Fall Menswear Shows and Trends to Watch | PLUS What's Next for GQ

0:28This is The Run Through, and I'm Nicole Phelps. and headed into Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks. Pitti is happening today and tomorrow in Florence. And so we are here to get your take on what's to come over the next 10 or so days and what you're excited about. So let's start with Milan. You land tomorrow morning. And what is on your mind? What are you looking forward to? Yeah, my bags are packed. I'm ready to go. So I think one of the big questions, One of the meta questions about Milan Fashion Week men's right now is just the energy levels and the brands that are showing there. Milan has always been the Super Bowl of men's tailoring.

1:15Historically, you go, you see a ton of suits in about five days. There's a lot of time to go to showrooms and touch fabrics and try things on. And it's always been a bit more chill than Paris, but also anchored with big, important runway shows. And this season, well, in recent seasons, there's been a trend of some of the big Italian brands going co-ed. So moving their shows from January and June in men's to February and September in women's. So there's a bit of a deflationary effect sort of happening in Milan. Obviously, there are still big shows, Prada, Giorgio Armani. Xenia. So there is some action.

1:59The fact that it's a little bit quieter, it leaves room for one of an American legend. Isn't that right? Yes. A young man known by the name of Ralph Lauren will be returning to Milan Fashion Week. And I believe he showed there for the first time in 2002 and then maybe once after that. But so the big show of the season in Milan, it's also one of the first shows on Friday, is Ralph Lauren. and it'll be at his, the Palazzo, the sort of mid-century like epic Palazzo that he purchased I think at the end of the 90s. And the timing makes a lot of sense. The Milano Cortina Winter Olympics open, I think, just about two weeks after the men's shows close.

2:43Ralph obviously designs the Team USA uniforms and this season in particular, or this edition of the Winter Olympics, I have to say, the Ralph uniforms are incredible. Very sick. The leather bomber jacket is totally amazing. so I believe that the show will have a lot of sort of Winter Olympics, Team USA tie-ins and sort of serve to promote that but it also to me it feels also like a bit of a victory lap a well-deserved victory lap He won the CFDA Designer of the Year He did For women's wear For women's wear but menswear is Ralph's biggest business and Ralph's business has never been bigger than it is right now he, you know, I think five, ten years ago there was some question about the relevancy of the sort of prep, trad, IV thing that is obviously very associated with Ralph.

3:30And in recent years, the culture has like firmly sort of swung back in Mr. Lauren's direction. And, you know, now Ralph is everywhere. I think especially younger, you know, Gen Z people have sort of rediscovered the polo pony and sort of think it's the coolest thing. Definitely my son has. Yeah. Why do you think that's happening, though? If you like, think a little bit meta, get meta on it. I mean, he is on the verge of celebrating 60 years in business, 1967, famously being when he started selling his super wide ties at Bloomingdale's. I think that people are looking for consistency right now.

4:10I think we haven't, I mean, I don't I need to tell you that we live in an extremely chaotic media environment. I think there is more stuff, there's more fashion than ever. Ralph has things that just feel really solid, an aesthetic that has been basically unwavering and has evolved in interesting ways and sort of new directions, but within a very sort of tight set of sort of interests and ideas for almost 60 years. I think he himself has sort of emerged as like an unlikely style icon, or actually not so unlikely, but I think there's a lot of Ralph Lauren mood boards and things on Instagram and I think a lot of young people look at that and they say, wow, this guy is amazing and I have to agree and there's also a lot of it out there because the brand's been around for a long time and I think these days when there's a lot of clothing on the secondary market that's available at a relatively affordable price I think young people sort of naturally gravitate towards that like I said, polo is everywhere There's a lot of it and Purple Label and Double RL.

5:14And it is a whole world that is fun and exciting to explore. So I think that all of that has sort of combined in some way, plus a lot of just savvy marketing stuff, the Olympics, U.S. Open, Wimbledon, all that. You know, there's a lot of Ralph sort of in the air. And there's also just been, like I said, sort of a general like cultural shift back towards preppy Americana, Ivy. Do you think that the Olympics in Cortina will affect or impact the Milan shows in general? Do you think it'll be a sporty season? It's a good question. I think there are some, I think it'll feel, I don't know if we'll see that on the runway or in the showrooms or things like that.

