Qualifying the Ins-and-Outs of the March Fashion Scene in New York City
As New York City's best fashion observer, I've once again taken it upon myself to report on what I'm seeing pop up and what I'm seeing fade away.
Hi friends!
It’s another month, and another Substack explaining what I’m seeing more and less of in New York City. This past month, I’ve been on a weird run; mixing hermit-like tendencies (read: weather-induced February slump) with nights out. I’m walking Leo (my sausage dog) a lot while doing chores, meaning that I’m spending a lot of time looking at the bottom half of passers-by. Expect commentary on shoes and pants.
As always, One Size Fits All is free, and I intend to keep it that way. If you’re enjoying what I do, please take a second to share the post, subscribe, and discuss wherever you please.
Without further ado, here’s the March list.
On the way ins:
Spyder
Mid 2000’s DSquared belt buckles
Athletic-adjacent Techwear sneakers a la acronym prestos
MA-1s
I Really Like Music Fit (thermal + band tee)
Unsteamed dress shirts
Really giant cuffs on jeans (fisherman cuffs)
Suzy Sheer
Nip/Tuck
Supreme, apparently
Jacket liners worn instead of an actual jacket
Tucking (shirts)
Realizing SSENSE is chopped
Ricardo Tisci Rottweiler Tees
Trapper Hats
No tattoos no piercings
90’s Nylon Sports Team Fan Jackets
ERD
Celine
Big frame 70s style librarian readers
Anything Prada Mirrored collection
Chloe Suzanne Boots
POLKA DOTS!
Capris (again)
Jackets with hoods that can be zipped out / split hoods
Metal print hoodies
Non-Puffer TNF jackets
Jackets with a lot of dangly straps
On the way outs:
Marlboro Merch
Gore-Tex (Cancer concerns)
New Puma speedcat PR push (I’m not a lemming!!)
Kapital Century Denim
Flexing AirPod maxes
Neckerchiefs
Guys who think they’re Ralph Lauren
Artificial grain on fit check videos
Saying “vino”
Taped seams
Any and all Balenciaga bags
Ugly-ass carhartt jackets you bought from a Shopify website
Bathroom mirror fitchecks
Pleather
Bushwick Beanie
Prada (ugly)
“Personal Style”
Earth Tones
Baggu
“Spinning vinyl”
French chore coats
New Balance
Clarks Wallabees
Beanie + sunglasses combo
Advertisement masquerading as Run club
Gazelles
As long as I write this, I’ll have to add in the disclaimer that this list isn’t prescriptive. These are simply things I’ve been seeing more of and less of when I’m out and about in the City. Sound good? Amazing! Let’s do some in-depth analysis.
On-the-Way-Ins
Mid 2000’s DSquared belt buckles
One of my favorite activities after a night out — if I’ve been drinking — is watching music videos, runway shows, and the 2016 NBA Finals on my couch. Now, I haven’t really been drinking in the new year (yay!) but I consistently come back to watching the FW24 DSquared MetaMorph show. Is it the best runway show ever? No. Are the looks the most consistent or the most enthralling? Also no! But (and this is what I think Dean and Dan’s superpower is) the show is so much fun to watch. Models stroll through a magic machine that swallows grungy Canadian club kids and spits out their chic, evening-wear-wearing reflections. It’s so much fun! It reminds me of the toy commercials you used to see on Disney Channel or Cartoon Network in the early 2000’s.
It’s also scored by the Chemical Brothers.
So, here’s why I’m mentioning DSquared now: their recent FW25/26 show (the 30th anniversary of the brand, mind you) had a much bigger reception and drew many more eyes than their FW24 show, thanks in part to a Doechii performance and multiple collaborations with Magliano, Vaquera, and Bettter. The show was bloated — over 70 looks! — but communities online are into it! With the warm reception and increased attention, I’ve been seeing DSquared belts and belt buckles that have sat for the past 2 years begin to get snapped up. Keep an eye on these! I fully expect stores to start snapping them up when they realize that you can buy them for $20 (yes, right now) and sell them for $100+ (also right now).
Athletic-adjacent Techwear sneakers à la Acronym Prestos
A few notes/historical anecdotes here to qualify this:
Athleisure is a virus that must be expunged from the arteries of the fashion world. Alo Yoga is not a fashion brand; it is the clothing of those who are too lazy to put in effort.
Ballet flats are back.
Blokecore/Soccer core will come back as the weather heats up.
