Rick Owens's avant-garde style is a far cry from Chinese designer Sean Suen, whose work looks at traditional costume to imagine tomorrow's male wardrobe. The two, however different, were inspired by work primarily done by men for their Fall Winter 2025 collections. In both cases, they offer some innovative takes on clothes that can blend well in many professional environments, which should excite customers and retailers alike come September.

Owens is a goth-inspired California native who splits his time between Paris, where he creates, and the small industrial town of Concordia, Italy, where he produces his collection, a juxtaposition. Entitled Concordians, his Fall Winter 2025 collection draws inspiration from the remote, bleak manufacturing town, an ancient city in the Veneto region. In the show notes, Owens suggested that he and his squad convene from various cosmopolitan locations to descend upon the town, which can be bleak and sequestered, which helps them achieve something "weird and wonderful."

To the former, Owens worked with avant-garde CGI fashion designer Victor Clavelly to create chain-link leather bumster skirts and boots that had a cozy yet otherworldly feel to them, frilled tops and hoodies in collaboration with rubber mistress Matisse di Maggio, bronze-cast distressed jeans and white alligator styles with a droopy, elongated pant leg, and a bondage harness here or there capped off with heavy duty grip soled work boots.

To the latter, there was a noticeable restraint on pieces that served both a practical and polished edginess. (It was demonstrated by one guest who was all-clad in Rick Owens garb and resembled a downtown New York City gent.) First up, eco-certified wool viscose thermal leggings to brave the European winter, loads of innovative outerwear from vegetable-tanned leathers, wool melton overcoats with zipper details, zip-front stadium coats, and British mélange wool felt jackets would suit any office suite. A luxe oversized suede shirt practically hinted at the Cucinelli man. As most businessmen are prone to travel, Owens teamed up with Rimowa for a bronzed exterior lined in a black leather case with a luggage tag that doubles as a necklace.

Sean Suen made a case for blending traditional Western tailoring with Eastern cultural iconic motifs that add up to sophisticated clothing with lush details. The Chinese and Beijing-based designer looked to the route known as the Tea Horse Trade, a narrow mountainous stretch from Qinghai-Tibet to the Yunnan-Guizhou plateaus.

In the Fall Winter 2025 outing, Suen imagined the rustic nomadic charm of the porters, caravans, and mule teams' garb who traveled the route, combining those elements with more Western dress ideals. Traveling by horse, the Tibetan contingency was reminiscent of aspects of the American cowboy but with an Eastern flair. Backstage, the designer explained that he mixed Han, Tibetan, Naxi, and Bai, among other cultures, to achieve the blended aesthetic result of the tribes traversing the route, adapting to the terrain and climate along the way.

The result was louche fit traditional tailoring mixed with fringed shawls layered at the waist or shoulder (in particular, a black leather woven fringed cape worn over a louche grey shirt and pant ensemble topped with a coordinating leather cowboy hat summed up the idea succinctly.)

Shearlings appeared as smart coats or vests worn over tailored outfits or shawls wrapped askew from one hip to the other shoulder and worn over a crackled leather suit in one example. Accessories such as rolled-brimmed traditional Chinese caps and felt-brimmed, bell-trimmed cowboy hats, various satchels, parcel envelope bags, and boots bedecked with more bells -- to symbolize the horse harnesses -- worn throughout editorialized the image to perfection as models determinedly galloped along to music that pulsed with intent.

Stripped away to individual elements, the collection offered plenty of options for men searching for wardrobe additions they don't have in their closet and destined to bring out the inner nomad in any city slicker.