Man Fashion

Swaggering. Soshiotsuki SS26

| Design & Culture by Ed

Menswear fashion month kicked off with its brightest emerging star: Soshiotsuki, the Tokyo-based brand rooted in 1980s-inspired sartorial craftsmanship, recalling the glamour and prosperity of Japan’s Bubble Era. Back in September, following Giorgio Armani’s still-unbelievable passing, I wrote that Soshi Otsuki was the designer the Italian mega-brand should consider in the near future. With his guest show at Pitti Uomo and his autumn–winter 2026 collection, he confirms that belief.

The LVMH Prize winner delivered a line-up that sharpened his tailoring ideas while expanding the vision of who the Soshiotsuki man is. One look featured a trompe l’œil jumpsuit combining a button-up shirt and trousers – a moment that recalled Phoebe Philo’s early Céline collections and sparked a question: why has no one adapted this idea to menswear sooner? Another highlight was the sashiko suit and jeans, created in collaboration with Proleta Re Art, a Japanese brand known for its painstakingly hand-stitched fabrics reinterpreted through streetwear. The silver-fox model seemed to gaze beyond in that grey, distressed-looking suit.

Then there are the details that make Soshiotsuki stand out even among affluent-men favorites such as Zegna or Berluti. Extra fabric is built into the inside placket of a shirt to suggest a tucked-in necktie, while trousers are given reams of belt loops or draped with so many pleats that they hang like curtains. The effect? A dapper, swaggering handsomeness – intoxicating, like the smell of smoke in a high-end izakaya.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Heartthrob Appeal. ERL AW25

| Design & Culture by Ed

For ERL‘s autumn-winter 2025, Eli Russell Linnetz dialed down on the usual theatrics, and came up with a collection for the Cooper Kochs of the world. By that I mean the guys with naturally-born, red-carpet-heartthrob swagger that can equally pull off a ready-for-Gstaad ski-look or a Giorgio Armani luncheon in a perfectly-cut jacket and flared denim pants. The ultimate highlight coming from the Venice Beach-based designer? The menswear accessory that’s hopefully having a grand return: the cummerbund. He styled it over a black shirt and oversized pleated pants a black shirt, and finished the look with a cocoon-shaped duvet jacket. I like this new direction at ERL.


ED’s SELECTION:

ERL Zebra-Print Quilted Puffer Jacket


ERL Donegal Polo Sweater


ERL Multi-Logo Intarsia Sweater


ERL Silk-Wool Swirl Knit Hoodie


ERL Bicolor Swirl Hoodie

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Off Grind. Phipps AW24

| Design & Culture by Ed

Spencer Phipps knows that there’s no better person than him to promote his own brand. If you follow him on Instagram, then you’re guided daily by him on how to wear and style his very versatile clothes. You might be even subscribing to his YouTube channel, where he candidly discusses what’s like being a designer and owner of an independent business in our modern age (not easy, that’s for sure). So to appear in his brand’s autumn-winter 2024 lookbook was quite a natural step. These very persuasive and authentic, self-styled self-portraits are actually brilliant. Phipps doesn’t build his garments around far-fetched inspirations, but around people, “characters“, that exist in the collective imagination of the roads less traveled in America. Except that these people and their stories are not made up, but very much real. “Fringe characters” is how Phipps describes them. “It’s all very American Midwest-oriented,” he explained. “We have people living off grid, bikers, the weird old man; basically everyone I’m charmed by,” the designer said. Here and there, the designer is holding a Phipps branded ax, a chainsaw, animal crackers, and even a Phipps branded newspaper. All the props work perfectly with his signature, luxe fleeces, cargo pants and vintage-induced tailoring. And of course, the shearling chaps.

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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The Beach. ERL SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

ERL, next to Bode and Greg Lauren, is the future American classic of fashion. What Eli Russell Linnetz so painstakingly and consistently returns to at his brand is so much more than only about clothes; it’s a feeling, crafted from 2000s nostalgia, unique male-on-male-gaze and a certain theatrical sensitivity. His clothes are Bruce Weber and Abercrombie & Fitch campaigns, blues and surf-rock, Venice Beach and John F. Kennedy Jr. (and also John Schlossberg – JFK and Jackie’s grandson, the internet’s latest obsession). And yet they feel so good – and relevant – in 2024. “I like going back to these benchmark things, even from a historical point of view,” he said, “Where did this outfit come from? I want to solidify the narrative of this look,” he continued, explaining that this season was about defining his take on his forever beloved theme, Americana. The spring-summer 2025 collection is titled “The Beach,” in a nod to the 2000 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio as an all-American backpacker. Linnetz said that his narrative for the season was four boys, Tyler, Jason, Brad, and Chad, leaving water polo practice and stumbling upon a mysterious beach party. Though the looks could also be nods to the people he saw every day growing up in California. “A lot of those movies are just what people wore around me, so I never saw them as film costuming,” he said. “But this season I was reexamining all the athletes, the jocks, and what they wore.” So he made tiny swim shorts and cozy terry knits and transformed his popular swirl jacket into a loose gauge knit with a mohair insert. He made zip-off cargos and sherpa zip-ups. He also turned ’70s posters into charming ’90s airbrush tees, and produced dense and comfy striped tees with extra long-sleeves (“just like a surfer would have”). All that crafted in ERL’s studio (@whitepicketfence) and made in California, from most durable and high-end materials. This is the American dream.

Here are the pieces I would so get to ERL-ify my wardrobe.

ED’s SELECTION:


ERL Multicolor Lurex Argyle Sweater Vest



ERL Coca-Cola Flare Jeans



ERL Striped Appliquéd Wool-blend Sweater



ERL Gradient Rainbow Mohair-Blend Sweater

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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Men’s – Borderless. Undercover SS25

| Design & Culture by Ed

So far, Undercover‘s Jun Takahashi has presented the best collection of this menswear season. I still can’t believe in its beauty, a delightful balance of refinement, fluidness and tactility. The designer was thinking about the concept of “borderlessness“. “There are many categories, many tribes. I wanted to make it borderless. Because to eliminate conflicts, you want borders to be eliminated – that’s the metaphor. And because I work in fashion, this is how I can express that.” Human unity at a moment of fracture – a theme that isn’t easy to capture through the medium of clothes, but Takahashi did just wonderfully. In the opening section the designer seemed to consider the artist’s uniform, showing a series of loose linen jackets and high-hemmed pants in sky-blue, pink, or off-white. Straps were suspended from the jacket skirts, and the elbows, vents, and other points of physical articulation were bordered by zippers or slits. Some of the garments were printed with images of clouds or smoke. The closing section featured prints of Takahashi’s painted art whose subjects included a looming sphere-headed, many-tentacled entity, and which the designer called “my creature.” On their heads, the models wore either wide-brimmed hats with fishnet veils or headpieces of golden nails or leaves above lace masks across their eyes. Most wore ornate beaded collars at their necks and intriguing little details including brightly colored painted buttons. Later on there was a phenomenal ragged-edged skirt in what looked like an old baroque brocade. Full-length robes and trailing, metal-flecked sari-esque trains and skirts came at the end. “He wanted to provide a men’s collection which also has elements that are feminine,” reported Takahashi’s translator: “because he thinks this border is getting less and less.”

Collage by Edward Kanarecki.
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