In 2060, when hip young things look back at our soon-to-be roaring Twenties, do you think they’ll cherry pick any of the stuff we wear now for themselves? Will cross-body bags make a comeback? Will stylish cyborgs wear tiny clout goggles? Will people dream of being in the room when the phrase ‘Triple S’ was first uttered?
Here in the present day, fashion and the world beyond has developed a fetish for the Seventies. For a long time, Seventies style was roundly mocked for its bad taste, its many shades of brown and its abundance of body hair. But because fashion is cyclical and equipped with a gleefully short memory, all that stuff that people thought was naff is cool now. Flares, cowboy boots, double denim, silk shirts, animal print, arse-crushingly tight trousers etc. etc. Weird, right?
But some of that stuff actually is cool. Or at least it can be if done right. As per usual, inspiration can be found on the big screen. You could hunt out All The President’s Men, Annie Hall, Easy Rider, Serpico, or even Jaws, among others. Or, as luck would have it, you could just buy tickets for Quentin Tarantino’s new flick Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, which is being lauded for its wardrobe as much as anything else.
In the trailer alone, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio et al cycle through the litany of Seventies style at breakneck speed (despite it being set at the very end of the Sixties). Brown leather, costume jewellery, oversized eyewear, sideburns. Those two lads are devilishly handsome movie stars (always a bonus in the style stakes), but there’s no reason you can’t nab a bit of the stardust for yourself.
Denim
True Seventies denim was eye-wateringly tight at the top and incongruously loose at the bottom. It was high-waisted, too. So high that your belly button was beneath the fly and the hem tickled your nipples. A bit like a pair of Spanx that accentuate your package, which I guess was an added bonus. It’s not the kind of shape you can easily supplement into an existing wardrobe, but you can definitely start to dabble in less extreme versions. A crop here, a wide leg there, and something with a higher rise so they sit on your waist, rather than your hips.
They need to be a bit tattered, too. Seventies-style denim isn’t quite complete without the right accompaniments, so invest in a big, statement-making belt (something with horns or the head of snake should do it), and test out a few dangly cosmetic appendages. Bits of woven leather, a slim chain – whatever bohemian scraps you can get your hands on.
Brown
You know how when you were a kid and you’d mix up paints, and eventually it would just end up as brown? Well the Seventies was kind of like that. All roads lead to brown. Sure, there was a multitude of floral prints and powder blues and deep purples and animal prints, but it was all just to offset all the rich, shaggy, unending brown. Probably. And it’s going to be big in the coming months: a solid 50% of Fendi’s Fall/Winter 119 collection was cast in the colour, as was a big chunk of Louis Vuitton’s, and here in London Oliver Spencer utilised brown to devastatingly louche effect in velvet tailoring and outerwear.
In the Seventies, it was all about texture - corduroy, sheepskin, leather, tweed etc. – and the same goes for 2019. For brown to work it needs to feel luxurious, and to feel luxurious it needs to actually feel luxurious when you touch it. A brown jersey hoody? Probs not. A brown suede coach jacket? Absolutely.
Dries Van Noten
Light-brown bareno slim-fit textured-wool suit jacket, £835, mrporter.com
Hair
OK, so a lot to unpack here. Seventies lads seemed to brick the follicle fit at every opportunity. There was volume, gloss, curl and feathering, and often all at once. More was more. Some dudes got it right – such as Robert Redford. In fact he should be your god in this Seventies style pilgrimage – but most didn’t. If you want Seventies hair, just grow it way out and muss it up at every opportunity. And no perms, please. You will also need some beastly facial fuzz. Any combo of soul patch, sideburns, tache and beard should do the trick, but the tache needs to be meaty. And then you should parade your chest and its rug (if you’re so blessed) at every opportunity. Granted, it’s a tightrope, and one-too-many buttons undone could (and probably should) land you in a workplace tribunal, but if it’s sunny and the vibe is cool, get that chest out bebe.
Shoes
The obvious footwear choice here is boots. They can be of the black leather variety - preferably with a strap that runs up around the ankle – or they could be square-toed Chelseas in pale suede, or even a steel-tipped cowboy boot. They just need a sizeable heel and a gnarly silhouette. They’re also worn to be shown off, but perhaps not in the usual way. Your trousers need to be the right length and flare so that they cover the top, but don’t puddle over the bottom. My advice would be to go at the hem with a pair of scissors until you reach the perfect length. (The tattered hem is an added bonus.)
Sunglasses
Just. Go. Bigger.
Suits
The Seventies tailoring trend is widespread. For evidence, see Gucci, Saint Laurent, Celine, Etro. Even Brioni has taken to swelling lapels to maximum proportions and jacking up the texture. The cliché is that Seventies tailoring was overdramatic and frilly, and that holds up, but bits of it can work. A big peak lapel, for example, makes you broader (the lapels point to your shoulders), and an elongated jacket helps you look slimmer and taller (emphasis on the word ‘helps’). Plenty of classic menswear brands, such as Drake’s or Turnbull & Asser, have taken to offering shirts with over-elongated collars, designed to be worn with a fat tie knot, or even folded over the jacket. And some brands – I’m looking at you, Prada – have espoused the benefits of denim suiting. As demonstrated in the video below, it can work, so long as it’s cut well and it fits you properly.
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