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2022 might not've been your year. Unless you were a cocktaoo-haired Frenchman in LA who likes expensive, architectural sunglasses. Or a fine watch brand that found itself newly-wedded to a fun younger model. Or a London-based designer that, after years of graft, hit gold with a footy shirt that was both creative and commercially viable. 2022 didn't sing for a lot of people. But for cult brands, it was a very good year.
In fact, it was perhaps the year of the cult menswear piece. While many brands have come and gone, and some trends have been slightly fleeting, these 13 drops prove the power of the niche, of the collectable, of the grail. And they run the gamut of menswear: motorcycle jackets, big clompy, stompy boots, less stompy sandals, and every piece in-between.
Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses are expensive. But so too are Rolexes and Ferraris. And there’s a reason for that. The time and attention to detail that goes into all three is unparalleled. Take the former: they’re chiselled from a solid block of acetate before having the wirecores injected by hand, making each one unique. They’ve also had a big 2022, with everyone from Jeff Goldblum to Samuel L. Jackson and Vincent Cassel rocking them at various points.
It was inevitable that Teva sandals would have their moment. A longtime favourite of people that actually go hiking, they well and truly crossed over into the shiny world of fashion in 2022.
The simple design was originally dreamt up by a river guide doing tours in the Grand Canyon. They strapped two Velcro watch straps to a pair of flip flops, and the rest was boonie history. Their versatile design and accessible price tag saw them quickly paddle in the mainstream, and they landed at a perfect time when almost every man you know with a humanities degree started to dress like a Grand Canyon tour guide.
It's rare that a sneaker designer has this much name recognition. But Salehe Bembury does, because he's very, very good at his job. And if you needed proof of the Versace sneaker president's skill, look to the Crocs collab.
Because some people really weren't too fond of Crocs. Though thanks to a new, jurassic-sorta mould, and much hype, they found themselves to be the hottest non-sneaker sneaker in 2022.
Bottega Veneta is, in and of itself, a cult brand. A shining, toxic green temple of pretty men and women who like lots of black and tiny sunglasses. Squares that the Italian brand gives rise to so many cult products, then.
There is, of course, the in-house leather latticework (known as 'intrecciato' to the Bottega faithful, who pronounce it in a perfect Milanese drawl). And this year, there was the Lug boot. You’ve seen them around. The top half look like relatively normal black boots, either laced up Derby style or as Chelseas. It’s the chunky, three inch sole that elevates them, in more ways than one. Part work boot part goth staple, for some, these were the only boots to own in 2022.
Gyms have never been so crowded, nor the thighs inside so thicc. And funnily enough, that spike has seen CDLP's stock share sharply rise upwards and to the right. For himbos and the men who love them, this Nordic brand is the only choice, because it knows what it does well, and it sticks to it.
Which, at its inception, meant form-fitting, absurdly comfortable underwear. But in recent years, the co-founders have applied that same expertise to swim shorts. They're cropped, in that slightly Seventies way, but not overtly thotty, and still super hot as a result. A ritzy but fun marketing campaign has buttressed all that too, letting CDLP become the perfect trophy for hard-won glutes everywhere – especially as the world opened up to travel.
The watch world has never seen anything like it. Genuinely. Endless queues at every one of its flagship stores and people camping overnight and getting into brawls about who was first in line. It even closed things early, citing safety concerns for the thousands of customers who showed up hoping to get in on the action.
All for a few watches. The Swatch x Omega Moonswatch collaboration broke the mould, offering the watch world a huge moment of hype, the sort that's usually reserved for much younger labels. The buzz rumbles on.
It was a big year for football. The women brought it home. The Japan World Cup kit was extraordinary. Martine Rose managed to pull off similar feats, too.
A London designer that's steadily accrued her cachet over several years, the vintage-inspired football shirts were the right grail at the right time, and soon sold out following a previous collab with Nike that commemorated the unofficial England women’s team who played in the 1971 World Cup. Good luck finding one at resale.
If you’ve seen your favourite actors or singers wearing pearls or colourful beads this year, chances are they're from Éliou. The Miami brand was arguably the trigger to the wave of kidult jewellery, and landed on everyone from Harry Styles to Joe Jonas. And just because it's inspired by a crafternoon doesn't mean it's all hand-assembled plastics: Éliou leans on the higher grade in freshwater pearls, enamel and Murano glass.
Australia isn't a style vacuum. That's never been the case. But it took local outfits like Butter Goods to sway the haters – and, right now, there's an absolute love-in. The brand down under has focused on an illustrative, vibrant form of skatewear that takes point from surf culture, and the resulting storm has seen all manner of big pieces: cartoon hoodies, '90s sweats and slogan tees.
The best, though? The beanies. They fit perfectly, meld trawlerman and “yeahhhhh, man”, and are an affordable way to champion Butter Goods – and Australian style – on the daily.
In a market as tightly packed as skincare, ‘cult product’ has lost all semblance of meaning. But it's taken Haeckels, a British label from the Kentish coast, to re-define the terms. A venture kickstarted by a volunteer beach warden, Haeckels uses hand-harvested bladderwrack seaweed to formulate most of its skincare. And it's working.
Packed with iodine and fucoidan – two anti-inflammatory extracts that stimulate dermal healing – bladderwrack has become Haeckels' secret weapon in its low fuss, high results offering. There's been a round of investment. There's a comprehensive range. There's even a cotton candy pink store in Broadway Market – the ultimate sign of a successful cult product if there ever was one.
The 550 just won’t go away. We don't want it to. The chunky silhouette continues to sell out every time it drops in a new colourway thanks to an army of Aimé Leon Dore and Casablanca fanboys, who were all brought on board in recent years. Now more readily available than ever, the once humble 550 has become a cult product all in itself.
If this particular Rolex GMT-Master II looks strange to you, that’s because it really is. For whatever hush-hush reason, Rolex decided to release a ‘left-handed’ version of its classic aviation piece this year, with the crown and date window on the left. It was a particularly racy move for the conservative Swiss industry – and the watch world went mad for it.
Try and get hold of one. You won’t have much luck. There are waiting lists for the waiting lists, with some estimating a five year turnaround for a new GMT-Master II. To the back of the queue, please sir.
Biker jackets were big news for 2022. And it's moved on from double black riders à la Brando and Dean.
It was all about moto-inspired designs with loud branding, sponsor logos and panelled colours. The king of them all was from Gucci Palace, with its embroidered wild cats, Italian flag patch and overt, all-over branding. And the best bit is you can still buy one – albeit, at the time of writing, for £31,342 on StockX.
The rise of Jacquemus has been staggering. From a CDG sales assistant to one of the biggest names in fashion, Simon Porte is proof that hard work and genuine newness and vision can lead to very good things. And very good padded jackets.
As part of his whole sensual minimalism with a tongue firmly planted in its cheek, the La Chemise padded shirt is emblematic of Porte's worldview. These are wear-everywhere classics, but new classics for a new sort of futuristic-lite menswear. Because it's an overshirt, first and foremost. But it's swollen, playful and a hot cake proper for 2022.
When one of the best looking, most hyped cameras of all time gets reissued, it gets people talking. The M6 might just be Leica’s crown jewel, the camera that set the benchmark for all others to follow. But it stopped making them in 2002, giving way to more advanced designs and eventually, digital cameras. The M6 only shoots film. So why reissue it? Well, when it’s as iconic as this, it just seems like the right thing to do. Plus, everyone is shooting 35mm again these days, so why not reintroduce the camera that started a hundred careers, from Joel Meyerowitz to Andre D. Wagner?