If there's one lesson to be gleaned from Saint Laurent's Fall/Winter 2023 menswear show, it's that Gen Z was right: Side parts are so passé.
Back in 2021, a heated beauty debate began bubbling up on TikTok. On one side, chronically online under-25s proclaimed that parting down the middle is the only acceptable way to style one's hair. On the other, disgruntled Millennials doubled down on their apparently unfashionable side-swoops (perhaps relics of their early-to-mid-2000s emo phases).
Now, halfway through men's Fashion Week, it seems that designers are siding with the junior generation. At Saint Laurent, models slinked down the runway wearing a particularly severe iteration of Gen Z's preferred hair style. Parted down the middle with what appears to be a razor, locks were slicked down to the skull and swept back.
The severe, ultra-precise look complemented creative director Anthony Vaccarello's sex-soaked vision for FW23, full of chest-baring blouses, pointy patent leather shoes, and fluid silk trousers.
Saint Laurent wasn't the only house that dealt in middle parts this season. At JW Anderson, middle parts gave floppy, tousled manes a sense of structure and at Givenchy, faux parts were shaved down the center of buzzcuts.
Once considered terminally dorky, middle parts have officially transcended TikTok discourse, flooding the runways at Milan and Paris. So what are you waiting for? Head to your local beauty supply store and pick up the sharpest tail comb you can find.
