I've never been to private school, which is maybe why I am obsessed with the schoolgirl aesthetic. I've never met a pleated skirt I didn't love—especially when paired with knee-high socks and a fun Peter Pan collar button-down top. It is my own personal uniform that makes me feel the most like myself, which is funny, considering it couldn't look any more different from my real life.
But maybe that's part of the appeal. I know I'm not alone, and I'd blame Sandy Liang, Miu Miu, and Prada for that. On their runways, models become schoolgirls again, breaking the rules with buttons undone and skirts maybe cut too short. At Miu Miu, models wear their pleated skirts with technical bathing suits and multiple belts. At Prada, a skirt is suspended from a leather belt with metal rings. At Sandy Liang, pleated skirts can be undone to reveal teeny tiny shorts underneath.
They've provided a mode of dressing that has become an obsession for a new class of fashion devotees. Everyone in downtown New York looks like a schoolgirl these days, and it's a look I won't tire of anytime soon. It's timeless, it's fun, and it makes me feel like someone I've always been—yet also like a character I'm having fun becoming.
Shop the very best pleated skirts below—from, of course, Prada, Miu Miu, and Sandy Liang, but also Mango, Zara, and more.
Shop the best pleated skirts below.
