At this point, trendspotting during fashion week is a totally subjective exercise. People see what they want to see, and there’s enough range and variation throughout the collections to confirm just about any personal bias. If you’re dying to see a return to skinny pants and tiny tops, there’s plenty of that. If you think tailoring is due for a resurgence, you’ll find no shortage of sharp suits. Whatever kind of freak you are, there’s a collection to match it. This fashion week, however, I clocked something much more definitive.
High-end shoppers are becoming increasingly niche, looking for niche brands that satisfy their niche enthusiasm. To keep up, the big brands — the ones that do fashion shows in Milan and Paris — are finding ways to act more like niche brands. They do something for everyone, but instead of making bland, watered-down collections, they propose collections that go in all different directions, cohering around a vibe rather than a big idea. They’re not just competing with every other big brand, they’re competing with a whole constellation of small brands, too. A successful collection isn’t a concept album; it’s a mixtape.
There are no more big ideas or themes. Louis Vuitton’s latest used surfing and surf culture as a framework, but it was more for set design than anything wearable. Collections are now powered by merchandising, and by personalization and affectation. That means there are no defineable trends. It’s all about products and looks and vibes. It’s the era of subjectivity. Personal experience shapes what you see. We project taste onto the clothes, and the clothes reflect that taste back on us.
But there are patterns that emerge. Certain ideas ricochet around the season, reappearing here and there. Most are rather mundane and obvious — after all, in menswear there are few original references, and there isn’t a whole lot of product variation. Leather pants! Sheer tops! Short shorts! These aren’t trends, they’re just similar items in a sea of similar items.
This season, however, I saw a different kind of pattern.
It’s not a trend, but a new kind of look. This is what menswear looks like now. It’s not even a silhouette; it’s more like a wardrobe. It’s human and lived-in and personal. It’s loose, soft and easy. It’s natural and unglossy. There are no harsh tones — just olive, stone, tobacco, oatmeal, faded navy. It’s aspirational realism. It’s a look that signals a kind of life and the possibility of being the type of person who has a strong innate personal style. It’s not a look about what’s going on in the world, or what fashion means for our times. It’s a look about what’s going on with you and the kind of life you want to lead.
I saw this look at the big shows, including Dior, Louis Vuitton, and especially, brilliantly, at Celine. I saw it from the emerging stars of menswear coming from Japan: AURALEE, ssstein, and Soshiotsuki. Even at Willy Chavaria, whose runway shows typically lean into a much more aggressive kind of costuming. This look is characterized by asymmetrically popped collars, ties tucked into wastebands, pants tucked into socks, aged denim, and suits that fit poorly but perfectly. It was actually kind of incredible to see how many of these cues recurred throughout the week at different shows.
All of these looks could have come from the same closet. There’s cohesion without sameness. It feels more like an accumulation of clothes, with an emphasis on how they’re worn, a suggestion of history and lived experience, a way of putting things together that only you would come up with.
Surely there will be plenty of reports containing sharp observations about micro trends in menswear. People will continue to see what they want to see. But getting a clear picture of where menswear is headed based on how a pair of pants fits just isn’t it. That’s taking the bait.
What I like about aspirational realism is that it seems totally unintentional. It’s a look that emerged from negative space within the trend spectrum. It’s not manufactured or chased by a studio team; it just happened. And it will keep happening until the next non-trend takes its place.
