Even if it may sound conventional, we wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year from the bottom of our hearts. As we write these lines, the entire team is keeping its fingers crossed that the coming months bring you peace, prosperity, joy, health and success.
For our part, we promise to start 2025 just as we ended 2024: with an undiminished passion for menswear, an enduring love for fine fabrics, and an unwavering commitment to bringing you exceptional garments for everyday life.
To start the year in style, here are 10 style resolutions to add to your list of good intentions.
Resolution no. 1: embrace accessories
Despite what their name might suggest, accessories are absolutely essential for creating polished, well-balanced outfits. This year, we encourage you to make full use of these everyday essentials and unlock their full potential. Gloves, scarf, beanie, cap, as well as tie, bow tie, pocket square, belt, silk scarf, socks or boxer shorts: accessories are unmatched when it comes to combining practicality and style. Far from being trivial or superfluous, they are the finest tool to lay the foundations of an outfit, elevate it, or perfect it. Over to you.
Resolution no. 2: dare to wear colour
According to a study conducted by ourselves without the slightest scientific rigor, 99.9% of menswear outfits rely solely on blue, grey, black, white, brown and khaki. And if you ask us, there is nothing wrong with that. These six shades are so versatile that they allow for effortless, foolproof pairings with zero risk—an undeniable advantage. Yet there are brighter colours that are just as easy to wear, and it would be a real shame to overlook them. Across the colour spectrum, purple, aubergine, orange, yellow, pink and green hold immense, largely untapped potential that we invite you to explore without delay.
Resolution no. 3: mix up styles
Over time, you have probably come across the various "style registers" that govern menswear. If you have already read or heard terms like "preppy", "ivy", "sartorial" or "workwear", we are pleased to tell you that this applies to you. Each of these registers relies on codes that are useful to master to build your style, but liberating to break away from to evolve it. Moreover, mixing genres is an endless source of innovation for anyone who dares to embrace creativity and inventiveness. A bandana with a suit, cargo trousers with a hoodie, a shaggy jumper with pleated trousers: it is always about blurring boundaries and creating an unexpected contrast, with complete mastery.
Resolution No. 4: embrace the natural wear of your clothes
Fine garments - by which we mean quality pieces crafted from natural fibres - take on a life of their own. They change. They develop a patina. They soften. They adapt to the wearer's shape. Whether it is leather, wool, linen, denim or corduroy, each material evolves in its own way and at its own pace, to the delight of authenticity lovers. This evolution is natural. Better yet, it is beautiful. It speaks of time passing and of your personal connection to the clothes you wear. We encourage you to let your garments live, growing ever more charming as they become ever more unique.
Resolution no. 5: repair, mend, patch up
Second nature to our grandparents, mending has unfortunately disappeared from our modern habits. In 2025, we suggest bringing it back to the fore by (re)learning simple everyday repairs. Darning a pair of socks, fixing a pulled stitch on a jumper, replacing a zip, stitching a belt loop, mending a small hole in a t-shirt: it is far from complicated, and it will easily double the lifespan of your garments. And between us, there is nothing more satisfying than fixing something yourself.
Resolution no. 6: try new style touches
Naturally, we all need a comfort zone. A reliable, familiar, reassuring space. Clothes can naturally play this role, whether through go-to pieces, tried-and-tested pairings, or proven colour combinations. That said, stepping outside these boundaries can be just as rewarding, for instance by trying new styling touches. Loosening your tie to give it a relaxed feel, rolling up your trousers instead of turning them up, wearing mismatched socks, cutting the sleeves off an unworn shirt to give it a new lease of life: the possibilities are endless, and so is your creativity.
Resolution no. 7: put your trust in patterns
It may be unfair, but it is a fact: patterns can be intimidating. You only have to look around to see that plains rule supreme—at least in menswear. Stripes manage to find a place in the wardrobe, but that is about it. At Hast, we find this a shame, if not a little sad. Patterns have extraordinary aesthetic potential, and it remains vastly underestimated. This year, we suggest ignoring conventional wisdom and embracing, as much as possible, stripes, checks, houndstooth, gingham, Prince of Wales check and puppytooth. Perhaps not all at once, mind you…
Resolution no. 8: prioritise upcycling
The relentless rise of fast fashion and ultra-fast fashion reflects a world consumed by mass production. We buy far too many clothes, wear them far too little, and discard them far too quickly. It is a critical issue, and rethinking how we consume is essential to reducing the textile industry's overall impact. Three key principles: buy less, buy better, and embrace upcycling. On this last point, we took action very early on by making all our boxer shorts from offcuts of our shirt fabrics. Late last year, we reinforced this commitment by collaborating with Nona Source to give a second life to deadstock fabrics from the Maisons of the LVMH group.
Resolution no. 9: embrace a looser silhouette
At the turn of the 21st century, Hedi Slimane (then artistic director of Dior) defined a new silhouette for men. Characterised by its narrow cut, it flourished for some twenty years, to the point of becoming the absolute standard in the masculine wardrobe. Recently, the male wardrobe has begun to break free from the hold of "slim" fits to return to more natural, generous proportions. This has also been the case in our own collections for several seasons now, and we warmly encourage you to embrace fuller cuts in 2025.
Resolution no. 10: learn more about exceptional fabrics
Developing your style is a journey. In 2025, we challenge you to take things further, whatever your current level of knowledge. If you are unsure of the difference between synthetic and natural fabrics, start there. If, like us, you only care for noble fibres, explore the complementary qualities of linen, cotton and wool. To go deeper, learn the distinction between organic cotton and standard cotton, between virgin wool and merino wool, between pure linen and métis fabric. Next, look into fabric construction: is it knit, jersey, plain weave, twill or satin? Raw materials, yarn count, weight, weaving technique, dyeing process, place of manufacture: every step counts, and taking an interest is the only way to buy consciously and responsibly.
Wishing you all the best for the new year!
And there you have our resolution suggestions. Hoping they offer some inspiration, we wish you all the best for the months ahead and look forward to counting on your continued support, loyalty and shared love of fine menswear this year.
Sincerely yours,
The HAST Team