The World Cup (of Clothes)

With the World Cup underway, I have been thinking about how the clothes that have cut through the chatter have rarely originated from Nike, Adidas or other sportswear behemoths with the marketing budget of a small nation. In the lead-up to the Cup, my inbox was bombarded with pitches for brand-heavy uniforms and high-design collaborations that most likely have been in development for years.

Days in, though, I haven’t seen much about this industrial sportswear. (Were you aware of the Coca-Cola x Adidas collab with its $90 jersey?) What has been drawing eyes instead are those winsome clothes that stem from unforeseen sources.

Take the Congolese national team, which returned to the tournament after 52 years and immediately soared to the front of Instagram feeds with its beguiling leopard-embellished suits and leopard bags.

“In Congo culture, the spirit of leopard is a spirit of strength,” Alvin Mak, the Congo-born, Paris-based designer who designed these outfits, told me Monday. “It is the spirit of resilience, so I want to transfer this energy to them.” The outfits have lifted the team and Mak, 30, who, honestly, wasn’t at all on my radar until this week. You can read more about him and these ensembles here.

I was also smirking at the sight of the German manager Julian Nagelsmann coaching in a full-button knit polo — a.k.a., a “good boy shirt.” He looked as if he were modeling for Todd Snyder in Southampton, not manning the sidelines for a potential World Cup winner.

And sure, I did think the Spanish team looked sharp as they arrived in Tennessee in tan Loewe work jackets and cargoes, but I was more invested in Japan’s manager, Hajime Moriyasu, somehow withstanding the Texas heat in a windowpane three-piece suit and tie. The salaryman as soccer coach. It is, as ever, the managers who provide the tournament’s most individualistic and often, you know, good outfits. My advice: Keep an eye on the sidelines over the next few weeks.

It’s Almost Fashion Week. Again.

Well, we are on the precipice of yet another fashion week, so the pace of this newsletter is about to accelerate — significantly. Starting Saturday, with the beginning of men’s fashion week in Milan, you’ll be receiving this newsletter in your inbox every day for a week and a half as I roam from Italy to Paris. Look for dispatches from showrooms, recaps of runway shows, accounts of where people are really shopping overseas and other tidbits from the hothouse that is fashion week. See you from Europe.

Ask Vanessa

I’m 52 years old. During my life, jeans fashion has gone from bell bottoms to acid-wash to ripped to boot-cut to low-rise to skinny to high-rise to mom jeans to ripped again to wide-leg. … Please make it stop. I don’t have another jeans transition left in me. Is there a timeless jeans style for those of us who simply cannot keep up? — Annie, Seattle

I feel your pain — or at least your sense of not being able to keep up. On the Levi’s website there are six different styles of jeans for women and for men (barrel, baggy, straight, etc.). That’s a lot of choice, but all of those general styles are further subdivided into multiple numbered choices (the 500 series, the 700 series, the 300 series and so on) all with a variety of rises, colors and treatments, meaning there are more than two dozen possible denim options. … Read more.

Other things worth knowing about:

If you’re seeking World Cup style at its zaniest, check out Simbarashe Cha’s photos of the fans who treat the tournament as if it’s patriotic Halloween.
The Knicks are N.B.A. champs, and the merch bonanza is in full flight. The rhinestoned championship tees that the team wore after sealing the win on Saturday sold out quicker than a Brunson breakaway. They’re now on eBay for as high as $300. I will say, I’m mildly confused by the design. Black and silver? Aren’t those … Spurs colors?
Jeremy Sochan played exactly eight minutes in Game 5, but you know what, credit to him for wearing the rarest piece of clothing of any Knick: a split-down-the-middle Comme des Garçons T-shirt from 1997. The man has taste! Jeremy, if you’re reading this, let’s go shopping sometime.
One closing thought on the Knicks broadcast: The announcers on “Inside the N.B.A.” wear the motliest assortment of dress sneakers I’ve seen this side of Capitol Hill. The official shoe, if you ask me, of giving up. And those white soles are so glaring on TV. Just commit one way or another! Wear a dress shoe or wear a sneaker.

Isaac Mizrahi is returning to Target.

The Japanese designer Jun Takahashi has announced that he is selling his Undercover label to Human Made, the Japanese streetwear brand founded by Nigo. It’s a full circle acquisition: Takahashi and Nigo ran the highly influential Harajuku boutique Nowhere in the early ’90s.
Is anyone wearing a suit better than Renate Reinsve right now? I’d say no.
Last week, I stopped by Third of June, a new store in the West Village started by Victor Kan, who used to work at Packer, a New Jersey sneaker institution. The store, tucked at the back of a barbershop, is tidy and the selection compact: A.Presse’s elevated (and expensive) work wear, Porter’s nylon bags and hard-to-find Nikes. I liked what Kan had to say about narrowly adjoining sneakers with high-end men’s wear. “I grew up pining over Jordans and Nikes,” he said. “Now I’m grown up and I’m lusting over different things. It’s furniture, cars, more expensive clothing, but I didn’t forget that sneakers are what I was chasing.” Well put. This line of thinking helps explain why youngish men have become such a reliable shopping bloc over the past decade.