The key take-home from NYFW: Men’s – wear as many clothes as possible.

The most interesting fashion trends are always the ones that flirt with the ridiculous, and now that, with the closing of NYFW: Men’s, the menswear shows have bid us au revoir until next season, we thought it pertinent to decode the baffling sartorial curiosities the runway brought us this time. This brings us to one of the strangest trends we clocked at the AW18 shows, which we’ve termed “things hanging off other things”.

It’s exactly as it sounds, and involves sweaters worn like scarves, out-of-control layering and shirts attached to other shirts in a way that somehow looked quite… good? Overall, the mood seemed to be about hanging as many clothes as possible from your person as though you were a sentient laundry basket. Which is definitely something new, at least.

Raf Simons, which showed in New York earlier this week, was one of the most notable proponents of the trend, and followed on from last season’s over-oversized knitwear by showing sweaters that weren’t really sweaters at all. They were reminiscent of the dickey (a false shirt front traditionally worn beneath a tuxedo) and were crafted so that they were worn over the head but not the arms, meaning that they laid over the front of the body like a scarf that had sprouted arms and a torso. Considering the rest of the collection had the names of drugs such as LSD and 2-CB emblazoned all over it, these sartorial hallucinations were part and parcel.

False layering also appeared at Japanese brand Sacai, where fabrics were fused together in such a way that you weren’t sure if that jacket was part of that sweater, or if you were looking at something else entirely. Lanvin had a go, too. Sweaters were amputated into asymmetrical half-vests, their absent arms appearing wrapped around the neck, and panels of fabric peeked out from beneath coats that had been layered over jackets.

Balenciaga is never too far away from the trendsetting vanguard (sock sneakers, anyone?), and this season presented shirts that had another shirt stitched to the front (or the back, depending on which side of the Siamese-twin shirt you decided to wear). Two outfits in one that’ll work from desk till dusk? Criticise the concept, but you can’t knock practicality like that. Even if you might not, perhaps, be brave enough to wear it. Let’s just see how this one develops, eh?

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