Three Redefinitions of Fall’s Formalism in Menswear

Fall’s Formalism – A Different Way to Build a Wardrobe

Fall’s formalism is the reset in men’s fashion in 2026. Across the major fashion capitals, designers are moving menswear toward sharper tailoring, stronger fabrication and a new sense of formal dressing. The result is not one prescribed look, but a range of collections that offer different ways to build a wardrobe around tailored pieces.

Tailoring has been returning to menswear for several seasons but Fall 2026 pushes the idea further. Defined jackets, trousers, coats, and separates are being cut with greater structure while retaining an ease. The balance between precision and movement is central to the season.

Color follows that same approach. The Fall 2026 palette moves between contrast and depth, warm tones and more uniform shades, giving tailored clothing different points of entry for the modern wardrobe.

The three collections highlighted are brands based in Stockholm and Berlin represent distinct approaches to contemporary menswear. Their styles differ, but each puts tailoring and the craft of the garment at the center.

HODAKOVA  Fall 2026

In Stockholm

Ellen Hodakova Larsson’s Stockholm atelier made its first clear move into menswear for Fall 2026, showing a handful of men’s looks on the runway. The debut raises an obvious question: will the 2024 LVMH Prize winner take the next step and build menswear into the HODAKOVA offering?

Conventional Collection 112603 was the title of the seasons offerings built around unexpected materials, the men’s looks were the unexpected element. They were pared back, precise, and rooted in familiar menswear forms that Larsson reworked through her own tailoring practice. The result was a controlled structure of traditional menswear and the male body.

The strongest looks came from this approach to the silhouette. A sleeveless and backless shawl-collar dinner suit, finished with welt pockets, reduced formalwear to its essential lines. A reworked country wax-cotton jacket, also sleeveless, was paired with slim, well-tailored trousers. Both looks showed Larsson’s ability to take an established menswear form and shift its proportions without losing its purpose.

That approach connects directly to HODAKOVA’s wider practice. The brand transforms discarded materials into new garments, using construction and traditional techniques to give existing materials another life. As the brand states, it “challenges conventional design practices while paying homage to repurposed material origins by converting fabric, textiles and objects. Our method stands as testament to the lifelong passage of time.”

With Fall 2026, that philosophy moves into menswear. The collection was only a glimpse, but it showed that Larsson’s tailoring has a clear place on the male form—leaving the door open for what could come next.

MARKE Fall 2026

In Berlin

MARKE Fall 2026, “The Owl,” confronts a feeling that is increasingly familiar: helplessness in the face of an endless stream of information, both true and false.

Founded in Berlin by Mario Keine, MARKE is built on the idea that clothing can reflect and question society. Keine describes the label’s purpose clearly: “The label exists to question, to contextualize and to converse with culture. We look back to look forward, drawing from history to understand the present and anticipate what lies ahead…. It is an ongoing cultural conversation—shaped by time, shaped by society and always in motion.”

For Fall 2026, that conversation turns to the exaggeration, distortion, and performance of truth in an age when knowledge is readily available. Keine calls this cultural moment “Neo-Rococo,” and the idea comes through in clothes that balance refinement with excess.

The tailoring is where the collection makes its strongest point. Jackets are clean, lean, and sharply cut, but they are set against volume elsewhere in the silhouette. The tension between fitted and oversized shapes gives the clothes their character. A sharp collar meets a padded surface; a controlled jacket is paired with generous trousers.

The outerwear is particularly strong. Keine reworks the trench coat as a puffer, giving a familiar menswear form a new function and proportion. A clean single-button coat offers another wardrobe option, worn with voluminous trousers in the collection’s signature point d’esprit overlay fabrication.

The result is menswear that looks to history without becoming historical. MARKE Fall 2026 uses classical menswear, tailoring, and historical references to reconsider the male uniform for the present.

UNVAIN Fall 2026

A Clear Conclusion

UNVAIN Fall 2026 made its Berlin Fashion Week debut in a former World War II bunker, now an art space housing an Asian art collection. The brutalist architecture gave the show a setting that matched the label’s approach to clothing.

Robert Friedrichs founded UNVAIN in 2020 around the idea of beauty beyond perfection. What began as a small line for a niche circle has developed into a collection exploring the tension between severity and sensitivity, with Berlin’s subcultural energy at its center. Friedrichs looks for beauty without polish and builds the clothes around that tension.

For Fall 2026, Friedrichs looked inward. Rather than build the collection around an outside reference, he used the debut to state the UNVAIN identity clearly: rock-star attitude, mysticism, and a brutalist view of menswear.

Leather Outerwear

Firstly, the clothes moved between sharp minimalism and architectural shape. Epaulettes, studs, transparent fabrics, and leather outerwear gave the collection its edge. A white leather jacket finished with a Brandenberg (Austrian knot) stood out as a piece with the potential to become a statement for Fall 2027. Secondly, sheer shirts with windowpane motifs appeared under dramatically re-imagined bomber jackets and alongside a floor-length sweeping coat, adding a sense of movement and drama.

The UNVAIN Fall 2026 collection sparks a useful reminder: menswear does not need to choose between restraint and expression. Friedrichs understands that tension is often where a fashion identity begins. This debut gives UNVAIN a clear position—and a reason to watch what comes next.

This collection is a clear conclusion for a new menswear fall’s formalism. The season moves formal dress beyond rules and into attitude, tension, proportion, and personal expression. That shift matters. Today’s formal man no longer dresses to conform; he dresses to define himself. UNVAIN Fall 2026  understands that formalism can still have discipline while leaving room for freedom, drama, and individuality.

---

Photography Credits

Andres Hofrichter for MARKE Spring 2027

Boris Marberg for UNVAIN Berlin Fashion Week Spring 2027