Buffalo Style
バッファロー・スタイル / 1983–1989 / Style / Fashion History
An authored 1980s London styling language developed around Ray Petri and the Buffalo collective, recombining sportswear, tailoring, military surplus and street dress through purposeful casting, fashion portraiture and challenges to fixed masculinity and high-low hierarchy.
At a glance
Visual cues
- Track trousers or cycling wear paired with shirts, ties, and tailoring
- Flight jackets, polished leather shoes, and white socks joined across different clothing functions
- Street casting and close crew-like portraiture rather than runway uniformity
- Sport/formal, masculine/ambiguous, and luxury/everyday held in one silhouette
Best used for
- Building a fashion editorial from different clothing functions rather than one total brand look
- Reworking sportswear and tailoring through body, stance, casting, and camera rather than price hierarchy
Use this style
Take the compact brief into a project or hand the structured version to an AI tool.
Detailed guidance and sourcesProduction rules, reference works, comparisons, research and citation formats
Dictionary entry
- Type
- Keep type to a compact sans or editorial serif and do not explain the mixture through logos.
- Composition
- Frame no more than two full figures close together, leaving shoes, posture, and the sport-tailoring seam readable at once.
- Material
- Join nylon, wool, cotton jersey, and polished leather in navy, black, and white with one warm lining or flower accent.
- Caution
- Eclectic styling alone is not Buffalo. Do not use culturally specific dress as anonymous props; record who wears, photographs, and styles each image.
- Further study
- Ray Petri and the Buffalo collective / The Face, i-D and Arena fashion editorials / sportswear, tailoring, casting and new masculinities
Related entries
- Streetwear (ストリートウェア)Shared effects: Rebellion.Compare Buffalo Style and Streetwear
- New Romantic (ニュー・ロマンティック)Shared effects: Rebellion.Compare Buffalo Style and New Romantic
More from Fashion History
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- Dandyism (ダンディズム)Shared effects: Luxury / Rebellion.
- Black Dandyism (ブラック・ダンディズム)Shared effects: Luxury / Rebellion.
- Peacock Revolution (ピーコック・レボリューション)Shared effects: Rebellion / Luxury.
Browse all Fashion History entries
Cite this entry
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- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/buffalo-style
- Markdown
- [Buffalo Style — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/buffalo-style)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/buffalo-style">Buffalo Style — IndexStyle</a>