Parading down the runway over tulip-shaped fluid trousers at Kallmeyer’s recent New York Fashion Week presentation or sauntering through the streets of Paris over languid shirts, welcome to the invasion of the waist-snatchers. Indeed, cummerbunds, an almost alien concept for those unfamiliar with black-tie dressing or traditional formal menswear attire, are cropping up everywhere.
At Alessandro Michele’s autumn/winter 2026 collection for Valentino, they were rendered in candy-coloured ruched satin and adorned with ornate collarless jackets. For Conner Ives’ spring/summer 2027 show, the Bedford-born, London-based designer continued his obsession with upper-crust socialites by dressing models in the cummerbunds their husbands would’ve taken them to dinner in. Elsewhere in Manhattan, at Heirlome’s debut on-schedule show, they were rendered in lightweight silk and made quite the compelling case for adding a swash of fabric around your waist.
Of course, if you’ve been following the fluctuating trend cycle closely, you’ll notice this practice of tying something around your torso to create visual intrigue is by no means new. (A quiet rebellion against Coco Chanel’s most famous styling principle, “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off,” if you will.
First, it was longline scarves à la Alexa Chung and her horsebit Gucci style. Then it was slimline tasselled options that evoked an image of Kate Moss in the early 2000s with her useless skinny scarves. Now, the most tasteful dressers are pining for something that your Year 12 prom date might’ve worn at the behest of whatever store they rented their oversized suit from.
For the uninitiated, cummerbunds are a swath of pleated fabric that conventionally sits under prim dinner jackets. Despite originating in the Middle East and South Asia, in the West, the style has become associated with the uniforms of slick, cocktail-sipping spies like James Bond.
Fast forward half a century, and they’ve become a subversive nod to tailoring and an indisputable part of the modern dandy’s uniform, especially as this takes a more urban preppy tone. This was especially apparent at the recent men’s shows back in July, with Michael Rider at Celine the biggest proponent for the comeback. The creative director's first non-co-ed show for the French maison utilised colour to spruce up this forgotten, albeit superfluous, accessory: vibrant purple bands juxtaposed against red sweaters, fuchsia pink styles bumped up against beige jumpers.
Naturally, this "borrowed from the boys" styling inclination has trickled over into womenswear, with countless members of the style set finding innovative ways to incorporate it into their wardrobes. There are brocade options from Dries Van Noten that add an ornate finish to a classic black blazer, whilst Le Sundial’s corded iteration pairs seamlessly over a fluid maxi dress. Though originally intended to neaten up any tucking at the waistband, cummerbunds have become so much more than a functional accessory.
You could even take a shortcut by investing in something like Harris Tapper’s cummerbund skirt, which is a route similar to both Lorde and Olivia Dean, who attended the Met Gala and CFDA Awards in varying interpretations of Thom Browne cummerbund dresses, respectively. Either way, all that’s required to further elevate this humble sash is to emulate its cocktail-attire origins and team it with a shaken dirty martini. Let’s get waisted.
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