How to dress like you’re in a Slim Aarons photograph
You've seen the pictures, now get the style...
Words: Joseph Bullmore
When asked what he’d spent his life doing, photographer Slim Aarons replied: “Photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places.” To that list he might also have added “wearing attractive clothes”. Because, in those panoramic, half-staged, half-candid photos – with all their whitewashed architecture, deep blue pools and tanned flesh – it’s the clothes that linger in the imagination.
So, with holiday season underway, we show you how to add some of that Slim Aarons pomp to your own poolside dioramas.
The era that Aarons immortalised was short on shorts and long on quadriceps – those bathers draped around the pool at the Cap du Eden-Roc seemed locked in a perpetual arms race to show as much golden thigh as possible. We recommend trunks with a short cut and a button fastening for a true riviera slant. Orlebar Brown’s plainer, shorter numbers wouldn’t look out of place on the deck of a Riva, for example.
Something to do with the sun, no doubt, but inhabitants of a Slim Aarons photograph can barely move without jostling into a white-trousered poseur. The look was most likely shanghaied from the Italian playboys of the 1940s, who’d pull on sharply pleated off-white trousers with a generous rise whenever there was a girl to woo. Pair with a woven polo shirt, three broken hearts and 20 Gauloises.
Still a jetset stalwart from the Cote d’Azur to Martha’s Vineyard, a linen shirt is the international flag of the gentleman-at-play. Go with an open, slightly splayed collar, a looser fit, and perhaps the sleeves rolled up coarsely. Almost any colour goes as far as linenIs concerned, though pastel shades are favoured in Aarons’ Nice/St. Tropez/ Antibes adventures. Breast pockets here are perfect for holding sunglasses, the keys to a Jensen Interceptor, or 40,000 Francs. Wear untucked over shorts or chinos; under a blazer, always opt for a three-button salute.
A short sleeved shirt with an open, 1950’s lean, the cuban collar came to prominence at the precise time that Aarons was at large. There is something gloriously louche and mid century about a cuban collar, in a sort of “cigarettes are still good for you” kind of way. The men in Aarons’ photographs would wear theirs tucked into their shorts, or loosely over tiny trunks and unbuttoned to the hilt.
Socks on Aarons’ riviera seemed to have been strictly optional – indeed, the only evidence of hosiery in his oeuvre was a few crisp, all-cotton white tennis sock accompanied by Prince rackets and a snifter of Cinzano between sets. The only constant in the footwear department seems to have been a manic emphasis on loafers in all guises – soft under-bellied driving shoes in any colour going; Gold-vamped Gucci loafers in black leather, crocodile or cream (!); and butter-soft penny loafers in calfskin suede.
With all that light bouncing off your gold-plated helicopter, you’ll need some protective eyewear. Aarons’ gentlemen would shade their gaze behind timeless eyewear in dark shades and classic colourways. Think Rayban Wayfarers’, Clubmasters or slightly squarer, heavier frames in tortoiseshell and black acetate. Oliver Peoples, Tom Ford, Moscot and Persol are the gold standard here.
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Further reading
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