Here’s your one-stop fashion week spot for AW22

Men’s where? It’s in Milan, it’s in Paris, it’s on the internet. In other words, it’s everywhere. As we continue to navigate the depths of phygital fashion week, we’re distilling all the action into this handy play-by-play of the season ahead.

Scroll for the bits you may – or may not – be caught wearing by the time autumn comes rolling in from knitted balaclavas, technicolour satin gloves and ultra-high boots, to silk overalls, shredded denim flares, sci-fi sexy bodysuits and everything in between.

On a crisp, sunny morning, fans, friends, revellers, ex-tutors and family members trekked across London to a dilapidated warehouse in London’s E16, near City Airport. There was good reason for the pilgrimage: Craig Green staged his first show since the pandemic kicked off in early 2020. And for any Greenophile, it was more than worth the long-haul, mid-week journey. Green has long demonstrated a fearlessness in collecting the most mashed-up of references and turning them into something utterly romantic and deeply poetic – people have long cried at his shows, after all. His anticipated return to the runway was no different.

After two years of pandemic, Green harnessed the dystopia felt by many, chiselling away at the lack of touch, the hazardous caution and, ultimately, the optimism we’re yearning for. There was sheer tactility throughout the collection, with the British designer constructing hyper-conceptual pieces from fuzzy, fluffy and crispy textures that simultaneously said keep away but touch me, feel me.

Some pieces looked like textbook illustrations of germs, with holes positioned on torsos and arms, disjointed in toxic waste green or bright blue. Soundtracked by the heavy bassline of lo-fi techno, models were anonymous, wearing masked-up faces and protective gear by way of zips, fence-like detailing, pockets and cloaked trench coats. It felt like Green was preparing for an apocalypse. It would have been morbid, if it weren’t for the playful attributes of Green’s rainbow procession that closed the show, with models walking in unison in bright, end-of-the-tunnel light. A touching moment, this was the designer’s epic, determined return, as one of the truest subvertors of British design. TJS

In her first dedicated menswear show after three years of co-eds, Donatella Versace took cues from her brother Gianni’s sexy menswear silhouettes. But this was no ode to the past – instead, Versace subverted those ​’90s styles into wholly modern, fluid reworkings full of red-hot sex appeal and Italian glam. Wide-legged, lightweight trousers featured a mixture of subtly drawn checks and stripes accessorised with heavy-duty platform trainers, with Versace’s signature barocco prints and La Greca monograms reimagined onto quilted bombers and luxurious knitwear. Versace Men’s 2.0 – which aptly took place on 02/​02/​2022 – is Donatella’s way of taking the ritual of dressing to exciting new levels, legacy intact. Mwah. JW

It might have been a frosty Sunday morning in Paris, but Kenzo’s front row was boiling hot. Take a bow, Tyler, the Creator, Pharrell, Kanye West and Julia Fox (yes, that’s right, a rare sighting of FoxYe in the wild), all of whom showed up to celebrate Nigo’s debut show for the Japanese fashion house. Choosing to stage the show at Galerie Vivienne, the exact arcade in which, in 1970, founder Kenzo Takada opened his first French boutique, the streetwear pioneer had clearly spent hundreds of hours trawling the archives. The result was a killer first show that saw Takada’s codes reworked into a men’s and women’s collection for the here and now. Think: bold floral overalls (inspired by the workwear worn by Japanese potters), preppy knitted sweatshirts and vests teamed with kilts and checked tights, Prince of Wales check suits, American college jackets plastered in vibrant varsity badges, crocheted headwear and oversized pieces of luggage, all of which demonstrated the true breath of Nigo’s design capabilities. Special mention to the soundtrack, which featured an exclusive preview of Nigo’s upcoming album, I Know Nigo, an all-star aural catwalk featuring contributions from A$AP Rocky, Kid Cudi, Pharrell Williams, Pusha T, Teriyaki Boyz, Tyler, the Creator and Lil Uzi Vert. BM

Take a weird walk through Jonathan Anderson’s alternate Loewe world, where nothing is what it seems. Transforming the mundane into the magnificent, the designer’s collection was peppered with household items and random objects, all of which took on a whole new meaning. There were coats with illuminated collars and cuffs, Puzzle bags embellished with plugs from sinks, wire belts that spelt out the words ​“smile” and ​“hello”, cat-print knitted dresses, T‑shirts worn pulled over the head to reveal screaming faces, and coats with metallic gold bum patches suggesting the wearer had accidentally sat in wet paint. There was a definite sense that the lockdown time Anderson spent holed up at home might have caused him to reevaluate his everyday surroundings, culminating in this twisted, tongue-in-cheek take on reality. The accessory of the moment? A knitted balaclava that framed the face in the shape of a heart. Now that’s love. BM

