The Coolest Men’s Designer Brands To Wear This Summer

The Coolest Men’s Designer Brands To Wear This Summer Summer is where designer menswear either earns its keep or gets found out. Heavy fabrics, stiff tailoring, overdesigned trainers and anything that requires “breaking in” suddenly look like very expensive mistakes when the temperature climbs. The best summer clothes need to do more than look good on a rail. They need to breathe, travel, loosen up and still make you look like a man who planned the outfit rather than simply dressed near an open suitcase. That is where Mytheresa comes in. The global luxury platform has built its reputation on tight curation rather than endless scrolling, bringing together the sort of labels that understand warm-weather dressing properly. Its Vacation Shop leans into the louche side of summer, while the Summer Tailoring Edit makes a compelling case for jackets, trousers and shirts that still behave themselves when the forecast turns hostile. The trick is knowing which designers do what best. Some brands are built for soft Italian tailoring. Others understand texture, colour, leather goods or that very specific point where holiday dressing becomes dangerously close to costume. Get it right, and summer starts to feel less like a style obstacle course and more like an excuse to dress better. These are the men’s designer brands worth wearing now. Zegna Zegna is the brand to reach for when you want summer tailoring to look grown-up without feeling corporate. This is the useful end of luxury: linen shirts, softly constructed jackets, knitted polos, relaxed trousers and pieces that understand the difference between looking smart and looking overdressed. For summer, Zegna works best when you let the fabrics do the talking. A linen shirt with tailored trousers. A textured polo under an unstructured jacket. A soft blouson thrown over a white tee when the evening air starts doing that irritatingly romantic thing. It is not showy, and that is the point. Zegna gives you polish without the peacock act, which makes it particularly good for city breaks, smart lunches and weddings where the dress code says relaxed, but the guest list suggests otherwise. Brioni Brioni has always known its way around a beautiful jacket, but its summer pieces are at their best when they step slightly away from the boardroom. Think linen shirts, refined shorts, lightweight blousons, loafers and tailoring with enough ease to survive a terrace lunch without looking as though it has been released from a corporate retreat. The appeal is old-school Italian elegance with the starch taken out. Brioni is not trying to dress you like a teenager with an algorithmic mood board. It is for men who want clothes with shape, taste and a certain quiet authority. A linen bowling shirt with tailored shorts is a good way in. So is a lightweight jacket with drawstring trousers and leather sandals. It is the sort of summer dressing that suggests the wearer probably knows where to get a very good negroni, and crucially, when to stop at two. Brunello Cucinelli No brand has done more to make beige feel like a power move than Brunello Cucinelli. The Solomeo label has turned quiet luxury into a full-blown language, but its real strength is that the clothes actually work. Lightweight blazers, soft shirts, suede loafers, linen trousers and beautifully judged outerwear all sit in that useful space between relaxed and immaculate. For summer, Cucinelli is about building a wardrobe that looks expensive without looking precious. A linen blazer with a cotton shirt. White trousers with a suede belt. A soft field jacket over a polo. These are clothes that are easy to wear but difficult to fake, because the whole thing rests on fabric, cut and restraint. It is ideal if your warm-weather calendar involves restaurants, travel, smarter weekends and the occasional event where shorts alone would be a sackable offence. Dolce & Gabbana Dolce & Gabbana has never been in the business of shrinking politely into the background, which is exactly why it works so well in summer. This is a brand built for heat, appetite, ceremony and long evenings that begin with an innocent drink and end several hours later with everyone pretending they did not see the bill. At its best, Dolce & Gabbana gives warm-weather dressing a sense of occasion. Silk bowling shirts, polished loafers, sharp polos, swim shorts and easy tailoring all sit within its orbit, bringing that unmistakable Italian confidence without requiring you to dress like a walking postcard. The trick is to choose one expressive piece and let it lead. A printed shirt with simple trousers. Swim shorts with a linen overshirt. A black polo with tailored shorts and loafers. It is summer dressing with theatre, but enough polish to keep it on the right side of tasteful. Loewe Loewe brings the art-school heat. Where the Italian houses do ease and refinement, Loewe adds craft, texture and a slightly surreal sense of fun. That makes it one of the strongest designer brands for men who want summer clothes with personality, but not the sort that involves novelty pineapple embroidery. The Spanish house is particularly good when you want one piece to do the heavy lifting. A raffia tote. A wide-leg trouser. A striped shirt. A pair of leather sandals or sculptural sunglasses. Loewe has a way of making relaxed clothes feel considered, which is exactly what summer needs. Worn with simpler pieces, it brings just enough oddness to stop linen and sandals from becoming predictable. Think less “holiday outfit”, more “creative director who has mysteriously cleared August”. Dries Van Noten If your summer wardrobe is starting