The most-viewed men’s Autumn/Winter 2023 shows on Vogue Runway
The most-viewed men’s Autumn/Winter 2023 shows on Vogue Runway
Discover the 10 shows that garnered the most attention — for the collections, not just celebrity fanfare — this menswear season
In fashion’s volatile attention economy, reliable metrics are few and far between. From Instagram and TikTok to the New York Times, GQ and beyond, what unfolds at each season’s menswear shows permeates the wider world via a myriad of media, just as it should.
Vogue Runway stands apart: its viewing figures provide an unparalleled barometer as to which collections most fired the imagination (and buying budgets) of those in the industry and beyond. And because Runway is focused chiefly on the clothes and not the “frow”, those figures are far less likely to be skewed by the media-value performance-enhancing steroid of celebrity attendance than any comparable index.
Which is all a fanfare to flag that the latest menswear figures for the Autumn/Winter 2023/24 shows are out. The list is revealed below, in descending order, so no spoilers here. What is notable from the top is that five houses have fallen out of the list. Hermès, Fendi and Kenzo lost their spots this season while two others that were much-viewed last June — Celine and Y/Project — did not show this season. The other detail to note is that six of the collections on the list showed in Paris, and three in Milan. The other, unusually, was from a lookbook. Read on for the menswear top 10.
10. Dries Van Noten
Van Noten’s appetite for creating has become ever more ravenously productive since his company’s majority acquisition by Puig five years ago. This rave-inspired (but not overwhelmed) collection combined a heady mix of colour, pattern and tailoring with an exacting eye and a romantic soul — and makes for a deserving first entry in this season’s top 10.
9. JW Anderson
Jonathan Anderson refreshed one of his most evocative designs, A/W13’s frill-short, in a collection that thrillingly returned to his longstanding preoccupation with redefining a shared wardrobe. This was his second season showing “menswear” in Milan, and he confirmed beforehand that he intends to stay in the Italian fashion capital for some seasons to come.
8. Vtmnts
It’s extremely interesting that Guram Gvasalia’s no-vowels, no-show, no-nonsense, essentials-focused offshoot of Vetements made this season’s top 10. In terms of the renewed conversation about fashion’s place within gender identity this season, this collection most certainly has relevance. However, to reach this, many eyes and minds with the most straightforward of lookbook shoots is a significant achievement and testament Gvasalia’s belief, as he told Nicole Phelps, that “clothes don’t need to scream to be something you love.”
7. Rick Owens
Owens’s indie soul and dark aesthetic — spliced with more humour than you might imagine — continues to draw an enthusiastic congregation of kindred spirits. And perhaps only Owens could deliver a collection that majored on modesty with such an immodestly unconventional — and thus very him — approach.
6. Givenchy
It’s taken a while, but Matthew M Williams was able to most completely find his stride at Givenchy this season. This rigorously structured collection was a highly balanced mix of house codes and Williams’ own much vaunted streetwear aesthetic, emphasised by a cohesive and distinct progression of silhouette. Of all the collections this season, this was among the most cited by buyers I spoke to as a highlight.
5. Dior Men’s
T S Eliot shot to prominence, and entered the canon of English literature, shortly after moving from his birthplace in the US to the UK. In an adjacent manner it is in Paris where the London-born (but much-travelled) designer Kim Jones has established his position in fashion’s pantheon. This was an epic production with an epic celebrity guestlist, but central to it all was the poetry in the clothes.
4. Gucci
As mentioned in the show review, “This was a collection that will be judged more for what it wasn’t than what it was.” Gucci’s first non-Alessandro Michele authored collection after his departure was always going to win eyes and generate opinion. It was perhaps unfortunate that it came at a standalone menswear show in Milan, Gucci’s first for some time and a moment for which there were doubtless originally very different plans in place on Via Mecenate.
3. Prada
Prada continued its run as Milan’s most-viewed show with a collection that attempted to reconcile minimalism with soul. Whether it succeeded depends on who you are talking to — Prada’s fanbase is large, passionate and contains many subsects of opinion. Before the show Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons both discussed their bemusement at being judged on numbers rather than design. Nonetheless, the Vogue Runway index suggests they won on both counts this season.
2. Louis Vuitton
The fruits of Colm Dillane’s cameo season “embedded” with the Louis Vuitton studio were revealed in a densely-packed clafoutis of a show. Rosalía’s fantastic live performance as the models walked (and role-played) in the collection probably stole a lot of eye-time from the clothes in the actual show venue, but LV’s position here suggests she was not the only star of this show.
1. Saint Laurent
Boom! Saint Laurent’s return to the Paris menswear schedule propelled it straight to the top of Vogue Runway’s most-viewed list for the season. Like last September’s womenswear show, it marked a moment of transition in Anthony Vaccarello’s story with this house. His own design identity and the founder’s unparalleled archive of code are coalescing into a newly distinct and exciting expression of one of Paris’s premier maisons.
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Article courtesy LUKE LEITCH
