Alexandre Plokhov and Robert Geller walk into the Marc Jacobs office… and a cult label, Cloak, is born.

While Plokhov and Geller are today known for the success of their eponymous labels, in the early-2000s they were working for Marc Jacobs. There, they became close friends and Plokhov invited Geller to help relaunch a brand he was working on: Cloak.

Together, Plokhov and Geller made a formidable team, with the former handling technical designing and the latter styling and color palettes. The clothes were undeniably beautiful, blending inspirations both punk and traditional; the industry took note, with Cloak being awarded the Vogue/CFDA grant in 2004.

But, like all of the brands on this list, Cloak met an unhappy end, in 2007. “We were making beautiful clothes,” Geller told No Man Walks Alone, “Cloak was fun, and it was great, but it was never [realistic]” from a business standpoint. After showing a Spring/Summer 2007 collection, Cloak ceased operations quietly and quickly. Geller launched his eponymous line, while Plokhov went on to direct Versace’s menswear collections for a few years, before also launching his own label for Spring/Summer 2012. And while both have enjoyed a great deal of success, it has been incredibly hard for both Plokhov and Geller to distance themselves from the memories of Cloak.

We’ve already waxed poetic about how Nom de Guerre is the “most influential streetwear brand you may have never heard of”, but it’s impossible to overstate just how important the brand was—and still is.

Taking up residence in a NoHo basement in 2003, Nom de Guerre was both a store and a brand, offering a tightly curated selection from brands like Comme des Garçons, A.P.C., Band of Outsiders and Nike, in addition to its own military-inspired wares. As a brand, Nom de Guerre grew from screen printed T-shirts to intricate cut and sewn pieces; the styling—how the brand effortlessly presented tailoring and military outerwear and graphic T-shirts together in lookbooks—was what truly set Nom de Guerre apart, though. Today, the brands that have riffed on Nom de Guerre’s aesthetic are innumerable, with a number of designers explicitly citing the defunct New York label as an influence.

While revered, Nom de Guerre was never able to find enough commercial success, first outsourcing production to China in a bid to keep costs lower, before ultimately halting production after the brand’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection. The shop closed its doors a few months later, in early 2011. Still, the brand’s imprint is everywhere in contemporary menswear, and archival pieces from the label are highly-coveted today.

Kris Van Assche has a pedigree—and a resume—that is second to none. The Belgian designer was trained at the Antwerp Royal Academy before cutting his teeth under Hedi Slimane at Yves Saint Laurent and, later, Dior Homme. In 2005, he launched an eponymous line, KRISVANASSCHE, that combined sporty, technical details with the monochromatic, minimalist aesthetic that was undeniably influenced by Slimane.

In 2007, Van Assche succeeded Slimane at the helm of Dior Homme. With his attention divided, KRISVANASSCHE became somewhat predictable, the collections clearly flowing into one another. Van Assche’s most compelling work was saved for Dior Homme, with the exception of footwear, which quickly became what KRISVANASSCHE, as a brand, was known for. Hybrid footwear and futuristic-looking sneakers with intricate lacing systems became some of the most sought-after releases around the turn of the decade.

Ultimately, though, the task of creating full collections for one of the biggest luxury brands in the world while also keeping an independent label afloat was too much for Van Assche to handle, and he shuttered his eponymous line after a moderately successful Fall/Winter 2015 collection.

Simon Spurr is another designer with an incredible resume. After working at Yves Saint Laurent, Nautica and Calvin Klein, Spurr was tapped to head up Ralph Lauren Purple Label in 2003. Spurr held the position until 2005, and then launched SPURR, a denim line that was to serve as a precursor to a full menswear collection, in 2006.

While the full-fledged menswear label, Simon Spurr, was only introduced in 2010, SPURR enjoyed tremendous success. The denim line was carried by dozens of well-respected retailers and the garments were well-cut and well-made. The namesake line featured higher end fabrics and luxurious silhouettes, in the manner of Spurr’s prior work for Ralph Lauren Purple Label.

But Simon Spurr, as a brand, was short-lived. In 2012, Spurr was nominated for the best menswear designer by the CFDA, but, two days later, the designer left his eponymous label after his business partners trademarked the Simon Spurr brand, thus leaving Simon Spurr, the man, without control of his own name.

Spurr now uses the name Simon James for a number of projects and has worked with denim brand 7 For All Mankind, sculpts, makes furniture and designs boots for March NYC.

Few discontinued brands are as polarizing as Band of Outsiders. Some would even posit that it’s not really discontinued.

