This Is the Secret to a Decade of Relevance In Fashion
You don't make it a decade in fashion by accident. Just think about how much has changed in fashion in the past 10 years: Back in 2016, Demna's Vetements was the hottest thing in fashion (we were still a year away from the Balenciaga Triple S) and logomania was in full swing. Remember Alessandro Michele's Gucci loafer-mule things? The adidas YEEZY hype? The Virgil Abloh of it all???
All that stuff was hot back then. Nowadays, not so much. So it goes with trends. Noah consistently knocking out superlative lookbooks is not a trend.
Brendon Babenzian's clothing label has been active since 2015 (though it was actually born around the early '00s) and it's never not had sauce. When I picture the perfect "good taste" lookbook, I typically recall Noah's Fall/Winter 2018 imagery, which is so obviously excellent that even someone who knew nothing about clothing could tell it's legit. And, even more importantly, that it lasts the test of time.
“It took 10 years to get to where I feel like, ‘Oh, this looks like what I imagined,’” Babenzien told me last year as Noah officially turned 10. “The real test is if we say, ‘Are we going to look at this in 10 years and still think it’s good?’”
That atitude is exactly how Babenzien and his team have kept turning out ageless excellence.
Still, the Fall/Winter 2026 Noah collection does feel particularly potent. Noah's latest lineup looks a lot like the sort of stuff you expect from historically suave designers like Margaret Howell, herself a case study in fashion longevity.
The secret? Make good stuff, real stuff, wearable stuff. And make it interesting.
Whereas street-adjacent peers like Supreme — where Babenzien once worked — Stüssy, and Aimé Leon Dore have ebbed and flowed over the past decade, Noah was consistent. It's not merely that Noah reiterated menswear classics for a decade. That's boring.
Like, we've all seen the blazer + blue jeans + white socks + loafer combo before but, here, Noah makes it feel fresh by going big on the lapels — not peak-lapel big but close — dabbling in glen plaid, and layering up (and tucking in) a sporty pullover underneath. New but old. As wearable as anything in granddad's closet but better.
Subtle styling tricks demonstrate the FW26 clothes' potential: a similar V-neck shape makes velvet-y sweaters look smart but not stiff. A quarter-zip shirt-jacket is tucked in to sharpen proportions. Loud yellows and reds are a retort to unmemorable neutrals. High-texture overcoats and Harrington-style zip-ups reconsider staple items with statement power.
It's not rocket science but it's also not the sort of thing that just anyone is offering to this degree. Otherwise there'd be a million Noahs that'd all last for a million years. But there's only one.
Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit our SHOPPER page and subscribe to the newsletter for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.
