new set of rules, so we’ve enlisted personal stylist Melissa Murgana to help guide us through the dos and don’ts of this new style.

The new blazer rules

1. Pick silhouettes cropped above the hip, or boxy or strong waist-cinching styles. ”They both offer a nod to definition and nip-in of the waist,” Murgana tells nine.com.au. “The trend reverts to a shift of being tailored rather than fully oversized.”

2. Shapes should be interesting, like collarless, cocoon-bulb sleeves or hip-enhancing designs. “The types of blazers that work with this trend have some structure at the shoulders and/or the waist with more curved lines,” she explains.

Read more

‘Has the ship sailed for me?’ The dilemma Gen X and Millennials face as low-rise pants return

3. Ditch your slouchy blazers and oversized, longer-line silhouettes. ”An unstructured, unshapely silhouette isn’t the best option for this trend, nor are overwhelming lapels,” Murgana explains. “Generally speaking, if paired with skirts, which are already a feminine-style garment, a fully slouchy blazer doesn’t work ... There’s been a shift from oversized, longer-line silhouettes to shorter, curved hem blazers that complement trending pant silhouettes, like balloon and barrel leg.”

4. Consider the bottoms you’re pairing with carefully. “The key to getting the look right is getting balance top and bottom and considering where the volume is being put,” she tells nine.com.au, explaining you should be focusing on building volume in either the top or the bottom. Not both.