The menswear trends stemming from the fall 2025 collections this month paint a picture of an industry in transition. Designers often talk about liminal spaces, contrasts, and juxtapositions, and while they often reference their collections and the “tensions” they imbue their clothing with in their quest for novelty, they seldom discuss these same concepts in the context of the industry at large. But fashion is at the threshold of change with 2025 being a year of big debuts: Matthieu Blazy at Chanel, Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford, Sarah Burton at Givenchy, Michael Rider at Celine; plus the just-now announced Glenn Martens at Margiela and Peter Copping at Lanvin, who it fell on to go first as the closing show of the menswear season.
Much anticipated as they are, these new configurations are due to kick off with the ready-to-wear collections in Paris this coming March. Even Copping’s first outing at Lanvin technically occurred after every other menswear show had happened. This feeling of expectancy, of curiosity and speculation for the changes that are to come in the industry—together with the fires in Los Angeles, a ceasefire in Gaza, and an undeniable anxiety fueled by Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, which coincided with the start of the Paris leg of shows—has morphed this men’s season into one of trepidation and ambiguity. There was also the fact that many of the usual headliners were missing in action: Jonathan Anderson skipped the men’s season at both JW Anderson and Loewe, Gucci is returning to co-ed, as is Valentino, and Fendi, which is currently missing a womenswear and haute couture artistic director, will showcase a unified fall vision under Silvia Venturini Fendi next month coinciding with its centennial.
The effect this had on the collections was most evident by the safety and commerciality of the majority of offerings. Designers from Junya Watanabe to Chitose Abe at Sacai and Eli Russell Linnetz at ERL leaned into utility and gorpcore, offering tried and true technical outerwear with collaborations in the space still abounding (Watanabe partnered with Filson, Abe with Uggs). After two spectacular and declarative protest-cum-runway shows for spring, Rick Owens presented a parade of undiluted yet undeniably market-ready Owens-isms from tiny athletic shorts and easy knits to cropped shearling jackets; this focus on the waist was also seen at t Jacquemus, EgonLab, Dolce & Gabbana, and rising cult-favorite Auralee with more cropped proportions plus nipped-waist tailoring, cummerbunds, and lots and lots of belting (from double straps to shoestring cinching).
When Vogue Runway asked a range of menswear experts to predict the direction of men’s fashion earlier this year, most forecasted a focus on elegance: Such rang true in collections by Alexandre Mattiussi for Ami, Mike Amiri, Kim Jones for Dior Men, and Copping’s Lanvin. While this is the first men’s season in some time in which no dominating tailoring silhouette has emerged, designers did agree on softening the dress shirt with draped blouses, and embraced the ’70s either in proportion (Amiri, Saint Laurent) or in fabrication with velvety styles (Willy Chavarria, Hermès, Dolce & Gabbana). There was also fur, lots of it and in all its configurations: Real or faux, from raw, feral-looking draped pelts at Prada, Sacai, and Emporio Armani to trims and accents most everywhere else. Menswear finds itself iterating between the progressive and contemporary mileage it has gained over the past decade and the conservative and traditional codes of elegance that continue to perform in the market.
