I was flicking through a men’s style supplement (one of those free sheets that’s been mistakenly ejected from the Sunday paper and that every mannequin in the world wants to model) and came across a spread called Style at Any Age with the headline “Realistic fashion for the mature gentleman.” Excuse me while I spit out my Earl Grey tea. The “mature” model featured – who appeared to be 45 but thanks to some artfully applied grey hairsticking was styled to look like a distinguished 32 year old – was pictured wearing skinny cut moss green corduroy trousers, a £600 cashmere rollneck and a shearling jacket that cost about the same as two weeks food shopping for my family. My father, aged 73, sat opposite me at the table wearing Marks & Spencer’s straight-cut jeans (purchased on the recommendation of his golf buddy Tony six years ago and replaced with identical ones since), a checked button up shirt with military style tuck in, and a navy lambswool v-neck jumper that predates Blair.
The double-standard between men’s style magazines and real-life mature style is jarring. Don’t get me wrong, my father cares about his appearance – he’d never leave the house with scuffed shoes or wrinkled trousers, knows his opinion on acceptable shirt collar width and would never be seen dead wearing beige. But his sense of style has been honed by decades of lived experience rather than airbrushed photoshoots.
When you take away the gloss and see what British men over 50 are actually wearing as opposed to what magazines want them to wear, you discover something of a generational divide. Allow me to break down said differences by taking you through the items of clothing British men over the age of 50 are most likely to be wearing right now, as well as explaining what magazines would like them to be wearing instead.
First off, what would magazines have you believe our distinguished gentleman is wearing on his week nights and weekends?
Well, alongside that aforementioned bank-breaking shearling-blend with roll neck; I’ve also seen slim cut tailoring in outrageous colours, artisanal Japanese selvedge denim with incongruous branding details, oversized knitwear that ‘leans architecturally’ and brogues that could pay off your mortgage. What British men actually wear: If you’ve ever had the misfortune of being stuck in a waiting room with more than one middle aged man I’ll introduce you to your new life coach: my father. Watch them father – notice how he chooses the same brands time and time again not because they tell him what to wear but because they let him buy the same styles year after year without constantly adjusting to new “silhouettes” or explaining skinny cut trouser options to retail assistants who could legitimately be his granddaughter.
He – and by extension, pretty much every other British man over 50 – sticks to certain key principles when it comes to clothes; comfort being one of them. Now, when I say comfort I’m not talking about performative “comfort” that costs hundreds on Sterling & Tate. I mean shirts that don’t creep up your overheated neck after half a glass of wine, trousers with waistbands that actually sit comfortably on your hips and shoes you could genuinely run in if you wanted to.
Notice also the colour palette: navy, grey, burgundy, forest green and probably about fifteen different shades of blue. They aren’t boring because they’ve worn basically the same style of clothes in these colours for decades. They know what works.
My father has a light blue checked shirt that makes his eyes pop so women still tell him he looks nice after 47 years of marriage. Speaking of fit; holy moley do magazines love putting slim cut everything on their mature models. Slim cut trousers on a 6’2”, 12% body fat British male model might look like a dream, but what about the father of three who actually still has knees and would struggle to squeeze into said trousers without losing 15 pounds?
Realistic trousers for the British man over 50 have a straight cut that actually suits his body as it is now, not as it was in his twenties. And how about when they want to dress up? Every man’s confident moment; what magazines want you to wear versus what you actually wear.
To rock at Christmas parties, weddings and funerals; newsflash magazines: the British man over 50 already owns a suit. A very nice suit in navy or charcoal that doesn’t just get wheeled out for special occasions. It gets worn.
A lot. Speaking of suits; my uncle Mike is a lifelong accountant who did one of those DNA kits and found out he has an obscure ancestor who fought in World War One. The result is having what he terms his “full dress uniform” – a navy suite from Gieves & Hawkes he bought when his daughter married 15 years ago.
It had a minor alteration when his weight changed thanks to a good local tailor, and is completed with a variety of shirts and ties depending on the occassion. Funeral = white shirt, dark tie. Wedding = pale blue shirt, whoever’s pickin’ tie that Mary buys him.
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His 70th birthday dinner with the whole family? Added a pocket square the kids got him that had embroidered little tanks on it (we will the military family joke). It’s simple, smart and fits the occasion without trying too hard.
If there’s one place British men absolutely will invest it’s their shoes. Trust me they’ve learned by now that those bargain bootcamp specials aren’t gonna cut it. My FIL has 3 pairs of Church’s which have been resoled numerous times and are way more stylish now than when he bought them.
They also get polished on a weekly basis with the same devotion he once applied to servicing his drill machine at work. My point being: not aspirational, but actual. Now for the fun stuff.
Casual wear is where most fashion magazines lose their audience completely; suggesting expensive basics from luxury labels or high concept designer garments that would struggle to be seen as casual wear in the world’s coolest country pubs. Truth is, if it’s casual wear British men over 50 are wearing it. Good fitting jeans or chinos that actually fit male legs, rugby shirts that were probably bought in a sale somewhere but have since gained entry into their wardrobe through years of providing dependable warmth, and woollens from companies who’ve stuck to the same manufacturing techniques and designs for decades because they know their customers don’t want or need new trends every season.
My father-in-law has a Shetland wool jumper that’s older than my marriage. He said he bought it from M&S in 1997. If they made things like that today they’d have to pay me commission.
Lastly, we come to the great great outdoory trouser divide. Fashion magazines would have you believe those artisanal waxed jackets and grandad collar shirts with barely perceptible modern tweaks that make the price three times what they’re worth are what your grandad is wearing right now. Meanwhile, actual grandads still have their trusty old Barbour jackets they’ve owned for upwards of two decades and get rewaxed every few years by either the company or increasingly likely; themselves in an age old ritual of covering their living room floor in newspaper and watching their partners’ eyes roll into the back of their heads.
Not fashion.
Function. Invested in, loved, and worn until holes start appearing through the knee.
It’s easy to pick apart what magazines think British men over 50 should be wearing. The reality of it is most have settled on a uniform they’re comfortable in – literally and figuratively – and know what looks good and what doesn’t. Don’t mistake me; I have clients in their sixties buying vintage Paul Smith with the rebelliousness of a man who doesn’t care what anyone thinks about his clothes.
I also have a retired architect who treats his wardrobe with the same careful consideration he did building designs; endlessly playing with proportions and textures without ever being loud. They embrace clothes and style in a way that works for them, whether that fits into what magazines are telling them or not. But the majority?
They know what suits them; what fits their increasingly-adult body. They know which brands wear well and which consistently offer the same styles they know, love and feel comfortable in at a price they don’t need me to explain to them is reasonable. British men over 50 aren’t chasing trends and lifestyles they can no longer live.
They know what works; and there’s a certain maturity in accepting that.
