Since its debut in 2013, Peaky Blinders has been one of the hottest TV shows. You even see people with T-shirts saying, “By order of the Peaky Blinders” these days. Other than graphic tees, it has influenced menswear with the resurgence of 20s style silhouettes. Today, we’ll take a look at the outfits of the Peaky Blinders to see what they got right and what they got wrong.
- Who Were The Real Peaky Blinders?
- Historical Context & Period Accuracy
- Peaky Blinders Outfits
- Character Analysis
- 1. Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy)
- 2. Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson)
- 3. John Shelby (Joe Cole)
- 4. Chester Campbell (Sam Neill)
- 5. Alfie Solomon (Tom Hardy)
- 6. Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody)
- 7. Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin)
- 8. Michael Gray (Finn Cole)
- 9. Charles Sabini (Noah Taylor)
- Other Outfits in Peaky Blinders
- Conclusion
- Outfit Rundown
After the trauma and twists of the plot in the show, one of the biggest impacts outside the show has been that on fashion and clothing. It has inspired a resurgence of collar jewelry like collar bars or Winchester shirts, which is a shirt with a white collar and a patterned body, especially striped. It also had an impact on haircuts and long overcoats that reach past the knee.
Interestingly, the showrunner, Steven Knight, even started his own clothing line, Garrison Tailors, named after the pub in the show. The creators of the show certainly managed to create a unique look. Considering the show managed to produce a very characteristic style and look in their costumes, it may come as a surprise to you that they’ve had four costume designers so far.
Stephanie Cawley established the iconic look in season one. Lorna Marie Mugan took over in season two and kept the look going. In season three, Alexandra Caulfield managed many iconic looks. And afterwards, Alison McCosh, the current costume designer, took the reins from there. Both Cawley and Mugan won an award for Best Costume Design in 2014 and 2015, and McCosh was nominated for one in 2018.
Stephanie Cawley established the “Peaky Blinders look” as she got inspired by Getty archival images, by Peter Doyle’s Crooks Like Us, as well as original mugshots of the very Peaky Blinders that the show is modeled after. McCosh plastered an entire wall in her office with period photographs and McCosh went hunting at auctions for original vintage fabric, which she could then use to make clothes that fit the actors.
It seems that Alison McCosh is a woman of our own heart. Why? Well, she said, “I find that today’s fabrics don’t tell the true story.” I couldn’t agree more.
Today’s fabrics have a different finish and they’re much lighter in weight than the old ones. She also said the clothing ended up being a balance between vintage pieces and new pieces made of vintage cloth.
Several of the suits worn by Cillian Murphy, who is the main character of the show, were tailored by the English tailor Keith Watson from original old fabrics. It’s also rumored that the English production company Darcy Clothing had a hand in their customs, but I don’t know specifics so I can’t make any claims.
Who Were The Real Peaky Blinders?
There was actually a gang called “Peaky Blinders” in the Birmingham of the 1880s until the late 19-teens. They were known for vandalism, burglaries, mugging, and street fighting. Eventually, they conquered rival gangs and became involved with underground casinos, sports betting, and protection rackets.
Gangs that now often wear clothes that help them to identify each other. Peaky Blinders are closely associated with their peaked caps, which are not flat caps, but actually eight-panel newsboy caps with a button in the middle. To learn more about the difference, check out our flat cap guide.
This type of cap was a working class hat and the Peaky Blinders often combine that with a much more expensive suit, which is not something a working-class man would have worn.
According to popular legend, the name “Peaky Blinders” refers to the razor blades sewn into their newsboy caps that they use to defend themselves and maybe blind their opponents. Some people say they use the caps to cut people’s eyes. Others said they would headbutt and the blood would blind the opponent’s eyes.
Well, in any case, these kinds of disposable razor blades that you see in the show weren’t really available until the early 1900s. More specifically, they weren’t sold until 1903. But, if they’ve been around in the 1880s, that could not be what they were named after.
We like the theory that “peaky” refers to the peak in a newsboy cap and “blinders” to the way they dress; that it’s so stunning that they blind others with it.
