March 29, 2024

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The Fashion Inside

What to wear during men’s Fashion Week according to these experts

10 min read

The menswear collections are upon us once again. Our favorite editors, models, stylists, and influencers are starting to pack their looks and gear up for the spring 2023 shows.

Street style passion

One of my favorite pre-Vogue fashion week activities was to obsessively consume street style coverage. I find the way folks dress to go to shows fascinating, and the best meter to learn what items from the previous season resonated the most with people. Plus, there are few things better than seeing how your favorite look from the season prior translates off the runway.

Do not follow the rules

Menswear is changing; it’s become more playful and boundary-pushing. Perhaps you saw our story about the rise of jockstraps on the runways last week? In anticipation of the collections, I reached out to some people to ask them about how they plan their wardrobes. These showgoers are some of the best-dressed folks in fashion right now, and their styles are idiosyncratic and seldom trendy. Together they represent much of what is happening in the menswear scene now, and this season as they’re on the ground, they’ll most likely show us what will happen next.

Scroll through to read about their style (and maybe get a tip or two), and come back for our spring 2023 menswear coverage all month long.

Fernando arriving at the Saint Sintra show at NYFW last September.

Phil Oh

Fernando Casablancas, Model

How do you generally approach putting together an outfit, and does that change at all during fashion week?

I’m a person that is very fluid when it comes to my expression; not just my expression of gender, but also of the way in which I want to be perceived. Some days I’m feeling more masculine, some days I’m feeling more feminine, but however I’m feeling I want to feel comfortable in my body. There’s a sense of play when it comes to my outfits, I always like to have that extra little wink, you know? I’m relatively new to the fashion week circuit, but during that week I’m always on the go. I am working, so I’m trying to pull an outfit that still lets me be a model at the end of the day, where I can go to a casting or something. If I’m going to attend a show, I normally try to pull a look from the brand. I attended a Balmain event and in the dressing room they put both menswear and womenswear, because they know that I like playing with things.

Do you plan all your fashion week outfits ahead of time or do you tackle it more organically?

I like to be more organic when it comes to these things. I normally start with a piece that I really want to wear and then I build around it. The thing about fashion week for me is that I don’t really know if I’m walking a show until maybe two days before, so there’s so many things happening behind the curtains that you end up kinda just like waiting around a lot. If I’m walking a show, then the outfit that I go with is very different than if I attend a show. If I’m working though I still try to pull a mini look when I’m backstage, so I wear my good boots and my nice pants and a t-shirt that shows off a little bit more of my body.

Has your style evolved since you were going to the shows pre-pandemic? If so, how would you say it has changed?

I think I’m always in constant evolution. I would say for sure, yes, it has evolved. I think a lot of it has to do with my relationship to my gender and my personal journey. Something that happened recently is that coming to terms with my femininity has also allowed me to come to terms with my masculinity. When you finally embrace the feminine side of yourself, the masculine side suddenly becomes comfortable and it’s not threatened.

Jordan on his way to the Prada show during Milan fall 2022 menswear fashion week.

Photographed by Acielle / StyleDuMonde

Jordan Anderson, Editor

How do you generally approach putting together an outfit, and does that change at all during fashion week?

I love a full look, that works for me. I love fresh off the runway. It’s not about comfort, but about the look. I mean, a few seasons ago for menswear fashion week I was wearing a tank top in the middle of winter for Prada, but that was a look.

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In my everyday life, I don’t fucking care [laughs]. To pick clothes every day to go to the office, I don’t really care. It’s just so much work during fashion week and doing events, so when I go to the office and see the same people every day… It’s like why am I turning a look today?

Do you have any style and/or packing hacks when it comes to dressing for fashion week?

I would say bringing everything [laughs]. I don’t believe in packing light; you need options, you never know what might happen. I just always try my best to bring as many things as possible, even if it’s for one day or two days. Sometimes when you travel you kind of underestimate how much you need and then next thing you know, again, you’re crying on the floor of your fucking hotel room, so I try my best to have options to prevent all the drama and the breakdown.

Is your style during fashion week reflective of your everyday style?

It’s not reflective of my everyday style, but it’s reflective of my personality. I feel like I do get a bit more experimental because, I mean, I don’t get to pull in-season Gucci looks every day [laughs]. I just try my best to reflect my own stuff and my own personality and who I am in everyday looks. Also, I think with each brand I’m kind of a different person as well.

Nikita during Paris fall 2022 menswear fashion week.

Photographed by Acielle / StyleDuMonde

Nikita Vlassenko, Stylist

Do you plan all your fashion week outfits ahead of time or do you tackle it more organically?

It really depends. Some brands are dressing me for their shows, so on those specific occasions I know what I’ll wear and just do a selection within their pieces. I know that if I go to a Rick Owens show, I will Rick Owens myself [laughs].

Do you have any style and/or packing hacks when it comes to dressing for fashion week events?

Honestly, don’t think I have a hack. I’m really not a practical person [laughs]. I will take five luggages just to be sure. I’ll take everything I can take and just pack as much as I can, I guess that’s my hack, come prepared!