Founded in 2004 by Scott Sternberg, Band of Outsiders quickly carved out a niche for itself as a purveyor of prep with an anti-establishment twist—skinny suits and plaid or madras shirts and patterned knits that, rather than convey an adhesion to menswear’s traditional rules instead oozed nonchalance.

Sternberg’s true genius with the Band of Outsiders of the late-2000s and early-2010s was in how it was presented to the masses, tapping the likes of Jason Schwartzman, Donald Glover, Frank Ocean, Aziz Ansari and Kirsten Dunst to model the brand; he created elaborate sets for lookbooks and the clothes, themselves, looked both effortlessly thrown together, when they were, in fact, painstakingly styled. Thanks to Sternberg’s connections from his previous life working in Hollywood, the brand managed to blend its New England style with a distinctly L.A. ease. The effect was largely Wes Andersonian.

But as the prep-fuelled #menswear movement waned in the mid-2010s, Band of Outsiders began to suffer. Fewer and fewer clients were willing to pay the prices Band of Outsiders was charging—especially as more and more competition sprung up. By 2015, Sternberg sold the Band of Outsiders name to Belgian fashion fund CLCC, which appointed a trio of young designers to oversee a new, diluted version of the brand. It was widely panned and the design team was overhauled within months. Band of Outsiders still exists, but it is not the same Band of Outsiders of yore.

Sternberg, for his part, launched Entireworld, in 2018. While not necessarily the aesthetic heir to Band of Outsiders—think, instead, extremely elevated American Apparel with simple designs and bright colors—Entireworld has carried forward the somewhat zany and nerdy vibe that Band of Outsiders once thrived on.

Woolrich Woolen Mills has been around since 1830 and it isn’t going anywhere, so it’s not, technically speaking, discontinued. But the brand more commonly referred to as Woolrich did, once upon a time, offer up a more fashion-forward line, designed by two of menswear’s most revered figures.

Throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, Woolrich Woolen Mills turned to Daiki Suzuki, of Engineered Garments, and Mark McNairy for a series of collections that pushed one of America’s oldest and most traditional outdoor brands in a more fashionable direction. Both designers managed to infuse their respective aesthetics using traditional Woolrich silhouettes and fabrics. Suzuki’s “Hunting Noir” collection for Fall/Winter 2010 was particularly successful and, in retrospect, offered a good blueprint for what we’d come to expect from Engineered Garments. McNairy’s collections were slightly more subversive and the designer’s telltale prep-meets-punk look was popular in their own right.

Eventually, though, Woolrich pulled the plug on the project, contenting itself with its traditional retail channels and designs. What’s interesting, though, is that Woolrich has once again begun tapping a New York-based brand for capsule collections, calling upon Aimé Leon Dore repeatedly in recent seasons.

Whether Ian Velardi ever intended for his eponymous line to be his end game is known only to Ian Velardi. After plying his trade at Hickey Freeman, Velardi launched his namesake brand in 2010, but by 2012, he had already been identified by the likes of GQ and Gap as one of the emerging talents in menswear.

Velardi mixed sportswear and tailoring with aplomb at a time when it was popular to do so, and menswear aficionados appreciated both his wearable staples—like suede varsity jackets and trim chinos in muted colors—and more experimental creations, like the infamous puffer robe from Fall/Winter 2012.

Shortly after gaining industry acclaim, Velardi put his eponymous label on pause. The stress of running the brand alone—he handled everything from design to marketing to production to paying bills and chasing invoices—was too much to bear.

Velardi has opted to return to working for brands in-house, at Bonobos and Land’s End. Still, he refuses to take the possibility that his eponymous brand will return off the table.

While Kim Jones is best known for his work at Louis Vuitton and Dior Homme—two of the most celebrated and prestigious houses in the history of fashion—he was an accomplished and respected designer before the glitzy appointments.

After graduating from Central Saint Martins’ MA Fashion program in 2002, Jones started working on his eponymous line the following year and launched in 2004, showing first in London, then in Paris. The Kim Jones DNA was already apparent in those eight collections, with slouchy trousers, statement outerwear and a knack for mixing sportswear and tailoring. Jones only put out eight collections under his namesake label, but he quickly earned plaudits from the likes of Tim Blanks and other industry gatekeepers, while also developing a rabid fan base. He was also named Menswear Designer of the Year by the British Fashion Council in 2006.

Brands began to notice, too, with Jones collaborating with Umbro, Topman, Hugo Boss, and Iceberg, among others. At the same time, rumors had it that he was working with Kanye West on the rapper’s infamous Pastelle line. Ultimately, Kim Jones, the label, was a victim of the designer’s success: In 2008, after being appointed creative director for Alfred Dunhill, Jones shuttered his eponymous brand to concentrate on the task at hand. Clearly, the move paid dividends, with Jones then going on to Vuitton and Dior.

