Spring/Summer 2022 menswear trends

Traditional menswear codes are reexamined and rethought for SS22 as designers tap into the zeitgeist and channel the mindsets and values of today’s consumer. Topics around gender identity, environmental awareness and protest culture are key to the Gen Z audience whilst the styles and designs of yesteryear are revamped with fresh ideas for the contemporary youth market.

Completely Genderless Sport

Completely Genderless Sport illustrates the continued breaking down of gender boundaries in fashion. According to Vice, 41 percent of Gen Z identify themselves in the middle of the masculine to feminine scale, and that 48 percent value brands that don’t classify by gender (HBR). It is these consumer outlooks that are driving the idea of completely genderless dressing. As Silvia Venturini Fendi described her collection: “In a moment where our freedom has seemed to have limits, I think it’s also the moment to push it, so I really wanted to give a sense of freedom to this man. I think it's time to break boundaries.” Completely Genderless Sport combines fashion with sport, continuing a process of integration that is elevating traditional sportswear to new heights.

Fashtinction Rebellion

A sense of rebellion and dressing with attitude underpins menswear, as Gen Z continue to explore their uniform of resistance, a resistance against the fast-paced mass-consumerism that has created fashion’s extreme waste issues. An eco-focus comes through in the sense of every item being recycled, upcycled or made from deadstock. Yet there remains a sense of curation, consideration and care, even amongst the rebellious sensibility.

Soft Comfort Formal

Soft Comfort Formal signifies the casualisation of formal dressing. The ultra-soft comfort of pandemic dressing is elevated to luxurious new heights. The artisanship, expert creation and knowledge of construction associated with sartorial dressing of the past is retained whilst simultaneously rejecting its preconceived rules of form. Alessandro Sartori, creative director of Zegna stated that “the craft has totally moved from the classic tailoring forms to these new forms…at the base of it all, comfort has become key.” “Tuned to the needs of today” as his show notes said.

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