5:59But I think there are going to be a lot of events and sort of side quests at Milan Fashion Week this season related to the Olympics. I know EA7, the Armani athletic wear line, is doing something. I believe they outfit the Italian national team. GQ Italia and Vogue Italia are co-hosting several events related to the Olympics that I'm excited to attend. Maybe the traffic will be worse or less bad. I'm not sure. In Paris, before the Olympics. The hotels will cost more, probably. The hotels cost more. but I remember before Paris two years ago which also started directly after the men's shows everyone was talking about just like the epic all time Paris meltdown traffic apocalypse because of closed roads and stuff and it ended up actually being the best season ever because everyone who lived in Paris had already fled to the south of France for the summer so just to avoid all of the headaches and stuff so I had no problem getting around and if that's the case in Milan this season I'll be very happy You'll be blessed So you mentioned EA7 and earlier you spoke about Armani.

6:59Obviously, he is Italian fashions legend and it will be the first runway show without Mr. Armani. He died in September. The first men's. The first men's runway show. Yes. So what are you expecting? What do you think the mood will be? And the people who have inherited the brand, And do you think they will stick very close to what we know and love about Armani? Yeah, for now, I'm expecting continuity. Leo Del Orco, who was Mr. Armani's right-hand man for, I think, four or five decades, he's creatively stewarding the brand in the wake of Mr. Armani's passing. and they worked so closely together that it would be very surprising if Armani all of a sudden took a sort of radical left turn.

7:53That being said, so this season I think, I'm sure it'll feel quite solemn and reverential. I don't think that it'll be a sort of any sort of like rehashing of greatest hits or tribute. I think that the Armani spirit is very much to look forward and keep doing things, new things in the very Armani way. That said, in Mr. Armani's will, He stipulated that in three to five years, he wanted his heirs to sell, I think it was like 30 to 56 % of the company. So I think a lot of people have questions about what that will mean, whether that will usher in a sort of grand change at the house. Will Eddie Slimane finally become the creative director of Giorgio Armani, as has widely been rumored?

8:34I'm not exactly sure where that came from, but I think those questions are out there. But I don't think we'll see any real change this season, and maybe not for some years to come. I love an Armani show. I'm excited for it. I think it'll feel nice to be reminded about just another time why he was the goat of Italian men's work. The brand had a good night at the Golden Globes, right? They did. They dressed Hudson Williams, who is one of the stars of the hottest show of the moment. He did Rivalry. So maybe we'll see some heated rivalry guys at the show. I'm sure we will. One of the things that I love, well, I have to caveat this and say I have not watched heated rivalry.

9:19But maybe I will have to given the amount of buzz and hype it's getting. Not on the plane. I don't think it's for public consumption. What's funny about the men's shows in January is that it's just smack in the middle of awards season. So you often get celebrities, actors, movie stars who are campaigning for their Oscars at the shows. I mean, the heated rivalry guys are just taking a victory lap, and that's awesome for them. I'm sure that they will be all over Paris, maybe Milan too. I'm thinking about will we get a Timothy sighting somewhere in Paris. It's happened before. We'll see. Yes, I recall a Heider Ackerman show where Timmy was still a young guy and made an appearance that had us all aflutter.

10:03So you mentioned the Prada debate. Definitely Mucha and Raf have been doing some pretty bold things in menswear. Very, very short, I guess you could call them bloomers almost, I think, last season. So what is your take on Prada mens right now? Yeah, I think I described those shorts as diaper shorts last year. Okay, I didn't want to say it, but since you said it. It's already out there. I mean, so the product shows, I mean, that is really like the heart of the Milan Fashion Week experience. The shows in recent seasons, especially, I mean, product shows have always been subject to debate. They've always been, you know, they're challenging.

