Looking for more of the freakiest, flyest men’s fashion trends 2025 has in store? Swing by our New Arrivals shop, and then check out what our editors are buying right now.
In the GQ offices, celebrating the new year involves more than just champagne and resolutions: it means a fresh slate of men’s fashion trends to kick off 2025 on an impeccably-shod foot. Around this time every year, we thank our sweats and shorts for their service, set them aside in favor of fuzzy sweaters and raw jeans, and barrel toward new sartorial horizons at full speed. Which begs the question: What do we see coming around the bend in 2025?
To answer just that, we polished off our crystal ball (and, uh, mixed our analogies), and peered intently into its murky depths to suss out 15 men’s fashion trends way more exciting than, like, a half-hearted commitment to start exercising. (Said crystal ball is actually the GQ Recommends braintrust—we’re a little more calculated than a mystical orb, and a lot less cursed than ChatGPT—but the point stands.)
To predict the can’t-miss menswear moves of the coming year, we scoured runway stills, street style shots, and our very own mood boards to make sense of where the state of our highly specific union is headed next. Take a look, glean what you will, and start shifting your 2025 fits into high gear.
1. Pants With a Literal Twist
What could possibly be in store for the big pants agenda in 2025? Instead of worrying about fit, you should think about construction. And if there’s one thing to keep a close eye on, it’s pants with twisted seams. Delinquent seams—whether curling around the front or back of the leg—have all the makings of enjoying a breakout year: They’re an approachable touch of roughed-up freak with a healthy dose of Y2K nostalgia. If you’re looking for your next swerve, go curved. —Michael Nolledo
2. Clasps on Fire
I’m seeing classic styles—peacoats, truckers, waxed jackets–get updated with clasps reminiscent of vintage fireman jackets. (Mfpen has a beautiful, denim fireman clasp jacket dropping in a couple of months.) I dig it. The simple change gives a workwear edge to more formal pieces, meaning you can still enjoy the classic style’s functionality, but without the associations that come with, say, a big Barbour zip, or some giant rounded peacoat buttons. There are some very special finds on eBay and Depop, but here are a few if you want to go new. —Louis Cheslaw
3. Cowichan Knits
For well over a century, Indigineous craftspeople hailing from the Cowichan territory of Vancouver Island have been knitting their namesake sweaters: brawny shawl-collar cardigans built to battle the British Columbian chill. You can still cop the genuine article from traditional knitters like Kanata, though these days there are plenty of updated interpretations to choose from—like Faiz T.S.’s bomber jacket hybrid or Haven’s blacked-out banger. —Yang-Yi Goh
4. Bulked-Up Boat Shoes
Boat shoes roared back in the past couple of years, so I understand that declaring any vertical of the polarizing style to be “back” or “trending” isn’t all that helpful. But within the category, the bulkier, more sturdy, more structural ones are infinitely more interesting—and more utilitarian—than the classic two-eye, flat-soled iterations. As such, I’m seeing them everywhere, worn with everything, in every context. Maybe this one is less of a trend and more of a mainstreaming, but either way it’s happening. —Reed Nelson
5. Clean, Crisp, Raw Denim
In the years since the last raw denim renaissance, we’ve seen bold blue jeans trends from threadbare shredded options to tripped-out colorways to overdyes and acid washes. But 2025 will be a reset back into a cleaner, simpler aesthetic. We’ll incorporate the unadulterated, deep, inky indigo back into our wardrobe to anchor every outfit. We may not be approaching it like the selvedge-obsessed fade-it-yourself denimheads did back in the 2010s. Instead, it’ll be more of a sobering up or a denim detox. —Gerald Ortiz
6. Plucky Pinstripes
People who wore pinstripes used to fall into two camps: Yankees (of the New York variety) and Gordon Gekko acolytes (also of the New York variety). You don’t have to be either to pull off the cold-weather pattern today, though orienting your style—if not, y’know, your morals—around the latter is a great place to start. We dig a chilled-out suit as much as the next guy, but the the most righteous way to flex your sartorial chops this year is a little more severe: brash lapels, strong shoulders, nipped waist, and a healthy dose of swaggering braggadocio. —Avidan Grossman
