Lighter fabrics and brighter colors arrive with warmer weather, and this summer is led by sheer materials and cool tones — mint in particular.
Korean fashion platform W Concept named four trends shaping the season: "sheer color," "cool minimal," "soft formal," and an urban-resort fashion hybrid it calls "city vacance."
Stylist Kim Ji-hye, known on YouTube as Alice Funk, said mint is the season's most versatile shade: "There's soft mint, vivid mint, blue-leaning mint, even Tiffany mint. Finding the one that suits your tone matters most."
She added that mint pairs well with red, beige and butter yellow, making it a flexible choice across shoes, bags and accessories. That kind of accessory-driven styling fits W Concept's cool minimal direction, built on linen and seersucker pieces with little ornamentation.
The color appeared across recent runways. Shanghai-based fashion label Shushu/Tong paired mint with frayed seams, metallic floral embellishments and rough linen for its spring-summer collection. Maison Margiela showed a wedge heel in the shade, while Chanel introduced a mint handbag with floral detailing. Moschino offered a mint bag with belted strap details.
Translucent pastels, which W Concept categorizes as sheer color, are another defining note.
They appear in fabrics meant to brighten the complexion and in footwear treated as a canvas. Jelly shoes, long dismissed as casual, are a case in point. Loewe's latest version is a glossy PVC bootie with an architectural silhouette and molded single-piece construction, sold with a three-pack of socks in different colors that show through the clear upper. Chloe sent kitten-heel jelly shoes down the spring 2026 runway, layering translucent material over a formal silhouette.
Kim recommended transparent mules as a refined alternative to a summer staple of flip-flops. "Clear straps create a focal point and make the leg look longer," she said.
Capri pants are another summer staple worth a second look, she added. "They reveal the line of the leg while covering most of it, with skin showing only below the calf," Kim said, calling them an unexpected fit for anyone self-conscious about their lower body.
The cut anchors W Concept's soft formal trend, paired with sleeveless vests and slingback sandals to ease the office silhouette.
Blackpink's Jennie has been spotted in the look. She wore black capri pants with a beige knit and trench coat in a recent appearance on rapper Woodz's YouTube channel, telling him she had picked the outfit with extra care that day.
Korean retail data confirms the surge. Style commerce platform Zigzag analyzed bottoms sales from March 1 through April 16 over six years and found capri pants ranked third this spring, up from sixth when the category first appeared in its rankings in 2023. Sales volume was roughly 97 times higher than in 2024.
Low-rise pants are climbing alongside. Zigzag reported sales up 173 percent from 2024 and 576 percent from 2023.
Kim traced the revival to Miu Miu's low-rise collections two years ago, adding that current designs come in a wider range of rise lengths.
"In this layering era, low-rise is what makes lace underwear styling work," Kim said. K-pop idols, she added, are favoring tight low-rise bootcut styles that flatter the waistline.
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