The sartorial geniuses - aged 60-plus

Prêt-à-rapporter: Sarah Mower on why older gents are more dapper than their younger counterparts, plus Tommy Ton offers a snapper's view.

BY Sarah Mower | 19 January 2011

Photo: TOMMY TON Photo: TOMMY TON

If there is one thing in fashion which I've always cringed away from reporting on, it is menswear . Try as I might, I don't get it. Looking at menswear shows on the internet, my eye slides off the skinny blank boys and rolls around the walls, ceiling and floor, unable to concentrate. My benchmark with men's clothes is, what would I think of that boy (it always seems to be a boy, since menswear models are, like their girl counterparts, in their teens and early twenties) if I saw him in the street? And, normally, an irrepressible voice inside me cries: "What a pranny!"

This week, while the Italian menswear shows have been running, I've made up my mind that this has everything to do with age - the age of male models, the age I'm at - and the fact that credibility is stretched to snapping point when designers ask us to believe that young men would dress that way, all pomaded and lipsticked. The poor things cannot help looking daft in older men's suits, but even when it goes faux-schoolboy - in a supposedly generationally appropriate way - it's best described, as I can hear my 20-year-old son softly hissing, as "Sheesh!"

Trendy tokenism? Older models are here to stay

The Italians should just leave it to their granddaddies. From the photographic evidence coming out of Florence and Milan this week, an Italian man only approaches his full power and confidence in dressing in his fifties. At 60-plus, he may qualify as a sartorial genius whose idiosyncratic taste and ineffable confidence in mixing old and new clothes, and mismatching patterns and colours, completely outclasses younger men's gaucher attempts at "fashion". In Italy, until you can grow a full face of white whiskers, put on a checked suit, paisley waistcoat, striped shirt, spotted tie, pink pocket handkerchief, herringbone overcoat, top it with an old fedora and aviators, and come out looking as if it had just somehow "happened", you've not qualified for the full respect of seniority.

This phenomenon has been brilliantly documented in the photographs of Tommy Ton, who zooms in on the minutiae of colour, cloth and texture in the outfits men are wearing around the shows. His work, published on style.com and his blog, jakandjil.com, makes glorious viewing. Even though he captures younger men running from show to show, it is always the grizzled guys, wrapped in multicoloured mufflers and puffing on cigars as they stop to ruminate with one another, who are by far the more original, and, I dare say, trendsetting (see Tommy's on-the-spot commentary, below).

What effect, other than awe and envy, will the photographic acknowledgement of these gents have on fashion, since street photography of "real" people is such a major influence now? Even if we're not yet seeing old guys strolling the catwalks to the same rapturous reception that Lauren Hutton and Julianne Moore received at Tom Ford's women's show, I'm betting their time will come.

Watch the Tom Ford spring/summer 2011 catwalk show

The most cheering evidence I've seen recently is the winter lookbook of the young Turkish designer Umit Benan, a rising star who lives in Italy. He called it "Retired Rockers", and shot it on a group of beardy muso-oldsters he got together to wear his clothes and act up in front of the camera. The point is Benan's clothes look authentically "theirs" - men's fashion you can completely believe in, for a change.

Blogger Tommy Ton offers his thoughts on the older gent's dress sense...

I think the appeal of these older men is that they are a prime example of style that never ages. They are men who have a genuine appreciation for the art of dressing. Being Italian, you're submersed into a different fashion culture. There are no boundaries when it comes to mixing and matching, and wearing patterns and textures in any way.

What is fascinating with men's fashion is experimenting within the conformities of the uniform (the suit, for example), and then finding ways of making it one's own. I'm amazed by the attention to detail in these men's outfits. There are so many subtleties: it can be a monogrammed letter on the lapel or cuff, or mismatching buttons. To spot them, you really do have to keep your eyes open and scan them from head to toe.

Unlike younger gents, men over 50 aren't dressing to be noticed. It's genuinely a part of their nature to want to dress up, and they have an eye for detail that has been refined over many years. They have no interest in adopting the latest trends, in contrast to the younger generation who are bombarded with so much imagery, culture and technology day to day that it affects their need to change constantly.

What is so enduring and inspiring about these older gents' approach to dressing is that their wardrobe is made up of pieces that speak to them. I think that is why they always look so darn good. There is just a certain elegance and attitude they possess which completes their look. You can't really explain it, but when you're in their presence, it's like you're seeing these characters from another era, and everything around them has changed. They have aged, but they are still wearing the same clothes.

Buy Umit Benan menswear from the Telegraph Fashion Shop