Gucci menswear: Ford brings Elegant Thirties back
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
People call it the Elegant Thirties. It was a period of glamorous style, with formal wear for men and sleek bias cut gowns for women. A time when hour-glass figures, longer hairstyles and business suits were all the rage.
It was the decade of lavish musicals where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers paired for the first time. The era of Clark Gable and Carey Grant.
The period that was so elegant and memorable that Tom Ford, Gucci's designer, used it as the main inspiration for the upcoming fall/winter collection, in line with this year's fashion trends, which seem to be moving toward the past.
While Gucci's previous men's collection was heavy on jeans and sportswear, this models for this collection, with their neat and slicked-back hair, indicate that it is time to be formal and classical, yet casual and modern.
The formal style is expressed with jackets and polished elegant shoes. Jackets, indeed, play a huge role in this collection. They come with fitted volume, slim cut on the arm and a natural shoulder cut.
The jackets are single-breasted, two-button with wide and formal peaked lapels.
Coats, which appear in many designers' fall/winter collections, also exist in Ford's collection, to the tune of some 20 of them.
The whole formal atmosphere is added to with suits. As business suits reigned supreme in the 1930s, and with Astaire and Gable bringing suits to the silver screen, Ford has adopted and adapted the look for evening wear.
Tuxedos with different layering appear in the collection, with waistcoats and coat linings that can be reversed or removed.
Another obvious element from the 1930s adopted for this collection is the color (back then, it was muted and deep hues).
The Gucci collection is dominated by black, which is Ford's favorite. Nude colors like beige, ivory and stone are also seen, as well as dark colors like deep green, dark burgundy and dark brown.
As mentioned, there is also a casualness that finds expression in the collection. It is applied in a sense that wearing the same color from head to toe is not always necessary. Instead, brown shoes can be combined with a black suit, gray shirt and brown scarf.
We can also see that jackets are not always worn with formal shirts, but also with V-neck T-shirts.
Casual jackets with four large pockets with covers adds the look, as well as those jackets with a shanghai neck and slightly large buttons.
The casual mode is also distinct in the wool sweater and the wide, spacious and very long trousers with seven-centimeter cuffs, worn very low on the hips.
Fabrics used in this collection are luxurious: silk, wool, suede, leather and cashmere. Specific and rare materials like Japanese cotton and washed Italian felt are also used.
Leather and fur are applied as lining for coats. Some coats also have lining made from beaver and shaved mink (better be fake, though), as well as shearling.
As for accessories, the top of the list are the hand-polished leather shoes.
The second and most obvious ones are the scarves, which are tied about the neck, and combined with v-neck t-shirts and jackets and coats.
There are also ties and cravats, which are combined with shirts with long and pointed collars.
Ties are of the very wide variety made from ultra soft fabrics are worn in a very small knot.
Following the example of Gable and Grant, other accessories are fedoras. And gloves from a very soft and thin material complete the look.