What fashion enthusiasts can learn from older, dapper gentlemen

We first met Martyn in 2013 when he was 54 and dealing as a professor at a UK college. He minimize a pointy determine in a black two-piece swimsuit, a vibrant pink shirt with cufflinks, an identical tie and a pocket sq.. We had been assembly to speak about modern mature males’s clothes habits.

We spent almost two hours taking a look at a few of Martyn’s most treasured style possessions and chatting about his curiosity in clothes and elegance. It’s not fairly often in analysis that individuals are so eager and engaged, and Martyn’s ardour for trendy clothes actually shone by. This curiosity began early throughout his faculty years, when he used to unpick the seams of his faculty uniform.

Martyn was one in all 5 British males included in our analysis, all aged between 54 and 63 from the child boomer technology (individuals born between 1946 and 1964). Our first examine, performed in 2013, consisted of interviews and inventories of their wardrobes.

One of many insights from this was that, by years of curiosity and engagement with style, these males had collected appreciable information and experience in the right way to finest costume their our bodies – and amassed massive archives of each practical and iconic objects of clothes.

Consequently, the best way they purchased and wore their garments was rooted in sensible want and emotional connection, somewhat than unthinking accumulation or impulsive buying. That is one thing different individuals, together with youthful generations, could possibly be impressed by.

Searching for one thing good? Reduce by the noise with a fastidiously curated collection of the newest releases, dwell occasions and exhibitions, straight to your inbox each fortnight, on Fridays. Enroll right here.

Now, virtually a decade later, we’ve caught up with three of our interviewees once more, conducting analyses and interpretations of their wardrobes in addition to a sequence of interviews. Whereas their clothes types, and even among the objects, had been just about the identical as in 2013, the best way they devour and have interaction with style has shifted.

These males now store much less, prioritising high quality over amount. Though their usually flamboyant look would possibly recommend in any other case, this rationalised method to buying is in line with style minimalism – the pattern for slower and extra thought-about clothes consumption, whereas rejecting the thought of garments procuring as a leisure exercise. As Ian, a retired 70-year-old businessman, mirrored:

I feel I in all probability have constructed up such a wardrobe of basic items that I actually solely want to purchase some small additions now. Nothing main. If I do see some basic items that I like, I’ll nonetheless purchase them even now. However I’ve definitely slowed down with shopping for, and searching on the [men’s fashion] magazines.

It’s essential to notice we had been speaking to the boys once more at a time of main modifications of their lives. Retirement had introduced shifts of their life-style, comparable to extra leisure time and new hobbies. This meant they had been dressing for various contexts – not the workplace, however for a day at residence or night down the pub.

For these three males, aged 65 to 74, their altering our bodies are additionally essential to how they now expertise garments – from minor aches and pains to well being points that have an effect on their mobility. Consequently, their garments are required to fulfil several types of want – balancing consolation with fashion, avoiding objects that might limit motion or impede confidence.

Nevertheless, their dedication to expressing their identities by trendy clothes stays robust, flying within the face of generally held assumptions that males cease caring about their look at a sure time in life.

Each our research recommend the alternative. Certainly, after we spoke to Martyn once more in 2024, his style sensibilities had solely sharpened. He was the picture of sartorial class, arriving for his interview in a checked swimsuit accessorised with a trilby, tie pin and lapel clip, sleeve garters, a carved strolling stick and handmade leather-based brogues. Martyn described his style selections as follows:

I’ve all the time received a sensible shirt, moderately sensible trousers, correct footwear and, if it’s to be chilly, a waistcoat with a pocket watch. And that’s me, sitting alone, typing or simply enjoying with the cat.

Or take Kevin, a 74-year-old retired lecturer dedicated to the mod subculture’s clothes aesthetics, together with sporting fits and tailor-made coats. His style archives encompass some unimaginable items which have been in his wardrobe for greater than 20 years:

I used to put on [suits] on a regular basis, no matter whether or not it was a proper event or work. That was my fashion for years and years – however much less so now. My foremost social life revolves round my native pub, which isn’t a spot actually to dress as much as go to – though I do, typically. I’m fed up of carrying the identical garments.

Then he added, with a smile: “As soon as a mod, all the time a mod!”

Regardless of some main modifications to their life, the three males have maintained their curiosity in clothes and its significance in expressing their distinctive identities – providing an attention-grabbing angle to the rising educational curiosity in menswear and males’s style. Their slower and extra thought-about consumption of style presents meals for thought in relation to the function and worth of garments in all phases of life.