Ready the Baby Powder: Meet Fall's Kinkiest Trend

Wherein BDSM means "Best Dressed Supermodel," or what you're going to look like.

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A woman wearing patent leather trousers.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

If you're unfamiliar with the art of latex maintenance, take it from somebody who's worn bondage to the office: The lube your bodysuit comes with isn't meant to make your legs slippery—it goes on the *outside* for maximum shine. Why would you ever need to know this? Because come a time when it's cool enough to wear trousers again, you might find yourself reaching for rubber ones.

Seen most recently at Copenhagen Fashion Week, patent leather is the trend you never thought could *could*-ing, mostly because where Veronika Heilbrunner goes, the rest of the world follows. And she went *there* in a pair of cropped Haider Ackermann pants made from a fabric usually reserved for rain slickers and children's dress shoes (in its more conservative usages).

The main thing to remember is better to keep the rest of your look safe than sorry, meaning boyish, high-cut basics that balance the leather's overtness. Think a shrunken hoodie, a crew-neck T-shirt, or one layered over the other for a skater-ish effect that's pleasing against a glossy mini. (Flats, please.) Texture-wise, play off the lacquered coating with its opposites from the wooly/furry/nubby category.

A final word of advice, again from a human who's been personally victimized by the subject of this article: Just know that, unless they're lined, there is absolutely *no* way to take a pair of liquid leggings off gracefully. So plan accordingly.

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Chelsea Peng
Assistant Editor

Chelsea Peng is a writer and editor who was formerly the assistant editor at Marie Claire. She's also worked for The Strategist and Refinery29, and is a graduate of Northwestern University. On her tombstone, she would like a GIF of herself that's better than the one that already exists on the Internet and a free fro-yo machine. Besides frozen dairy products, she's into pirates, carbs, Balzac, and snacking so hard she has to go lie down.