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Historical Context & Period Accuracy
The 1920s, especially the latter part of it, were a transitional period for menswear. In the early part of the decade, pants or trousers were much slimmer; everything was more inspired by body coats.
Towards the end and into the early 30s, things changed – the drape cut was invented, everything was fuller, and, later on, even pleats appeared. Also, shirt collars changed dramatically; whereas before, your detachable collars that were washed and started separately from the shirt, the Americans really favored softer attached collars that were much more comfortable to wear.
There were a lot more nuances between 1920s and 30s clothing and, if you want to learn more about that, we have specific guides about each decade, as well as a post on the history about the suit that will give you much more detail.
In a nutshell, the show Peaky Blinders spans various decades and it is pretty accurate overall, but we’ll go into detail here today.
Peaky Blinders Outfits
1. Hats
They wear newsboy caps, which were for the working class. Sometimes, you would see men also wearing them from upper classes for very casual country wear but, more typically, these were flat caps that didn’t have the button in the middle and were less voluminous.
2. Overcoats
English weather is famously wet and cold. And so, a nice warm overcoat tailored of a thick heavy fabric is certainly your friend. The overcoats seen in the show are mostly dark shades of navy, gray, and black, which made sense because those were much easier to keep clean in a dirty, working-class environment of Birmingham.
All the overcoats are certainly longer than what modern overcoats look like. But, if you look at shows like Hercule Poirot, you see that often they were even longer. Sometimes, Tommy has a noticeably longer overcoat than other people in the show. But, overall, I think it could have been even a little longer for a more historically-accurate look.
What do I mean by “long”? Well-below the knee and closer to the ankle. Most coats have city cuts, meaning they’re peaked lapels and they’re cut in a modern way. Back then, you also found a lot of raglan coats that were single-breasted, which I don’t see much in this show.
I think, in the show, the costume designers wanted to ensure that the Peaky Blinders have a certain “I don’t give a damn” attitude, which makes them pair a city coat with a tweed suit and a newsboy cap, even though they could afford to dress like aristocrats at the time because they did have the money.
As you might know, I’m a big fan of heavy vintage overcoats and so, I love to see that part. I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t much texture and they were all rather plain and somewhat boring, in my opinion. Even though Tommy had a collar, sometimes with velvet, which is interesting and historically accurate. I have a similar one here that is double-breasted, which is from the 30s in Germany. It’s black, but you can see the similarities.
Interestingly, the Kimber Gang in the show has noticeably shorter overcoats. I don’t know if that was a statement piece or if they didn’t focus as much on them because the Peaky Blinders got all the good stuff and the Kimber Gang and the B Squad just got the more modern overcoats and outfits.
3. Suits
Another big theme of Peaky Blinders are their three-piece suits. Often they’re in darker tones or earth tones or grays, and they’re typically three-piece suits.
At the time, the lapels were much shorter, the buttoning point was much higher. In the show, Peaky Blinders mostly wear single-breasted waistcoats, never double-breasted. And you can see, the way they’re cut, they are definitely vintage-inspired.
In the 20s and 30s, overall, there was a wide variety of different fabrics with multiple color sub-tones, but what they wear is pretty accurate. If you take a closer look, you can find interesting subtle stripes or some check patterns sometimes or just fabrics that are made out of multi-colored yarn.
The materials are typically made of tweed or heavy wool, which is very period accurate, and sometimes you see just a top button buttoned, which is rather high and is a thing that came from frock coats and morning coats and is very accurate of how a suit was tailored. It’s very different than modern suits, and I think they did a good job with that.
Again, there were a lot more patterns for suits and we don’t really see that in the show, but I get it. You can only use the vintage fabric you can actually find. You can’t just make it up and re-weave it. I mean, you could, but obviously that didn’t go through those lengths.
The aristocracy had usually slightly lower-cut waistcoats to display more of their light-colored shirt front and also to show off some of their jewelry. Of course, evening waistcoats are cut even lower to show off more of the star’s shirt front.
