Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide | Casual Attires

Fred Astaire was very fond of cardigan sweaters of all types. His casual attires were usually combinations of shirts, sweaters, cardigans, with a variety of flannel trousers or cotton slacks.


Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide | The Necktie Belt

In the way of belts, Astaire likes to use silk handkerchiefs—purely for utilitarian purposes rather than theatrical. He has a 31-inch waist and loses pounds when he is dancing. The resilient silk allows him to draw his pants right. “I used to use old neckties for the same purpose but the handkerchiefs are better.” At home he will use a belt, usually shoving the buckle to one side, “simply to get it out of the way.” -GQ, 1957


Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide | Suit Colors

In suitings, he prefers the sober colors such as dark blue, dark gray, and dark brown—”the only light color I like is light gray.” He is also partial to stripes but he wants them at least an inch or an inch-and-a-half apart. “That’s distinctly British,” he says. “We go away from or toward them in styles, but we always seem to basically revolve around their ideas.” -GQ, 1957


Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide | Ties

He likes a full tie, not the narrow ones. “I always like to use the Windsor knot,” he says. As for the collars, he dislikes the tab and prefers the button-down and the wide-spread collar— braced by staves. “Once I used to wear bow ties,” he says somewhat wistfully, “with polka-dots, too, and enjoyed it, but I’ve got away from that.” He explains his aversion for the narrow tie with a smile: “I’m narrow enough myself, too narrow.” He points out that thinness seems to destroy an essential quality of dress, its style, by misuse in ties or lapels. “Look at the thin rolled lapels with the double-breasted suits—they are atrocities.” In his own ties, he prefers a dark color and a very small pattern. He has only a couple of striped ties, emblematic of the clubs to which he belongs. He thinks that his fondness for not wearing ties may have been a sin in the past. -GQ, 1957


Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide | Dinner Jacket

One of the present-day fashions that roils him is the prejudice against the double-breasted suit. “It’s incredible how they have maligned that garment,” Astaire declares. “Abroad, you will see three or four double-breasted suits to one single-breasted.” For instance, he points out, he prefers the double-breasted dinner jacket—”for one thing, you don’t have to wear a vest or that hideous invention, the cummerbund. And I can’t comprehend red evening ties or fluffy shirt fronts or that sort of thing.” -GQ, 1957


Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide | Jacket

He favors two-button jackets, although he used to be an addict of three-buttoners at the age of 20. “I only button one,” he says, “and I think it looks better that way.” One of his horrors is the present condition of the male suit coat. He feels that this is the outstanding mistake that most men make in their appearance. “The coat should be just long enough to cover the rear,” he states. “The way most of them are today, they nearly reach the knees. I put on one belonging to a friend about my size the other day and I swear it came down to my knees.” -GQ, 1957


Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide | White Tie & Tails

When you see people in tails and a waistcoat, if the white hangs down under the black jacket you know they have really ruined the line of the whole outfit. Fred Astaire always wore his waistcoat very high, and the jacket would just cover the white, which of course made his legs go on forever. -Bob Mackie


Guys! I was reading an interview of Fred by GQ from 1957, and in it Fred mentioned almost every single details of his fashion do’s and don’ts. So, I thought, why not make a Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide? He is a legendary men’s fashion icon anyway, and judging by the white tie and tails situation on men nowadays (it’s so sad), I think this guide will do them some good. So, I’ll be making a series of Fred Astaire’s Fashion Guide posts (making them as we speak) starting now. This is gonna be fun! XD