The Return Of The Fashion Daddy

There he was, Colman Domingo on the red carpet at the Oscars.

In a sea of ballgowns, megawatt diamonds and an endless parade of cinema’s biggest stars, Domingo—a relatively lower-key name in comparison to other A-listers—somehow managed to outshine everyone. His way to do so? In a bright, lipstick red suit custom-made for the Best Actor nominee.

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Domingo’s turn in Valentino at the Oscars caps off not just a stellar few years of finally getting his due as an emotive actor capable of drawing in new fans, but it also seals his reputation as one of the fashion greats amongst Hollywood’s many men. At 55 years old, he is steadily showing everyone how personal style doesn’t have to take a backseat when it comes to the art of dressing, especially when you consider the confines that many male celebs—and by extension, everyday guys—face in prepping for a formal shindig.

Even in Domingo’s hands, a black suit can be revolutionised. For the Golden Globes earlier in January, the 55-year-old Sing Sing star donned a black suit that he had Alessandro Michele of Valentino design for him. The brief was simple, as Domingo was later quoted as saying that he had requested Michele make him something that riffed on traditional tailoring with a slightly playful and maximalist edge. The result was a neat black jacket sitting atop a polka dot shirt, with a fluffy dotted bow in place of the standard-fare tie. “I want to feel like myself—not too stuffy, a little playful with fit and colour. Everything about it should feel elevated and beautiful but also relaxed”, the actor said in a pre-ceremony interview, “I’m not dressing for anyone else, I’m dressing for myself.”

While Domingo continues to flex his style chops, he’s not alone either. In fact, he is the latest star in a slew of celebs who have turned to fashion at a later age as a new form of creative self expression.

At the same Golden Globes arrivals carpet, Jeremy Strong, 46, of The Apprentice fame turned heads with a teal-coloured look that divided TikTok. Strong chose to walk the red carpet in a seafom-coloured velvet suit with a matching bucket hat from Loro Piana. One TikTok video lambasted the star as looking like a retired dad lost on a cruise, while another fashion commentator applauded Strong for “going against the usual navy or black route”.

Months before Strong, we had the 75-year-old auteur Pedro Almodóvar, who directed last year’s drama The Room Next Door, slip into a colour-blocked teal and fuchsia look from Bottega Veneta.

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Fashion has long sided with youth. We know that society holds how people dress to different standards based on their age. If you’re young, we tell you to “take a fashion risk” because you ought to embrace something more fun, but heaven forbid the same be said to a star over 50. Once you’ve crossed into the middle age, you stick to the classics.

It’s refreshing, therefore, to see how a group of men are rising up against arbitrary rules and throwing caution to the sartorial winds. Where other men got sports cars once they hit 50, these fashion-minded men got a renewed sense of chic instead.

You have Jeff Goldblum, 72, who during the Wicked press tour, donned everything from a shearling hooded jacket from Burberry to a sweeping tailcoat complete with a snaking gold feather brooch made for him by LOEWE. There’s also Rob Lowe, 60, front row in Paris at Stella McCartney’s show, in a powder blue suit with crystal-trimmed trousers and a cheeky slogan tee.

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Even James Bond couldn’t resist a good fashion moment. Since leaving his role as 007, for which he has been tied to for the better part of two decades and has cultivated a reputation for himself as a movie star often seen in fine-but-safe tailored suits, Daniel Craig has embraced a new kind of stardom, post-Bond. The actor is pursuing projects that shake off the usual machismo attached to his name—see: Knives Out and Queer—even off camera, he seems hellbent on proving to the world that he’s got more fashion muscle than we give him credit for.

Rewind to July of 2024, and LOEWE dropped their fall/winter 2024 campaign with Craig becoming one of the guest models in the ads. On their Instagram reveal, one user commented that he found Craig’s refresh interesting. “I love when people and brands can reinvent themselves...without losing [the] style [factor]!”, the enthused comment read. Craig’s wardrobe has seemingly been emptied of all of the Savile Row-esque tailoring in favour of unstructured suits, casual khakis worn with slouchy tailoring and the occasional odd print. When he attended the LOEWE show, Craig sat frow in ballooning cargo trousers, a statement sweater collaged with acid-toned colours and little round yellow-tinted glasses.

Maybe it’s his way of deconstructing the notion that he (and other men like him) cannot care about the way they look. Maybe, Craig’s “freaky era”—as one podcaster calls it—is the fruit of finally gaining control of your own image and telling the world that no one holds sway over you but yourself. Or maybe, as Craig aptly sums up in one video, “I’m older and I care less”.