Loewe is the official Hot Rodent Outfitter

Just over two months ago, Dazed’s deputy editor Serena Smith wrote an article titled ‘All anyone wants is a hot rodent boyfriend’. In her epoch-defining missive, Smith described how “rodent handsome” men who are “more svelte than muscular” and have “pinched, angular features” had set the internet ablaze, crowning Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist as leaders of the rodent pack. The piece soon found its way onto US morning television, with Today hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager discussing “sexy rat men” in a somewhat confused manner. From there, very similar pieces spawned in The New York Times, The Guardian and Vogue, and Hot Rodent Summer was apparently in full swing. With the article, Smith had influenced US legacy media, British broadsheets and thousands of people online – but now she can add one more thing to that list: the fashion industry.

Every quarter, the online shopping platform Lyst publishes The Lyst Index, a report of the hottest fashion brands in the world. This time, it was Loewe which came out on top, but who does Lyst credit with pipping it for the brand? That would be “the release of the much anticipated Challengers movie” starring Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Loewe boss Jonathan Anderson was costume designer for the movie, a fact that was well-publicised at the time, so it seems like the brand’s association with a cultural moment like ‘hot rodent boyfriend’ helped propel it to number one. Mrs Prada had been hogging the top spot for the last three quarters, whether that be through main line Prada or little sister Miu Miu, but now she’s been dethroned, and it’s the hot rodent men who have taken her crown.

In other fashion news this week, after her AW24 catwalk debut, Little Simz finally became a Miu Miu campaign star; Daisy Edgar-Jones finally stepped into her fashion stride on the Twisters press tour; Mark Zuckerberg fuelled the rumours of Meta’s Supreme takeover by imagining himself as a streetwear designer; and we celebrated Iman’s birthday with an archive of vintage photos from the Thierry Mugler runway.

Elsewhere, we rounded up all the rumours about John Galliano’s exit from Maison Margiela; a ‘Rick Owens 2024’ lawn sign suggested the designer was about to run for president; we deliberated whether Union Jack fashion is making an irony-pilled comeback among Gen Z; and Paris 2024 is just around the corner, so we looked back at the hardest Olympic uniforms of all time. For everything else you might’ve missed, click through the gallery below.