Male style icon of the week: Steve McQueen

With David Beckham this week gracing the cover of Elle magazine as its first ever male cover star, replacing the more standard supermodel or Hollywood actress, we’re turning our attention to male style icons on Scotsman.com too.

And our first pick (sorry, David) is Steve McQueen. His anti-hero persona, which chimed perfectly with the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 70s and made him the world’s highest earning movie star of the time, was a good start to becoming a style icon. His appropriation of classic items of hitherto-basic male apparel, sealed the deal.

Essentials for the McQueen look include the G9 Baracuta fawn cotton blouson jacket, complete with Fraser tartan lining authorised personally by the 24th Lord Lovat, Simon Fraser. Also worn by JFK, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Ryan O’Neal, and by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause, it became in later years a style staple for mods, skinheads and The Clash.

McQueen also ensured the lasting popularity of the pea coat, after wearing it in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles; desert boots and sweatshirts, as worn in The Great Escape, prior to which the latter was seen as a piece of sports kit only, thus kick-starting the sportswear as everyday wardrobe crossover; and Tod’s driving shoes, which were advertised using images of McQueen, as he was the personal style hero of company founder Diego Della Valle.

Who would you recommend as next week’s male style icon? Do you have an all time favourite, or maybe a Scottish gent to suggest?

Tell us in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.