Sign up to receive the Vogue Business newsletter for the latest luxury news and insights, plus exclusive membership discounts.
“I’m a big advocate for men wearing shorter shorts,” Paul Mescal — an actor frequently described as hot — told GQ at Gucci’s Spring/Summer 2025 men’s show in Milan. He was wearing a thigh-skimming white Gucci pair coupled with a blue Oxford shirt. The video quickly garnered over half a million views and 100,000 likes on GQ’s TikTok alone.
Skip to the show itself, and Gucci’s Sabato De Sarno served up an oiled, topless model wearing nothing but a leather burgundy pair of short shorts. As Vogue Runway’s José Criales-Unzueta pointed out, short shorts appeared in a hefty 42 out of the 46 show looks.
Over recent seasons, men’s luxury fashion has enjoyed an injection of sex, replete with short shorts, plunging necklines, bondage, latex, crop tops and bumsters. It’s not only designer brands with a reputation for sensuality, such as Magliano or Dsquared2, who are driving the trend. For SS25, we’ve witnessed bare lower midriffs at Prada, plunging necklines and sheer polos at Dolce & Gabbana, and open shirts (revealing oiled chests) at Moschino. In Paris so far, we’ve seen panties and low-rise leather at Acne Studios, plus keyhole cutouts, plunging necklines and sheer jumpsuits at LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi.
As the Mescal moment attests, sex drives clicks. But is designers’ enthusiasm for more sensual menswear reflected in sales? And is the broader menswear consumer turned on by a sexier silhouette?
Dsquared2 founders Dan and Dean Caten would say as much. The brand held, arguably, its sexiest-ever show last Friday in Milan’s Teatro Lirico Giorgio Gaber. The event began with a Magic Mike-style performance, where oiled-up male dancers gyrated to a Prince soundtrack. The dancers then hung seductively in cages over the models, who sported bondage harnesses, latex jackets and navel-skimming necklines.
Dsquared2, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary next year, is clearly relishing the upswing in sexier men’s fashion (the brand recently opened a London flagship). “We definitely feel that the current zeitgeist of menswear sees men approaching dressing in a more expressive and sensual way, reflecting modern masculinity,” the Caten twins said over email. “This is reflected in the very positive response [in stores], with sexier pieces included among the classic suiting, denim and T-shirts, demonstrating an adaptation to the more fluid menswear approach.”
What’s driving the turn to sexy menswear?
Red carpet and pop culture is helping to propel a sexier mood, experts agree. And as sports stars join the babygirl men in dressing more sexily, the trend appears to be spreading to the broader menswear customer — as well as younger, more fluid and adventurous consumer who has continously explored sexy dressing. English football star Jude Bellingham stripped off for a Skims campaign, released last week ahead of the Euros tournament. Formula One’s Lewis Hamilton appeared in Monaco in May in a sheer, open cardigan with nothing underneath.
“The shift to sexier menswear has been supported by customers seeing it on their favourite celebrities and by how brands are styling on and off the runway with coordinated short and shirt looks,” says Bosse Myhr, director of menswear, womenswear and childrenswear buying at London-based department store Selfridges. “That makes it easier for customers to try the trend.”
Possibly an easier entry point than bondage or bumsters, the sheer shirt is maintaining momentum, buyers say. It’s a favourite with brands like Simone Rocha, Saint Laurent, Givenchy, and, most recently, Gucci, Myhr adds.
While still an emerging trend for mass brands, sheer shirting intake grew by 58 per cent in SS24 across retailers compared with SS23, according to EDITED. Button-down short-sleeve shirts were the most popular shape, while tank tops and long-sleeve shirts lent deeper into grunge themes for SS24, Krista Corrigan, retail analyst at EDITED, says.
