Despite the pandemic rearing its ugly head, both Milan and Paris decided to go ahead with their scheduled presentations as per plan, at the very last minute.
And the risk has paid off.
Fashion brands and designers have put all their efforts into creating versatile menswear collections for the upcoming Fall/Winter 2022-23 season that are both sophisticated and laid-back, reinvented to match the current consumer sentiment as has been made visible by the menswear showcases that recently concluded in Milan and Paris.
Milan Fashion Week men’s kicked off the fashion weeks for the Fall/Winter 2022 season, wherein the Italian fashion metropolis welcomed some new faces to its hybrid show calendar, including noteworthy labels 44 Label Group and 1017 Alyx 9SM.
It was here that designers showed an eclectic mix of tech gear and comfort dressing balanced out by the consumer’s desire to dressing up.
These showcases were followed closely by the much-anticipated Fall/Winter 2022 edition of Paris Fashion Week which began on 18 January and concluded on 23 January with designers presenting a wide range of styles and must-have items.
Despite the rise of the Omicron variant, most of the shows were shown in person. The five-day-long event featured Virgil Abloh’s last Louis Vuitton men’s collection and Nigo’s first at the helm of Kenzo.
For the coming winter, labels and designers are focusing on cosy outerwear such as fleece sweaters and shearling coats, and accessories such as hats with ear warmers. The collective desire is to ditch the indoors and escape outside to whatever adventure awaits!
Apparel Resources (AR) has rounded up the top trends dictating the norms of fashion for the upcoming Fall/Winter 2022-23 season, illustrated below.
Have a look.
Suiting Up
Designers and high fashion labels alike, are bidding adieu to their pandemic uniform a la tracksuits and pyjamas and are welcoming (with open arms) suits for the upcoming winter season.
The suits of Fall/Winter 2022-23 are precision-engineered and come in all sorts of materials ranging from silk to velvet, denim, tweed, flannel, wool and even, as seen at Bianca Saunders, in biker-style leather. A notable trend lies in double-breasted blazers that make a comeback in a variety of styles.
The lengths have increased, and the silhouettes are burgeoning with new volumes, especially at the shoulders. The waist is cinched and often also padded to create imposing shoulders, or else entirely destructured, while some jackets sport innovative rounded shapes. Trousers, on the other hand, feature inventive solutions in terms of fastenings, creases and darts, as well as in their cuts, for example with arched legs.
Turtle Necks
Despite offering a slew of advantages and protection from the harsh winter weather, turtle necks have the added privilege of lending a certain elegance and sophistication to an entire look.
Zegna, Prada and Tod’s, amongst others, all promoted all-rounder high neck silhouettes during their latest presentations.
Zegna offered a wide selection of different sizes and colours of turtlenecks with classic, tight-fitting collars alongside voluminous pieces that wrap the wearer up like a scarf.
Brunello Cucinelli focused on thick, knitted turtlenecks reminiscent of fishermen’s clothing that showed the classic version in combination with jackets, whilst Prada’s coarsely knitted, oversized sweaters also referenced rough seas. Alternatively, the fashion house offered close-fitting, sporty versions of the turtleneck shirt.
Tod’s also focused on zip-up collars alongside such pieces. Missoni, Brioni and Dolce & Gabbana were also seen experimenting with this no-brainer of a trend.
Motif knits
Injecting a sense of playfulness and light hearted frivolity to the staple winter sweater, we have designers putting a spin to the classic with motifs galore.
Spotted across presentations right from playful versions that saw animals as at JW Anderson, to darker versions as shown by 44 Labels Group, which essentially glorified symbols reminiscent of radioactivity warning signs to Etro, who showed elements from the plant and animal world, some of which were reminiscent of Christmas sweaters, and K-Way who transformed their knitted product with single checks, Fall/Winter 2022-23 offers a plethora of options to choose from.
Shearling jackets
After spending the majority of the last two years indoors, consumers now have the collective desire of going all out and spending as much time exploring the outdoors as possible.
This has put outerwear under the spotlight for next season. Alongside fur jackets, a number of traditional outdoor garments emerged as the key highlights of post-pandemic menswear collections.
