Real Men and Velvet

Hermes, Dunhill, Dolce and Ralph Lauren

Once reserved for opera boxes, old-world smoking lounges, and your eccentric uncle, velvet has unexpectedly muscled its way back into the menswear spotlight for Winter 2025. And this time, it isn’t the fussy, over-embroidered version of decades past, but it’s sleek, masculine, architectural, and quietly cool.

The season’s runways and collections agree: men are stepping into winter wrapped in rich toned velvet. Everyone from Emporio Armani and Dolce & Gabbana to Hermès and Ralph Lauren are doubling down on the plush texture. And once something shows up at Hermès and on the racks at Polo Ralph Lauren, it’s officially a trend that will last a few seasons.  

Armani leads the charge with razor-sharp velvet blazers, cut close to the body and rendered in colors that feel more midnight than black. It’s velvet for the man who doesn’t want to look like he tried too hard. Over at Dolce & Gabbana, the mood is unabashedly glamorous: rich jewel-tone velvet jackets and slick evening coats that practically ask to be photographed. Meanwhile, Hermès offers the French answer: a more understated, almost monastic approach to velvet, showing varsity-style jackets in plush textures that make “casual” feel impossibly luxurious. Ralph Lauren continues its heritage play, releasing velvet trucker jackets with Italian-mill fabrics that feel like they belong in a Park Avenue library. But perhaps the real story of velvet’s return is its new versatility. This is not the holiday-party one-and-done blazer. Velvet is being worn in the daytime, to cocktail hours, with denim, with tailored wool trousers, even over a turtleneck for a kind of modern Milanese vibe.

The color play is equally captivating: deep burgundy for drama, graphite and midnight blue for sophistication, evergreen for the man who’s bored with navy, and the occasional black velvet for those who understand its cinematic power.  More accessible designers such as Boss, Reiss, and Michael Kors have also embraced the trend which is further proof that velvet isn’t just for gala season anymore. It’s become a texture of confidence, comfort, and quiet wealth showing peak 2025 energy.