By now, you’ve probably seen images of the 2026 World Cup — the slide shows and reels and supercuts of great moments. But I have my own private highlight reel — and it is very different. That’s because this summer, for the first time in my life, I went to see the World Cup in person. Soccer is a perfect sport for screens. It is flat, green, beautiful, geometric, legible. It feels healthy, like eating fresh lettuce with your eyes. It works equally well on a laptop screen or an airplane screen, a screen the size of a building or a tiny screen you hold in your palm. You can watch it closely or just leave it on in the background, like an aquarium. This year, however, I went beyond the screens. I took my human body to the real-world source of all the images. And I didn’t just go once: I went and I went and I went and I went. When you go in person, you get the actual world. You see everything it takes to make that sacred space exist. ON THE COVER
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FROM THE ARCHIVES For Sale: Men’s Wear; Never Worn.For this week’s edition of the “I Did It” column, Sam Anderson decided to dip his toe into the world of what aficionados call “menswear,” the term for modern fashion that is the cooler cousin of what has traditionally been called “men’s wear.” To do this, Anderson dropped into a hip Manhattan store and dropped nearly $1,000 on a hat and jacket. (He may or may not have regretted the decision.) In the spirit of Sam’s experiment, we’ve curated some bits from great menswear/men’s wear stories in the magazine. “Why Are Pants So Big (Again)?” by Jonah Weiner (2024)Imagining myself wearing these pants for decades to come, I’m heartened by the fact that when I see older men in big pants, they typically look great, whereas older men in skinny pants seem a bit confused about how old they are. It’s funny: There’s an age before which it’s actively commendable to explore and make mistakes, and an age after which exploration and mistake-making become the embarrassing evidence of a lost soul. Look at those pants. This poor bastard still doesn’t have it figured out. “Is the Way Men Talk About Fashion About to Undergo Another Sea Change?” by T.M. Brown (2023)“Throwing Fits” does not position fashion as an aspirational topic. Even episodes that feature fashion luminaries quickly descend into vibes-heavy bull sessions. This guyish spitballing has made the podcast party to the emergence of a fascinating ethos: men dressing for other men. In the “Throwing Fits” universe, “getting a fit off for the fellas” is a high virtue, and liking one another’s fit-check photos on Instagram is an act of fraternal love. “Jeans Engineering” by Rob Walker (2005)Cul-de-sac cred has arguably been [Marc] Ecko’s greatest strength throughout [Ecko Unlimited’s] chaotic rise. The sense now is that “urban” has run its course, and while Ecko does not believe that, he is also trying to transcend the category, with a line of tailored clothing and even the ultimate suburban-fan vehicle: a big-budget video game. Ecko is at a crossroads, and the man is trying to step out from behind his rhino. “I want people to think of me almost as Willy Wonka,” he told me. “A pop-culture Willy Wonka, crossed with Richard Branson.” A fan with power. “Isn’t It Romantic” by Hal Rubenstein (1993)There’s probably no faster way to alienate men from men’s wear than to insist on redefining it. Unlike designers of women’s fashion, who indulge the journalist’s obsession with hatching the phoenix, canny men’s-wear designers know enough to cloak change within the familiar. Buzzwords, even when applicable, often backfire, which is why they’re so dangerous. In the same way that no item of clothing can be classified as inherently grunge, men’s wear can no longer be thought of as strictly masculine. How men’s clothing is perceived — its intent, its allure, even its sexuality — is no longer the sole responsibilty of the designer. Rather, what the artisan offers now is not a garment to hide out in but one to build on. A suit can go to a ball game; a sweatsuit goes to dinner; a coat, sweater, scarf and hat belong to whichever sex looks best in it. No matter where you grew up, that’s what we call progress. COMMENT OF THE WEEK I Still Prefer to Ask JeevesListen: you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, and you can’t write about trends among Gen Z and Gen Alpha without angering a few Boomers and Gen Xers. This week, Sophie Haigney wrote about how some young people are no longer “Googling” things; instead, they call looking for information on the internet “searching it up.” Of course, the reaction to this — and, more likely, the headline we put on the story — was ferocious. We won’t put in the newspaper that they got mad, but why not this little newsletter? Some of the highlights: Thank you for telling me how to sound like a 13-year-old. Should I decide, upon retirement, to re-enter middle school, this will be very useful. I don’t know why we’ve let Gen Z and Alpha be the arbiters of style, taste, and language when they’re all walking around dressed like our dads on vacation in 1987 while thinking saying “six seven” is the height of comedy. Why the obsession with “old” being placed in a negative light? I’m fine with the change between what was done and what is happening now. Progress and change are important. Can’t getting older and being younger both be given equal weight where none are more valuable than the other? Why would I care to emulate the language patterns of an inattentive generation with skyrocketing rates of illiteracy? Kids are barely required to complete novels in school anymore, and they certainly aren’t picking any up during their own leisure time. Seriously: why should “the Olds” among us care what younger people might have to say about our syntax? While I’m here, I don’t care what they have to say about the way we dress or do our hair, either. Your headline is ageist and symptomatic of a real issue: that age is bad by definition. Age happens to everyone, and it’s not bad or good. It just is. “Outmoded” might have been a better choice. I expect better from the NYT. That’s all for this week. Email us at magazine@nytimes.com with your thoughts, questions and feedback. Stay in touch: Like this email? Forward it to a friend and help us grow. Loved a story? Hated it? Write us a letter at magazine@nytimes.com. Did a friend forward this to you? Sign up here to get the magazine newsletter.
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