The new denim rules, a stylish Spaniard and a Beckham Boys ranking
This week, five big things I'm obsessing over. From the sartorial movements of a minor Iberian royal to the subtle style in-fighting between football's most powerful scions
From my official ranking of the Beckham Boys’ personal style (you’ll need to scroll right to the end for that gem) to thoughts on the rise of V-Necks, stepping inside denim’s elevated new mood and the final word on the return of the skinny silhouette, this week’s instalment of The Closet is all about helping you to dress even better than you already do (and have a massive LOL in the process).
Inside denim’s elevated new mood
In the recently released fashion-adjacent Netflix thriller The Outfit, Mark Rylance - who plays Leonard, a little tailor with a big secret - asserts, “this James Dean of yours makes one picture and blue jeans are the fashion. Soon he’ll make another, something else will become popular. These fashionable things, they don’t last.”
The film is set in 1956, some eight decades after Levi Strauss patented his first pair of blue jeans. Yet now - in an age far beyond both milestones - the simple cotton warp and weft trousers first used as overalls by miners and gold panners have proved Rylance’s character wrong, becoming more relevant and elegant than ever before.
Consider the recent spate of denim-soaked menswear shows in Paris and Milan. At Prada, joint creative directors Miuccia and Raf Simons showed a selection of full double denim looks as part of the brand’s Autumn Winter ‘24 collection, elevated with the addition of ties, tailored overcoats and lace-up shoes.
At Loewe, Jonathan Anderson presented high waisted jeans encrusted in crystals; whilst at Bottega Veneta, Matthieu Blazy has taken denim to heady new heights by creating leather trousers treated to look like jeans. These were teamed with tweedy dad blazers and tailored outerwear pieces, and looked effortless.
The shift towards smart denim is happening elsewhere in celeb land, too. In fact, not since the days of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears’s head-to-toe denim red carpet turn at the 2001 VMAs has denim enjoyed such a starry glow up.
Rihanna and A$AP Rocky arrived at Pharrel’s first show for Louis Vuitton in full denim looks last year and the internet was officially broken. For his most recent appearance on Jimmy Fallon, rangy Saltburn star Jacob Elordi wore a pair of worn-in, straight leg denim jeans with a neat knitted polo; whilst Austin Butler wore a double breasted Gucci blazer with a pair of straight leg blue jeans for a red carpet turn during the Elvis press tour.
“Denim is incredibly versatile and can be worn in multiple disciplines.” Explains Damien Paul, head of menswear at Matches Fashion. “There’s been a distinct shift in fits recently, and while straight wide legs are still super strong, there's been a move back to the slim straight look. With sales up over 130 per cent compared to 2023, the current aesthetic is a little more rock and roll.”
When it comes to sporting your own elevated denim looks this spring, the key is to keep things simple. Treat your jeans as you would a pair of suit trousers or your denim jacket as you would a blazer and you won’t go far wrong. It’s imperative that you avoid wearing stonewash bootcuts, however, as you’ll run the very real risk of looking like Top Gear-era Jeremy Clarkson in his jeans and sheux if you do.
Team a pair of perfect Prada straight leg jeans with a slim-soled, formal shoe, and sexy sock.” Suggests Paul. “There’s a timeless elegance to the look and the silhouette has a broad appeal. The slimmer fit denim has a refined finish which appeals to a broad spectrum of clients.”
Alternatively you could make like Justin and Britney, Ralph Lauren - the undisputed master of donning multiple denim garments all at once - or creative director and founder of contemporary upcycled jeans brand E.L.V. Denim Anna Foster and “try triple denim. The concept may sound a bit much, but trust me, it’s effortlessly elegant.”
Or failing that, you could fly in the face of Rylance and go the full James Dean in a pair of Levi’s 501s. If it worked for him…
Which brings me neatly to the return of the skinny silhouette
Remember that shot of the skinny jean-clad and core-of-Chernobyl tanned lads which did the rounds a few years back? Well, a picture of the same chaps dressed in wide leg jeans and chunky dad trainers appeared last week, and - as if by magic - slimmer trousers suddenly seem appealing all over again.
Thing is, for all the column inches recently dedicated to the much mooted return of the skinny silhouette, I feel hesitant about advising you to ditch all your wide leg trousers in favour of spray-ons just yet.
