In fluoro Speedos, The White Lotus star becomes fashion’s leading man

With a receding hairline showcasing a forehead that’s resisted the lure of Botox, 53-year-old The White Lotus actor Walton Goggins is an unlikely candidate for fashion stardom.

On the cover of this month’s US magazine Cultured, Goggins has defied the odds – and airbrushing – by demonstrating his style credentials in a brief yellow Speedo swimsuit and suede jacket from Italian luxury label Zegna.

By the youth-obsessed standards of the fashion industry, where 16-year-olds can walk the runway at Australian Fashion Week, Goggins should be languishing in a quilted smoking jacket on the back pages of GQ, not manspreading in a banana hammock on this season’s coolest cover, photographed by Sinna Nasseri.

“It was impossible to ignore Goggins’ style in The White Lotus,” says celebrity stylist Mikey Ayoubi. “It was well considered to work with his looks. On the handsome scale, he sits somewhere between Jim Carrey and Colin Farrell. They all have a similar quality.”

Goggins’ run of recent covers, including UK title Man About Town, The Hollywood Reporter and You, signals a shift in menswear modelling, with Daniel Craig, 57, having demonstrated his quirky side in knitwear for Loewe, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, 59, appearing in advertising campaigns for Zegna, and the red-carpet collaborations between Prada and Jeff Goldblum, 72.

“The Daniel Craig Loewe campaign and Miu Miu sending established actors like Willem Dafoe down the runway has definitely revitalised the idea of the old bachelor in fashion,” Ayoubi says.

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As some menswear brands continue to struggle financially, with Jeremy Hershan, the creative director of Australian label Haulier, announcing today that he would be placing his business into “hibernation”, the seniors style strategy is worth exploring.

“There’s a relatability to these faces that is appealing to the luxury consumer,” says contributing Vogue stylist Carlos Mangubat. “With women it’s the supermodels from the ’90s, like Linda Evangelista and Christy Turlington, that continue to engage with people. Older actors that are strangely familiar are the male version of that.