The Schacket, the sports-bottom shoes, the loud box-cut Polynesian bowling shirt, and loose-fitting judo-Esque jimmy-jams with floating crotch, in lockdown men, have re-written their Look Book. The loungewear lexicon has grown larger. Hosiery has become cooler.
Men have refused to shed their athleisure and to step out of their sweatpants or abandon their joggers, shed their Tiger Cubans, or cotton modals, Merino wool hoodies, their moisture-wicking base layer Under Armor compressions garments, and their cozy oversized anti-fit, Fair Trade, non-sweatshop policy roamers.
As a counter-response to the pandemic, which has attacked ties and removed so many formal outer layers to the human body like suits and shiny go-to-work shoes and affected the dress sense of millions, loungewear has become workwear and men have followed the female lead, and, at long last, developed a high low dress sense of their own.
Night and day ultra-stretchy and spacious soft tailoring are In. Indoors and out, yoga wear is accepted in the virtual office.
From indoor/outdoor CDLP Scandi woven lyocell, loopbacks, Pima cotton, and AIM “Always in Motion” underwear, companies like Lulumon, Scott Sternberg’s Entire world, Paige Mycoskie’s lightning bolt motif Aviator Nation, Kappa, Derek Rose, Desmond & Dempsey, Basic Rights, Castore, Bruno Cucinello, Reiss, Hanro, and Sunspel have overhauled the male weekday performance wear wardrobe.
There comes a time in every man’s life when he must realize he is not and will never be Harry Styles. But he can still wear Pangaia eucalyptus and peppermint sweats and tees and not fear muted mustard Fear of Gods and Everlane neutral colors. He can wear Les Girls Les Boys bed-to-street clothing without looking too much like Rip Van Winkle.
Founded in 1860, Sunspel largely pioneered loungewear. den wear, living room chic, and sitting room fashion. It created some of the world’s first T-shirts.
Thomas Hill opened his hosiery and underwear factory in Newdigate, Nottingham in the UK’s Midlands region. In the late 1800s, the business made luxury tunics and undershirts from lightweight Sea Island cotton for export to the Far East and other warm climates. While these garments initially had silk buttoned plackets, these were removed in the early 1900s and replaced with simple bound necks to reduce manufacturing costs – creating the T-shirt, made in Long Eaton, England, and crafted from luxurious long-staple Supima cotton for unparalleled softness, comfort, and durability.
Sunspel has just released a Sunspel x Casely-Hayford modern tailoring jacket and trousers capsule combining Sunspel’s fabric expertise with Casely-Hayford’s contemporary, unstructured silhouettes.
In 1947 Sunspel brought boxer shorts to UK shores and have remained specialists ever since. They also dress Mr. Bond. James Bond.
Academy Award-winning costume designer Lindy Hemming commissioned the quintessentially British company to design Daniel Craig’s Bond’s T-shirts, underwear, and chest pocket Polo shirts. Notably, his Quality 75 (Q5) mesh Riviera. In the 1956 “Diamonds Are Forever” book, Bond’s suitcase contains “dark blue Sea Island cotton shirts with collars attached and short sleeves”. In the films, Thunderball (1965) and Dr. No (1962) he wears a navy polo shirt and light blue.
The Riviera Polo Shirt, made from warp knit cotton fabric was invented in the 1950s by Peter Hill, the grandson of the company’s founder. Unsatisfied with the pique polo shirts available at the time, he developed a fabric on lace-making machines that was soft, light, and breathable. Just the thing to be seen lounging about the beach in. You can’t see 007 in any bamboo budgie-smugglers or a pair of high waist yoga or Pilates tights with leggings bottoms, yet.
