As father's day approaches style writer Lauren Bravo, author of How To Break Up With Fast Fashion, looks back at the fashion tips she's garnered from an original normcore pioneer: her father
A few weeks ago I painted the room that will soon be my baby’s nursery, wearing a sweatshirt that I stole from my dad’s wardrobe when I went to university 16 years ago.
In the intervening years, the sweatshirt has become a comfort blanket; the uniform of hangovers and heartbreak, sick days and house moves. But it’s also just a really good sweatshirt – oversized, maroon and bearing the classic Adidas trefoil logo, it’s the kind of normcore relic I could wear now with bike shorts and a blazer for instant Gen Z kudos. If it wasn’t covered in paint.
Much is made of the fashion sense we inherit from our mothers, along with hand-me-downs and arbitrary weirdness around horizontal stripes. But stylish fathers rarely get their dues. Yet my dad – at first glance a normal middle-aged man, but at heart a low-key dandy with a love of vintage and a collection of quirky hats to rival the Isabella Blow archives – has had an equal part in shaping my own (occasionally musty, often maximalist) personal style.
Here are his most valuable lessons.
Second hand first
Growing up, many of my clothes came from charity shops; partly out of necessity, but also because there is nothing my dad loves more than a rummage through the past. To this day he’s one of the keenest vintage magpies I know, happily losing hours in thrift stores and junk shops in pursuit of the classic, the collectible or the downright curious.
From him I learned that every garment has a history, and deserves a future. I learned that “thanks, it’s an old circus costume from 1972” is a far better brag than “thanks, it’s Zara.” That preloved shopping is the best way to get a high-quality wardrobe on a budget, and that second hand should always be the first port of call.
In the face of a wildly unsustainable industry, Dad’s slow and steady philosophy has never been more on point.
Photo: Lauren Bravo.
'Ugly' sandals have always been stylish
In the mid-1990s, my father – at that point a regional journalist whose main job perk was coming home with handfuls of promotional CDs and writing a column about my pregnant mother headlined ‘Womb with a View’ – was sent a free pair of sandals. They had velcro straps and a sporty sole, and we thought they were the ugliest things we’d ever seen.
Undeterred, Dad wore them, and wore them, and continued to wear them for the next 20 years, until the rest of the world had got on board with the idea of the ugly-beautiful shoe and the sandals finally, poetically, fell apart. Their work was done. Now, every time I edge up a pretty dress with a pair of Tevas, Birkenstock clogs or some other joyfully clunky, borderline orthopaedic option, I like to think of it as a small tribute to him.
Don’t be afraid of colour
My father, the original dopamine dresser. Having spent the 1990s in a riot of fluro-pink swimming trunks, shirts that resembled a walking Magic Eye picture and those Global Hypercolor T-shirts that changed colour in response to body heat – mostly armpits, let’s be honest – Dad has never seen the onward march of time as a reason to tone things down.
These days, when he’s not threatening our retinas in his favourite neon cycling jacket (“it’s for safety!” “But you’re… walking?”), he always opts for rich shades of navy, purple, maroon or teal over ubiquitous black – something I do myself now, without even realising. And he still loves a spot of bold colourblocking come summertime. Let’s just say we rarely lose him in a crowd.
Photo: Lauren Bravo
You can’t go wrong with design classics
I may have nabbed his sweatshirt, but Dad’s wardrobe is still full of covetable retro pieces that prove sports-casual can score style points too. Such as the replica 1970s football shirt (long-sleeved, cotton, so much more chic than sweaty polyester) that he’s been wearing to his team’s matches for the past 15 years. And if in doubt, his weekend uniform of suede workman’s jacket, flannel shirt and jeans can’t be argued with. Accessorise with an armful of vinyl and a packet of extra-strong mints for full effect.
…but don’t take it all too seriously
From Balenciaga’s 16,300kr ‘trash bag’ to Loewe’s ‘broken egg’ heels, the past few seasons have seen runways awash with the witty and the wacky. But my dad has known the mood-boosting power of a fun accessory for long before the crowds started cooing over JW Anderson’s pigeon clutch. There’s the Tyrolean walking hat, complete with feather, which he sported unironically for several summers, and the faux-fur neck warmer that lent his lockdown walks a little Dr Zhivago glamour. Not to mention the giant plush ‘birthday hat’ he insists family members wear on their special days.
Mr Bravo's Tyrolean walking hat. Photo: Lauren Bravo
Lauren wearing the 'birthday hat' with her brother Tom. Photo: Lauren Bravo
As I write this, he’s just sent a photo to the family group chat of his latest charity shop find: a red vintage waistcoat emblazoned with gold stars. He claims it’s “for Christmas” – but as far as I’m concerned, Dad’s sartorial sense of humour is for life.
Lauren Bravo is the author of How To Break Up With Fast Fashion.