After Milan, Paris, New York (as also other capitals like São Paulo and Berlin), the season of menswear fashion shows ended with London Fashion Week last Wednesday (22.02).

The Gentleman website had a look on the main trends for fall/winter 2012/2013 and presents here its first impressions. (Be sure to keep following us for more analysis which will come within the next months).

For now we propose a closer view at the three most important trends of the season in combination with our three favourite collections and their respective videos. Read (and watch) it below:

1. THE NEW SUIT

This time it’s not about a suit that resembles your fathers’ neither one that is a boring uniform. The suit is updated and has a contemporary version now: it’s closer to the body and the jacket is slightly shorter. The suit should preferably be combined with playful accessories – pins, buttons and colorful pocket squares.

This is a season that rescues the tailoring tradition in a wider sense, being the long coat and double-breasted blazer the main pieces after the suit (good examples came from Valentino, Prada and Burberry collections). Tailoring communicates security and stability and perhaps that’s why the models were more dressed up now than in the recent seasons.

The Italian label Bottega Veneta proposes perhaps the most intriguing version of this new suit. The designer Tomas Maier adds colored and shiny applications on slim suits, creating an almost tridimensional effect. The graphic lines gives the body a more vertical appeareance (who doesn’t want to look taller and thinner?). It’s definitely a collection that will please short men.

Below you can watch the Bottega Veneta show presented in Milan, January 2012.

2. THE KINKY LEATHER (or the Mapplethope mania)

The photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) revolutionized the art world during the end of the 1970s and 1980s with his provocative photographs. His contact with the gay underground world of New York was central to define his aesthetics and also to define his own personality. He often photographed himself and his friends in leather fetish outfits. To understand better his personality we recommend you to read the book “Just Kids” from Patti Smith – which seems to influence many people from the creative industry now.

That said, it’s quite interesting to see how many interpretations the ‘Mapplethorpe look’ has this season. Black leather emerged as an important material. It is present in various ways - beyond the classic biker jacket. Everybody wants to take a glimpse of Mapplethorpe’s universe: from the more commercial brands like TopMan to the more intellectual designers like Raf Simons in his last men’s collection for Jil Sander. One tip: if you want to enhance the fetish look, you can wear a pair of leather gloves.

Perhaps the most successful collection in this style was the one from Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent (just recently confirmed as his farewell men’s collection for the maison). All the elements of fetishism are there but in a very chic way, with fine tailoring, being sometimes almost too powerful and mysterious to indulge yourself into it.

Below the YSL show with the voice of Mapplethorpe’s boyfriend Sam Wagstaff in the soundtrack. The collection was presented at Sorbonne University, Paris in January.

3. IT’S NOT ABOUT BEING FASHIONABLE: TO LOOK MASCULINE IS ENOUGH

The title of this topic is quite self-explanatory. But in case you didn’t notice: there was a switch few years ago that made all hipsters from stop looking like Justin Bieber to start looking like a rough lumberjack. That was when the designers embraced a look closer to working-class stereotypes and started to celebrate individuality.

This season the ideal man could be a sailor (Louis Vuitton, Lou Dalton, Mugler); a soldier (Dior Homme, Umit Benan) or a suburban (Givenchy, Christopher Shannon, Martine Rose). And even looking back, it’s remarkable what the Japanese designer Junya Watanabe did in his last collections. In the end it doesn’t matter anymore where these designers are looking for inspiration because the main message is: “as long as it looks masculine…“.

This season it was Lanvin who made all these complex layers of masculinity come together. The designers of the house, Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver, achieved some roughness but in a gentlemanly way. With an amazing tailoring and very luxurious fabrics, a box fighter never looked so smart. The trousers are high waisted and a bit wider at the bottom; the jackets have inserts borrowed from motorcycle gear while the big shoulders convey strength. These clothes are dialoging with our times. This is a collection that will captivate women too, especially those ones that appreciate good manners as much as strong arms.

Below the Lanvin show presented in Paris in January.

Another video with the full Lanvin show can be found here.

Text and collage by Hermano Silva

Credits for images used in the collage: Dior Homme backstage and greeters at entrance of Yves Saint Laurent show (Kavin Tachman/NYT), shadows at Jil Sander backstage (Danilo Scapeti/NYT), catwalk images of Bottega Veneta (Yannis Vlamos/Style.com), Lanvin and YSL (Monica Feudi/Style.com).

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