While much of the internet’s obsession with Love Story and the resurgence of ‘90s fashion centered around Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, it also reignited a broader conversation around men’s fashion; from renewed fascination with John F. Kennedy Jr.’s understated tailoring and effortless street style to this year’s Oscars, where men stepped onto the red carpet wearing brooches and expressive adornment.

It turns out masculinity may be entering a more self-aware era.

Cult Gaia’s first menswear collection arrived directly within that cultural shift. But according to founder and CEO Jasmin Larian Hekmat, the move wasn’t trend-driven so much as demand-led.

“Fashion has become a lot more fluid,” Hekmat tells me over Zoom. “To me, it’s less of a new category and more of an extension of our language.”

Rather than entering menswear through traditional codes of tailoring, performance dressing or streetwear, Hekmat approached the category through the same emotional lens that built Cult Gaia’s women’s business: sensuality, environment and feeling. In many ways, the collection rejects the rigidity that has long defined traditional menswear, prioritizing emotional connection and ease over overt trend cycles or hyper-masculine dressing.

For Hekmat, the expansion reflects behavior already unfolding inside the Cult Gaia universe.

Men had long occupied the brand’s “boyfriend couches” while waiting for partners to shop, but increasingly, they were asking when the brand would design for them too. At the same time, the company began noticing a growing crossover between male and female customers. “Mast,” one of Cult Gaia’s fragrances, resonated with male shoppers, while women gravitated toward oversized silhouettes and began purchasing menswear for themselves or their partners.

Today, 52% of Cult Gaia’s menswear customers are existing female customers shopping for partners, reinforcing what Hekmat sees as a broader shift toward what could be described as “relational dressing,” where partners influence each other’s wardrobes, aesthetics and approach to self-expression.

The launch arrives during a period of significant growth for Cult Gaia, which has seen 42% year-over-year growth and recently surpassed $100 million in annual revenue. The company now operates 12 retail locations alongside international pop-ups in destinations including France, the United Kingdom and Turkey, as it continues building what Hekmat describes as a world rooted “less in category and more in feeling.”

Founded in 2012, Cult Gaia has withstood more than a decade of shifting fashion cycles by consistently resisting convention. Rather than chasing trend-driven product drops or building around commercial basics, the brand carved out its identity through sculptural statement pieces, emotional storytelling and an immersive point of view.

While many contemporary brands continue prioritizing digital growth, Hekmat remains deeply invested in physical retail as a form of emotional storytelling; expanding Cult Gaia through immersive spaces in fashion and resort destinations around the world.

That instinct toward differentiation has shaped Cult Gaia’s broader business strategy from the beginning. Early on, Hekmat resisted industry pressure to prioritize “core” commercial product and aggressive wholesale expansion, instead leaning into sculptural statement pieces and a direct-to-consumer-heavy model.

“Cult Gaia has never just been about women’s clothing,” she says. “It’s always been about this feeling of escape.”

That philosophy has shaped everything from the brand’s sculptural accessories and fragrance launches to its increasingly immersive retail environments. Hekmat sees stores not simply as places to shop, but as emotional experiences — spaces that evoke fantasy, sensuality and discovery. It’s a strategy that has helped Cult Gaia evolve from a cult accessories label known for its iconic Ark bag into a broader lifestyle universe.

Menswear, however, presented a unique creative challenge.

“With women’s fashion, I’ll do anything for the look,” Hekmat says, laughing. “It doesn’t matter how heavy or uncomfortable something is if it’s visually compelling.”

Menswear required a different approach — one focused on comfort without sacrificing visual impact or the brand’s point of view.

“The Cult Gaia man still wants beautiful materials and thoughtful details, but he also wants to wear those pieces in the real world without feeling overly styled,” Hekmat shares.

“I think men really prioritize comfort and fit in a way women don’t. So I really had to focus on making sure the pieces felt as good as they looked.”

That tension between structure and style became central to the collection itself.

In many ways, the Cult Gaia man exists as a counterpart to the Cult Gaia woman.

“She’s confident and expressive, but never overt,” Hekmat says. “And the man exists in that same world.”

Rather than treating menswear and womenswear as separate identities, Hekmat approached the collection as a natural extension of the same design language — one that allows for fluidity, overlap and reinterpretation.

During the brand’s runway presentation, women wore oversized men’s blazers and trousers styled alongside more body-conscious silhouettes, reinforcing the idea that the collections are meant to exist in dialogue with one another.

Hekmat says customers have already begun naturally crossing between categories.

“I had a friend at dinner tell me she bought all these men’s clothes without even realizing they were men’s,” Hekmat says. “And I was like, ‘Perfect. That’s exactly the intention.’”

The designer says she has long been drawn to the tension between masculine and feminine dressing, often borrowing from her husband’s wardrobe herself.

“I wear my husband’s coat sometimes. I wear his clothes often,” she says. “I want people to feel like they can share pieces.”

“I don’t like things to feel literal or predictable,” she adds. “I love that contrast.”

The growing embrace of adornment in menswear also played a role in shaping the collection. On recent red carpets, actors including Pedro Pascal and Adrien Brody have embraced brooches and jewelry styling traditionally viewed as more decorative or ‘feminine’, a shift Hekmat sees as reflective of a broader cultural openness around masculine self-expression.

“Even a brooch can become a talking point,” she says. “It allows men to express themselves while still feeling masculine.”

For Hekmat, the broader opportunity lies not in chasing trends, but in recognizing emotional shifts already happening within culture and consumer behavior.

“It’s the same language,” Hekmat says. “It’s just spoken differently.”