Prada, Saint Laurent, Dries Van Noten, Rick Owens, Dior, Willy Chavarria
Mens Fashion Week Spring 2026
A lot of pajamas for Spring 2026, huh? I think the mens season sometimes becomes a second thought, but these are often my favorite collections, so without further ado, here are some quick thoughts before the full reviews:
Here are my reviews of Martine Rose and Zegna.
Charles Jeffrey Lover boy is always a fun time.
Really, so, so into this new era of Moschino. I love Jeremy Scott, but Adrian Appiolaza gets me fr.
Thom Browne— a delight! Duh.
Pronounce was yummmmmy.
Really loved Emporio Armani, actually also that purple shade at Giorgio Armani was insane— you know which one.
The peekaboo nipple boob at Saul Nash was everything to me.
Insane how crazy Bally is already flopping after Simone Bellotti left.
Masu!!
I liked The Row, because I like The Row, but it wasn’t super memorable this season.
Auralee was a perfect transitional collection.
Ernest W. Baker was a bit tame this season, but still very good!
The clothes at Pharrell’s Louis Vuitton menswear really have zero sauce when it isn’t him just building his personal wardrobe, but those bags were fab. Also, I did appreciate the actual call to attention of the culture that inspired the collection. More of that from everyone, please.
Still a Hed Mayner fangirl, forever and always. This season was quite light and I loved it. The capelets!!
Walter Van Bierendonck— icon.
Wales Bonner never misses and I loved this direction from her, it felt a little different.
Lemaire, sexy as always.
My seasonal “Yohji<3”
Junya also always so good.
And Comme!!!!
I’m beyond obsessed with Lll.
Sacai was simple but effective.
Each look at Kiko Kostadinov corresponded to an hour of the day which was fun. He’s always so romantic and compelling.
Hemès feels weirdly underrated every season to me. Like, we should be talking about it a lot more. Such good clothes.
Loved the whole Y-3 presentation.
Need the banana look from Doublet.
Craig Green back on the runway, thank GOD.
Always love how LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi is inspired by a book this season, but I also love how its gotten less literal in reference. He also made an animated short film to go along with this season! Honestly, one of my favorite collections form him and some of the best latex I’ve seen in a long time.
Prada Spring 2026 Menswear
Prada said, no thoughts just vibes, for Spring 2026 Menswear, with the show notes reading, “A shift of attitude– dismantling of meaning, and dismantling of power.” So, perhaps it’s not that deep and just a really good collection for a Wes Anderson movie press tour, but as you know, dear reader, it is always that deep.
Raf Simons said, “We wanted innocence of children to come in,” with Miuccia Prada adding, “Opposite of aggression, power, nastiness.” She noted that while freedom has always been a part of Prada, this time the focus leaned more towards tenderness. Then there’s also this concept of instinctual design and dress that we saw as a part of Fall 2025 as well, albeit this season in a more lighter and imaginative way.
As attendees entered the Prada show space, they were greeted with bird song and floral carpets that resembled motifs from SS2013. Scaffolding from the past few seasons was taken down and the space was open, breathable. Then came the clothes– minimal, but not without their punchy colors, sensual textures, and fun accessories. It may have been “less” but that doesn’t mean it was easier.
It takes effort to be effortless. Not in the sense that everyone is putting on an act, pretending their lives are a lot more put together than they actually are, but in the sense that it takes effort to read books, go to art galleries, watch movies, have opinions on the news, etc. One must live a life in order to develop a sense of self and personal style. This restraint in design is by no means lacking in intrigue, afterall, some of the best ideas come out of working within rules and restrictions. Instead, it allows us to develop our own thoughts and build our own worlds– and where better to start building worlds than that of a child’s imagination?
Here, anything is possible. With his utilitarian wardrobe, full of nautical and preppy sprinklings, the Prada Spring 2026 man is ready to think outside of the box. He’s transported back to finding lost treasures in his backyard and running around with wild abandon at summer camp. He’s got one open toe loafer firmly planted in reality, and one reaching for the possibility of what could be. He’s not afraid to be vulnerable, playground bloomers and all. Simons’ mention of tapping into innocence does not translate to ignorance, but openness– an attitude of curiosity, unburdened by the weight of expertise or cynicism. To dress like a child becomes expansive.
