How To Wear It The Cartier Tank Cintrée

Welcome to "How To Wear It," where our Style Editor Malaika Crawford takes one beloved watch and shows you how to make it look its best – with styling tips and tricks, a delve into the current fashion discourse, some historical references, and a dash of British sarcasm thrown in for good measure.

I am sticking to my original MO (stated in the first article of this series), and including watches that aren't as well known outside of the collector universe. Perhaps you are new to watches and curious about what's out there beyond all the Daytonas and Speedmasters. Or, perhaps you are a seasoned watch enthusiast who will enjoy seeing a deep-cut Cartier watch being styled in a modern context.

First produced in 1919, the Tank Cintrée is one of the oldest wristwatch models in the Cartier pantheon, "The design is so iconic that it has basically persisted for over a hundred years now in relatively the same form," explains Eric Ku – horological expert and cofounder of online auction platform Loupe This. The 1941 Cintrée featured in this shoot was leant to me by Ku. "It's a really big watch, even by today's standards. The fact that the original 1919 Cintrée – which is the exact same dimensions as this 1941 example – is 100 years old, is just crazy."

The size of this watch (44.7mm x 23mm to be exact) is born out of the design and fashion of that period of time in Paris. Lest we forget that Cartier is a jewelry house. They have always produced watches under the lens of jewelry and accessories which is why they were able to experiment so successfully with shape and proportion.

But the Cintrée has never been a large production watch for Cartier, "It's definitely an aficionado's watch. You don't accidentally buy a Cintrée," laughed Ku. From a design standpoint it's relatively simple: It's an elongated rectangle. But this watch is more nuanced than it appears. "There's a slight curvature to it, so the proportions of the size of the case have to be right," Ku says. "It's still similar in spirit to the Tank Louis with the two parallel brancards."

The signature on the dial of this particular example is in very small block lettering. Ku reminded me that this watch was made before the end of the Second World War: "Early Cartier has the block font, this dial was printed before the signatures were in cursive, and you'll notice Cartier has brought that back in the last 10 years." Ku went on to explain that the size of the signature is most likely due to the quality of dial printing at that time. "There are a lot of variants in early Cartier dials. They had multiple stamps that were all a little bit different."

This yellow gold 1941 Cintrée is a stylish relic, evocative of old Hollywood glamor and men in perfect suits.The vibe is akin to Cary Grant in classic charcoal tailoring in North by Northwest, or Marlon Brando and his pioneering off-duty style comprised of white t-shirts and high waisted trousers. It's Alain Delon in Purple Noon – not Hollywood, but so chic. Then there's my personal favorite Lord Sebastian Flyte in the British television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, which again, isn't Hollywood (and was made in 1981), but deserves an honorable mention because it is pure glamor.

I strongly believe, in fact I am certain to my core, that one small accessory can change an entire outfit. It can change everything you are trying to express to the outside world. It can change the mood of your look and your whole demeanor. Wear it enough and it can become an extension of you; wear it on a random Tuesday and play the part of the character it belongs to.

Some examples: An (intentionally) imperfectly tied silk scarf signals that you are very put together but want to present as nonchalant. Sunglasses suggest you are observing, but maybe do not wish to be observed: a pretentious shield. Jewelry is pure decoration and serves absolutely no utilitarian purpose, and so suggests that you are (probably unintentionally) signaling some type of status. I know that last one is hard to stomach, but it's true. It's all psychological mind play.

So what does this Cartier Cintrée suggest? Despite its value, it's far more low-key in its own way, than something like a Pepsi GMT. The Cintrée is recognized by far fewer people in the wild. It's an IYKYK watch. Which makes me view it as an aspirational piece. But aspirational dressing doesn't have to mean head-to-toe formal wear or full-look designer clothing. It's fun, and a lot cooler, to use a piece from the first half of the 20th century and incorporate it into your 2023 everyday wardrobe.

Dress watches aren't as fashionable to the masses these days, but Cartier is certainly having a moment both within and outside of the collector community thanks to celebrities like Tyler the Creator and Timothée Chalamet, who ensure these vintage Cartier pieces continue to look contemporary. Use the Cintrée or the "dress watch of your choice" to elevate your look, not to serve as a springboard for Dandy – I squirm at the thought – fashion.

Kim Jones, artistic director of Dior Men, is the ultimate disrupter; largely responsible for the mainstream intersection of streetwear and luxury. Back in 2017, Jones created a capsule for Dior in collaboration with Supreme, which, as you know, spearheaded a bottomless movement of fashion collaborations. But Jones came first. Perpetually tapped into youth culture and always looking forward, Jones has basically changed the entire fashion landscape, notably during his tenure at Louis Vuitton, where he often mixed luxury sports and technical wear with sharp tailoring. A savvy high-low mix that everybody is now trying to emulate.

Elegance doesn't have to be old-fashioned, it can be updated and renewed. As much as I adore watching Humphrey Bogart movies and flicking through Diana Vreeland's Romantic and glamorous Hollywood design exhibit catalog (highly recommend), I would be amiss to spend all of my time lamenting an era I didn't even experience.

I suggest borrowing certain details and the overall attitude from a chosen time period but making it fit into your own personal style: Keep it modern in the same way that Kim Jones turned sneakers into a commonplace item produced by luxury heritage brands or in the way that Ralph Lauren turned Ivy league style into preppy style (more on this later) or even in the same way that Karl Lagerfeld made tweed suits and pearls fit for '90s consumption. I mean you are of course doing this on a smaller scale but let these legends serve as inspo for your own (possibly deeply buried) creative genius.