People don’t like to fit in; the three activity/athletic categories of clothing above (Athleisure, Ballet-core, soccer/football) are old news. What’s next? 2016-2018 techwear revival, of course! I’ve seen two (count them, two!) pairs of Acronym Prestos in the past month and was ostensibly stunlocked as the long-inactive hypebeast neurons fired in my brain.
They used to sell for >$800! Now they’re $175! Isn’t that crazy? I think the re-emergence of the shoes (however small the sample size) signals an early shift towards the shoes of that time and genre; Huraches, BBS Salomons, Pump Furies, etc.
MA-1
The iconic flight jacket. I’ve been looking for a Fostex MA-1 (Raf Simons inspired, obviously), but in my research, I didn’t realize how many different iterations of the MA-1 there are. There’s the cropped Buzz Rickson William Gibson MA-1, the classic Alpha Industries version, the intentionally oversized Vetement Total Fucking Darkness grail, and a luxe Saint Laurent option for all those rocking Bosnian jeans. This is all to say that I didn’t realize these were all MA-1s; the more I researched, the more of the jacket I saw. The turning of the seasons paired with the hyper-accessible jacket (everyone and their mother has done some sort of chop and screw) makes for an obvious explanation.
I Really Like Music Fit (thermal + band tee)
Weather changing. Vintage t-shirts are popular. Anemic fashion people like to keep warm while signaling how cool they are. Do I need to say more?
Big frame ‘70’s style librarian readers
One of the major themes of One Size Fits All is logical progression and growth. How do we change alongside what we wear? How are we changed by what we wear? What’s now and what’s next?
Miu Miu glasses reached their peak (in my opinion) within the fashion sphere. The sultry, sexy office siren look is championed by a few Miu Miu girlies. What’s next for those hungry for the next thing? The pendulum of portrayal swings across the valley: rather than a powerfully intelligent woman in the office, thick glasses with even thicker frames belie the knowledge of a library-dwelling, high-achieving, understated-but-still-devastatingly-hot woman.
I’ve seen some of these glasses while out and about, and I think they make a lot of sense in the sociopolitical context of the world right now. Subverting the right-wing expectation of a woman (silent, subservient, maidenly, and submissive) can come in two forms, the first being the already-present office siren (powerful, outspoken, wields her femininity in the powerful offices dominated by men) and the second as the incoming bookstore femme fatale (independent, intelligent, holding power in her self-sufficiency).
I love counter-culture! I love people signaling through clothing! I love people that read books!
Really Giant Cuffs on Jeans (fisherman cuffs)
This is slightly predictive and also giving a lot of grace to people who do shit with jeans that I don’t like: people are putting huge cuffs into their jeans. Selvedge denim is seeing a resurgence (yay!) but people don’t understand that hemming a pair of fresh selvedge denim is standard practice, leading to giant cuffs. Add in Jonathan Anderson’s departure from Loewe (where the fishman jean were a major, non-bag moment) and you’ve got the perfect groundwork for a large-scale resurgence.
Suzy Sheer
I have no clue where Suzy Sheer came from or how they blew up to the extent that they did, but congrats. They’re everywhere and have come up in conversations with kids clearly younger than me on Thursday nights out in Brooklyn. As New York’s best boots-on-the-ground fashion culture commentariat, I have to listen when I hear things repeated. Stay tuned to see a Boiler Room set or something of the sort.
ERD/Celine
See the coattails of coke-core Hedi for this one. When Navigate jeans start peaking in price, I’ve got to also pay attention to the modern equivalents that provide the Kim Gordon/Courtney Love/Kurt Cobain/etc. aesthetic. As a fun note of history, check out Saint Laurent’s FW15 “Punk Rock Paradise” show if you’d like some inspo/styling cues (get androgynous with it, you cowards) from the era that aren’t ripped jeans and overpriced band tees.
Time for the things slowly disappearing out of the New York scene (or what, as everyone’s taken an inclusion in this section to mean, the things I hate and if you wear them I’m going to find you and explode you with a bazooka)
On-the-way-outs
Marlboro Merch
Male manipulators are — unfortunately — not wearing last year’s uniform. The silverlake-inspired (as far as I can tell) vintage-car-driving, chain-smoking, bohemian man is no longer the aspirational personality of 20-something fashion dudes. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming warmer months.
Gore-Tex (Cancer concerns)
Uh oh! It’s been made clear that PFAS is something to worry about (see this 2022 Guardian article about gore-tex in particular) and there’s an ongoing class action lawsuit over the greenwashing of Gore-Tex! Don’t get it twisted: Arc’teryx isn’t gone. Rain-repellent jackets aren’t just disappearing. Scrawny dudes in cotton pants are still going to strolling around in Beta ARs – they’re just a rarer breed.
