Men’s Fashion Top Trends For Spring/Summer 2022

Teeanime picks the hottest SS22 trends for next year, from tutti-frutti safari jackets and surfer tees to giant Bermuda shorts and alt sandals. Fashion is returning to normal, thankfully. The Spring/Summer 2022 menswear cycle had more IRL shows than the previous two seasons combined, and the designers were happier, with the majority showing a newfound creative zeal not seen during the frequent lockdowns.

The greatest news is that the garments on show were also much more fascinating to look at, write about, touch, and hopefully wear than recent digital and phygital (sorry) runways.

Thus, at British Teeanime, we’ve spent the previous few weeks refining the season’s most key trends so you have a complete buying and wearing guide for spring 2022.

We’ve got you covered—except for your arms—from sleeveless clothing to cut-out vests.

1. Wait, your coat’s not a cardie?

If you live in the UK, you know that the weather is usually between coat and T-shirt. (It’s the Gulf Stream’s fault, people). Luckily, this season’s smarter menswear designers are making coats from cardies. Cardigans! Heavy-knit cardigan-coats.

The best were at Dunhill, where design director Mark Weston paired trademark nana cardies with razor-edged two-pieces, and Jil Sander, where pastel hues ruled the runway.

2. All about that sleeve-free life

Forgive us for repeating the sleeveless trend. Prada and Marni started presenting sweater vests, while Riccardo Tisci recently dedicated his menswear collection to the power of an exposed bicep, highlighting the change.

For Spring/Summer 2022, Erdem and Paul Smith showed sleeveless knitted numbers, Courrèges and Giorgio Armani showed sophisticated waistcoat designs, while Burberry showed tailored sleeveless blazers and biker jackets.

3. Skirts and tunics and skorts, oh, my!

GQ has always believed that men should have the same freedom to show their legs (and smalls) as women, and it seems like the menswear world is finally catching up.

For Spring/Summer 2022, many brands followed dress-wearing males like Kid Cudi, A$AP Rocky, Ezra Miller, Harry Styles, and all the kameez, lungi, and dhoti-wearing men throughout the world.

Burberry and Prada favored micro-skorts, whereas Fendi, GMBH, and Rick Owens favored gown-like tunics. You only live once, so wear your own skirt, kilt, tunic, or tabard next summer.

4. They’re suits, but not as you know them

Workwear has changed irrevocably. Even the most sartorially authoritarian organizations are loosening their ties.

Thus, it’s unsurprising that the labels that traditionally prioritized tailored garments have completely rethought “the suit” for SS22, opting for easy-to-wear two-pieces that can be worn on the sofa, at the office, or to the corner store.

Three-button suits in light cotton and linen at Hermès, Dries van Noten, and Tod’s had a low-key appeal, while two-pieces with shirt jackets rather than blazers at Giorgio Armani, Homme Plissé, Issey Miyake, and Fendi were spot-on (essential because they’re expensive).

5. Tutti-frutti er’thang

The world’s top male designers are as bored as we are of grey marl, navy towelling, and black jersey. London, Milan, and Paris runways were full of color.

Fendi, Casablanca, and Louis Vuitton featured color-bleed rainbow patterns on oversized intarsia T-shirts and hooded safari jackets made of the best leathers. Dolce & Gabbana and Moschino used flamboyant Italian summer prints on suits, while Etro and Hermès used degradé fruit salad sweet colors for ultra-desirable sweaters.

6. Who wears big shorts? You wear big shorts!

If short shorts were the topic of TikTok this year (google “five-inch short rule” for more – we’ve run out of words), we’re hoping that the enormous Berumda short will be the buzz of 2022.

The best examples of the big billowing short trend (which is considerably more flattering on older legs, FYI) could be found cut from the finest leathers at Hermès, naturelement, in crisp mohairs and twills at Fendi, Zegna and Wooyoungmi (where the shorts were teamed with overshirts and suit jackets in matching shades), and at Giorgio Armani, Lanvin and Dries van Noten, where the over-the-knee vibe was very sexed-up Blue Crush…in a good way.

7. The resurrection of funereal tailoring

Tailoring has changed this year (see number four), but our brave new, much more casual world still requires us to dress up occasionally. Which is fantastic news for Spring/Summer 2022 designers who showed poker-straight black tailoring.

Virgil Abloh and Kim Jones opened their shows at Louis Vuitton and Dior with inky-black tailored outfits. At the latter, Jones displayed a wonderfully tailored black overcoat cut to the house’s strict Tailleur Oblique block, while at the former, a black wraparound suit reflected the collection’s garment interplayer.

Mark Weston at Dunhill, Paul Smith, and Dolce & Gabbana displayed exquisite black suits without shirts or ties (which is exactly the way in which you should wear yours).

8. Make room for a roomy shirt

Light, airy, breezy. The impending climate crisis will bring decades of record-breaking summers, so get a super-light clothing next summer. One of Dior’s shirt-cum-muumuus, made in cooperation with artist George Condo, or Dries van Noten’s giant tunic shirt will keep you cool in the heat and save clothing waste, which is good.

9. Cut-out tops? So fetch

One of the biggest stories in menswear this season has been the comeback of Courregés under the direction of designer Nicolas Di Felice. Not only did the designer breathe fresh life into the legendary Parisian label with a sleek new silhouette for SS22, but he also exhibited a series of vests with holes cut out of them, which quickly became an Instagram sensation.

Perhaps predictably a whole host other equally famous designers followed suit at the recent SS22 show run – from Riccardo Tisci at Burberry to Jonathan Anderson at Loewe – which means that you, too, should be getting in on the huge moth-eaten look before you can say “giant cedar balls”.

10. Slip on a personality sandal

Perhaps it’s because we all wore more slippers during the repeated lockdowns, or perhaps it’s because LVMH recently bought Birkenstock and gave the pursuit of comfort over fashion the platinum seal of approval, but in any case, pretty much all of the big-name designers have gone insane on the ultra-comfort-focused sandal flex for Spring/Summer 2022.

The vast majority of the tunic-clad models who walked the show at Dries van Noten wore ultra puffy sandals-cum-pillows; Kim Jones’ Dior model army wore cashmere socks and shearling-lined sandals; and driving shoes at Tod’s were replaced with hiking sandals that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the rack at the Tevas store.

11. Get with the nu-varsity programme

We love the varsity revival at British Teeanime. From antique Ivy League sweaters (go, Bears!) to socks with ultra-shiny penny shoes, true preppy clothing is so contemporary right now.

To prove our thesis, numerous Paris and Milan designers featured sporty varsity jackets in their shows. At Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Moschino, slimmed-down versions of the style were imprinted with the houses’ characters (varsity jackets were originally dubbed “letterman jackets” due to the school letters appliquéd to their fronts), while Burberry’s leather varsity jackets were angular and sleeveless. Patterns were crazy at Dolce & Gabbana.

12. Sunnies at the ready, it’s hi-shine time

Partywear is back on the agenda, people. You need only look (but not too closely as you might damage your eyes) at the ultra-shiny lamé, satin and moire silk tailoring found at Dolce & Gabbana, Moschino, Etro and others. Though, for a slightly more civilised take on this new breed of party suit, you might want to look to Dior, where ultra-fine two-pieces hung more like pyjamas, and at Loewe, where silky shirts hung like multifaceted gowns.