Very occasionally, a menswear label comes along that blows your socks and sandals off, giving hope that Australian men might finally step their style game up beyond blue suits, bone chinos, polo shirts and RM Williams boots.
Last month designer Ryan Morrow launched a capsule collection for his label Morrow. The concise range includes an inventive take on cargo pants in Japanese canvas, cotton voile shirts in boxy, blokey silhouettes and water-repellant jackets that offer a streamlined aesthetic update to Driza-Bone’s classic waxed jackets.
Morrow’s outlook is exquisite in its simplicity, but its outback-meets-the-city refinement won’t make selling it to Australian men any easier.
Designer Ryan Morrow with the caspule collection for his new label Morrow.Credit: Janie Barrett
“With menswear we are behind our female customers and their approach to designer fashion,” says Brittany Kipniak, senior menswear buyer for online retailer The Iconic.
“Menswear is still very much driven by the female customer. We are a data-led business, and it’s still her buying for him. Perhaps he is jumping onto her account sometimes to buy things.”
Kipniak sees progress, with a smaller group of young men embracing trend-driven urban wear through social media, but the core menswear customer is interested in comfort that looks conservative.
“Men are increasingly starting to adopt those more global trends and contemporary looks a bit more quickly than they have in the past. That classic guy is evolving and adding an extra layer. Homegrown local brands, like RM Williams and Rodd & Gunn remain the crowd favourite.”
It’s a similar story at department store David Jones where Chris Wilson, executive general manager of menswear, has witnessed slow evolution in the past six years.
“There’s still an element of keeping it classic, but the male customer is definitely moving on from a trend point of view,” says Wilson. “It’s still slow but it’s steady.”
Brands such as Boss and Calibre are performing strongly at David Jones but most international designer labels are kept to flagship stores in the Melbourne and Sydney CBD.
“Guys have been wearing suits for 200 years. The customer is still quite classic but he does turn to that trend piece to look better.”
It’s either in the classic space, with tailoring labels such as P. Johnson, Christian Kimber and M.J. Bale, or the casual category of Venroy and Academy Brand, that Australian menswear brands are making a mark. Morrow straddles both camps with the quality of tailoring through more relaxed wardrobe essentials.
“It’s a journey and exploration to find that customer,” says Morrow, who started devising his brand in 2023, having worked at P. Johnson and Jac + Jack. “You hear a lot about homing in on what you believe.”
The standout piece from the first Morrow collection is the Dry jacket, an update of classic outback coats with the washing instructions: “Wash only if necessary to extend lifespan”.
“It’s a super versatile nod to that Australian heritage that is modern and more fashion. That’s the garment I had in mind when I conceptualised the brand.” It’s also an investment piece, costing $1050, with pants priced at $520 and shirts at $540.
Sales are currently confined to Morrow’s online store, with the designer unwilling to venture into the wholesale market during turbulent economic times which has challenged other brands.
Following its launch in 2020, Haulier International created exciting local menswear, winning the Melbourne Festival’s National Designer Award in 2024. In April, founder Jeremy Hershan placed the brand in hibernation.
Unisex brand The Tales, which launched six months ago, is still learning about its menswear customer. Its silk tiger print shirts and western prints are perfect for men, but women are doing the majority of buying.
“We believed there shouldn’t be strict boundaries between menswear and womenswear, so we offered unisex shirts cut in men’s blocks, designed to be worn by anyone,” says The Tales founder Rachael D’Alessandro. “As we started to analyse our sales data, it became clear that around 90 per cent of our customers were women.”
“That insight led us to expand more intentionally into womenswear. It’s given us the freedom to be more playful and experimental, since the womenswear industry in Australia is far more progressive and open-minded compared to menswear.”
“We’ll continue to experiment, challenge expectations, and hopefully inspire both men and women to be bold, expressive, and playful with their wardrobes.”
While The Tales takes the bold route, Morrow will persist with understatement, for now.
“I’m trying to get elegance in this aesthetic,” Morrow says. “Silhouette is so important to me. With the pants, I didn’t just want to make baggy pants. It looks relaxed but has an elongation to it that is elegant. Plus there’s that durable outdoorsy feel.”
“Doing this, I had to create something that was ultimately authentic to me. It’s something that I can be proud of.
“I think there’s a customer out there.”
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