When Chariots of Fire opened at the New York Film Festival last fall, word spread fast in fashion circles: “See this movie and check out the clothes!” The film focuses on the lives of young British athletes as they attend university and prepare for the 1924 Paris Olympics. What excited the trend setters about Chariots, and inspired menswear designers, was that in nearly every frame of the film, our heroes are splendidly costumed in the vintage gentlemen’s styles of the day. Then, as more and more viewers flocked to theaters to see Chariots of Fire – and its beautiful clothes-others tuned to public television to an English period production at home. The episodes of Bridesheud Revisited also feature highborn, gorgeously dressed protagonists and are also set in the Twenties, a period generally reckoned as a heyday for men’s fashion classics, when men really dressed and when the tailors of Savile Row still held sway. As a result of this sudden salvo of stylish screen heroes, Anglophilia has overtaken American men’s fashion. Dressing up is back for spring.
In fact, all of the media-inspired interest in elegant dressing gives the men’s fashion business a much-needed shot in the arm. Designer jeans departments are drying up, and preppy is just plain pooped. President Reagan, too, has had a limited effect on men’s fashion, stimulating the sale of plain brown suits. But the Republican look, while it certainly suggests a way of dressing up, is really more about efficiency and understatement.
Anglophilia is everywhere in the new spring collections. The top designers are showing bar-striped “school” blazers, pleated “spring tweed” trousers and cableknit sweater vests along with more formal suit models in lighttoned seersuckers and Prince of Wales plaids. Some designers even suggest layering sweaters with suits or sport jackets, a la Chariots or Brideshead and have compensated for our warmer climate with lightweight and porous fabrics such as cotton, linen and silk. Bow ties -and in some cases ascots – have been shown in spring collections to enhance the romantic flavor of the new clothing styles. And quirky accessories like suspenders, pocket watches and even straw boaters are cropping up as well.
The prevailing winds of fashion have shifted with the spring and summer collections. Blowing over from England is a legacy of refined shapes and classic styles from the past, that when properly interpreted for contemporary wear, reinstate elegance in modern menswear. Swept away is the home-grown concept of dressing down. Lady Marchmain would simply not approve.
Flusser; available at Neiman-Marcus, Sakowitz andSanger Harris. Center: silk and cotton basket-weavesport jacket, $450; silk and cotton double-pleatedtrousers, $150; silk and cotton double-placket shirt,$175. All by Jhane Barnes; available at Neiman-Marcus. Right: silk and wool open-weave suit, $450;cotton dress shirt, $65. By Alexander Julian; availableat Neiman-Marcus and Outfitters.
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