Be a maverick: the new rules of Top Gun dressing

Tom Cruise’s face may be frozen in time with a cheeky smirk beneath a pair of RayBan Aviator sunglasses, but fashion has moved on since the original Top Gun movie opened in 1986. At the Cannes Film Festival, the fresher faces of the new cast members of Top Gun: Maverick demonstrated serious style stunts worth copying.

While Tom Cruise and Jon Hamm stuck to the off-duty politician look of traditionally cut suits with open shirts, newcomers Danny Ramirez, Jay Ellis, Miles Teller and Greg Tarzan Davis in neon knitwear, broke the rules like true fashion mavericks.

Find your colour

There appears to have been a ban on black suits and even dark blue is looking dated on Jon Hamm (who deserves some credit for the Mad Men windowpane check). Since no one here is off to a court hearing or an office, leaning into colour makes sense.

The same applies for men without a Hollywood gym membership planning a wedding outfit, weekend lunch ensemble or evening event entrance look, so take note of Jay Ellis’s popping mint suit with flared trousers and detailed, wide lapels from French label Casablanca. Worn with a white T-shirt and sneakers Ellis, who plays Reuben “Payback” Fitch in the Top Gun sequel, looks relaxed, keeping his jacket undone and letting the subtly nipped waste show off his physique.

Loading

For those reluctant to enter the danger zone of a gelati palette, blue offers safety, but lighten things up with powder and sky shades to set a celebratory tone. Glenn Powell, who plays Iceman-successor Hangman, keeps things formal with an open white shirt in his double-breasted Emporio Armani suit, but walks towards contemporary cool in tasselled suede loafers from Italian label Scarosso.

Neutral territory

By now anyone who has been to a beach wedding understands the tonal benefits of a light sandy neutral suit and Lewis Pullman, son of While You Were Sleeping actor Bill Pullman, successfully blends in with the Cannes crowd in a putty single-breasted suit with pale suede Chelsea boots but co-star Danny Ramirez is the one to watch.