seven emerging menswear labels spotted at trade shows, showrooms

During Paris Fashion Week Men – the marquee mid-January fashion event in the French capital – trade shows and showrooms across the city exhibited highly contemporary collections by French and international labels. FashionNetwork.com has scouted seven menswear labels worth following, their looks ranging from leather biker jackets to wool overcoats with extremely classic cuts.

Shiden

This January, the men’s trade show chose the Hôtel d’Evreux in place Vendôme to present the directional labels selected by Japanese concept store Nepenthes. Among them, established label Engineered Garments, hippie-chic brand Needles, and the recently founded Shiden.

Shiden was launched at the men’s show in Paris, and as its slogan ‘Beyond the speed’ [sic] suggests, its looks are inspired by the world of motorcycle racing. The label is spearheaded by highly popular designer Masataka Hattori, who has reinterpreted motorbike road racer outfits for the 21st century, featuring black clodhopper boots, thick leather biker jackets, and colour-block t-shirts covered with patches. Shiden’s first collection consisted of a dozen outdoor items with a powerful feel, decorated with the label’s purple logo with ‘shiden’ (‘purple’ in Japanese) printed in reverse characters.

Walkers Appeal

Madrid-based label Walkers Appeal presented its Fall/Winter 2024 menswear collection to international buyers at the men’s trade show in Paris.

In 2016, Javier Lozoya, Gema Martin and Noemi Vidal founded a classic-style brand starting from a single product, the jacket. They broadened the collection by introducing uber-minimalist men’s wool coats (priced at €599) and terracotta-coloured polos (€249). In parallel, they launched a womenswear line and a unisex capsule collection.

Walkers Appeal is now distributed via 29 retailers in countries like the Netherlands and Japan, and is keen to attract French and US department stores with its made-in-Spain tailoring.

Brixtol Textiles

Swedish label Brixtol Textiles, founded in Stockholm in 2011 by Gustav Kjellander and Emil Holmström, likes to reinterpret 1960s British style. Its favourite looks feature overstated outfits with long wool coats and shirts with op art patterns.

The label has developed its signature Scandi style, giving for example a fresh twist to a conventional striped shirt through an oversize fit and lavender-blue psychedelic stripes (priced at €120).

Brixtol Textiles also presented workwear-inspired items, like the classic jacket in waxed cotton with a navy-blue velvet collar, a best-seller produced in a Birmingham factory and priced at €279. The label has a sizeable wholesale presence in northern Europe, and is keen to broaden its retail footprint. It is available in Paris at Le Bon Marché department store and independent multibrand retailer L’Habilleur.

About Companions

An elegant, understated and versatile wardrobe consisting of timeless essentials in sustainably sourced natural materials characterise the label founded in 2021 in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district.

About Companions was founded by Thies Meyer and Stephan Sunder-Plassmann, both well-known in Germany’s fashion world for having developed mixed-gender brand Frisur.

In the last three years, the duo has concentrated on menswear, putting together a complete wardrobe with easily matched staples, like winter linen jackets and trousers, flannel shirts and merino wool sweaters. The palette is mostly monochrome, from off-white to black, underlining a strong commitment to using natural materials to create sportswear-chic looks with elegant, contemporary cuts. Meyer and Sunder-Plassmann emphasised their long-term relationship with manufacturing partners in Lithuania and Portugal, as well as the repair service offered by the label for used garments.

About Companions is available at several dozen retailers in German-speaking and northern European countries, and exhibited at the Welcome show in Paris to win over retailers from southern European markets.

Futsol

Football is a universal game, played on Brazilian beaches, African gravel grounds, and London’s concrete pitches. Everywhere a little differently, but always with passion.

For Nicolas Willson, who founded Futsol in 2021, football is synonymous with shared joy and happy sporting moments. A far cry from the performance-fabric kits produced by major sportswear brands, customised with the names of the game’s latest planetary stars.

The Briton’s first collection featured thick cotton tops, inspired by the football jerseys of the 1970s and 80s. Styled by a designer who has worked for Rapha and Tracksmith, Futsol is characterised by a nuanced vintage feel, with embroidered crests bearing the poetic, jaunty names of imaginary teams. The label is positioned in the premium segment, its jerseys priced at €120.

The products were initially sold on Futsol’s e-shop, on which the label also features reports on street and Sunday-morning football games the world over, to the sound of 90-minute playlists. A football-themed narrative that adds depth to the emerging label’s image. Futsol exhibited at the Welcome show in Paris, its range also including tracksuits and sweatshirts, all produced in Portugal.

Isnurh

‘Ignored Since 2017.’ The designer duo of Kasper Juhl Todbjerg and Oliver Abrenica addressed buyers and visitors at the Isnurh stand at Parisian show Tranoï with white and black t-shirts inscribed with this slightly sarcastic slogan.

The Danish premium menswear label is currently distributed via some 40 multibrand retailers and department stores worldwide, chiefly in North America, Japan, Singapore and China.

The collection comprised unisex fleece sweatshirts decorated with children’s drawings, workwear-style flannel overshirts, merino wool sweaters with pointillist artisanal embroidery (priced at €273), and two-tone blazers and tops produced in Europe (priced at €396). 

Teclor 

The Tranoï show’s latest winter session presented for the first time a limited selection of pre-Fall womenswear, showcasing among others a Japanese unisex label called Teclor.

Teclor blended technology and tailoring in a collection consisting of directional casual-chic looks, like the overcoats with detachable collar, the impeccably detailed jackets, the ample shirts that can be tucked in at the sides (priced at €240), the carrot-coloured seamless chinos (€308), and baggier trousers with elasticated cuffs, for a variation on volumes.

It was Teclor’s third collection, inspired by nature and with a palette of neutral colours, with a semi-formal, high-tech vibe. The garments presented at Tranoï were produced at Teclor’s own factory, in Gifu prefecture, half-way between Tokyo and Osaka.