I’ve definitely reached middle age. But instead of going through an embarrassing midlife crisis now, I want to change my fashion style, hopefully improving it. First, I needed guidance. Check out my top five role models below.
Shaun Gordon
Nick Johannessen aka. Welldresseddad
Gerry Nelson
During everyday life, Gerry Nelson is a manager at a telecom company in Melbourne. His Instagram @gezzaseyes shows how to maintain a down-to-earth yet cool and individualistic style as a man beyond 40, without chasing any trends. He tends to combine rather muted classics with bright splashes of colour.
Khabi Mirza
David Beckham
Following these five fabulously fashioned men, time to draw a line. As I wrote at the start, even a cursory search still revealed plenty of interesting and inspiring accounts to help develop my personal style. If any of these interest you, let me know in the poll and I’ll follow up soon.
My 40th birthday has come and gone. And with that, I’ve reached a most delicate age when, as they say, men tend to have a midlife crisis. But I don’t feel the slightest desire to become a dogged triathlete (or marathon runner), nor to buy a Harley, nor to become a Berlusconi (dyeing my hair, stapling facial skin to the neck, throwing bunga-bunga parties). My plan for the coming decade: working on my fashion sense. Until now, Swiss menswear classics have dominated my wardrobe: blue jeans, basic t-shirts, plain shirts and primarily comfortable sneakers. Time for a change.
But which style should it be? What should I go for? What do I like? What about my wife, the only other person who has a say in this? I don’t intend to go out wearing only suits, nor do I want to degenerate into a slightly embarrassing professional adolescent. I’m not a dandy either, and my beard may be suitable as a rocker, but my taste in music is less so. What I need is inspiration. And where do you get that today – especially as a 40-year-old? Instagram. #WellDressedMenOver40, naturally.
While it’s apparently not that easy for women to discover fashion influencers over 40, as my colleague Laura recently reported, I needed only minimal effort to find a few men my age (and older) whose style I’d be happy to inspect for inspiration again and again in future:
Image: instagram.com/shaungordonstyle
Shaun Gordon is a fashion designer from London. His Instagram almost always features him in a suit and with a hat. Mostly Borsalinos, sometimes slouch hats. Even though, as I said, I don’t want to become a complete suit wearer, Gordon’s style still convinces me. Firstly, he wears even the most classic suit combinations in an extremely relaxed way, always sprinkling in looks that actually deserve the term casual.
Image: instagram.com/welldresseddad
Norwegian Nick Johannessen is a civil engineer in his hometown of Tønsberg near Oslo. On Instagram, he’s known as @welldresseddad for his low-key yet very thoughtful everyday looks. As he lives in Norway, his looks are mainly suited as inspiration for autumn and winter. Something I really appreciate, as these months are much more interesting than summer fashion-wise. He also runs his own fashion blog and podcast.
Image: instagram.com/gezzaseyes
Image: instagram.com/khabism
Fashion is his passion: London-based Khabi Mirza was a fashion journalist for years until he started his own fashion PR agency. One look at his Instagram @khabism is enough to see that fashion and style aren’t only his profession, his love. Sometimes classically British in green-brown tweed, sometimes casual in stonewashed jeans with a baseball cap and leather jacket. Mirza’s style can’t be pigeonholed and is so diverse that it’s one of my favourites.
Image: instagram.com/davidbeckham
David Beckham? THE David Beckham? Yep. Him. Spice Boy. I admit, I might have a slight man crush on David Beckham. For quite a few years at that. Actually, around the time he stopped being a footballer. I like his style, classic British, sometimes super-elegant, even sporty. However, he always comes across primarily as authentic – ever since I saw him with his wife on the Ali-G show all those years ago. If you scroll through his Instagram feed, you’ll see: style can still be developed at a rather advanced age. After all, the stuff Spice Boy wore 10, 15 years ago – yikes.
