What is #menswear talking about? Rick Owens collabs with Rimowa, the AO's best dressed men wore Ralph Lauren, and more
Plus, Pharrell gives his Tiffany Titan a Tahitian twist, Sebato De Sarno cements an era of simplicity at Gucci, Omega celebrates its lunar history, R.M. Williams is feeling nostalgic, and more
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WELCOME TO ‘What is #menswear talking about?’, a weekly dispatch where we discuss the news, rumours and conversations that are dominating the men’s style discourse, and therefore, our Esquire water cooler chitchat.
Scroll on for this week’s edition.
Now, you can travel like Rick Owens
Ever since American designer Rick Owens launched his furniture line in 2005, Owens acolytes – dressed in the designer’s avant-garde meets Dune aesthetic – have flocked to his homewares so they can live like him. But the designer splits his time between his homes in Paris (where he shows his collections at the Palais de Tokyo) and Venice (where he chooses to reside outside of work), which then begs the question of: how does Owens travel? Well, thanks to his latest collaboration with German luggage maker Rimowa, now we know.
Reimagining Rimowa’s classic aluminium case in a bronzed brown exterior, the surface is finished with a technique that will allow the metal to patina with age and use, deepening in colour. This is a touchstone of Owens’ sensibility – to wear in his clothes – which has translated into an attitude for the voracious traveller. The high note comes in the fully lined leather interior in an obsidian black that makes the cabin-size case seem cavernous.
“NO MATTER HOW FAR OR LONG, I ONLY BRING ONE CARRY-ON,” Owens shared of his Spartan approach to travel in a press release, in his signature all-caps. “I WANTED THE OUTSIDE FINISH TO RECALL A BRONZE FROM GIACOMETTI, BRÂNCUȘI, OR RICHARD SERRA, AND I WANTED THE INTERIOR TO FEEL LIKE THE TOUCH OF A BLACK LEATHER GLOVE. I DON’T NEED MUCH, BUT I LIKE MY BARE NECESSITIES TO BE AS SUPERNATURAL AS POSSIBLE.”
With a limited run of 500 pieces made, the Italian-made suitcases will be available at select Rimowa and Rick Owens stores worldwide, as well as online (sadly, they won’t be available in Australia. But that won’t stop us from picking one up in, say, Paris). Rimowa suitcases have ascended the heights of travel style, so there’s little else to add about how fast this collaboration will fly off the shelf. You might just see Owens rolling his case around Charles de Gaulle.
Learn more about the collaboration on Rimowa.com.
At the Australian Open, the best dressed guys wore Ralph Lauren
None have made a culture out of dressing for the tennis like American label Ralph Lauren. At this year’s Australian Open in Melbourne Park, the brand delivered a countryside take to dressing some of the celeb attendees including actors Josh Heuston, Will Lodder to Liam Hemsworth, K-Pop sensation Mark of the boy-group NCT, and TikTok personality Mitchell Burns. Cottons and linens in casual pieces were the aim of the game to stay looking fresh courtside. Styling was particularly suited to each attendee: Burns, in a khaki workwear set layered with plaid and orange, looked as if he’d just arrived on the scene from one of his adventures. While this was an Australian twist to the brand’s usual Americana, Heuston cut the sharpest look in the crowd in a navy pinstripe suit which, if he were attending any other Grand Slams, the look would bode well anywhere.
Pharrell’s Tiffany Titan gets a Tahitian refresh
Pharrell has always had an affinity with water; the element played a big role in his first collection for Tiffany & Co., which was inspired by Poseidon, ruler of the sea, King of Atlantis. Now, the creative polymath is updating his high-lustre Tiffany Titan collection, by reintroducing the style with luminous Tahitian pearls alongside a diamond spear motif.
It’s a powerful juxtaposition of rocks, 18k rose gold, and the tears of mythical water creatures, but it also represents the Louis Vuitton menswear designer’s appetite for reinvention. “It is incredibly fulfilling as an artist to take something as established and well-known as pearl jewellery and reinvent it; to put my creative spin on it,” he shares in a statement. “I am fortunate that Tiffany & Co. has given me the tools, the opportunity, and their trust to continue to build on a classic and make it something new.”
Cultivated in the salt water lagoons of French Polynesia, the Tahitian pearls Williams used for the collection are atypically larger, exceeding the 9–11 mm range to 11–12 mm. But no two pearls from the region are ever the same in body colour and overtone, which Tiffany artisans ensured by hand picking each pearl for visual consistency. The result: bracelets, earrings, rings, and a single strand necklace ranging form green to purple overtones. Enough lustre to make your grandmother weep.
