An unlikely Tuesday evening sight near the Barbican: almost 100 people spilling out of the mighty St Bartholomew the Great church looking like octogenarians.
After an off-season fashion show, men and women alike stepped into the bitter cold wearing uniforms of ancient-looking tweed jackets, pinstripe blazers, dusty tailored dress coats, compost-shade scratchy scarves, navy pea coats and thick-ribbed, forest-green cords. It wasn’t until they pulled shawls from their heads inside the neighbouring Rising Sun pub that it became clear the crowd was actually aged 18 to 80. Why? Because everyone cool in London today is either an actual grandpa — or dresses like one.
Moments before, the runway in question, designed by 2016 Central Saint Martins graduate John Alexander Skelton, proved as much. His models — a cross-generational mix, from chiselled fashion students to the veteran Portobello Market salesman, Herbie Mensah — marched with candle holders in historic-looking clothes which, at times, were quintessentially grandpa.
Trousers worn a little too high and boxy blazers an inch too big were paired with jewel red and lime waistcoats, scraggly knitted jumpers, and peasant-boy jackets. “My clothes aren’t the easiest things to wear, you need a sense of character to pull them off,” Skelton said backstage. It figures his fans all possess a unique sensibility, then. Michael Costiff, who ran the famous Kinky Gerlinky parties in the late Eighties and walked the show bespectacled with his long grey hair flowing, said after: “John’s clothes are just so good — they’re made for me really.”
The Skelton set are polar opposites to TikTok trend chasers, and anyone who has stepped into London’s art colleges will know dated looks have been enviable style credentials for years. Singer Celeste, who sat front pew at the show, said: “I don’t know about things like grandpa trends because I am in a shell. But I love John and this — things that are obviously handmade, using natural resources.”
The urge to be different is why late teens and early 20-year-olds are now catching on; #grandpacore has 17.2 million TikTok views, and their pin-ups range from Tyler, the Creator and Harry Styles to Kendall Jenner in their sweater vest glory.
“The rise of the anti-aspirational or ‘ugly’ aesthetics has been brewing for some time. One key reason is that for Gen Z, swimming against the current and adopting trends that challenge beauty standards is a way to affirm individuality,” says Marta Indeka, senior foresight analyst at The Future Laboratory. “Cue the obsession with anything ugly and deemed uncool: items like loafers, vests, cardigans, ‘librarian’ glasses, Barbour jackets.”
Case in point: the influencer set on a daytime jolly to Ascot racecourse at the end of last year. Eddie Wailes, Callum Mullin and Reuben Larkin, all in their twenties, looked like Grandpa Joe on the Chocolate Factory tour, sporting three-piece tweed suits and newly-polished loafers. Larkin has embraced the look because “a lot of the time people expect younger people to dress a certain way. When we dress like the older generation of people it throws people off.” The staple is braces. “They make every outfit look complete and put together,” he says. Brooklyn Beckham and Madonna’s son Rocco Ritchie, keen fans of slack supports, would tend to agree.
A new wave of real-life old people are going viral too. @gramparents is a charming Instagram account with 250k followers, while rising stars like @grandadjoe1933, who is 90, and @grandadfrankk, 77, have 6.5 million and 7.4 million TikTok followers respectively.
So, to anyone tempted to amp up their OAP, pay a visit to your oldest relative — and then beg for a hand-me-down.
