Why the Peaky Blinders look is the hot new thing in men's fashion
Stylish period dramas have inspired designers to put a
contemporary spin on everything from tweeds to flat caps
Lauren Cochrane
Tue 29 Oct 2013 17.50 GMT First published on Tue 29 Oct 2013
17.50 GMT
Period gang drama Peaky Blinders drew to a grisly conclusion
a couple of weeks back but the look Cillian Murphy's Thomas Shelby wore is far
from finished. The directional haircut – a kind of undercut with bowlish
tendencies – worn with a rounded collar shirt, tweed jacket and waistcoat might
be just the thing in 1919 Birmingham but it's also doing the rounds in 2013
east London. Moving on from the 60s-tinged school of dressing, menswear now has
a new reference.
Five years ago, web developers in Shoreditch were wearing
Barbours and pretending to be farmers – something that Mumford & Sons took
to a spoof-worthy extreme. The focus has shifted. It's now about a look that
can broadly be dated to post-first-world-war. Its archetype isn't posh but it's
not hunky agricultural labourer either. Instead, think sensitive craftsman.
Other than Shelby and James Middleton – who sported a very
on-trend beard at the christening of his nephew last week – moodboard pics
might include the artistic alpha males that populate DH Lawrence novels, as
well other characters in TV shows Parade's End and the below-stairs chaps of
Downton before it went all 20s. Frock coats, smoking jackets and granddad
shirts have been part of collections from Margaret Howell and Dolce &
Gabbana to Alexander McQueen, where a cobbled catwalk and buckled shoes featured
for spring/summer.
Why is this look taking off nearly 100 years after it was
first worn? Fashion loves putting a spotlight on something obscure and, without
an obvious subculture (the 60s, say), this particular style hasn't been cool
before. It was a bit dowdy and make-do – but, in austerity Britain, that's
perfect. It works within a wider nostalgia for a hardy, heroic Britain in the
Keep Calm and Carry On poster on the kitchen walls of shared houses, the
patriotic domesticity of hit series The Great British Bake Off and war
re-enactment weekends for thirtysomethings. These clothes aren't about high
fashion – they're more the logical drip-down of this lifestyle trend.
Clothes that can be traced back to where they were made,
traditional cuts reworked and words such as "craftsmanship",
"workwear" and "artisan" are replacing references to Don
Draper's tux-and-blonde glamour as the boxes to tick. Asos says sales of workboots
have more than doubled since last year, and All Saints' Marshall-style boots –
almost soldier-worthy – are a bestseller. Topman, that litmus test of what most
men actually wear, has increased its Made In England suiting range, with
jackets and waistcoats selling well.
"There's a return to nostalgic items that emanate from
their surroundings," says design director Gordon Richardson. "This
collection is produced in an old factory in the north of England." It's
not a wholesale thing; that would be too costumey. Topman reports customers
wear the tweed jackets not with matching trousers but jeans, and Albarn
combines its version with that other big men's trend, the sweatshirt.
"We don't go out of our way to align ourselves with a
particular era but we're always touching on the past," says Ben Dutton,
Albarn's buyer, where the Artisan shirt is a bestseller. "It used to be
you would go down the pub and boast about the newest technical twist of your
Stone Island jacket. Now, if a jacket has a story to tell, it's more appealing."
Menswear trends always swing between the futurism of
sportswear and the authenticity of heritage. With a rose-tinted version of
Britain in vogue, it makes sense the latter is having a moment now. "This
is less New York, more the mountains around Catskills," says Jeremy
Langmead, editor-in-chief of Mr Porter, where they are pushing fisherman
jumpers, hiking boots and tweedy jackets. "It's about escapism from the
stresses and strains of modern metropolitan life."
Hostem takes this idea to an extreme. The boutique, on
Redchurch Street in east London, looks like a provisions store from the 20s –
with hessian walls, antique jars and shop assistants of a beard-plus-boot type.
Instead of stout and aspic, it sells very expensive, very limited runs of
menswear pieces that fetishise a pre-mass production model.
"Designers we work with are using knitting looms and
hand-making shoes. We celebrate that technique," says founder James Brown.
He points in particular to Geoffrey B Small. "It's just him and two other
people," says Brown. "They handfinish everything down to the
buttonholes. He'll use berries or bark to dye, old-world techniques." As
you might expect, items can take up to a year to produce, and are priced
accordingly – a suit is around £2,000.
Brown believes these prices are worth it because they're a
way to opt out of trend-based high fashion. "You can buy a Prada jacket
one season and it's worthless the next," he says. "This is about
investment pieces." But with the look encroaching on the high street, that
means early adopters will be on the look out for a new retro icon (20s baseball
player? Thirties accountant?). The Peaky Blinders look will definitely still be
around for most when the second series begins next year. What Thomas Shelby
will be up to, though, we're yet to discover.
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