WELCOME TO ‘Bite-sized style news’, a monthly dispatch where we discuss the news, rumours and conversations that are dominating the men’s style discourse, and therefore, our Esquire water cooler chitchat.

Scroll on for this month’s edition

Rodd & Gunn Footy’s Back In Fashion Runway. Photo Credit: Sam Tabone

That’s one for the AFL boys courtesy Rodd & Gunn

Rodd & Gunn has finally done what the AFL world has been waiting for, dropping a capsule collection of team kit that actually looks good.

The New Zealand menswear stalwart has run all eighteen AFL clubs through its premium lifestyle filter, producing a range that’s wearable beyond three-quarter time and built around the Foresters Peak quarter-zip and the Otago sweatshirt.

Cut from Australian-grown Good Earth Cotton, the range trades too-tight-guernsey energy for embroidered crests, tasteful restraint, and plenty of heritage-nodding tones.

Aussie supermodel Montana Cox was first down the runway on opening night, Geelong icon Tom Hawkins fronted the MCG-shot campaign, and the entire collection is available for pre-order now. 

Words Nick Kenyon

Athleisure brand Alo has arrived at Chatswood Chase

Working out is about to look a lot better thanks to one of the biggest cult athleisure brands finally reaching Australian shores. Yes, ALO has landed, with its first Australian sanctuary now open within the precinct’s recently elevated luxury wing, four more locations slated for 2026, Bondi Junction among them.

The Los Angeles label has spent nearly two decades blurring the line between studio and street, and its Sydney debut leans into that ethos rather happily. The 315-square-metre space, with its all-limestone façade and whitewashed timber, draws on ALO’s Air, Land, Ocean philosophy, a design language that reads as distinctly local: coastal materiality, a neutral palette.

“There is a real movement culture here, a strong sense of community, and a way of life rooted in the outdoors that aligns intuitively with who we are,” says Benedetta Petruzzo, ALO’s International CEO in an official statement regarding the store’s opening.

Perfect to bend, bounce, stretch, sprint in or just a weekend spent in comfort.

Prada partners with Axoim Space to create a new lunar spacesuit

The distance between that screen and reality is narrowing faster than expected.

In partnership with Axiom Space, Prada has now unveiled the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment – the inner layer of the Axiom Extravehicular Mobility Unit spacesuit that astronauts will wear when they return to the lunar surface during NASA’s Artemis IV mission. And yes, it looks almost exactly like a Fremen Stillsuit from Denis Villeneuve’s Dune series…

The LCVG draws on Prada’s expertise in engineered knitting and advanced 3D modelling to deliver a garment that circulates cold water through a network of tubes routed across the body’s major muscle groups, carrying metabolic heat away to the suit’s life-support system. A separate loop delivers fresh oxygen across the astronaut’s face, continuously washing away exhaled carbon dioxide.

The garment also features a fully redundant cooling circuit – a backup system should the primary loop fail.

The LCVG follows the 2024 unveiling of the AxEMU’s outer layer, also developed with Prada, built to withstand the thermal extremes of the lunar South Pole. That Prada now sees itself in the stars feels like a logical destination.

Louis Vuitton named Title Partner for the Grand Prix de Monaco

Start your engines…

Louis Vuitton has confirmed it will be the Title Partner of the 2026 Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco, running from today, 5th June and over the weekend until 7th June – a step up from its role as Official F1 Partner and the latest marker of LVMH’s deepening investment in motorsport.

The group announced a 10-year global Formula 1 partnership in October 2024, launching it at Albert Park in March 2025 when Louis Vuitton served as Title Partner of the Australian Grand Prix. That Melbourne race set the template: bespoke Trophy Trunks, on-circuit signage, and the house’s signature “Victory Travels in Louis Vuitton” tagline running trackside.

Monaco adds further layers. The Monogram canvas Trophy Trunk – reinterpreted in red as a nod to the Principality’s flag – has accompanied the race since 2021, carrying the trophies of Verstappen, Leclerc and Lando Norris.

