The Dandy Dozen: Best Menswear Brands to Watch

The menswear brands worth watching in 2025 are not the heritage houses resting on reputation — they are the studios operating between streetwear and tailoring, building in small batches, and selling direct to an audience that cares more about construction than logos.

Auralee, the Japanese label led by designer Ryota Iwai, makes the most exquisitely simple garments in menswear. Their brushed mohair sweaters, super-high-gauge merino tees, and unstructured wool-cashmere blazers elevate basics to art. Fabrication is the design — no prints, no graphics, just material excellence. Stocked at SSENSE, Mr Porter, and their Tokyo flagship.

Story mfg. is the British brand making acid-trip workwear from hand-dyed, naturally processed fabrics. Their Sundae zip-up jacket, tie-dyed using botanical pigments, became one of the most recognizable garments in independent fashion. Every piece is made in small batches in India and Bolivia with fair-trade practices at https://www.storymfg.com.

Setchu, founded by Satoshi Kuwata, fuses Japanese minimalism with Italian tailoring. The LVMH Prize-winning designer creates garments that fold, wrap, and transform — a blazer that becomes a vest, a coat that converts from single-breasted to double-breasted. It is conceptual fashion that actually functions in real life.

Bode, Emily Adams Bode Aujla's New York label, continues to lead the vintage-textile movement. Each collection incorporates antique quilts, Victorian lace, and Depression-era feed sacks into contemporary menswear shapes. A Bode shirt is a conversation piece and a wearable piece of American history — no other brand occupies this space.

Our Legacy, the Stockholm-based brand, bridges Scandinavian minimalism and subcultural references. Their Third Cut jeans, mohair knits, and deconstructed blazers attract creative-industry professionals who want to look considered without looking try-hard. The price-to-quality ratio at $150 to $400 for most pieces is among the best in contemporary fashion.

Also on the watch list: Amomento from Seoul for oversized tailoring, Lemaire for quiet Parisian luxury, The Row for austere minimalism reaching men's, Sefr for playful Stockholm eveningwear, Wales Bonner for diasporic cultural storytelling, and Needles for Harajuku-meets-Americana rebuild aesthetic. These twelve brands are setting the terms of menswear's next chapter.