Spring 2026 Menswear asks not what clothing can project, but instead what it can invite. In the world we live in, it’s easy to churn out products that are overstimulating, hyper-performative, and accelerating endlessly. Prada and Simons invite us to slow down and be introspective, to be truly thoughtful instead of just as a form of posturing. To dress not to be seen, but to move through the world with wonder. It asks, what if power looked like gentleness? And what if rebellion looked like play? Afterall, imagination can be dangerous to those who benefit from things as they are.
Saint Laurent Spring 2026 Menswear
At the end of last year, I wrote about the rise in pajamas in ready-to-wear and how WGSN’s consumer insights dubbed 2026 “The Great Exhaustion.” As collections from the 2026 season roll in, that seems to be proven true. Although not perhaps sleepwear, the Valentino Resort 2026 lookbook featured models in a luxurious bed, whereas menswear seems to be embracing pajamas full force with Saint Laurent being the latest offering. But, let’s hold that thought.
This season Anthony Vaccarello went lighter and brighter. Spring 2026 Menswear was filled with rich colors inspired by the paintings of Patrick Angus and Billy Sullivan, and a freedom reminiscent of “Saint Laurent in 1974, and Fire Island in the 80s.” According to Vogue, Vaccarello was also partially inspired by a film yet to be released about Larry Stanton, and all the young men who lost their lives during the AIDS crisis. When asked about what led him to choosing his source materials for the collection Vaccarello said, “Because I am gay,” but also added, “ Because they lived an intense and fun time, not knowing what was going to happen. I related that to what is happening today in general. Maybe we should be thinking more. To be sure not to miss your life.”
Ties were tucked and held close to the chest, while many jackets and shirts were in a sheer, nylon material reminiscent of a windbreaker– some colors more effective than others. Shorts were short and beautifully tailored, based on a photo of Yves Saint Laurent as a teenager on holiday in 1950. Some of the waist seams of button up shirts appeared to be scrunched by an elastic, having the ease of a sweatsuit, while paper bag pants looked as if they had been warped by the sun. Glasses were large, shoulders were broad, and knits were light. It even felt a little Dries Van Noten, but regardless, all of it was ready for an engaging and sweaty summer.
Then there were the pajamas, bringing rest and intimacy into the public sphere. As I wrote previously, “By embracing pajamas as daywear, consumers opt out of the fast-paced, high-stress demands of modern life. They want us to SLEEP– literally, but even more so metaphorically…These day-jamas transform a practical garment into a desirable luxury item. They become a promise of relaxation, luxury, and mindfulness in a chaotic world, convincing everyone that they too can live a life of leisure, although their tax bracket would argue otherwise… Pajamas symbolize the contradictions of seeking comfort but wanting to perform identity through consumption.”
This collection lives in the tension between the erotic and the ephemeral, between a present so exhausted it turns to pajamas and a past so beautiful it hurts, where the exhaustion is not deemed a failure. It’s saturated with sensual memory, made wearable. Vaccarello’s note that we should be thinking more feels at odds with this surrender to sleep. Here, the pajamas and sheer fabrics feel like something unfinished, something in process. Perhaps the Saint Laurent man isn’t actually asleep, he’s just tired enough to stop a performance of polished perfection. A performance that is more preoccupied with completing the thought than actually being present in it. Instead, he’s found comfort in the ambiguity.
Dries Van Noten Spring 2026 Menswear
Following in the footsteps of someone like Dries Van Noten isn’t an easy feat, but Julian Klausner is two for two when it comes to proving that he was always the only option. If his Spring 2026 Menswear collection wasn’t enough to prove it to you alone, perhaps the roaring applause as he took his bow at the end of the show might seal the deal.
Dries Van Noten was a brand and designer that appealed to me from the moment my interest in fashion began. Not only because the clothing was compelling, but because I felt like it understood me. It knew what I was looking for in an aspirational wardrobe and made me feel like I could grow as a woman along with it. Klausner has only continued that feeling in me, and as much as I loved his debut womenswear collection, I might love his first menswear offering even more.
