History Forgot About Stanley Tucci’s Vest. For Shame

Style Archive: a series in which we celebrate the stars of the past that made menswear what it is today. This week, the lost relic of Stanley Tucci in a gloriously Eighties Levi’s ad.

Even the most hapless optimists would agree: Twitter can be a vile place. But, for all the volleys of insults, the conspiracy theories about politicians and pizzerias, the out and out lies, know that there are glimmers of hope – of a new, better-dressed horizon in which we can all agree and Just Get Along. Who, you ask, could such a divine harbinger be? Stanley Tucci, we answer, in a vest.

Just yesterday, a certain @collinsapera excavated a forgotten relic of the mid Eighties: Stanley Tucci in a Levi’s 501 ad, and the internet did ignite.

Taken from a longer ad in which Mr. Tucci is flanked by a dancer and what looks to be some sort of sub-par street sorcerer, Twitter was for once united in its adulation. Gay Twitter harmonised in a chorus of ‘hi daddy’s. Straight Twitter spewed a series of gifs depicting the slow removal of Miss Honey’s spectacles. And, of course, Style Twitter, wearing sunglasses indoors, looked on approvingly.

As did we. For this forgotten Levi’s 501 ad unearthed everything that was not only great about the Eighties (mid-rise blue jeans, a relatively affordable New York and so on), but the good stuff in menswear right now. We’re dressing like the archives once more. Suits are wider, baggier, more Mickey Rourke. And, the big revival has resuscitated the vest from its Eurotrash, boyband grave. Like a denim-clad Tucci, the piece is only appropriate in a brilliant shade of white. No fluoro shades. Graphics, too, are sacrilege.

What’s more, a vest riding solo may fly in an all-American, muscle-swelling commercial, less so in real life. That means you layer with a shirt, few buttons undone, a further jacket on top for the cold snap. Look, if it’s good enough for Taron Egerton, it’ll serve us mere mortals just as well.

And also a young Stanley Tucci, too. In his later years (which are, arguably, his better-known), the 58-year-old has gone for sharp, classic Hollywood threads: big-lapelled suits for the red carpet, and the occasional big mafioso coat. It’s a long way from the Eighties. But, with the Twitterati consantly digging for golden nuggets of the past, let us thank Levi’s for taking a chance on a kid with a dream – and one internet-breaking vest.

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