We first met Martyn in 2013 when he was 54 and working as a professor at a UK university. He cut a sharp figure in a black two-piece suit, a bright red shirt with cufflinks, a matching tie and a pocket square. We were meeting to talk about fashionable mature men’s clothing habits.
We spent nearly two hours looking at some of Martyn’s most treasured fashion possessions and chatting about his interest in clothing and style. It’s not very often in research that participants are so keen and engaged, and Martyn’s passion for stylish clothing really shone through. This interest started early during his school years, when he used to unpick the seams of his school uniform.
Martyn was one of five British men included in our research, all aged between 54 and 63 from the baby boomer generation (people born between 1946 and 1964). Our first study, conducted in 2013, consisted of interviews and inventories of their wardrobes.
