Recreating Looks from My Unexpected Summer Style Icons
Ralph Fiennes, Harrison Ford, Alain Delon and '90s J. Crew men's catalogues are on my mood board.
The thought of summer being mere weeks away feels all kinds of exciting. Long, light nights are on the horizon. Evenings spent on the beach, a beer and a takeaway pizza in tow, are within reach. A long weekend in northern France and a week in southern Italy are being penned into the diary.
I love the layers, the coats, and the chunky knits of autumn and winter but when summer rolls around, I’m more than ready to embrace the lighter, breezier, sleeve-free pieces this season brings.
This also means I get a bit too excited and invested in buying new summer clothes. I have to remind myself - daily - that I live in the UK, and no, I more than likely won’t be wearing shorts and a vest top for three months straight. So, like
and regularly advocate, I vow to shop my wardrobe this summer instead. There are outfits from last year that I’ll be repeating but to feel as though I’m injecting a bit of newness into this season’s wardrobe, I’m turning to the images I’ve saved on Instagram and Pinterest for inspiration too.When scrolling through said inspiration, I noticed a pattern. I’ve clearly been drawn to a very particular kind of look - outfits that have all been worn by men in decades past. There are plenty of images from J. Crew catalogues in the 1980s and ‘90s. Harrison Ford in Cannes in the ‘80s makes an appearance, as does French actor Alain Delon in the 1960s. There’s a smattering of looks sported by Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient, the film set in 1944, too.
When I think about what draws me to all of the below looks, it’s the simplicity and the representation of a completely carefree summer. There are no bells, no whistles. Nothing is (seemingly) overthought. Each piece is practical - linen shirts that are cooling and easy to wear in the heat, and don’t mind if they get creased or if the sleeves are forever being rolled up. Trousers that are tailored yet comfortable and can handle walking through hot, busy streets - or hoisting a sail. And jumpers that can be thrown on at the first touch of cool sea wind and can handle being stuffed into the bottom of your beach bag.
Here are five looks I’ve recreated from my unexpected summer style icons, all using pieces I already had in my wardrobe. A lot of them have been reused in different outfits so expect to see a bit of repetition but hey, that’s a great sign of good, versatile pieces.
Ralph Fiennes’ look in The English Patient
If you’re unfamiliar with the 1996 film The English Patient, it tells the story of László Almásy (played by Ralph Fiennes), a cartographer who becomes badly injured in the Second World War and loses his memory. Flashbacks abound and his memory is pieced together, taking the viewer through his time in Cairo and exploring the Sahara. The outfits are everything you’d expect from a Saharan expedition in the late 1930s: loose white linen shirts, sand-coloured jackets, and light brown, pleated front trousers. Turns out that’s just the kind of thing that works outside of the desert too.
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Admittedly, Ralph Fiennes’ character didn’t wear Birkenstocks but his lace-up desert boots aren’t quite the look I’m going for this summer. The dark brown of these sandals goes well with the caramel colour of the trousers, and the overall laidback look of the outfit, so they feel like a good option. The shirt is a great oversized, good quality linen style that I wore a lot last summer and imagine I will again this time around. It’s the kind of piece that still looks good slightly crushed, so I can casually tuck it in and roll up the sleeves, like here, and not compromise the overall outfit.
Harrison Ford at the Cannes Film Festival
At the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Harrison Ford caused quite the stir when he turned up, ever so casually, in a pair of navy shorts, a navy jumper, beaten-up boat shoes - and an E.T. badge. A style icon was born. It’s casual but the navy makes it classic and stylish, rather than having it steer into scruffy territory. It’s also the perfect in-between outfit when it’s warm but there’s still a bit of a cold breeze, so it’s got early and late summer written all over it.
