Here’s a thing: Gigi Hadid is a new edition to the cover of Vogue but the look she’s wearing – biker jacket, Breton top and, crucially, peaked cap – is as old as youth culture itself. She probably doesn’t know it, bless her, but the stylist has dressed her up to look like a 50s teen – part James Dean (the Breton) but mostly Marlon Brando in 1953’s The Wild One. As the leader of a “gang of hot riding hot-heads”, Brando’s character, Johnny Strabler, wears biker leathers and a peaked cap throughout. When asked what he’s rebelling against, he famously replies with a curled lip and scowl: “Whadda you got?” And so, the peaked cap and biker jacket has come to stand for classic youthful rebellion – edgy, on the prowl – for more than 60 years.  John Lennon wore a fisherman’s cap throughout the 60s, but it was the 70s that gave the shape a seedy, slightly fetish feel. See the back of Transformer, the 1972 Lou Reed album – in the news this week following the death of Holly Woodlawn, the inspiration behind the classic track, Walk on the Wild Side. Take your eyes off the strategically placed banana in Ernie Thormahlen’s jeans and you’ll notice his strongman stance – possibly influenced by Tom of Finland’s homoerotic artwork of bikers and fetish gear, popular at the time – is topped off by a peaked cap. Part military, part Brando – with the white T-shirt and blue jeans of a 50s rebel – it’s now iconic. (Side note: Peter Marino, the architect responsible for stores for Christian Dior and Fendi, is like a Tom of Finland drawing come to life: always dressed in full leathers, sunglasses and peaked cap).  And then there’s Charlotte Rampling in 1974’s The Night Porter – wearing the peaked soldier’s cap that belonged to her SS lover, played by Dirk Bogarde, accessorised with wide trousers, elbow length gloves braces and nothing underneath. Fashion, never adverse to a controversial image or a bad girl, has kept this one close to hand. Madonna referenced Rampling’s outfit, complete with cap, in the hotel room romp video for 1990’s Justify My Love, directed by fashion photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, and Beyoncé’s in Love On Top is a more PG take.  Marc Jacobs basically recreated The Night Porter for his autumn/winter 2011 Louis Vuitton show, aka the one where Kate Moss smoked on the catwalk. Based on the idea of fetish, it came with corsets, rubber and, bingo, the peaked cap. Worn by more than half the models, some with eye masks slung around the brim – it was the full stop to Jacobs’ point.  So, yeah, 20-year-old Hadid is probably innocent to all these references, happily grinning on the cover of January Vogue. But they are there for all who want to see them. Brando might be long gone, but his image – the original rebel – is still hanging around like the best kind of bad influence. The one thing Hadid got wrong? Smiling. That, to put it in language she’d understand, is a major fail when it comes to being Brando. What with so many things to rebel against, scowling is the only way to go.
Vogue cover girl Gigi Hadid might not know it but with her peaked cap she could be 2016’s answer to Marlon Brando