Benedick in a bedazzled belt and matching sparkly shoes, Claudio clad in a gold lamé cropped co-ord. Much Ado About Nothing may be more than 400 years old but Jamie Lloyd’s current spin in London’s West End plants it very much in the modern day. Key to its contemporary update? The costumes, which look as if they have been plucked straight from a Hollywood red carpet.
Recently, menswear has been leaning into a new fun fashion era. Bland black tuxes are out. In their place? Everything from sheer chiffon shirts to sparkly jewellery. Greta Gerwig’s box office-breaking Barbie film, in which Ryan Gosling leaned into his himbo character Ken on and off-screen, may be approaching its two-year anniversary but its impact is still reverberating in menswear. No one, from the 72-year-old Jeff Goldblum to gen Z’s Timothée Chalamet, can resist. Even at this year’s Bafta awards, usually a more restrained carpet, a dazzling brooch was a menswear staple.
