In this day and age not a lot of people my age have heard of James Dean, and I don’t blame them. It has been close to seven decades now since the time of James Dean.
An actor, racer, style icon, two-time academy award nominee, and the poster child for teenage rebellion in the 50’s. James Dean has alot in common with the modern Teenager and 20 year old than you would expect.
Revered for his performance in the 1955 movie, “Rebel without a cause” that portrayed him as a rugged, daring, young rebel. James Dean was not only an amazing actor but more importantly for this article a great dresser. With his signature leather engineer boots, classic blue denim pants, plain white t-shirt and infamous red Harrington jacket he created the uniform for the rebel movement of the 1950’s to the 1960’s. Teenagers and young adults of his time loved him for his disturbed and troubled rebellious nature and I personally admire how calm, mischievous and disturbed he always seemed in his movies.
To style, James Dean brought forth a new age of masculinity, which he brought to both his roles on screen and to his personal style. An almost half and half mix of pure machismo and sensitivity, Dean was the original rockstar, loved because of his sensitivity and ability to express intense emotion and his gentlemanly air around both women and other gentlemen. James Dean was a strong character even as a person and a lot of accounts from co-workers and friends sight him as being daring, rugged and cool.
The ease with which he wore clothes seemed effortless but still calculated and well thought out.
James Dean died in California on September the 30th, 1955 at the height of his acting and racing careers, he was in a car accident in his Porsche 550 spyder which he had affectionately named, “little bastard”. He died at 24 years and was the first actor to be nominated for an academy award posthumously. Other movies he was in are East of Eden(1955) as Cal Trask and Giant(1956) as Jett Rink.
Even though James Dean’s style is usually perceived as being rugged as I’ve mentioned above. I personally noticed how well he wore suits, in his roles on camera. In rebel without a cause a multitude of the beginning scenes feature him in a well fitted but also casually worn suit. He embodies the true essence of being well dressed but also cheeky and relaxed. In east of eden most of his fits consisted of dress shirts and pants and had an air of gentlemanly ease. So, with James Dean it wasn’t as much about what he wore but about how he wore it, with a laid back machismo that could charm a nun.
Aesthetic Ian 