Menswear pundit Derek Guy draws lessons from classic sitcom characters' style

Starting with anyone other than Desi Arnaz as Ricky Ricardo would be ignoring not only an innovator of the sitcom format but also one of TV’s most debonair leading men. The shape of Ricky’s suits is distinct, and Guy explains, “It has exaggerated proportions that may get very pegged to the decade.” In the 1954 season-three episode, “Oil Wells,” Ricky wears a chalk stripe single-breasted suit indicative of his entertainer role. “I don’t know if you would properly peg it as a zoot suit, but certainly, zoot suit-inspired,” says Guy. “It suits him as a bandleader. This particular style suit was very highly charged [due to the infamous Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles in the summer of 1943] at the time, and it was a fashionable garment.” In this episode (as is often the case), Ricky’s signature suiting purposefully contrasts with a chaotic scheme from his wife Lucy (Lucille Ball) and neighbors, the Mertzes. Ricky’s Cuban roots are reflected in the music he performs at the Tropicana and his attire.

Gingham dresses and slick tailoring probably spring if you describe Lucy and Ricky’s closets—however, the couple often steps outside these parameters. “I never have any opinion about women’s wear because it’s not my area. But when you look at all of the costumes in I Love Lucy, the characters often wear trendy clothes for their day,” says Guy. “They’re not going to Brooks Brothers, for example. They would have gotten these from fashion boutiques.” Costume design has evolved since the 1950s, and while Oscar-winning designer Elois Jenssen was behind some of Ball’s most iconic looks on the sitcom, no one is credited with Ricky’s menswear. It isn’t inconceivable that Ricky and Arnaz’s wardrobes are interchangeable, and the short Western-style jacket with contrasting striped yoke and cuffs is a favorite casual garment that Arnaz wore off-set. Appearing in over a dozen episodes, including “Oil Wells,” Ricky’s off-duty staple maintains an allure. “I agree, this specific jacket has a cool retro vibe that you could easily wear nowadays in a hip outfit,” says Guy. “If someone had retro cardigans and high-waisted trousers, this would look super cool. It’s a cool vintage vibe.”

Like other shows made in the ’60s and ’70s, one department store is behind the lead character’s menswear. In this case, both Dick York and Dick Sargent (who replaced York in season six) wore clothing from the now-shuttered Botany 500, with Byron Munson as the menswear costumer. Being married to a witch often leads to Darrin being in the crosshairs of a spell cast by his mother-in-law, Endora (Agnes Moorehead), playing havoc with his appearance. Thankfully, Endora leaves his tailoring untouched in the 1965 season-two outing “Trick or Treat.” “All of these suits are very classically cut. They’re very soft-shouldered, narrow lapel, a bit of the Mad Men aesthetic,” says Guy. “But also combined with the sack suit tailoring that is a very classic look for wealthy men throughout the century.” Whereas the zoot suit was a specific trend, sack suits are “the dress of wealthy upper-class white people, of WASPs.”

With Sargent now in the role in 1969, Darrin’s mouth is literally zippered shut, but Endora hasn’t touched the “classic style American dress” work attire in “Samantha’s Secret Spell” in season six. “This is basically the kind of cut that signals the person probably went to an elite college—has a college degree,” says Guy. While shows like Bewitched nod to traditional tailoring, specific flourishes don’t adhere to style etiquette: “The only thing that’s odd is he’s wearing a dark button-down collar with a white tie, which is either a fashionable look at the time or something that elite men would generally not do during this period.”

From an ad man to a psychologist, watching The Bob Newhart Show makes you very aware (and often enamored) of some of the extreme tastes of this decade. For starters, Bob Hartley was not shy of leaning toward the “very, very ’70s” pointed, oversized collars. However, it isn’t all extreme fads from this era, as it is easy to envision grabbing something similar to Bob’s 1973 “fashionable car coat” with a tartan lining this winter. While there were three menswear costumers (Ralph T. Schlain, David Rawley, Hal Rutherford) across the six seasons, Bob Hartley was never afraid to embrace something new, as chronicled by the excellent Natty Newhart Instagram account. Case in point: the denim suit he sports in promo shots credited to 1975. Newhart did wear a different Canadian Tuxedo look in the season-two episode, “Old Man Rivers,” as seen in the third image in the above collage.