Has your style evolved since you were going to the shows pre-pandemic? If so, how would you say it has changed?

I guess so, because not dressing up for many months was a bit frustrating—comfortable, but frustrating. Now I’m like, oh fuck it, whatever I want to do, I’ll do it and it’s going to be fun. There was a little bit of a Pokémon evolution there. I was always very myself, but before, I really tried to please the eye of the “Other.” Now I really want to do it for myself, and I’ve been more comfortable within myself as well. Plus, a year ago I did not have access to pull clothes as much as I do now that I’ve grown in the industry. Now I can have exceptional pieces and make the most out of them. So yeah, that definitely had an impact as well.

Quin in head-to-toe Thom Browne.

Photographed by Phil Oh

Quin Lewis, Diplomat

How do you generally approach putting together an outfit, and does that change at all during fashion week?

I dress very differently in my day job as a diplomat because it’s a very conservative environment. I may put on a blue suit, I still try to add some touch of flair here and there because I don’t want to lose myself. Style is a great way to express yourself, so I don’t want to take everything out, then it’s almost as if you’re living a double life. I don’t want them to be shocked that I love fashion and attend fashion shows. When it comes to fashion week, it’s on a completely different level, just because I am able to express myself more creatively. I always like to make sure that I’m dressed in the brand, I think it’s a respect that you show if you’re fortunate to have the pieces. I’m an amputee and I just recently started wearing shorts, so now there’s this entirely new, different world and I want to accessorize in every way possible. I can get a prosthetic cover to match my outfit, but that involves some advanced planning.

Is your style during fashion week reflective of your everyday style?

I think during the regular week I am more conservative. In my downtime, when I’m going out to dinner, when I’m going out with friends in DC, I do experiment a lot more than I would in the office. I love fashion, I love clothes, so there’s no way for me to wear everything if I’m just waiting twice a year to go to fashion week.

Has your style evolved since you were going to the shows pre-pandemic? If so, how would you say it has changed?

I don’t think there have been any major changes. The only thing I’m realizing is that I am getting older and I think there’s this tendency with social media to sort of follow all of the trends, and you have to sort of pick and choose and decide what’s best for you and what works best for you with your current wardrobe and with your own personal style.

Declan at the Paris fall 2022 menswear shows. 

Photographed by Acielle / StyleDuMonde

Declan Chan, Stylist

How do you generally approach putting together an outfit, and does that change at all during fashion week?

I have certain style codes that I like to stick to; cheeky schoolboy, for example, is an eternal style motto, and each season I do a little bit of an update to shake things up. When it comes to fashion week, a lot has changed during the last few years for me. I would say 60% of the time I was dressed by the brands, it took some careful curation to wear the looks to “make it my own” and avoid being a walking billboard.

Do you have any style and/or packing hacks when it comes to dressing for fashion week events?

You need three different sets of steamers: one for the UK, one for Europe, and one for the US. They are not interchangeable; I have made a lot of mistakes on this before, arriving at a city without a working steamer and was forced to use the hotel iron. Steam hits differently.

Don’t pack your items by category. I made this mistake of packing all my shoes and bags in one luggage, outerwear in one luggage, and the rest in another luggage. So imagine if one of your luggages gets lost, you don’t have anything to complete a look. I strongly advise to separate by looks, and pack them evenly amongst your luggage so you’ll have something to wear even if some luggage has gone missing.

Has your style evolved since you were going to the shows pre-pandemic? If so, how would you say it has changed?

I would say post-pandemic me is more on the take-it-easy side. I still have fun with fashion, but it seems the pandemic has put things in perspective. I have learned to appreciate the fashion experience that working in this industry allows us to have, instead of focusing on how I dress.

Alex, on the right, arriving at a show during Paris fall 2022 menswear fashion week.

Photographed by Acielle / StyleDuMonde

Alexander Roth, Influencer and Producer

How do you generally approach putting together an outfit, and does that change at all during fashion week?

For fashion week, it’s usually geared towards the show or event that I’m attending, or the content idea I have around a shoot I want to do for a brand. So if I’m attending Versace, it might be a little bit sexier, sweaty; open shirt, suits, whatnot. It just depends on where exactly I’m going.

Street style: The best looks from Milan Fashion Week Men’s spring-summer 2023

Do you plan all your fashion week outfits ahead of time or do you tackle it more organically?

I used to plan everything out. My first fashion week circuit was January, 2019, and I planned it all out meticulously down to the jewelry and accessories because I didn’t want to overpack. Now I just bring a lot of basics, and I have the immense pleasure of being able to pull from the brands and designers themselves, so if I’m attending a show I have to just make sure I’m prepared. If the pulled outfit is not exactly what I want it to be I have to make sure I can pair it with stuff from my own closet.

Do you have any style and/or packing hacks when it comes to dressing for fashion week events?

I don’t know if this is necessarily a hack, but when I do fashion month, myself and two other friends will get an Airbnb together so we have free rein to pull from all of our closets, so it’s like having three closets in one.

This article was originally published on Vogue.com

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