Punk music may have largely fallen out of cultural relevance, the punk political dream of acceptance and anarchism may feel farther away than ever, but the defiant aesthetics of punk endure. The designers of the Fall 2025 menswear season looked to the chaotic and provocative style of the legendary subcultural movement to challenge and inspire us anew, responding to terrifying times with a message of aggressive self-expression.
Long a devotee of punk and the cultural symbolism of its favorite cloth, tartan, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy debuted a collection of thrashed, gender-neutral statement pieces through the format of a professional wrestling performance. Comme des Garçons Homme Plus reclaimed and reconstructed military uniforms to send a message of peace. Walter Van Beirendonck showed that even sophisticated tailoring can have a punkish spirit of defiance and freedom. A T-shirt from the Jeanne Friot collection says it best: “Love is like punk. Not dead.”