Part of the reason is because the trend cycle moves so rapidly these days that by the time you’ve made the switch, baggy jeans will be back again. Moreover, our perpetual oscillating from one style to another is terrible for the environment, encouraging us to buy more fast fashion, thus contributing to the 92 million tonnes of textile waste produced each and every year.
Which is all a rambling way of saying that when it comes to trousers, my advice is to completely reject the mores of trend and invest in a pair which look good on your frame instead.
If you’re tall, pick trousers which finish above your waist and hang with a fluid drape. If you’re shorter opt for something straight in the leg with hems that finish at the tongues of your shoes, if you’re on the larger side, choose something which are close cut at your waist and finish slightly wider at the base to create a sense of balance - avoid anything that clings like the plague.
Because there’s absolutely no point dressing to satisfy the whims of trend, if said trend looks terrible on you (and I feel confident in saying that anything extremely baggy or extremely skinny looks pretty terrible on everyone, which makes ignoring either even easier than it already should be).
Why you need to start wearing V-necks again now (seriously)
Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: V-neck jumpers are back in fashion. The menswear runways are full of them, celebrities are wearing them on the red carpet, and stores are placing them at the heart of their spring/summer 2024 offerings.
“There’s been growing demand for V-neck sweaters, with searches for the style increasing by 10 per cent this year versus 2023,” says Daniel Todd, buying director of Mr Porter, where sales of the style have risen by almost a third in the same period. “We’ve grown our edit to meet customer demand.”
The style is set to dominate the autumn/winter season too. In January, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen of The Row presented unattainably priced shallow V-neck sweaters worn with tailoring. At Officine Générale, creative director Pierre Mahéo showed plunging V-neck sweaters with a whisper of a V-neck tee worn beneath them. The look was at its purest at Neil Barrett, where the British designer sent out an array of plunging lightweight knits in shades of grey and chocolate over crewneck tees and beneath coats.
“My collection very much reflects the classic 1990s aesthetic,” explains Barrett. “The V-neck jumper, the oversized blazer, the bootcut trousers. These garments made up my personal uniform in that decade. But for this collection I elevated the fabrics, the volumes, the details and the quality.” The resulting silhouette was very public-schoolboy-at-chapel, but make it chic — think of Felix Catton from Saltburn, had he survived until winter.
Yet the question begs, are we ready to overlook the scorched earth left by V-necks just a few decades ago? Because for as long as many of us can remember, V-neck sweaters have been all but verboten — existing somewhere in the style hinterland between twisted jeans and square-toed tan leather loafers from Shoe Zone.
“I don’t think I’ve worn a V-neck jumper myself since 1989, which is the last year I wore a school uniform,” says Alex Bilmes, editor-in-chief of Esquire magazine. “I associate them with desperate saloon bar bores, suburban golfers and Alan Partridge.”
Cast your mind back to the late 1990s and early 2000s, when V-necks were last in style, and you’ll understand why they’ve had such a bad rap until recently. Consider Jude Law and football scion Calum Best in their navel-grazing V-neck tees, worn with skin-tight leather jackets and All Saints harem pants. Or Partridge in his V-neck sweaters worn over shirts and clumsily knotted ties. Thanks to such dubious standard-bearers, V-necks have since occupied opposing ends of the sartorial spectrum — denoting a certain slovenly brand of old-school masculinity at one, arch geekery at the other. But now, a new generation are embracing V-necks as their own.
“The hegemony of crewnecks has been going on for so long that the younger generations think the V-neck is a recent invention,” says menswear designer Oliver Spencer. “To me, the V-neck has sort of become this contrarian style statement that feels both rebellious and edgy. There’s definitely a sense that men feel less restricted by traditional ideas of masculinity, and it might be that a plunging V-neck is another way of projecting a more fluid style.”
Proving the adaptability of the new V-neck mood, Instagram star Fai Khadra looked sharp in a V-neck polo-shirt hybrid at the recent Lacoste presentation in Paris, and Mark Ronson cut a figure both rakish and smart wearing a brown V-neck sweater beneath a tonal Gucci suit at the Grammys. The style looked grown-up and flattering on Brad Pitt, who wore a V-neck sweater over a crisp white shirt in the Inez and Vinoodh-directed short film shown during the Chanel show in March.
Personally, I hold Michael Douglas wearing a chunky bottle green jumper over a bare chest in 1992’s Basic Instinct as the pinnacle of V-neck wearing. Douglas looked as though he’d thrown on something found at the bottom of Sharon Stone’s wardrobe, the morning after the night before. The knitted inverse of a boyfriend shirt, the actor seemed sexy and confident in the garment, a touch early-days-gender-fluid, too.
