How fashion got stagnant in the Waugh area

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This season, men’s fashion has adopted the bright tone of Cecil Beaton’s diaries, the roman à clefs of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford, and the poses of their 1920s peers. You can see it in the lace and exaggerated puff sleeves. by Simone Rocha, the Genet-like Marseille sailors on SS Daley and the extravagant tailoring of McQueen and Peter Do. Most of Dries Van Noten’s collections feature pajama silks that Beaton’s models would have loved. A$AP Rocky wears pearls and Kieran Culkin prefers multicolored nail polish and beaded wrists.

Fashion has frequently revisited the 1920s and the so-called Bright Young Things, as documented by Beaton, Mitford, Waugh and the tabloids of the time. “Such androgynous, luxurious, and often queer-coded self-representations resonate with menswear designers today,” says Jay McCauley Bowstead, professor of cultural and historical studies at London College of Fashion and author of Men’s Fashion Revolution: The Transformation of Contemporary Men’s Fashion. “Cecil Beaton’s famous 1927 photograph of Stephen Tennant, Rex Whistler and the Jungman sisters dressed in gay mock 18th-century dress in Tennant’s garden in Wiltshire comes to mind.”

Many of the trend’s references come from retro, upper-class, and public school clothing. In May, the American brand Rowing Blazers created a capsule collection for Gucci Vault of rugby shirts and tailcoats with smart colored borders, while its other collections incorporate cable-knit cricket sweaters and plush pool jackets. botterWith its “Caribbean couture” rugby shirts and crewneck sweaters sewn to the front of turtlenecks, it gives the Bright Young Things aesthetic a refreshingly diverse twist.

At their elaborate costume parties, both elegance and decadence were everything.

Stephen Tennant, occasional artist and full-time procrastinating author, remains a key influence on many designers, just as he influenced fashion of the time. Everything had to be a statement and something worth journaling about. Philip Hoare’s biography of the writer, serious pleasures, describes Tennant as having “long, slender limbs and an elegant gait,” resembling “a bleached stick insect stalking through crisp black-and-white film.” The book (and therefore Tennant) has inspired both Luke Edward Hall’s book Orlando Castle clothing brand, often including vests, polos and country-collared shirts, and many of his works on paper.

Tennant was extravagant with money and squandered fortunes on fine tailoring. She also enjoyed a long love affair with the poet Siegfried Sassoon. As you read about them wandering around Europe, you can imagine them wrapped in this season’s voluminous belted trench coats. mefluttering over Oxford bags.

By contrast, the late Savile Row tailor Eduardo Sexton was inspired by 1920s Hollywood glamour, rather than Bright Young Things: squarer shoulders and shorter jackets grounded the silhouette, influenced by the long, classically elegant lines of Art Deco.

If Sexton’s tailoring, which his team runs, is the PG Wodehouse of the fashion world, then John Alexander Skelton is DH Lawrence, with his hand-knitted wool vests and baggy trousers, with the spirit of a gamekeeper rather than a rich man. Both brands occupy a similar space, offering statement tailoring rather than sportswear. And an increasing number of men want to make that statement. “Our suit purchasing has increased by 208 percent,” says Damian Paul, menswear director at MatchesFashion, “and many of these classic styles reflect 1920s tailoring: from tailored trousers, a smart shirt and tie even double-breasted suits.” belted suits and coats.”

Bosse Myhr, director of men’s fashion at Selfridges, says tailoring purchases at his store have also increased by around 75 per cent: “The influence of the 1920s is visible in the peak-lapel tuxedos at Ferragamo and the raw teal wool suits at Bianca Saunders, styled with a luxurious satin shirt cinched at the waist. Styles that evoke the era are also found at Jacquemus, Loewe and Wales Bonner.” While a lot of this has to do with play and escapism, it’s that word “elegant” that keeps coming up. When Tennant and Beaton et al held their elaborate costume parties, both elegance and decadence were everything.

The collection that perhaps best summarizes this 1920s revival is Saint Laurent AW23 Menswear. “That collection has a melancholic bent expressed in oversized asymmetrical bows tied around the neck like exaggerated Regency ties, patent leather boots with stacked heels, and open satin and chiffon shawl collar shirts,” says McCauley Bowstead. “But it also has a strong ’70s countercultural fetish feel with its angular shoulders, military coats and leather pants. “It represents an elegant vision of masculine beauty in which the dress becomes a place of imagination and transformation.” And that’s the power of clothing: it can transport you to the past or the future. It could be 1920 or 2120. And who doesn’t want to be a brilliant young man?