Boots First, Suede Everywhere

The defining footwear story of fall 2026 is the boot, and it arrives in two moods at once. On one side, the technical hybrid boot has gone full luxury: ROA and Hiroshi Fujiwara's fragment just released their first Andreas boot collaboration, a black kudu-leather build with an electric-blue Vibram outsole and metallic lace hooks, selling at concept store V.A. and ROA's own online store for 121,000 yen.

LOEWE and On pushed the same idea with the Cloudsolo Hiker, an $890 trail-hardened evolution of their co-designed silhouette in tan, dark brown and black. And today, October 10, Danner and MIYAGIHIDETAKA's first collaboration lands in Daikanyama: an all-black, Western-embroidered suede work boot with a removable zip attachment, made in Japan at 69,300 yen.

On the other side, the classics are being rebuilt for weather. UGG woke up its 1999 Birch archive as the Birch Boot II — waterproof nubuck with a fully sheepskin-lined shaft at $255 — and stylist Joel Lyall wears the revival daily in the brand's new Fall 2026 campaign. Street style keeps confirming the rule: chunky, weatherproof soles under everything from cargo trousers to relaxed tailoring.

Knitwear is doing the talking this fall. The season's sweaters carry actual personality — oversized graphics, fair isle, heavy cable knits, argyle reimagined — while the unlikely hero of the year, the quarter-zip, completes its comeback from office-wear punchline to the most versatile layer a man can own.

Dries Van Noten led the patterned-vest charge, GQ's editors flagged the tight high v-neck and reworked argyle as 2026 signals, and J.Press built its whole 125th-anniversary FW26 campaign around brushed Shaggy Dog crewnecks in autumn colorways like Autumn Orange — hand-brushed Scottish Shetland wool, made in Scotland, $285.

The styling rule everyone agrees on: let the knit be the loudest thing in the room. Graphic or textured sweater over straight jeans and simple boots, accessories kept minimal.

Suede is the season's texture. It reads warmer and richer than leather, and it is showing up everywhere that matters: Milan's runways recast the classic trucker jacket in buttery-soft suede, brown suede shoes are prized for the way they age, and the Birkenstock Boston in taupe suede has become the default off-duty shoe of the fashion set.

The appeal is practical as well as visual. Suede sits between casual and refined, pairing with cream, olive and dark denim alike — which is why the A.P.C. x Clarks Originals collaboration, launched October 9, put ribbed suede meant to recall denim at the center of its Weaver and Desert Boot reworks.

The investment piece: James Perse's suede trucker in Smokey Grey, $1,995. Buttery-soft, endlessly layerable, and the exact silhouette the runways endorsed.

The box is out; the silhouette is coming back to the body. Saint Laurent's SS27 menswear doubled down on lean tailoring — razor-sharp trousers, slim-cut suits, structured shoulders — and the message across the season is unmistakable: clean, close lines are returning after years of oversized everything.

The news of the week reframes all of it: Anthony Vaccarello is leaving Saint Laurent after ten years, confirmed October 9. That SS27 show — all that precision — now reads as his closing statement, and it will set the tone for whatever comes next at the house.

The new version is softer and easier than the aggressive slim fits of the past decade. Double-breasted jackets cut looser so they work with jeans as well as tailored trousers, the 3-button suit back after a long absence. For fall and winter buying, the move is one well-cut jacket or suit with a cinched waist, not a whole wardrobe.

Performance gear has finished its migration from trail to high fashion. Rick Owens's SS27 STONE show built personal cooling systems into adidas ClimaCool inflated jackets and previewed an affordable adidas x Rick Owens running shoe for 2027. On went from lab-demo brand to fashion-week fixture with its Loewe partnership.

Palace's Winter 2026 drop leans on heavy-duty GORE-TEX parkas, and Arc'teryx x Beams's KOYO collection puts autumn-inspired patterns on technical shells. The throughline: weatherproofing is no longer the compromise you make for style — it is the style.

The buyable edge right now: Song for the Mute's deconstructed adidas Samba, with its collapsible crumpled heel worn as a mule, releases October 16. And the LOEWE x On Cloudsolo Hiker is already moving at select luxury retailers.