The clothes and styling were familiar, but without being stagnant. There were delectable colors, bold prints, sensual textures, athleisure as ready-to-wear– all things to be expected from a Dries Van Noten collection– yet suggested in a way that couldn’t help but provoke. Spring 2026 Menswear asked, “but what if you did it this way instead?”
It’s easy for menswear to start to feel like a uniform, to feel like everywhere you look everyone’s ideas are the same. For many it’s easy to fit a mold that the status quo approves of, but how do you get someone to experiment a little bit more? According to Klausner, you take things they’re familiar with like suits, bomber jackets, or polos, and adjust the context in which they’re usually seen. A sarong is thrown over a pair of tailored pants (or worn in place of), a double breasted jacket is tucked into a pair of sweats, the waist of a top is nipped, and a cummerbund suddenly makes sense with, well… everything. It echoes Roland Barthes’ notion of the fashion system as a language: garments function as signs, and when you adjust the syntactic relationships between those signs you don’t destroy meaning, you recode it.
Backstage Klausner mentioned how he wanted to elevate casual elements and tone down formal elements, cracking the guidelines on what is to be worn where and who is allowed to wear it. This play between dressing up and dressing down becomes perfect for a full wardrobe that can be adjusted from day to night with the simple switch of a shoe. There’s a fluidity here that is very practical and aware that identity is not a fixed state.
Klausner very clearly understands the DNA of the brand, but he also knows how to interject his own. At Dries Van Noten, masculinity is not a rule, but a style guide– one open to annotation, redlining, and playful revision.
Rick Owens Spring 2026 Menswear
When asked by Dazed how he comes up with all the ideas for his shows, Rick Owens said, “Fuck if I know!” Yet, there still seems to be an overarching theme. Entitled Temple, Spring 2025 Menswear played off of the current retrospective on Owens at the Palais Galliera entitled Temple of Love. About the exhibit Owens said, “The exhibition summons up thoughts of mortality, of decline, and of death… I’m always kind of conscious that I live a weird life, with excess validation. Because you want to be heard, and I have been heard. But then there are times when I get really cranky, and I think, ‘you’re so spoiled. You have nothing to get gloomy or huffy about.’” The show, that’s been dubbed a baptism of love, felt like a very natural response to that statement.
Models walked down the ladder of a metallic structure and made their way into a fountain, where they waded through the water before taking a brisk dive into it. This mulling over ideas of life and death feels synonymous with the ways in which water is often thought of to basically be the matrix of life. Perhaps for Owens, it has never been about the end product. It’s about the threshold. And thresholds, like streams of water, like runways, are spaces of passage. Between the old and new self, ego and community, fashion and ritual.
Then there’s also the fact that Owens surveyed his clientele asking them about who they were, what they like, and what they want from him. Straps seemed to be a main consensus amongst all the young men, and so straps they got! Perhaps not an idea that Owens would have leaned into himself, but one that he did so anyway– an attachment between designer and audience. It’s this understanding of his audience and the community he’s built that makes him so successful. It might not have been my favorite Rick Owens collection, but you can’t say he doesn’t listen. Sure, there’s probably people that wear Rick Owens because they want to be perceived in a kind of way, but mostly it’s the other way around. It wouldn’t be difficult to imagine the life someone who wears Rick Owens genuinely lives– it’s about more than just the clothes.
This season also focused on the body in a way that felt relevant to how Owens has talked about the body being part of the outfit and how working out, in a sense, completes that look. Here the body becomes infrastructure, as models attach the carabiners on their straps to the structure they came down from. It’s almost like an armor, but one that is a bit more revealing and vulnerable. It’s clothing for a body that is sweating and living.
Rick Owens Spring 2026 doesn’t offer answers. It offers immersion. The kind of immersion where beauty feels like drowning and comfort feels like surrender. Sometimes just showing up is the most sacred act of all.
Christian Dior Spring 2026 Menswear
It’s a great day for people who are Jonathan Anderson pilled (me). Although, setting my biased opinions aside, I’d say this was a very strong debut for Anderson at Dior– both technically and stylistically.
The show space was based on Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie, filled with masterpieces ranging from the 13th to 18th century. Being that Christian Dior has created many masterpieces himself, it feels quite fitting. The space also featured two paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin, who Monsieur Dior loved, and that were acquired by the Louvre with the help of LVMH. Notes about the collection read, “Stretching the horizon: a play on history and affluence, decoding the language of the House in order to recode it.” History as flexible material.