4. Collars
Probably one of the most iconic things the Peaky Blenders show are the relatively short club collars. They use detachable collars that are always buttoned and often worn without neckwear.
Yes, these kind of collars were around back then, but a lot more men would wear a spearpoint collar and that is a collar you don’t very often see in the Peaky Blinders show; typically it’s a mix between the Kent collar and then the club collar, but it’s heavily skewed towards the club collar.
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As you know in our historic menswear posts, attached soft colors became more popular over time even though, initially, the detachable collar made it easy to wear the same shirt and just exchange the collar, so you get that clean look, and your high-buttoning waistcoat would cover up the rest.
In the Peaky Blinders show, the shirt body is often striped in various colors, usually finer stripes. Back in the day, working-class people would not wear white shirts but striped shirts in darker colors because they wouldn’t soil as easily. Sometimes, you also see men without a collar at all and this is actually also historically accurate.
Why did they all button the collar all the way up even though they didn’t have a tie or a bow tie?
Well, back then, with a detachable collar, you had a shirt stud that buttoned all four layers in the front. There was no real way to just wear the top button unbuttoned because you would have needed two buttons to keep the collar to the shirt on the right and on the left. That’s the reason why men back then buttoned it all the way up; because that was pretty much the only way you could wear a shirt with your existing collar buttons.
5. Boots
The Peaky Blinders also wear a lot of boots, which is something that was still popular with the working class. But, around that time, boots became less popular in favor of regular shoes. No, not talking about Air Jordans, but Oxfords and derby shoes. To learn more about the different classic models, check out our guide.
The Difference Between Oxfords, Derbies & Bluchers
6. Accessories & Jewelry
In terms of accessories and jewelry, probably the most common thing you see in the show are tie bars and pocket watch chains, which could be all but watch chains with a fob.
Although, later in the series, you’ll also see more wristwatches popping up. And Tommy also has a gold ring that you can see at times. It seems to be like a signet-style ring that he’s wearing on his ring finger. To learn more about signet rings and pinky rings, check out guide.
Historically, it’s true that gangsters wore expensive and flashy jewelry because, after all, it represented status and wealth and you could pawn it if you had to be on the run.
Character Analysis
How, then, does this Peaky Blinders uniform fit into the narrative of the show? The gang is subversively class conscious. On the one hand, they’re wealthy enough to dress like upper-class English gentlemen. On the other hand, though, they keep dressing with certain lower-class elements while upgrading others.
They may be economically successful, but they remain resentful of a privileged few. To display their wealth and power, they may choose nice jewelry and expensive fabrics. But, to keep it real and grounded, they choose the lower-class working styles. In a nutshell, they could dress like aristocrats, but prefer to dress like gangsters.
1. Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy)
Fortune Telling Outfit
Early on, you see what I call the “fortune telling outfit.” It consists of a textured, striped, three-piece suit; a waistcoat with a high buttoning point; and, interestingly, cloth-covered buttons. It features flap pockets, which are typical for a day suit, but you don’t see much shirt cuff showing underneath the sleeves, which was something that was normal at the time. To learn more about how you can coordinate how much cuff you show, we have an in-depth guide on sleeve length for you.
He has a slight pad in the shoulder and a pocket, but he doesn’t wear a pocket square, which was more typical of a working-class man.
You got the typical Winchester shirt buttoned all the way up with a collar stud, but no tie. The trousers have no break. They’re slim enough so they don’t drag in the mud.
Balmoral Boots and Socks
Tommy’s Balmoral boots, which have a shade of brown or burgundy, have a contrasting upper suede, is a style that was normal back then; that’s how spats became popular for a while because you wanted to emulate that look of light colored top and darker bottom.
In one scene, you can take a peek at the socks, which are dark and gray and blue, which was standard at the time. Also, the segmented gold watch chain was very typical of the 19-teens and 1920s.
