May 15, 2026 |
Has the London look ever been this slick? From Saul Nash’s sportswear-tailoring crossovers and Oscar Ouyang’s knitwear wonders to the West African influences of Labrum and the cult wardrobe of Stefan Cooke, these brands are making the sort of menswear worth getting excited about.
Oscar Ouyang
Forget some scraggy old jumper buried in your wardrobe: in Oscar Ouyang’s hands, knitwear levels up. The Beijing-born designer made his London Fashion Week debut in September as part of the British Fashion Council’s NewGen initiative. In the two years leading up, he steadily built his business; Dover Street Market was an early supporter. Folklore tales and talismanic symbolism inform his experimental Fair Isles and various other knitted wonders that come with a poetic toughness to them.
He enjoys taking age-old crafts on adventurous excursions. “My interest in knitwear began when I came to London,” he says, having moved to study at Central Saint Martins in 2016. “I got introduced to knitting machines on my foundation course. The idea of creating something just from a thread was quite fascinating. Obviously, there is a limitation, but with that thread, you can take it anywhere.”
Emilio wears OSCAR OUYANG
Going on to specialise in knitwear for his BA and MA at the school, his initial collections swelled with puffy creations that looked like outlandish creatures emerging from a mossy terrain. Still inspired by the natural world, his approach has been refined and his silhouettes are now shrunken to a uniform more fitting for boyish nomads.
Ouyang’s models looked mythical as they stomped their way across his first catwalk. Beneath their feet was a sea of letters (66 metres’ worth, to be exact) laid out by the artist Gary Card. The collection, called Don’t Shoot the Messenger, started out with the designer thinking about messenger birds of bygone times. “Miscommunication caused by those birds, whether they were shot down or got lost, would cause havoc,” he says. “Today, you have the algorithm filtering the messages we receive, everyone [existing] in their own information cocoon. I feel like a lot of the time we’re living under the impression there might be something horrible around the corner.”
From left: Yacine wears OSCAR OUYANG and Maxine wears OSCAR OUYANG
His protagonists donned chicken and turkey feathers, all by-products of the meat industry, in uniforms of defiance. He chopped up Fair Isle knits, woven with depictions of owls and eagles, to become short-shorts, or sliced them into capes. Knitted polo shirts were adorned with curtains of loose-hanging thread and padded T-shirts came with pronounced torsos and linebacker-like shoulders. He cleverly utilised Donegal yarns to create lightweight summer jumpers, while one cable-knit dress was made from golden yarn, falling into an elegant fringing that danced as the model trudged on.
While his brand might be in its earliest years, Ouyang has demonstrated a technical prowess and a solid creative vision that puts him far beyond his years. This bird is already soaring high.
Taken from 10 Men Issue 63 – CLASSIC, CRAFT, NOSTALGIA – out NOW. Order your copy here.
THE FAB FOUR
Photographer LEONARDO VELOCE
Fashion Editor KAREN BINNS
Text PAUL TONER
Models YACINE FERROUDJ at Garçons by Gervais, EMILIO DE DUVE and MAXIME EL HANAFI at Select Model Management
Hair SEBASTIEN BASCLE using Hair Rituel by SISLEY
Make-up EMMA MILES at Caren using WELEDA
Photographer’s assistant BRANDO GRAMAZIO
Fashion assistant SORAYA RIZZUTO
Casting CONAN LAURENDOT
Production SONYA MAZURYK
