Robert Redford
Take away the matinee-idol looks (and what might be the best head of hair Hollywood’s ever seen) and Robert Redford would still earn his reputation as the quintessential all-American boy. Not some spit-polish-clean kid, but a true American. His finest work as an actor and director—movies like Three Days of the Condor, All the President’s Men, Quiz Show—has represented an America in turmoil and reflected, in some way, the importance of truth and the disastrous consequences that arise when the truth is suppressed. “Bob is all about freedom,” says Lois Smith, Redford’s publicist and friend for more than thirty-five years. “It’s part of who he is, with the Sundance Institute and his involvement with environmental causes.” Redford’s all-American sensibility also translated to his fashion sense—the tweed blazers, jeans, and mirrored aviators. Says Smith, “We used to joke that Ralph Lauren made an entire career of copying his dress.”
• Wire-rimmed aviators are an essential accessory. They’re cool and refined, meaning they look right dressed up or dressed down.
Photo: Terry O’Neill/Getty Images
Jack Nicholson
About five years ago, during one of the Yankees’ late-October playoff runs, Jack Nicholson walked into Manhattan’s Pastis restaurant in the middle of the lunch rush. He was dressed in a Sopranos-grade tracksuit, a stiff Yankees cap, and a pair of black shades. The restaurant froze. Jack made his way through the tightly packed dining room and a table of five blonds whipped their necks around to stare. Without breaking stride, Jack cracked a grin and, in that raspy drawl, asked loud enough for more than a few tables to hear, “Ladies! How we doin’?” It was vintage Jack—pervy enough to appreciate their attention, cocky enough to leave them hanging, and smart enough not to let them interrupt his date with a steak sandwich. Not many of us grow up saying we want to be a heavyset divorcé who started losing his hair in his midthirties. But who wouldn’t want to be Jack? All charisma and swagger, he’s a man beyond clothes, trends, and hairdos. He’s a man, period.
• A denim shirt is brilliantly, unimpeachably American. And just like a pair of jeans, it gets better the more you wear it.
Photo: David Bailey
Mick and Keith
It’s hard to imagine life before the Stones were the Stones, before they were The World’s Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band™. But go ahead and try. Think back to Swingin’ London, a time and place that shaped them even as they shaped it. “On Carnaby Street, these kinds of clothes were available for the first time—suede jackets, Chelsea boots,” explains Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the filmmaker behind The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. “And these young musicians—who were earning money—they bought clothes.” The scarves and dangerously tight trousers that Jagger and Richards favored became the look of the moment—and of the next half century for rockers everywhere. The boys courted their bad-boy image, which culminated in several dubious drug busts. (The photo here shows Mick and Keith in July 1967, after their release by British authorities.) After that, like Lord Byron and other great British romantic heroes, Mick and Keith codified a perfect combination of dangerous and dandy. “Their look began at a time when the world was changing,” says Lindsay-Hogg. “And their look was the one you aspired to if you wanted to be Byronic, to get laid, or to be rebellious.” The rest is history.
• It’s called attitude. Nothing finishes off an outfit better than a sharp dose of confidence. How else do grown men get away with wearing silk scarves and ruffled shirts?
Photo: Bettmann/Corbis
Jean-Claude Killy
“How I dress is very important,” Jean-Claude Killy says, calling from his home in Switzerland. “Like how I behave. Or how I speak.” Raised in a tiny village atop the French Alps, this son of a shop owner learned to ski shortly after he learned to walk, and shortly after that he began winning medals, finally taking three golds at the 1968 Olympic Games, which rocketed him at age 25, ready or not, into worldwide stardom. Killy looked like he was cast for the part, like Robert Redford in 1969’s Downhill Racer, only fiercer—tight wool ski pants slashed with racing stripes, mock turtlenecks tucked beneath formfitting sweaters, black leather lace-up boots, and a head of windswept hair. Killy taught us that it wasn’t enough to be an Olympic hero; you needed to look like one, too.
• A truly stylish man is stylish all the time—whether he’s on the mountain, the court, or the golf course. Looking good isn’t reserved for when you’re throwing on a tie.
Photo: Presses Sports/Sports Illustrated
François Truffaut
The great French director François Truffaut was a master at blending the surprising and the mundane, artiness and earnestness, innocence and mischief. And it was that same, quintessentially French spirit—call it élégance naturelle—that informed the way he dressed. His clothes weren’t flashy, but they fit him perfectly. “He had that French chic about him,” recalls Bruce Robinson, who starred in Truffaut’s The Story of Adele H and went on to direct the cult classic Withnail & I. As a director, Robinson has tried to emulate not only Truffaut’s on-set “gentleness—his gentleman-ness, if you like,” but also his subtle fashion sense. “I used to copy the way he wore his scarf—a long scarf with a big loop, tucked inside his leather jacket. Truffaut had tremendous flair.”
• Dress for the elements—in style. Flip your collar, tie your scarf with confidence, and avoid looking like the Michelin Man.
Photo: Rue Des Archives/The Granger Collection, NY
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