Playboy's Fall & Winter Fashion Forecast

In our semiannual Fashion Forecast last October, Playboy divined and defined Ivy, British and Continental as the three major influences then shaping the form and direction of upcoming sartorial styles. The prevailing Ivy silhouette, we correctly prognosticated, would be infused with a feeling of unimpeachable Continental elegance, while reviving British outlines would impart to outdoor and casual (text continued on page 71) wear a look of tweedy masculinity. With the arrival of a new fall and winter season, these same three fashion forces will continue to hold sway over the style scene, but with a significant realignment in their balance of power. Continental modes will be giving way before a combined upsurge of Savile Row and Ivy League. And as a result of this shift in spheres of influence, a new fashion movement is (text continued on page 74) beginning to take shape. Amalgamating the undecorated naturalness of Ivy and the unique detailing of British tailoring, this emerging profile will retain the slimness and suavity of Continental lines—but with a distinctive authority all its own.

Incorporating bold innovation with reanimated tradition, the new wardrobes will bear the stylishly identifiable (text continued on page 164)Fashion Forecast(continued from page 74) made-in-U.S.A. stamp from head to toe. Shoulder treatments will preserve their natural Ivy line, though somewhat Anglicized in the new country suits; lapels will be medium width, chest expansion full, coats seat-length, only slightly shaped at the waist; jacket flair will be perceptible, but extremely conservative, particularly in business suits and dinner jackets; and vents will be much deeper than Continental slits, though less extreme than the British style. The overall look will be tailored and classic, but with a sense of custom-made individuality that promises to distinguish town clothes with a feeling of sleek sophistication, and country garb with one of rugged handsomeness.

Subtlety in both hue and pattern will be the unifying factor. Subdued plaids and checks, augmented by JFK-inspired pencil and chalk stripes of sober but not somber caste, will maintain a quietly urbane tone in tailored garb. Neat herringbones, diagonals and multicolored hopsacks will set the sports-wear pace in tastefully muted shades. Olives, predictably, will remain in charge; but blues (black-navy, stone-blue, deep Baltic) and black-browns (in smooth worsteds, tweeds, cheviots and Shetlands) will be making substantial inroads. In the more freewheeling realms of neckwear, shirtings and sweaters, there will be one major thread of searing color, not for the fainthearted, to counterpoint the general mellowness of the fall and winter wardrobe: tangerine. But the unimprovable color combination, as always, will be black and white—immutably basic, impeccably correct; with the revival of the classic look, they will assume even greater importance in every category of tasteful attire.

The British country suit, resuscitated last year, will be pulling out all the stops in two-, three- and even four-piece outfits that dress up or down according to the occasion in a versatile variety of mutually interchangeable permutations. Muted-pattern suits will be teamed with matching vests; reversible waistcoats (one side matching, flip side contrasting with coat and trousers) will be paired off with coordinated slacks; foulard prints will be showing up in coat linings and on integrated vests. Natural-shoulder styles will prevail for the conservatively inclined, but last year's trend toward more extreme cuts, inspired by the upsurging hacking jacket, will become even more pronounced. Construction details predicted for the new sports-coat profiles will include both hacking and patch-flap pockets, lap seams and veddy British collar tabs. Trousers will be Americanized with plain fronts, but will sport such features as extra-deep cuffs, inch-wide belt loops and quarter-top pockets. Materially speaking, medium to beefy tweeds earn our endorsement in subdued herringbones, district checks and—for the unreconstructed Anglophile—British glens and window-panel plaids. Solid fabrics will blend warm heather, sod and putty tones in earthy compound colorings; and cotton suede, a newcomer to country suitings, will stride on scene in masculine leather tones. For those dedicated to less casual, urban pursuits, we commend the suavely sophisticated, completely new cocktail suit for semiformal resort wear or home entertaining, elegantly accoutered with braid-trimmed jacket and contrasting trousers.

The same consanguinity of British and Continental strains, subtly modified with an additional mingling of straight Ivy, will be observable in sports jackets. In quiet-patterned English plaids, checks, herringbones and rough tweeds, the natural-shoulder outline will share equal billing with hacking-influenced models (featuring lap seams, patch pockets, slightly wider lapels and either side or center vents). Shetland remains the top-drawer choice in traditional coats; and for balmier climes, the same understated patterns in lightweight, smooth-finish worsteds and synthetic blends will be the coolest bet. Even in the North, refreshingly, medium and light fabrics will be making their presence comfortably felt in models that warm but don't weigh. Black-brown will be coming on strong in all styles; olives will be joining forces with blues, grays and browns in a variety of engagingly offbeat mixes; and old-fashioned camel's hair—both the fabric and the color—will be back in force. In another laudable renaissance, the dashing Douglas Fairbanks jacket with bellow slits and belted back will be bounding into the limelight once again, updated with natural shoulders, medium-width lapels and three-button placket.