Newsboy Cap and Other Accessories
In the beginning, you see Tommy wear the newsboy cap a lot. Later on, he often skips it. And, of course, there’s also a variety of outfits – sometimes he has neckwear, sometimes he wears striped three-piece suits, or that nice overcoat with a black velvet collar.
Note that the lining sometimes shimmers through in a red. Not quite sure if this is what men would have worn back then. If they would have, then it probably would have been gangsters. Just to be flashy.
When Tommy wears ties, they’re typically tonally appropriate for the outfit and not overly loud. I mean, compared to today’s news anchors, who often have orange, yellow, and bright pink ties. That’s not the “Tommy Shelby look.”
You might not even notice this, but Tommy wears black leather gloves and a lot of men wear them today. Whereas back then, upper-class gentlemen would maybe worn gray gloves or chamois yellow gloves. And you can see other gangsters in the show wearing those, but not Tommy. He always goes with plain black.
Wedding Outfit
His rejection of conventions also becomes very clear in his wedding outfit. At that time, in the UK, you would have worn a tailcoat – either a white tie ensemble in the evening or a morning coat during the day.
Even Englishmen at the lower classes would have maybe borrowed a morning coat and not just come with a regular day suit or, of course, they would have just worn the nicest clothes they had if they couldn’t afford anything else.
When Tommy marries Grace, you can distinctly see the different takes on wedding attire. On the one side are the bride’s family, where they all wear uniforms and are really dressed up, and on the other side, they’re not as dressed up for sure.
For a daytime wedding of someone of Tommy’s wealth, you would definitely expect for him to wear a morning coat, yet he didn’t. He just had a suit. Yes, it was a three-piece of a nice, dark blue fabric. It had peak lapels, which are more formal than notched lapels. But, they’re nowhere near as formal as the morning coat. It also has this dark blue texture tie, which almost looks like a knit tie.
He does wear French cuffs with cufflinks even though they’re really not a focus of the show. And because of this wedding, he has a white rose boutonniere, which is nice, but doesn’t make up for the lack of tails.
He even wears the tan suede and oxblood leather Balmorals that I mentioned earlier on his wedding day. While today, for many people, that may look like a formal boot or shoe, back then, it was firmly casual.
You would argue this was the best suit of a working-class man and is, as such, historically accurate, but Tommy was not this average, working-class man. He was filthy rich.
Jewelry
In his jewelry, you can see his Albert watch chain with a fob and a tie bar that’s so high up that you can see it. It’s intended to be seen, even though the buttoning point of the waistcoat is quite high. By wearing an outfit like this to his wedding, he clearly rejects class conventions, which is in line with his character.
Hairstyles
The undercut hairstyles of Peaky Blinders certainly had an impact on society today and there are many videos that you can find that talk just about how to get that exact haircut. Actually, it’s fairly simple. You just shave down the sides, don’t even need much of a transition, and have a longer top, and voila! That’s how it goes. We’ve certainly tried it before.
Not all Peaky Blinders have the same hairstyle. Tommy wears his hair up and forward. Arthur and John typically wear the more slicked back or back towards the side.
Tommy’s hairstyle typically gives a rougher, more modern appearance. But, looking at older photos, this style was certainly around in the 20s. Maybe it also gives them a reminiscence of Julius Caesar, who had a similar forward-facing hairstyle. This hairstyle evolved from the curtain hairstyle. It was very practical because you could keep it short, probably even at home, and it would still give you an overall clean look. Also, it gave you versatility because the top could be styled in different ways.
Overall, I would say Tommy dresses like an extension to his leadership style: lead from the front, pay for the best where it counts, but never forget where you came from.
Season 6 Outfits
In season 6, we can see a distinct change in Tommy’s clothing. He wears spear collars, a collar bar or clip, and a tie that’s a bit more speckled and has a more jacquard woven pattern. He also introduces dark day scarves, which is not something you saw him wearing early on. He also has leather dress shoes; no longer the two-tone boots.
He’s now dressed more in the late-30s fashion, which makes sense from men of his status. He has shed accoutrement of the street brawler and become much more aligned with the other upper-class criminals that appear in the show.
