Denim, OTT layering and the return of ‘normcore’: Vogue Business’s menswear predictions for SS25

Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts. The Spring/Summer 2025 men’s fashion season is shaping up impressively, with collections building on the momentum of trends that have so far emerged in 2024. The designer menswear schedule begins next Tuesday in Florence with trade show Pitti Uomo, followed by fashion weeks in Milan and Paris. Here’s our breakdown of key trends to watch. Denim dominance Fuelled by the Western trend that has ruled 2024, denim remains firmly on the fashion radar. The look was kick-started in January by Pharrell Williams’s Western-themed sophomore collection for Louis Vuitton men’s, which featured monogrammed denim co-ords and denim jackets. Then came the release of Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ album in March. (Levi’s share price surged 20 per cent in the week following the release of her track, ‘Levii’s Jeans’.) Mentions of denim in fashion articles grew 41 per cent over the last month, according to analyst Madé Lapuerta (@databutmakeitfashion). “We believe the Western trend will continue into 2025, really with a lens on denim,” says Krista Corrigan, retail analyst at intelligence firm EDITED. “It’s not going anywhere anytime soon. Now it’ll be interesting to see how brands are playing with [silhouette], how they are playing with the different washes, textures and construction of denim pieces to stand out.” Keep an eye on the influence of Formula One and its star drivers. Formula One’s former world champion Lewis Hamilton has been consistently spotted in double denim or jeans throughout the current F1 season. He fronted a Mercedes-AMG campaign wearing Tommy Hilfiger jeans, prior to being photographed in a baggy style with a white tee before racing in Monaco. Databutmakeitfashion analysed the interest in Formula One, revealing that while relative-newcomer Charles Leclerc is currently the most-searched driver (based on a keyword analysis across the top 1,500 F1 fashion articles over the last year), Hamilton is mentioned seven times more often. Stacked and supersized Vogue Business predicted that mens’ accessories would scale up for AW24. Now, fashion is following the same path, with a surge in oversized denim and sweats, as well as exaggerated layering. Music star Justin Bieber is a proponent of the trend, stepping out in LA sporting evermore oversized denim and sweatpants in the last two months, as noted by GQ. “This definitely skews to a younger consumer, but the oversized trend is not slowing down,” says Corrigan, noting a surge in capacious denim shorts (aka ‘jorts’) over recent months. This corresponds with the oversized trend sweeping Pinterest: the platform has seen a surge in the search term “baggy outfit ideas” (+290 per cent) over the last year. In late April, Bieber took his XXL trend a step further, heading out in not one, but two pairs of Balenciaga sweatpants, with both waistbands on show. At Coachella, A$AP Rocky wore what appeared to be two pairs of trousers and four contrasting pairs of boxers, as well as some 20 pearl hair clips in his hair, to perform on stage with headliner Tyler the Creator. (According to Highsnobiety, the layered trousers are from Rocky’s own label, AWGE, yet to be released.) “Layering is going to be a huge trend for SS25 and beyond,” says Zak Maoui, style director of The Gentleman’s Journal and celebrity stylist. “We are also seeing younger celebrities like Manu Rios and Troye Sivan play with layering T-shirts lately, which fell out of fashion for a while. But now it’s cool for a new generation.” Turning to texture While many female consumers are tuned in to the rapid, relentless micro-trend cycle, male consumers’ fashion tastes typically evolve at a more measured pace. Men tend to carry out more research into the fabrication of clothes. While techwear and performance fabrics still have a strong hold, artisanal fashion is expected to emerge as a menswear trend through 2025, with a rise in crocheted, textured or embroidered garments. “We’re seeing a shift towards artisanal fashion as a new update to preppy,” Corrigan says. “Timeless and artisanal edits are growing as finer details give an air of luxury and exclusivity. So we’re seeing a lot of crochet this season, with embroidery, sheer fabrics and crafty twists on more classic garments.” In the mass market — from 1 January to 31 May this year — men’s embroidered-shirt sell-outs across retailers monitored by EDITED grew by 69 per cent year-on-year, while the number of new-in options increased by 28 per cent, highlighting retailers’ underestimations of the trend, according to Corrigan. Consumers favoured lightweight and crochet short-sleeve shirts, while floral embroidery has been a standout of the season, according to EDITED data. Meanwhile, Pinterest has witnessed a surge in the term “Batik Blazer” (+280 per cent), referencing an artisanal print that originates from Indonesia. New York label Bode has led the way for this trend since its launch in 2016, with a focus on delicate embroidery and textured garments, Maoui says. In Vogue’s ‘73 Questions’, released in April, pop star Bad Bunny tried on a suite of Bode looks, which he is planning to wear on his current Most Wanted tour, including a heavily embroidered blue jacket with beading across the lapels. And New York Giants star Kayvon Thibodeaux attended the launch of Bode’s buzzy Nike collaboration, via its new diffusion line Bode Rec, featuring stripes, beading and embroidery. The sneakers are sold out across major platforms and are retailing up to $856 on sneaker resale platform StockX (the original retail price was $165). Elsewhere, Brazilian label Farm Rio, which specialises in delicate prints, embroidery and broderie techniques, launched menswear in March in response to consumer demand, notes Dan Hastings-Narayanin, deputy foresight editor of LS:N Global at The Future Laboratory. Earthy outdoors Through 2025, performance-wear will continue to boom, from techwear brands such as Arc’Teryx and Salomon to performance labels like On (which recently collaborated with Loewe). “After lockdown, there was a move away from wearing performance-wear out and about. But now, with the rise