Our favourite menswear looks from Australian Fashion Week 2025

SANDWICHED BETWEEN my seat mates at a womenswear show early on in this year’s Australian Fashion Week (AFW), my new companions posed a puzzler: “What does Australian menswear look like?” Looking down at the schedule on their phones, filled with names with predominantly womenswear and co-ed collections, it was understandably hard to draw the line in the sand.

AFW, which was saved this year by the Australian Fashion Council, offers little by way of men’s fashion – the commercial spotlight shines brightest on womenswear in Australia’s fashion capital. Just one designer, Joseph & James on Tuesday – the only standalone menswear show on the calendar this year – staked its claim with its contemporary streetwear designed for the country’s diverse climate.

On the co-ed front, Farage presented its collection of classic tailoring that are interchangeable, as seen in the mirrored men’s and womenswear looks. And while it is a long-winded (but necessary) conversation about how much of a financial investment it is to stage a runway presentation, menswear also exists elsewhere if you look for it: online, off-calendar, in showrooms, and also in cities that aren’t Sydney or Melbourne.

Another facet in answering this question is that, thankfully, a generation of young designers don’t design with these binaries in mind. Marquee shows this week like Alix Higgins took vestiges of menswear – think tight polo shirts – and split them by the side seams to fit any and all body types. TAFE graduate Emily Misaki Hon used menswear thematically, telling me backstage her interests lie in dressing everyone in bold silhouettes.

What to take from these small pockets of ‘menswear’ is that, indeed, brands and designers are lobbing broader ideas of gender and masculinity on their male shoppers. Answering this question further, we’re taking a look at how Aussie designers are thinking about menswear trends in 2025.

Alix Higgins

Alix Higgins contorts convention. Both in fabric and meaning, this is what’s stationed the emerging designer as one of the marquee events on the schedule since debuting in 2021. What I look forward to in every collection is how he takes vestiges of menswear staples, namely the tight polo shirt, and injects it with his genderless approach: he cuts it open by the side seams so that it can fit, going over the head like a poncho, on any and all body shapes.

An early look showcased the garment as a singlet with the polo worn backwards, flowing like a cape. The couture-ish cape sensibility he’s explored previously remains in the imperious high collar and draping over the shoulders, though this time the polo takes on an adolescent character of wearing shirts as a superhero cape. Indeed, that child-ish wonder was something Higgins explored in his digital-meets-folk motifs, as some models walked bare foot while other wore EVERAU paraboots (Higgins worked with the footwear brand) with painted tulips.

It sounds like something out of Moonrise Kingdom, the Wes Anderson flick that showcases boy-scouts with ‘children acting like adults’ mannerisms. Conversely, a model wearing a feather-like crown printed in Higgins’ now-established flattened colourised fur walked out in a contrasting neon swim shorts – the first real notion of swimwear this week. Higgins also solves the long or short short dilemma: swishy knee-knockers were cut with slits halfway up the thigh, muscled quads peeking out in motion.

Farage

Closing off Tuesday evening, Joe Farage’s co-ed collection of his contemporary tailoring offered some ideas about how tailoring is moving forward – and it was all in the shoulders. A standout section of the collection were grey pinstripe double-breasted suits with broad shoulder pads that tapered into a narrow waist. Styled with aviators and oil-slicked hair, it all felt very Patrick Bateman; the fictional Wall Street yuppie has been a chronic touchpoint in tailoring ever since Christian Bale brought the character to life in the 2000 film. But the direction tailoring is headed seemed evident at Farage: the beautifully draped suit of the 1980s is making a return.

Earlier on in during the daywear portion, elegantly layered suiting was topped off with durable, swishy outerwear, adding a little nylon shine to the visual warmth of wool and cashmere. In these looks, Farage’s eye for colour-blocking and jewel tones cut through as one of the week’s highlights: earthy tones of sage and ochre offered the singular colour diversity made available under the Australian sun.

Joseph & James

Part of my conversation with Joseph & James designer Juanita Page before her solo runway debut surrounded the retailing opportunities such a presentation can offer in getting more eyes on an emerging Australian menswear label. And Page offers a compelling character study.

Inspired by the lunches and dinners Page grew up having with family and friends, these are exactly the kinds of clothes you should be hanging out in, and stunting on your friends in the process. Page’s design language of crisp shirting and clean lines is what’s stationed the brand at the forefront of the contemporary menswear conversation, and that was further entrenched with some playful prints: green to yellow stripes to blue and pink stripes. Layered over were cosy fisherman cardigans that add to the brand’s preppy character, but takes on new meaning as something to rug up in when engrossed in conversation with friends. Cheekier elements were seen in T-shirts printed with a dial-up phone printed with the caption, “I’m bored. Wanna come for tea? Cool, bye”. It’s time to get excited about going out, and that starts with what you’re wearing.

Wynn Hamlyn

Weaving was on the mind for New Zealand-based designer Wynn Hamlyn. Part of The Frontier group show on Tuesday, the label presented three menswear looks that echoed the romantic drapery of its womenswear. A blue woven shirt was a key look, featuring bursts at the waist and hem like a tartan bag being ripped open. The technique was magnified in a brown fisherman jumper with its tangles layered over each other as if mid-way to tightened. The little gaps it left opened the idea for playful layering.

Fashion Design Studio TAFE show

Emily Misaki Hon

Kicking off the week’s schedule was TAFE’s graduate presentation, hosted at the Overseas Passenger Terminal with the harbour and Opera House as its backdrop. With notable alumni including Akira Isogawa, Christopher Esber, and Dion Lee, the incubator program offers its post-grads mentorship across media, business, sustainability, and manufacturing – the makings of a contemporary brand.

FRAGMENT.66 by Emily Misaki Hon ruminated on her memories of her grandfather, poetically wrapped up in androgynous silhouettes. “The news boy cap was something we would always wear,” she told me backstage of her late grandfather. With a focus on organic textures and her interest in the Japanese philosophy wabi sabi (beauty in the imperfect), the collection was a raw exploration of masculinity contrasted with strong silhouettes.

Hon’s interest in menswear more broadly came from her older brother with whom she would listen to music with and become engrossed in street style and culture. Certainly, one cropped puffer that sat like a football player’s shoulder pads, and styled with long and distressed and chains in the belt loops, was very much of the cool fashion kids that hang around TAFE campuses.

Although Hon’s was the only menswear presentation in the group, this binary thinking was more thematic than Hon’s true interests in dressing everyone. “I just prefer androgynous silhouettes that are [visually] overpowering,” Hon said.

Eidan Ceildah

The menswear in Eidan Ceildah’s co-ed presentation offered clean lines and simplicity mirrored in the womenswear looks. A stand-out look belonged to a cosy navy blue set, a plunging V-neck on the shirt, colour blocked with an oversized camel jacket, as well as an all black leather fit with a woven top.

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Related:

Farage shows the power of a perfect suit

Joseph & James designer Juanita Page is making menswear to hang out in