Putting together a trend report is a most daunting task. How to summarize months of work and countless looks—plus all the front-row chatter—into one list? After the spring 2025 menswear collections, the project was even more challenging. What does one make of a season of contradictions?
With the Olympics taking place in Paris this month, the men’s shows were immediately followed by couture, effectively turning Paris into a two-week fashion marathon. It was go, go, go all the time, a pace not helped by the closed metro stations, ludicrous traffic, and a perceptible undercurrent of anxiety. That talk in the front row? It was often about just how few designers are making money and the world crises amidst which fashion strains for relevance.
On the runways what we saw was push-pull between magnitude and intimacy. A year after his debut show at Louis Vuitton, Pharrell Williams took over the UNESCO Headquarters courtyard for a massive display about togetherness, while Kim Jones placed giant sculptures by the ceramicist Hylton Nel on his runway, where he sent out a sweater with the embroidered message “Dior for my real friends.” Rick Owens, ever the disruptor, staged a spectacle of epic proportions—we saw 10 looks, each repeated 20 times, on a total of 200 models—that was, at its core, a conversation about intimacy. Its vastness made one feel both small and present. “We’re trying to give people options to what are standard conventional ideas of aesthetics,” Owens said. “If we can blur the lines and make people consider other things, maybe that can lead to blurring the lines in consideration of how people treat each other.” My seatmates all cried.Play/Pause Button
Hed Mayner staged a tiny show that underscored the hulking proportions of his clothes, his magnificent jackets and trousers caressing the knees of every attendee as they walked by. Likewise at Grace Wales Bonner, whose tightly-sat show at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs amplified the laidback sultriness of her ode to sea-side living, a theme also touched upon at Hermès.
The body and the best way to expose it were top of mind, starting in Milan with Luca Magliano’s cheeky nod to cruising and sex: “They have to be addressed with no shame or judgment, because it’s who we are,” he said. Loosening up after a fall Prada collection rooted in the constraining formality of traditional masculinity, Raf Simons and Miuccia cut their trousers slouchy and shortened the hems of their tops, effectively making the midriff the key erogenous zone of the season, though Paul Mescal who attended Gucci in short shorts and a loose button down that revealed his abdomen also did his part. Add Loewe, Emporio Armani, and Dsquared2 to that mix—almost everyone seemed eager to follow that happy trail.
The fall men’s collections in January emphasized wearability. Classicality remained a theme this season, but there was a new sense of nonchalance at Lemaire, Ami, and Dolce & Gabbana. “Sophisticated, but not pretentious” is how Ami’s Alexandre Mattiusi described it. While ties remained a thing, a couple of key labels in Milan satirized them. They were comically long at Moschino and irrationally large at JW Anderson. “Irrational clothing,” is how Anderson summed up his eponymous collection, an idea that somewhat wraps the season.
“We can sell clothes, which is great. But the goal for an artist is to create emotion,” said Mike Amiri. He’s found a sweet spot between his appetite for coolness and his romantic sensibility, and his show was a little pocket of joy packed in the middle of the week.
But there was no emotional high or sense of community quite like that felt at Dries Van Noten’s farewell show, which drew a who’s-who of fellow designers. Swapping nostalgia and sentimentalism for a timely sense of forward-looking optimism, he sent out metallic florals and breezy fabrics with a spellbinding buoyancy, a key story of the season that he gave a sense of gravitas to. That is what he’s always done—replace the occasional banality of this that we do with a raison d’être.Play/Pause Button
The finale at Dries Van Noten, spring 2025 menswear.Play/Pause Button
Dries Van Noten takes one final bow.
Read through for the 11 top trends of the spring 2025 menswear collections.
Core Work
Midriffs and happy trails become the center of attention.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Loewe
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Prada
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Dries Van Noten
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Hed Mayner
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Dsquared2
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
JW Anderson
Daniele Schiavello / Gorunway.com
Charles Jeffrey Loverboy
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
A Leg Up
But gams got a closer look, too.
Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Wales Bonner
Courtesy of Gucci
Gucci
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Ami
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Hermès
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Bianca Saunders
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Dsquared2
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Martine Rose
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Give Me A (High) Break
Slim jackets with short lapels for a sense of dressiness…
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Bianca Saunders
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Junya Watanabe
Gregoire Avenel / Courtesy of Lemaire
Lemaire
Courtesy of Gucci
Gucci
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Moschino
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Prada
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Invertebrate Tailoring
…And billowing fabrics on coats and trousers for a sense of ease.
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Undercover
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Kiko Kostadinov
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Emporio Armani
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Yohji Yamamoto
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Sacai
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Giorgio Armani
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Easy Breezy
Sheer outerwear (and pants too)? It’s really a thing.
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Dries Van Noten
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake
Valerio Mezzanotti
Rick Owens
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com
Craig Green
Daniele Schiavello / Gorunway.com
Denzil Patrick
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Walter Van Beirendonck
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Call the Gardener
Lavender carriers and head-to-toe florals.
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Emporio Armani
Courtesy of Gucci
Gucci
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Moschino
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Dries Van Noten
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Dolce & Gabbana
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Zegna
Daniele Schiavello / Gorunway.com
Too Many Lines Crossed
Plaid is now a spring fabric.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Loewe
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Homme Plissé Issey Miyake
Photo: Alessandro Lucioni / Gorunway.com
Craig Green
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Fendi
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Marine Serre
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Comme des Garçons Shirt
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Waistland
Foldover and inside-out waistbands underline the midriff erogenous zone.
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Emporio Armani
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Magliano
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Masu
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Hed Mayner
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Sacai
Photo: Courtesy of ERL
ERL
A Classic Man
You can’t go wrong with a nice shirt and good pair of pants.
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Ami
Guillaume Roujas
Lemaire
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Hermès
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Dolce & Gabbana
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Auralee
Photo: Filippo Fior / Gorunway.com
Zegna
Sascha Heintze / Courtesy of Lazoschmidl
Lazoschmidl
I See Paris, I See France
Why can I see your underpants? Cotton boxers make a comeback.
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
Martine Rose
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
MSGM
Daniele Schiavello / Gorunway.com
Charles Jeffrey Loverboy
Photo: Isidore Montag / Gorunway.com
White Mountaineering
Photo: William Scarborough / Courtesy of Ranra
Ranra
Sascha Heintze / Courtesy of Lazoschmidl
Lazoschmidl
Photo: Courtesy of David Koma
David Koma
Untied
Funky ties that undo last season’s formality.
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
JW Anderson
photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Fendi
Photo: Umberto Fratini / Gorunway.com
Moschino
Photo: Daniele Oberrauch / Gorunway.com
Masu
