By Bent van Rooy.
I may be wrong, but I doubt many PS readers will be able to pull off their cigarette knickers. God knows I tried (and failed, of course) at some dangerous point in my personal style journey. When I think about it, there is only one person I know. This is my friend Tintin.
From his first travels to the Soviet Union and the United States, he was a tireless and optimistic journalist. young 20s Wearing a pair of generously cut poop collectors (as they are called in Flemish). In any case, he matched a white shirt with a light blue crewneck sweater to make it look like a stylish outfit.
Add a pair of white knee-high socks and simple brown oxfords (I think they are Aldens in suede) and you have a unique and recognizable uniform.
But our hero has also been known to bend the strict dress code. i love him blue lotusFor example, he wears a short-sleeved yellow shirt in plus four (above) and a striped red tie without a jacket in the next panel.
The latter is the type of look that its creator, Georges Remi (better known as Hergé (his initials GR says the opposite)), can match no other.
Remy (above) grew up in a wealthy bourgeois family in Brussels in the early 20th century. Like many boys in his environment, he wore long gowns as a baby, shorts and shirts as a child, knickerbockers at school, and later custom tailoring.
His family’s proximity to high society, rubbing shoulders with nobles and dignitaries, left a lasting mark on the way Hergé dressed throughout his life.
His clothes are neither flashy nor flashy. In fact, the opposite is true. I love an old photo of the man in his studio, wearing a simple white pressed dress shirt and a cropped tie, with his sleeves rolled up for work.
The choice of worn-out chinos with a tie, clip, and belt, and a discreet Swiss watch shows a man who knows his clothes inside out. And that love and knowledge shone through every page of the Tintin canon. All characters are dressed with love and care. Snowy, like most dogs, is active in the nude.
Remy’s personality is really strange. clear lines The style conveys complex clothing codes with just a single flat watercolor layer.
Check pattern like Tintin’s cowboy shirt Tintin in AmericaIt’s a simple check made with a ruler (above). Another artist would have tried to show his craftsmanship by allowing the pattern to flow through the fabric of the shirt. Instead, Hergé gives us a hint. Our mind does the rest.
And no matter how minor their roles, everyone – from barons to bootleggers, from mafia to marine biologists – is carefully dressed to suit their position in society.
Crime boss Al Capone (below) wears a double-breasted suit with zipped and tapered pants, a pink shirt with a white contrast collar and a jeweled tie, accompanied by a friend wearing a baggy blue suit and a small bow tie that is out of proportion.
Differences in status are explained through cut and tailoring style. No words needed.
In fact, Hergé’s love of sewing is evident throughout the Tintin books. He drew a variety of characters wearing suits, especially brown ones: gangsters, ambassadors, and sometimes even Tintin himself.
The ubiquity of brown tailoring in the world of Tintin probably has a lot to do with the era, with many comics written in the 1940s and 50s.
Includes Tintin’s suit jacket. temple of the sunKnickerbocker in the same color and fabric – with a cinched back for durability and practicality (above). The jacket’s shirt collar and fishmouth lapels look very Parisian, and different from those worn by contemporaries in London or New York.
Tintin mainly wore brown with a white shirt and black tie (a classic combination for any occasion), while Hergé clearly enjoyed shopping for his side character, combining a brown suit with a much stronger colored shirt, tie, roll neck and scarf.
But Hergé also had a keen eye for casual and workwear. Think Captain Haddock in his signature navy knit turtleneck sweater (below). It’s a look he’s ditched for a while in favor of overly loud tailoring. seven crystal balls (sarcastically betraying that the captain may be out of his depth)
And while Tintin certainly prefers his own uniform, he doesn’t mind throwing a few francs on high-quality outerwear when the need arises. Before heading to Tibet to scour the Himalayas for his lost friend Chang, our hero must have had the presence of mind to shop for a sturdy mountaineering anorak from Nigel Cabourn or Stone Island (above).
Often rugged and decidedly casual, Tintin has been known to wear all manner of parkas and ponchos at just the right moment. And when he’s at home in Belgium, he goes for a walk with Haddock in a cool Valstarino-style suede bomber.
And not to mention the long khaki raincoat that Tintin is wearing on the cover. King Otokar’s ScepterI like to imagine him buying from Cohérence (above).
An old and very simple A-line model that flutters beautifully through the wearer’s many adventures. This coat has always impressed me since I was a child and symbolizes where well-cut tailoring meets adventure and dynamism.
After looking for Tintin’s raincoat all my life, I ended up finding a similar Italian coat from the 40s at ‘Ub’, a vintage shop in Florence. I couldn’t believe my luck.
Hergé’s own style softened over time. Although his later years were marred by personal difficulties, his clothing became more comfortable.
In his photos from the 60s, he embodies a kind of quiet luxury. Scarves and foulards replace stiff collars, while suede jackets and quirky trousers replace formal suits (above). The wardrobe of a man who is curious, adaptable and comfortable with the times.
So in his last adventure, published in the mid-1970s, Tintin and PicaroOur hero proved to be trend conscious, ditching his trusty knickerbockers for slightly flared trousers (below) as he stomped through the jungles of San Teodoros, never to be seen again.
