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What’s This About

British aristocratic style for men is good tailoring, country tweed and clothes repaired for decades, and it looks plainer and older than most Americans expect.

This guide covers what the look involves in practice.

The Royal Ascot and Henley dress codes, where the rules are written down

Town tailoring, country tweed and the man who mixed the two

Why a re-waxed jacket or a resoled shoe beats a new one

Signet rings, striped ties and the other details Americans tend to get wrong

and many more!

You don’t need a title for any of it, just patience and a good tailor.

Key Points

01In the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot, morning dress in black, grey or navy with a waistcoat, a tie and a black or grey top hat is compulsory, and bow ties are not allowed.

02Repair comes before replacement. The King told British Vogue in 2020 that he would get shoes or clothes repaired if he could rather than throw them away.

03A signet ring goes on the little finger, traditionally of the left hand.

04Striped regimental, school and club ties mark membership in Britain, so leave them to the members.

Ask an American to picture a British aristocrat and the picture is usually too polished, a brand-new tweed jacket, a spotless Barbour, a crest ring on the wrong finger.

In practice the clothes look older and plainer. Jackets get mended, waxed cotton gets re-proofed until it turns almost black, and the only strict clothes are the ones an invitation spells out.

Collage of men in a navy suit, evening tailcoat with sash, morning dress and evening dress with neck orders

In the US, most people meet this look under another name, old money style. The British original has fewer logos and more patches, and it’s easier to copy than it looks once you know which habits still matter.

Where the rules are written down

Most upper-class British dressing runs on habit. Two summer fixtures are the exception, because they publish their dress codes.

In the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot, men must wear morning dress in black, grey or navy, with a waistcoat, a tie and a black or grey top hat. Shoes have to be black, socks have to cover the ankle, and bow ties and cravats are not permitted.

Henley Royal Regatta is looser. The Stewards’ Enclosure asks men for lounge suits, or jackets or blazers with flannels, worn with a tie or cravat, and nobody gets in wearing shorts or jeans.

If an invitation ever arrives, our morning suit guide goes through the coat, waistcoat and trousers.

Man in a grey double-breasted suit being fitted by a tailor — King Charles III at Anderson and Sheppard

Town tailoring comes from a handful of streets in Mayfair. Anderson & Sheppard, on Savile Row since 1906, kept the then Prince Charles in double-breasted suits for years, and the Row is still where the British idea of a good suit gets decided. Our guide to Savile Row tailoring explains how a bespoke suit is made there.

Town or country?

The old division was practical. Town meant business, so dark worsted cloth and black shoes. Country meant mud, horses and guns, so tweed, cord and brown leather.

Two photographs: a man in a navy suit, white shirt, silk tie and black shoes, and a man in a brown check tweed jacket, cord trousers, light blue shirt and brown loafers

On the left above, a navy suit, white shirt, silk tie and black shoes would pass in any London office. On the right, a brown check tweed jacket, cord trousers, a light blue shirt and brown loafers belong to a weekend outside the city.

That division produced the saying “no brown in town”. Simon Crompton of Permanent Style was already calling it out of date in 2008, and brown shoes now turn up in offices everywhere, but the idea behind it has lasted. Dress for where you’re going.

Collage of a man in a cream jacket and striped tie, a navy blazer with white trousers, a blue windowpane check suit and a tan check jacket

The man who did most to mix the two was Edward VIII, who gave up the throne in December 1936 and became the Duke of Windsor. He liked soft-collared shirts, unstructured tweed and checks worn against stripes, and he called his approach “dress soft”.

The country wardrobe

Collage of men in waxed and tweed jackets, a check hacking jacket on horseback, a navy jumper with jeans and a navy blazer with cream trousers

Country clothes were made for weather and horses, and the details still show it. A hacking jacket, cut for casual riding, is usually tweed with three buttons and a single vent. Tattersall check shirts take their name from Tattersall’s, the horse market that opened in London in 1766, and they’re still a country staple under a tweed jacket.

Our guides to British countryside style and to the Sloane Ranger, the London version of the same wardrobe, go further into the outfits.

Why new looks wrong

Wearing clothes until they look old is the habit Americans find hardest to copy. In the US, looking expensive usually means looking new. In a British country house, a jacket with a mended elbow says more than a fresh one, because it shows the owner has had it a long time.

Three men in a cable-knit cardigan, a navy chalk-stripe three-button suit and striped pyjamas around a café table

Man in a patterned jacket, dark tie and green trousers lounging on a sofa beneath a portrait

Second-hand is the quickest way in, because someone else has already chosen the cloth and broken in the cut. Our vintage shopping guide is a good place to start.

Man in an olive quilted jacket, grey scarf and grey trousers with brown suede shoes in a street

Man in an olive waxed jacket, green check jacket, striped tie and grey trousers carrying gloves

Barbour treats repair as part of the product. John Barbour founded the company in South Shields in 1894, it listed re-waxing and repairs in its 1921 catalogue, and it still re-waxes and mends jackets by hand at its South Shields factory. A jacket re-proofed every few years for two decades looks right in a way a new one can’t.

