Put some prep in your summer look with Jude Law in The Talented Mr Ripley

Dickie Greenleaf pulls off pastels and plimsolls in the 50s-set drama.

Finally winter seems to be taking the hint that we’ve had enough gloomy, grim weather and is moving over to make some room for spring to bloom. This means that we can hang up our heavy coats, shrug off our scarves and add some colour to our clothes and when it comes to spot-on summer styles no-one does it better than spoiled playboy, Dickie Greenleaf (a fantastic Jude Law) in The Talented Mr Ripley.

The movie’s a few years old now (1999), but its fashions don’t date thanks to it being set in the 50s giving it a cool old school feel. For those of you who haven’t checked it out yet, it’s definitely worth it. The movie stars Matt Damon (before he was Hollywood’s go-to action guy) as Tom Ripley, a bit of a loser who’s going nowhere in his life until he’s sent by Dickie’s money-bags dad to bring his wayward son home to New York from his eternal holiday in Italy only for him to be seduced by Dickie’s luxurious way of life. And frankly, who wouldn’t be?

He spends his days lazing on the beach with girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow – looking good here, think Iron Man sexy rather than The Royal Tenenbaums quirky), playing his sax at jazz bars and zipping about on his Vespa scooter. Sounds pretty good to us. And it just adds to Dickie’s cool factor that he’s dressed so well. While New Yorker Tom is pasty white in gross green swim shorts, Dickie is tanned and toned, the poster boy for a sun-kissed Mediterranean lifestyle.

Being set in the 50s, the look is kinda preppy but with a summer slant. By day we’re talking polo shirts, shorts and plimsolls and by night short-sleeved shirts and rolled-up trousers. The fabrics are light and breezy with loose cottons and linens and the colours are similarly fair and pale with pastels playing their part. And while we know pastels aren’t for everyone and can be considered tough for guys to pull off, we reckon Dickie’s a great example of how to make them work.

He doesn’t wear too many of them at once, also being happy to throw in a neutral like black or white, and keeps them simple and striking without cluttered patterns or prints. This unfussy attitude is everywhere in Dickie’s look, everything he wears looking so casual and thrown together rather than overly coordinated and planned. It’s a breezy style that works best in summer (and with Dickie’s deep Italian tan), yet is accessible and easy to experiment with. And with polo shirts riding high as one of THE biggest trends for this summer, now’s the time to indulge in a little old school style.