“It was Laver who wrote that timeline of fashion trends that ‘they’re in vogue, then they’re ridiculous, and then they’re hideous,'” says Guy. “He has this timeline of how trends go, and then eventually, they come back, and they’re chic. We are now looking at this through the eyes of 2024, and it looks hideous because it was very trendy at the time.” While this look gets even more ludicrous the more you take in the whole ensemble, Guy is “not against wearing trendy clothes. You can laugh at yourself and say, ‘I wore this silly thing.'” Not to mention that Newhart’s confidence and good-time vibes make it super charming. 

The real lesson is to avoid trying to make it look “sleek, formal, and sophisticated, then you ruin it almost. You have to wear it with these ridiculous ties and shirts.” As with Bewitched, Newhart’s attire came from Botany 500, which did take cues from the runway as the safari jacket eventually made its way from Yves Saint Laurent Parisian atelier to department stores in the U.S.: “A very chic garment among both men and women with his safari collection.” Bob goes full statement double collar with the safari jacket in the 1974 Thanksgiving episode. 

Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox) on Family Ties is how Guy “imagined Republicans dressing when I was growing up.” While this is the era of Ronald Reagan—who Guys calls “extremely stylish”—Alex doesn’t dress like Reagan. “Michael J. Fox is just a young conservative Republican, so he’s buying the clothes that would be appropriate for him.” In this case, the ready-to-wear clothing emulates the Armani lower gorge trend (“gorge in tailoring refers to the seam that connects the jacket’s collar to the lapel, and it determines the placement of the notch”). It is all in the details, including the “very tasteful combination” pairing a light blue striped shirt with a sophisticated pink knit tie and the white suit in the sixth season two-part premiere in 1987. 

In the 1989 image from season seven’s “The Job Not Taken,” the single-breast peak lapel sport coat fabric is “a little bit too pegged to the time.” However, Guy thinks this is a “great outfit, and if conservatives today dressed like Michael J. Fox [as Alex], I think they would dramatically improve their attire.” Throughout the decade, the men’s costumes are credited to Michael Castellano and Stacey Phelps, and even going back to the second-ever episode in 1982, adolescent Alex has the super stylish goods: “In something as simple as jeans, sneakers, and the button-down shirt—it fits him well.” The reason why these styles hold up so well 40 years later? “It holds its position partly because these were the clothes that were historically worn by elites,” says Guy. “The elites up until the 1980s dressed fairly consistently. After the 1980s, they abandoned it, so if you look at elites today, they do not dress like this.” This gets into the realm of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu regarding what is good taste and who decides this: “We think the way we conceptualize good taste is the practices and preferences of the upper class, and we only think his dress as good taste and timeless, because they reflect a certain class that holds a certain kind of hegemony in American culture.” Looks that deviate from dress tradition like Bob Hartley in his denim suit disrupt tradition and is “why they’re so heavily pegged to the era, whereas Michael J. Fox’s outfits, they’ve been considered stylish for decades.” 

Perhaps the most relevant example of how sitcoms depict a fashion and taste journey is Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), who made his first appearance in Cheers in 1984 (appearing in 202 episodes), followed by Frasier in 1993 and most recently, 2023 reboot. “Part of his persona is he’s somebody who constantly wants people to recognize him as being either informed or a member,” says Guy. Because of this, the psychiatrist’s “attire changes over the season to reflect the social changes in America.” Case in point, streaming era Frasier “wears jeans, flannel shirts, finance vests. He does wear a sport coat; he always dresses it down with jeans.” Rather than George Plimpton, Frasier emulates Mark Zuckerberg’s style; costume designer Lori Eskowitz-Carter nails this shift (Robert L. Tanella designed Cheers, and Audrey M. Bansmer designed the original Frasier).  