of running clubs and the boom in new sports like padel, we’re seeing performance on the street more than ever,” says Maoui. Post-Covid and in the current economic climate, running a marathon, participating in HIIT endurance competition Hyrox or climbing a mountain, have all become “important life milestones” for millennials and Gen Zs, says Hastings-Narayanin, as opposed to more traditional milestones like buying a house. Expect to see an increased focus on hiking and the outdoors, experts agree, particularly with field jackets, windbreakers, cargos and trail shoes, notably in an earthy palette of browns, khakis and greens, per EDITED data. Pinterest saw a 320 per cent uplift in search for “green cargos outfit” over the last year. The number of anoraks and windbreakers tracked online this year demonstrates “a greater level of saturation” in the mass market compared with last, says Corrigan. “Stock peaked in early March 2024, when levels were 37 per cent higher than the year prior, before sales accelerated, and the year-on-year gap was reduced in Q2,” she says. The addition of weatherproof tech is becoming increasingly popular. Rain jackets incorporating waterproof textile Gore-Tex cost 182 per cent more on average than standard rain macs, according to EDITED. Italy’s Stone Island is benefiting from the upswing: the brand held its first-ever fashion show in January this year, and last month released a collaboration with Dior men’s. Earthy outdoors also applies to footwear. Analysis of the top words across majority SKU sell-outs at brands like Arc’Teryx, Fjällräven, Nike ACG and Salomon, “demonstrates a clear shift from sport-style footwear to activity-based models”, says Corrigan. In 2023, 24 per cent of shoe sell-outs were described using “sportstyle” in the name, dropping to just 18 per cent in 2024. Meanwhile, words such as “running” and “hiking” grew 7 percentage points and 14 percentage points year-on-year, respectively. Trail shoes have also seen a significant boost, with sell-outs up 62 per cent year-on-year from 1 January to 30 April. Bold patterns Loud luxury — predicted by Vogue Business back in January — is likely to persist through 2025 in the form of bold patterns, analysts agree. “Menswear continues to push the envelope and experiment with trends, embracing prints, patterns and colour — particularly with trousers and co-ord sets,” says Corrigan. For SS24, patterned trouser sell-outs increased by 58 per cent year-on-year. Checks declined while stripes were a favourite, noting 138 per cent growth. Athletes with global appeal, such as Travis Kelce and Hamilton, are influencing men’s mass market trends, Corrigan adds. “We’re also witnessing the impact of tailoring and elevating patterns like pinstripes and houndstooth within menswear.” Kelce has worn scores of patterned co-ords this year, from Louis Vuitton to KidSuper and Amiri. People on Pinterest are gravitating towards maximalism, says the platform’s global trends and insights lead Sydney Stanback. Pinterest found that search for gingham shorts grew by 770 per cent across both menswear and womenswear, while search for “striped linen pants” shot up by 195 per cent. Databutmakeitfashion says gingham has risen 50 per cent in popularity since last month. ‘Normcore’ When it comes to trends, there’s always polarisation. Last week, images broke of music star Harry Styles and Valentino creative director Alessandro Michele wearing matching, decidedly regular clothes — blue shirts, sweaters, wide-leg trousers — or ‘normcore’, so to speak. Their switch to “finance bro” style (as coined by Dazed) could signify a convergence of the ‘corpcore’ and preppy trends that emerged across menswear and womenswear last season. According to Databutmakeitfashion, the words “Oxford shirt” increased by 35 per cent in search since last month, based on an analysis of 144 fashion and style articles. Pinterest has seen an upswing in search terms like “geek chic” (+870 per cent) and “pinstriped pants” (+135 per cent) over the last year. Maoui of The Gentleman’s Journal is expecting to see many more ties on the runway for SS25, based on trends he’s seeing across TikTok. There are over 3.7 million videos on the platform focused on “outfits with ties”, which show users how to style them. While Maoui doesn’t necessarily believe Michele and Styles’s normcore outfits mark a genuine shift in their personal styles, he does sense a move to normcore in some parts of the menswear market. “I think there’s been a move in recent years away from extreme fashion, at some brands,” he says. “Designers have realised people don’t necessarily have the funds to live an extravagant lifestyle and buy show pieces. They’ve realised people want to buy pieces from ready-to-wear and buy them and wear them time and time again.” He namechecks Loewe and Bottega Veneta as labels that take everyday fashion such as jeans or a V-neck top but subvert them in an interesting way. One normcore trend he predicts for SS25 is the plain white tee. “I know that doesn’t seem like a trend but it’s not a common thing on the runway,” he says. “But as the new season of The Bear comes out [featuring Jeremy Allen White in a fitted white tee], I feel like the white T-shirt will have a moment.” “The idea of casual has changed among young menswear consumers,” says Hastings-Narayanin. “Now, Gen Zs’ idea of casual is often clothes you wouldn’t have left the house in some years ago. Including the craze for shoes like Crocs.” Looking ahead, Hastings-Narayanin notes the rise of hyper-masculinity in fashion, which he in part attributes to a new “glow-up” mentality among men, spurred by the rise in Ozempic and a surge in sport engagement. This will show up in many ways, from the Western and Americana trend through to a rise in vests, he says. “There’s a lot of polarisation, but in the world we live in, hyper-masculinity will continue to influence fashion for seasons to come, for better or worse.” Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: Loud luxury, grandpa core and jelly dressing: 2024 menswear predictions From officewear to barely there: Womenswear trend predictions for AW24 Set, follow or skip? How brands should navigate micro-trends

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