SS/25 Report: The Return of Flip Flops, One Great Jacket and Belts as Art
All my thoughts, wants, questions, needs and DESIRES from the Spring Summer '25 menswear shows in London, Paris and Milan
There’s something quite magical about landing at Milan’s Linate airport - and not just because once you’ve made it through immigration it’s a quick 20-minute drive to the centre of the city.
Every time I arrive, the first thing my eye gets drawn to is the gigantic neon Emporio Armani sign positioned like an altarpiece above the airport’s main hangar. It probably sounds perverse, but seeing the insignia surfaces within me a feeling of comfort - of homecoming - an emotion I experienced afresh a few weeks ago, as I arrived for my first men’s fashion week in four years, since Covid shut down the world.
I spent a few days in Milan attending shows like Martine Rose, JW Anderson and Dunhill; before popping to Paris to host a dinner with Sir Paul Smith, where I also discovered a slew of new shirts and trousers from some of the world’s coolest brands.
I’m not going to patronise you by sharing a set of fleeting trends I tangentially picked up on, but rather, a few thoughts about the labels, garments, questions and ideas which caught my attention (and I reckon should be grabbing yours, too).
Can The Row really make flip flops a thing?
I despise flip flops. To feet what air fryers are to kitchens - to wear flip flops is to tell the world that you’ve given into convenience at the expense of all else; that you’re willing to dress like an Aussie gym bunny grabbing Grenade bars from Clapham Common Sainos in January and that you like your McCain oven chips with a side of, um, air.
New York-based brand The Row (which excels in making extraordinarily basic clothes seem somehow worthy of their four-figure price tags) may have scuppered my sartorial prejudice on this occasion, however, by showing black leather flip flops as part of their spring summer ‘25 collection in Paris.
Worn with loosely tailored full break pants and fluid trousers teamed with shirts and waistcoats, the look was very 16th century prospector on the way home from Third Space, and was surprisingly seductive.
The key to getting the look right, if you’re feeling brave/hot enough to try it, is to ensure you wear flip flops crafted from grown up materials like leather and canvas, rather than tire rubber, and to ensure that the trousers you pick puddle elegantly over the top.
Oh, and pedicures. Always pedicures.
A recent flight taught me that big brands really need to rethink their logo strategies
It’s no secret that the world’s most powerful luxury labels are struggling. Burberry’s quarterly results read like the Book of Job (with creative director Daniel Lee taking the titular role) and Gucci’s dismal performance has left the Kering Group foundering. Good news in fashion land is currently hard to come by.
Part of the reason is that designer clothes have become so stupidly expensive. It’s a state of affairs which means that consumers in the middle of the market - who have had their surplus spending money stripped by the global economic downturn - are no longer shelling out on zhuzhy bags which cost the same as an all inclusive holiday.
Another reason is because logos are suddenly out, and the biggest labels have made their fortunes in recent years by slapping conspicuous brand signifiers onto their flagship products and waiting for the cash to fly in. It’s a strategy which no longer works, with taste-defining consumers getting wise to the fact that a big logo does not an elegant statement make.
On a recent flight to Ibiza from Stanstead (*shudders*) I was struck by the amount of people wearing heavily branded clothes as they entered the Ryan Air flight (*double shudders*). Each of my fellow travellers seemed to be adorned with a pair of Hermes Izmir sandals, furnished with a telltale leather “H” as the upper of the shoe, whilst I counted at least 16 Louis Vuitton “Neverfull” bags as they bashed me on the shoulder en route to the back of the plane.
There were Dior towelling T-shirts, emblazoned with the brand’s monogram, and there were beaten-up black Gucci Marmonts abound. I even spotted a Birkin or two.
Of course, many of the products I spied on the flight may not have been legit - likely, if the behaviour of the passengers wearing them was anything to go by (I spotted several hoovering up lines from their tray tables) - but that’s not really the point.
After many years of logo abuse, designer goods have finally become pedestrian, and with them, the designer brands which make them. The meaning of the word “luxury” has, in turn, changed. Where once the term translated to scarcity and rarity, now it has been coopted as a byword for a kind of mass, look-at-me consumerism - and as I learned on my pokey Ryan Air flight, there ain’t nothing luxurious about that.
So it begs the question, why would anyone bother spending £1,500 on a handbag when everyone on your holiday charter will likely have the same one? Just think - you could spend the cash on a business class British Airways flight to Ibiza from Heathrow, instead. I know which I’d find more luxurious.
Does an oil painted band tee couture make?
