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.
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.
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.