Displaying items by tag: Style Icon

A strange distraction robbery leaves a Stockholm art museum director chasing his wallet and phone while dealing with the woke environment of a contemporary art museum and his family life.

Winner of the Palme d’Or, last year, at Cannes, The Square’s most memorable scene is the disturbing man/artist playing an unpredictable ape, but I’ll let you find that out for yourself.

Left - Artist 'Julian' in a Q&A from the film The Square

Anyway, on the style stakes, it’s the visiting artist, Julian, played by Dominic West, who is the sartorial inspiration in a scene set in the museum where he’s there to discuss his work. An audience member with Tourette’s syndrome makes it a surreal moment.

Right - Artist Julian Schnabel which some say was the inspiration for the character

Wearing blue pyjamas, a navy double breasted jacket and yellow lensed glasses he bears a striking resemblance to American painter and film maker, Julian Schnabel. 

Pyjamas as daytime clothes have been a thing for a while now and it still looks good. Silk gives it an evening and exotic feel, while regular cotton makes it soft and relaxed. 

Left - Derek Rose - Men’s Classic Fit Piped Pyjamas - £95

Sky blue cotton pyjamas worn out of the bedroom shows an easy confidence and the yellow lenses on the glasses adds the artistic element. It’s hip to be square!

Left - Reiss - Carlotta B Double-Breasted Blazer - £325

Below - Sunglasses - Paul Smith - £177, available at Sunglass Hut

Left - Sunglasses - Lunetterie Generale - £375

Left - Vans - Authentic Shoes - £47

Below - Dominic West in full 'Julian' PJ look

A mysterious style icon has suddenly appeared. Inhabiting the hallowed halls of Tate Britain, this new character looks like a badger from a Shakespearean fantasy. Called ‘The Squash’, it is an immersive installation combining performance and sculpture by 2016 Turner Prize nominee Anthea Hamilton. 

The Squash has been created for the annual Tate Britain Commission, supported by Sotheby’s, which invites contemporary British artists to create new artwork in response to the grand space of the Duveen Galleries.

Left - All about the stripey Squash

Right - Loewe - Striped Asymmetric Cotton-Canvas Shirt - £795 from matchesfashion.com

Anthea Hamilton has transformed the heart of Tate Britain into an elaborate stage for a continuous 6-month performance of a single character, dressed in a colourful squash-like costume. Over 7,000 white floor tiles have been laid to span the length of the galleries encasing a series of large structures that serve as podiums for a number of works of art from Tate’s collection, chosen by Hamilton. 

Right - The Squash has seven costumes designed in collaboration with Creative Director Jonathan Anderson at the fashion house Loewe

The artist is influenced by the early 20th century French writer and dramatist Antonin Artaud and his call for the ‘physical knowledge of images’, it is this bodily response to an idea or an image that she wishes to examine in The Squash. 

Hamilton has designed seven costumes in collaboration with Creative Director Jonathan Anderson at the fashion house Loewe, that incorporate the colours and shapes of varieties of squash or pumpkin. The performers get to select a costume each day, informing and reflecting their individual presentation of the character as they inhabit the space. 

On trend, The Squash is rocking vertical stripes and ruffled shirts in his clinically tiled play area. Get the look with a striped shirt or go for white ruffles; the bigger, the better.

Left - DSQUARED2 - Ruffled Bib Shirt - £415 from FarFetch.com

Right - Burberry - Herringbone Cotton Tie-Neck Riding Shirt - £495

Left & Below - The Squash gets to play in Tate Britain's Duveen Galleries 

Like Stripes? See The Beetlejuice Striped Suit

‘Potential’ is an overly optimistic word in fashion and there are many more disappointments than successes. When you work in this business you always have your eyes and ears open, listening and watching on social media, traditional media and on the street to see who people like and what they are doing.

Left - The pink suit is by Edward Sexton, one of the most stylish tailors in London

Somebody who I think has a lot of potential, in the realms of being a male clotheshorse, is Harry Styles. Apart from the social media hysteria, I didn’t take much notice of him when he was in One Direction, but he feels like he has huge potential to trail-blaze in menswear. Even as a five he always stood out, albeit slightly. 

