The Spring/Summer 2020 menswear trends worth trying at home

For 19 days the fashion cognoscenti dressed (and partied) their way through London, Florence, Milan and Paris – all in the name of men’s fashion.

Now that it’s all over, which runway trends stood out? After viewing accessories and clothing from over a hundred brands and designers, big, small, new and old, here's my pick of the stand-out looks from the Spring/Summer 2020 menswear shows.

Leather was the surprise fabric which trended heavily on the SS20 catwalks.

Seen on coats, shorts, trousers, shirts and also as vests, leather has seemingly left the colder climate for a hot holiday jaunt in the tropics.

At Ami, Alexandre Mattiussi offered a full black coat, at Berluti, Kris Van Assche fashioned a brown leather suit, at Dries Van Noten the leather vest made its debut and at Juun.J the fabric dominated with a jumble of options. In Italy, Marni’s brown and yellow cowhide look won, while DSquared2 and Salvatore Ferragamo dabbled with lower half leather looks on trousers and shorts.

Dean and Dan kept it black (featuring seven black pants in Milan) while Paul Andrew spanned the colour wheel with aubergine, brown, olive and white trousers and shorts at Ferragamo’s Pitti Uomo show.

At Ermenegildo Zegna Alessandro Sartori sent some beautiful black pieces down the catwalk.

Denim is ubiquitous in every man’s closet but matching denim is a thing only the stylishly deft can pull off.

For Spring/Summer 2020 denim co-ordinates or 'suit-sets' were a massive trend with most elevated by visible details. Be it the flower appliques at Andrea Crews to graphic prints at Casablanca and Christian Dada, which also showed up at Off-White and Kidsuper, standout denim is here to stay. The fabric was also seen at Juun.J, who fashioned standout pockets and at Etudes with monochrome paint prints.

On the tailored side, Palm Angels packed a punch with a show stopper suit and the watercolour effects at S.R. Studio. LA. Ca. oozed cool. Across the fashion landscape, denim was done up and dished out plentifully to set a trend that’s set to continue for years.

If you haven’t got a white suit in your closet now might be the time to invest.

Be it single or double-breasted versions, suits exuding the ‘saint’ look kept appearing on runways across the four cities.

Heron Preston opened his show with Alton Mason clad in white quilted Tyvek version, and Virgil Abloh offered varied options at Louis Vuitton. In Milan, Philip Plein showed two at Billionaire, Francesco Rizzo served up sheen at Marni and at Fendi, Sylvia Ventura Fendi kept it off white and utilitarian with cargo trousers.

Crowd favourites (from the streets) seemed to be what Benjamin Huseby at GmBH and Glenn Martens at Y/Project sent down the runway. Maybe it’s that every man looks suave in white, but either way the Tony Montana (in Scarface) vibe is on the rise.

From a few fleshy tones to an abundance of fuchsia, pink made a mark on the Spring Summer 2020 catwalks, seen at Alexander McQueen, Dries Van Noten, GmBH and Louis Vuitton.

At Comme de Garcons pink was embellished with ruffles and at Les Hommes appeared on translucent silk tops.

At Pitti Uomo, S.R. Studio. LA. Ca also offered a stand-out pink acid wash denim co-ord.

But it was Kim Jones who embraced pink the most enthusiasm. At Dior, his runway was pink – pink sand that is – and stronger shades of pink popped up on bags, coats, jackets, jewellery, sunglasses, scarves, shawls, and roll necks.

The colour red has been on the rise in menswear since last summer, but the cardinal hue looks set to peak next summer.