343 | The 5 Fall Pieces I'm Actually Seeing Women Buy and Wear In Real Life

Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing

Host Heather Riggs explores five specific fall fashion trends that are proving to be highly wearable because they integrate seamlessly into

Key takeaways

• The 'I like it' vs. 'I have a job for it' exercise helps prevent buying pieces that require an entirely new support system of clothes.
• Plaid is highlighted as an accessible entry point for those wanting to introduce patterns into a solid-based wardrobe.
• Track pants, specifically wide-leg styles like Rag & Bone's Miramar, offer a middle ground between loungewear and polished attire.
• Funnel neck jackets serve as a practical way to upgrade existing outerwear without needing a fashion-forward overhaul.
• Asymmetrical designs can be used strategically to direct the eye toward or away from specific body features.

Main topics

• Fall 2026 fashion trends
• Wardrobe utility and functionality
• Plaid patterns

Notable quotes

Sometimes the best trend for you isn't the one that catches your eye first. It's the one that solves a problem you already had.

Conclusion

The ultimate takeaway is to shop with intention by finding the interse

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) A few weeks ago, I shared my fall 2026 trend report and walked you through some of the questions I use to decide whether a trend is actually worth trying. But now that fall shopping is underway, I want to take that conversation one step further. I'm starting to see which trends women are actually bringing home and wearing, and there are a handful of them that seem to be fitting into a lot of everyday wardrobes especially well. So today, I want to highlight five of those trends, discuss why I think they're proving to be so wearable, and give you one very simple way to figure out which of this season's trends might actually make your wardrobe even more useful. Because sometimes the best trend for you isn't the one that catches your eye first, it's the one that solves a problem you already had. Speaker 1 (0:47) Welcome to Her Style Podcast, where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host, Heather Riggs, a 15-year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist, ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started. Back to Her Style Podcast, my dear friend. In our recent episode number 340, which I will link up for you in the show notes in case you missed it, I broke down the fall 2026 fashion trends. And as always, I had so much fun putting that episode together. I love seeing what's changing from season to season, sometimes what's not changing from season to season, which was kind of the premise of that particular episode. Also looking at what's coming back around and which ideas feel fresh enough to make me look at my own closet a little bit. differently. It's always so fun to do some trend research, dive deep into the runway shows, and pull out all the highlights for you. But in that episode, I also gave you some questions to help you figure out which trends are worth considering for you. As always, we want to personalize everything. And so we talked about questions like, would I want to buy this if nobody told me it was a trend? And will I still be excited to wear this in February? Or... better yet, next fall. So we've already talked about how to separate the trends you genuinely like from the ones you're only noticing because they're suddenly everywhere and it's hard to avoid them. Today, I want to go one step beyond that. Now that we're getting further into the season, I've been paying attention to what my clients and other women out in the wild are actually trying on, what they're buying and wearing, because there's often a difference between a trend that looks fantastic and a beautifully styled campaign or on the runways and one that's slip seamlessly into the wardrobe that you already have. And I received a message after releasing my fall trend episode that illustrates this better than anything I could have come up with myself. One of our regular podcast listeners, Eden, hi Eden, shout out, sent me an Instagram DM and said, I have been looking for literally two plus years for the shoe that is not a sneaker and not a dress shoe. a place normally occupied by a flat, and the right level of casual slash dressy for my lifestyle. Now, but for some reason, possibly one bad try-on experience, Eden had been telling herself that Mary Jane style ballet flats weren't for her. Then she listened to the Fall Trend episode from a couple weeks ago and... In that episode, I mentioned sneak arenas. And as Eden put it, her little shoe antenna went up, which I thought was so cute how she described that. And she happened to see some in a store, so she tried them on. And she came home with two Dolce Vita pairs, a sneak arena, and much to her surprise, a Mary Jane style ballet flat. And this was the part of her message that made me so, so happy. She said, they are already perfect with most of the pants I own. So she'd been looking for this shoe for more than two years. The sneakerina trend didn't convince her that she needed another pair of shoes. It just gave her a new option for something she'd already been trying to find. And I love that way of looking at the trends. Because once you figured out which ones you actually like, the next question could be as simple as, do I have a job for this in my wardrobe? The question... you maybe don't want to ask is, can I think of somewhere I could possibly wear this? You know I love that question. It's always great to look at your calendar, make sure it's practical for your real life, but let's be completely real. Many of us can rationalize almost anything if we work hard enough. I think the more impactful question here, especially with regard to trends, is, is there something I'm already wishing my wardrobe had or did a little better and this could help? I've been looking at the trends women around me are actually embracing this fall, and there are five in particular that just keep coming up. They're not necessarily the five biggest trends of the season, and they're certainly not the only five worth wearing or considering for your wardrobe. But I think they're interesting because each one can bring something genuinely useful to a wardrobe in a slightly different way. So I want to walk you through these five because it's going to show you how to think about this one layer deep question beyond what we already talked about in the broader trend episode. So remember, the next question is, do I have a job for this trend in my wardrobe? Okay, so let's start with the