Remnants of the namesake brand have remained, though—Jones, rather than the brands he oversees, has worked with Nike repeatedly and he resurrected some of his designs for a collaboration with Japanese brand GU.

Men looking to wear clothes designed by Miuccia Prada have to content themselves with Prada’s offering. But that wasn’t always the case. Three years after launching Prada, Miuccia launched Miu Miu in 1992, which originally catered only to women. Miu Miu menswear was introduced for Fall/Winter 1999, and sought to cater to a younger, more artistic and creative clientele than Prada.

Miu Miu’s menswear wares sold for roughly half of Prada’s. That, despite the fact that it was designed by the likes of Stefano Pilati and some of Prada’s other acolytes. The clothes were playful and experimental, but still took some cues from the Prada man’s wardrobe—there were suits, but the pants were flared or cuffed with the type of elastic cotton one would normally find on sweatpants. Colorful motifs and more casual fabrics—but still luxurious—were widely used in the decade that Miu Miu menswear existed.

The end of Miu Miu’s menswear offering was, thankfully slow, rather than sudden. The womenswear collection moved to Paris for Fall/Winter 2006, and the menswear collection didn’t show on the Milanese runway at all after Spring/Summer 2007. A year later, it was revealed that the Spring/Summer 2008 collection would be the last.

Because of the unique and eclectic nature of the garments—and the reverence that the fashion industry has for Miuccia Prada—archival pieces from Miu Miu menswear have been extremely sought-after and it remains a blueprint of sorts for a number of Milanese menswear brands that riff on the playful and subversive spin that Miu Miu put on menswear staples.

The Comme des Garçons universe is vast and ever-changing. Ganryu was, for a number of years, one of the Comme des Garçons empire’s most wearable brands. Like so many other celebrated designers, the origins of Ganryu can be traced back to Fumito Ganryu cutting his teeth for one of Comme des Garçons’ more established labels—in his case, as a pattern maker for menswear savant Junya Watanabe.

Launched in 2007, Ganryu’s tagline was “pop, avant-garde and basic.” The label was a bit of an outlier within the Comme des Garçons universe, riffing on streetwear and casual wear before it was in vogue. The garments were zany and interesting with unique proportions, colors and mixed-and-matched textiles used to reimagine otherwise “basic” menswear tropes. Somehow—and this was the real magic of Ganryu—the clothes were extremely wearable.

The absurdist take on streetwear was ahead of its time and, much to fans’ collective chagrin, Fumito Ganryu announced that he would be leaving Comme des Garçons Co. Ltd in 2017, thus making the Spring/Summer 2017 collection the last. Or—rather—the last under the Comme des Garçons umbrella.

In 2019, Fumito Ganryu returned with a new, equally eponymous line, unaffiliated with Comme des Garçons, but also not entirely tethered to his previous work.

Perhaps no brand inspires a bigger “what if?” than Adam Kimmel.

First launched in 2005, Adam Kimmel’s eponymous New York-based brand initially caught people’s attention thanks to his signature jumpsuits and his ability to create garments that were equally luxurious and casual. That meant tuxedos made from cotton for Fall/Winter 2005, then an all-white smoking suit for Spring/Summer 2006.

As Kimmel bounced around from workwear to cowboys, there was cohesion in the sense that everything signed Adam Kimmel was inherently wearable. In 2008, Kimmel was invited to present at Pitti Uomo, where he showed luxurious cashmere with workmanlike corduroy and stiff leather. Perhaps the only thing more impressive than Kimmel’s range, was his knack for presenting the clothes in a way that was rarely outdone. He tapped friends from the art world—painters and actors—to model the clothes, and created lookbooks that were simple and complex. Models standing in front of white walls—à la Terry Richardson—but wearing George Condo masks. And he, in turn, was tapped by the likes of Supreme for a collaboration that spanned jumpsuits and proper suits alike.

Then, after a well-received and elaborately produced Fall/Winter 2012 runway collection, Kimmel abruptly shuttered his label.

The story of Adam Kimmel inspires the biggest “what ifs” because, as Noah Johnson wrote in GQ, “in a world where Virgil Abloh is Virgil Abloh, Kimmel, who had a seven year head start, would surely be huge by now.” He had the connections, the eye, and the designs that ran the gamut of menswear, from hoodies to tuxedos—and even tuxedos made from hoodies.

Thankfully for fans of Takahiro Miyashita, the designer has not disappeared completely since putting an end to Number (N)ine, launching Takahiro Miyashita TheSoloist. in its stead.

