The Joy of the Magpie: AW26 Menswear and the Beauty of Personal Dressing
So many brilliant styling moments in the AW26 shows so far. Enough, in fact, to make me pause and really think about two things: the unique authorship of great stylists, and the sheer range and generosity of inspiration coursing through menswear right now.
What’s emerging isn’t a “trend” in the traditional sense. It’s more like a shared sensibility: looks inspired by vintage clothing, the mismatched, the hastily assembled, the clothes-with-history approach. Outfits that feel collected rather than constructed. Worn, patinated, personal. Clothes with memories.
It’s menswear as autobiography.
The Romance of Worn Things
At Prada, that sensibility appeared through oversized cuffs and garments that celebrated wear rather than conceal it. Pieces looked treasured. Lived-in. Loved. There was something quietly radical in the refusal to make everything pristine.
It was classic Prada - intellectually rigorous, emotionally restrained - but softened by the suggestion that these clothes had already lived a life before reaching the runway.
At Dries Van Noten, under Julian Klausner, it blossomed into something gloriously expressive. His menswear continues to feel like a playful dressing-up box tipped joyfully onto the runway.
Apparently inspired by an image of Nirvana wearing Dries, Klausner framed the collection around a young person setting out into adult life, dressed in a collage of family heirlooms and personal finds - valued for emotional resonance rather than coherence.
He described it as:
“An exploration of coming of age… praising the joy of new beginnings. The unfolding of possibilities; the naivety and honesty of first experiments with self.”
Six months after his June presentation - graduates celebrating at dawn on the beach - these characters were leaving home. University. New adventures. Off to explore and learn.
Packing bags. Catching trains. Heading for the big city.
The collection felt like a visualisation of early 20th-century Jugendstil literature - from Dostoevsky to Goethe and Hesse. Stories of young men navigating education, ambition, sensitivity and selfhood. That slightly romantic, slightly melancholic European tradition of becoming.
Such a literary, emotionally intelligent association is so true to the Van Noten house.
Kookiness, Colour, and the Magpie Instinct
This kind of eccentricity - rich in colour, texture, and irreverent nostalgia - is such fun when it’s done well.
At Dries, it recalled peak Alessandro Michele Gucci: nerdy tanks, capes, chollo hats, kilts, cummerbunds, tucked-in ties, and gloriously clashing layers. A wardrobe built from curiosity and fascination.
It had that same magpie instinct - collecting shiny, strange, beautiful vintage things -but filtered through Dries’ mastery of colour, texture and, in particular, lush fabrication and pattern.
Chaos, but exquisitely controlled.
Paul Smith’s Archive Adventure
At Paul Smith, with Sam Cotton as Menswear Design Director and Ben Schofield shaping the styling, the show felt like a joyful rummage through the house archive.
Inside-out suiting. Cross-body ’90s suede satchels. A sense of garments remembering themselves.
The illustrated shirt by Colin Barnes stood out in particular - functioning as both record and embellishment, documenting the brand’s visual language while enriching it.
Zooming in on the styling details: a dice collar stud. Gloriously wonky hats - part mariner, part early 20th-century eccentric - rendered in tweed. It all reinforced the sense of clothes as accumulated culture rather than seasonal product.
Living Collage at Dior
Jonathan Anderson’s Dior leaned into this sensibility too. He cited Withnail & I overcoats as inspiration for his capacious outerwear, continuing his fascination with incongruity and personal symbolism.
There was a tension between aristocratic luxury and everyday democracy: jeans, Cuban heels, cargo trousers, skewed tailoring.
It was highbrow collage - Paul Poiret eccentricity filtered through contemporary design language.
At first glance, it almost veered towards Hedi Slimane rockstar swagger, or Versace-level bravado, rather than Anderson’s usually more cerebral register.
It felt like clothes assembled mid-thought. Almost like living collage.
The Invisible Hand: Stylists as Authors
Across Prada, Dries Van Noten, Dior, Paul Smith - and at Auralee under Charlotte Collet’s quietly assured styling - one thing has been unmistakable this season: the power of styling.
This season belongs to the stylists.
The way a tie is tucked. The instantly translated street trend moment of sweater-worn-as-scarf. A hat that sits slightly wrong. A clash left unresolved. A silhouette that looks improvised.
These are choices. They’re acts of authorship.
They’re what turn collections into worlds.
They’re what give clothes interiority.
A Season to Get Behind
This was a season of winter dressing I could fully get behind.
Eccentric. Deliberately dishevelled. Mismatched in places - but always intentional.
It feels like an invitation, if ever there was one.
An invitation to celebrate those odd pieces in your wardrobe that don’t “go” but you love anyway. The jacket that’s seen better days but you love it anyway. The scarf that clashes. The shoes that feel too much.
This season says: wear them all.
Layer your history. Display your contradictions. Be a magpie.
Because the most compelling menswear right now isn’t about perfection.
It’s about personality.
And that, in the end, is always in style.
All looks: Dries Van Noten by Julian Klausner, AW26.
The Smiths! Patti meets Paul Smith menswear, AW26.
More from Paul Smith
Paul Smith archive shirt featuring illustrations by Colin Barnes: record and embellishment.
Exaggerated, patinated cuffs at Prada.
A nod to Paul Poiret’s playful spirit at Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Men’s.