A New Generation Of Cinema Style Icons

With the movie industry’s obsession with style and the visual aesthetic, the close and complex relationship it holds with the world of fashion comes as no surprise. A procession of iconic actors spanning the silver screen’s illustrious timeline are, to this day, still highly revered by menswear’s movers and shakers.

Images capturing James Dean’s rebellious outsider-style or Paul Newman’s Ivy League posturing have been immortalized through everything from wall art and graphic t-shirts to the constant stream of animated gifs and vivid jpegs that form sites like tumblr’s digital landscape.

These frozen portraits remain unquestionably relevant today, passing the test of time under fashion’s fastidious glare and helping to define the subtleties of twenty-first century masculinity. Off camera and between takes, the patron saints of effortless dress appear to maintain a mystique and casual cool that one might only expect from their on-screen counterparts.

However, there is now a new era of protagonists, representing a dark intensity hidden in the depths of every modern man’s personality and a nonchalant attitude to style one can only covet: the anti-hero.

Tyler Durden – Fight Club

Tyler Durden: the godfather of cinematic style’s next generation; Jim Stark reloaded for the turn of the millennium; the everyman’s idealistic and charismatic alter-ego.

Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Durden symbolizes the monstrous, anti-establishment image that his real world contemporaries secretly desire but are too afraid to become. His self-assured and ostentatious style follows suit, depicting an almost unattainable presence that could only exist in a world of visceral fiction – mere mortals are left admiring from afar.

As with any figure of fashion inspiration, reference points and personal interpretation are more appropriate than outright imitation. Beneath the maximalist excess of Durden’s outfits lie foundations built from a collage of vintage and thrift store items.