Arthur Conan Doyle’s mercurial detective is best known for his acute sleuthing. But as the new Guy Ritchie series ‘Young Sherlock’ proves, his style is just as sharp.
A visualisation process, my dear reader. Close your eyes and let your ‘brain attic’ conjure up an image of Sherlock Holmes. Capital work. I would deduce that you’re imagining something along the lines of: a deerstalker hat, a tweed coat, an Inverness cape, Derby shoes and, obviously, a chewed-up calabash pipe. Have I cracked the case?
There’s a point to this hammy, Holmes-via-Temu parlance: Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary fictional detective, first appearing in A Study in Scarlet in 1887, has stuck to his distinctive style for the best part of 150 years. When you think of Holmes, you must necessarily think of his debonair, quintessentially British wardrobe – one that often cloaked his more louche behaviours. And now, with the arrival of Amazon Prime’s new Guy Ritchie-directed series Young Sherlock, his “quiet primness of dress”, as Watson once put it, is storming back onto our screens.
Since Doyle began publishing his stories, accompanied by Sidney Paget’s illustrations, Holmes has been an unlikely style icon. In the 1920s, his gentlemanly likeness was used to flog shirts, gin and, of course, pipes. Following Basil Rathbone’s on-screen turn as the detective in the 1930s, Burberry featured Sherlock in newspaper ads. While the 1980s television adaptation had little impact on the fashion of the time, the 2009 release of Guy Ritchie’s cinematic take and a subsequent BBC series in 2010 saw a resurgence of interest in Sherly’s dress sense. Suddenly, a popped-collar Belstaff Milford accessorised with a loosely knotted scarf was a moodboard staple.
Expect more of the same once Young Sherlock hits screens. It stars Hero Fiennes Tiffin (a moment for the name) as a 19-year-old Holmes, living an unruly life at Oxford University. Someone is murdered and Sherlock becomes embroiled in a global conspiracy. Tiffin’s Sherlock has been given a dandyish twist: he dons a brown bowler hat or baker-boy cap and starched club-collar shirt, and has a thing for tweed suiting.
It comes at a very fitting time, fashion-wise; Sherlock’s style runs surprisingly close to the direction that menswear is heading in. Thanks to new labels like Auralee, Mfpen, Ssstein and Comoli, there’s a hyperfocus on elevated textiles, classic tailoring and decadent textures – something Holmes has been doing since (checks pocket watch) 1887. Plaid, meanwhile, is having a moment thanks to designers like Acne Studios and Chopova Lowena, roughed-up with a punkish attitude. Then, there’s the fact that the sneaker supremacy has given way to everyone and their dad (and their grandad) wearing leather shoes. The game is afoot, or two.
And remember, this stuff matters. Sherlock is monomaniacally obsessed with pointing out the most minute details of a bystander’s clothing, from scuffs on shoes to wrinkles on waistcoats. Garments, according to ‘the Great Detective’, reveal a lot about the wearer. So, rest assured, if you’re sporting a capacious, draped coat and statement hat, à la Holmes himself, the fashion police certainly won’t be after you.
