Have you noticed that Armie Hammer is wearing velvet suits and romantic Jean-Paul Belmondo–esque black turtlenecks? That Timothée Chalamet is doing his best young poet impression on the red carpet? That Jay-Z has traded his oversize hoodies for brocade suiting? That your favorite #MCM is no longer in a Supreme box logo tee and is instead wondering if these new Warby Parker glasses make him look like a bookish feminist? You are not alone.
Amid the incessant buzzing about the rise and rise and rise of streetwear, not to mention countless public demonstrations of toxic masculinity, a more tender fashion movement is underway in the world of menswear—one that has little to do with logos, gorpcore, dad sneakers, bold-shouldered suits, or T-shirts at all. Running parallel to all that hype is the resurgence of a more romantic men’s style: fluffy jackets, blouson tops, slender cuts, radically colored suiting, velvet, turtlenecks. It’s a poetic, lush, enchanted take on menswear—more of a tacit suggestion to pay attention to the wearer than a slap in the face of his importance, cred, or clout. It suggests that underneath that knitted top, there is a more thoughtful man underneath, and designers from Christophe Lemaire and Sarah-Linh Tran to Emily Bode have taken note with their emotive Fall 2018 collections.
We’re calling it: softboy style. Don’t confuse this with the softboys of the dating world; these outfit aesthetics operate independently of whether men in roll-neck sweaters are “respectfully sliding into your DMs because they would love your thoughts on their newest Medium post,” as Babe.net has described the doting-turned-dickish dating trope. The softboy aesthetic is not about typical masculine projections of strength, power, or peacocking. Instead, it’s almost sweet with bookish, beatnik undertones.
The softboy is more of a bb than a bae.
If Phoebe Philo is the patron saint of artful, accomplished women, then Haider Ackermann must be the equivalent for men. His eponymous menswear collections are sensitive explorations of fabric, texture, and shape. For Fall 2018, Ackermann outfitted his models in velvet cerulean suiting, with jackets knotted around the waist and button-downs layered under long-sleeved shirts layered under knits. Nearly every gent had both a folded-up cap and the ponderous look of a man who’d just had his aura read. Some wore belts with the words “hold on to me” etched into the leather.
At Berluti, now in its second season under Ackermann, the tenderness continued with male and female models walking down a rose-color runway in rich periwinkle leather and soft shearling. Ackermann fan and friend Chalamet described the designer thus: “He is the closest thing to what an auteur is in fashion.”
Chalamet himself is surely the poster boy for softboy style. His rise to fame has been marked by curated red carpet outfits that highlight his youth, slightness, and genuine, goofy earnestness. He’s not projecting toughness in a white Berluti suit by Haider Ackermann at the Academy Awards; he’s saying that underneath that smooth ivory-silk exterior he has a gentle soul. Even in Off-White at the Independent Spirit Awards, he looked like your little brother at a shoegaze show. Sweet.
His Call Me by Your Name costar Hammer has adopted a sort of pseudo-softboy aesthetic all his own, officially announcing his retirement from tracksuits on Conan this week. Before that, Hammer chose a red velvet tuxedo for the Academy Awards and spent the past 14 months promoting CMBYN in thoughtful turtlenecks, knit polo shirts, and retro knit ties. In all those cashmeres and wools, Hammer is an actual soft boy.
The softboy look extends far beyond the Call Me by Your Name universe. You may have noticed that Jay-Z has given up his rugged aesthetic for something more dapper and finessed. Three-piece suits, bow ties, fedora hats, and, yes, even the turtleneck are part of his new style. It’s a complete 180 from the man who once rapped, “I'm like, ‘Fuck critics, you can kiss my whole asshole!’ ” His latest album, 4:44, was an emotional confession of his past misdeeds, with lines like, “Do I find it so hard / When I know in my heart / I’m letting you down every day / Letting you down every day / Why do I keep on running away?”
The list of A-list softboys goes on and on. Harry Styles, in his glittering suits, is a softboy, asking his fans to treat people with kindness. Donald Glover, in a shaggy beard and velvet blazer, is a softboy. Drake, in his many turtlenecks, is a softboy. Ryan Gosling, in a plaid sweater and matching suit, softboy. Wes Anderson, in his rubbed-out corduroy suit holding a puppy, softboy, softboy, softboy!
On the Fall 2018 runways, too, more softboys emerged. Jonathan Anderson’s shy Loewe magicians in their clay pot shirts and cropped trousers . . . Lemaire’s gents in their Pepto-pink turtlenecks and pleated pants . . . Bode’s boys in their quilted jackets . . . Dries Van Noten’s dudes with the snakeskin cross-body bags . . . It’s a small but growing club of subtlety, sweetness, and sincerity, ideas that, in a time of toxic masculinity and logomania, are so welcome. So, let’s toast to the softboy style for now . . . with coupe of rosé, of course.
