294: Menswear runs for the hills
What comes after Gorp?
Welcome to Magasin Menswear. In a dedicated monthly send, Louis Cheslaw surfaces choice products worth your consideration, explores larger conversations shoppers are—or should be—having, and taps a smart dresser to share how he wears it.
First up…
These days, I’m just trying to plug any winter gaps. It was a joy to haul my big winter coat out of its protective bag—I spent most of my stimulus check on it in 2020, because I loved how low it fell and was feeling sorry for myself—and my four existing sweaters still feel like all I need. But I didn’t have any headwear, so I made sure I was online for Bexhill Court’s recent drop. As I can tell you from my own painful experience, if you missed this one, there will always be another coming soon. (And those prices are in Canadian Dollars, so they’re actually way cheaper.)
I really like the new Lady White Co. trainers.
My one bigger purchase this month was Carter Young’s signature denim jacket, influenced in no small part by the fact Carter wears his basically every day of his life. I’m really happy with it—the side pockets are an unexpected bonus, the design feels unique to his eye, and I’m glad I sized down a little rather than up. It was a gut instinct, but I feel fitted and slick in it now.
Are you thinking about a scarf? I’ve tried a bunch, but at this point I’m loyal to the thinner (but not at all skinny) Johnstons of Elgin ones. The cashmere feels so nice and thick on your neck. I have this one, and this one, and they still feel new after years. Not that you’re asking, but my third one is from Another Aspect. It’s just as soft, and I should really wear it more.
Speaking of bright orangey-reds, this Aspesi jacket has always had a weird grip on me. I don’t know if I’ll ever grab it, but maybe you should.
Also, have any of you tried &Daughter men’s yet? As Laura covered in 287, they launched last month, and I keep liking what I see. Let me know / stay tuned.
Fashion is having a Tyrolean moment
I’ve been noticing it, I would say, since August. As the fall collections began to drop, a few choice fabrics reminiscent of those historically worn for farm work high in the European alps—corduroy, felt, boiled wool—were showing up time and again. All of the buzziest designers’ imagery, too, seemed to be focused on hillsides and in meadows. There were the literal goats in Unkruid’s posts, mountain dogs and wheelbarrows in Conkers’, while brand of the moment Rier—currently swaddling both of the Throwing Fits hosts, and basking in the glow of a thorough Styles feature—cast Austrian sheep for its product shots, and consistently posts archive shots of the Tyrolean hillside (the region where Germany, Austria, and Italy meet, which has historically been dominated by the farming industry, with loose but insulating wardrobes to match.)
The most discerning multi-brand retailers are also part of this sweet herd: Mouki Mou is currently stocking what appears to be the full line from traditional Tyrolean designer Bergfabel, Colbo is enthusiastically pushing the whimsical, wool and sheepskin-led Cawley, while Nitty Gritty’s house line recently debuted a loose, washed brown corduroy suit. (As I wrote last month, my big purchase there was this felt half-zip, in brown.) As a whole, it feels like many of menswear’s leading lights have gathered, as a cheery pack, up on the hillside. It’s not just the upstarts, either—this fall, 146-year-old Connolly released its iconic Martingale coat in a specific new fabric: Tyrolean corduroy.
My beloved Chico Marx might always have inexplicably dressed like a rural Tyrolean farmer, but why is it feeling so right to so many people right now? Ultimately, I think it’s an evolution that’s really a rejection of Gorpcore. As my friend Simon Merz, an extremely dialed-in hardware designer who also happens to hail from the Lake of Constance, near the Germany-Austria border (and has always worn a little cow earring in his ear) put it: “After Gorp, we’re all already in the mountains, but now that everyone’s in the mountains, some of us are looking around a corner and seeing who else is up there. And we see the shepherd: He’s more comfortable. Not trying to climb anything.”
If the man-made textures of Gorp are all about optimizing for the biggest life possible, there’s something soothing and depressurizing about being happy to stay warm in fabrics that—while not designed for scaling Everest—at least kept all of your ancestors warm as they walked. Lukas Mauve, who started the excellent
this year, has noticed the shift too (he’s currently researching the heritage Tyrolean factories like Geiger and Giesswein who make similar pieces to these, for far lower prices.) “If you’re interested in clothing that comes with utility,” he told me over the phone this week, “there's now a real divide between people who are interested in technical wear that is very future oriented, and then on the other hand, people who appreciate utility, but aren’t future minded at all. If anything, they’re looking the other way.”Because, of course, nostalgia is another part of the appeal here. Even if dressing for the Austrian hillside is, in Mauve’s words, “nostalgia for a life you didn’t even live,” it’s honoring a way of life that seems more manageably paced than our own today: “When I touch a coat that is made from Austrian loden wool, I immediately feel like that it comes from a period of history that I also wish I could play a part in, or be part of in a sense.”
One of the designers we discussed as an example is Conkers. After years at Our Legacy, Studio Nicholson, and C.P. Company, in 2021 Oliver Warner (who kindly agreed to share his name for the first time here) started Conkers to design clothes for a slower life, made in and for the English countryside, with a charming, village-y website to match. The designs all speak to being outdoors, but not because you want to dominate the landscape, more because you want to play and rest in it. Today, Nitty Gritty can’t keep his Farmer Shirt in stock. I got a drink last month with Ollie to learn more, and his passion for the surprisingly technical abilities of the world’s most natural fabrics was inspiring. (After we parted, he sent me Julia Watson’s Lo–TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, about the success of millennia-old approaches to modern problems, after telling me it guides much of his thinking.)
Even the masters of Gorp themselves are running it back. In Paris in June I met Colin Meredith, the Arc’teryx alum who understands what modern technical materials can do better than anyone, and is known for showcasing just how space-age they can look. But in his SS25 preview, one piece stood out to me—a canvas jacket, filled with similar insulation to the iconic Atom LT, but presented in a far more humble package. When I checked in with him about all this, buyer Hampus Von Hauswolff (who you’ll hopefully remember from last month’s send) told me that ROA, who built their name on Gorp, is increasingly starting to play with wool also.
Who knows how much bigger this’ll get. Still, whether it trickles over to the mall brands or not, I like that people are placing their trust in historic materials again, and opting for cuts that are comfortable and encourage an active form of rest. These are the materials that become heirlooms, because they maintain their function, and they have a soul that comes directly from the people who make them. In uncertain times, it’s soothing to wear the kinds of materials that have shown throughout history they can make it through.
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casentino wool is back on the menu baby
The return of GORP to wool and other natural fibers was always inevitable imo. Unironically technical clothing brands used by climbers and extreme hikers have been using wool for its numerous benefits for years in the most utilitarian manner. Just look at what companies like prana, kavu, mammut, black diamond or anything you might find at your local outdoor gear retailer have been making.
I wouldn’t be surprised if traditional spelunking garments like boiled wool vests and pants make a huge return this winter, to match the ‘old money Swiss mountaineer’ vibe of the current leather hiking shoe craze.