The autumn/winter 2026 collections were surprisingly colourful with royal purple, cobalt and red inviting us to have a more playful approach to cold-weather dressing, and while the street-style set rose to the challenge with unexpected colour pairings, they also wore a lot of another much more sensible colour: grey. The likes of Prada, Bottega Veneta and Carven endorsed slate, charcoal and dove in their collections, while Cos’s runway show (which was aptly staged in the Financial District of New York) made grey tailoring something you’d want to wear beyond corporate cubicles.

You’d be forgiven for dismissing all-grey outfits as boring and perhaps even drab, however the below fashion insiders prove that it can be surprisingly elegant and a clever way to soften tailoring. Alexa Chung, for example, has been almost exclusively wearing grey coats this autumn, while ’s Lisa Aiken has long been a fan of layering up grey knitwear.

As a colour, it is surprisingly versatile as you don’t need to worry about colour matching shades when building a tonal look; all versions from slate to iron to stone blend seamlessly together. It is also an excellent base to add on flashes of the season’s bolder colour trends, from royal purple to red.

Keep reading for how to style grey, according to the street-style crowd.

Grey coat and jeans

This fashion month Alexa Chung wore a double-breasted slate-grey coat with a white shirt (note the popped collar) and jeans that had a subtle grey wash.

Dallas Washed Grey Relaxed Straight-Leg Jeans

Suede Woven Flat Ballet Pumps

Head-to-toe grey

Tonal dressing can be the quickest way to create a cohesive outfit that gives the impression that you are the sort of person who has hours to luxuriate in the process of getting ready each day. The best thing about grey is that you can easily layer up different shades, so you don’t need to worry about finding exact colour matches.

Bookish silhouettes

Lean into the librarian connotations that come with grey wool and opt for very sensible silhouettes, such as a single-breasted blazer, knee-length pencil skirt and pulled-up socks.

Classic twinset

Jeanne Damas showed that a knitted skirt set shouldn’t be overlooked – with the right accessories (pointed pumps and an evening clutch) a grey cardigan can be surprisingly glamorous.

Wool–Blend Knit Total Look Knee-Length Skirt

A grey tank

The easiest way to add some grey into your wardrobe is to swap out your white tank top or T-shirt for a grey base layer.

Pair it with red

Grey grounds postbox reds beautifully and can be softer alternative to black. The dark charcoal coat looks elegant over this lighter pewter knit and balances the red skirt, which could easily overpower an outfit.

Merino and Cashmere Contour Cardigan

Pile on the grey knitwear

’s Lisa Aiken shows that one of the easiest ways to look elegant is to pile on layers and layers of knitwear – her chunky V-neck knit looks even more expensive when a sweeping blanket scarf is swished over the shoulder.

Capes add drama

’s Lauren Eggertsen shows that grey lends itself well to caped, billowing silhouettes, with her draped coat with its in-built scarf detail.

With a statement skirt

Statement skirts are having a moment and tend to look best when paired with a simple boxy T-shirt – as mentioned above, a grey top can be just as useful as a white tee.