HBO’s Board­walk Empire picked a hell of a good time to show the birth of the Amer­i­can gang­ster. We’re given a his­tory les­son on the rise of the leg­endary lead­ers of the under­world: Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Arnold Roth­stein and the once unknown, Nucky John­son. With the U.S. fresh off a tri­umphant World War I, the decade opened to the roar­ing twen­ties. The stock mar­ket never went down, under­ground speakeasy’s were every­where and every­one wanted to party. And look good doing it.

Board­walk Empire cap­tures the mood per­fectly, along with the style. Sim­i­lar to how Mad Men’s look fresh­ened up a for­got­ten image, Board­walk has done the same. Every­thing was tai­lor made, so every­thing fit per­fectly and every­one looked their best. Lush tweed and wool suits are worn along with brightly col­ored ties with ele­gant col­lar pins to hold them up. Fedo­ras and news­boy caps were a neces­sity and not a prop.

It’s no acci­dent Nucky is the best dressed man. Lead­ing the new decade into Pro­hi­bi­tion, he needs to set an exam­ple and demand respect. Dress­ing the part is in the job descrip­tion. And we like what we see, with the club col­lars, col­lar pins and dress shirts that pop with color. You have to have some balls to pin a flower on your lapel.

Unfor­tu­nately, we can’t go back in time, but we can appre­ci­ate their taste. Rounded club col­lars, cuff links, col­lar pins, tie bars and tweeds can find a warm place in your wardrobe. I wouldn’t rec­om­mend wear­ing every­thing at once, which would be over­whelm­ing, but adding a few touches to each out­fit. We like the small spread col­lar with rounded cor­ners from our col­lec­tion, giv­ing you a mafioso swag­ger with a mod­ern look. We’ve already explained how to wear dress shirt acces­sories, but for a visual inspi­ra­tion, cour­tesy of the Sar­to­ri­al­ist, observe the gen­tle­man below.

Return to our home­page to learn more about cus­tom dress shirts.

Categories:Style Trends For Men

Tags: 1920's, al capone, boardwalk empire, boardwalk empire style, HBO, lucky luciano, men's style, nucky johnson, prohibition, roaring twenties