Joe Alwyn has a very clear-cut vibe. Whether he's at the Academy Museum Gala or the Venice Film Festival or even GQ's Men of the Year, he's always kept things… elevated. And while he might go a little left-field every now and again (yes, we're talking about those rowdy JW Anderson jeans at London Fashion Week), clean fits are just his thing.
So last night, when Alwyn pulled up to a special screening of A24's The Brutalist in Los Angeles, we weren't exactly surprised. His look was monochromatic. It was understated. It was sublime. Tick, tick, and tick. But something that did kinda surprise menswearheads was the inspo behind the actual outfit itself.
“He's very effortless in himself,” says Rose Forde, the actor's very talented stylist. “So I think, you know, for me, whatever we do, we have to retain his natural, effortless style. Not many people know this, but the first time we met, he was wearing this, you know, cropped Carhartt work jacket. And this was long before the workwear trend was big.”
So when Forde started coming up with ideas for Alwyn's look, this was what she wanted to quietly nod to. Starting from the very top, he slipped on a white dress shirt with a pair of slightly oversized collars. He then layered this with a suit from Bally, with the top three buttons all done up. Down south, he jumped into some matching trousers, and he finished it off with some leather shoes by Santoni.
It doesn't scream workwear right away – but it's not meant to either. “The jacket itself is made from velvet,” says Forde. “But it's not like the soft tailoring velvet that you'd expect. It's almost like a moleskin velvet, which reminds me of some really cool, really elevated workwear that I've seen. And this tough, lived-in aesthetic is something that the Swiss fashion house is really focusing on these days.”
Last May, Simone Bellotti was announced as the label's new creative director. After 16 years at Gucci, the designer has a history of paying homage to more left-field themes like DJ-ing and fishing and ceremonial masks. For his latest drop, workwear is something that he's been really inspired by. “If you look at the collection, to be honest, I could have put him in 20 of the looks, you know? Everything just works for Joe,” says Forde.
And you know what? We really couldn't agree more.
