In the fashion world, trends can easily change with the season. Keeping up to date on the newest styles in men’s fashion can be difficult. As a designer, we’ve got our finger on the pulse of the market, so we always try to be timely. It’s important to us to be aware of what’s going on presently and look towards what’s going to soon be popular.
Fashion happens in cycles, so much of what is popular now may be perceived as vintage. Under close examination, there is a very specific way that current menswear trends are interacting with each other.
Taken together, these hint to a tremendous shift in the future of fashion. We’ve gathered a highlights reel of some of the newest men's fashion trends to keep you looking stylish.
Leather Is In
If leather can be used for something, whether it be apparel or decor, it probably has. Leather is a finite resource, which has given it a luxury status in regards to the highest quality leathers. It ages well, and a quality leather garment can last for years or sometimes decades.
It’s important to know the kind of material you are dealing with when investing in leather products. We are all familiar with the iconic leather jacket or leather bomber jackets, but leather is a textile that can do pretty much everything.
Like any organic material, leather has a grain. This can be seen when you examine products, which have subtly unique markings. The best leather is full-grain leather, where the grain remains fully intact. Full-grain leather is gorgeous and develops a patina as it ages but has the potential to be affected by moisture.
Following full-grain leather is top grain leather. This material retains quality but is smoothed out to present a uniform appearance. Top grain leather is commonly used in luxury and mid-range products where a different visual appearance is desired.
Other specialized leather products exist, such as suede. Suede is made from the underside of animal hide, whereas regular leather is made from the outside of the hide. Suede has a brushed, velvety texture and is softer than regular leather. Both types of high-grade leather have their place.
Leather Footwear
We primarily use leather in footwear. The upper of our Chelsea Roamer is suede, with an elastic ankle and nylon tape detail. The delicate and gorgeous appearance of suede makes it ideal for this versatile boot-roamer hybrid.
The Velcro Panel Runner uses leather to upgrade the standard mesh running shoe. Leather paneling highlighting the Daniel Patrick name contrasts with mesh uniquely styled to each colorway. A smooth appearance gives the shoe a desirable sleekness.
Leather is and will likely remain popular for its versatility in fashion and nature as a luxury good.
Caps Are Commonplace
Hats are having a renaissance in fashion. Whether a baseball cap or a warm-weather beanie, headgear is sure to keep going strong.
Hats have always existed in the space of being practical protective accessories as well as status symbols. On a level of pure function, early headgear protected people from the elements.
Winter caps keep you warm in frigid months, and brimmed caps keep sunlight from your eyes. Even today, specialized headgear is used in industrial and athletic contexts to protect people from injury.
Hats—as a status symbol—have an equally prevalent history. Top hats and bowler hats, though arguably long out of fashion, used to be a symbol of respectability. Monarchs are aesthetically associated with the power symbolized by a crown. Whenever a televised event happens involving the royal family of England, highly stylized hats are everywhere to be seen.
The sort of hats worn to a royal wedding aren’t the kind making a bid for everyday fashion. Instead, this year is seeing a revival of classic casual standards to upgrade regular attire. Beanies and snapbacks are both competing to become the most popular everyday hat.
Snapbacks have long been popular as a subtle alternative to the classic baseball cap. These latter caps cover the head and feature a long, broad brim to protect the face from intense sunlight.
The snapback features a similar construction but has a shorter brim to highlight its function as a fashion item. Our Truck Stop Cap has the classic snapback shape and is available in nylon and corduroy. It features a Daniel Patrick decal and rubber logo on the front.
Beanies originated as cold-climate gear for the way they protect the ears. They first saw regular daily use as fashion in skate culture. A trend towards all styles vintage has made these and other items popular once again.
Graphic Tee’s Take Precedence
Another vintage item to undergo a modern re-evaluation is the graphic tee. These items formed the basis of modern streetwear when a surfboard manufacturer decided to put special designs on t-shirts. A few short decades later, the style movement peaked, faded, and is now well on its way to gearing up for a second wave.
Graphic tees are popular for a variety of reasons. A general push towards comfort wear has led to plenty of relaxed styles to be re-evaluated. Many graphic tees are luxuriously comfortable in a bid by brands to distinguish their particular offerings. The vintage nature of them also sets the stage for many designs to appeal to a general sense of nostalgia.
Fashion That Says Something
Graphic tees are also a means for self-expression. Aesthetics and specialized interests can easily be conveyed with a shirt. Many celebrities, athletes, and activists can be seen sporting tees or other gear with slogans for causes important to them. This makes graphic tees one of the few clothing items well-suited to carrying important social messages: a literal statement piece.
In our graphic tees, we choose to highlight the natural world around us. Sandwiched between oceans and mountains in the middle of a desert, Los Angeles offers an incredible environment. Such a wonderful place deserves to be immortalized and also makes for great artistic designs.
Our Summit Tee takes inspiration from the ethereal colors that appear when the sun begins to set. Pink mountains and color-tinged clouds make up the graphic, distressed to give the shirt a vintage appearance. A slight oversized tee combines with heavyweight jersey material to prove that style and comfort aren’t mutually exclusive. A variety of colorways make it easy to incorporate this into your existing wardrobe.