But, he still has a newsboy cap, so there’s still some original Peaky Blinder in him.
2. Arthur Shelby (Paul Anderson)
Arthur Shelby is the eldest Shelby brother and, as such, has the highest standing in the family, but Tommy is certainly smarter and ahead of the game.
Arthur is more about brute force and intimidation, and he can be a little more childish. Early on, he wears a lot of bow ties. Maybe that’s a nod to his childishness because bow ties weren’t really popular all that much for men for daywear, but they were popular for children.
Again, he wears a three-piece suit, notched lapel, but the pockets square and the neckwear were often an element in the show to introduce colors other than gray, dark brown, and black.
Arthur also has a segmented gold pocket watch chain and a ring on his index finger, which symbolizes power. To learn more about the subject, our guide on what rings mean on each finger has you covered.
In a nutshell, even though Arthur was born with the honor of the eldest son, he has become his younger brother’s right-hand man. Perhaps he dresses up to reflect this exalted, conceptual position because, let’s be honest, it doesn’t match his reality.
3. John Shelby (Joe Cole)
John Shelby, the youngest brother, is often dressed like the others, but there’s a scene where he tries to get more country attire, but he seems a bit out of place. Yes, the sport coat has the right colors of heath, orange, fawn, and blue and the waistcoat is darker and contrasting, but the striped Winchester shirt without neckwear is certainly not the right match.
It looks like he just purchased it, so he could show off like a country squire when, in reality, it was probably still just brand new and not lived in.
It’s clear that John doesn’t really know where exactly he belongs in the family and his clothes are a reflection of that.
4. Chester Campbell (Sam Neill)
Chester Campbell, played by Sam Neill, on the other hand represents the law. He’s an early enemy of the Shelbys and he always likes to wear his very English bowler hat.
Typically, he has a white shirt with a dark tie – sometimes with small polka dots – and a voluminous, heavy dark overcoat. His ties are thin, which was often associated with businessmen at the time.
You’ll notice that there’s often a gap between his tie and the top of the collar and, back then, the detachable collars were starched so they were much more slippery and it’s not uncommon that the tie knot slid down, especially when the collars were tall. Definitely historically accurate because you can’t beat physics.
The look of the quintessential English gentleman is accentuated by the pipe and the umbrella with a bowler hat.
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If you look closely at the edge treatment of this bowler hat, it looks much more like a modern one versus original old ones that had really a sharp crease – more like that one of a top hat. And we have a few vintage ones here and you can really see the difference. The old ones that we have are so much more elegant than what he wears in the show. The brim curls on the modern bowler hats are just not comparable.
But, dressing in respectable somber colors, he definitely represents the law and order image of the anglophile gentleman.
5. Alfie Solomon (Tom Hardy)
Alfie Solomon, as played by Tom Hardy, is a London-Jewish gang leader, whose style varies between secular and sacred. Observant Jews often wear black as a sign of moral austerity and tradition, so it makes sense why Solomon wears black. The flat, wide-brimmed hat is also in line with typical Jewish tradition. The white shirt has more of a spearpoint collar and he also skips the neckwear.
Obviously many characters have skewed neckwear in the show, but in Jewish tradition, it’s often used to display humility; others consider it to be a barrier between the head and the heart and, therefore, they skip it.
Solomon also wears a watch chain and spectacle on his waistcoat; something that was typical at the time. Even Tommy wears thin reading glasses at times, which were popular back then.
Solomon also carries a decorative cane. Allegedly for his sciatic, but decorative canes were definitely part of a well-dressed men’s wardrobe back then. For example, here is William Powell in 1931 in the movie Ladies’ Man. I could also see how Alfie uses the cane as an improvised weapon.
As a Jewish man in a then very anti-Semitic societies, Alfred Solomon manages to play with the different stereotypes of the time. He also cuts a pretty unique figure, even though he shares stylistic elements with other characters in the show.
