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Fashion can be finicky. Silhouettes (jackets, neckties, lapels, pants) expand and contract. Colors fall in and out of favor. Fabrics, cuts, and patterns can be all the rage one year, and then not too far after you look at an item of clothing and think… “what was I thinking?”

Yet some items always seem to look stylish no matter what sort of trendy-noise is going on around them. The next total solar eclipse to hit the US does so in 2045, and while that’s a long ways off, here are 20 items that have a good chance of remaining in style between now and then. (Top background photo credit: Scott Szarapka on Unsplash.)

(restrained) Aviator Style Sunglasses

• Kent Wang Aviators – $55
• Knockaround Aviators – $35
• J. Crew Airman Sunglasses – $60ish
• Ray Ban Caravan – $171
• USA Made American Optical Original Pilot – $220+ (shown above, top, in black)

Not the big, googly, droopy, Maverick in Top Gun shades. The ones the Apollo astronauts wore. Good enough for going to the moon, good enough for getting to mars.

A Navy Blue Wool Sportcoat or Blazer

• Spier & Mackay Navy Hopsack Neo Cut Sportcoat – $448
• Charles Tyrwhitt “Proper” Blazer – $349
• Brooks Brothers Stretch Wool Hopsack Blazer – $383.60 ($548)
• J. Crew Ludlow Legacy Blazer in Italian wool flannel – $450

Quality wool, deep navy color, two button or 2/3 roll, and lapels that aren’t razor thin nor hugely fat. Goes with everything from wool trousers to crisp chinos to dark denim.

The Dive Watch

• Orient Ray Automatic – $171
• Invicta 1953 Automatic (31290) – $129.99
• Seiko 5- Sports Dive Style Automatic – $325 
• Lorier Neptune IV Automatic – $499

Functional. Sharp. Easy to dress up or down. Tough. And you can spend as much or as little as you’d like on one.

Oxford Cloth Button Down Shirts

• Target Goodfellow Oxford – $28
• UNIQLO Oxford Cloth Button Down – $39.90
• Spier & Mackay OCBDs – $58

Oxford cloth may be a little thick for the hotter months, but for spring, fall, and winter, it balances a certain laid-back vibe with still looking put together.

Clean Shaven

Beards have been in for a while now, but being clean shaven will never go out of style. It’s professional and smart looking.

Dark Brown Oxfords

• Allen Edmonds Park Avenue – $329 ($425)  reviewed here
• Jack Erwin Clarkson – $248
• Nordstrom Dane Cap Toe Oxford – $54.97 ($99.95)

Yes, walnut and other lighter, bolder shades of brown catch more eyes. But the humble dark brown oxford will never go out of style.

The Single Breasted, Notch Lapel, Above-the-Knee Wool Topcoat

• Charles Tyrwhitt Wool Overcoat – $349 ($449)
• Banana Republic Italian Wool Blend Topcoats – $199 ($400)
• Spier & Mackay Wool & Cashmere Overcoat – $296.65 FINAL ($448)

Double breasted might sometimes become more fashionable. Peak lapels can come and go. And the length of the coat will always be expanding and contracting. But this is the bedrock piece of cold weather outerwear for grownups. Color? Charcoal, mid-grey, or navy is timeless. Some would argue so is camel, albeit a bit more flashy.

A little bit of matte hair product. Not a lot. A little.

The greased or cemented look comes and goes. But a little bit of hair product, just enough to provide some hold and texture without blinding levels of shine, will always be a good look. If you’re lucky enough to have hair.

The Bald-Guy Bic or Buzz Cut

Because the alternatives are just so terrible. Fellas, fire it before it quits on you.

V-Neck Sweaters

• J. Crew Merino Wool V-Neck Sweater – $55ish
• EXPRESS Merino V-Neck $35.20
• Banana Republic Merino V-Neck – $80

V-necks are perfect for layering over collard shirts, whether they be dress shirts or dressed down button ups. They offer a little contrast, keep you warm, and wrangle any wrinkles the sides of your shirt might be making.

Fitted (but not skin tight) Crew Neck T-shirts

• Made in the USA Gustin Crewneck Tee Three Pack – $59
• Target All in Motion Performance Fabric Pocket Tees – $15
• GapFit Recycled Active T-Shirt- $15 ($39.95)
• Banana Republic Luxury Touch T-shirts – $24 ($40)
• PROOF 72 hour merino wool blend t-shirts – $78

If it was good enough for the Fonz, it’ll be good enough for hologram Henry Winkler come 2045.