Boys in berets and bedazzled shoes, saddle bags reworked to hold bouquets of flowers, a parade of looks in Christian Dior’s beloved grey (trackies included)… For his AW22 collection, artistic director Kim Jones remixed the past and present of Dior, paying tribute to its founder as the house gears up to celebrate its 75^th birthday. Elsewhere in the collection you’ll see a Birkenstock collaboration (a tribute to Christian Dior’s love of gardening) that has all the streetwear heads talking. Set in a show space that recreated the Pont Alexandre III – despite being located less than a kilometre from the historic bridge itself – the show was soundtracked by voice recordings of Monsieur Dior, layered over the ethereal sound of Caroline Polacheck’s The Gate. As the models took their final walk alongside a video iteration of the River Seine, Jones took his bow with Stephen Jones, the mega milliner currently celebrating his 25-year milestone at Dior. BM

Subhuman, inhuman, superhuman: it’s Rick Owens! And it’s not for the faint hearted. In true Rick fashion, the silhouettes were angular and oversized, bulbous outerwear engulfed the body of its wearer, puffed-up coats came fitted with masks that zipped up over the face, and the shoulders were (almost) too wide to fit through a standard door. Elsewhere in the collection – titled ​“Strobe” and of which there were many at the show – we saw reflective bomber jackets with spliced elbows, clutch bags the size of bin bags and a series of sweatshirts and vests knitted with the words ​“URINAL”, ​“SUBHUMAN”, ​“INHUMAN” and ​“SUPERHUMAN”. Owens’ lightbulb moment? A series of towering helmets with lights attached to the top. They double up as lamps should you be in the market for a Rick Owens homeware original. BM

Baggy trousers were the name of the game at Isabel Marant this season, where the timeless wardrobe of Kurt Cobain served as inspiration for the ​’90s leaning, grunge-inflected collection. We saw serious Manchester vibes on show, too: washed out denim and spaced out prints that looked like they were fresh from the Second Summer of Love. There were ponchos for your next (rather fancy) camping trip; khaki parkas for all manner of urban adventures; checked, striped and colour-blocked long sleeves that were screaming to be layered; and bleached pants that will be your stylish companion for a proper good rave. Hallelujah! BM

Visionary designer Virgil Abloh’s final Vuitton show, designed and conceived before his untimely death in November, took guests on a dreamlike tour through the themes, messages and sartorial codes he introduced to the French fashion house during his eight-season tenure – a journey that started on a Wizard of Oz-inspired rainbow painted runway and ends here in the Louis Dreamhouse™.

The sky blue show space featured elements of a house, from a red roof with a smoking chimney, a gigantic blue bed and a stairway (a nod to AW20’s show space) to a grand dining table which seated the Chineke! Orchestra, known for their pioneering work celebrating diversity in classical music. Creatively directed by longtime collaborator Benji B, the Tyler, the Creator and Arthur Verocai-scored soundtrack filled the glass walls of Le Carreau du Temple, while a group of 20 dancers moved between the models on the runway, climbed atop the roof and floated on and off the stairs by way of hidden trampolines.

The show was fuelled by Abloh’s unrivalled imagination and desire to reconfigure the social, political and cultural values associated with the way we dress and outwardly present ourselves to the world. The collection itself celebrated his ability to deconstruct narratives and cross-pollinate ideas: bejewelled and shredded monogram denim, slick silk suiting worn atop of running leggings, suits meticulously crafted from tapestry, varsity jackets paired with tulle skirts and bridal dresses, and basketball jerseys and shorts constructed from leather. The themes of spirituality, transcendence and the supernatural were omnipresent throughout the collection, from the childlike depictions of wizards and Grim Reaper-esque graphics right through to the four models dressed in all white and fitted with angel wing structures that closed the poignant show. As the orchestra played their final bars, Abloh’s design team walked out to a standing ovation for the creative force whose legacy will live forever. An epic ending for an immeasurably magnificent man. BM

Y/Project’s AW22 show was deafeningly loud and impossibly stylish. Taking place in a cavernous DPD transport depot on the northern outskirts of Paris, the neverending runway took Glenn Martens’ models at least 5 minutes to lap, meaning we got a proper look at the clothes. And there’s no doubt he delivered. It was all about proposition play: billowing, wispy skirts and tight tank tops, shredded knitwear beneath oversized suiting, and bulbous sweatshirts that morphed into knitted balaclavas – all paired with madcap accessories like shearling neck snugs and lobster claw stiletto heels. And if all that wasn’t enough to get your pulse racing, there was a Jean Paul Gaultier collab in the mix, too. Martens reimagined the designer’s iconic naked torso print as a series of dresses and suits just a week before he unveils his work as the guest creative director of Gaultier’s upcoming couture show. How fancy. BM

No brand epitomises understated, yet no less impactful, design quite like Acne Studios. This time around, creative director​Jonny Johansson looked to the nomadic communities in northern Sweden synonymous with his youth, exploring how the language of clothing evolves within these circles. And so this collection is packed with high-low pieces defined by a sense that they’ve been lived in for years: a washed tuxedo with a denim lapel, crinkled leather jackets, a broad-shouldered tweed coat, a patchwork brocade suit and a sequined turquoise shirt, all of which toe the line between rustic and celebratory. The footwear deserves a special mention – we’ve never seen anything like it. Hand crafted in collaboration with historical Swedish brand Kero, the boots give new meaning to the term ​“thigh-high”, instead running from toe to hip and attached to chaps that belt up at the waist. Good luck sliding into a pair of these, lads. BM