Menswear’s next chapter

Streetwear grows up

Streetwear has dominated the men’s collections over the past decade. Exciting new labels – think Heron Preston, Off-White and 1017 ALYX 9SM – reigned, raising the status of logo-stamped tees and hoodies. The genre also sliced through runway schedules: Vetements’s Demna Gvasalia shook up couture house Balenciaga; Virgil Abloh became Louis Vuitton’s Artistic Director only six years after launching Off-White. And who could have predicted Louis Vuitton co-signing a collection with Supreme or Off-White teaming up with Evian?

Now we’ve hit the ’20s, where does streetwear go next? Virgil Abloh himself told Dazed Digital recently, “it’s gonna die”, but we’re more optimistic: at the SS20 runways, there was a sense that streetwear is growing up, not disappearing completely. It’s showing signs of moving beyond the conveyor belt of constant drops and ever-changing aesthetics in favour of longevity – embracing tailoring, defying the decades and turning the noise down a few notches. It feels like exactly what we need right now.

Pressing reset

Our attention span for familiar prints and graphics is waning, and instead we’re finding ourselves drawn to brands forging new signatures or emphasising the more classic corners of their collections. We’re turning to Polo Ralph Lauren – the diffusion line’s tailored chino shorts make for a stripped-back look with a stark-white tee and a bucket hat in a subdued hue. Over at Off-White, the label splashes a matching trucker and jeans with a pattern that reminds us of old-school wood panelling (see what we mean?). It’s refreshing to see these designers stripping away well-worn references (wave goodbye to ’90s-style double denim), while still creating talking points.

Something bold, something new

Daniel Lee’s restrained runway at Bottega Veneta, Bruno Sialelli’s menswear debut at Lanvin and Dries Van Noten’s newly muted floral patterns have made us reconsider well-established houses – those with a strong aesthetic and storied craftsmanship at their core. We’re borrowing Bottega’s tagline from the ’70s, “when your own initials are enough”, for the ’20s. There’s a certain joy in people having to take a second look before they can guess which labels you’re wearing and what season – or era – they’re from (that’s another excuse for mixing in vintage). It’s about working with designs that are distinctive *and* have the staying power to outlast the season; there’s potential for plenty of classics in the making here – not to mention a more sustainable way to shop. And isn’t that what we should all be looking to now?