Help! The algorithm is telling me the ’80s are back for autumn, but am I really about to see out 2026 in basque waistlines and brash jewel tones?

Don’t believe everything those algorithms are throwing your way. (That “s” is there intentionally, btw, because there’s never just one algorithm at play.) Sure, Michael Rider’s winning streak at Celine is making fashion editors hot under the collar for (1988) power suiting – and the house’s covetable taupe overcoat (autumn/winter 2026 look 10, to be exact) could have been pinched off the set of (1987). Yes, Prada’s resurrecting the preppy cigarette pant (in white denim no less) and Chanel’s elegantly roomy skirt suits wouldn’t be out of place in a modern day remake of (1988), but it’s not like the clashing, primary colours on Marc Jacobs’s spring/summer 2027 runway are a welcome antidote to the 50 shades of beige that have held mainstream fashion in a chokehold for the best part of a decade, or anything…

I feel better now that I’ve got that off my chest. Listen, ’80s fashion gets a bad rap because, even at its most casual, it was truly out there in ways we can’t relate to in 2026. For better or worse, we live in an era dominated by ’90s- slip dresses and flip flop heels, black vests and straight-cut, mid-rise blue jeans. Rewind four decades, though, and you would have to dress outrageously (by modern standards) simply to . “Basics” and “wardrobe staples” weren’t yet a thing. Instead, wearing a padded-shoulder blouse in a particularly eye-popping shade of fuschia to the office on a random Tuesday was a thing. As was perming your hair within an inch of its existence because you’d watched (1988) once. (Did I ever tell you about the time I permed my hair? It was relatively recently. No? OK, next time.)

This was long before the advent of the “clean girl”. There was no “no-makeup” makeup police dishing out unsolicited advice on demi-mattifying primers and £52 blotting sheets: in the ’80s, more was indeed more. That meant daubing your cheeks, eyes lips in crayola shades and adding a haphazard bow around your fedora because you’d noticed Bananarama wore something similar in the latest issue of . It didn’t need to be perfect (none if it was), it just needed to be fun.

What I’m saying is: perhaps we could all use some encouragement to be more expressive when it comes to how we dress right now? When I scroll Instagram, I often think about how exhaustingly good everyone looks. If an ’80s revival (be that full tilt New Romantic, see: Vivienne Westwood’s 1981 Pirate collection, or glassy-eyed glamour) means showing a little extra feeling through what we wear – and embracing the untamed, the unserious – rather than trying to look so unnervingly polished all the damn time, I’m here for it.

To help ease you into the new season, I’m sharing a 10-piece wardrobe starter kit with just a hint of ’80s flare. Relax, don’t do it you’ve got this.