Launched in 1997, Number (N)ine was, like so many other Japanese brands that sprung up around the turn of the millennium, inspired by Americana and music. But Miyashita and Undercover’s Jun Takahashi were the two that did it with aplomb. Number (N)ine’s wares were varied—there were graphic T-shirts that ranged from lines of text to logo flips and there were intricately technical pieces of outerwear, illustrated best by the brand’s famous Fall/Winter 2005 collection.

Miyashita’s unique designs and flair for the dramatic—in presentations and editorials—drew not only the attention of consumers, but also investors. If Number (N)ine had contented itself with graphic T-shirts, Miyashita wouldn’t have needed investors, but to make the expansive collections he wanted to, he welcomed partners into the fold at Number (N)ine. Predictably, that didn’t work out and Miyashita stepped away from Number (N)ine after presenting an FallWinter 2009 collection.

Number (N)ine lives on in two forms. On the one hand, Kooks, the company that owns the trademark, continues to exploit the brand, putting out seasonal collections and creating a diffusion line n(n), but it lacks any of the magic of Miyashita’s Number (N)ine. That can be found with the aforementioned Takahiro Miyashita TheSoloist., which, like Number (N)ine, explores music and Americana in a captivatingly subversive way.

adidas has been central to bringing sportswear and the fashion establishment closer together thanks to collaborations with the likes of Jeremy Scott, Kolor, Raf Simons and Rick Owens. The latter was never intended to be the long-term, expansive project it became. Instead, adidas and Rick Owens initially joined forc for a single season, Spring/Summer 2014.

The positive reception to the brutalist Runners convinced adidas and Owens Corp. that a collaboration could be extremely fruitful. Subsequent seasons saw Owens introduce new silhouette, and, by Spring/Summer 2015, the pair were putting out numerous silhouettes, including the now iconic Springblade, which was available in both sneaker and boot form. Sneaker boots became a central part of the Rick Owens x adidas strategy, with subsequent mid-calf takes on a number of silhouettes that were decidedly Owensian. But Owens also called upon some adidas silhouettes, namely the Superstar, to create varied versions of the Mastodon.

To say that the collection was well-timed would be an understatement, with the bulk of the offering available during the height of the sneaker craze of the mid-to-late 2010s. The collaboration came to an end following the Fall/Winter 2017 collection, which was surprising, given both the success of the endeavour and the aforementioned sneaker craze.

Rick Owens has always had tremendous success with the brand’s in-house footwear, though, and a new partnership with sustainability-focused Veja appears designed to fill the void left by adidas. No matter how successful that partnership is, though, it will be hard to mimic the impact and influence that the adidas partnership had.

Launched in 2006 by Shayne Oliver and Raul Lopez, Hood By Air was deeply informed by what was happening on New York’s streets and in the city’s clubs. It was also confrontational in a sense, as Dazed so aptly put it, with shows exuding “homosexual brutality” and editorials featuring “homothugs in odalisque repose, dollar bills clipped into finger waves, cargo pants mutated into miniskirts, strappy shirts revealing taut, tantalising male flesh.”

Hood By Air was clearly about more than just the clothes. The clothes, though, were impressive. The T-shirts were intricately made by Dominican tailors and sold for $200, which, at the turn of the decade was almost unheard of. Still, they sold out. Before long, the brand’s logo began popping up on Kid Cudi, Kanye West and a then-up-and-coming New York rapper named A$AP Rocky.

By 2013, Hood By Air was showing at New York Fashion Week and Oliver was intent on showing that Hood By Air was about more than just T-shirts. He began trotting out designs that were more intricate and technical, from leather shirts to vinyl pants. To many, it seemed to be unwearable, veering towards performative costume wear, but to others there was no question that Hood By Air was being looked at by the likes of Riccardo Tisci and Alexander Wang.

That interplay, of over-the-top logos and absurdly technical and tailored—almost over-designed—gender-bending apparel became the Hood By Air calling card.

It won Oliver the inaugural LVMH Prize in 2014 and the CFDA award for menswear in 2015. It also garnered investment from New Guards Group, which holds stakes in the likes of Off-White, Palm Angels and Marcelo Burlon and gave Hood By Air the ability to show at Pitti Uomo. In theory the idea was to give Hood By Air the structure to scale and succeed, but, in practice, the expansion did not go smoothly, and, in early 2017, Oliver announced that Hood By Air would be going on hiatus, while he focused on designing collections for Helmut Lang.

Apparently, though, this status may not remain under "discontinued" for long. Hood By Air is back, reportedly relaunching with a site that's part museum and part merch (at least, from the looks of it). Whether it will bear any resemblance to the Hood By Air that captivated the fashion during its early heyday in the industry is still a mystery, though.