10:44They're polarizing, I think, intentionally. And in recent seasons, they've been talking a lot about how they're designing by instinct. And they're sort of discarding maybe some of the big grand concepts that would sort of guide the collections before and doing things that they feel are right through whatever sort of mysterious process they do together to create the collections. So the men's shows have been particularly chaotic in recent seasons in ways that I've really liked and thought have been really cool and in ways that have also left me feeling a little puzzled. But again, I think that that's sort of the beauty of the Prada experience is it does make you question what is beautiful and what is ugly.

11:24It makes you question how you get dressed. They often think about how we put outfits together and why we do and why we select the things that we do. And so it's really fun to take in a Prada show, run backstage, like elbow your way through. You know what I'm talking about. Yes. and try to find Raph and Mrs. Prada and ask them a question or two and listen to what they say and hear them sort of contradict each other and try to resolve the sort of message of the season and then go back and write about it and then go have dinner with other people, other Prada-files and talk about it and debate what we were looking at and what it meant and whether it was good or not.

12:09So I also have to shout out GQ Global Fashion Director Miles Pope, who every season, I think basically like the day after the Prada show, always emails Bar Luce to get the GQ global team a reservation for an hour before the Prada show for the next season. So we have a tradition now where all the GQ global editors who are in town will meet at Bar Luce for a panini and a coffee before the Prada show. That's a beautiful tradition. Yeah, I wanted to just agree with you on what you're saying about Prada. Yeah, I was very struck by the, I guess you would call them suspender skirts that were very loose, you know, and didn't really cling to the waist or the hips at all at the women's show.

12:47Yeah. And they were really something that I had not even ever seen before. And I've been going to shows for many, many years. So I'm excited to see what they do at men's and women's.

13:02More with GQ's Sam Hine after the break.

13:08Thank you.

13:50I wanted to go back to Pitti briefly. I know you're not there, but we know that there are two Japanese designers who are showing there this week. Soshi Atsuki, who was the LVMH Prize winner last year, and Shinya Kazuka. And I wondered if you could weigh in on the importance of Japanese design globally, and especially in menswear. I mean, Japanese design has always been just a huge factor in men's fashion and menswear, starting with the sort of Japanese Americana wave, you know, post-war when Japanese, you know, the Japanese menswear industry kind of adopted these sort of American mid-century style signatures and then took on PrEP.

14:45And, you know, W. David Marks has an amazing book about this, and I'm not going to explain the total ins and outs of the rise of the Japanese menswear industry and how important and influential it's been. But I think specifically with regards to PT and Milan, I think the Japanese buyers and brands have been a real growing force at PT in the past decade. And I think it really speaks to Italy's status as this sort of men's tailoring powerhouse. It's still the place where you want to go to get the best suits made. And, you know, obviously, you know, a lot of the Japanese stores and designers, they really care about the quality.

15:28You know, they're very, very specific. And Italian tailoring is very important to them. And what I think is amazing about Soshiotsuki in particular is to see how he has reinterpreted Italian tailoring in this very, like, kind of 80s banker sort of aesthetic. but the way that he does it's very, very soft, like almost even softer than what Armani did. And it just looks really, really great. And, you know, there are sort of, I've written about this before, but there's sort of a weird dearth of up-and-coming men's fashion designers in Milan. Luca Magliano of Magliano is a great example of who is there.

16:15But for whatever reason, there's just not quite as much energy in the sort of emerging brand space in Milan and Florence. And so these Japanese designers coming in, I think, is really important to sort of just like revitalize, re-energize the Italian fashion scene. Setsu is another great example. The designer, Satoshi Kawada, is on the Milan Fashion Week schedule. And he's a real tailoring nerd. He trained on Savarou. He is a deconstructivist. And it's been really interesting to see his work develop in the past few years since he started showing in Milan. And I believe he's showing on Friday or Saturday.

16:53So I'm excited to see what he does this season, too. So on the subject of tailoring, you know, we just did watch the Globes and before that, the Critics' Choice Awards. Obviously, the Oscars will happen in March. What did you like on the red carpet for men? At the Globes, my number one, Timothee Chalmay in Chrome Hearts. I can't say I've loved every one of those looks, especially when he was deep, deep in the Marty Supreme Dayglo Orange press tour mode. But I thought he looked really, really great in the suede three-piece custom Chrome Hearts suit with the, I think they were custom Timberlands as well.