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Here’s my take on the look: a classic navy jumper in lightweight cashmere, striped navy boxer shorts, and a pair of tan fisherman sandals (boat shoes have never really been ‘me’). I find it quite tricky to find a pair of shorts that look and feel good on (why are they always so frumpy?) but With Nothing Underneath’s boxer shorts are a triumph. They’ve got an elastic waistband so you can wear them at different points on the waist, depending on your preference (I tend to wear mine high up), a slightly loose fit and a subtle curved hem. They don’t cling, they don’t weirdly bunch up, and they work well with jumpers, T-shirts, shirts, you name it.
J. Crew men’s catalogue, spring/summer 1994
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Ahh, the J. Crew catalogues from the 1980s and ‘90s. Have they got us all in a chokehold? Like a lot of other minimalist fashion fans, I’m a loyal follower of Instagram accounts such as The Simplicity Man (as above) and Simplicity City (the women’s equivalent), where old ads, film stills, and catalogue pages from decades gone by are snapped, shared and saved. This particular post caught my eye: the neutral, rolled-up shirt, the turned-up white pleated trousers, the brown strappy sandals and the matching belt are something I could easily see myself wearing, and could easily recreate.
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I don’t have a brown shirt in my wardrobe so I’ve reached for the next best thing instead: an ecru-coloured, oversized linen shirt from Something to Hold. I’ve pushed the sleeves up rather than rolled them because I like the shape it creates on this particular shirt - plus, the cuffs have enough ‘grip’ that they can stay in place like this without any extra help. The trousers are old favourites from Bassike (bought at the beginning of 2019 if I remember correctly) and have that great mix of casual, sturdy cotton construction, a loose fit and a pleated front. The belt and sandals have that same dark brown from the reference look; I love that contrast of tones against the ecru.
Alain Delon, on holiday, in the 1960s
French actor Alain Delon has taken up quite a bit of space on my summer mood board - particularly his looks from the 1960s as he suns it up in the South of France. Yes, he’s very easy on the eye, but it’s the nonchalant throwing together of relaxed, tailored pieces that draws me to his style the most. In theory, it’s a bit of a no-brainer. Just a white shirt, unbuttoned, rolled up to the elbows and casually tucked into the waistband of tailored navy trousers. It’s simple but executed well, this look is very effective and a great one to try for summer.
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This is the same shirt I’m wearing in the Ralph Fiennes recreation above - proof, if it were ever needed, that a white linen shirt is an excellent piece for summer. I’m not going for quite as many undone buttons as Alain, for obvious reasons, but this shirt is great for that rolled-up sleeves, tucked-in style that he does so well. The trousers are an old navy cotton pair from COS (although this current pair looks almost exactly the same), that sit at a summer-friendly ankle length.
J. Crew men’s catalogue, spring/summer 1998
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More from the J. Crew men’s back catalogues because seriously, it is good. This particular look is from 1998: a beige loose, long-sleeved T-shirt, off-white shorts, and what looks like a bottle of beer in the model’s hand. A perfect summer’s day if you ask me. A bit like the Harrison Ford post above, I love the mix of the long sleeves with the shorts for a bit of juxtaposition, as well as the tonal pieces. I also like how lived in these pieces feel. It’s not clean-cut, there are creases in those sleeves and shorts, and it feels very much like a proper, practical day at the beach.
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I’ve gone for my oatmeal-coloured light jumper from Bassike here to recreate this look, pairing it with cotton shorts from Uniqlo. The tonal colours of the two pieces work so well together, as in the original reference image, and I can see myself wearing this to the beach or picnics at the park, probably wearing a vest or bikini top underneath the jumper to allow for temperature changes. I’ve taken the tonal theme one step further with the trainers, adding an olive green tote bag and bottle green sunglasses to break it up a bit.
P.S. Embrace the creases!
Any items marked with * have been kindly gifted by brands. All thoughts, picks and reviews are my own.
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Oh my gosh, Harrison Ford at Cannes might be my new crush; what a babe! But also, the style is so good!!
Come July around here it’ll be too hot for the sweaters and the long pants/sleeves but cute interpretations. I didn’t care for the English Patient but Kristin Scott Thomas was so gorgeous in that movie. She had some pretty good outfits too