In January 2019, Frank Ocean was doing what most trendy well-connected individuals do: attending exhibits at Paris Vogue Week. However one outfit, specifically, struck a chord with the web’s menswear obsessives. It was a vibrantly shaded puffer jacket worn with blue denims and mountaineering boots, accessorized with a beanie and a large leather-based bag. Almost 4 years later, the look continues to be bouncing round on-line—and, notably, feels simply as fashionable in the present day, a testomony each to Ocean’s capability to remain forward of the curve and to the best way he’s quietly helped reshape giant swathes of menswear in accordance with his tastes.
Current day, this informal outdoorsy look is kind of unmissable within the fashionable corners of mainly any metropolis on earth: you see Salomon sneakers paired with Comme des Garçons trousers, or Stone Island puffers with sought-after classic Levi’s. Stroll by way of New York’s SoHo neighborhood, and you may see males wearing a mixture of tried-and-true outside labels with excessive style manufacturers. Ocean wasn’t the primary to do that, however when he does one thing, it is at all times with thought-about finesse—and other people drop what they’re doing to concentrate. Accordingly, the fashion has changed the normcore craze of yesteryear; the objective is to now not costume like Jerry Seinfeld however like George Costanza. (Yet one more notable puffy jacket icon.) It’s additionally, unsurprisingly, big on Instagram and TikTok. Name it Instagram Discover-core.
The crème de la crème of Ocean’s look is his huge, darkish inexperienced leather-based tote bag. It is Celine—and never simply any Celine however Céline, from when the label nonetheless had an accent mark and was helmed by the feverishly admired Phoebe Philo. (A really IYKYK flex, even again in 2019.) Ocean’s vivid do-it-all down jacket, in the meantime is by Mammut, a Swiss firm for clued-in adventurers, and his beanie is Arc’teryx, the significantly tech-forward outside model that’s now a present-day title drop amongst style bros. The outfit will get rounded out with straight-leg blue denims and navy mountaineering boots. Now, why did this singular outfit warrant protection from GQ and Vogue and nearly each different style title on the web?
To begin, the outfit actually stood out amidst the standard style week fare.
One photograph from the day finds Ocean sitting subsequent to Timothée Chalamet, who’s wearing a extra typical ensemble of all black. It drives dwelling the eccentricity—a minimum of just a few years in the past—of sporting a puffer jacket and denims to take a seat entrance row at a Louis Vuitton present. The match additionally feels better than the sum of its components; every article performs completely into the following, elevating the ultimate head-to-toe look. The look can also be heightened by Ocean’s MFA-level eye for colour concept, pairing comparable and complementary colours with out being too matchy. (This straightforward-yet-cool brown and blue match nonetheless bounces round in my head.)
Trying again, this outfit felt like the beginning of a monumental shift—the singular drip that burst the nicely as rugged, technical wares went from menswear’s extra obscure corners into the mainstream. Now, as fall turns into winter and the heavier coats come into rotation, it’s all however assured that we’ll see loads of fashionable dudes dressing like Frank Ocean, whether or not they imply to or not.
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