There is a competition going on at the US Open this week and it’s not the one involving rackets and balls. Instead, leading men who are not entered into this year’s draw are serving looks rather than aces.
Tennis legend Roger Federer took to court on Tuesday in navy blue polo shirt and shorts, navy blue sweatbands and navy blue socks. The cuts were trim and the top was tucked in. The young Spanish player Carlos Alcaraz wore a Nike vest, untucked and the colour of Ribena, maroon shorts, and trainers that looked like a sweetshop counter.
The players represent two style clans that are dominating current menswear: the dads and the dudes. If you’re not sure what side of the sartorial net they’re on, here’s a quick form guide. Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Félix Auger-Aliassime are all “dads”, while Arthur Fils and Andre Agassi are “dudes”.
The 'dad' look
Away from baselines and backhands, David Beckham in his slim, sometimes three-piece suits, actor Theo James, in real life as well as in Netflix series The Gentleman, the second series of which will land next week, Idris Elba and Andy Burnham are all prime examples of “dads”.
The “dad” look, which has nothing to do with paternal status, is summed up by straight, tight lines, on the whole more muted colours and embellishment for practicality’s sake – a carefully placed sweatband for a tennis player, a pair of neat little cufflinks on a suit. What it is not, says men’s fashion editor Hikmat Mohammed, “is just your dad who wears normcore. It’s an elevated dad … they wear Ralph Lauren, they wear Brunello Cucinelli, they wear Loro Piana.” Or, if thousand-pound price tags aren’t in reach, they wear Cos and Arket.
Mohammed cites Mark Zuckerberg in caramel-hued cashmere on the Prada front row earlier this year as “dad”. But it’s trickled down to the latest John Lewis menswear lookbook, which is full of sensible overcoats, cashmere cardigans and Argyle knits. According to Jacqui Markham, fashion creative director, “a lot of what we’re calling ‘dad style’ is really just great menswear fundamentals rediscovered, after a few years of fashion having moved so fast in the other direction.” Searches for “elevated wardrobe staples” have increased significantly this season, she says – “polo shirts with proper collars, chinos that actually fit, the perfect cut blazer”. Plus “sales of tailoring is up 17% so far this year, making it one of our fastest-growing menswear categories right now.” In high fashion, one of the biggest recent menswear launches also offers up dad style in spades: the luxury label Toteme’s first foray into men’s clothes.
The 'dude' look
Dudes wear things baggier, have adornments for adornment’s sake – a backwards cap or a chunky chain. It’s an atmosphere that has seen the late Bill Oddie hailed a style icon. But the patron saint of the style is the aforementioned Sandler who, in 2019 was declared a fashion icon for his unapologetic “grocery-run look” by Vogue writer Liana Satenstein.
Influences on the “dude” look include Justin Bieber and his brand Skylark, which launched last year and sells baggy hoodies and baggy shorts. “It’s more street wear. It’s more relaxed, it’s more fun, it’s more colourful,” says Mohammed. “They have more camouflage. It’s, like, Chrome Hearts,” he says referring to the LA brand beloved of Timothée Chalamet (in his current iteration: a “dude”). “The ‘dude’ maybe not stoner, but they’ll take a gummy here and there.”
The rise of the so-called “schlub hub” – men who dress as slobs relative to their maximalist, often very on-social media partners – shows that neither does marital status (Bieber, who became a meme for his hoodie and Crocs, worn alongside his wife in a red evening dress, is the prime example.) While it can be about age, it’s not about age: “dudes” Pitt and Bieber are 64 and 32 respectively. Luca Guadanigno-favoured actor Drew Starkey (a “dad”) is 32. According to Ben Hewitt, brand director at men’s tailoring brand Hawes & Curtis: “The real shift towards ‘dad style’ is no longer generational, it’s about intentional dressing, whether dressing for the working week or downtime.”
It isn’t of course a binary: Harry Styles, whose 30-show run at Madison Square Garden began this week, wears “dad”-style togs but with a “dude” energy (see the cut of his suits, the billowing white shirts), plus “dude”-style togs with “dad” energy (see short-shorts with sensible loafers). JFK Jr, who recently re-dominated the zeitgeist thanks to Love Story, was both. For Hikmat Mohammed, who says he is more dude in summer, “dad” in winter: “JFK Jr out of hours was dude but when he was working that was ‘dad’.”
Why these styles dominate now
Why are these style camps so prevalent now? The march of the dad has been happening for a while: in 2019 the New York Times Style Magazine heralded “The Unstoppable Rise of the Zaddy,” meaning an older man with impeccable style. Mohammed thinks it could be a recession indicator: “People just want a full look that’s clear and really sharp,” he says. It is also a case of the slower menswear cycle playing out: “I feel like finally the quiet luxury that womenswear had is finally catching up to men.”
Plus, actual dads became a menswear inspiration. As the writer John Diamond wrote in The Cut this week: “Just a few years ago, there was the idea of a stereotypical dad look that usually included denim shorts, New Balance sneakers, wearing socks with sandals, and higher-rise, more-relaxed jeans. Then, in one of the oddest cases of cultural appropriation, style-conscious and young people started borrowing those looks and making them their own.”
For dudes, it helps that menswear in recent years has become more interesting in general, and men, from Colman Domingo to your colleagues, have perhaps felt more comfortable to experiment. The perfect example is Daniel Craig, known as a sharp-suited, small-c conservative dresser (“dad”), he caused a stir with a run of chaotic styling in tandem with becoming the face of Loewe, then under JW Anderson, in 2024. He became fully dude.
But who feels comfortable – and who is able – to dress like a dude is complicated. There’s a privilege to being able to present so baggily. Plus, “it’s more expensive to dress ‘dude’,” says Mohammed. Dude-style streetwear can take a lot of searching for, and can cost far more than a shirt and chinos, especially some of the rare, vintage stuff, which “[has] almost become memorabilia. It’s like having a blue chip painting in your house.” It’s not, says Mohammed, “like a grey suit [that] you can buy in Reiss or M&S.”
