Style Icon: Warren Beatty

Why He’s A Style Icon

Warren Beatty’s on-screen and off-screen life has been framed by fashion since his days in the early 1960s as a teen idol. His characters have been shaped with the use of wardrobe and evolved as he transcended the pretty poster-boy image to become an irreverent filmmaker with a conscience. Wardrobe was essential to Warren Beatty for his classic film, Bonnie and Clyde, but his portrayal of a Beverly Hills hairdresser in Shampoo portrays ultimate Warren Beatty fashion. He is resplendent in leather boots, slim-cut jeans, layered shirts, and an ever-present leather jacket.

Dress The Beatty Way

Let’s be honest: Warren Beatty is a man who can wear the best of suits, but his own personal style of an open-collar shirt worn under a hip-length leather jacket permeates many of his best on-screen roles. From The Parallax View, Shampoo, Heaven Can Wait, and Love Affair, Beatty’s characters seem to rely on this semi-casual style. He even follows this same fashion template when promoting his films. In the early 1990s, while making the talk show rounds to promote Dick Tracy, Warren Beatty wore the same hip-length, black leather jacket, matching button-down shirt, brown trousers, and crepe-soled, oxford cap-toe shoes. And since leather jackets are oh-so Beatty, you can add some of his sophisticated style to your own wardrobe with this Michael Kors brown leather jacket, which has proportions that could easily be mistaken as the famous Shampoo jacket Beatty wore as he bed-hopped his way through Beverly Hills.