Curated and photographed at the Highsnobiety New York office, "Test Drive" is a series where we try on our favorite items of the season.
Hoodie weather is here, that glorious time of the year where the ubiquitous cotton jersey (or cross-grain fleece, if you're a real connoisseur) garment becomes the T-shirt of the season. In the world of streetwear and sportswear, the hoodie ranges from Museum of Modern Art-worthy offerings like Champion's inimitable Reverse Weave knitwear to Supreme's covetable Box Logo hoodies, which are actually made on high-quality blanks from Canadian manufacturer Roopa Knitting Mills.
But of course, as streetwear and fashion become evermore interchangeable, we've seen masters of the game like Raf Simons turn humble hoodies into straight-up pieces, like his latest Fall/Winter 2019 collection where he turns his penchant for graphics to the world of David Lynch's Blue Velvet film, making tonal photos featuring Laura Dern, Kyle MacLachlan, and Lynch himself into covetable and wearable garms.
Jun Takahashi of UNDERCOVER similarly takes inspiration from Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (his previous collection tapped Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, so maybe he's been rewatching the Criterion Collection?) to turn some of the film's most memorable characters and scenes into haunting all-over print hoodies.
We decided to take it upon ourselves to style some of the season's best hoodie offerings — tying in some other trends like tie-dye and wild graphic prints — giving our take on how to style the perennially young garment. The trick to wearing hoodie without looking like a teenager? Consider layering it under some super-luxe outerwear.
Raf Simons
After waxing nostalgic about Raf Simons' collection featuring graphics from David Lynch's Blue Velvet, we dug a bit deeper into this season's offerings and found this sick take on the designer's tendency to tap into fetish culture like bondage. The metallic rings come in handy for today's sidebag-saddled world, and now you have multiple options for stashing your keys.
Officine Generale
Officine Generale is synonymous with laid-back French style. Think of it as “A.P.C. for the slightly more refined set.” Here, the label's pigment dyed hoodie gives it that perfect worn-in look without the effort. And the best part? You don't get that gross, semi-permanent vintage store smell.
COMME des GARÇONS SHIRT
Biff! Bang! Boom! Whether you're a comic fan or simply a nerd with an appreciation for fun typefaces and onomatopoeias (look it up, Webster), CDG SHIRT gives a literal meaning to “loud prints” with this playful graphic interpretation. To blow people's minds even further, wear a coordinating layer underneath with even more textual references. Super meta!
GmBH
If we could describe GmBH in three words, they would be: “Weird, but good.” The same could be said of GmBH and Highsnobiety's hometown of Berlin, and we wouldn't have it any other way. GmBH's remix of the simple black hoodie adds a slight crop and a half-zip closure, channeling another knitwear vibe we've recently been on. The simple embroidered graphic skews between Silicon Valley company and super minimal fashion label, which we're definitely feeling.
Isabel Marant
The dude who wears Isabel Marant listens to Lil Nas X but also considers Celine Dion and Princess Diana as absolutely god-level in his pantheon of impeccable fit-wearers. This multicolor Viley hoodie speaks to that aesthetic, which is somewhere between Wild West rough and Southern France rustic. To balance it out, we paired it with a textured tweed sportcoat from Gucci (no cowboy hat though) to give it an upscale appeal.
Burberry
Sleeves can be a burden. Burberry's Riccardo Tisci understands that! This sleeveless option makes a great layering piece, and definitely has retro '80s sportswear vibes if the same designers who made those wildly-inaccurate-but-sick-in-their-own-way video game box art decided to make sleeveless gym hoodies. We also like how this particular take on the Thomas Burberry monogram/Burberry logo looks like if Piet Mondrian was in the pizza box business.
