What to Buy From Bode, According to Dudes Who Buy a Lot of Bode
Tonight, while New Orleans steels itself for Sunday’s big game, the city plays host to the real draw of the weekend: the inaugural GQ Bowl, where designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla will stage a runway presentation showcasing her Spring 2025 Bode Rec. collection. Funnily enough, it’s tough to imagine a more fitting milieu for the red-hot American brand, whose lace shirts, DIY-inflected jackets, and crochet sweaters have become stalwarts of the tunnel fit—pouring jet fuel on the label’s fashion-world trajectory in the process.
The NOLA show also represents a victory lap of sorts for the Bode brand, which has quickly evolved into a powerhouse emissary of new American style. When Bode Aujla founded the label in 2016, she focused on retro-inflected silhouettes crafted from one-of-a-kind vintage fabrics—think, for example, of the the quilts you might find in your grandmother’s closet or on the periphery of a Rockwell painting. Today, though, Bode Aujla’s remit encompasses an elite assortment of idiosyncratic wardrobe staples, along with plenty of the brand’s now-signature custom showstoppers.
In other words, you’ve probably seen Bode’s work—or clocked its influence—even if you weren’t entirely sure what to look for. So to help educate you on that front, we rang up a few of the biggest Bode fans in our rolodex to hear them wax eloquent on their favorite pieces, why they like ’em, and where you can get your hands on something similar.
The official GQ Bowl livestream will kick off on GQ.com and GQ’s YouTube channel starting at 7 p.m. ET/6 p.m. CT.
Sameer Sadhu, SVP of A&R, NETTWERK Music Group
Sameer has long been drawn to Bode’s use of what he calls “emotive textiles.” When he and his wife married at City Hall in New York, he wanted to wear his late mother’s sari as a shirt, a poignant flourish he had discussed with Bode Aujla herself. The result, he says, was a one-of-a-kind heirloom he’ll always cherish, elevated by Bode’s reverence for totems of the past.
Christopher Fenimore
Christopher Fenimore
Sameer’s shirt was a collaborative effort with the Bode team, and enhanced by his deeply personal connection to the source material, but the brand’s idiosyncratic fabrics are a consistent house speciality—the more intricate the better.
Samuel Hine, Senior Fashion Writer, GQ
These days, it’s hard to swing a tote bag downtown without hitting an impeccably-dressed dude wearing Bode’s signature house shoes, but when Sam tried on the open-lace ‘County Clare’ derbies, he never looked back.
Krista Schlueter