6. Luca Changretta (Adrien Brody)
A very different style is embodied by Luca Changretta, member of the Italian Mafia from the United States. His looks are very much inspired by 1930s fashion and, overall, I quite like them. He definitely brings this 1930s Al Capone-like gangster style to the show.
Luca Changretta, played by Adrien Brody, often wears striped three-piece suits with nice white lapels. Interestingly, his waistcoats too have a very high buttoning point. So, sometimes, all you can see is the long spearpoint collar and a little bit of the tie.
His shirts have the typical spearpoint collar, which was quite popular back then in the US. It is often associated with the company Arrow, probably because they had lots of ads.
Changretta likes to wear many gold rings, a watch chain, and always a fedora hat. Even though his ties are not flashy, overall his outfits and his scarves are definitely a notch or two above Tommy Shelby’s.
He often tilts his hat to one side. It definitely has his 1930s flare.
He also incorporates a lighter color palette, but maybe not to the extent his father, Vincente, does. Evidently, Changretta’s style has rubbed off on Tommy and you can see a clear transition in Tommy’s clothes after he has met Luca.
If you compare Changretta to Al Capone, you can see they’re very much aligned.
7. Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin)
Later in the show, Oswald Mosley appears, as played by Sam Claflin. It’s sort of a handful or so historical figures in the series. The real Mosley, like his Peaky Blinders counterpart, led the British Union of Fascists before World War II.
As an English aristocrat, we use Mosley to highlight how the series captured Black Tie. By the 1930s, the rules of Black Tie were very formalized and perfected, so he wears a dinner suit or tuxedo with silk-faced peak lapels.
It’s a white, wing-collared dress shirt, and the wing collars stand over the bow tie. Later on, the wings got bigger and, sometimes, they would be tucked behind the bow tie. But, this was historically accurate at the time
He has gold and pearl studs, which is a bit unusual. Oftentimes, you would see darker studs with black tie and lighter ones in platinum or mother of pearl with White Tie. Here’s a white pocket square, black patent Oxfords – all very classic. Rather than a cummerbund, he wears an evening waistcoat, which is defined by its low cut.
Overall, you can see some Black Tie accessories, interesting waistcoats, and scarves, but this show is not full of Black Tie.
8. Michael Gray (Finn Cole)
Peaky Blinders also manages to bring in these American influences when Michael Gray finds himself a wife in America and he comes back, he now has this camel hair overcoat with a lighter colored suit and a fedora.
So, a clear distinction on the influence of the American fashions at the time. It also was all very earthy: the dark brown gloves with the brown blue and ochre tie, of course, with a collar pin.
9. Charles Sabini (Noah Taylor)
Another interesting character is Charles Sabini in the show. He wears homburg hats, gigantic boutonnieres, and cravats; sometimes with a tie stick pin poked through the knot. In combination with a light gray jacket, it certainly resembles more of a dandiest approach.
It’s cool to see these six-two double-breasted jackets with the white lapels and a somewhat lower gorge. It’s also nice to see that all the trousers, pants, and slacks men wear are true high-rise trousers that rise way past the belly button.
They’re also worn with suspenders and, in the beginning of the show, the suspender buttons are on the outside. Towards the end of the show or the series you see, the buttons appear more on the inside, which is accurate of the development at the time. So, the costume designers pay attention to little details like that.
Other Outfits in Peaky Blinders
Working Class Garments
Characters here often have A-line undershirts or sometimes no undershirts. Back then, most men wore undershirts and, while a-liner shirts had begun to become more popular, I would have liked to see a few more older-style undershirts.
In this scene, you can see Tommy wearing shirt garters, which was typically something from men who couldn’t afford shirts that were made for them and so, they had shorter arms. They kept them up with these elastic rings. Someone like Tommy Shelby should have been able to just get the shirt he wanted.
I think the show also does a good job in showing the civil servants dress in a little more dated way, compared to other people in the show, which is typically often how it was, right? Older gentlemen would not adopt the new fashions and wear wing collars and string ties or bow ties, while others had already adopted these softer, turn-down collars.
