Features, Style

6 Outfits Inspired by ‘The Theory of Everything’

Posted by Raymond Wong × November 7, 2014 at 11:39 am

Image credit: Liam Daniel/Focus Features

James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything hits U.S. theaters today. The romantic drama stars the venerable Eddie Redmayne as renowned physicist Stephen Hawking and Felicity Jones as his supportive wife Jane Wilde.

The 123-minute long film spans Hawking’s life from his time spent studying at the University of Cambridge to when he writes A Brief History of Time in 1988 and earns international acclaim to his second marriage and his move to the United States.

Marsh doesn’t spend too much screen time diving into the geeky science of Hawkings’ theories. Instead, The Theory of Everything of everything puts the spotlight on love; not just Stephen and Jane’s adoration for each other through the toughest of times, but also on their eventual separations and finding love from others. Redmayne and Jones’ incredible performances sell the realism hard. When they fall, you feel your heart sink and when they cry, tears slip out unknowingly.

Like science, love is complex and sometimes inexplicable, just like answering questions to about the Universe. Unlike science, however, there is usually no ultimate answer to love. The rules of attraction aren’t always concrete and everything in life is ephemeral, even when you think it’s not.

I have nothing but admiration for Benoît Delhomme’s brilliant cinematography and Jóhann Jóhannsson’s masterful and sweeping scores. The Theory of Everything is an emotional adaptation of Hawkings’ life and serves as a reminder that even the most genius of men to ever grace this planet are mortals with human weaknesses. We all have personal lives that are filled with peaks and troughs; The Theory of Everything is Hawkings’ timeline and what a potent story it is.

The Theory of Everything runs through an impressive twenty years or so of Hawkings’ life. At Dapper Guide, we’re all about curating the best of everything. We love handmade products and we obsess over the details; details that are now mostly lost to mass manufacturing processes. The 1960s were a period of exceptional dapperness. I only need to look at old photos of my grandfather, who was a professional studio photographer at the time, to see how sharp every gent (even the ones with little money) aspired to be. The thinking was: if you project an aura of a gentlemanly professional, you would command respect regardless of your age.

The age of every man wearing fitted suits, skinny ties and hats is gone, resurfaced only on cable shows like Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire, but that doesn’t mean today’s fashion doesn’t draw from the past. Everything is a remix.

In celebration of The Theory of Everything’s U.S. release, we’ve put together six outfits that are inspired by the movie’s fashion. Some items are modernized (like the iPhone 6 case) to appeal to our connected lives, but for the most part we tried to stay true to styles, patterns and materials that were popular in the film’s periods with a modern twist.

(Bruce Leong contributed to this feature.)