If you’re buying your first, start with the most classic Barbour jacket.

Two photographs: a man in a check tweed jacket and cord trousers, and a man in a waxed jacket and stone trousers carrying a hat — King Charles wearing a British country chic style outfit with Corduroy trousers

The King has said as much in public. Talking to British Vogue for its December 2020 issue, he said he was one of those people who would get shoes, or any item of clothing, repaired if he could rather than throw it away.

Shoes follow the same logic. A Goodyear-welted shoe can be resoled again and again while the upper holds up, and John Lobb, the family-run bootmaker at 9 St James’s Street, holds a royal warrant from the King.

Two photographs of a man in an olive waxed jacket, flat cap, jeans or trousers and wellington boots

The country uniform in the two photographs above is an olive waxed jacket, a flat cap and wellington boots. Nothing in it is fashionable, and all of it works in the rain.

The details Americans get wrong

Man in a navy double-breasted blazer with brass buttons, striped shirt and grey trousers

Start with the navy blazer and grey trousers in the photograph above. It’s the one outfit that works in both worlds, and it’s exactly what Henley means by a blazer with flannels.

Striped ties are where visitors slip up. In Britain a regimental, school or club stripe tells people where you served, studied or belong, so wearing one you have no claim to is wearing someone else’s badge. Brooks Brothers says it reversed the direction of the stripes in 1902 to Americanise the style, which is why a US repp tie with no club colours is simply a striped tie.

The trade has run the other way too. John E. Brooks noticed English polo players buttoning their collar points down so they wouldn’t flap, and Brooks Brothers turned the idea into its button-down shirt. If you prefer the American branch of the family, our Ivy League old money guide covers it.

Man in a tweed flat cap, brown tweed jacket with a corduroy collar, check shirt and patterned tie

Patterns get mixed more freely than most Americans expect. A check shirt, a patterned tie and a tweed jacket together is normal in the country, provided each pattern is a different scale so they don’t blur into one another.

Even the hats have a pedigree. Lock & Co. Hatters, founded in 1676 and at 6 St James’s Street since 1765, is often described as the oldest hat shop in the world. The bowler started there in 1849, when Lock commissioned the hatmakers Thomas and William Bowler to make a low, hard hat for Edward Coke’s gamekeepers.

Navy double-breasted jacket with gold buttons, white shirt, navy tie and polka dot pocket square on a tailor's dummy

You don’t need a bespoke suit to look right. A well-made ready-to-wear suit, with the sleeves, waist and trouser length altered by a good tailor, gets you most of the way there. Spend on alterations before you spend on labels.

Flat lay of a navy double-breasted blazer, white, pink and blue shirts, knitwear, a trench coat, chinos, grey trousers, belts and black, tan and brown shoes

A starting wardrobe is shorter than you might think. A navy suit, a navy blazer, grey flannels, a tweed jacket, cord trousers and a waxed jacket cover most occasions, with white, blue and Tattersall shirts, a few ties, one black pair of shoes for town and one brown pair for weekends.

Gold chronograph watch on a black leather strap with a pair of gold cufflinks

Keep metal to a minimum, a watch on a leather strap, cufflinks for double cuffs and a wedding ring if you wear one. A signet ring goes on the little finger, traditionally of the left hand, and the King wears his Prince of Wales signet on the same finger as his wedding band.

Tweed jacket with orange windowpane check, burgundy waistcoat, green patterned tie and paisley pocket square — Silk pocket square with tweed jacket, image courtesy of Cordings

A paisley silk square in the breast pocket of a tweed jacket, like the Cordings example above, is about as loud as this style gets.

Portrait of a man with side-parted hair in a navy windowpane suit, white shirt and spotted navy tie

Grooming works the same way. A short, side-parted cut, kept tidy by the same barber for years, suits everything else in this guide.

Wearing it in America

None of this needs a title or a country house. Begin with clothes that work anywhere, a navy blazer, grey flannels, a waxed jacket you’ll keep for twenty years and shoes you’ll resole rather than replace. Leave other people’s ties alone.

Then give it time. In this style, clothes start to look right once they’ve been worn for a while.

Take the first step with The VOU’s styling quizzes

If you would like help applying this style to your own wardrobe, start with our quizzes, then book a paid consultation if you want personal help.

Check your face shape with the face shape quiz.

Find your seasonal colours with the seasonal colour analysis quiz.

Check your body shape with the body shape quiz.

Take the fashion style quiz to see which styles suit your taste.

None of the quizzes is needed to wear the clothes in this guide.

Paid consultations with The VOU

For personal help, The VOU offers paid consultations, such as the face shape analysis package, which covers hairstyle, facial hair, eyewear and grooming suggestions.

The complete image transformation package combines the face shape, seasonal colour, body shape and fashion style analyses.

British Aristocrats Don’t Dress Rich. Here’s What They Wear