AW19 menswear: A message of unmistakable luxury

AW19 menswear: Across London, Florence, Milan and Paris, designers embraced the artistic elegance of fur.

Tailoring, but not quite as you know that: that was the overriding theme from the AW19 menswear shows. Bringing together global references, designers went all out with an almost haute couture-like approach to suiting and outerwear, using fur to really bring home the message of absolute luxury with nonchalant outerwear.

What they proposed is a new kind of gentleness and gentleman. In a world of the streetwear takeover, a suit or a formal overcoat is becoming one of the most subversive things you can wear – of course tweaked for today, to entice today’s youth.

Astrid Andersen showcasing modern full fox coats

Starting off the season of AW19 meanswear in London on a strong fur note, Astrid Andersen cleverly took her streetwear language in a more tailored direction. Slouchy dyed mink jackets had contrasting glossy black or baby blue stripes running across the middle, juxtaposed with a sharp dyed cross-mink collar. She also demonstrated why she’s a go-to designer for the full fox coat, using dyed fox with beautiful lightness to create a mix between a sporty boxing robe and a puffer – modern glamour for her generation.

For her debut Fila Fjord presentation in Florence, Astrid Andersen filtered her talent for luxury athleisure through a calm and distinctly Nordic lens, using fox, mink to create a series of subdued greyscale coats and jackets that also incorporated dyed fir trees growing from the coat hems.

Luxury and intarsia at Fendi

Fendi sent out hyper-luxurious yet utterly wearable pieces such as a mink coat with silver finish – complete with matching men’s baguette bag, coming to a most wanted bag list near you – and the same kind of silvery treatment was applied to a seventies-esque zipped intarsia mink jacket with an abstract and almost futurist FF monogram. Karl Lagerfeld had served as both inspiration and co-designer on the collection, and alongside Silvia Venturini Fendi he had dreamed up a sheared mink caramel coat with a swirly FF logo created by Lagerfeld during the eighties.

Animal prints and intarsia at Dior and Louis Vuitton

At Dior, Kim Jones spliced architectural tailoring with animalier prints and soft drapery, showing a mink intarsia scarf worn like a sash from under a coat that trailed behind the body. It was dyed somewhere between eau de nil and grey with black tiger stripes.

Virgil Abloh’s collection for Louis Vuitton also made use of serene fur hues and classic, relaxed shapes. A patchwork and star intarsia mink coat was dyed a soft greige and cream, with the same technique and hues repeated in long scarf with the Indiana state flag – a nod to the childhood home of Michael Jackson, who had inspired the collection.

Thom Browne makes a sustainability statement

Abloh’s show for his own brand, Off-White, used fur to convey a poetic message of the inherent luxury of everlasting materials: a coat with a sumptuous natural Finnraccoon collar was deliberately crudely stitched together from mismatched tweeds and wool that were coming apart at the seams. It felt like a way to show the beauty of natural high-end materials, no matter their age.

Commenting on sustainability in fashion, Thom Browne kitted out his show space with bubble wrap, which would be utilised for shipping purposes after guests had left. He opened with a parade of models in identical bubble wrap outfits complete with white mink-trimmed bubble wrap gloves and pope-like hats. It was a brilliant juxtaposition of high and low, and a joining of two endlessly reusable materials – not to mention a set of accessories that fashion editors will surely be lining up to shoot for their AW19 issues.

If you liked this article about AW19 meanswear trends, read also about streetstyle trends seen during Pitti Uomo.