This year a limited-edition Monaco collection spanning ready-to-wear, accessories and leather goods launches alongside a first-ever Louis Vuitton City Guide dedicated to the Principality.

The Formula 1 commitment sits within a broader LVMH sporting strategy that has seen Louis Vuitton serve as Official Trophy Trunk partner to the Australian Open since 2024 – and Roland Garros since 2017.

Sport, it turns out, remains one of fashion’s more durable status plays.

M.J. Bale delivers for the snow season

From Martin Place to Mont Blanc.

Australian menswear label M.J. Bale has built its reputation on communicating exactly where its wool comes from – a transparency that the brand sees as foundational to the trust that they’ve built with their customers over the years.

Its latest move makes that point rather literally.

Alpine-Active, the brand’s new technical skiwear collection, takes Merino from Lake Hāwea Station in New Zealand’s Southern Alps – 10,000 sheep grazing above 1,500 metres, producing 16–18 micron fibre on Australasia’s first certified carbon zero farm – runs it through Reda, a Biella mill that has been weaving fine wool cloth in Piedmont since 1885, and hands it to JAAM Italia, the Trentino-based manufacturer that has supplied Italy’s national ski instructors for fourteen consecutive years. A supply chain with a story at every step.

The result: the ultimate performance-wear to keep you warm and mobile on the slopes this ski season. The ski jacket and pants made with a 100% Merino outer shell, plus fleeces, base layers and gilets, all meeting JAAM’s 20,000mm waterproofing specification.

A percentage of every sale feeds back directly to Lake Hāwea Station for biodiversity preservation and tree planting.

Alpine-Active is available now in select M.J. Bale stores and online.

180 years of Loewe

Feliz Cumpleaños!

Spanish heritage brand Loewe has arguably had one of the most remarkable trajectories in the industry. Little-known outside of its hometown of Madrid, it became known for its leather and craftsmanship. Then Jonathan Anderson happened. And we all know the magic of that period.

Now helmed by Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, the founders of industry darling brand Proenza Schouler, the house is celebrating 180 years of excellence and storytelling. With an excellent campaign filled with storytelling.

Shot by Talia Chetrit, it features global brand ambassador Julia Garner alongside Sissy Spacek, artist Kara Walker, and brand ambassadors Salma Abu Deif, Giselle and Kara Wai.

Each appears with an iconic Loewe bag – among them the Flamenco clutch, the Puzzle, and the new Amazona 180, a reimagining of the 1975 original by incoming creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez.

A capsule collection of bags, small leather goods and ready-to-wear lands in store and on loewe.com June 3, with lion motifs – the translation of loewe from German – running throughout. An animated film narrated by Antonio Banderas and a special publication, 180 Years of Craft, round out the anniversary program.

Polo Ralph Lauren opens their doors in Castle Towers

Busy times at American fashion brand Ralph Lauren. Not only did they just kick off their latest campaign, A Sporting Life, with a tastefully dressed polo match out in the lush Richmond Lowlands of Sydney, but they’ve opened the doors to their latest boutique in Castle Hill.

Located inside the Castle Towers shopping centre in Sydney’s north-west, the new boutique stocks a curated selection of men’s and women’s apparel and accessories.

The store’s architectural details and refined finishes are designed to reflect the brand’s blend of heritage and modern luxury – an immersive retail environment that Ralph Lauren has been refining for the better part of six decades.

The opening follows recent Australian launches at Burnside Village in South Australia, Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and Westfield Miranda in Sydney’s south, and forms part of the brand’s Next Great Chapter: Drive strategy — a plan to roll out 150 new stores across the Asia-Pacific region over the next three years.

Castle Towers Shopping Centre, Level 3, Shop 3208, Castle St, Castle Hill NSW 2154

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Polo Ralph Lauren launches their A Sporting Life campaign in true Ralph Lauren style