New Puma Speedcat PR push (I’m not a lemming!!)
I talked about this on an upcoming podcast with Michael, but Puma put a bunch of money into seeding these out across the Lower East Side. I’m not saying they’re wrong for doing so (there are a million companies who have done this in every which way) but only that I’m not falling for it. I don’t really see the PR push as being successful (other models of Puma shoes are having their moments) but these were everywhere for a week or so before being scrubbed from the fashion zeitgeist like graffiti from a sidewalk corner.
Kapital Century Denim
Century denim isn’t dead, it’s just in a coma. I understand this is a hot take, everyone! Michael doesn’t agree (and has evidence to the contrary), but I haven’t seen a pair of these this month. It’s crazy! I don’t think we’ve had a year since 2022 where someone hasn’t ‘discovered’ these pants, made a video, and blew them up in popularity. I know for a fact that a lot of the fashion creators/influencers in the city own pairs, but I haven’t seen them appear in fitpics or videos. I don’t watch TikToks, so maybe I’m way off with that anecdote, but I don’t believe anything I see on my phone as an indicator of what’s actually up-and-coming in the culture.
A macro prediction for all my lovely readers: With LVMH’s acquisition of Kapital, expansion will occur. Kapital will see its tried-and-true sellers pushed out to more people (expect a Kapital store to open in London, Paris, or NYC in the next 18 months) and certain items will reach saturation.
Neckerchiefs
Keeping it concise: these are moving up to the top of heads rather than around the neck. Calling it now: the uniform of the basic fashion dude (think panda dunk-core) is going to be sunglasses and a headscarf with some sort of vintage t-shirt.
“Personal Style”
We’re seeing the death of people selling a ‘personal style’! It’s been hijacked! Overtaken! Co-opted! What a shame!
Personal style as a concept is fine. “I dress as I do because it suits my life” is a time-honored and time-tested secret to good dress. With that being said, the idea of buying your way into personal style is dying off.
Conventional fashion marketing sells an identity. Consumers can see their ideas of self confirmed by purchasing X jacket, Y perfume, or Z necklace. For our parents, this messaging came either in the form of print or television ads or in the form of celebrity endorsement (see the early onset of this in Cheryl Tiegs’ Sears collection in the late 70’s/early 80’s, Jay-Z’s Rocawear of the late 90’s, or literally any sort of paid red carpet placement of the 70’s and 80’s). The technique evolved through the 2000’s and 2010’s towards the ‘style influencer’ and ‘micro-influencer’ — I’m sure I don’t have to explain to you who these people are. You certainly follow at least one.
These professionals make a living from convincing you that you want to be like them. Maybe they’re beautiful, maybe they’re having more fun, maybe they’re better dressed, but the role of the influencer is to remain cooler than you at all times while bottling their personality (or talent, or ability to dress) into a marketable package.
As the technique’s grown, people have become increasingly frustrated (and honestly, tired) with the constant sell-y-ness of the modern-day influencer. What happens when the new Sandy Liang X Salomon XT-6’s don’t magically make you a paragon of the coquette outdoors? Who’s to blame when the skincare of the summer turns out to be a bust? Does anyone really think that Bulgari watches look good (yes, people are being paid to wear those fuck-ugly watches in videos) or are an essential part of a cool outfit?
We’ve reached a peak in the ever-present fashion-as-capitalism cycle. I don’t think people in the know (or in the scene) are buying in — pun intended — to the idea that you can buy a style anymore. People will always crave authenticity and be able to discern, with varying levels of success, who’s actually invested and who’s just playing dress-up.
That’s this month, everyone! What’s our takeaway? What can we learn? Seems like we’re trending towards what I’m coining as ‘ethical hedonism’: going out, dancing to music, and having fun, but still finding time or space to care about PFAS and carcinogens. We’re seeing a distrust of capitalism, skepticism around what’s good and what’s not, and new trends being borne from people breaking conventions either from a lack of knowledge of the ‘right’ way or simply ignoring what they’re being told. Get excited! Break a rule!
I’ll see you all next week (hopefully) with more. Maybe a longform. Maybe some sort of collection to get the ball rolling. If you’re seeing something in New York, shoot me a message — I love talking about these things!
Hoka with their Project Transport that looks similar to that of Salomon Bambas really signifying the return of this kind of tech-adjacent sneakers. I still wear mine a lot and shame that the caging on my acr prestos broke few years ago
Dsquared will never be in to me because I’m the only person who will never forget their involvement in that weird Disco Africa party in 2013 lol