Why Men Will Never Stop Dressing Like Movie Characters
D’You Know What I Mean? is a column on style and culture where writer Ben Kriz weighs in on taste, trends, and what it all means.
Three years ago, The Bear debuted on FX to immediate acclaim, but some of the loudest praise wasn’t for the writing or the performances. It was for a the protagonist Carmy Berzatto’s white T-shirts. GQ proclaimed that the show “is a lesson in good T-shirts,” and the Guardian said, “The real star is Carmy’s perfect white T-shirt.” Suddenly, every guy was convinced that buying the right tee might give him Jeremy Allen White’s arms (spoiler: it won’t).
Even by Season 3, the appetite for Carmy’s threads hadn’t been satiated. Publications were identifying his jackets, jeans, and everything else, letting readers know where they can cop the look.
But the gravitational pull of a cool piece of clothing on film or TV goes much further back. Ryan Gosling’s scorpion jacket in Drive. Billy Crystal’s sweater in When Harry Met Sally. Harrison Ford’s Alden boots in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Daniel Craig’s peacoat in Skyfall. The list goes on
When I was a kid, I remember obsessing over Neo’s sunglasses from The Matrix, logging on and spending hours trying to track it down. Nothing changes, really; just the other day, during my annual rewatch of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, I found myself admiring Clark Griswold’s puffer-vest-and-flannel combo like I’d never seen it before.
So why do we keep going back to movies and TV for style? Men aren’t inherently adventurous dressers, but a great character gives them permission to try things. Everyday menswear essentials — fisherman sweaters, Harrington jackets, aviators — have all achieved stardom and acceptance through screen time.
In Serpico and Taxi Driver, both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro wear the M-65 military jacket — signalling rogue ideals and counter-culture detachment, a life outside the system. Men everywhere picked up surplus versions because the symbolism was legible, even wearable.
After Mad Men premiered in 2007, it had men looking at their baggy suits in a different way and it almost single-handedly revived the slim suit. J.Crew introduced its Ludlow suit in 2008, a slim-fitting yet affordable piece of tailoring that became a best-seller, while Banana Republic released an entire capsule inspired by the show. The right film or TV show can offer a ready-made identity.
Even in places where fashion risks carry actual risks, men can’t escape the lure of dressing like the guys on TV. Four Afghan men sporting Peaky Blinders flat caps and three-piece suits were reportedly called in by the Taliban’s Department of Vice and Virtue. (They’ve since been released.)
Designers, too, are influenced by cinema. Designers from Miuccia Prada to Hedi Slimane openly admit they look to cinema for ideas — Raf Simons often returns to films like Blade Runner for their visual language, Alessandro Michele studied Fellini like a costume designer, and Anthony Vaccarello literally imagines characters when shaping his Saint Laurent collections. Meanwhile, on TikTok, there’s no shortage of creators explaining how to dress like iconic characters.
And now, film nostalgia is booming. With the superhero movie boom largely in the rear-view mirror, there’s a collective desire to return to watching “real” movies. Apps like Letterboxd have turned cinephilia into a social hobby; the Criterion Channel and its Closet series provide an antidote to the algorithmic Netflix slop we’ve lived on for a decade. As a result, everything from Alain Delon’s sun-drenched looks in Purple Noon to the easy, bookish nonchalance of Eric Rohmer movies’ wardrobes is back in circulation. Moodboards on Pinterest and Instagram keep burrowing deeper: “Oh, you’ve seen Robert Redford in Three Days of the Condor? Great — now check out this fit from pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan in Taffin (1988).”
What we men crave, consciously or not, is wardrobe coherence. Not because we want to dress exactly like the mannequin, but because a film wardrobe is a finished world. It’s an easy access point. A shared language. And that’s why cinematic reference isn’t going anywhere. It’s not just inspiration — it’s a bit of light cosplay for everyday life.
Film gives men a way to try on a new self, even if it’s just for a weekend. And really, that’s the fun of it. We’ll keep looking to the screens — not just for the plots, but for the fits.
FEATURE PHOTO COURTESY OF FX NETWORKS.
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