It’s the top of a busy – and highly regarded – menswear season in Florence, Milan and Paris. Over a packed-out schedule within the style capitals of Europe, designers throughout the board sought numerous modes of escapism, and a need to unwind – largely through in search of the sunlit shores of a vacation – appeared to be the pervading temper.
Paul Smith’s love letter to European marketplaces made for a standout debut in Milan; Anthony Vaccarello imagined a nostalgic journey between Paris and Hearth Island; Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons confirmed the ‘best assortment’ they’ve ever made; and a theme of pyjama silhouettes at a number of homes, from Dolce & Gabbana to Armani, steered many merely dreamed of going to mattress.
Two debuts made for probably the most talked-about exhibits of the season – Julian Klausner’s elegant first menswear assortment for Dries Van Noten, which supplied up an insouciant portrait of summertime ease; and, in fact, Jonathan Anderson’s landmark begin at Dior, which, amongst numerous intelligent ‘decoding and recoding’ of the home’s huge archive of designs, went again to the explanation he turned a designer: the easy pleasure to be present in dressing up.
However between the blockbuster exhibits, a handful of quieter off-calendar shows flew beneath the radar. Right here, we glance again at a number of the finest collections you might need missed from the S/S 2026 menswear season.
S/S 2026 menswear: the collections you might need missed
Martine Rose
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Martine Rose)
There was a dearth of happenings in London this season after the British Style Council eliminated town from the June slot (February and September style weeks at the moment are co-ed). However there was one very, excellent off-calendar outlier: Martine Rose. Displaying ‘salon-style’ in any case glamorous of places – a Job Centre off Lisson Grove, which she adorned with swathes of cream frilled curtains – her S/S 2026 assortment supplied up a love letter to Kensington Market and the distinctive mixture of unbiased stalls and inventive upstarts which have lengthy known as it house.
Unusual, attractive, and each inch Rose’s ruefully unique signature, the gathering twisted excessive avenue uniforms and notions of British gown. Harrington jackets, electrician’s utility trousers, tracksuits, kilts and barber store capes all bought the Rose rework, in order that they had been both suctioned near the physique or chopped and layered into skewiff shapes. Inviting 20 native market stallholders to affix the rows of style editors, the occasion felt – as ever with the designer – like a celebration of London and its eclectic pockets of life.
Put up Archive Faction
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Pitti Uomo)
In case you haven’t heard of PAF, it’s most likely since you’re not into technical gear. The South Korean model is a part of a brand new wave of designers pushing efficiency put on into avant-garde new territory. The model is the brainchild of Dongjoon Lim and Sookyo Jeong, who studied industrial design and structure respectively, and as such they do issues a little bit otherwise. Their philosophy centres on a set of evolving uniforms which can be divided into three distinct classes: ‘proper‘ (conservative), ‘centre’ (middleman), and ‘left’ (experimental). The type of model you might need noticed within the stands at Pitti Uomo in earlier years reasonably than on the runway, the duo had been the underdogs among the many three visitor designers chosen for the annual show in Florence.
The show they produced, nevertheless, quietened any questions over their place at Pitti. Marking a shocking departure from their utility signatures, the gathering was as an alternative rooted in formality, opening with a collection of sharp, up to date tailor-made appears to be like in inky blacks and mottled greys that gave method to lighter shapes in cutting-edge efficiency materials. Displaying the pair can tackle conventional menswear codes whereas nonetheless coaxing new magnificence from a baseline of sportswear shapes, it was a grown-up, bold show from two designers working completely on their very own phrases.
Our Legacy
(Picture credit score: Images by Lo Vahlström. Courtesy of Our Legacy)
This season, Our Legacy did away with the thought of a runway altogether, as an alternative staging a Swedish Midsummer celebration within the coronary heart of Milan. Mixing Scandinavian custom with Italian attraction, the laid-back affair at Pizzeria Stella was full with a leafy maypole and flower crowns for company. Marking the model’s twentieth anniversary, the S/S 2026 assortment it celebrated – launched with a pared-back lookbook – emerged from a journey into the Our Legacy archives. Resisting nostalgia, artistic director Cristopher Nying described the gathering as a ‘mixtape of B-sides’ reasonably than a roll name of best hits via which he has subtly mirrored on the ‘moments and reminiscences’ which have formed the previous 20 years. Glossy tailoring, slouchy knits, leather-based equipment and ‘crafty twists’ on wardrobe staples leant into Our Legacy’s language of understated model. Quietly marking 20 years of astute, wearable design, the gathering appeared to say Our Legacy is extra focused on what comes subsequent.
