Prada’s Fall 2008 collection introduced a reconstruction of the male form through alternative tailoring that subverted the traditional business suit. The collection features dropped waistlines, back-buttoning shirts, cutouts, exposed backs, flesh-toned knits, and tailored pieces that evoke the shapes of underwear and tank tops. Such pieces are hard to describe and categorize, because they exist on the boundaries between private and public, underwear and outerwear, as intimate reinterpretations of formalwear that serve as a bold interrogation of propriety.

Raf Simons in the 90s and 2000s used oversized silhouettes to channel youth subcultures, while Hedi Slimane’s sharp tailoring at Dior Homme offered a rebellious counterpoint that was slim, sleek, and modern.

Yohji Yamamoto’s oversized, deconstructed silhouettes and Rei Kawakubo’s tailoring at Comme des Garçons challenge traditional Western ideals of polished, tailored menswear. Both designers embrace a spirit of rebellion, reshaping menswear into something unruly, collapsing neatness in favor of raw experimentation. Building on an avant-garde language, exploring themes of youth, Comme des Garçons Homme Plus plays with proportions, patterns, and fabric, creating pieces that deconstruct and transform conventional menswear dress codes. Under his own namesake label, Junya Watanabe often reimagines workwear and utilitarian influences with unconventional silhouettes and styling, creating a dialogue between function and form.