A quick note on Demna Gvasalia’s latest couture show for Balenciaga. There wasn’t a men’s look in sight, but there were plenty of gowns crafted from nylon-looking puffer jackets and skirts made of denim.
Whether such clothes constitute couture is a question for the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode to answer; but either way I was particularly taken with the band tees featuring classic vintage scenes, which were oil painted by hand onto the surface of the cotton.
Courrèges won for best off-kilter outerwear
Designer Nicolas Di Felice showed his SS/25 menswear offering for Courrèges in Paris a few weeks ago, and I was particularly taken with the designer’s slightly off-kilter take on super basic clothes. It was like The Row, only more interesting.
Marrying the 70s sexiness of Andre Courrège’s original vision for his eponymous brand with a material focused simplicity which feels very now, my favourite garments in the collection were outerwear pieces, including a hypnotic trench coat featuring caped sleeves and a voluminously-proportioned collar.
The thing was also a perfect length, finishing around 30 centimetres from the base of the model’s foot, making it elegant without being witchy or silly.
Elsewhere, there was an excellent leather car coat, complete with a seventies-inspired collar and a more nineties-feeling razor silhouette; and a round-neck, cropped-body leather biker jacket which felt very Brad Pitt in his Hollywood heyday.
I’m calling it now - the baby nineties biker is back.
Magliano is my personal brand discovery of the season
I didn’t really know anything about Magliano before I attended the shows in Milan, but I really enjoyed the brand’s Spring Summer ‘25 offering. Founded by Italian designer Luca Magliano in 2016, the brand does a nice line in soft-edged folksy pieces with a tailoring bent, and they’re always styled beautifully.
If you’re a fan of Margaret Howell, Our Legacy and/or old school Armani (with a touch of Martine Rose’s quasi-terraces masculinity thrown in for good measure) you’ll be a fan of Magliano. Here’s my favourite look from the collection:
And here are three bits from the brand which you can buy now:
Belts are now art
For SS/25, Prada presented super smart trompe l’oiel belts, skimming the surface of the high waisted trousers, which shimmied down the runway.
Elsewhere, Jonathan Anderson at Loewe showed double-wrap belts built into the bases of polo shirts and sweaters, and to the tops of high-waisted chinos and jeans. Magliano, well, see the look/belt in the point above.
When two of the most desirable and exciting brands in the world (you’re good too, Mags) start thinking about belts less as functional items and more as art pieces, you know it’s time to reconsider the role of the waist hikers in your own wardrobe.
For me, that meant digging out an old, extra-long, double-wrap belt from Prada’s AW/19 collection and wearing it with suits, to create a subtle kind of corseting effect at the middle. I ensure that the leather of the belt matches the tone of the suit so it doesn’t become too visually jarring.
For you, it might mean teaming a big buckle western belt with some jeans and an oversized grey blazer. Or failing that, wearing a long brown leather belt with a simple summer outfit (white jeans and a shirt, say) before tucking it back in on itself and letting it hang low from your waist - thereby making like Miuccia, Raf and Jonathan, and creating a feature out of something which would otherwise be ignored.
Schiaparelli needs to start making men’s clothes
There was a lot of gossip at the shows about who might take the helm at Chanel now that Virginie Viard has stepped down. Schiaparelli’s much lauded American creative director Daniel Roseberry was a firm crowd favourite.
The Intrigue surrounding Roseberry is there for a reason - few designers right now are doing more interesting work than he, as his latest couture offering for Schiaparelli attested.
From a pagoda shouldered cape finished with gilded plumage across the entire form, to the voluminous cream opera jacket which look as though it was coated with perfectly erect swan feathers; these were less clothes, more performance pieces - and the collection made me desperate to wear Roseberry’s creations (see above).
Gucci might be struggling but this jacket is great
Nascent creative director Sabato de Sarno’s first full menswear collection for Gucci is hitting the stores right now - and despite the mixed reception to the designer’s work, I have to admit I’m incredibly taken with this roomy midnight blue bomber.
It’s crafted from ultra-crisp wool acetate and it wears like a dream. I recently went to try it on in Dover Street Market and I can’t stop thinking about it - it’s the perfect blue bomber (even despite the subtle-ish “Gucci” branding on the breast) - and there’s a timeless ease to it that much of Alessandro Michele’s more outré pieces for the brand never seamed able to achieve. Staggering, yes. Timeless, not so much.
I’ll have to stop thinking about it though, because it costs the same as at least 100 (relatively lavish) dinners at Nandos. The jeans (also in the first picture) are just as sexy, however, and slightly more affordable.
Be a dear and hold my Lemon & Herb Fino Pitta whilst I reach for my wallet.
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