Omega celebrates its lunar history with the Speedmaster Moonphase Meteorite
When you just so happen to land on the Moon, you’ll wonder: what time is it back on that blue rock you call home? In humanity’s first moon-landing in 1969, the astronauts did just that, and their Omega Speedmaster Professional told them it was 02:56 GMT on July 21. As the only watch qualified for manned space missions at the time, Omega has enjoyed a heritage shared with the stars. To celebrate this history, the Swiss watchmaker’s first release of the year is its Speedmaster Moonsphase Meteorite. The 43 mm timepiece is done up in two variations of pewter and black-meteorite dials, encased in stainless steel. And what puts this release in line with the brand’s history is the twin lunar display to show the moon phase in the northern and southern hemispheres.
Learn more about the watch here; $28,400.
‘Where Light Finds Us’: Gucci’s spring/summer 2025 campaign stars Geroge McKay
The ’60s opulence that Gucci became known for throughout the 2010s has entered a sleeker age under Sebato De Sarno since he took over the brand in early 2023. Classic house motifs, like the horsebit or stripes in pared-back iterations, have shown the contemporary Gucci customer that there is still quietude in the plush world of the brand. So for the spring-summer 2025 campaign, starring 1917 actor George McKay, De Sarno imagines his pieces in tactile interiors of velvet furnishings and dark wooden walls, with light streaming through half-open windows. Mackay lounges in his surrounds, the light filtering through his mesh polos under brown suiting to reveal his skin underneath. This is the simplicity De Sarno has set out to achieve, while using the fabric and colour to add layers of complexity.
Into the woods with the Loewe boys for the spring/summer 2025 campaign
The Loewe boys have gone native. Photographed by David Sims around the the countryside of Tavertet, in the area of Collsacabra in Catalonia, house muses Drew Strakey and Wang Yibo go about picking the local flora clad in the brand’s spring/summer 2025 collection. The collection noted a “quiet radicality” in its show notes, where “everyday objects are elevated to the extraordinary”. Watch links turned into chainmail-like tank tops; voluminous pleated trousers were interplayed with gingham; models walked bare-chested under leather coats.
What creative director Jonathan Anderson imagines of his pieces in the misty woods of the Spanish countryside is that although the designs are extraordinary, the heart of the brand remains connected to the natural world. Given this, the collection looks at home on a bare-footed Starkey fencing with a fallen tree-branch, a puzzle bag slung over his shoulder.
R.M. Williams releases a summer essentials steeped in nostalgic motifs
For its summer 2025 collection, iconic Australian brand R.M. Williams has opened up the archives to bring pieces for strolling in the park or sailing on a boat. Featuring brand signatures on earth coloured utility shirts, tote bags, and shoes, the brand has embraced nostalgia, asking its wearers to also delve into the brand’s history of dressing stylish Aussies for close to a century. Don’t mind if we do.
Shop the collection here.
Tommy Hilfiger wants you in its refined jeans
How long the baggy jean silhouette has left in the cycle, we’re yet to see. But American label Tommy Hilfiger is pushing for a more refined look for your denim this season. Released as part of its spring/summer 2025 collection, modelled on actor Damson Idris, the cut of the label’s signature denim ranges from slim to straight in fresh light washes. It’s a cleaner look compared to what we’ve seen for the past few seasons that have favoured a wide-leg. As much as you should have a varied collection of denim washes, cuts that read as more refined with, say, loafers will take you places.
On the grid, the Red Bull guys are repping Maui Jim
Shades are integral to the fit, and for the world’s best drivers, who spend days in the elements, stylish eye protection is absolutely essential. Starting from the 2025 Formula 1 season, Hawaiian label Maui Jim is now partnering with Oracle Red Bull Racing to outfit the eyewear for its racers, pit crew and support staff throughout the global race calendar. If the F1 wasn’t already a stylish place to be, having the eyewear brand worn by one of the biggest teams will bring together a focus in delivering distinctive, vibrant style from the cockpit to the pit stop.
Chopard brings an astronomical moon phase in a reshaped aesthetic to its L.U.C. Lunar One
In consistently looking for ways to innovate its iconic L.U.C. Lunar One, Swiss watchmaker Chopard has released a slimmer version of the timepiece, shaving it down 40.5 mm and crafted in an 18-carat gold (white or rose) case. Featuring a perpetual calendar with an orbital moon phase, it’s the brand’s most astronomically precise design yet, with only a one-day discrepancy every 122 years. To top it off, Chopard created its sunburst dials in the guilloché patterns in salmon pink or navy, with rose or white gold hands and herringbone hour markers. We’ll take one of each.
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