Ties, no skinny jeans: What guys wore to The Strokes in London

Having snuck out of school, deeply underage, to see The Strokes at Reading Festival in 2002, I feel pretty qualified to recognise an indie sleaze revival when I see one. And while the crowd at The O2 proved that indie itself is alive and well, it seems the dress code has chilled out. For all the Hedi Slimane -mania and ankle-gripping denim doing the rounds on TikTok, the boys outside The O2 were choosing comfort over the altar of indie sleaze. Jeans came in every iteration: straight-legged, high-waisted, low-slung, cargo, and baggy. Anything, it seemed, but skinny . The rest of the indie sleaze uniform took the night off, too. American Apparel basics, high-top sneakers, awkwardly jaunty thrifted blazers and skinny ties? Nowhere to be found. If there was any nostalgia at play, it was for a distinctly British kind of cool. More Camden High Street in the mid-’90s than Lower East Side. Bakerboy hats, mod-ish haircuts, desert boots and the occasional Aquascutum trench were seen on indie fans, like Alex Turner's long-time collaborator and The Last Shadow Puppets co-frontman Miles Kane, who wore pressed, high-waisted, shamrock-green trousers, a white vest and a cropped vintage Levi's denim jacket . The teenagers, meanwhile, stuck to what they know. “The Strokes have amazing style. Julian Casablancas' leather jackets are sick,” says Joseph, who's 17, from Surrey and attending the show with his bandmates. “They're just fucking awesome,” chimes in his friend Oscar. They're all in baggy camo trousers, jeans and zip-up hoodies, with floppy hair reminiscent of a young Simon Le Bon. The younger fans weren't the only ones out in force. Max, in a vintage Adidas tracksuit top, brown front-pleat trousers and ’70s curls framing his face, was heading to the show with his 62-year-old dad. Aaron and Stuart had travelled up from Devon for a father-and-son outing of their own. Stuart was a fan the first time around, but it was Aaron who brought The Strokes back into the house. “I found The New Abnormal and played it at home to him, and he's like, ‘I know these guys,’” he explains. For Hasan, wearing a ’70s-inspired, colour-blocked Strokes jersey and a collection of Vivienne Westwood armour rings, Julian Casablancas remains the ultimate style reference. “He just doesn't care. He's so cool. He still dresses like how I imagine myself as a teenager would want to dress. He just wears whatever he wants, that's why I'm in this today, pretty much.”