Copenhagen Street Style Started It, Celebs Proved It: This Polarizing 2026 Trend Isn’t Hard to Wear
I already tested it at fashion week, with insider-approved results.
Greetings from snowy Denmark! It’s Halie, back to writing The A-List Edit after a packed week of Copenhagen Fashion Week runways. Diving back into the international style circuit felt like the right time to test a layering technique I see well-dressed Danes wearing every time I visit—and that I’ve noticed stateside A-listers warming up to once again. Brace yourselves: Dresses and skirts layered over pants are very much back. But trust me, you can pull them off.
Clockwise from left: Kendall Jenner, Anne Hathaway, and Jennifer Lawrence have all made compelling cases to stack a skirt on top of free-flowing pants.
I know this will trigger memories of cringy, early-aughts Disney Channel red carpets for my fellow millennials. Fear not. The 2026 way to double up on lower layers isn’t taking notes from 2006.
These days, Anne Hathaway, Kendall Jenner, and Jennifer Lawrence are instead trying Scandi-inspired sets that combine longer, fluid skirts, hitting at about the knee, with a coordinating trouser. Kaia Gerber has used several Los Angeles pap walks expressly for modeling pants with a skirt sewn into the waistband.
The key, reaffirmed by nearly every runway show I’ve watched this week (and more), is sticking to similar color stories for the skirt and trousers—and not going too overboard with the rest of your styling. On top, all you really need is a coordinating crewneck sweater (for winter, like Hathaway’s) or a plain tee (like Lawrence’s, for spring and summer). Celebs tend to mix and match their own pieces, but a lot of designers jumping on the trend have done the layering for us already.
How I Style It
How I wore the skirt-over-pants look at Copenhagen Fashion Week.
I checked into my fashion week HQ (1Hotel Copenhagen—very close to the city’s best vintage, for my fellow shopaholics-slash-travelers) with a single objective: pull off this trend like a local (or a recent celebrity convert). As a skirt-over-pants novice, I went for a hybrid option from COS that stacked my separates for me. All I had to do was choose a complementary sweater and shoes that would stand out in the slush.
It’s a little bit of extra fabric, but it’s so much more interesting than plain pants. A guest making her way to the elevator while I was snapping photos said she wanted a pair, so it's safe to say this look works. Once I started dashing between shows, I added an oversize faux fur coat and a knitted balaclava: two street style staples in this part of the fashion world.
When I get home, I’m planning to double-dip for New York Fashion Week—this time by stacking one of my favorite pleated skirts over a wide-leg trouser like the ones below. I think my counterparts from LA to Copenhagen would approve.