17:34He just looked comfortable. He looked easy. It just looked easy. It fit really well in him. I mean, everything kind of fits well on him. But because things fit well on him, like when they look a little off, it's very noticeable. But this suit was just perfect. A little lower key than a lot of the other guys, right? Yeah, and I think instead of doing casual black tie, he just did something else, which I'm a fan of a classic tux. If something's black tie, I would just wear that. but I noticed a lot of men this season, a lot of men at the Globes had ditched their bow ties and were doing the open tuxedo shirt with kind of low unbuttoned thing.

18:18And I kind of like that look, but I would almost rather subvert the dress code entirely like Timmy did and do it in a new way. It did look formal, but also in a very casual sort of way. I would almost rather do that than lose my bow tie. Right. Well, shout out to Stellan Skarsgård. I thought he looked very good sans bow tie. So moving on to Paris, Dior is another big moment for Jonathan in a series of huge moments. And it sort of blows the mind to think that he is going to have his second men's show for Dior and then a few days later do his debut couture show. What do you think he'll do for men's?

19:05Well, that's the question that everyone's asking themselves before Paris. I think the Dior show is definitely the one on the schedule that everyone's circled in bright red Sharpie and is very excited for. The beauty of Jonathan Anderson, the reason why we all can't stop talking about him, thinking about him, talking to him, writing about him, is because he is very, very good at keeping people guessing. I would imagine that he's going to continue exploring this sort of preppy classicism that he sort of launched with his Dior debut during Men's in June, and then continued with a pre-collection that honestly had these really weird and surprising kind of like Vineyard Vines vibes to me.

19:54So I imagine that he'll kind of keep... I thought it was really compelling. I loved his men's debut. Not everyone did. Again, I love that he really made an argument and tried something that maybe he knew that people, that not everyone would like. I love, again, I love a show that's a bit polarizing that people want to discuss. I think it's honestly a smart strategy these days to take risks and try things like that. But he's just such a curious person. He's so naturally like alive and in touch with the world and he has so many fascinations in art and in particular, but, you know, also literature and furniture and things like that.

20:32And so I think there's basically no telling what, you know, how, what the show experience will be like because he likes to fill his collections and the room and, you know, with all these sort of details from his mind, his obsessions, his passions. And the reason, you know, and it's always so compelling because if you could guess what those things were, you know, he wouldn't be who he was. So, um, so I'm really looking forward to it. Um, I, I, I hear that it'll be another very intimate show, probably on the scale of his, um, his men's debut. What I would like to see would be, I still haven't seen the Adam Curtis video that he played before the women's show.

21:10Cause they didn't, they didn't put it on, on YouTube. Uh, and, uh, I don't know. I, I hope he, maybe there'll be a sequel, um, for men's probably not, but, uh, I would enjoy that. I've noticed how influential already his Dior is. I think that sort of late 80s, early 90s prep, which, as you said, has sort of been in the air, seems to be getting even stronger. and a couple days after the show in Paris I was driving to an appointment or something and I was looking out the window and I saw a guy walking down the street like a young guy looked like he was going to a job at an ad agency or something and he had his tie on backwards with the logo out and I was like like there can't he has to have seen the Dior show and done that as some sort of reference because otherwise it's a bit hard to explain otherwise so I thought that was cool that's a fast moving fast-moving trends.

22:09Not an endorsement, by the way, of the backwards tie. Okay, I won't see you on 25 with that look. Another designer that we all have our eyes on is Julian Klausner at Dries Van Noten. I thought that he, too, did a very influential men's show last season with those sarongs. I mean, suddenly there were girls here on 25 wearing sarongs, and it seemed like they started popping up all over the collections. I have yet to bring my sarong to the office, but maybe when it warms up. I think Julian Klausner is great. You know, he was a relatively unknown figure when he was promoted to the job from inside the company.

