Spotted on Mercer Street: The Surprisingly Elegant Way Fashion People Are Wearing Belts For Winter

One’s a coincidence, two’s a trend. On Thursday night, Simone Ashley and Paloma Elsesser teamed up to unofficially announce one of winter 2025‘s top styling trends: Using a belt to give shape to your faux fur coats. The duo both attended a Mango party on Mercer Street in Manhattan’s SoHo shopping district, wearing faux-fur outerwear from the Spanish fashion label. Ashley’s look consisted mainly of a purple faux-fur coat (available on October 28), which she wore as a dress with slingback pumps, a sparkly minibag, and a black-and-silver belt wrapped around her waist to give the voluminous jacket some shape. Elsesser opted for another, equally chic version, which included a brown fur vest fastened with a super-skinny black belt, a black bodysuit, and a pair of rounded-toe heels. Though different, both ensembles featured the same fur coat belt styling trick, setting it up to be one of the season’s most impactful—before winter even begins.

On Simone Ashley: Mango coat

On Paloma Elsesser: Mango Fur-Effect Turtleneck Vest ($850) and Combined Ruched Jumpsuit ($150)

Though they’re likely the most high profile wearers of this trend, Elsesser and Ashley aren’t the first ones to put it on the map. Across Europe, impeccably dressed stylists and content creators have been styling their belts on top of fur coats for years, relying on them every winter to ensure their cold-weather outfits are both warm and visually impactful. Sylvie Mus paired her dark-brown vintage coat with a thick black belt, tights, and boots, while Elly McGaw wore a fur-like fringe coat with a buckle-less black belt and black pumps. More recently, at the Khaite show in New York, Ilirida Krasniqi donned a pony hair, leopard-print coat with a black belt, bag, and heels.

So, no, you don’t need belt loops to wear a belt—this winter, all you need is some variation of a faux fur coat. Keep scrolling to shop our favorite belt-and-coat pairings.