Single breasted, 2 button, flat front w/ med. break gray or navy Suits

• Spier & Mackay “Core Line” Solid Wool Suits – $398
• Suitsupply “Perennial” line suits – $499
• B.R. Italian Nailhead Wool Suit Jackets + Matching Trousers = $360 (when 40% off) ($600)

Lapels will wax and wain as fashion changes. The jacket length will rise and fall. But if you keep the proportions from drifting into either extreme, then you should be good.

Suede Chukkas

• Sanders Hi-Top Chukkas – $275
• Allen Edmonds Chandler Chukkas – $249.97 ($475)
• Clarks Bushacre 3 – $90ish
• Sanders Chesham Chukkas – $244.21 + int. shipping ($300ish) 

Comfortable, handsome, and crazy versatile. Lots of different price points. Lots of different brands. Crepe sole, rubber studded sole, it’s all up to you.

Hand writing a Thank-you Note

This is a stretch to put it in the “menswear” category, but just because it’s not something you wear doesn’t mean it doesn’t reflect your personal sense of style. (Shown above: AoM’s letterpress stationery)

Straight or Slim (not skinny) Dark Denim

• B.R. Traveler Jeans – $100 ($130)
• Amazon Essentials Slim Fit Jean – $40ish
• Target Goodfellow Slim Fit Jeans – $36

Not baggy. Not painted on. A straight fit or a well proportioned slim fit jean. Yet this is actually one of the items on this list that might not make it to 2045. The pandemic almost permanently retired jeans, and they’re becoming less and less the cotton-based workwear they were born as long ago (think all of the new stretch versions.) But dark wash jeans have been around for decades. And they look great on everybody.

Flat front, crease free, slim but not tight Chinos

• J. Crew Stretch Chinos in Slim, Straight, or Athletic – $89.50
• Old Navy Rotation Chinos – $30ish
• Bonobos Stretch Washed Chinos – $69 ($99)
• Lululemon Warpstreme ABC Trousers – $128

You think it’d be tough to screw up cotton pants, but the 90s sure showed us how. Those pleated, ballooning, stiff khakis were awful. Now, we’ve got access to multiple fits, tons of colors, and even a range of weights to the fabric depending on the season. (Shown above is a pair of BR lightweight chinos from last summer.)

The Crisp, White, Semi-Spread Collar Dress Shirt

• Target Goodfellow Performance Dress Shirt – $33
• Banana Republic Wrinkle Resistant Dress Shirts in Slim or Standard Fit – $80
• Ledbury White Non Iron Fine Twill MTO Shirt – $135

Collar styles can be strangely susceptible to shifting trends. Cutaway collars, extra big/floppy point collars, rounded club-style collars… they’ve all come and gone. The sharp, versatile, semi spread collar dress shirt just keeps living on to fight another day.

The Crisp, Light Blue, Semi-Spread Collar Dress Shirt

• Target Goodfellow Performance Dress Shirt – $33
• Banana Republic Wrinkle Resistant Dress Shirts in Slim or Standard Fit – $80
• Ledbury Light Blue Non Iron Fine Twill MTO Shirt – $135

Along with the white option, you could stock your closet full of nothing but these and your torso would look darn good between now and 2045.

A simple, minimalist dress watch between 38-42mm in Diameter

• Orient Bambino 38mm – $260
• Bulova Rectangle Dial watch (model 96B107) – $152 ($200ish)
• Timex Marlin Automatic 40mm Brown Sunburst – $259
• Dan Henry 1937 Dress Chronograph – $270
• Baltic Bicompax 002 Mechanical Chronograph – $570ish
• Mido Belluna Royal Automatic – $840

Hard to get classier than that. Yet one day the wrist watch could very well go the way of the pocket watch. Maybe. Probably. Or maybe not.

[TAG102]

Notice that this doesn’t say “being in shape.” Nobody knows what that’ll mean in 2045. More importantly, valuing movement and exercise is far, far more than any sort of aesthetics that may or may not be the result of physical activity. If you’re lucky enough to be able to put your body through its paces every now and again, you probably know how much of a magic trick working out can be. Clarity and confidence tend to come during and after exercise. Whether you’ve just begun to cast off a couch-potato past, or you’re a hardened gym rat or pavement pounder, using the physical capacity of your body feels great. And when you feel great (or at least a little better than before you started) you present yourself differently to the world. As more and more of us acquire the cursed opportunity to become mostly sedentary… moving with purpose and frequency will only become more valuable. Forget the visual results. That’s a side dish. The main course is this: Be a verb. Not a noun.

Plot twist: The above post is an almost identical re-run of a post we ran after the 2017 total eclipse. All we did was update the product mentions to stuff that’s actually in stock. Cheap-recycling of old content? Nah. This time it proves the point. Some style really does hold up over time. Seven years might not be an eternity, but a lot sure has happened since 2017.