Every well-dressed woman is wearing lace this summer

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Lace has been lurking at the edges of the fashion conversation for a few seasons now, but it was last year, during Copenhagen Fashion Week SS26, that it finally demanded our full attention. Specifically: a pair of yellow shorts with black lace trim, worn with a black grandpa sweater, a trench coat and a pair of thong heels on the Rotate runway. An outfit that had absolutely no business working as well as it did.

From there, it was everywhere. Acne Studios ran lace through the entire collection in Paris. Chloé's pastoral lineup had us frothing at the mouth (almost as frothy as the silhouettes, but we digress). Truth be told, almost every single brand showed lace for summer, and by the time the season was over, the conclusion was hard to argue with: lace should be in every well-dressed woman's wardrobe this summer.

Which makes sense, when you think about it. Lace has spent years living an unnecessarily small life confined to the lingerie drawer or, perhaps, trotted out for special occasions. Often seen as overtly romantic or, worse, trying too hard. What's changed for spring/summer 2026 is the context. Because a lace dress under a sharp trench is one of the easiest looks to pull off this summer. So is a lace cami with wide-leg denim, or a lace skirt with a chunky knit.

There is also something distinctly Scandinavian about the way lace is being worn now. Less precious and more undone, often layered in a way that suggests ease rather than occasion. A forgotten slip skirt, a silk camisole, a lace-trimmed nightdress already hanging in your wardrobe: styled with tailoring or leather, they easily shift naturally into everyday dressing. But if you're after a fresh find, explore the pieces worth adding to the rotation below.

In the early 2000s, the lace camisole was the uniform of everyone worth watching. Britney Spears, Victoria Beckham, Kate Hudson. Paris Hilton made hers work with Von Dutch and low-rise everything. The point being: this is not a new addition to our wardrobe rotations. It is a very good one we temporarily mislaid.

Back for the summer of 2026, the styling logic is straightforward. Wear it with wide-leg denim and flat shoes for an easy everyday look, or tuck it into tailored trousers with a heel and it does the work of a blouse without any of the associated ironing. One note of warning on fabric: silk is worth the investment, specifically the kind with a matte finish and enough weight to drape. Avoid the faux-luxe variety, which clings and creases the moment you sit down. You have been warned.

If the camisole carries a certain sense of nostalgia, the lace top does not. It is the less precious entry point into the trend. A sportier sibling, if you will. The most interesting iteration this season is the built-in layered version, where a lace-trimmed camisole is constructed directly into the T-shirt itself. It does the work of two pieces with the effort of one, which feels appropriately modern. For those willing to commit further, the frillier, longer-sleeved styles currently doing the rounds carry an unmistakable Stevie Nicks energy (beautiful, dramatic, and better suited to October than July, but we won't hold that against them).

Styling-wise, the lace top earns its place precisely where the camisole might feel like too much (or really, too little). Sometimes a lace cami feels too lingerie-adjacent, and that's where the lace top steps in.

If there is a single accessory worth paying attention to in 2026, it is the scarf. We have written about it at length already (specifically, how the vintage scarf hem took over Copenhagen Fashion Week's AW26 runways) and the trend has showed no signs of slowing down. The lace iteration is, conveniently, also the easiest entry point into the broader lace trend for anyone not quite ready to commit to a full lace dress or skirt.

The styling options are more varied than they might first appear. Tied at the hip over wide-leg trousers or to demarcate the waist of a dress, knotted into the hair, or attached to the handle of a bag for some added movement, a lace scarf does a reliable job of making an otherwise straightforward outfit more interesting. Minimal commitment. Maximum zhuzh.

The lace dress is, of the six categories in this edit, the one with the most to offer and the most to get wrong. A lace panel or trim on a simple slip dress adds the kind of interest that transforms an otherwise straightforward piece into something worth a second look. The slip itself, however, requires some consideration.

Fabric weight matters more here than anywhere else in this edit. A flimsy version, however beautifully constructed, risks reading as something that belongs in the bedroom rather than out and about. Opt for a longer length and a fabric with enough substance to hold its shape. Contrast is your friend: a leather jacket or a sharp structured blazer does the work of grounding the slip without diminishing it. For those not quite ready to commit to the slip on its own, layering it over a second-skin T-shirt is an option, though it does carry a certain 90s grunge energy – the kind of Nirvana-coded silhouette that requires a very specific conviction to pull off.

The lace skirt is, in theory, one of the easier pieces in this edit to style. In practice, balancing a slip skirt is a surprisingly tricky proposition. The fabric is unforgiving when it comes to tucking, which means the cut of whatever you put on top matters more than you might expect.

The easiest solution is a set. Malina's lace camisole and skirt combination, for instance, can be worn together or broken up across entirely different outfits. Which is, frankly, the ideal justification for the spend. For those working with separates, a sporty approach tends to resolve the silhouette question most cleanly. A cropped sweatshirt, a heavyweight cotton T-shirt, or one of this summer's best knitwear options worn with ballerina sneakers keeps the look grounded without competing with the skirt's delicacy. The key is where each piece falls. A top that hits at the wrong point on the hip can throw the whole proportion off, and anything too voluminous on top will fight the fluid line of the skirt below.

Day to night, the lace skirt requires less work than it might suggest. The same skirt that works with a cropped sweatshirt and sneakers in the afternoon holds its own with a silk camisole and a heel come evening.

Not to be biased, but the lace short is our favourite entry on this list. It was, after all, the Rotate yellow shorts with black lace trim that started this whole conversation for us at Copenhagen Fashion Week last summer. Now the look is positively exploding on our Instagram feeds and, if we're being honest, in our online shopping baskets too.

The appeal is straightforward. On sweltering summer days in the office, a pair of lace shorts with strappy heels and a crisp cotton shirt is the breeziest possible solution to the age-old question of what to wear when it is too hot to think. But the styling options extend considerably further than that. A leather jacket. A sweater. A blazer. Really, the number of looks that can be built around a pair of lace shorts will surprise you. They have, it turns out, all the versatility of a great pair of denim shorts with considerably more personality.

The lace trouser makes the strongest case for bohemian dressing without tipping into festival territory, and the shoe you pair it with does most of the heavy lifting. Luckily for us, lace trousers work well with most of our favourite summer shoe trends: Glove flats ground the look in something sleek and modern, clogs lean into the free-spirited energy while mesh shoes add a layer of textural interest. All three work. The choice largely depends on how committed you are to the aesthetic on any given day.

The silhouette worth calling out specifically is the bloomer. Equal parts lace trend and balloon trouser, it manages to marry two of summer's biggest style stories in a single piece.