The boom in uninhibited blazers, which we accurately prophesied this spring, will diminish, but only in luminescence. Unimpeachable solid blacks, olives and classic navy in medium-weight flannels and nubby hopsacks will quietly supplant the traffic-stopping hues and patterns of the past summer's models; although a smattering of scorchers will remain to accent the autumnal tone. Once part of the official Scott Fitzgerald yachting ensemble, the double-breasted blazer—shipshaped with side vents, rococo linings, trim shoulders and narrow lapels—will be seen again in a tasteful assortment of low-key colors, presaging a marked but modest return to double-breasted styles in suits and sports jackets—but only for the avant-gardists.

The word in dinner jackets is black, as always—but trimly contemporized with peaked lapels, satin facing and trim, and elegantly enlivened with bold vests of lush and exotic fabrics. For the venturesome host, the most inventive inspiration in many a season is the immaculate Indian diplomatic jacket—à la Nehru—complete with straight-lined silhouette, stand-up collar and convertible cuffs for formal links, ultracomfortably designed to be worn sans tie or shirt. For this strikingly sophisticated departure from Western sartorial traditions, we predict a large fashion splash.

Conservative influences have divested separate slacks of virtually all gimmicks. Cuffless belt-loop models, in a felicitous variety of worsted flannels, coverts, sharkskins, wool gabs, Bedford cords and reverse-twist worsteds, will once again dominate the dressier styles. Subdued olives and compound colors will set the tone; muted plaids and checks will supplement the solids. For casual wear, both belted and beltless models (the latter with button tab or buckled side adjustments) will be making the scene in sleek cotton suedes, revived poplin and cotton gab, and corduroys in offbeat earthy shades.

Resuming their rightful place in the male wardrobe with the return of loops, belts will be as tastefully unadorned as the trousers they complement. Varicolored stripes, patterns and solid colors in webbing and stretch materials—buckled with classic simplicity—will be available in abundance, not merely as a practical supplement to basic leather in standard black and brown, but as a coordinating touch of dash and distinction for each individual outfit.

With the revived three-piece suit still soaring in popularity, waistcoat enthusiasts will be in for a field day, with the new vests showing up in uninhibited brocades, embroidery, harlequin patterns and even fur. They'll appear in plaids, checks and solids of earthy camel tones, uncompromising hunter yellows, forest olives and fire-engine reds. They'll have both rounded and pointed bottoms; fabric and knitted backs; single- and double-breasted fronts; standard and flapped pockets. They'll be fashioned in velvet and cotton suede, tweed and moleskin. Reversibles will proliferate, some pattern-and-pattern, but mostly pattern-and-plain. And for a refreshing fashion note, some of the new sports jackets come equipped with matching vests, designed to be worn with contrasting or coordinated slacks.

Dress shirts, too, will bear the imprint of updated, upbeat traditionalism. Buttondowns, British tabs and round collars worn with a pin can be expected to hold firm, but several new spread styles will be bidding for favor—chiefly a short-pointed model with narrowed spread. The Tony Curtis–influenced shirt with high-banded collar and extrawide cuffs will gain increasing support. And the pullover dress shirt, a boon to the button-weary, will be coming into its own. Regimental stripings on richly yarn-dyed backgrounds will be adding zest and variety to the pattern picture; blue will be the key color in both stripes and solids.

With patterned shirtings and suitings in greater ascendancy, however subtly, than at any time since the pattern-happy Thirties, one might conclude that the only answer to tastefully integrated neckwear is the solid knit. Not so. With neatness and simplicity as the keynote, this year's patterned ties—bright rep and club stripes, geometries, design-embossed foulards—will be at least as essential to the well-coordinated wardrobe as play-it-safe solids, and far more rewarding to the imaginative dresser in his pattern-on-pattern improvisations. Plain and fancy, the trend is toward narrower cravats, as shirtmakers tend toward diminished collar space for neckwear.

