What Would Tyler Durden Wear? – Fight Club Fashion Style Guide

‘Hey, you created me. I didn't create some loser alter-ego to make myself feel better. Take some responsibility!’

Ten Years after the release of the movie ‘Fight Club’ people are still seeking to replicate the hipster style of the movies main character ‘Tyler Durden’ and attempting to imitate this cult movie anti-hero’s iconic appearance, but why?

Because…

‘All the ways you wish you could be, that's me. I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.’

Tyler Durden was crowned best dressed movie character by ‘Empire’ magazine following Fight Clubs release which led to an army of movie fans and Tyler wannabee’s searching high and low for Tyler Durden style clothing and accessories. Tyler Durden is the embodiment of alpha-male anarchy and his style is a mix of vintage style, thrift shop chic and junk-shop cool.

The Fight Club Anarchist Tyler Durdens wardrobe is a mix of 70’s leather jackets, vintage t-shirts, and retro sunglasses all churned together in a loud chaotic mixing pot to form what can only be described as ‘Tyler Style’.

'People do it everyday, they talk to themselves... they see themselves as they'd like to be, they don't have the courage you have, to just run with it.'

Tyler Durdens style is based predominantly on three main items, firstly his red vintage leather jacket, secondly his dated vintage shirts, and finally his iconic sunglasses with the red lenses.

Replicas of all of these items can be found via the internet, should you wish to copy Tyler Durdens style directly, however a big part of the Fight Club / Tyler Durden ideology was all about standing out, stepping up, and being yourself.

How to Dress Like Tyler Durden

To create the look of Tyler Durdan costume designer ‘Micheal Kaplan’ spent long hours sifting through second hand and thrift stores searching for just the right combinations to create the Tyler Durdan look, but in order to create your own Fight club style you’ll need to release your own inner Tyler and develop your own individual style, but still, there’s no harm in borrowing a little and making it your own.

Tyler has a love of vintage 70’s style leather jackets and was seen wearing two within the Fight Club movie, the most famous of which being the vintage red leather jacket, but he also wore a white speed-way style leather bomber with go-faster stripes.

‘You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.’

Tyler Durdens Vintage T-shirts

Tyler Durden also has a love of vintage retro t-shirts and shirts, short-sleeved or long sleeved Tyler Durden shows off his unique anarchistic fashion style adorned in retro shirts featuring: maple leaves, star patterned, toucans, dirt bikers or slogans such as ‘sock it to me’.

But the question when trying to successfully imitate Tyler Durdens fashion style is not ‘what DOES Tyler Durden wear?’ but ‘what WOULD Tyler Durden wear?’

Because dressing like Tyler Durden, doesn’t mean simply copying him, you remember when the Matrix films first came out and those people you’d start to see out and about dressed like ‘Neo’, and how bad that looked, same principle.

And as with Tyler Durdens Leather Jackets and Vintage T-shirt the same rules apply when seeking to emulate the look of Tyler Durdens much sought after red sunglasses, like the saying goes, ‘don’t imitate, innovate…’ Take the style created by Micheal Kaplan and demonstrated by Tyler Durdan, play with it, mutate it, and apply it to yourself. But remember it takes more than simply dressing like Tyler Durdan to become Tyler Durdan:

‘Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.’

So perhaps the question you should have been asking yourself all along is not ‘what would Tyler Durdan wear?’ but ‘what would Tyler Durdan do?’

‘Fuck what you know. You need to forget about what you know, that's your problem. Forget about what you think you know about life, about friendship, and especially about you and me.’