I can't help but wonder how I would have felt in college about the windbreaker trend that is now steadily gaining steam during Fashion Month.

None of the designers commanding the Spring 2025 trends in New York, Milan, and Paris would know what I would have worn on a muddy Friday night in March when I was in my early 20s. But when I see Prada, Cecilie Bahnsen, Burberry, and others wearing weatherproof windbreakers over feathered mini-dresses and dazzlingly bright sequined naked dresses, I know that they are not the same people I saw waddling across a New England campus in heels and mini-dresses. You can be sure they know (or at least try to capitalize on) the feeling of waddling around in a dress and throwing on a sporty, warm, but creepy jacket, only to be immediately disposed of by a pile of similarly utilitarian jackets shortly thereafter. Styling back then was necessarily about adding the “wrong” layer to the right dress. Outside it was warm and weatherproof, but indoors it was not part of the party look.

The twist for Spring 2025 is that the juxtaposition of the windbreaker and the going-out dress is, in fact, quite right. [For example, Rachel Antonoff's light layers of sequined mini-dresses and patterned leggings punched up her dog fashion show with Susan Alexandra. But the true origin of the refreshed windbreaker trend, as well as the renaissance of the barn jacket that began on the fall 2024 runway and now dominates street style, seemed to be Prada's spring 2025 runway. The joint collection by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons featured two looks with windbreakers. One was a traffic light yellow mirrored sequin shift dress and the other was a 3D feather midi in clementine orange. The contrast was enough to make every fashionista on my timeline groan.

Of course, one catwalk is not enough to establish a trend, and I am taking notes on the windbreakers before and after. In London, Burberry paired a sparkly pink party dress for the Studio 74 party with a heavy-duty feather-hooded anorak jacket. In Paris, Rabanne's space-age sequined top and asymmetrical hem mini skirt were paired with a black and ice blue ripstop windbreaker.

And the sportiest and chicest of all, Cecilie Bahnsen's runway featured a collaboration with The North Face. Bahnsen is known for her design sensibility, which she calls “everyday couture.” She elevates items that would otherwise be on the fringes of a real-life wardrobe with whimsical textures and playful embellishments. This jacket, paired with a fluffy dress and hard-working shoes, was no exception. [As of this writing, Paris Fashion Week is not even half over. Sarah Holzman, style director of Marie Claire magazine, predicts that Miu Miu will take over where its sister brand, Prada, left off.

She also expects to see windproof and waterproof outerwear. Aside from being purely practical, the resurgence of the windbreaker trend, a sales-friendly item that is actually produced in runway collections, feels right in line with fashion's return to the styling excesses of the 1980s. Oversized gold earrings and bangles (Schiaparelli) and kitschy gold-buttoned jacquard jackets (Saint Laurent) are also on the rise.

The high-low styling of windbreakers shows that designers are thinking not only about what women actually wear, but also how they wear it; the Spring 2025 trend will allow us to keep wearing it when we get where we're going.

During Fashion Month, I was training for the New York City Marathon. I've always worn a plain black Nike track jacket for rainy day runs. Now that I've been blessed by the runway, I can wear this jacket over my party dress for the celebrations that follow.