The new generation of major stage and screen stars are changing “men’s” fashion – and for the better. Lately, your Jacob Elordi’s, ASAP Rocky’s and your Harry Styles’s of the showbiz world have been looking sensational in, dare we say, more traditionally feminine looks.
Jacob Eloridi stood for a photocall in LA for Wuthering Heights earlier this month wearing a waist length check jacket, black T-shirt and white jeans. My first reaction was: “Oh my God, he’s wearing the new Chanel jacket” but secondly, and very quickly after, I thought “Oh my God, he looks so good in the new Chanel jacket.” The hot-off-the-womenswear-catwalk look with cropped proportions, neutral colours and contrasting textures looked so, so good on his adonis 6’5 physique.
Another man who is effortlessly making Chanel jackets cool again is ASAP Rocky who wore a signature tweed one to their runway show in December. Harry Styles made a return to the spotlight at the Grammys this month in a cropped jacket, also new season but from Dior, with jeans and pistachio coloured ballet pumps. Sure, he’s Harry Styles so it works but it really works.
It’s not just jackets either. Men’s clothing as a whole has taken more of a stereotypical feminine turn – be it giving masculine shapes a fitted silhouette or taking looks from the women’s section. Not nipped in waists or skirts, but everything feels just a little neater and more tailored. Forget that meme of the Four Lads out of your mind – I don’t (thankfully) mean skinny jeans and spray-on polo tops. It’s a more quiet and stylish tilt.
At the LA premier of the final series of Stranger Things, Joe Keery, aka singer Djo, wore a waist-length snug leather jacket, a tight tee with tapered Gucci trousers. There was just something about that cocktail of clothing items together that felt sleek and considered.
Slimmer isn’t necessarily the only way to go. Jamie Dornan arrived at the Dior front row switching the traditional silhouette of a trench coat to a fluted, pleated version.
And if they’re not experimenting with shapes, men are playing with texture. In November last year, Paul Mescal hit a Hamnet screening in a black suit, swapping the classic white shirt for a black sheer polo. The O.G Connell fans were swooning.
Not all of these well dressed men have the same aesthetic in common, yet the one thing that links them all and gives this trend its appeal is that it isn’t loud or flamboyant. It’s cool, subtle. The unassuming effort of it all is what tips their elegant masculinity over the edge into certified hotness.
Sure, we’ve seen the extreme end of the scale from Timothée Chalament and Alexander Skarsgard wearing halter-necks and leather trousers. And even had Harry Styles quite literally clutching his pearls and handbag, but there is something about the subtlety of this that makes their looks, well, hot. I know we shouldn’t objectify but credit where it’s due – they look good.
That said, men’s fashion isn’t tilting toward the feminine so much as it’s shrugging off the binary altogether. The old distinctions of his, hers, masculine, feminine are loosening, and in their place is a more fluid way of dressing. Silhouettes open up, proportions shift, and experimentation feels less like a crazy rebellion and more just natural.
And hey, I for one love what we call “masculine” tailoring, I shop in the men’s section for knitwear and rarely wear a skirt. So if I can do it, why can’t they? I can only liken it to when, what I imagine, it was like when men started to wear pink. People must have lost their tiny minds and those who did dare to be different must have been scoffed at by other men who weren’t comfortable enough to wear a typically girly colour.
But having the conviction to wear something that’s different or challenges what is the norm is a hot look and we love that confidence. If tracksuits, trousers that sit under the bum and football shirts are going to take a backseat, then I’m all for it.
Clemmie Fieldsend has worked at a number of newspaper brands and is the former fashion editor of a national newspaper. She has over 17 years of experience commenting, writing and styling fashion and celebrity photoshoots. Clemmie reports on current fashion news, trends and hot takes across the celebrity and style stratosphere in both digital and print publications. She can decode trends to make them wearable, will forever be chasing the perfect pair of jeans and has an unreasonable hatred of rucksacks.