I often wear high waisted, baggy dress pants with double pleats because they make me feel like Katharine Hepburn, but I wear them with a sweatshirt or a pair of sneakers. I am dressing to embody a mood or feeling not to literally emulate a 1930s leading Hollywood lady.

This SS23 Dior double breasted suit is the perfect nod to the more formal spirit of the watch but the unique design – which features a removable interior scarf that mimics the style of the sleeves, accented by a Christian Dior Couture woven label, and creates a double collar effect, also – is by no means traditional. I broke up the look with a white ribbed tank top and sneakers to make it look less stuffy.

You want to look cool, not like you're in costume. You basically want to avoid looking like Cher Horowtiz's Tony Curtis obsessed crush in Clueless – i.e. a Marlon Brando parody.

Let's call the below look part Ray Liotta in Goodfellas (the Hanes tank top) / part Martin Margiela deconstructed (the sleeve scarf) and part timeless (the watch!).

Okay, so I know sweatpants with a dress watch feels like old news at this point. Well at least to me it does. But no harm in repeating a successful formula.

The reason it works comes down to the contrast at play between something so completely anachronistic and something so ubiquitous to today's more casual (some may call it lazy) approach. But the sweatsuit also works nicely because it's a simple canvas for the watch. A clean gray backdrop that gives the watch room to shine.

The tension between the irreverence of a sweatsuit and the intentionality of a Cartier Cintrée hits what I deem to be a convergent fashion sweet spot. It suggests a certain sort of carefree attitude that has been emulated again and again since the beginning of Ivy/preppy fashion. Wearing expensive (or expensive looking) accessories with a completely unassuming outfit suggests a certain type of blazé approach towards wealth. As if to say, I don't need to care when I'm wearing my $$$ watch because I have plenty more where that came from. Which reminds me of Mary-Kate Olsen's beaten up Hermes Kelly bag. Playing down serious luxury items to let it be known that you are comfortable enough not to care.

The sweatsuit doesn't have to be reserved for the gym nor for sitting on the couch and binge eating baked green pea snacks until your fingers turn oily. It can be elevated and layered and turned into a real outfit. Maybe layer a button-down shirt or contrasting colored hoodie underneath your sweatshirt. I often turn to references from the '70s à la Charles Hix or pictures of ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov in warm-up for guidelines.

My advice would be to take your vintage dress watch and wear it as a token of your appreciation for a bygone era of style and keep the rest of your look clean and contemporary. But maybe add an extra twist, like these classic Bass loafers. A preppy staple that breaks with tradition in the same way as the watch.

Preppy is everywhere on the runway from Miu Miu to Celine to Gucci. Preppy, or should I say Ivy, was born from the outfits worn by American college students in the 1950s. A casual and WASPish approach to formality which came in the form of Brooks Brothers button-downs, polo shirts, chinos and loafers. Preppy has had many iterations over the years, it's most important arguably being the integration of American workwear and later ivy clothes in postwar Japan.

In fact it's pretty hard to define preppy because if you break the whole thing down it really could is just a bunch of Uniqlo basics. So preppy, like many things that don't fall perfectly under an obvious archetypal umbrella, is more about attitude.

If we look to Teruyoshi Hayashida's Take Ivy, which is undoubtedly a huge reason for why preppy has become such a cultural phenomenon (as well as Lisa Birnbach's Preppy Handbook of course), we notice that preppy is all in the detail. Images of these all-american men on their Ivy League school campus, wearing rolled up sleeves and layering their shirts over other shirts and tying up sweaters around shoulders and waists. Going to crew practice and rolling up their chinos because they're getting into the water. It's a whole look and style that comes from utility. A disheveled ease. But you don't have to be a preppy or a member of the Yale Club to take style notes from this.

Hedi Slimane, creative director at Celine, has mixed preppy with the art of french dressing: basically a conflation of two things that are nearly impossible to achieve perfectly. So we are all damned. But if you are bold enough to try, the best way to achieve this look is by mixing what could be your Grandpa''s old watch, your dad's old varsity jacket and your personal vintage 501 (in this case white) Levi's with a Celine t-shirt.

Slimane, much like Kim Jones, finds inspiration in modern sportswear but has also tapped into Celine's 1970s parisian bourgeois heritage with a modern French take on Preppy. Very Eric Rohmer Love In The Afternoon.

But Slimane's attitude is eternally rock and roll, he is perpetually attached to that androgynous, New Wave look, whether it be for Celine or during his previous tenure at Saint Laurent and even his run at Dior Homme in the early 2000s.

What I love about this look and attempt at, for lack of a better term, "mildly progressive masculine dressing" is that we are now fully in an age where wearing a shrunken t-shirt and a tank cintrée on a guy is cool and weirdly full-circle Marlon Brando.

And while I long for the time where men wore Riviera pajamas and velvet monogrammed indoor slippers from Stubbs and Wooten, the easiest way to look like you're trying too hard is to dress like a caricature, (exceptions granted for those individuals who have the personality to match such bold behavior). Instead it's best to mix up details and pieces from different eras and archetypes. And remember that style is not a mandate. It is a way to be creative and express yourself, hopefully you can have fun while doing it.