This is the first post in a new monthly* feature chronicling the sometimes good, sometimes weird, always entertaining shit Toronto hockey players wear outside the house.

*in this case, “monthly” should be read as “whenever I remember that this is a thing” as I am a busy and important person.

First off, we’ve got to get this out of the way: Auston Matthews’ exploration of fashion is everything to me, and October was the best month yet.

We all saw Matthews’ magazine shoots, starting off in GQ wearing a Givenchy intarsia wool sweater PPP’s very own Arvind priced at $1,300. Unfortunately for me, and my love of drama, the styling in this shoot was otherwise very conservative! I’ve got some quibbles with the choice of a graphic black-white-and-red sweater paired with a camel-brown coat—it clashes, and I think the look would have been improved if they’d chosen a coat that matched the stark, saturated color scheme of the sweater. Black would have been fine, but white or red would have been awesome. The turtleneck and gray suit pictures are fun less because of the outfit, which is pretty simple, and more because he’s posing like he has a developing headache, or he’s trying to use the Force for the first time.

Thank God, truly, thank God, Sharp Magazine was here to put him in a voluminous red wool Maison Margiela coat yanked straight out of an anime and take pictures of him standing on top of a car.

(The coat could be yours for a mere $5,770 USD, and Maison Margiela offers free shipping! What a bargain!)

The photoshoot runs the gamut from a fairly normal herringbone knit hoodie and textured wool pants outfit ($45,000 watch aside) to an all-white sweatshirt-jeans-and-sneakers ensemble paired with a knee-length kelly green quilted vest.

For what it’s worth, I actually like the vest look. When you’re six foot three and a professional athlete, you can get away with that kind of playing with proportion, and the all white color scheme with that shot of vivid green is great. Not all the outfits in the shoot are winners—the gray Hermès turtleneck with the chartreuse trim has an aggressively high-school-geometry-teacher look to it not helped by the olive drab pants (and also looks itchy! It’s got a very itchy vibe)—but none of it is boring, and that’s really what matters.

Now to Instagram, that treasure trove of good suits and bad decisions, for some highlights from other Toronto hockey players:

I’d like to personally thank Garrison Bespoke for all their Leafs-in-suits #content. While the suits are great (the pale blue-gray especially), the highlight of this picture is obviously Jake Gardiner’s socks. Those are quality socks. Dad socks. First-pairing defender socks. Mitch has got to up his game.

It has a fur collar! PK Subban did this look first, and best, but there’s nothing wrong with paying homage to the greats. (When it comes to hockey player fashion, PK Subban is unquestionably one of the greats.)

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Sunday🍂

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Andreas Borgman has fully assimilated and is wearing Canadian tuxedos now. I appreciate that he’s at least mixing denim colors to keep the look wearable, even if I personally think that particular shade of acid wash should have died along with butterfly clips and non-ironic mullets. He wears flower crowns sometimes; I’ll forgive Andreas a lot.

Mitchy is getting the cuffs of his dress shirts monogrammed! I like it! I assume we’ll be seeing an Instagram sponsorship soon.

I want Kasperi Kapanen’s sweatshirt for myself (how adorable is that art?), although I would almost certainly not pay whatever he paid for it. No comment on the facial hair/skull cap situation.

Natalie Spooner showed up to meet an astronaut in a cranberry crushed velvet top, and looked flawless, because she always looks flawless. The second slide photo features multiple GTA CWHL players as well as CWHL commissioner Jayna Hefford (center), all looking fabulous—I’m especially into Laura Stacey’s floral pants (second from left) and the pop of red in Michelle Saunders’s sandals (second from right).

Speaking of flawless, Sarah Nurse is doing a collaboration with an accessories brand, and that red hat and drapey shawl is cozy perfection.

Renata Fast’s flowy maroon peasant top on Hometown Hockey is the perfect blend of relaxed but still polished. I love the gathering on the sleeves and at the waist, it’s enough detail to be interesting while still keeping it simple.

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Raided a couple of tombs last night

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This is a great Halloween costume, but honestly, Mellissa Channell could just wear this out and about and it would look fantastic. The loose braid + tied-off shirt + chunky belt + those boots? Yes.

With Matthews out with a shoulder injury, someone else is going to have to step up in November and give me some quality looks to write about. Who will it be? Marner has some great gameday suits; will he show up in something equal in awesomeness to his purple suit, which I absolutely love? Will Natalie Spooner somehow up her game from crushed velvet? (Probably. Spooner’s sense of style is fantastic.) Will Travis Dermott wear pink and/or florals again, winning my heart for all of eternity? Check back at the end of November to find out.

Fashion