“To me, the changes in his dress are what’s interesting. In this 1985 photo, this is essentially the last decade of that kind of old money group still holding primacy in American culture,” says Guy. One high-profile example Guy uses to demonstrate the impact of this sartorial shift and how it translates in real life is Robert F. Kennedy Jr: “Not only does he not dress in this way, but when he does it, he does it very poorly. On a day-to-day basis, he’s not wearing a coat and tie. But when he does put on the coat and tie, he does it very poorly. Even the old money types do not dress like this anymore.”  

“This outfit is better than how the average guy dresses now,” says Guy. This statement could apply to many of George’s costumes, but in this case, it is about the 1992 episode, “The Pick,” from season four. “A lot of what George wears is very classic. He’s wearing what looks to be a ribbed or maybe a cabled gray cardigan—it’s pretty thick—a striped button-down shirt, jeans that are slim straight, but not super skinny or not super full, and what look to be Nike Cortez shoes.” 

Guy mentions “Jawnfeld,” an Instagram account dedicated to cataloging Seinfeld’s costumes (Oscar winner Ruth E. Carter designed the pilot, and George’s original glasses were worn by Denzel Washington in a Malcolm X scene; Charmaine Nash Simmons for the majority afterward) that showcases why George is Seinfeld’s achievable style icon. “The looks on George are the ones I think a lot of guys can wear today and genuinely look stylish,” says Guy. “All the clothes are always done to convey something about the character, but the ones on George genuinely look really, really good.” While the outfit rotation is mostly winners, Guy admits that there are a “few duds” in George’s closet, but don’t let that dissuade you: “If you transport George’s wardrobe into a guy’s wardrobe today, he’d be one of the most stylish guys ever.”

Will Smith ticks the provocateur fashion boxes in The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, a show with such a strong visual clothing story that you can sense the dynamics through the costumes designed by Judy Richman and Violette Jones-Faison. “Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro) is very much more informed about old money mores than Will, and he pulls the look off much better,” says Guy. In formalwear in “Guess Who’s Coming to Marry?” in the 1991 episode, “Carlton’s tux is much better tailored, whereas Will’s oversized tuxedo–he looks awkward in it.”

Carlton is similarly refined at school in his “classically cut navy blazer, white shirt, repp stripe tie, gray trousers, black shoes.” Meanwhile, Will pairs Doc Marten boots, trousers that are not hemmed correctly, and an inside-out jacket. “Will’s not only not informed about those practices but also a rebellious character,” says Guy. “So he doesn’t want to dress like Carlton. He wants to dress hip; he wants to dress cool, whereas Carlton wants to observe those kinds of practices.”  In a more relaxed setting, the differences are also purposefully overt. “They’re great choices for the costume department to depict who these characters are,” says Guy. “The kind of nerdy dude who wants to look more old money and the cooler guy who has no respect and no desire to conform to those norms.”

Not going the Bob Newhart route, but dipping a toe into denim workwear is Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer) in the first season of Friends, which Guy says would work better stylistically without the (giant) neckwear: “If he wasn’t wearing the tie and he went open collar, I think it’s actually a pretty good look. The shirt is a little bit big by mainstream standards now, but this kind of big shirt is super popular with the bleeding edge of fashion. Balenciaga has ushered in this big shirt moment.” 

Debra McGuire designed all 234 episodes of the hit series, and the late ’80s flashback episode in season two highlights how to marry an instantly recognizable aesthetic with comedy when Ross and Chandler (Matthew Perry) go full Miami Vice. In fact, the Michael Mann TV series is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, and the fashion world continues to dip its toe in this bucket. Whereas Ross looks “very IKEA,” Chandler’s color combo has aged better: “I would roll down the sleeve, even though that’s part of the Miami Vice look. Obviously, this is done for comedic effect. If we’re talking purely in terms of style, if you rolled down Chandler’s sleeves, then I think this would be a good outfit today.”