Mens vintage fashion
November 9, 2015The 90s are everywhere at the moment and tweaking the style to suit today’s fashion requires finesse. Mens vintage fashion should be used as accents more than a slavish re-creation, and that goes for most eras.
The 90s were all about layering, with a cardi over a plaid shirt over a band t-shirt. All of these can be found in vintage shops, and at the moment you can even buy Sad Prince of Grunge Kurt Cobain’s actual cardigan which he wore for a famous “unplugged” performance on MTV.
Footwear was a bit hit n miss though, with ever classic Converse and Doc Martins being popular, but also dodgy trainers and absolutely massive Army Surplus boots, which were so heavy that you could sprain an ankle walking down the street. Which is why Indie kids didn’t move much when they danced, just sadly swayed. And 90s jeans – 90s jeans are best forgotten, as they were utterly forgettable at the time. Mostly a mid blue denim no particular shape job.
Take the best of mens vintage fashion
So what I’m saying is with mens vintage fashion, take the upper half of a 90s look and team it with some great 2015 jeans. And please, for the sake of all around you, if you’re going to do 90s hair (the undercut, the long and straggly, the lumpy dreadlocks) please, please wash it. My experience of 90s chic seemed to be all about skinny sad guys with unwashed hair.
Stars like Cobain also did a great line in very casual androgyny, that is, things like a crumpled babydoll dress worn with a beard, or a bit of makeup. I have to say, I didn’t see much if any of that in real life – a smudge of eyeliner was about the limit. So I don’t expect to see much of it either in its re-birth. Which is a shame.
Mens vintage fashion – the Mod
Where you might want to consider a closer recreation of mens vintage fashion of certain eras is in specific looks like the 60s Mod. Anything that was about paying close attention to being dapper is worth looking at in its entirety – after all, the original inventors of the look made sure they got all the details right the first time around.
The mod look is almost diametrically opposite to the grunge one – perfectly cut suits with drain pipe trousers, a palette of extremely crisp red white and blue, and everything nicely ironed. Even the “Sportswear Mod” – with a soft collared polo shirt instead of traditional stiff cotton one – looked immaculate. The only thing that always puzzles me about the mod look is the anorak, thrown over everything – it’s baggy, it’s in murky colours, it has that little bit of fur on the hood. Ok, it kept you warm on your scooter but… No sir, I don’t get it.
Not fancy dress
But on the whole, the trick with mens vintage fashion is to be careful lest you end up looking less cool, more fancy dress. For example, zoo suits – incredibly dapper, hard to pull off today. Strike a balance, people.
