Street Style is Back! The 8 Biggest Trends at the Spring 2022 Men’s Shows

Between livestreams, music videos, shows-in-a-box, marionettes, and even some AR experiments, last year brought us dozens of new ways to experience fashion shows online. But street style? There just isn’t a virtual equivalent. Yes, 2020 was an excellent year for ’fits—both IRL and on social media—but Fashion Week street style was nearly impossible. With no shows, there were no venues, no crowds, and no exuberant dressers zig-zagging to and fro.

Until this summer, that is. With vaccinations rolling out and cities reopening, the spring 2022 menswear season—which included physical shows in Milan and Paris—was greeted by a well-attended and well-dressed audience. It was our first glimpse of “post-pandemic” street style: creative, highly personal, unforced, and with remnants of our low-key year at home. You’ll notice very few heels in Acielle and Gianluca Senese’s snapshots; instead, there were Birkenstocks and, gasp, Crocs. And after 16 months wrapped in sweatpants, we’re seeing a lot more skin and body-positive silhouettes. Some show-goers experimented with a disparate mix of mismatched items and trends, while others favored the simpler, stronger look of a wide-leg pant and T-shirt.

Scroll through more of the season’s trends and our favorite looks below.

What to Wear in 90 Degree Heat? As Little As Possible

As a heat wave ripples across America, the breezy tanks, cut-out dresses, and bra tops we saw in Europe look as cooling as it gets. (Here in New York, plenty of people are forgoing clothing entirely in favor of swimsuits.) What stands out most about these photos by Acielle and Senese is that people of all bodies and identities are embracing the summer of skin; after decades of gendered “rules” around revealing and curve-hugging clothes, fashion is finally moving into a new, unrestricted era.