Cillian Murphy has never liked the haircut that made him a superstar. A severe skin fade with a tousled fringe, the character Tommy Shelby’s cut, which Murphy told Rolling Stone in 2016 was “brutal” has become a cultural phenomenon; a search engine optimised grooming hit that has spawned countless ‘how to’ articles and copy cat high and tight barnets. “Now in the UK you see fellas voluntarily asking for that look,” Murphy went on to say in the interview. “I can’t understand why.”
Having been dragged kicking and screaming back into the barber’s chair by a massive BBC producer in a big black trench coat for one last devastating shear for the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders, Murphy’s haircut is far from the only element of the show that has seen success in the wider world of men’s style. Since it first aired in 2013, the Peaky Blinders look: a three-piece suit, white grandad collar shirt, tweed overcoat, brown leather boots and, most importantly of all, a flat cap, has become one of the defining pop culture-inspired aesthetics of recent times.
As reported in the Telegraph, John Lewis saw sales of flat caps rise 83 per cent between 2016 and 2017, a trend titled the “Peaky Blinders effect.” They’ve risen a further 25 percent annually ever since. You can see this effect manifested in the real world, too. Head to any pub in any town in the UK and there’ll be at least one man (often a gaggle) with, it’s fair to assume, little to no experience fencing in a cow, working a sprayer, or tending to the land, with a tweed flat cap placed on his head.
Stephanie Collie is the costume designer who styled the opening season of the show and the person who established its much-riffed look, including the flat cap and Tommy Shelby’s Brummie gang lord starched shirt and wool-heavy uniform, which has spread from early 20th century dark and dangerous Birmingham to the highstreet barber’s chair, the races and a million (and the rest) wedding parties.
“I did a lot of research looking at old photographs and was really inspired by the men in them," says Collie of piecing together the concept for the clothes in the series. “They had just survived a terrible war and were looking to the future. I wanted to reflect that in Tommy's clothing, to give him an edge, to make him a leader.
“We'd been doing a lot of fittings trying the suits and one day, as I was about to put a tie on Cillian, I realised that because of the sharpness, due to it being starched and the shape of the collar being a double round, it really didn't need a tie at all, he had more stature without one.” Continues Collie. "It also had the added bonus that Tommy wouldn't look just like everyone else in the show. He would be different and that was it. That was the look for the Peaky Blinders.”
“I have kept Tommy’s look quite consistent with tweaks here and there,” adds Alison McCosh, who has been the show’s costume designer since season 4. “This season has been the biggest change. We are now in 1933 and Tommy is more powerful. The fabric choices this season are more luxurious with richer textures. You may not see the luxury on camera, but you certainly feel it and for me that was important.”
“I am surprised [by the popularity of the clothes],” adds McCosh, “but I feel very privileged to be a part of it. I think it is great that the show has influenced how people dress and how they express themselves.”
It’s easy to be a bit dismissive of the aesthetic spawned by the show. I’ve certainly rolled an eye or two at the sight of a packed bar full of brown boots and blokes in flat caps and suspenders, but you can’t deny the influence. If countless men from all around the world are dressing like off broadway Shelby’s, then it means something... doesn't it?
“Clothes are, of course, so casual nowadays,” says Collie, giving her view on the what and why of Peaky style. "For a lot of men a suit had almost become a uniform, something you had to wear at the office and then along came Peaky and suddenly here were these cool guys wearing their suits with an attitude, a swagger and you could absolutely tell that the actors genuinely enjoyed wearing these clothes. Who wouldn't want to put on a suit, a hat and belong to this stylish group?”
Whether you love it or… don’t love it, the Peaky look still pervades nine years on from when Murphy first swaggered, pale-eyed and razor blade-cheekboned, onto our screens and is set to survive for at least a few more. Once season six finishes, there’s talk of a film. Good news for fans. Bad news for Cillian Murphy’s barnet.
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