Many of the things he wears are difficult or require believability and on most guys would look too try hard. Okay, so I may be reading too much into this, but, I remember Justin Timberlake leaving N-Sync, and he was on the cover of Arena Home Plus, the cover they had to reprint as it was too violent as Sept 11th had just happened, and I remember thinking "he was just another silly boyband member, he’s not cool enough for that magazine", but he quickly, thanks to that first album, graduated into an adult artist and so did his style. (Though his Tom Ford Suit & Tie section is still the best).

Back to Harry. Scream! He looks like a young Jagger, which is a plus. He’s sexy without it being about his body. It’s an intellectual form of sexy and the clothes correspond with this. 

Below - Harry on Graham Norton. He's partial to dragons on a flared trouser

And this isn’t just because there is no competition. Ed Sheeran, anybody?! Harry Styles was recently interviewed by The Sun and he was asked a few things about his appearance.

He said “I always love being comfortable. You should wear what makes you feel comfortable.

"It’s a really good opportunity to have fun - it’s clothes, it’s not a big deal.”

“It’s a good time to express yourself and have fun with it.”

“It’s one of those things that you shouldn’t take seriously. If you want to wear a pair of yellow trousers you can wear a pair of yellow trousers.”

Exactly. It feels a very relaxed approach and something that isn’t laboured over. Obviously he has a stylist, somebody has to do the leg work, but it feels like he’s choosing from the rail. It’s quite a British thing to not look at others and just do your own thing, instinctively in-sync with what’s going on.

At the moment it’s a mix of Gucci, which definitely isn't for the wallflower, and Edward Sexton, one of the greatest British tailors, who has dressed the majority of the Beatles and Mick Jagger over the years, but we’re hoping for an evolution as fashion moves on. It’ll show his eye and style/taste level if he can change without losing any of the cool factor.

Harry, TheChicGeek is watching you.

Left - Harry in those acid yellow trousers 

I’m not over it yet. It’s going to take time to accept that George Michael is gone. He was a very relatable superstar, the kind you could have grown up next door to. He seemed the type of man you could have stopped in the street and had a bit of banter with.

His style, over the years, has ranged from bouncy blonde to leather jacket and ripped jeans to close and cropped in minimal 90s black. From teenage boyband pin-up to respected songwriter and sampler, George Michael had the talent, ear and voice to aways create something fresh and contemporary.

One of his most famous looks was in this Katherine Hamnett slogan T-shirt proclaiming to ‘Choose Life’. From the video of his Wham hit ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, he shimmied around the stage camping it up to the max while clicking his fingers.

Now, you can pay homage, this summer, with this T-shirt from Boohoo. Team with a pair of short shorts or swim shorts and a colourful cocktail. 

You need this in your life!

Boohoo Man - Oversized Choose Life T-Shirt - £8

Never one to shun the limelight, TheChicGeek takes centre stage at his exhibition's opening night. Arriving in style, the paparazzi try to get a shot of this blogging superstar. Dressed in classic black tie with the added cool of denim, he's not going to let his new artwork outshine him. 

#WarholGEEK

Credits - Velvet Jacket - Scotch & Soda, White Shirt - Lands End, Jeans - Energie, Watch - Shinola, Spectacles - Salvatore Ferragamo, Socks - Pantherella, Shoes - Salvatore Ferragamo, Bow Tie - Eton, Fragrance - Fossil, Hydrating Gel & Moisturiser SPF15 - B.Men

Shot by Robin Forster on OlympusPEN

With thanks to Sonsoles Print Studio, Peckham

More images below

Halloween is nearly upon us and we’re all trying to think about which character we want to dress up as for the evening. Well, here’s a suggestion that will continue to run well after the end of October - Chewbacca. Yeah, Chewie, baby, that gentle fur mountain is back in yet another installment of Star Wars and one of our ChicGeek Style Icons of the season.

Left - Chewie

As hairy as hairy gets, Chewbacca is having something of an inspirational moment in the world of menswear right now. 

Left - ASOS - £100

A full fur coat on a man can be a) a little daunting and b) way too much if not in a fun-fur kind of way, so think Chewbacca-chic when rocking a new season fur coat. It needs to look like the kind of fur that needs its roots doing - slightly trashy.

So forget the thermal long-johns or that triple layering, just think Chewbacca come wintertime. May the fur be with you!

Left - Paul Smith - Sheepskin Overcoat - £6445

Below - Bally 

Left - River Island - £85