From Martine Rose to Prada: A Guide to Men’s Fashion Week

With extra U-turns than the British authorities circa 2020, vogue is at its wildest but. However amongst PR crises and extra worldly woes, a starvation for spectacle and recent blood reigns supreme – particularly in menswear. From Martine Rose’s Pitti debut to Gucci sans Alessandro Michele, milestone moments abound this January.

Under, right here’s our information to the Autumn/Winter 2023 menswear season, spanning Pitti Uomo, Milan and Paris.

Massive Sneakers to Fill

To speak of Gucci with out mentioning camp could be sacrilege. After Alessandro Michele took the helm in 2015, Gucci has unravelled masculinity, subbing in a sexed-up 70s imaginative and prescient and rendering gender binaries out of date. That mentioned, questions nonetheless stand: what’s going to comply with in Michele’s wake – plus, who will gown Harry Kinds? For now, the model’s design stays an in-house affair, however A/W23 could possibly be the season this all modifications – earmark January 13 stat.

Talking of arduous acts to comply with, Louis Vuitton has but to substantiate the successor to Virgil Abloh, its late males’s inventive director. Within the 5 collections since his passing, respects to Abloh’s visible lexicon have been pivotal, nonetheless, vogue insiders now predict a change of guard, with Telfar Clemens, Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner within the operating. That the following designer in line is an individual of color appears to be a given, since their elevation was such a core tenet in Abloh’s personal work. Till then, a shock visitor designer – Colm Dillane of KidSuper – will lead the procession for A/W23. Winner of the Karl Lagerfeld LVMH Prize in 2021, Dillane is a welcome curveball, shopping for Louis Vuitton time whereas protecting issues recent together with his atypical vogue background and streetwear skew – similarities shared with the late Abloh.

The Massive Canine

Greater is healthier has been the rallying cry of vogue’s main maisons recently. And if the Egyptian Pyramids that backdropped Dior Males’s Pre-Fall 2023 collection or the Agafay desert at Saint Laurent’s S/S23 menswear show had been something to go by, A/W23 is ready to be spectacular.

As for the garments, anticipate equally bold concepts. Positive, Dior Males’s inventive director Kim Jones has at all times beloved a collab, however these previous few years have taken his magpie thoughts to new heights. Calling on Tremaine Emory’s Denim Tears, Bloomsbury Group artists and Eli Russell Linnetz extra not too long ago, the maverick is certain to go huge this month. Right here’s to hoping for a crossover within the realm of Kaws and Daniel Arsham.

Elsewhere, Saint Laurent’s head honcho Anthony Vaccarello appears intent on transposing Yves Saint Laurent’s revered womenswear – ‘Le Smoking’ go well with, specifically – onto males for a softened tackle tailoring. A/W23 ought to comply with go well with. Over at Fendi, the Peekaboo bag has been scaled up because the man-bag mainstay, whereas the Baguette will get dinkier by the season, ideally suited for guys indulging their repressed Y2K ‘it lady’. What’s subsequent stays to be seen, however no matter follows guys in Mary Janes and crop-top tuxedos is bound to land.

Martine Rose at Pitti Uomo

It’s arduous to think about a designer as rooted in London subculture as Martine Rose, and it’s exactly this that makes her first foray past the capital all of the extra momentous. Exhibiting as Pitti Uomo’s visitor designer, she follows within the footsteps of her peer Grace Wales Bonner, promising overdue kudos on the continent. Fabled as an integral participant in redefining Balenciaga’s menswear below Demna, Rose is commonly dubbed the ‘designer’s designer‘, however optimistically, her predilection for skewering conventional males’s shapes will speed up her world acclaim at this new profession juncture.

Ones to Watch

Already a family identify, Raf Simons is effectively into his tenure as co-creative director of Prada alongside Miuccia Prada. But, regardless of Simons’s flying begin, there’s a palpable feeling the Belgian is simply stepping into his stride. Certainly, the shuttering of his namesake label and Mrs Prada’s step down as Prada Group CEO counsel change is afoot. Whereas a solo Simons present for Prada appears out of the query for the second, lots of his signature tropes – youth tradition, arthouse movie and poetic femininity – have but to announce themselves explicitly. Now that he’s discovered his toes, Simons might start carving his mark on the home for A/W23 and past.

Elsewhere, membership child visionary Charles Jeffrey will current his first Milan present, a frightening departure for a designer whose USP owes a lot to London’s queer neighborhood. His latest experimentation with cues past nightlife, nonetheless, sign a well timed maturation.

When it comes to surprises, put together for lots. Rising star Botter made critical waves in September with its ode to the ocean, primed with Caribbean blue suiting and water balloon gloves. Naturally, we’re banking on one other aquatic journey in sartorial innovation. Add to this Wales Bonner’s first Paris outing, which comes after an Afro-Atlantic dissection of Milan’s Medici household final season, Bianca Saunders’ Jamaican-British spin on minimalism, plus New York favorite Bode’s triumphant return to Paris, and we’re set for some critically considerate vogue.