Mordecai
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Mordecai)
‘It’s zen however make it technical’ reads the epithet present in Mordecai’s Instagram bio. It’s a mantra that completely captures the spirit of designer’s Ludovico Bruno newest assortment, which explored his lifelong ardour for martial arts. Highlighting the methods the fight sport of Judo balances each drive and intimacy – the place fighters embrace, fingers dig into flesh, and our bodies tumble as one – the ensuing assortment elevated the uniforms of the game with a technical lightness gained from his years spent designing in-house at Moncler. Proven at a dojo in Milan on a forged of actual athletes from wrestling and karate colleges, the presentation was a show of the designer’s delicate strategy to daring design concepts – and a standout presentation of the week in Milan.
Magliano
(Picture credit score: Images by Leonardo Scotti. Courtesy of Magliano)
A sabbatical is a interval of go away mostly related to academia, the place professors are granted day off after years of analysis or service to their division. Younger designer Luca Magliano is neither a tutorial nor many years into his subject, besides, the style business’s relentless churn can put on on designers’ power and assets. Many are pushing again with artistic solutions to the official schedule, and the ‘sabbatical’ movie the Bologna-born designer produced as an alternative was one such of those options. Proven at a central Milan film theatre dubbed ‘CineMagliano’ for the night, the movie was shot by British director Thomas Hardiman, finest identified for his 2022 breakout indie Medusa Deluxe – an offbeat thriller-comedy set inside the chaotic world of a hairstyling competitors. With a shared style in tales of the surreal, Hardiman and Magliano made an ideal pairing.
Showcasing a character-led tackle the designer’s ‘f-d up classics’ for S/S 2026, the movie the pair produced instructed the story of a ragtag crew of fricchettoni – an Italian time period for a bohemian, hippy type of outcast – on a ship from Sardinia to Tuscany. Drawing on nautical themes previous and new, the gathering featured outerwear reduce in Fifties noir silhouettes, roughed-up tuxedos that seemed rapidly packed, flag attire, swim goggle-inspired sun shades, and lace-up boots that took after the Titanic period. It was a enjoyable, memorable various to a runway – and proof that Magliano is a designer with quite a lot of methods up his sleeve.
Sanderlak
(Picture credit score: Sanderlak Yr 1. Images by Dominick Sheldon)
Sander Lak made probably the most low-key of debuts throughout the Paris exhibits this season. After a five-year hiatus following the closure of his cult Antwerp model Sies Marjan in 2020, the Brunei-born designer is again with a label beneath his personal title. Proven through a smattering of in-person appointments in Paris, Lak’s new enterprise hinges on a specific idea – one assortment per 12 months, impressed by one particular place.
Aiming to seize a ‘feeling of house’ via garments that replicate the ‘temper, textures, and on a regular basis rhythms’ of a given location, the primary is a tribute to Los Angeles. With relaxed, unisex silhouettes in gentle knits and well-cut denim made for year-round put on, the gathering introduced collectively cosy textures – cashmere, cotton, and shearling – in sun-bleached shades the present notes described as ‘corn masa, ocean eyes, desert sage, and strawberry milkshake.’
‘There’s one thing in regards to the mild in LA that at all times will get me,’ Lak mentioned in an announcement. ‘It’s gentle but harsh and dry, and it settles over the whole lot on this quiet approach.’ A simple, wearable providing crafted with coronary heart, the understated debut was the work of a designer who is aware of precisely what he needs to make, and what he needs to put on.
Sacai
(Picture credit score: Courtesy of Sacai)
Eschewing the runway for a clear, studio-shot look ebook this season, Chitose Abe’s proposition for S/S 2026 was considered one of simplicity. Its title – ‘On a regular basis All Day’ – associated the wearable ease of the providing, which fused on a regular basis staples with the formality of tuxedo suiting. Bringing a deconstructed whimsy to collaborations with all-American manufacturers Carhartt and J.M. Weston, the silhouette this season was billowing – Japanese-style barrel trousers, cleverly constructed voluminous sleeves, and outsized shirting – whereas Abe’s knack for fusing disparate modes of gown shone in outerwear that hackneyed workwear jackets with blazers. Worn with bohemian T-bar sandals, the gathering tossed out concepts of ritual and casualness in favour of merely carrying no matter feels good. Alongside the visuals, the model has invited Canadian painter Geoff McFetridge – a New York Instances contributor who bought his begin portray West Coast skate tradition within the 2000s – to create a collection of soppy, cinematic artworks immortalising the gathering on canvas.
TOPICS
Supply: Wallpaper
