SILVER STYLE
Older men feel let down by fashion brands, but the 50-plus market has never been more in style, says
Arecent study has found that men over 50 still enjoy clothes, but don’t feel that fashion caters to them. Which is a real shame; despite a preoccupation among almost every fashion house from Seventh Avenue to Rue Saint-honoré, with how to cater to millennials, there’s never been a greater focus on intergenerational style and catering to an older man who is assured in his sense of style.
From Brioni to Ermenegildo Zegna, gents well into their sixth decade have starred in their campaigns, while some of the most feted – and Instagram followed – men’s style figures are past the 50 threshold, including the matinee idol-esque Eric Rutherford and the style blogger Nick Wooster. Fifty-oneyear-old model Cameron Alborzian – Madonna’s paramour in her Eighties hit Express
Yourself – recently opened the Dior Homme show while 60-plus retiree Philippe Dumas found a new lease of life when Instagram turned him into a model and fashion star thanks to his majestic grey beard. Older men have never had more licence to embrace fashion.
And when it comes to the outdated image of grandpa in his slippers, checked shirt and cardigan – it’s worth noting how items that were once synonymous with sleepy retirement are being re-worked into wardrobes for men aged 18 to 80. Take the cardigan, for example; once a byword for boring attire, it’s been adopted by the Pitti Peacocks – the stylish showgoers of Florentine trade fair Pitti Uomo – as a key item to don underneath your tailoring, all the better if it comes with a swamping shawl collar. That other oft maligned item, corduroy, has also experienced a resurgence thanks to brands such as Gucci and Brunello Cucinelli proposing it with knife-edge sharp denim; the fusty fabric is no longer the confines of geography teachers’ blazers. Likewise slippers, which have become a dazzling evening option – even on the likes of Prince William – and are a happy medium between formal and informal.
When a former One Directioner is dying his tresses grey, it’s clear that advanced age style doesn’t carry stigma. For the 50-plus fellow who still feels that fashion is letting him down, it pays to look past the highfalutin styling and razor-sharp cuts that most shops in the high street might showcase in the windows, but at the same time not be lulled into the safe shores of shapeless trousers and roomy suits; straightlegged chinos will look considered whatever your age bracket, likewise a well-tailored jacket and a grandad collar shirt (a little more vim than the standard collar). Be glad to be grey.