It was the old world meeting the new– taking things like regency frock coats and waistcoats, silk moiré, cravats, and military frogging and introducing them to jeans, sneakers, cargos, and puffers. As Anderson noted, “there’s modernity in history.” After all, Dior’s New Look was also inspired by the past. Speaking of the New Look, we did in fact get our first bar jacket of this era. This time less padded, but still lightly sculpted and nipped. The jackets were also made from Irish tweed, sometimes with accompanying pants, weaving a bit of Anderon’s own history into the brand. Some other fun references included a nod to the mille feuilles folds from the FW1948 ‘Winged’ collection, but on the back of cargo shorts instead of on a skirt. Another pair of shorts got the sharp darts of the Cigale dress from 1952– one of Anderon’s favorites. Elsewhere, pants had their own reference and sweet embroidered florals felt like a nod to Dior’s garden. Ties were backwards or in a delicious eldredge knot, while pajama shirts and boxer shorts were a continuation of this season’s sleepy menswear.
This is the collection of someone who understands the importance of a brand’s history. Someone who loves art and who knows how to subtly intellectualize clothing, while also understanding how to commercialize all of that in a way where there’s something for everyone. It was a collection that leaves so much room for possibility. Anderson’s quiet brilliance here is that he doesn’t force coherence. He designs for multiplicity– the museumgoer and the streetwear kid, the Dior purist and the Anderson obsessive.
A change in creative director obviously means a change in creative direction, but that doesn’t mean a torching of a house and all its codes. Anderson doesn’t treat Dior’s history as obsolete, but as malleable. History here becomes a site of potential. This might just be the menswear collection, but I think it’s safe to say that once again, j’adore Dior!
Willy Chavarria Spring 2026 Menswear
In times of hardship a lot of people look for an escape– they look for something lighter, something that doesn’t require them to think too much. While Willy Chavarria’s Spring 2026 Menswear show was a beautiful and joyous experience, as his shows always are, it did not shy away from shining light on the tragedies happening in the United States; the alleged land of the free. This was not fashion as fantasy. This was fashion as declaration.
Invitations for the show looked like an immigration summons. Except instead of making you feel like something subhuman, they reaffirmed your right to exist. They read, “This verification remains valid in perpetuity and is irrevocable. It cannot be contradicted, retracted, destroyed, or invalidated by any means.” This visual imagery continued onto the runway, where a dozen models dressed in white t-shirts (also part of the invitation) and shorts kneeled with their heads bowed– a tribute to the thousands of people illegally detained by ICE.
Chavarria always pulls inspiration from Latino and Chicano culture, filtering it all through a queer lens, and often brings attention to the working class and those who truly make America what it is. This season those references were bolder, louder, and filled with emotion. In a world trying to disappear his people, he makes them larger than life. In conversation with Galore, he reminded us how the Latino community has been through so many hardships and has endured so much, but still knows how to love, celebrate, and enjoy better than anyone else.
This refusal to be cast aside and kept in the shadows translates through his work season after season, with Spring 2026 being no different. Beautiful layered jacquards, bold colors, and strong silhouettes all came down the runway ready to be seen. Included in the offering was a continuation of his collaboration with Adidas that seamlessly fit in with the rest. Afterall, sports and fashion have always been intertwined, and here sportswear becomes cultural capital, not just functional design worn by Black and brown bodies that are often dehumanized even though their labor is commodified.
If “fitting in” is an American fantasy, Chavarria’s vision says: we were never supposed to. He doesn’t let the state decide what visibility looks like. As bell hooks reminds us in All About Love, love isn’t a feeling– it’s an action, and in Chavarria’s world, that includes how a shirt drapes across a back, how a jacket shelters, how a collar stands with pride. There’s power in clothing that looks like it belongs to someone, that remembers their labor, their lineage, their right to be cared for. With a strong voice, community, and love, there’s nothing Chavarria can do except succeed– and rightfully so.
Anyway, Fuck ICE, fuck Donald Trump, and fuck anyone who voted for him.
So that was the mens Spring 2026 season! What were your favorites?
TTYL!!!
xx