The King of Suave > Michael Bastian

Established: 2006

GQ class of: 2007, 2011

Hometown: New York City

ANDREW THOMAS

The Résumé of Tireless Cool

• 2005: Bastian peaces out as men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman to follow a dream: launching his own Italian-made brand of “menswear building blocks at a luxury level.” Good idea: He soon wins his first GQ Best New Menswear Designer award.

• 2010: Starts a four-year run designing a Gant line infused with Wes Anderson whimsy. He then wins a second BNMDA nod, the only man to ever repeat.

• 2013: For Uniqlo, designs polo shirts with pocket flaps and quirky prints—the first (and only) time we’ve wanted to wear the waving Japanese “lucky cat.”

• 2016: His hundred-piece namesake line includes everything from gym clothes to formalwear—so the Gap collection, at maybe a dozen pieces, ought to be easy…right? “It’s a great challenge,” Bastian tells us. “It’s the difference between a novel and a good short story. They’re equally powerful.”

The Boys of Summer > Saturdays NYC

Established: 2009

GQ class of: 2012

Founders: Morgan Collett, Colin Tunstall, Josh Rosen

Would you like a surfboard with your chinos? (c) DAICI ANO

• Saturdays showed up out of nowhere, a magpie line that gathered all the style touch points of the moment: the surf-culture explosion, the shrunk-in-the-wash fit favored by Band of Outsiders (R.I.P.), and the crisp graphic designs aimed at city kids partying on tiki-torched decks in Montauk and Malibu. As menswear piled on more influences, so did Saturdays: skate-rat hats, jean jackets, cozy preppy sweaters. But what Saturdays did first, and maybe does best, is make the brand feel like a way of life. “We publish our own in-house magazine,” says co-founder Morgan Collett. “We developed our own coffee blend, which we sell at the store.” Now in New York, Japan, and Australia, the shops feel like your most stylish buddy’s weekend home—that also happens to sell denim work shirts you can’t live without.

The Streetwear Savant > John Elliott