While the clothes are typically what get everybody talking, the men’s runway shows that kick-started this year’s fashion calendar also packed a punch when it comes to the grooming on display. Yet, the overall mood was less OTT than recent years. “I think that currently we have a need for something that represents honesty and acceptance,” Mel Arter, the makeup artist behind the pared-back beauty at Paul Smith’s Autumn/Winter 2025 show, told Vogue Business after the event.
Below are some of the key grooming takeaways from the latest menswear season.
The triumph of barely-there makeup
“Hair and grooming at the AW25 men’s shows in Milan and Paris leaned towards naturalism,” says Alex Kessler, lead editor at Ssense. “Having attended the shows in Paris, there is definitely something more natural going on with grooming,” echoes GQ France style editor Adrien Communier. At Dior, Peter Philips, creative and image director of Christian Dior Makeup, created a natural-looking appearance with luminous skin using the brand’s Forever Hydra Nude foundation and Forever Skin Correct concealer. Wooyoungmi favoured barely-there concealers and nude lips, as did the likes of Hermès, Hed Mayner, Paul Smith, Lemaire, Ami Paris and Prada. Kiko Kostadinov and Lazoschmidl emphasised the naturally pink areas of the face as well as the dark circles beneath the eyes. “There seems to have been a slow decline in over-the-top makeup in recent years,” says Calum Harper, a model and influencer who walked this season’s LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi show.
At Fursac, where it couldn’t be guessed whether models had been in the MUA chair, the idea was “to enhance the models’ natural features, and give them a not-so-perfect look”, says Marc Briant-Terlet, founder of grooming brand Horace. The thinking behind such simplicity is clear, he adds, “so men can see themselves in the models as much as in the clothes”.
Meanwhile, Arter, who used shine and oil-free moisturisers and mattifying lip balms for the Paul Smith presentation, said: “What makes a face interesting and attractive is character, including flaws. I also think there is a quiet backlash against some of the heavier makeup trends.” At Qasimi, skincare was similarly used to highlight the personality of the models. “The key ideas behind the Qasimi show were resilience and identity,” makeup artist Crystabel Efemena Riley explains. “The skin was perfectly groomed and matte, but we used skincare to subtly highlight the cheekbones and we added darker tones, eye contours inspired by this idea of resilience, which we saw coming through so much of the collection. Each look was very nuanced and tailored to the individual.”
So how could this translate to the wider grooming industry? Judging by the looks at the menswear shows, it appears that neutral, skin-like makeup will soon boom. Research firm Future Market Insights has kept a close eye on the trend over the last few years, having reported that the male colour cosmetics market grew at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7 per cent from 2018 to 2022, with a 9.4 increase anticipated between 2023 and 2033.
Grooming expert Max Berlinger draws a correlation between the rise of neutral makeup and the quiet luxury trend. “I do think we’ve entered a sort of classic mode,” he says. “I noticed that the clothes for the AW25 season were very beautifully done, but quite basic or normal — not a tonne of drama — just really relatable, understandable items. I think a neutral look coincides with that; a clean, traditional look comprising a clean-shaven face, recognisable hairstyles and no overt makeup or nail polish. It’s about fitting in and not drawing attention.”
The skincare innovations seen backstage also mark a move for grooming. “We’ve come a long way from when men might only use an alcohol-heavy aftershave as their skincare. And we are certainly seeing more men in our spa and boutiques who want hydrated and healthier-looking skin,” eponymous brand founder Dr Barbara Sturm reveals. “I think that these days, as traditional gender norms are shifting, there’s no stigma around men adopting a skincare routine.”
Hair told the story
This season, hair stylists went bigger than ever with disco-inspired hair looks. At Amiri, this was all too clear when a collection of bell-bottom pants, square-fronted loafers and face-covering sunglasses was complemented by bold hair styles, such as just-washed, light-reflecting bowl cuts and baby afros.
At Willy Chavarria, ’70s-era, back-combed blowouts and brushed-up pompadour cuts seemed in line with the power-shouldered garments walking the catwalk. Meanwhile, at Kenzo, Nigo opted for medium-length shags and bowl cuts more dramatic than those at Amiri and more in tune with Nicholas Hoult’s About a Boy do. At Louis Vuitton, creative director Pharrell Williams also sent models out with bowl cuts, while at Japanese brand Kozaburo there were more floppy shags.
At Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, the designer’s adoration of “late ’70s and early ’80s icons like Lou Reed, Nico and Grace Jones in their early careers, as well as the legendary John Waters, Divine, and Crystal LaBeija”, served as inspiration, according to Jeffrey, with blunt fringes and plenty of volume.
Centre partings also came through in a big way at the AW25 shows. Kiko Kostadinov had models rocking boyband-style, centre-parted locks, as well as upper arm-skimming lengths. Louis Vuitton similarly favoured models with central-parted long hair, while Mrs Prada and Raf Simons opened their co-creatively directed show with a model sporting a scraggly centre-parted hair look.
But it wasn’t just centre-partings at the men’s shows. Regency-era hair also proved popular, with side-parted styles winning big at Dunhill and posh boy classic partings at Wooyoungmi.
The grown-out mod style also cut through the noise. Shorter at the fringe and jaw length elsewhere, the shaggy do was seen at Auralee, Hermès, Zegna and Prada, among others. Lyndon Tok, former hairdresser at renowned London barbers Johnny’s Chop Shop, described the cuts as “for the boy band kids who had to grow up and get jobs”. Or the ones that will be heading to see Oasis perform this summer, perhaps. (We like to think the designers instructed that on purpose.)
In terms of wider hair trends, designers opted for styles that riffed on times of optimism, rebellion and freedom: the opulent and joyful ’70s or the IDGAF attitude of the mods, for instance. “The 1960s and 1970s were quite an open time — a time of hope, optimism, sexual freedom, a focus on environment and also innovation,” Berlinger says. “Perhaps people are trying to channel that feeling, as a response to a more dour, pessimistic world view that’s taking shape globally.”
Facial hair is back
Hair played out on the runway in more ways than one, as models took to the catwalk sporting more facial hair than past seasons. A move from previous fashion weeks where chiselled and hairless models often steered the casting line-up. At Junya Watanabe every model had facial hair, whether full beards or tidy moustaches, while at Willy Chavarria around 75 per cent of the male models had some form of upper-lip hair.
Julez Smith, model and son of Solange Knowles, sported a thin moustache down the KidSuper runway, while Zegna closed out Milan Fashion Week Men’s with an older cohort of models, each of whom featured bristly facial hair. Stephen Doig, men’s style editor at The Telegraph, notes that the facial hair on the catwalks appeared both unfinished and bristled. “I wonder if we’ve come full circle on the hipster beard,” he says. “It died around five years ago, and with it came a rise in razor sales, especially as we filtered back into offices post-pandemic. However facial hair across the men’s fashion weeks was notable in that it wasn’t manicured or painfully sartorial, but more natural and easy. See the bohemian feel at Pierre-Louis Mascia and the characterful older men at Officine Générale. It’s about an undone approach, rather than mannered.”
This ‘undone’ bravado is emerging off the runway, too, via celebrities like Timothée Chalamet and Drew Starkey, both of whom are leading in the bristly appearance space. “In New York [City] and Brooklyn, the moustache has a pretty strong hold on guys. It’s very popular,” adds Berlinger.
Big names made way for new ones
Brands like 111Skin, Dr Barbara Sturm and Charlotte Tilbury were absent backstage at the men’s shows, paving the way for lesser known brands to take to the MUA chair. Horace supplied moisturisers, makeup and even scents at Fursac to create minimal looks under the guidance of makeup artist Matt Mulhall. A brand to watch? According to brand performance agency Launchmetrics, Horace has seen an 11 per cent increase in media impact value (the monetary value of posts, article mentions and social media interactions) in 2024 compared with the year prior, while its sales revenue amounted to £25 million in 2024, tenfold that of its inception year five years prior.
At Louis Vuitton, Williams’s skincare brand Humanrace was used in cohesion with Pat McGrath Labs. And at Qasimi, Efemena Riley used emerging label Typology París, proving that fashion weeks still serve a purpose for new brands on the block.
Despite the more laid-back and versatile approach, grooming still emerged with some surprises this season. The ’70s and ’90s-era hairstyles seen across the men’s shows are a reflection of a wider sense of rebellion and a yearning for uniqueness. And while the gold rush of facial hair may have been dealt the death card in 2017 (when ‘hipster’ became a dirty term), it appears that all has been forgiven. Is there an opportunity for brands to jump in? It would appear so.
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