How British men forgot how to dress

If you’re a man in the market for a 2025 rebrand, your New Year’s resolution is staring you in the face: start wearing a jacket. British gentlemen have forgotten how to dress – and it’s beginning to be a bit of an embarrassment, according to the broadcaster and food critic Richard Vines. “People don’t feel the need or want to dress up anymore – even to go to the Royal Opera House,” he confirms. “They don’t even dress up to go to work – I saw just two ties when I crossed London Bridge during rush hour before Christmas.”

Standards have slipped so low that it’s a shock when a British gentleman makes an effort. In December last year, United States president-elect Donald Trump nearly keeled over with shock at how “great” Prince William looked when they met at the reopening of Notre Dame in Paris.

“Some people look better in person? He looked really nice, and I told him that,” Trump enthused afterwards.

The Prince was back in his trainers and cardigan later in the week, though, discussing his new documentary, The Earthshot Report. This is considered smart for a British man these days, according to Mike Hill, the creative director of Drake’s, a men’s outfitters on Savile Row known for its debonair casualwear as much as its dapper suits.

Yet British men used to be revered for their sharp dress sense: St James’s in London, with its shirt makers and cobblers, and Savile Row’s tailors are testament to this. Now, though, one of the most popular shops on Savile Row is Drake’s, which sells as much casualwear as it does suits.

Men wore bowler hats to work and jackets and pleated trousers to dinner, and wouldn’t dream of wearing a trainer off a tennis court. Can you imagine Rupert Campbell-Black wearing a tracksuit to a restaurant? “I worked for Bloomberg in the city for almost 30 years and we used to get memos reminding us that there was no dress-down Friday – everybody wore suits and ties,” Vines says. Yet those days have gone.

The American actor Stanley Tucci, who lives part of the time in London with his British wife, Felicity Blunt, and dresses like a British squire, complained about the decline in men’s dressing in his book, What I Ate in One Year, released last autumn.

“So many people wear the same thing for a night out on the town or to the theatre that they wear around the house, which most often is a T-shirt and jeans or sweatpants,” he wrote.

The slobby look does nothing for the vibe at a top restaurant or cocktail bar, according to Stuart Procter, the chief executive of the Beaumont Hotel in Mayfair.

Theatres and bars in the West End and Mayfair’s restaurants long for men to start making more effort again; a well-dressed crowd lifts the ambience, which is more enjoyable for everyone.

“The scene is better if everyone is making an effort to look elegant,” Procter explains. “Unless you’re on an aeroplane or doing sport, tracksuits should be banned. The boys and girls wearing them look horrific.”

Tucci, who wears a double-breasted blazer when he goes out for dinner, accuses adults today of dressing like children. Men prefer to step out in something soft and slouchy – God forbid they look overdressed – and as such there are fewer formal shirts, ties and suits being made than ever.

Procter disagrees that the demise of British men’s style has anything to do with affordability: his 21-year-old son wears a jacket and hankie to go out, while billionaires regularly turn up in tracksuits and society brides wear trainers down the aisle. “It’s about blending in,” Vines suggests.

Europe and America are yet to be infected by London’s slouchy dressing – if you want to impress, you dress like a traditional Englishman. Oliver Woodhead, who runs L’Entente, the French capital’s first classic British restaurant, is regularly called up by Americans asking to check the dress code. “There isn’t one, but it’s completely charming that they call,” he says. That said, Paris’s business and theatre district, where his restaurant is, has its own dress code: at lunch it’s costume cravat (suited and booted) and in the evening most men wear jackets.

“About 5 per cent really go to town,” Woodhead continues. “They try to ham up the Britishness and break out their tweeds or wear a waistcoat. I’ll chat to them and perhaps shout them a drink – I like to reward those who go the whole hog.”

In other European cities, such as Milan, Madrid and Vienna, similar codes apply. Charlotte Aitken, of upmarket wedding and party organisers Albion Parties, who is married to an Italian, says that Italian and Spanish men take more care with their appearance. “My husband would never be seen dead in sweatpants in public – Loro Piana cashmere jumpers even for the school run,” she says.

“My son has just started at a school in Chelsea where all the other families are French, Italian and Spanish, and the fathers are always immaculately dressed in an understated way, and definitely no sweatpants or gym gear in the collection line. Even my son’s four-year-old friends are dressed in smart polished black loafers.”

But it’s not necessarily laziness prompting British men to dress down, according to Hill, but a lack of confidence about dressing up.

“As dress codes have become more casual, it’s become a bit of a minefield, as there are so many options – trainers with suits, T-shirts with jackets. The goal posts have shifted and I don’t see them ever going back.” While Europeans like to adhere to a strict smart-casual uniform, men’s style has always been more eclectic in Britain, he says; as fashions became more casual, men lost their way. “There used to be an anonymity to dressing smartly in Britain – it was rebellious not wearing a tie – but now wearing one gets you attention, which doesn’t appeal to those who like to blend in,” agrees Vine. “I get stopped in the street when I wear a suit.”

Rather than slouching in jeans, British men should have fun re-learning to dress smart-casual, Hill suggests. This doesn’t mean copying the Europeans – it’s about figuring out your own style. “You might see more elegance from men in Paris or Milan, but half-zip sweaters and gilets can get a bit boring; in London you see more spunk. It’s better to look like yourself, which means working out what looks good on you in terms of colour, texture and pattern,” he says.

A casual suit can be a good place to start: Hill has designed a games suit that can be thrown in the washing machine but has enough structure and sturdiness to look stylish on any night out; Drake’s makes a blazer, too, in the same casual fabric. Hill also suggests knitted ties, which add texture without shouting. “You can make your mark in your own modest way,” he says. “It might take a few attempts, but you’ll eventually settle into your groove.”

Be warned, though, that the high-low look – pairing a T-shirt with a suit, trainers with a jacket or a tweed jacket with jeans – has a high tariff of difficulty. According to Hill, Ralph Lauren gets it right (see pictures of him at the US Open in a navy blazer, loosely fitting chinos and trainers) as does Tucci – just.

“He only got away with white trainers at Wimbledon because they were old plimsolls. A proper pair of bench-made Goodyear welted shoes is always a safer bet than trainers – they’re fundamental.”

In his book, Tucci doesn’t offer much style advice: “anything other than shorts, sneakers, and T-shirts plastered with oversize logos or catchphrases…” he writes.

He’s a good role model, though, Hill says, of someone who follows a simple palette, wears good materials and knows what works for him. There are more obvious British style icons, though, Hill points out.

David Hockney, for example, who expertly combines colour and good tailoring, and Bill Nighy, who steps out with Vogue’s Anna Wintour. “We had him in the shop the other day; he always looks elegant and well put together. He keeps his jacket on,” Hill says.

Hill’s advice to any British man wanting to up their style in 2025 is to throw away their sweatpants and invest in a good jacket.

Looking lazy and slouchy is never comfortable – not really. “Call me weird but I’d never go out in town without a jacket on; I’d feel completely underdressed,” he says. “You can travel anywhere in the world in a decent jacket – underplay it and you’re always taking a risk.”

This is where, in his opinion, David Beckham gets it right: he keeps his jacket on: “For me, it’s all a bit crude and misses the mark but better a guy dressing up than looking like a slob.”