Peaky Blinders also introduces other working-class items such as the Henley shirt, which is quite cool. You can also see T-bar cufflinks, which, at the time, were just starting to get popular, but it was more targeted towards the mass market. Nicer, higher-end cufflinks were decorative on both sides and often had chains.
Sleepwear
Interestingly, a lot of characters sleep naked, when in reality, I think they would have had much more house clothing like pajamas and dressing gowns. Use them occasionally in Peaky Blinders. But, overall, if you want to learn more about them, check out our men’s pajamas guide.
Men’s Classic Pajamas, Slippers, & Robes (Dressing Gowns)
Conclusion
So, overall, how did Peaky Blinders do? I would say, very accurate.
The fabrics were accurate, the cuts were often period accurate, and they also paid attention to the accessories like suspender buttons and the suspenders. Maybe the overcoats weren’t quite long enough at times, but still much longer than in many other period shows.
One could argue and say, “Well, they didn’t quite do a good job of dressing Tommy properly. The club collar, that short one, or the Kent collar weren’t quite as popular.”
Yes, that’s true, but they were still around back then. Also, looking at Arnold Rothstein, Al Capone, or Lucky Luciano, they all shed their working-class roots and wore expensive suits.
With Tommy, that has been a very slow progression and he’s still wearing those newsboy caps, but maybe they want to do that to just highlight his connection to his roots in the show. So, I don’t hold that against them.
Historically, though, I would have expected Tommy Shelby more to maybe dress like Mosley and maybe a bit less like the street brawlers of the early seasons of the series.
If you’re not hooked by the Peaky Blinders style, we got a piece about how you can take modern elements and get a Peaky Blinders-esque style look.
If you want the original old experience, Vintagebursche has a really great video about that. If you want the modern take on it, we have something on our website.
Peaky Blinders Style: How to Get the Look
Outfit Rundown
Obviously, my look today is not period accurate clothing. Yes, I’m wearing a Winchester shirt. I even have one with a short club collar, but this collar is attached. You can see there’s no collar button. It’s just a regular mother of pearl button.
I skipped the neckwear though because it’s a very iconic look of Peaky Blinders. My suit is three-piece, but it’s made of modern, lighter fabric. It has the gray and the stripe, which is something you could see in the show. But, the waistcoat is double-breasted and you wouldn’t see that there.
I also skipped the watch chain because it makes you look much more dated. I added the pocket square in silk from Fort Belvedere that picks up the orange of the stripe
My cufflinks are unassuming vintage chain cufflinks that have some mother of pearl, gold, and silver on each side. I chose a pinky ring in gold with kind of a cool art nouveau woman pattern that is definitely something that could have been worn at that time.
I also went with a pair of black Balmoral boots with black suede inserts and gray shoelaces. My socks are gray with red and white clocks, but you probably wouldn’t see them anyways between my pants and my boots.
So, where’s my newsboy cap? Well, actually, I don’t have a newsboy cap. I have different flat caps, but as I mentioned before, they’re just not the same.
What are your thoughts on the menswear in Peaky Blinders? Share them in the comments section!
It’s a shame really when such an interesting article is marred by an awkward, almost illiterate style of composition.
Love Sven’s gangster getup.
It’s an outfit you can’t refuse.
Greetings,
Please consider a retrospective of 1974’s “The Great Gatsby,” a film that significantly influenced men’s fashion on the ironic cusp of the leisure suit era in the United States.
With every best wish,
Andrew Gregg,
Palm Springs, California.
In my opinion, The Great Gatsby looks like a film made in the 1970s about the 1920s. And Chinatown, a fantastic movie, looks like a film made in the 1970s about the 1930s. Raging Bull, however, looks like you are right there in the 1940-50s. You could never tell what that decade that movie was made in. Same with Goodfellas and Casino. Would be interesting to see a breakdown of Raging Bull.
Itโs an old expression in sports to say that someone played a โblinder,โ i.e, dazzled the spectators. This is likely of similar provenance.