We love the fact that these highly versatile garments are back and don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.
Oversized Is the Perfect Fit
One of the biggest indicators separating periods in fashion history is the way garment silhouettes are designed. Pre-20th century women’s designs often featured padded undergarments and massive, impractical skirts. Menswear, on the other hand, has generally tended towards the practical.
The late 20th century saw a rise in oversized clothing. The emergence of streetwear saw a desire for comfortable, practical clothing suitable for all spheres of life. Even suits tended towards the bulky, with oversized fits becoming the norm.
The early 2000s saw an extreme counter-reaction to this, with everyone wearing form-fitting garments like skinny jeans. Skinny pants have been out of fashion long enough that they may even become vintage in a few years. Oversized clothing is the new standard.
The work-from-home culture of the pandemic has accelerated a tendency of fashion towards the casual and comfortable. With people no longer needing to wear dress pants and button-downs to the office as much, comfort is king. A free range of movement and ease of wear has made oversized clothing into a standard fit.
The keyword here is “oversized,” not baggy. A slightly oversized fit is on-trend, but you shouldn’t look like you are swimming in your apparel. Many pieces like pants and trousers feature zippers, bungee cords, or elastic cuffs to ensure a partially fitted look.
Our 7 Pocket Cargo Pant highlights this and uses an oversized fit with adjustable bungee cords at the ankle. This allows for a personal fit to the pant. A desert camo pattern takes its design from the natural environments of Los Angeles.
Color: Pastel Power and Bold Neon
The previous segments highlight the cyclical nature of fashion, and this quality applies to colors as well. Boldness and subtlety are both having a moment, with pastels and neons being runway mainstays.
Pastels are currently seeing a revival after years of apprehension. Historically the bleached tones have inspired calm after times of turbulence. A trend occurs for earth tones to be popular during times of economic crisis, with brighter colors reigning supreme afterward. In this case, after the earth tones of the late 2000s and 2010s, pastels once again are seeing their popularity skyrocket.
Pastels started as an immediately calming color, but neon’s bright properties immediately saw practical use. Neon originated in the 1930s, and a decade later, was put to use by the military. Neon is a highly visible material, making it commonplace in signage and safety clothing. As a fashion garment, neon colors peaked in the 80s and 90s.
A recent revival in vintage styles has also extended to neon and its maximalist aesthetics. Bold pinks, bright oranges, and acid greens can be seen on runways in pants, hoodies, and full-body outfits. For athletic apparel, these colors improve visibility at night and help draw attention no matter the time of day.
No offering of ours better exemplifies modern color trends than the Polar Fleece Roaming Sweatpants. The pastel purple haze and neon orange colorways showcase both sides of this spectrum, with seven other colors to boot. Polar fleece materials have thermal properties comparable to that of wool and sherpa, making them the perfect pant to prepare for winter. A diamond rubber label on the left thigh completes the vibe of this piece.
Clothing is Made To Last
The fashion industry has its problems, most easily seen by the rise of fast fashion. Fast fashion brands offer clothing at the lowest possible price by cutting corners every step of the way.
Unfortunately, cutting corners can hurt product quality and worker conditions. The most exciting trend to enter menswear isn’t an aesthetic one but a cultural one in the form of slow fashion.
Slow fashion comes as an antidote to the perils of fast fashion. Where fast fashion underpays, slow fashion seeks to conduct every step of its design ethically. Slow fashion garments are also built to last for years of use, rather than disintegrating after a season or two. Rather than capture the moment, this apparel prefers to use timeless designs and attention to detail to create stylish gear.
Many slow fashion brands are emerging, and several luxury designers are aligning themselves with the mission of this fashion trend. Rather than a defining style, slow fashion is marked by an overall devotion to quality and ethicality. This harkens back to the days before mass-production, where clothing was time-consuming to make and meant to last.
We try to embody slow fashion attributes in the way we locally source our production and our line of streetwear. Sourcing in LA allows us to equitably support our community as well as have a more direct oversight in production.
Our basics collection takes essential wardrobe staples and upgrades them to fit the world of designer fashion. Every brand is capable of doing its part to change the fashion world for the better, and we take that to heart.
What’s Next in Men’s Fashion?
The future is looking towards the past. In many ways, the latest trends in menswear are some of the oldest. Vintage apparel and aesthetics are becoming remixed by modern designers. In these designs, a new ethical consciousness is beginning to emerge. Soon, what a brand is and how they do it will matter as much as what they produce.
This is ultimately a trend for good. By emphasizing speed and profits, something partially allowed by the digital age, the fashion industry has picked up bad habits. Brands are beginning to shed these habits and focus on timeless fashion that’s meant to last. It’s likely not by chance that slow fashion coincides with the rise of vintage apparel.
What’s next for menswear can’t be predicted, but it can be suggested: Classic styles where comfort meets fashion—built to weather time.
Sources:
The Skinny Jean's Fall From Grace | NPR
Fabric Guide: Learn About Leather I Masterclass
History of neon: Christoph Ribbat's Flickering Light, reviewed | Slate