Alex P. Keaton Style

[The Louche]

I’ve been watching re-runs of Family Ties recently. Although I’ve always enjoyed Michael J. Fox as Alex P. Keaton—and have always thought of him as an 80’s preppy style icon—I only recently realized that he executes the 80’s preppy mode of dress legitimately well.

Look closely, and you’ll see that all of his clothes fit him very well, particularly his shirts and sweater vests (an item that is normally a very bad fit). He commonly wears very natty knit ties, and he exhibits a classic (likely Brooks) roll on his button-down collars.

While everything is certainly not perfect—his dark orange shirt/royal argyle sweater vest/burgundy tie combo in one early episode come to mind—he very often affects the intended style impressively. I’m now an even bigger fan than before. Do any of you agree?

 

[mensimageconsultant]

The Alex P. Keaton character was intelligent and a social climber, and also Michael J. Fox probably was a teen idol of sorts. Therefore, naturally APK was going to be dressed well.

 

[msulinski]

Of course he would be dressed well in the context of the show, but the fact that it actually came off well in reality is what is impressive. I've seen many movies and tv shows where the characters were supposedly dressed well but looked horrible.