In the photos: boys get dressed in the movie saltburn (Is this recommended viewing? No, but it’s a cultural event, so watch it. Available on Amazon Prime)
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Do’s and don’ts, the boys’ dress code
In the past, GQ magazine was the spiritual home to which men turned to understand how to dress. The magazine’s experts generously distributed rules and regulations as if they were parents of toddlers: don’t wear a flannel shirt to the office, don’t take your shirt off at concerts. But then everything changed, they took a step back when they recognized that the world was entering an era without stylistic rules, an era where men wear tunics with sweatpants and are debating which nail polish to choose for fall. Who are we to disturb this celebration, they asked themselves. And yet, at the end of 2023, they say there, there is a feeling floating in the air that the time has come to go back and formulate some rules: after all, the elegant look is starting to come back, and to be honest “some of you have been allowed to dress without a guiding hand for too long”.
And so, friends, the do’s & don’t’s list was reborn.
Here are some of the rules:
(full list here)
01 Wear the same clothes over and over again. No one cares.
02 If the pants you are wearing have belt loops, wear a belt.
03 Up to one accessory per head. Two maximum. Or sunglasses, or a hat, or headphones, or earrings.
04 Wear your elegant watch with casual clothes and your sporty watch with a suit.
05 Don’t leave the house with sneakers that look too new. The legend tells of a former editor at GQ who used to run over his All-Stars before he dared to lock them in public. This legend is also known in Israel, so I assume that it was something that was simply customary to do in the 80s, like getting into the bath with jeans as a hand that would take the shape of your body (“usual to do” = there were rumors that this is what people do, but I have never met it in reality The only thing we did was to stretch the army sweaters around the huge televisions that were there at the time).
06 If you’re not wearing a tuxedo, loosen the bow tie.
07 Don’t wear shorts on a flight or to the movies.
08 Your watch is probably too big for your wrist. Imagine the size you want for the watch and buy a 17% smaller watch.
09 Put on any glasses frame you want. The facial structure has no meaning.
10 It’s very nice that your jeans are from Japan, but please stop talking about it.
11 Pack a little, it develops creativity.
12 Ignore the trends on TikTok.
13 V-neck sweaters? Yes. A t-shirt with a v-neck? No.
14 The perfect white t-shirt does not exist. You can stop looking.
15 Rare sneakers are no substitute for character.
16 Get yourself a bag.
17 Always dress like you’re older than you are (unless you’re over 65 and then do what you want, you’ve earned it).
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If we go back to the pictures at the beginning: in general, the plot of saltburn follows a student in Oxford who develops an obsession with another student who comes from an aristocratic family. The most interesting character there is of course the mother. The one who has a phobia of ugliness from a young age and that there were rumors that the pulp song Common People was written about her, although there is no way that it was written about her because “It’s a song about someone from Greece with a thirst for knowledge and I’m not from Greece and I never wanted to know anything.”
Rent a flat above a shop
Cut your hair and get a job
Smoke some fags and play some pool
Pretend you never went to school
But still you’ll never get it right
‘Cause when you’re laid in bed at night
Watching roaches climb the wall
If you called your dad he could stop it all