Fathers are constantly the butt of the joke. From eye-rolling TV ads (thankfully about death) about the unhappy old “I’m indoors” and his inability to perform basic household chores, to Father’s Day cards splashed with beer and football imagery (one-dimensional and clunky, right?), dads are getting it in the neck. Especially when it comes to their style. Yours truly – who is neither over 50 nor a father – has been as guilty as anyone of writing about, for example, how to avoid the ‘dad on holiday’ look. Sorry about that.
British entrepreneur Julian Dunkerton is here to put people like millennial me in their place; navigating the choppy waters of axing his Superdry brand in an attempt to rescue it from administration, he agreed to an interview with The Telegraph, that the British label was a kind of ‘dad brand’. “I’m not ashamed that I have a 50-year-old consumer, as long as a 16-year-old also comes along,” he said The Telegraph. The connotation is that it offers something desirable among a certain group of men who don’t want to dress like their fathers did, but are still not exactly cool; we are talking about a leather or outdoor jacket, a touch of gray in the stubble, jeans are more bootcut than straight. Richard Hammond and the cast of Top gearactually, or any other British man like her.
Men (particularly British men) over the age of 50 have a particular resonance with Superdry, which rocketed from its early days as a Cheltenham market stall in 2003 to become a £1.7 billion company in 2018. It became a kind of uniform for the first years. A ’00s man who loved attending Coldplay and Keane gigs in his statement outerwear and jeans. But that loyalty means those stylish young things are now Cotswolds dads in their fifties with Land Rovers and school fees. And that doesn’t necessarily mean the death of fashion for a brand.
“’Dad dressing’ is used in a pejorative way here – like you’re middle-aged, you’ve let yourself go and you’ve given up,” says Johnny Davis, style director at Esquire and a father himself. “Machine Gun Kelly became a father at the age of 18, but as far as I know, his sense of style has never been referred to as ‘dad dressing.’ You would hope that we would have gone further than these terms – I find it insulting.”
But what exactly defines “dad clothes”? It evolved as a fashion term in response to the deliberately ‘awkward’ high fashion trends that seemed to resemble what a stereotypical father might wear. Terms associated with dad dressing include “normcore” (representing the average Joe in a luxurious way), “Gorpcore” (dressing like a geography teacher on a school trip) and the preppy trend of changing your appearance to a father might refer. for a round of golf or a sailing trip. As a result, cagoules, blouson jackets, rugby jerseys, light wash straight-leg jeans, sandals and ‘uncool’ trainers have been swept under the umbrella of dad clothes, and show no signs of being rehabilitated anytime soon.
But considering that older men are the ones with the purchasing power, maybe it’s time to reshape the way dads dress. After all, fashion has evolved in recent years to ensure that women over 50 who spend a lot of money (do we hear the phrase “mom dressing” used in derogatory terms? Sometimes, but not by much). Maybe it’s time for the older man to get as much attention for his wardrobe.
“Superdry has been lumped together at Next as ‘boring’, ‘unambitious’ and ‘not as cool as it used to be’,” Davis continues. “That may well be true, but I would suggest that it is perfectly possible to shop at Superdry and Next and still dress well – perhaps not from head to toe in either brand – but I wouldn’t recommend doing that neither does Cactus Jack or Dolce & Gabbana. It’s all about the consumer, not the stores. You can of course dress however you want, regardless of your age.”
It is fair to say that there has been a shift in this regard in recent years; see the catwalks of Zegna, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana with characterful, older male models and personalities, rather than the fresh-faced, out-of-the-box, babyface varieties. Then there’s the change in style towards something more mature and sophisticated after a decade of streetwear-oriented clothing. The suit, for example, is returning with rising sales, and the plain old tie is finally making a comeback. So did the quiet luxury trend that dominated in its aftermath Succession; Logan Roy’s soft power vests, padded jackets and sneakers.
Maybe we’re in an era of dad-dressing 2.0; gone are the shapeless jeans and orthopedic trainers, and instead there is a focus on clothing that goes the extra mile for the man over 50. Keep the sturdy, outdoor cagoule jackets – after all, Superdry’s mainstay – but with a sleek cashmere effect sweater underneath.
Jeans are a good example; older men tend to stick to what they knew in their 30s, namely boot-cut shapes that seem quite old-fashioned today. It is better to stick to a dark wash for straight legs. The same goes for trainers; mature, luxurious versions in leather and suede will serve you better than the overly sporty variants associated with Gen Z. As for the outdoor jackets, or leather jackets. The latter is great when you get off your midlife crisis engine, but less so in other environments. A smooth suede bomber jacket or a light Harrington jacket are just as dynamic, but don’t try to convey your outdoorsman’s masculinity as overtly.
Some of the most stylish over-50s I know know how to combine ease with panache. See the secretly stylish Gildo Zegna – CEO of the Italian colossus – who, at the age of 68, wears a sharp uniform consisting of chore jackets with polo shirts and relaxed trousers with trainers. See also Idris Elba and David Beckham, who found their style groove at 51 and 48 respectively; Elba opts for casual shirts and trousers with loose, flowing cuts and sporty sneakers. Beckham has always found his way in a suit, but now wears them with Loro Piana slip-ons and soft-textured knits.
Davis cites Paul Weller as an example of how wrong our assumptions can be. “Weller was recently asked in an interview if he had a pair of Crocs at the front door to take out the trash. The question was clearly meant to tease – as if The Modfather would ever stoop that low. Even in the privacy of his own home, on Bin Day. “No way,” he replied firmly. ‘No slippers either. I wear sneakers in the house. But only Adidas, old-fashioned Adidas. You have to uphold some kind of standard.’ “If there’s one piece of advice I would give to any ‘dad,’ it’s that,” Davis says. “You have to maintain some kind of standard.”
Dressing as a dad shouldn’t be a dirty phrase, so give the old boys a break. And good luck to Dunkerton too; plenty of British-born brands that employ local communities have fallen by the wayside in recent years.
Stylish dads
Get the look
Cashmere sweater, £89.90, Uniqlo; Suede Bomber, £249, Massimo Dutti
Straight leg jeans, £139, Ralph Lauren; Leather sneakers, £435, Vyn