Loose Oxford Shirts And Short-Shorts – Why “Call Me By Your Name” Is This Season’s Menswear Inspiration

Ever since its release in 1999, The Talented Mr Ripley has been the perennial menswear reference for how to dress for summer, thanks to its idyllic Italian settings and preppy wardrobe. Not any more: for 2018, the new Mr Ripley is Call Me By Your Name, the glorious Luca Guadagnino-directed film starring Armie Hammer and newcomer Timothée Chalamet. Yes, it was out last autumn, but certain images have been etched on my mental holiday moodboard ever since, from, “Oh, that shirt was a bit Martine Rose yellow” to, “I’m totally into those short-shorts with baggy Oxford shirt.” In the brilliant novel by André Aciman on which the film is based, clothes are woven into the narrative. Elio (Chalamet) notes that, on his arrival, Oliver (Hammer) is wearing a “billowy blue shirt, wide open collar, sunglasses, straw hat, skin everywhere”. It’s a description that both reeks of the joy of a breezy summer wardrobe and sets the scene for the intensity of their relationship and the role clothes play in the story. Though it’s set in the mid-80s, the costumes for the film, created by Giulia Piersanti, who works as a designer for Céline, were not meant to be too “period-y”, she told Vogue. Arguably, most fall into one of two camps: quite-on-trend-actually, or banging classics. Let’s deal with the trends angle first. The standout one is easily short-shorts. These are sported regularly by Hammer and are a massive S/S 18 trend, as seen at Prada, Dior Homme and Dries Van Noten. The easiest way to pull off the slashed-to-the-thigh look is to style it with something looser on top, such as a boxy shirt. Read more at The Guardian.