The sport-shirt scene is one of the few fashion areas where some degree of esthetic abandon will prevail. Rugged-and smooth-fibered stripes, tartans, tatter-salls, batiks, abstracts, plaids and checks will appear in unabashed oranges, yellows, blues, greens and purples. Button-downs (with tapered bodies and somewhat shorter collars) will continue to vie evenly with spread-collar shirts for the esteem of the knowledgeable—as will pullover and button-front models. Soft suedelike cotton will make its mark in classic, poncho and buttondown styles in natural, russet, olive and solid primary colors. All-or-nothing will be the story in print shirts: either way-out holds or conventional foulards in low-key colors, with no middle ground. And watch for the outerwear shirt, an innovation incorporating raglan sleeves, double-flapped pockets, false yokes, zippers, elbow patches and contrasting stitching. Blending tradition and trail blazing, many of the new knit shirts will be Greek-key-patterned with slit plackets and rib-knit or self collars. But some will sport suede or leather-patched shoulders and raglan sleeves, others self-covered four-button plackets, or even—taking their cue from the new cardigans—full zip-fronts. Most will be offered in both long- and short-sleeved versions for fall or winter wear. As an ideal accessory for an open-necked dress or sport shirt (blazer and ducks optional), the smart ascot—in a choice selection of paisleys and geometrics—is becoming as popular among weekending American men as among cutawaved horse buffs at the English race track which gave this smart accessory its name.

Sweater styles this fall will be highlighted, along with almost every other category of wearables, by a return to the uncluttered classic look. The traditional seven-inch V-neck pullover will easily win the majority vote; close behind will be the raglan-sleeve cardigan with six-, seven- or eight-button closures, and the new zip-front model. Standard crew- and turtle-neck collars will be in; tricky shawl and boatnecks out. Slated for a strong and welcome comeback: the immemorial sleeveless. Gone, though perhaps not forever, are the engulfing super-bulkies; and in their place are lightweights and textured knits in such trimly handsome self-patterns as flat cable and accordion rib. Solid colors, traditionally, will dominate the new styles, but the fall and winter line of patterned sweaters, in geometric and abstract designs vividly accented with unflinching reds, oranges and purples, will be far from eclipsed.

Outerwear this season will be robustly imaginative. With the emphasis on clean-lined simplicity, it will earn adherents primarily by inventive applications of new notions in detailing. Underset Tyrolean sleeves and shoulder treatments will impart a casually tailored feeling to topcoats and overcoats; tie-belted and half-belted coats are in for a jaunty reappearance; the British warmer, both traditional and modified, will be debuting in dressy longer lengths; and the double-breasted polo coat, after a long absence, will be pushing for a modest revival. But perennial balmacaans (in full-cut and slimmed-down models) and semi-fitted chesterfields will remain in the lead.

In casual outerwear, ruggedly functional stadium coats—stripped of frills—will hold unchallenged sway. Many feature zip-plus-button plackets; and most are fitted with warm hoods, either zippered or attached. Bal and notched collars have upstaged shawl styles; raglans and split raglans have pre-empted dropped shoulders. And almost all of the new jackets are lined with weatherproof shearlings. These familiar curly-pile fabrics first appeared in European outerwear a few seasons ago with the introduction of sumptuous one-piece suede-and-shearling leathers. Since adapted to poplins, blanket plaids and sueded fabrics of all-cotton or partially man-made fibers, they have the same burly, raw-edged look as genuine sheepskin; but the price has been lowered. Near-weightless laminates—jerseys, knits and other traditional fabrics bonded to spongelike foam for body and for shape-retention—will be lightening and strengthening not only the lion's share of these new jackets, but almost everything else in the male wardrobe, from hats to shoes, shirts to slacks, sweaters to sports coats.

Wetwear will acquire a dressy topcoat look with shorter lengths and raglan sleeves, split or full. In laminated jerseys and woven fabrics, both solids and muted patterns will be seen in black, tan, oyster, putty and taupe.

The increasingly classic profile in clothes for both town and country underlines the importance of suitable gloves for the winter wardrobe. Handsomely on hand this season will be soft leathers trimmed with stitching and self-braid; classic pigskins in basic browns and black; and the widest choice yet in sporty stretch gloves.

The right hats, too, can make the difference between impeccability and mere correctness in a man's wardrobe; this year's headgear should enable the fashion-wise to get on the right side of this often subtly shaded distinction. In keeping with the slim, natural-shouldered style in suits, the small-brimmed, tapered-crown felt should set the dress-hat pace, chiefly in bronze and blue-olive. Even narrower-ribbon hatbands will emphasize the over-all feeling of trimness. With soft velours, nubby cloths and brushed felts, the same compact look will be informalized in the new hats for country wear.

Proceeding from head to toe, we find the classic revival actively and urbanely afoot in shoegear. As a footloose coordinate for casual duds, brushed leathers will be stepping out in style for the first time in many years. With renewed interest in black-browns, rusts, auburns, chocolates and camel-tones for suiting, browns of every shade should pull close to front-running black as the shoe-in favorite. And to lace our fall and winter forecast with a final foot-note: lightweights will be obtainable in every model, but watch for a trend toward more substantial footwear than the slipperlike Continentals of recent memory.