Nili Lotan Pre-Fall 2022 Collection

Nili Lotan is launching menswear next summer. She tested the concept back in 2017 via a small collaboration with her friends Inez and Vinoodh, but in the time since, she’s watched the opportunity grow alongside her booming women’s business. We get a first glimpse of the NL man in her pre-fall 2022 lookbook, shot between Lotan’s backyard in upstate New York and the streets of Tribeca. The city photos take loose cues from John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’s famous ’90s style: all-black basics, leather jackets, no-frills. Lotan’s brand has always been more about great clothes than fashion, but her collections of late have become more stripped-back and essential. They’ve grown more luxurious, too, namely through better fabrics and precise tailoring at competitive prices.

That’s a salable mix for women, men, and people of every gender identity. Also worth noting: While it’s relatively common to see men’s brands introduce women’s lines—often with scaled-down versions of their most popular items—the opposite isn’t standard practice. However dated the term, “borrowed from the boys” has an air of effortless nonchalance; but are men down with “borrowed from the girls”? Certain types probably aren’t. But Lotan recognized two things: First, that many of her customers are eager to shop for their husbands and boyfriends, and second, that couples today are often inspired by each other’s style. Gender has little to do with it.

It helps that Lotan’s clothes hew classic, of course. Her signature army pants have a particularly universal appeal, ditto pre-fall’s polished cable-knits, peacoats, chinos, and tailoring, which nod to her early days at Ralph Lauren. A new take on suiting stood out: a brass-buttoned wool jacket with an elongated, ’70s-ish collar and matching flared trousers. Designers throughout the industry are reporting that tailoring is in extra-high demand these days, and Lotan’s will stand out in a sea of standard lapels and double-breasted blazers.