SS23 Menswear buying season: four trends to look out for

The Milan trade show Pitti Immagine Uomo traditionally kicks off the European menswear buying season. The spring/summer 2023 edition runs from June 14 to June 17 2022 and the Milan menswear collections will follow from June 17 to 21 2022. Paris menswear week takes place June 21 to June 26 2022. The following are four of the trends buyers should be looking out for.

Sport meets Street

Recent menswear collections for Resort 23 have featured ‘sport and street’ styles made popular in the 1990s. From Dior Homme, Kim Jones delivered a ‘California Couture Collection’; a sport/street fusion for look 18 included a knit top with chevron stripes and soft corduroy pants, accessorized by skater sneakers and the sort of key chain worn by Orange County street kids in the ‘90s.

‘Dark Goth Surfers’ was the title of Dsquared2’s Resort 23 collection. The Caten twins showed a mash-up of styles taken from surf, skate and street culture.

At Louis Vuitton, the legacy of Virgil Abloh lived on in the label’s Resort 23 collection for men. From the first look, a short-sleeved shirt over cartoon tee with matching pants, accessorized by a bucket hat and skate sneakers, Abloh’s signature streetwear style was evident. Look for this trend to feature strongly during the menswear season for SS23.

Autumn in Summer

For SS23, among the inevitable bright and pastel hues, look for shades of brown mixed with contrast colors to trend. A recent example from the Resort 23 shows, included a darker palette at Dior Homme. Kim Jones stepped away from his ‘So-Cal cool’ pastel palette, to show a relaxed tee in the iconic Dior newspaper print and soft pants, in shades of tan and brown, juxtaposed to fuchsia sneakers and a sock cap in gray and pink ombré scattered with sequins.

At Gucci, brown high waisted dress pants were shown with a chiffon shirt embellished with red sequined floral embroidery. Accessories included red sunglasses and brown two tone shoes with a lizard tip.

At Moschino, a street look from Jeremy Scott included a geometric print for a windbreaker and matching bags, rendered in brown, white, orange and yellow. Tan relaxed pants and yellow slides completed the look.

Double Denim

A denim jacket twinned with matching jeans was a favored nineties/aughties' style, nicknamed the 'Canadian tuxedo.' It was a prominent look during the FW22 menswear collections and looks to continue during SS23.

For Resort 23, Jeremy Scott showed a matching jacket and jeans for Moschino. Look 20 included a racer style jacket in light blue denim embellished with stripes and quilted patches. During his inaugural collection for Kenzo FW22, Nigo took the concept to a whole new level showing a head-to-toe look of dark denim layers.

Softly Suited

In contrast to the sharp shouldered tailoring shown over the past few seasons, relaxed suits have been cropping up in several recent directional menswear collections. Dries Van Noten invested in the look for SS22.

It was followed up by Glenn Martens for Y/Project. For the Resort 23, Dior Homme menswear collection, Kim Jones showed several relaxed suits in a variety of fabrics.