Trend: Jazz Age Redux

A century after the Roaring Twenties, jazz is back in fashion, in both senses of the word. The music is attracting new listeners. Its visual codes, from sharp tailoring to hats and ties, are also returning to menswear.

The original Jazz Age followed the First World War and the influenza pandemic. People wanted music, movement and social freedom. Jazz, born in African American communities in New Orleans, travelled to New York and Paris, then crossed the Pacific. In the United States, Prohibition sent drinking underground. Speakeasies became places for jazz, cocktails and dancing. By the late 1920s, Shanghai had a flourishing nightlife. American musicians and Filipino orchestras played alongside Chinese composers who combined jazz with Chinese musical traditions.

Our own twenties began with a pandemic. Political uncertainty and rapid technological change have added to the sense of unease. Social life has returned in different forms. In Singapore and Hong Kong, café parties bring DJs and daytime dancing to coffee bars. Drinking less is often a choice, linked to health and fitness. Elsewhere, people gather to listen. In Japanese jazz kissa, records and sound quality are central. Listening bars modelled on these cafés have since opened across Europe.

For this FD Persoonlijk shopping page, Junya Watanabe’s eccentric, layered tailoring is the starting point. The bowler hat, tie and wide trousers recall the formal style of the period. Yves Saint Laurent’s Jazz adds scent, while William Claxton’s Jazz Life shows the musicians and places behind the music. The result is cool and restrained.

Curated by Im Fong Liu

Published in FD Persoonlijk

Runway and product images courtesy of the designers