The hipster look from Fight Club

Type “Tyler Durden fashion” into Google and prepare to write off your day. Why? Because the web is a veritable junkyard littered with endless pleas by men on how to look like Brad Pitt’s iconic movie rebel. There are message boards dedicated to it, websites built solely to gush adoringly over his signature red leather jacket and an ever-increasing number of tips, hints and general advice on how to achieve Tyler Durden’s look. One guy even caused a mild stir by selling his hard-earned replica wardrobe. The Fight Club frenzy isn’t cooling down, it’s hotting up.

So, why the craze? Maybe the desirability is due to Brad Pitt. With those big baby blues, chiselled jaw and lithe, muscular frame, he regularly tops sexiest men polls and has snagged some of the world’s most desirable women. Add to this his easy charm, huge likeability and massive male and female fan base, and you’ve got yourself one helluva cinematic clothes-horse. And Fight Club isn’t the first film to exploit, or rather heighten, his fashion credentials with the Ocean’s films and Mr and Mrs Smith helping the cause. The effortlessly stylish actor could look good in a bin-bag, but in Fight Club he really delivers.

Tyler Durden was crowned the best-dressed movie character by Empire magazine, stating that he is the “embodiment of alpha-male anarchy, junk-shop chic and utter cool”. Sadly, here at Boxwish we can’t grant you Pitt’s looks, and wisely warn that this is not a look for the masses – but we can help with the clothes.

Empire describes Durden’s wardrobe as “vintage T-shirts, 70s leather jackets and chaotically coordinated colours” and that rather neatly summarises his hipster look. One that could have screamed tacky trash and wannabe pimp if handled only slightly differently. The fashion choices snub modern for retro, subtle for brash and sophistication for flamboyance. They scream confidence, but manage it with a casual nonchalance as if to say “oh this old thing? I just threw it on.”

To create this look, the movie’s costume designer, Michael Kaplan raided second hand and thrift stores. This shopping odyssey of unwanted jackets, dated shirts and psychedelic craziness means that recreating Durden’s look to every fabric and every pattern is nigh on impossible. Instead, it’s about re-creating the essence of his style. Think: “Is this like Tyler Durden? Might he wear this?” rather than “no, the maple leaves on that shirt are the wrong shade of red”.

And the film throws up no shortage of inspirational fashion ideas. Durden’s most iconic item is surely his red leather jacket, of which there are countless replicas available online, though he does also don another stylish jacket – a zip-up biker one with double white stripes on the arms. Durden teams these jackets with his outlandish shirts, often preferring short sleeved ones but sometimes mixing it up with some clingy, stretchy T-shirts. Patterns include the afore-mentioned maple-leaves, white stars on black, toucans and even dirt-bikers, while slogans include “sock it to me”.

Of course, like other style pioneers, some of Durden’s choices are pretty leftfield and stray into territory that even his most die-hard fans might fear to tread. Such choices include the vividly patterned vest, pink sunglasses and fluffy bathrobe complete with bunny rabbits – though thankfully not worn all at once, even Tyler Durden’s not that much of a fashion maverick.

But despite the unconventional choices, Pitt and Kaplan clearly have a strong working relationship, as the costume designer has also kitted out the A-lister in the likes of Se7en and Mr and Mrs Smith. And Kaplan’s hard work on the film didn’t go unrecognised by his industry, earning him a nomination for excellence in costume design by the Costume Designers Guild Awards.

Yet it’s the fans and wannabe Durdens that have established the anarchist as a fashion heavy-hitter. Yes, Durden’s clothes are dated, typically unfashionable, too busy and bizarrely mixed, but it is this disregard for rules and the willingness to take risks that both defines Durden’s unruly personality and makes great onscreen style. Typically, both high-end and high street fashion followed in the crush for Pitt’s togs, and top designers rushed to tap into this swell of interest, producing collections inspired by the film’s clothes. Likewise, badges, hoodies and countless slogan T-shirts referencing Durden hit the shops, from “What would Tyler Durden do?” to “The first rule of Fight Club…”

And so it remains. Empire magazine voted Durden their number one style icon in June of 2008 – nearly eight-and-a-half years after David Fincher’s dark masterpiece was released. Proof positive that good fashion never goes out of date.