22:54He really blew me away with his first men's show. I basically never feel like particularly emotional at fashion shows. and I really did find myself sort of getting a little misty-eyed when the sort of crescendo of his men's show, the finale, everyone listening to this should go watch it on YouTube if you haven't seen it. The soundtrack was Lou Reed, Perfect Day Remix and it just like built and built and built into this epic moment where all the models came out and their sarongs and the beautiful tailored jackets and the patterns and it just made me you know my takeaway was that he really learned a lot from Dries Van Noten about clothing and emotion and how to sort of intertwine the two in a fashion show and so I'm very excited for his follow up I think in general like the this season will be challenging for a lot of these designers who debuted last season because for your first show there's all this hype there's all this anticipation all the eyes are on you like people are tuning in a live stream and and creating a lot of discourse around it.

24:04And the sophomore show is like not as big, it's just not as big a deal. And there's maybe not as much, there's maybe just not as much attention going your way. And so I think, you know, I think the question for a lot of these guys, especially someone like Julian, is like, how do you continue that momentum? And how do you sort of keep moving the ball forward when there's not so much sort of hoopla around what you're doing? But I'll be continuing the hoopla for him. I think he's great. And the one thing I will say about Dries is that I would love if they took the shows out of parking garages because especially in January, you know, they always do it in different sort of desolate parking garages in Paris.

24:38And it's just cold. And, you know, you have to sometimes you have to climb all the way to the top and they're very nice. So they have, you know, shopping carts of beer and stuff. But it's, but I don't know, I would love to sit inside like a real structure. Tokyo. Yeah. I remember, you know, early days when I was going to Paris and sometimes at a, like a Yoji show, you would get one of those silver Mylar blankets like that the marathoners wear because they acknowledged what they were doing to us. Yeah. Slow torture waiting for 45 minutes before a show starts.

25:18We'll be back with GQ's Sam Hine in a moment.

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26:01All right. Well, we've talked about a relative newcomer and we can't not talk about Veronique Nachanian, who has spent 37 years at Hermes, which is incredible and is leaving to retire. And I have to say that I don't go to men's very often, but I always love looking at Hermes. I think the shows have like the best casting of the week in Paris. And what do you think Veronique stood for over her tenure at Hermes? And what made her unique in the world of menswear? What I love about Veronique, and she's just a fantastic woman. She's very funny. what I love about her is that she she really didn't play by the rules of the sort of broader fashion establishment I mean she started before I think the modern rules of the game were even established but she really like just did her thing she had an idea for what Hermes Benzer should be 37 years ago or maybe 38 when she pitched it to the Hermes family, to the Dumas family and she's basically just kept doing that for almost four decades, which is menswear that is personal, that's light, that's obviously incredibly luxurious and well-made.

27:25But that really sort of like works for the wear and makes them feel, she often uses the word sexy, makes them feel sexy. And, you know, that, when she started doing that, there wasn't a lot of that out there. I think it was, I think it started to sort of, you know, she sort of created or sort of built the foundation of this like category of like really, really elevated menswear that kind of like toes the line between like elegance and casualness. And that altogether, like, you know, I think her shows that I've been to have been really, you know, like they're cool. And she's a grandmother. And it's amazing that she's managed to sort of keep her finger on the pulse.

28:09and she seems to still really have a really good idea of what our customers want, what men want. It's pretty rare to leave an Hermes show and not be thinking like, you know, if I was a billionaire, I would be buying half this collection. And, you know, she also is very proud of the fact that she like doesn't use the archive as a resource really. I mean, she's very obsessed with the technical abilities of the Hermes metier and things like that. But she told me when I interviewed her once last year that she's, I don't think she's ever even been to the Hermes archive. Or maybe she's visited it once or something.

28:45But she likes to say that she's her own archive. And she's definitely, after 37 years, is leaving behind a pretty big one. I will be watching very closely. But for our listeners who aren't paying as close attention as you are, what is happening at Hermes now? What's happening at Hermes is Grace Wales Bonner will be, actually, you know what? In a year from now, we'll be having the same conversation maybe a week or two before Grace Wales Bonner's debut at Hermes, designing menswear. A few days after Veronique announced her retirement, Hermes announced that they were hiring Grace Wales Bonner, the fantastic and incredibly talented London-based designer who's a menswear specialist.