Much like aviator jackets, outdoor classics for the upcoming season come in all shapes and sizes, like colourful extra-large down jackets and three-quarter length parkas.
Above all, shearling and bouclé wool jackets were ubiquitous, sometimes reinterpreted and destructured as at Y/Project, or entirely transformed as at Jonathan Anderson, both for Loewe and for his own label’s collection, while Hermès showcased jackets with blue fur lining.
Joggers
Comfort-first clothing, a trend that emerged in late 2019 and expounded during early-to-mid 2020 owing to the pandemic, shows no signs of seizing.
In this regard, we have joggers that continue to shine, so much so that they are overtaking the gold standard previously enjoyed by trousers.
Comfy joggers have replaced the strictly snug, old fashioned way of dressing, to morph into an uber-chic, essential menswear item, worn with suits with matching jackets.
They featured on the runways with a practical drawstring fastening, updated with new details such as a straight-leg cut and a crease at the front.
Whether stretching down to the ground, tapered or cinched at the ankle, joggers lend themselves to countless variations. They were slashed at Sankuanz, corkscrew-cut at Y/Project, ultra-classy in ochre-coloured knit at Rhude or made of sublime cashmere as at Brioni.
Jeans Revival
Denim is going places this winter as it gets its much awaited makeover.
The message is simple but the way it is delivered is not – designers and high fashion brands alike experiment and go all out with decorative techniques, surface ornamentations and washes to lend a new life to this wardrobe staple.
Philipp Plein sent a denim two-piece consisting of a jacket and pants onto the catwalk, decorated with large-scale sharks. What’s so great about that, you ask? Well, for starters, the two-tone sharks were framed with striking diamonds and featured a logo print of the brand.
Indian designer Dhruv Kapoor also presented a denim two-piece in a dark blue hue that featured pixel-like yellow flowers contrasting with orange decorative stitching, whilst 44 Labels Group also made use of the aforementioned logo on bright, wide-leg denim shorts and, in another look, decorated the knees of a pair of trousers with an abstract drawing.
Radical Optimism
New York Fashion Week commenced with the bi-annual showcase of emerging menswear designers at New York Men’s Day (NYMD), which is now in its 17th season of introducing new talent to the city’s veteran fashion community.
A collective trend to have emerged out of this initiative was one of radical optimism as consumers itch to get out and view (as well as live) life through rose tinted glasses.
Hence, designers are ditching basics and going all out with jovial, bright pops of colours, whimsical prints, eye-catching motifs and expressive slogans.
Highlighting the same, Stephen Mikhail, who is based out of both New York and London-based, said, “Yeah, people are over it. I hear all the time people just want excuses to dress up, so let’s give them a reason to.”
New Jersey-born Nicholas Raefski, also new to Men’s Day, reminds us with his collection, ‘Meet Me By The Bleachers’ to keep pushing forward and not dwell on the past—even those pesky pre-pandemic times that we hold nostalgia for, like the 1970s high-school memory of streetwear he created for the show, while being born a few decades too late to have actually experienced it.
For his latest collection, Raefski was inspired by nostalgia and false nostalgia; remembering the past better than it was and yearning for something you never actually had. In his statement about the collection he said, “I enjoy the challenge of taking something that I know little about from the past, thinking about it in the present and designing it for the future.”
Masculinity continues to be redefined
Another trend to have emerged during the NYMD, was designers and brands collective effort towards blurring the line between masculine and feminine by creating designs with a genderless and unisex intention.
Highlights included McNicol’s collection of classic essentials that he loves for his own closet as shown on male and female models, whilst Potts’ exploration of skin tones for the season entitled ‘Skinfolk’ featured voluminous layers and airy parachute capes worn by both men and women as well. “I always have the dramatic looks and then I love some of the everybody-can-wear-them pieces that can be worn any day of the week,” Potts said, describing his collection.
Separate from NYMD but maintaining that same throughline was Overcoat — designed by Ryuhei Oomaru in his Chinatown product development studio — with a unisex collection inspired by vintage winter sports uniforms, shown in a digital presentation that same morning.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
