London Collections: Men is over for another season and the menswear crowd have jetted off to Italy, but before the shows wrapped up, LCM kindly gave us some notable trends for AW16.
Want to know the pieces the gents will be rocking this time next year? Look no further than our rundown...
Cropped Jackets
It’s time for us to get crunching because one of the key trends for next season is the cropped cut, accentuating the waist. Luckily, we have all year to work off the festive excess.
At Topman Design, it was jackets in grey wool, shearling and double-breasted black leather that stopped short. Likewise at Agi & Sam, jackets in neoprene were cut half way down the torso, as were knits and some eye-catching gilet-cum-backpack pieces. Astrid Anderson’s mint green jumper joined the trend, as did pieces at all three of the MAN shows. Time to hit the green tea…
Red Hues
The red trend was all over the AW15 womenswear, where it popped up in collections by Valentino, McQueen and Erdem - and now a variety of shades are a big story in next season’s menswear. From burgundy to pillarbox, we saw red a lot over the weekend (and not just when there was no champagne on offer). It’s red or dead next season, for sure.
Christopher Bailey’s Burberry collection was peppered with pieces in a vibrant hue, mostly on outerwear including a quilted coat and a ladies’ duffel, but also on trousers and a few tracksuit tops. Elsewhere, red reared its head at McQueen on a cropped knit, and on military-style jackets, too. We saw it at Astrid Andersen, Xander Zhou, Maharishi and all over the KTZ collection, then at JW Anderson on laced up boxer-style boots.
Pockets
Oversized pockets, to be more specific. Lou Dalton added three to a jacket in charcoal and brown, whilst Christopher Raeburn placed one front and centre on a patterned coat in similar colours, with another on the sleeve for good measure. James Long added two large shearling pockets to the jacket of his camo-effect ensemble while Stuart Vevers at Coach preferred black leather on the breast of his navy coats. With examples at Belstaff, CMMN SWDN and Maharishi, there’ll be plenty space to stash invites at next January’s shows.
Teddy Bear Fluff
Sounds a little random, yes, but by this we mean the soft, fuzzy, fluffy material - not fur, not fleece, but something in between - that many designers used in their collections. Makes sense for winter, of course. Boy, did it look snuggly. See Burberry’s burgundy and black-sleeved bomber, Tiger of Sweden’s soft white coat, Astrid Andersen’s green gilet and several of the jackets at Belstaff, among others. The vibe for AW16 is most definitely cosy.
The Dressing Gown Effect
Another crossover from womenswear, this time the underwear-as-outerwear trend, as several of the menswear collections gave us looks reminiscent of loungewear. At MAN, Rory Parnell-Mooney showed delicately draped outer layers - these were not coats - belted loosely to the side.
At Topman, a silk cappuccino coloured robe, styled with an oversized wool hat, looked like modern day Scrooge attire (in a good way) and JW Anderson’s purple silk suit was PJ perfection. Sarah Burton’s floral-printed monochrome overcoat at McQueen had a touch of the smoking jacket about it, while Katie Eary went all out, showing several fully matching looks in printed silk - top, bottoms and gown.
Velvet
You either love it or loathe it, but velvet was all over the catwalks at LCM. Thomas Pink, Chester Barrie, Richard James and Dunhill used it in tailoring, James Long cut his sweat pants from it, and Grace Wales Bonner unconventionally used it in chocolate brown for coats and trousers in her standout collection at MAN. Tiger of Sweden’s salmon pink suit had a velvety quality to it, and Topman couldn’t use enough of it, cutting coats, trousers, suits and jackets from the stuff.
Army Green
If one colour, other than red, typified the collections at LCM, it was military green. Burberry’s bomber, Maharishi’s jacket/trouser combos and Astrid Andersen’s quilted coat (plus the aforementioned gilet) all fell in line. Agi & Sam’s cropped jacket from their inaugural womenswear offering was a particularly pleasing shade and, at Moschino, Jeremy Scott joined in with a polo shirt and cardigan combo. Father and son designer duo Casely Hayford’s floor length khaki-coloured coat nudged towards gold, while Craig Green went all out with trousers, tops, jackets and eye-obscuring hoods in a military-inspired hue.
**Words by [Nick Barron
](/wp-admin/twitter.com/nick_barron)Images via Rex Features**
READ MORE: The Grazia Team Reveal Their New Year Fashion Resolutions