Where Will Menswear Go in 2023? 7 Experts Weigh In.

In the broader context, I love the permissiveness we’re seeing in fashion. Customers and fashion followers love to have tips and guidelines about things, but I prefer permissiveness. This era of exploration that we’ve entered into in menswear is really exciting. The idea of blurring boundaries and emphasizing self-expression has been a really important direction.

We’ve seen exponential growth in the men’s business in general, so it’s becoming a more and more important category in the fashion landscape. A lot of that comes from the influence of media, specifically social media, and in informing the customers and leading them to make more informed and bolder choices. This really does breed a more emboldened shopper that’s making choices that may be more interesting and less expected. I love when there’s expansive thinking informing fashion brands, collections, and customers.

What do you expect from menswear, both on the runways and personal style-wise, this year?

There’s a lot of anticipation for the first Gucci collection post Alessandro Michele’s departure. He was a big purveyor of blurring the boundaries and of exploring eccentricity and femininity and romanticism, so where does that have a place in the house now? I’m really curious about that. Also, we’ve seen really interesting entries into historic houses like Rhuigi Villaseñor at Bally and Maximilian Davis at Ferragamo. This opens us up to a lot of experimentation, a lot of expansive thinking, and a lot of creativity. 

We’re definitely still seeing a lot of utilitarian influences, but before I would even talk about utility, one of the most important things we’re seeing is a focus on proportion. We’re seeing strong movement toward things that are voluminous, things that are full, things that are baggier. It ties in nicely with this agnostic point of view as far as a-gendered clothing. It’s neither this nor that, and that to me is really, really exciting. This play of proportions will influence the broad customer base in ways that are practical. I don’t expect everybody to be wearing a Comme des Garçons drop shoulder jacket, or an extended lapel coat, but it will inform. 

What direction would you personally like menswear to go in?

That’s a hard question! I hate to keep using this word permissiveness, but I just want everybody to be able to wear what they want, and I want to see more options out there for people to embrace. I love when there are multiple directions that many different kinds of people can respond to. I think it’s important that there’s enough fashion out there for people to feel connected to.