7. Rough Rings
Shiny silver has been getting more and more scuffed up, and with retailers like SSENSE and Harrod’s stocking up on designers like The Ouze, I don’t see it stopping. It tracks to me—I’d never worn jewelry before as I didn’t want to attract that kind of glinty attention, but have loved the rougher pieces I’ve picked up over the last few months. —LC
8. Retro Pinnies
2024 was a big year for both mesh and cropped shirts, so it does seem natural that folks would discover that there’s a pre-existing garment that’s already married the best of both worlds: practice jerseys (and pinnies), preferably those modeled after the ones worn in the 70s, 80s and 90s. They’re airy, they’re a little (or a lot) slutty, they usually have some sort of funky detailing—like knit trim or a funky collar—and, like vintage tees, you can make them as personal as you want. Vintage is still the best route and eBay’s inventory is stellar, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a ton of contemporary options. —RN
9. Tartan Dress Shirts
Solid and striped dress shirts are always a safe bet with a suit or sport coat, sure. Get some plaid in the mix, though, and suddenly you’re Redford in All the President’s Men or Wes Anderson in any era—a little rumpled and professorial, ready to roll up your sleeves, loosen your tie, and get to goddamn work. —YYG
10. Slouchier Sweats
Joggers are dead. The sweatpants that killed ’em are cut more like Y2K-doused jeans: big, baggy, and with hems that spill over sneakers, slip-ons, and—if you’re a diehard Saint Laurent buff—kicky boots. If your trousers already worship at the altar of Armani’s louche heyday, making the jump should be cinch. —AG
11. Belt It Out
Women have long known that a belt’s ability to keep pants from crashing to the ground is the least of its benefits. In 2025, guys will finally see belts as something closer to jewelry—a fancy flourish on par with an icy necklace, wild sunglasses, or new shoes. I’m talking about belts adorned with studs, painted in vibrant colors, and sculpted in ways that belie their ability (or lack thereof) to battle gravity. —GO
12. Crewneck Cardis
There’s plenty of swervy knitwear moves you can make right now (see above), but the best one this season is the most simple. The rise of the crewneck cardigan is here, and like the demure assurance of a grandmother, it can support your fits like no other sweater can. The simple tweak of the neckline gives you more occasions to wear them than your standard cardi, whether open or buttoned all the way up for a purposeful take on the classic crewneck sweater. You don’t have to add pearls, but we wouldn’t be mad if ya did. —MN
13. Gentlemanly Gorp
If round one of Gorpcore was all about technical fabrics, round two is for guys who no longer want to just be outdoors. They want to be outdoors in fabrics that their great, great, grandfather could have worn. If he was, say, an Austrian shepherd. I’m talking corduroy, boiled wool, felt, fleece. No ‘-Tex’ in the mix. —LC
14. Tiny Tickers
One of the best things I bought this year was a teeny-tiny Seiko bracelet watch from the ’70s, which is definitely more bracelet than watch and all the better for it. It’s a women’s model, but I have dainty wrists—and these days, the gals are beating the guys at their own game, anyway. If the coos of delight my new watch-let elicits are any indication, small watches will only be getting bigger in 2025. —AG
15. Zippy Sweaters
Zippers and sweaters are an uneasy alliance to be sure—snags are catastrophic in the teeth of a zipper and the mechanisms by which they’re affixed to knitwear are often tenuous. I don’t care about any of these things, though, and it seems like others agree with that sentiment—zip cardigans are popping up in the wild in place of the button kind, track jackets, quarter-zips and the like with increasing frequency. And while it might be uneasy, the alliance is fruitful: when the zipper is bulky or shiny, it contrasts a knit in a more dramatic (re: interesting) way than buttons do, and when it’s low-profile, the placket fades away to an extent that buttons simply can’t. (I’ve been wearing an old one for two months and can’t stop.) —RN
