Iconic Look

Regent takes the inspiration for our 'Iconic Look' from the likes of Steve McQueen and James Dean: legends whose style never goes out of fashion and whose look is instantly recognisable. We believe there are four key pieces every man should have in his wardrobe: the Baracuta G9, a classic crew neck T-shirt, a pair of selvage jeans and a pair of desert boots. Each of these items carries a great history and has been worn by many gamechangers within the fashion and film industry.

The Baracuta has been around since the 1950s: it is simple, neat, comfortable and smart. All kinds of people adopted the jacket, from presidents such as J. F. Kennedy, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and George W. Bush to monumental cultural figures such as Steve McQueen.  It is lightweight but still showerproof and suitable for all ages. It became a staple menswear item in the twentieth century after it kept cropping up in popular culture; in the 1960s it was was part of every teenagers' uniform, prefiguring the preppy style that, twenty years later, would be rejuvenated by the MOD and 'skinheads' in the UK.

The selvage jean is the utmost original and very first style of jean production. The name comes from the term €œSelf Edge€, indicating a boundary-pushing inclination to those who wore it, and mirroring the fabric's woven edge. The style rose to popularity with the likes of the 501 by LEVI'S; as jean-wear gained momentum around the world, modernization took a hold and the older looms that these jeans were produced on became obsolete. However, fashion has been forever craving their return thanks to selvedge denim's denser, stronger weave allowing for that coveted longevity and nicely-aged look. The culture for selvedge wear is as great today as it has ever been, with smaller brands such as Hiut Denim in Wales leading the charge back to the avant-garde.

The desert boot is undeniably one of the most versatile items in anyone's footwear artillery: it can be worn with a suit to lessen the overly-formal edge, as pioneered by Hardy Aimes in the 1960s; on the other hand, it can look mighty sharp when worn with a distressed jacket and jeans or with chinos and a shirt. Like any thing at the top of its game, the desert boot found the peak of its evolution eons ago, and has remained there ever since: it goes way back to when the traders in Ciro's Old Bazar needed solid footwear for being on their feet all day, then becoming an unofficial part of the British Army uniform for soldiers serving in North Africa during the Second World War before finally finding it's vote of confidence in the shoe pioneer Nathan Clark, who sported a crepe-soled rough suede version. When he returned home from his adventures in 1949, Clark asked Bill Tuxhill to re-invent the shoe. Although British people took to it heartily, the boot was not launched in the Europe for another 15 years. It finally became a big hit in the United States as part of the preppy look's evolution in the 1950s after its launch at the Chicago shoe fair that Clark himself spearheaded.