Tom Ford's seduction tailoring, Tokyo's quiet takeover

Haider Ackermann staged his first co-ed Tom Ford show on September 30 and made seduction the brief: sharp tailoring in black, white and red, the brand's first runway swimwear recalling 1990s Helmut Newton imagery, a male model in a crewneck and pale pink thong casually slinging a vicuna coat over a leather weekend bag. The menswear read as cinematic confidence — white and black suits, leather, dark sunglasses, open shirts, relaxed trousers. Seduction, in other words, is back on the runway as a design strategy.

The post-wide-trouser correction is here. Saint Laurent's SS27 menswear went razor-sharp — slim suits, fitted knitwear, trousers cut close — while the women's show was an almost all-gold season of the skirt with barely two pairs of trousers in it. The street has the receipts too: ivory double-breasted blazers with mandarin collars, brooches at the lapel, croc-embossed loafers. After years of volume, tailoring is being edited back down to the body.

The drop calendar is the other fashion week. Bad Bunny's adidas BadBo 1.0 and 1.1 touched down September 26 at $160 and $120, while the pipeline reads like a hype schedule: Pharrell's sculptural Adistar Jellyfish in 'Red' drops October 24 at $300, with more Jellyfish colorways queued for November and December, alongside the Nike Kobe 3 Protro 'Orca' and the Air Jordan 1 Low OG 'Last Dance at the Garden'. Silhouettes are getting bigger and more sculptural; prices are holding, for now, mostly under $300.

Business of Fashion's analysis of the luxury menswear market landed this week with a counterintuitive winner: Japanese labels like Auralee, A. Presse and Ssstein are gaining ground precisely by refusing to shout — meticulous craftsmanship, muted palettes, accessible pricing, defying the wider luxury slump. The look on the street says the same: grey knit overshirts, taupe wide trousers, restraint as flex. Quiet is the new loud.

Three separate Paris men's-week frames, one recurring move: the man holding a small clutch. Brown leather carried with an ivory blazer, black quilted held under a distressed leather trench, patent tucked against an all-black coat. The bag keeps shrinking, and the hand-carry is becoming the point — the wristwear of the season is the bag itself.