From George Clooney’s timeless black tie to Brooklyn Beckham’s Dior tailoring and John Malkovich’s extraordinary tackle the trendy dandy, Venice is reminding males that dressing nicely is about persona, proportion and confidence.
The Venice Movie Pageant has at all times been about greater than cinema. For menswear, the arrival by water taxi, daytime photocalls and night purple carpets create among the best showcases of how males can truly put on luxurious style.
And Venice 2026 is especially attention-grabbing.
We’re not seeing males lined in logos or desperately attempting to look twenty years youthful. As an alternative, the strongest seems are about tailoring, wider proportions, old-school glamour and eccentric particulars.
George Clooney has demonstrated why conventional black tie by no means dies. Brooklyn Beckham has taken the identical fundamental method in a youthful path. Robert Pattinson has thrown out the black tuxedo altogether. After which there may be John Malkovich, who arrived in Dior trying someplace between an Elizabethan aristocrat and a Twenty first-century style obsessive.
Dior, now below Jonathan Anderson, has change into one of many main menswear tales of Venice. The designer has overtly talked about creating a brand new vocabulary for Dior menswear, mixing historic references with garments that may nonetheless really feel up to date. Venice is proving that the technique works exceptionally nicely on males of very totally different ages.
So what can regular males truly be taught from all this?
Listed here are my 5 largest males’s model tendencies from the Venice Movie Pageant 2026 thus far.
1. The Correct Tuxedo Is Again – George Clooney Reveals Why
Generally style spends a lot time attempting to reinvent menswear that we neglect how extremely good the classics already are.
George Clooney arrived on the opening-night Ink premiere in a standard black Giorgio Armani tuxedo, white shirt and black bow tie. It was additionally the night on which Clooney obtained his Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
There was no gimmick.
No monumental brooch.
No see-through shirt.
No pair of trainers desperately trying to make formalwear look youthful.
And he regarded very good.
This is a vital menswear lesson.
When you find yourself carrying black tie, the reduce turns into the style.
The shoulder has to sit down appropriately. The jacket must comply with the physique with out strangling it. The trouser wants enough size and motion. And your shirt must look brilliantly white.
Clooney additionally demonstrated one thing more and more essential in males’s style: costume your age with out dressing outdated.
At 65, he doesn’t want to decorate like a TikTok influencer. His attraction comes partly from trying fully snug in what he wears.
Earlier in Venice he was photographed arriving by water taxi in a blue go well with with an open white shirt and sun shades – one other terribly easy mixture that labored as a result of the proportions and angle had been proper.
The Venice lesson:
Spend money on one distinctive tuxedo fairly than 5 modern fits.
A stupendous black tuxedo can final twenty years.
2. The Youthful Tuxedo – Brooklyn Beckham in Dior
Then we’ve got Brooklyn Beckham.
Alongside Nicola Peltz Beckham on the Kinéo Awards, Brooklyn wore a customized black Dior tuxedo with satin peak lapels, polished Derby sneakers and evenly tinted sun shades. British Vogue described the shaggy-haired Beckham alongside Nicola’s dramatic purple Balenciaga couture robe.
That is primarily the identical menswear language as Clooney – however translated for a 27-year-old.
And that’s what makes the comparability attention-grabbing.
The younger man doesn’t have to destroy black tie to make it fashionable.
Brooklyn’s longer hair, glasses and barely extra relaxed angle gave the normal tuxedo a totally totally different vitality.
It additionally proves one thing I continually say about menswear:
Equipment can change the age of an outfit.
Take away the glasses, change the hair and add a standard bow tie and Brooklyn all of a sudden seems way more conventional.
The tinted glasses gave him simply sufficient insurrection.
And importantly, the garments didn’t compete with Nicola’s spectacular violet robe. When accompanying any individual carrying main couture, typically the neatest menswear determination is realizing when to not compete.
The Venice lesson:
In case you are youthful, don’t reject formalwear. Personalise it.
Strive attention-grabbing eyewear, jewelry, sneakers or hair as an alternative of ruining a fantastic go well with with pointless methods.
3. The Return of the Eccentric Dandy – John Malkovich in Dior
My favorite menswear improvement at Venice may belong to John Malkovich.
The 72-year-old actor appeared for the Wild Horse 9 premiere carrying Dior: a free black wool peak-lapel go well with with an off-white silk shirt that includes an infinite pleated, ruff-like collar. Vogue in contrast its theatrical high quality to the aristocratic clothes related together with his Harmful Liaisons period.
That is what movie star menswear ought to be.
Malkovich isn’t attempting to look younger.
He isn’t attempting to look conventionally good-looking.
He’s creating a personality.
And Jonathan Anderson’s Dior is completely suited to him.
The outsized historic collar turns an in any other case comparatively easy darkish go well with into one thing memorable. There are echoes of Elizabethan costume, costume, theatre and outdated European aristocracy – but by some means it doesn’t seem like fancy costume.
Why?
As a result of Malkovich owns it.
Earlier than the premiere, he had already been experimenting with uncommon clothes in Venice, together with Bode trousers and mules. His red-carpet Dior subsequently felt like a continuation of his private model fairly than one thing a stylist had all of a sudden pressured onto him.
