Trendspotting at the VMAN Vanguards Club
Red statements, sharp collars, monochrome looks, leather, and touches of shine set the tone for the first-ever VMAN Vanguards Club in Manila
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Last night, the first-ever VMAN Vanguards Club brought Manila’s fashion and pop culture crowd together at Bando, marking the launch of VMAN Southeast Asia’s August 2025 Television Digital Issue.
The celebration introduced eleven new cover stars, the boys of Pinoy Big Brother, with Brent Manalo, Michael Sager, River Joseph, and Josh Ford leading the charge in attendance. They were joined by previous VMAN Southeast Asia cover stars, VMEN, and the city’s cool crowd for an evening of music, conversation, and style.
The night also doubled as a snapshot of where men’s fashion is heading. Across the room, four distinct trends defined the moment.
MORE: The Men of the Moment: Nine New Vanguards of Philippine Pop Culture and Fashion
Pops of red
Red was the exclamation point of the night. The color itself is not new, but what made it striking was its range: bold monochrome suiting in the shade of stoplights, silk shirts in softer cherry tones, and subtle accents that still managed to cut through the dark of the club. The effect was unmistakable. In a crowd of neutrals, red made you look twice.
Mandarin collars
The counterpoint to red’s boldness came in the form of Chinese collar cuts. Stripped of fuss, they reshaped men’s eveningwear into something sleeker, almost monk-like in discipline. Standing in contrast to the classic lapel, the collarless neckline frames faces cleanly, pulling the gaze upward and leaving little room for distraction.
Mono mode
Commitment was the key here. To wear one color head to toe is to risk monotony, yet the best monochrome looks at the Vanguards Club proved that texture and proportion can transform uniformity into impact. White-on-white ensembles gleamed under Bando’s lights, recalling both futurist optimism and the sharpness of sportswear. Black-on-black, meanwhile, played with surface, pairing matte wool against patent leather and velvet jackets with crisp cotton shirting, turning subtle contrast into spectacle.
Leather
Leather appeared everywhere, from jackets thrown across slim silhouettes to sharply cut trousers and even reinterpreted shirts with the faintest sheen. Its presence carried the mythology of toughness, but the way it was worn in this crowd was less about rebellion than refinement. Leather had the gloss of futurism rather than the grit of biker culture, suggesting that toughness today is something you can tailor.
High shine details
If leather grounded the night in texture, shine lifted it into play. Guests experimented with metallic details, from silver chains glinting under strobe lights to sequined trims running down collars and belts and buttons catching the eye mid-conversation. Where leather spoke of structure, shine whispered of spectacle. It was not glitter for glitter’s sake, but considered punctuation. Shiny accents highlighted movement, rewarding a second glance. It was proof that even the most serious style can afford a flash of fun.
The VMAN Vanguards Club was a glimpse of a style lexicon in the making. Backed by IQOS, Acer, and New Era, the night set a precedent: Southeast Asian men’s fashion is leaning into boldness and clarity, trading hesitance for statements that can be read from across the room.
If these trends are any indication, the vanguards have arrived with their own vocabulary, written in red, pared down by clean collars, sharpened by monochrome, toughened by leather, and illuminated at just the right moments by shine.
Photography Mik Primacio
Frequently Asked Questions
The inaugural Manila gathering established five prominent style directions for the regional evening wardrobe: saturated pops of red, minimalist Mandarin collars, highly textured monochrome ensembles, refined leather tailoring, and calculated high-shine metallic trim accents that emphasized movement under club lighting.
Mandarin collars, or Chinese collar cuts, alter traditional tailoring by removing the outward folds of classic lapels. This clean, lapel-free neckline frames the face directly and forces a sleeker, hyper-disciplined vertical focus, effectively modernizing the template of standard Southeast Asian evening attire.
An individual can elevate a monochromatic outfit by contrasting distinct textile surfaces and play with varying garment proportions. Pairing matte wool alongside high-gloss patent leather, or matching rich velvet jackets with crisp cotton shirting, generates visual dimension through surface texture while keeping a single hue.
Modern menswear reinterprets leather as an instrument of sleek refinement rather than raw, counter-cultural biker rebellion. The contemporary approach utilizes supple, precisely cut leathers displaying a futuristic gloss, allowing the material to be styled as tailored trousers or lightweight overshirts within formal night environments.
Saturated colors like stoplight crimson and deep cherry operate as visual punctuation marks within neutral-dominated crowds. Incorporating these tones into monochrome suits or structured silk shirting allows contemporary Southeast Asian men to project instant aesthetic clarity and confidence across a room without sacrificing tailored sophistication.
