Look closely at the runways of Milan and Paris, and you’ll notice a new menswear silhouette is quickly emerging. When fashion’s great catwalk prognosticators—Miuccia Prada, Raf Simons of Prada, Jonathan Anderson of Dior, and Demna of Gucci—all settle on a similar vision for their male consumer, it’s worth perking up and listening. So, it’s of note that those designers are winnowing down their sartorial wares, each presenting us with a shared idea of what men will want to shop—and more importantly, how they’ll want to look—in the coming months. Enter: the Slender Man.
It’s not just an attenuated, leaner look, but one with very specific proportions: think a slightly higher waist paired with a body-hugging, cropped top. At Demna’s fall 2026 show—his official runway debut for the brand—he dropped all the drooping, flowing shapes he so favored at Balenciaga and gave us a collection that was taut, muscular, and laser-focused. One look, in particular, comprised silver high-waisted jeans and a second-skin t-shirt cropped enough to show a sliver of hip. It transmitted his new direction with a bang. It reminded me of what the designer told The Cut’s Cathy Horyn: that he was still seeking his new silhouette, but that it would certainly be “sharp.” Hm!
Then there was Anderson’s second runway show for men, also for fall 2026; he gave us a big departure from his heady debut of enormous shorts and cocooning jackets: glittering going-out tops and rock ‘n’ roll jeans, woolly nip-waist Bar coats sliced and cropped, and so on. Within these shapes, however, was a clear-eyed tailoring proposition—trousers that could only be described as downright skinny, shown with a matching suit jacket that left a channel of sensuous midriff peeking out.
At Prada, which just showed its spring 2027 collection, there was a similar bent: shrunken jackets paired with narrow matching pants—an evolution of last spring’s slender profile. Something is brewing!
Why, exactly, is there such a sudden, new attitude storming the runways? We’ve been in a protracted period of oversized shapes, obsessing over sweeping puddles of fabric, the elegant drape of a pleated pant, and the mushy coziness of swaddling coats. Bodies were hidden in enveloping layers of downy, plush fabric.
These new looks say: No more. No, the body is on the display—be it a foxy little flash of flesh or the cling of a shirt that shows you every ripple of musculature beneath. There’s a newfound rigor and specificity to the cut that suddenly looks undeniably fresh. Is it a commentary on our newfound Ozempic-era obsession with bodies, or the mere pendulum swing of designers who are tired of what came before? Designers who’ve pushed those soupy, swishy shapes as far as they can go, and are now looking for something fresh, something to get your synapses firing yet again (not to mention have you reconsidering that big coat and liquidy pair of trousers in your closet). Great question, and one that I do not have an answer for—at least at the moment. The only thing to know is… start doing those push-ups now. A new menswear shape is loading.