Menswear consumers are enthralled by the “glow-up mentality”, particularly with the rise of weight-loss drug Ozempic and the boom in tweakments among male celebrities, says Dan Hastings-Narayanin, deputy head of foresight at foresight agency The Future Laboratory. “It’s not straightforward to explain the shift [to sexy menswear],” says Sophie Jordan, menswear buying director at Mytheresa. “But I think men are willing to take more considered risks — and the adjacent rise in fitness and wellness means some men are more confident to show off their bodies.”
Will sex turn on the broader menswear consumer?
Menswear rising star Luca Magliano, who showed in Milan last Saturday, has long riffed on sexuality and queer culture. “[The culture of] dark rooms, like popper bottles and other sex-infused things, has always been evoked at Magliano and has never been a problem for the sales,” the designer tells Vogue Business. “People are intrigued by the queer narrative, which is something intrinsic to our identity… Sex is the place where queer people find most of their freedom — this is why I need to talk about it.”
Sexy silhouettes, however, can be a harder sell. “They are not necessarily favoured because they are sometimes hard to wear and not easy for every body type,” the designer notes. “Despite this, at the very beginning, our main market was Asia, and we never had problems with any form of puritanism.”
For Mytheresa’s general customer, many sexy styles are a little too bold. “It’s still a niche trend for us and suited to a confident, often younger customer,” Jordan says. “Where we see it translated better is with fabrications, like luxe silk shirts that can be worn open and still part of a sophisticated outfit. Tom Ford and Saint Laurent are great examples of this.”
She points out that, in production, brands tend to lengthen shorts and make tops a little less sheer. Dsquared2 has shown hot pants on the runway, but 86 per of its shorts are described as “relaxed”, “oversized”, “loose” or “regular”, according to EDITED, and the rest are long, slim-fit styles.
Selfridges has increased its buy of short shorts, reports Myhr. “However, our customers are still primarily interested in mid and longer-length shorts. Our menswear customers in general are still investing in high-fashion pieces including sheer shirts and partially sheer jackets that allow them to layer the trend within their wardrobes.”
Most high street brands remain cautious of sexier men’s pieces. Zara, Pull&Bear and H&M all landed leather shorts this spring but kept the silhouettes long and baggy to maximise commercial appeal, according to Corrigan. “Looking [back] at all new shorts arrivals across spring 2024 at major mass retailers, oversized fits were still dominant, with terms like ‘baggy’ (+400 per cent year-on-year) and ‘loose’ (+49 per cent).” Brands including Zara and Uniqlo have landed several colours of styles described as “short shorts” this season, she says, but investment in the trend is not significant.
While buyers don’t always buy the more fashion-forward pieces, many young brands choose to be more daring on their own direct-to-consumer (DTC) sites, appealing to a more adventurous consumer. Jordanluca, which went viral this year when its 2022 pee-stained jeans resurfaced on social media, showed an SS25 collection in Milan featuring males in backless halternecks and latex dresses. “We are really focusing on growing our DTC right now, so there’s always a place for those pieces,” co-designer Jordan Bowen says before his show.
Jordanluca’s Milan show layered sexier pieces with sharp tailoring and outerwear. This emphasis on versatility is appealing, Dsquared2’s Dan and Dean Caten agree. “We really want Dsquared2 to be a brand that transitions from day to night with you — we played into this with our AW24 show that quite literally transformed the models from daytime looks to eveningwear,” they say. “Whether you’re having lunch on a Sunday or are at the club until Monday morning, we want Dsquared2 to have something for you. We want to offer a vision of freedom and audacity, but also courage.”
Years ago, daring, sensual menswear tended to appeal more readily to the LGBTQ+ consumer. While that’s still a thing, new audiences are emerging with the desire to be just as adventurous. “The dismissal of gender stereotypes resonates with younger male consumers who are not interested in upholding rigid gendered standards from older generations,” says Fflur Roberts, head of luxury goods at Euromonitor. “These men want to explore new notions of femininity, masculinity and fluidity, and luxury players could benefit from offering consumers products that allow for such experimentation and self-discovery.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