But which V-neck to buy when you’re ready to take the plunge (so to speak)? According to Mr Porter’s Todd, it’s worth investing in something that will both stand alone and stand the test of time. “It’s hard to look past Tom Ford for the perfect classic V-neck that will last you for ever,” he explains. “Like most people I am really into The Row at the moment and their ribbed take on this style is really easy to wear with jeans, or layered over a striped shirt with a loose-fit trouser.”
You could also test the water with an affordable merino wool V-neck from Uniqlo. At the mid-level, a cashmere style in a muted shade from Sheep Inc, John Smedley or — my favourite — Begg x Co will quickly become a staple of your wardrobe. Alternatively, opt for a vintage V-neck from Vestiaire Collective or Go Thrift. It’s been so long since V-necks were part of the accepted style vernacular that you’ll pick up an excellent preloved cricket jumper or an ironic golfing sweater for a song.
When it comes to wearing your new V-neck, I prefer mine with nothing but air (and plenty of white-mark-free deodorant) between fabric and skin, while fashion editor Laura Craik is particularly fond of the V-over-a-tee look, à la Neil Barrett. “In the mid-1990s I did some work experience at The Face magazine and all the men in the office wore V-neck jumpers,” explains Craik. “Decades later, a V-neck sweater worn with a white round-neck T-shirt underneath is still one of my favourite looks. It’s clean, uncomplicated and blissfully under-thought.” She continues: “In pizza terms, it’s a margherita — basic, yes, but also unimprovable.”
If you’re looking for a new tailoring style icon, no busques más
Last week I wrote a piece for The Telegraph on the subject of Spain’s new most stylish aristocrat, Fernando Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Huescar. The grandson of the late, great Duchess of Alba, Fitz-James Stuart is arguably the best dressed blue blooded Iberian since King Filipe II.
Not only does Fitz-James Stuart keep everything simple, but he has all his garments tailored, he doesn’t over accessorise, he leans into the preppy look when he goes casual and he absolutely embraces the follicular fecundity with which he has been blessed. Take note.
Since writing the piece I’ve been digging deeper into the style of Spain’s better dressed men and, in the process, rediscovered one of my favourite-yet-often-overlooked garments in the tailoring arsenal, the teba jacket.
Defined by a notchless lapel, a lack of lining and a slightly boxy cut, the garment sits somewhere between a chore jacket and a classic blazer and was originally created by a small tailoring brand in Zarautz, Spain. Originally designed as a shooting jacket, with the roomy cut allowing for increased movement, the jacket is also named after Carlos Alfonso Mitjans y Fitz-James Stuart, the 21st Count of Teba and a distant relative of Fernando Fitz-James Stuart. Coincidence? I think not.
The beauty of a teba jacket is such that you can wear one in pretty much any scenario. Excellent as a stand in for something more tailored at the office or worn with denim and jersey at the weekend, in my opinion a teba jacket looks better with the lapels worn popped and teamed with a crew neck sweater. Here are three of my favourites to try this spring:
A ranking of the Beckham boys’ birthday looks
Last weekend Victoria Beckham celebrated her 50th birthday surrounded by family, friends and famous people. She was dressed in a foamy sea green dress from her own brand, she got pissed, her skin resembled that of a 15-year-old, the world was at one.
Of all the social media content that has surfaced in the wake of the event, the video of David Beckham documenting all five of The Spice Girls mounting an impromptu performance of Stop is the one which has garnered the most media attention. For me, though, it was the shot of the immediate family gathered ahead of the event which was more intriguing.
Featuring Romeo, Cruz, VB, Harper Seven, David and Brooklyn in front of a grand monochromatic fireplace like a modern day Rockefeller family or -more pertinently - a real life Roy dynasty; if you looked closely, each child seemed to subtly embody a different Succession scion. From Brooklyn as Connor in his eager DB, to Romeo’s golden-son-having-a-bleach-blonde-breakdown (aka Kendallcore) and Cruz as Roman in his Chaotic Bugsy Malone cosplay.
Herewith, my ranking of the best men’s looks in the family Beckham. Cue Succession theme music, please…
(Victoria is Marsha and Harper Seven is Shiv, obvs. Also, I’m putting this bit behind a paywall - not because I’m trying to extort money out of my wonderful free subscribers, but, well, humour is subjective).
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