We Found Our Favorite Dress-Over-Pants Look Yet

Wearing dresses over pants is not new (neither in a global, historical sense, nor in a trendy, fashion-y one). There's no cognitive dissonance in our brains when we've got two hemlines going on below our butt, and it's now a standard trick for when we want to dress down a fancy frock or give a plainer shift some life. But just because it's an old standby doesn't mean we're total masters at it yet. As Simone Rocha showed during her Spring 2016 show, we've still got some schooling to receive.

Rocha's lace-heavy, spicy-sweet collection mixed bondage-style knots with princess-style bows, and it was that kind of hard-and-soft juxtaposition that led to this pants breakthrough. On top: Our frilliest, prettiest, most Easter Sunday-appropriate dresses. Underneath: Generous, ankle-skimming, structured trousers that we'd typically wear to work with sweaters and brogues. This combination felt so different from the kind of shift-dress-and-culottes pairing or shirtdress-and-palazzo-pants mashup we usually pull off.

Click through to see a few examples of this magical combination on the runway and head into Monday with a new perspective.