As summer draws to a close and we head into autumn, it’s time to start rethinking your wardrobe for the new season ahead. While as always, we’ll be sad to say goodbye to our favourite linen shirts and tailored shorts until next year, autumn is a great time of year for the sartorially inclined and, more often than not, offers the chance to get back to the sharp dressing we all love best.
As ever, this year’s trends to be seen in certainly don’t disappoint, with an exciting mix of new styling and some regular returnees we know and love and that are rarely absent from the catwalks for long. From leather to checks and men’s sneakers with suits, AW/20 fashion is set to serve up an eclectic mix of favourites old and new. Here are the top five trends you need in your wardrobe for the season, and that promise to see you through in style.
Leather
We’d be lying if we said we weren’t thrilled that leather was making a welcome return, and worn in the right combinations, it has an integral role to play in creating a suave, sophisticated and utterly stylish autumn look.
How extreme you want to go with it is up to you – the options this season abound. At 1X1 Studio, we saw glittery gimp mask-wearing men in leather jockstraps flying the flag for risqué, while at Pronounce, abstract leather trench coats were the order of the day.
In Milan, nappa trousers and hardcore cordovan biker jackets were the stars of the show – but had you headed over to Paris, you would have seen a far more refined range of designs on display. At Louis Vuitton and Hermes, sharply-cut blazers and leather trousers made for a perfectly luxurious combination.
The key piece of the season? A quality pair of slim-cut designer trousers. Check out Feng Chen Wang and Martine Rose for the best of the bunch.
Red up to your head
Don’t look now if you’re shy of a little colour, because head-to-toe red is the new-season colour to be seen in. This particular shade – declared ‘carnelian’ at Alexander McQueen – might not be the easiest colour to wear, but brave and bold dressers can be certain to pull it off.
The brand debuted an array of plush silk suits in Milan, while Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford and Marni showcased a selection of edgy brick-red suits. At Gucci, terracotta met rich reds in a daring combination of separates, making for a surprisingly wearable combination.
Our top pick for the season ahead? A scarlet suit, as seen at Givenchy.
Checks
No autumn catwalk line-up could ever be complete without checks, and at the AW/20 shows, we saw them in abundance. At Milan’s Gucci show, we saw oversized, grunge-inspired checked shirts playing a leading role, while fitted checked suits made the cut at Armani and Tom Ford.
Over at Prada, the print made its way onto some of the most desirable new-season coats, with variations ranging from plaid to gingham, and even fringed varieties on show. If you add one plaid piece to your autumn wardrobe, then let it be one of these. Suave, wearable and certain to transform even the most uninspired of outfits to sartorial supremacy, you can’t go far wrong.
Denim
Denim might not be the first fabric that springs to mind when it comes to luxury dressing, but don’t write it off entirely before you’ve seen this season’s offerings.
For autumn, it returns in its rawest form, in a departure from the acid washes that have dominated in recent years. The classic, tailored pieces at E Tautz made for a smarter way to incorporate the trend into your everyday look, while for the more avant-garde dresser, Per Gotesson’s patchwork denim trench coats were a statement for the brave.
At Gucci, it was all about over-sized, ripped skater jeans – an indication that this high-end luxury brand is going more mainstream than ever before and is serious about attracting a millennial market.
Lanvin and Paul Smith served up the most wearable designs, with the former debuting worked-in denim winter co-ords, and the latter showing wide-leg fisherman-style trousers that are the perfect choice for pared-down weekend dressing.
Oversized tailoring
Oversized tailoring is not a new trend, but you can be certain that it’s back with a vengeance for 2020. With more designers on board than ever before, this year saw them decide to go big or go home. Double-breasted jackets with sharp shoulders were a look that ran throughout new season catwalk shows, so if you’ve invested in one over the past couple of years, then you’re still on point.
At Martine Rose, this much-loved design was given an overtly Eighties makeover, while at Feng Chen Wang, boxy-cut, single-breasted jackets with shoulders to the extreme were a strong look we won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
At Gucci, it was all about over-sized corduroy blazers, while Prada and Dolce and Gabbana further cemented the trend with offerings in cashmere and jumbo cord.
As ever, the catwalk shows across Europe were daringly extravagant – but the good news is that these new season trends translate seamlessly into wearable pieces. There’s no time like the present to invest in your staples for the coming seasons, and after a summer spent largely indoors, we can’t wait to get back out there again and have fun with men’s fashion.