That is additionally excellent news for older males.
Trend doesn’t should change into extra conservative as you age.
In truth, a person with silver hair, expertise and confidence can usually carry eccentric clothes much better than a 22-year-old mannequin.
The Venice lesson:
Each man wants one theatrical factor.
It is likely to be a shawl.
A classic brooch.
An uncommon shirt.
Velvet loafers.
A dramatic coat.
You don’t want a complete outrageous outfit. One extraordinary element is sufficient.
4. Black Tie Doesn’t Need to Be Black – Robert Pattinson in White Dior
Robert Pattinson delivered maybe the strongest argument for abandoning the standard black tuxedo.
For the Primetime premiere he wore a customized Dior double-breasted white pinstripe go well with, styled with a striped tie and brown sneakers. Vogue described the look as a contemporary interpretation of dandy dressing below Jonathan Anderson’s Dior.
This can be a main menswear path.
For years the purple carpet has been dominated by black, midnight blue and the occasional cream dinner jacket.
Pattinson went a lot additional.
Head-to-toe pale tailoring instantly makes a person seen amongst fifty black tuxedos.
However discover that the form itself stays conventional.
Double-breasted jacket.
Correct trousers.
Tie.
Leather-based sneakers.
That is the way you experiment intelligently.
Change one main variable whereas maintaining every thing else managed.
The color is dramatic sufficient. Due to this fact the tailoring doesn’t want one other ten styling methods.
And the brown sneakers are notably essential. Black sneakers would have made the outfit a lot harsher. Brown offers white tailoring heat and makes it really feel barely much less ceremonial.
The Venice lesson:
For weddings, summer season events and vacation spot occasions, begin trying past navy and black.
Cream, stone, ivory, pale gray and chalk-striped tailoring may be exceptionally subtle – notably in Italy.
5. Greater Proportions, Scarves and Layering – Formalwear Will get Softer
The ultimate development is about quantity.
The ultra-skinny go well with is completed.
Thank goodness.
Probably the most attention-grabbing Venice seems got here from Jack O’Connell, who wore Dior Spring 2027: a gray tuxedo jacket layered with a protracted wool coat and an enormous fringed scarf. The quantity of clothes could have been questionable for decent Venice climate, however visually it demonstrated the place menswear goes.
Elsewhere, Akinola Davies Jr. wore a black double-breasted Celine go well with with broader shoulders and relaxed trousers, whereas Damian Hardung selected light-weight gray Armani tailoring.
The silhouette has modified.
Trousers are wider.
Jackets have room.
Shoulders are stronger.
Coats are longer.
Scarves have gotten monumental.
This doesn’t imply shopping for garments two sizes too large.
There’s a large distinction between outsized tailoring and badly becoming tailoring.
The waist, shoulder and size nonetheless want intention.
However after years of males squeezing themselves into tiny jackets and ankle-length trousers, this extra beneficiant silhouette feels luxurious once more.
It additionally seems incredible on older males.
Material wants room to maneuver.
A fantastically reduce large trouser flowing as a person walks right into a Venetian palazzo is much extra elegant than trousers clinging to his calves.
The Venice lesson:
When shopping for your subsequent go well with, strive the bigger silhouette earlier than routinely asking the tailor to make every thing tighter.
There’s one other story operating beneath all 5 tendencies: Jonathan Anderson’s Dior is turning into extraordinarily essential for menswear.
John Malkovich wore Dior.
Brooklyn Beckham wore Dior.
Robert Pattinson wore Dior.
Jack O’Connell wore Dior.
And but none of them regarded the identical.
That’s intelligent style.
Anderson’s menswear for Dior has intentionally performed with historic menswear, uncommon proportions, aristocratic references and surprising mixtures fairly than merely reinventing the identical skinny luxurious go well with. His earlier collections blended issues corresponding to frock coats, Bar jackets, denim, cargo shapes and even hiking-inspired footwear.
Venice is now exhibiting what occurs when these concepts go away the runway and encounter actual personalities.
Malkovich makes Dior theatrical.
Pattinson makes it rebellious.
Brooklyn makes it youthful.
O’Connell makes it romantic.
That’s exactly what luxurious menswear ought to do.
The MenStyleFashion Verdict
The most important Venice Movie Pageant 2026 menswear development isn’t truly a selected jacket, shoe or color.
It’s individuality inside magnificence.
George Clooney proves you don’t have to reinvent the tuxedo.
Brooklyn Beckham proves conventional tailoring doesn’t should look middle-aged.
Robert Pattinson proves formalwear doesn’t should be black.
John Malkovich proves older males may be probably the most adventurous dressers within the room.
And Dior proves that menswear turns into way more attention-grabbing when designers cease treating each man as if he desires to decorate precisely the identical.
For years, males’s red-carpet style appeared trapped between two extremes: painfully conservative black fits or attention-seeking outfits designed to generate social-media headlines.
Venice 2026 is providing one thing a lot better: males dressing like males, however having enjoyable once more.
And if there may be one development value taking dwelling from the Lido, it’s this:
Purchase the gorgeous go well with. Then discover one element that makes it unmistakably yours.
unmistakably yours.
