Vinyl, Martin Scorcese and Mick Jagger’s drama about the music biz is set in New York in 1973. As such, it’s very fashionable. Here was a city caught between a retro shot ripe for a regram and something that’s not too out of reach now. It’s got cult cool, with the beginnings of disco, of punk and of hip hop. It’s Andy, it’s Patti, it’s Max’s, it’s boys dressed as girls and girls-in-leather-jacket bands. It’s the year when the World Trade Center opened, as did CBGBs, but it’s pre-gentrification, where there was a sort of no-one’s-looking permissiveness. With the city running a $3bn budget deficit by 1975, New York’s decaying buildings and abandoned warehouses allowed all sorts of scenes and styles to develop. Vinyl, the story of a record label, its stars and its coke-addled execs, touches on a lot of them. Sort of like Mad Men meets American Hustle, here are five things it tells us about fashion’s current favourite era.
It’s the sweet spot where punk and disco meet
Juno Temple, who plays sandwich girl aka drug administrator Jamie Vine, is a good point of reference here. In her ambitions to go from said job to her desired position in the A & R department, she deftly moves across all the scenes around the city. In the first episode, she goes from a punk gig wearing a leather jacket and loads of silver eyeliner, and enjoys an encounter with Kip Stevens (aka James Jagger). Fast forward a bit and she’s off to a loft party in the appropriate – and fabulous – red satin jumpsuit and cropped faux-fur chubby. Special mention here goes to Jagger Junior’s resemblance to Richard Hell, cock-e-nee accent and fine usage of a T-shirt with a rip at the neckline.
There’s a leftover hippy vibe
However you dress it up – call it bohemian if you want – fashion has a soft spot for hippy style. Olivia Wilde’s Devon, the long-suffering wife of record exec Richie Finestra, provides it here, through an impressive array of kaftans. They’re worn with oversized sunglasses and long hair, for a sort of jetset version of a Woodstock look. This suits fashion, whether it’s having a Rachel Zoe moment or thinking of how Kate Moss might accessorise her cigarette and lounger for her next winter sun getaway. If the fake Nico who turns up her house going on about Andy and Lou is anything to go by, Devon has a Warhol Superstar past too. The Factory! That’s another inspo category checked, then.
It always brings the party
The 70s were, as even the most entry-level student of pop culture knows, the era of D-I-S-C-O. And a lot of that happened in New York. Left unsupervised, it became a centre of in-the-know hedonism at private parties like the Loft, which began in DJ David Mancuso’s apartment in Soho. The opening scene of Vinyl sees Bobby Cannavale’s Finestra snort coke off his own car mirror, chopped up with a policeman’s business card. He then follows a group of outlandishly dressed boys and girls as they go into a party in an abandoned building, walks past someone performing oral sex on a staircase and watches a performance by a New York Dolls-esque band. That is New York in the 70s as far as modern pop culture is concerned. Drink it in, fashion.
The collars are impressive
Sometimes it’s less about mood, and more clothes. If all of fashion loves the 70s, it’s Gucci’s Alessandro Michele who is the biggest retro geek. He would love the tailoring in Vinyl, that comes with those oversized collars once worn by all men without a whisper of irony. Richie’s suits are all about the big – collar, lapel, trouser leg – and worn with the open neck and gold chain you’d expect of a man who has more than a bit of the Tony Montero about him. Ato Essandoh’s casual look as Lester Grimes – poloshirts rather than crisp cotton – is more wearable in 2016. London Fashion Week’s Grace Wales Bonner had similar styles in her most recent collection.
It predated our idea of am-to-pm dressing
Mad Men only just made it into the 70s, so Vinyl provides the study of the decade’s office style. The office of record company American Century is in a high rise, comes with that lift moment where the exec arrives, to a secretary who bears messages (Richie’s are from Lester Bangs and David Geffen obvs), a smoking policy and loads of boardrooms with big glossy tables. The clothes are also awesome. Who doesn’t want to work somewhere where men can wear patchwork jackets and neckerchiefs and women are in high sandals, flares and puff sleeves? Anyone who discounts the 70s daywear is clearly not reading the fashion memo properly.
