The 5 top wardrobe essentials from the Spring/Summer 2025 season

1. The Light-Coloured Suit

Be it men or women, everyone should own a suit, and this season, light-toned options are the ones to look into. An unsung hero of elegance, the light-coloured suit transcends trends. However, its frequent association with warmer months tends to pigeonhole its timeless allure and versatilit

When executed cleverly, the light-coloured suit is quite a thing of quiet power. At Tom Ford, Peter Hawkings finessed a handful of dandy, rocker-style suits in a pristine, fresh palette of sandy neutrals and soft pastels. 

Defined by an uber slim cut, the suits are Mod-style glamorous despite their pale hues; their distinct narrow fit a clean-cut vision of formal wear perfection. Hawkings even added satin panels down the sides of a pair of ankle-grazing trousers for one powder pink offering, turning the candy confection into an instant handsome tuxedo must-have. 

The traditional purview of a suit demands matching trousers and jackets. Still, with today’s fashion-forward men, the nifty art of mixing and matching is penultimate to building an enduring and functional wardrobe. 

That said, a light-coloured suit jacket allows for great opportunities in stylistic mash-ups, too. Done with consummate taste (and skill), pairing a light suit jacket with a pair of trousers in a contrasting or complementary shade elevates an ensemble, adding flair and visual interest. 

2. The Fancy Shirt

In the ever-evolving world of men’s fashion, designers are constantly challenged to infuse classic pieces with unique, eye-catching details. Props go to Hermes’ Veronique Nichanian for acing this with a welcoming marriage between shirt construction and accessory styling. 

Models on the Hermes runway wore collarless shirts with matching scarves tied neatly and incorporated into collar seams — smart! And the ingenuity did not just stop there. These resort-inspired shirts, which mostly appeared to mimic a breezy drape of quality cotton, thanks partly to the summery pairings of roomy trousers and sandals, turned out to be — we kid you not — calfskin. 

Elsewhere at Fendi, Silvia Venturini Fendi led her Italian house into its centennial year with a crafty collection that presented poplin long-sleeved shirts with slashed sleeves, typically at the elbows. This minute detail allows wearers to slip their arms in and out of the sleeves, interchanging between a short and long sleeve or vice versa. 

In other looks, she boldly cut a button-down opening on a diagonal (from its neckline to the left armpit) and cited her impetus as simply wanting to liberate the shoulder.

3. The Gender-Neutral Bag

In the last decade, the growing acceptance of man bags has driven fashion houses to prudently expand their unisex styles every season. This cultural shift has primarily been influenced by celebrity style and brand endorsements, or both in the fashionable case of A$AP Rocky. 

The American rapper’s love for his prolific collection of Bottega Veneta bags has never seen his masculinity be questioned. Still, it could be argued that it’s just what peerless style with a certain level of swagger yields. 

As for the rest of mankind, cultivating good taste — for a start — is crucial. Style tips to achieve the linchpins on function and practicality include neutral tones with clean lines and sensible, adjustable straps. These golden rules significantly benefit men investing in their first status symbol carry-all. Bottega Veneta’s Andiamo (Italian for “let’s go”) comes to mind.

4. The Dress Shorts

Shorts are more than just casual clothing these days. Trips to the seaside or merely a backyard barbeque alone are seeing consumers’ demand for exceptionally polished pieces that serve just the right amount of fashionable restraint. 

Indeed, the notion of style sacrificing comfort is quickly becoming obsolete. Designers today are well aware that clients want both. At the Dior Men show, shorts were aplenty — loosely cut with soft silhouettes flaring like skirts at the hips, conveying a fresh, sculpturally tailored shape. 

Artistic director Kim Jones credits this influence to the language of ceramics, namely the works of South African ceramist Hylton Nel. Combining the pottery reference with considerations from the Dior womenswear archives, Jones has deconstructed feminine silhouettes just to piece them back together as menswear. Skorts are the new dress shorts, perhaps? 

Over at Chanel, renowned for how its founder Coco Chanel had famously built her house romanticising menswear into womenswear, models wore sharp little tweed suits with shorts instead of skirts. Jackets came accented with uniform-style utility pockets and bridged the gap between dressed-up/dressed-down chic, which, if you’re still not following, is au courrant.  

5. The Boot

On its SS25 catwalk, Gucci presented a striking rendition of the iconic Chelsea boot by melding the classic shoe’s streamlined cut with the house’s signature Horsebit loafer. 

The way to carry them off, as conveyed via the menswear runway, was to pair these boots with shorts that were cropped high up to the thighs. The look was subversive yet superbly stylish, with just a hint of sock peeking above the boot. 

A similarly dapper take carried through into the women’s collection. This time, with an extended boot leg cut so fitted, the boots appeared as though they could have been a pair of spiffy, built-in leather socks.