to look like it was assembled entirely from oat milk, Dries Van Noten is the correction. The Belgian designer has always understood colour, pattern and texture better than most, but the genius is that the clothes rarely feel silly. They have depth. They have mood. They have the confidence of someone ordering wine without first checking the price of the second-cheapest bottle. For summer, Dries is best used as the point of interest. One printed shirt with relaxed trousers. A patterned layer over a white vest. A richly coloured pair of shorts with a plain knit. The trick is to let one piece lead and keep the rest of the outfit calm. Done well, it gives warm-weather dressing the sort of character that linen alone cannot provide. It is holiday dressing for men who like beauty, but would rather not dress like the hotel wallpaper. Prada Prada is for men who want their summer wardrobe to feel sharp, clever and slightly suspicious of anything too pretty. Its warm-weather appeal sits in the tension between minimalism and mischief: clean shirts, technical fabrics, dark sandals, neat accessories and pieces that can make a simple outfit look ten times more intentional. There is a particular Prada way to do summer. Black need not be off limits. Shorts need not look juvenile. Sandals need not suggest a man who has emotionally given up. The label’s best pieces are great at making functional items feel design-led without tipping into gimmick. Wear a crisp shirt with straight trousers and leather sandals, or lean into darker summer dressing with a boxy tee and tailored shorts. Prada is at its strongest when everything looks simple, then gets better the longer you stare at it. The Row The Row is not interested in shouting for attention, which is precisely why it keeps getting it. The brand’s menswear is built around exacting cuts, exceptional fabrics and silhouettes that seem plain until you try to find anything else that hangs quite as well. For summer, that makes it dangerously useful. This is the brand for men who want less noise and more control. A chambray shirt with relaxed trousers. Suede sandals with a washed tee. A canvas tote that somehow makes every other bag look overdesigned. The Row gives summer dressing a monastic kind of luxury, but not in a joyless way. It just removes the clutter. No shouty logos, no desperate prints, no weird seasonal gimmicks. Just beautiful pieces for men who understand that looking calm in summer is often the biggest flex of all. Bottega Veneta Bottega Veneta is one of the best brands for the pieces people notice second. The leather goods, the shoes, the weave, the sunglasses, the quiet oddness of proportion. It is rarely obvious in a crude way, but it has presence, which is exactly what good summer accessories should have. The house’s menswear works particularly well when you want texture without mess. An intrecciato detail here, a suede boat shoe there, a refined bag that makes your old canvas tote look like it came free with a utilities contract. Bottega is also excellent for grounding more relaxed summer clothes. Linen trousers and a simple shirt can suddenly feel far more deliberate with the right leather sandals or woven accessory. It is Italian luxury with a modern pulse, which is a difficult thing to fake and a very easy thing to enjoy. Saint Laurent Saint Laurent is not the obvious summer brand, which is exactly why it works. While half the world reaches for pastels, Saint Laurent stays loyal to black, sharp lines, silky shirts, lean trousers, boots, sunglasses and the sort of clothes that make you look like you have plans after dinner. The key is not to force it into full rock-star mode at midday. Saint Laurent is better deployed after dark, when the air cools and linen starts to feel a bit too wholesome. A silk shirt with tailored trousers. Slim black jeans with a Cuban-collar shirt. Aviators, a leather belt, a loafer or a sharp sandal. It brings glamour to summer without drifting into beach-club cliché. Think Paris at 11pm, not poolside at noon. Unless, of course, the pool belongs to someone extremely interesting. Tom Ford Tom Ford has never been shy about glamour, and summer is one of the best times to lean into it. Not recklessly, of course. Nobody needs a velvet dinner jacket in a heatwave. But the brand’s polished shirts, sunglasses, tailoring, polos and evening pieces are made for those moments when relaxed dressing still needs a little danger. Tom Ford is the label for sunset onwards. The sharp polo that makes a pair of trousers feel intentional. The sunglasses that do not apologise for being noticed. The jacket that belongs at dinner, not a quarterly meeting. Its best summer pieces understand that men still want to look seductive when the weather is warm, just not sweaty, shiny or overdressed. Wear it with restraint and it delivers that rare thing: warm-weather polish with a pulse. Gucci Gucci is summer for men who are not afraid of a little theatre. The Florentine house has always been good at taking heritage codes and giving them a wink, whether through loafers, silk shirts, canvas bags, sunglasses or pieces that make a simple outfit feel instantly more interesting. The trick with Gucci is editing. One expressive piece is often enough. A silk-blend top with simple trousers. A GG loafer with a white shirt and shorts. Sunglasses that bring a little swagger without suggesting you have arrived with your own entrance music. At its best, Gucci makes summer dressing feel playful but still luxurious. It is not for disappearing into the background, but then again, neither is a good holiday. — A paid partnership with Mytheresa – words and opinions are Ape’s own.