On the Runway
By ELIZABETH PATON

Now in its fourth year, London Collections Men, the curtain raiser for the men’s wear catwalk season, has fast defined itself as the home of the individual. As such, it exerts a gravitational pull on established brands from across the globe looking to underscore their point of difference, as well as emerging talent with evermore daring design identities. Which names will make their mark this season? Here are five to watch.

Craig Green

Craig Green is the indisputable leader of the pack when it comes to the small-scale lights of the London men’s wear scene. He is the winner of the British Fashion Council/GQ Designer Menswear fund last month, as well as the 2014 emerging men’s wear designer prize at the British Fashion Awards, and was shortlisted for the LVMH prize in 2015. This Central Saint Martins graduate has made a name with his conceptual takes on utilitarian wardrobe basics. “It was a unanimous decision,” said Dylan Jones, the editor of British GQ, regarding the judges’ vote to give Mr. Green, 29, the award. “Craig has demonstrated a unique ability to build commercially on the incredible awareness driven by his high-profile shows, and shows a seemingly innate ability to understand the demands of growing a small business.”

To wit, each season Mr. Green offers a fresh take on the simple workwear jacket alongside regular explorations of concepts like uniform, gender and showmanship, the better to recast traditional masculine ideals for the 21st century. It’s an approach that is increasingly being bought up and endorsed by fashion’s big-name retailers such as Dover Street Market, and it’s worth noting that many of his growing legions of celebrity and industry fans are women (see Rihanna and FKA Twigs). Oh, and Kanye West and Drake are devotees, too.

Grace Wales Bonner

The breakout star of the January men’s shows in London was Ms. Wales Bonner, 25, a native daughter who started her Wales Bonner label in 2014 after graduating from Central Saint Martins. She promptly bagged herself the emerging men’s wear designer prize at the British Fashion Awards, following in Craig Green’s footsteps (though not his aesthetic) and was a finalist for the LVMH prize this year. Historically, her work has explored the space between high luxury trends and black history and culture, and her catwalk debut at LCM as part of the London men’s wear talent incubator MAN was no exception. “Spirituals” (a.k.a. the AW16 collection) married hypermasculine and feminine tailoring in louche velvet and silk 1970s-style separates and tracksuits, dripping with Swarovski crystal decorations and shells, to a live soundtrack of Nigerian-Irish composer Tunde Jegede playing the kora, a West African lute. Last year Ms. Wales Bonner also had an immersive installation devoted to her previous collections at the Victoria & Albert museum as part of its “Fashion in Motion” program. “Her designs are not only beautifully crafted but also conceived from important concepts and themes,” said Oriole Cullen, curator of the series. Perhas not coincidentally, the sky-high prices of Ms. Wales Bonner’s pieces suggest that for the time being, she is keeping her focus away from mass production.

Coach

Thanks to its decision to unite men’s and women’s wear shows into a see-now buy-now seasonless collection to be held during the women’s season in September, Burberry has relinquished its anchor position on the LCM schedule as the billion-dollar brand with the blockbuster show. (They are having a party instead.) Since fashion, as well as nature, abhors a vacuum, Coach, the United States accessories powerhouse, has swooped in to take its place. After the company decided on a strategic foray into men’s wear several years ago, its British creative director, Stuart Vevers, 42, chose to relocate the Coach 1941 shows from New York to his homeland for an injection of cool London grit, even if the DNA of most collections remains heavily focused on familiar, archetypal pieces that pay homage to Americana. Think commercially friendly oversize shearling coats and jackets, lumberjack shirts and witty sweatshirts, which is to say, easy wardrobe staples for the 21st century urban dweller that the company hopes will help drive a turnaround effort that began in 2013.

Phoebe English Man

Young British designer and Dover Street Market favorite Phoebe English has garnered considerable critical acclaim in recent years for her women’s wear, with its loose, abstract silhouettes, painstaking attention to detail and refined finish. Her men’s wear brand — with a look predominantly inspired by the style of her boyfriend, the artist and designer Sam Edkins, whom she met when she was 12 — includes many of her signatures, such as frayed edges and handwoven natural fabrics, and is now in its third season. “Phoebe, who has become a beloved fixture within London fashion week, has now offered men’s wear with an aesthetic that has taken the codes of her eponymous brand and emphatically shifted them toward a masculine dynamic,” Olivia Singer of AnOther magazine wrote last year. The June presentation will take place with sponsorship from NEWGEN Men on Friday.

Maison Mihara Yasuhiro

The Japanese fashion designer Mihara Yasuhiro first made his name in footwear, before expanding into ready-to-wear in 1997 and showing his men’s wear collections in Paris, where he has long been considered an industry favorite. This season, for the first time, the 42-year-old is taking his particular brand of sartorial storytelling to London. “I started designing shoes through the influence of British shoe designer John Moore, and my design has always been based on British music, culture and history,” Mr. Yasuhiro said of the move. “Showing in London is like going back to my roots as a designer.” Expect pieces worn, torn, patched and decorated, along the lines of his January show, which was soaked with feeling and inspired by the post-World War I portraits of the German artist August Sander. The casually disheveled yet slick Yasuhiro aesthetic reflects the combination of simplicity paired with personality that come to define Japanese fashion — and it has created an army of devoted followers across the globe, particularly in his home country.