The 11 trends that will make you look ten years older in 2026: Here’s EXACTLY what to avoid if you’re over 50, reveals SHANE WATSON

Some of us are still vacuuming up the pine needles and putting away the decorations, so it feels a bit too early to be thinking about clothes for the months ahead.

However early January is the perfect time to take stock of the fashions that worked for us in 2025, and the ones that didn’t. Instead of making new year resolutions why don’t we fifty-plus women cast our minds back to the hits and misses, the lucky escapes and the surprise successes of the past year – and make a note of the lessons we learned and plan to take into 2026. 

Trousers

HIT: We wore wide trousers in all their incarnations – from high waisted to baggy jeans. Snug on the hips, loose on the leg (not extra voluminous – we left that to our daughters) is now where most of us feel most at home.

MISS: In spite of Claudia Winkleman’s best efforts on The Traitors, there was no legging revival among our age group. It’s true there were plenty of skinny and slim cut trousers on the catwalks for Spring/Summer 2026, and never say never in fashion, but the roomier straight leg shape is likely to be where we settle.

SURPRISE: Black trousers fell off the map and now our trousers are anything but. The trusty black trouser suit in your wardrobe hasn’t seen the light of day for months.

Coats 

HIT: The trench coat went from classic to must-have and then reinvented itself in different lengths and textures. You can go mini or midi or maxi, with or without an extra cape, wool or leather, PVC or denim (one of John Lewis’s top sellers, as it happens). The trench is not just the beige mac you once knew.

MISS: Melania Trump’s tarmac-sweeping Burberry number probably took the biscuit.

SURPRISE: The rise and rise of the super realistic, desirable fur coat. You may own three or four – an old reliable leopard, a long smooth cowprint, a curly funnel neck sheepskin, or an ivory and black faux sheepskin zip-up bomber jacket. They’re just too good to leave on the rail.

Dresses 

HIT: The Ozempic dress. The dress that keeps on giving is the one with the draped torso, gathered from a centre seam or twisted and ruched across the hips. This shape flatters all figures and has become Victoria Beckham’s signature.

MISS: Those floral dresses we wore season after season and then kept on wearing in the summer when the rumour was they were no longer fashionable, because they were so damn easy… Well, they finally fizzled out. If there’s something more ageing than a floppy floral print dress, can’t think of it.

SURPRISE: 2025 may go down as the year we bypassed dresses in favour of matching skirts and tops (co-ords) and a lot of trousers.

Prints 

HIT: Tartan and tweedy checks. Thank The Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman and the programme’s Scottish castle location for putting us in the mood, or was it that gorgeous mainly yellow tartan coat from The Fold? Whatever lit the touchpaper, there are years when heritage fabrics all of a sudden look very appealing, and 2025 was one of them.

MISS: Floral prints. Need a break from those this year.

SURPRISE: Tweed in particular, along with wax jackets, and ‘country coats’ with corduroy collars have shed their Sloane Ranger image.

Scarves 

HIT: The Little Red Scarf is still the insider’s fashion nudge.

MISS: Knitted hoods or balaclavas. Too youth.

SURPRISE: If you don’t fancy a scarf, you might want a wrist warmer. Claudia Winkleman (again) in her soft goth Traitors wardrobe has made these suddenly desirable.

Denim 

HIT: Tailored denim took the place of black trousers; double denim was top of the smart casual chart. And the colours! Brown, ivory, cream, dirty green, before indigo.

MISS: Low rise. No matter – there’s a fashionable jeans rise, leg shape and hem length to suit every woman in Britain now.

SURPRISE: Barrel shape jeans. Who would have thought something with such an unflattering name would catch on but, cut right, these have a way of making your top and hips look smaller. M&S sell 258 a day.

Colour 

HIT: In 2025 we finally accepted that spring no longer means Easter egg pastels, autumn no longer means shades of fallen leaves, and brown is never just brown – it’s chocolate or coffee or cinnamon or mole.

In fact, if you want to stay ahead now, you need to turn your colour expectations upside down and cast off all your prejudices. White and cream are the new navy to wear in winter and in summer. Brown is a year round basic building block, on a par with navy and black, and black is at its chicest in high summer.

What did Claudia Winkleman wear to receive her MBE on a cold day in December? Why a white trouser suit of course.

MISS: All flat black. We’re still wearing black but only textured black mixed with other colours.

SURPRISE: White and ivory jeans. We’re wearing these from March to October, so long as the day is bright not rainy. White and mud still do not go.

The smart sweater 

HIT: The sweater grew up in 2025 and can now be as smart as your best blouse and jacket. We need separate styles for separate occasions: One for party best; one for wearing with smart trousers or jeans (a luxe polo or funnel neck); one for wearing with a skirt and boots to the office… we have become newly sweater literate, discovering the potential of sophisticated cuts and the clever colour-injecting, neck-concealing hack of slinging a second sweater around your neck.

MISS: Sweaters with hoods.

SURPRISE: The short-sleeved luxey sweater. We’re now showing off our arms not our legs.

Shoes 

HIT: Loafers. Classic loafers have grown on us. A soft brown loafer is now your chic casual shoe; a shiny patent one looks smart with midi skirts; a polished, block heel, buckle-detail loafer is glossy smart casual; and my favourite – a white loafer with a small block heel and a fringe front – is looking like the super shoe of 2026.

MISS: Platforms. If you love a platform and mary janes then combine the two while you still can.

SURPRISE: Flat shoes now give heels a run for their money and though heels are making a comeback, they’re now lower and more elegant.

Stealth wealth 

HIT: Stealth wealth, we’ve discovered, has its limitations – it’s not as easy as we thought to fake it – but it’s now embedded in the fashion landscape and we’re sticking with some of the lessons such as sheepskin, real or fake, never goes out of style; off-white tailoring is very chic, if you can keep it clean; and a luxey looking tote bag is the only bag you need. Arguably the biggest hit of the stealth wealth movement in 2025, and the one that’s going nowhere, is the luxury anonymous loafer.

MISS: The flip-flop with a heel.

SURPRISE: Pale butter yellow went down a storm.

Jackets 

HIT: A neat faux sheepskin zip up style.

MISS: The Lovejoy leather jacket, as in the broad shouldered blouson style favoured by Ian McShane’s character in the Nineties TV series. This is one of those looks that adds a decade.

SURPRISE: The edge-to-edge cropped jacket. Grown-up and polite and all set to be the really useful jacket of 2026.