(NEW YORK TIMES) - The fashion set has taken a liking to a style quirk once associated with out-of-touch dads.
Photographer Adam Katz Sinding first noticed men tucking in their T-shirts while shooting street style during fashion week in Moscow a few seasons back. Then he saw it in London. And then Copenhagen. During the men's shows last month in Europe, he said the look was as likely to be seen on the runways as in the streets.
"I think it's derivative of this Gosha Rubchinskiy look," Sinding said, referring to the Russian menswear designer. "It's the appropriation of bad style. But on cool people, it makes it cool, somehow." It has recently been a common style at runway shows staged by Gucci, Lemaire and Fendi. Demna Gvasalia's most recent show for Balenciaga, built around the idea of bad taste and so-called "dad style", also featured the look.
It was not limited to the runway models: The designers Haider Ackermann, Lucas Ossendrijver of Lanvin, and Virgil Abloh took their bows in tucked-in tees. Style influencers ASAP Rocky, Chance the Rapper and Brooklyn Beckham have all been spotted wearing it.
"Our mothers used to make us tuck our shirts in as kids so we didn't look sloppy," said Ant de Padovane of the Los Angeles-based brand Second/Layer, which includes the tucked-in style in its seasonal look books. He praised it for "the relaxed sensibility and balance between dressing up and dressing down". Herbert Hofmann, the creative director and head of buying at VooStore in Berlin, said he likes to pair a tucked-in T-shirt with the new breed of sporty, track-style pants.
Andrew Luecke, a co-author of the recent book Cool: Style, Sound, And Subversion, sees other antecedents.
"It has to do with fashion's interaction with skaters," he said. "Those Supreme boys, like Sean Pablo and Dylan Rieder." He noted that it is also in line with the 1990s nostalgia sweeping through fashion of late. Kurt Cobain and the guys on Beverly Hills 90210 favoured the look and it was part of the uniform adopted by their 1950s precursors, like James Dean and Marlon Brando.
"It's such an easy way to tweak your look," he said. "It makes your outfit look cleaner. It can be a little formal, a little nerdy. You can take it in all sorts of directions."
