Film, more than any other medium, exerts a powerful influence on fashion. Of course, the best films do more — they hold a mirror to society and culture. The costumes and fashion — what the actors are wearing — turn out to be so thoroughly integrated into the action, the two can’t be separated and one simply enhances the other.

When the fashion is right, a film can awaken our cultural consciousness or help later generations rediscover the touchstones of men’s style. Clothing in film reveals character, and costume designers are quasi-cultural anthropologists. So it’s not surprising that screen icons like Michael Douglas in Wall Street, John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, Sean Connery as James Bond, Marlon Brando in The Wild One, and Richard Gere in American Gigolo are now essential names in the male fashion vocabulary.

Any list that tries to be definitive is tilting at windmills. One could simply compile a list of Fred Astaire and Cary Grant movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Or you could argue whether a movie belongs because it is stylistically rich but cinematically flawed, like The Great Gatsby. Or whether a movie is stylistically triumphant simply because the protagonist evokes so much cool and style, even if his onscreen persona isn’t preoccupied with clothes (Richard Roundtree as John Shaft).

Nonetheless, for argument’s sake, we’re game for running a dozen titles up the flagpole.

1. AMERICAN GIGOLO (1980)
Richard Gere glides across the screen in an unconstructed tan Armani jacket and steel gray silk shirt in this time capsule of men’s high style circa 1980. American Gigolo launched Giorgio Armani into a wider public consciousness (he appeared on the cover of Time magazine two years later), and essentially put him on the map, along with jump-starting his love affair with Hollywood stars.

One of the “lessons” of the movie (which fashion insiders know all too well): No matter how lowly your social status, the right clothes can gain you entrée to the playgrounds of the power set. One famous scene is a masterfully staged sequence with something for everyone. Gere, standing bare-chested, sings along to the stereo, artfully laying out an assortment of jackets, shirts and ties on his bed. Women swooned at the chiseled body, while men admired the haberdashery.

2. THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968)
No list of great fashion films would be complete without one (or possibly two or three) Steve McQueen efforts. The film poses the question: “What do you get for a man who has everything?” The perfect crime: an elaborate bank heist. McQueen is a Boston Brahmin with a butler and a life of moneyed leisure: flying his glider, playing polo and golf and riding his dune buggy, dressed in the right clothes for each occasion. The elegant businessman wears tubular three-piece suits with side vents and slim trousers. He also favors tortoise-rimmed blue aviator sunglasses and a pocket watch on a chain. For all their attention to tailored clothing, the 1999 remake starting Pierce Brosnan can’t hold a candle to the original.

3. GOLDFINGER (1964)
This is arguably the definitive James Bond film. Sean Connery as 007 is the personification of suave in the third film of the Bond series. The tough and sexy ladies’ man looks impeccable for every occasion without trying too hard. From a style vantage point, the quintessential Bond scene is when he strips off his wetsuit to reveal a white dinner jacket with a red carnation. You can’t help but smile.

It’s notable that every bit of his tailored wardrobe in this 1964 film could be worn today. His office attire, a slim navy suit with a white French-cuff shirt and skinny tie, looks like it stepped off the runway of today. A country look that Bond wears while driving his Aston Martin in Switzerland is exceedingly contemporary: a tweedy tan jacket with angled flap pockets that’s paired with a knit tie and slash-pocket trousers. During Sean Connery’s heyday as Bond, Burton, the largest tailoring franchise in England, actually introduced a line of clothes called 007.

4. A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964)
This film, about 36 hours in the life of the Beatles, includes seven sublime songs that the Fab Four had just recorded. It’s a safe bet that A Hard Day’s Night may be the first mockumentary ever made as it pokes fun at the band’s influence. On the fashion front, the film cemented the influence of Carnaby Street, Swinging London and mop-top hair.

The new direction came from British tailor Dougie Millings, who created about 500 outfits for the Beatles, including their signature round-neck jackets with braided edges. The film features those short four-button jackets with pegged trousers and skinny ties, as well as distinctive gray sharkskin stage jackets with inset black velvet collars and vertical pleats and panels in the back. Millings himself appears in one scene. And believe it or not, the suits are still being reproduced by a company in Maryland.

5. SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977)
As John Travolta struts down the street to the tune of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” in the opening credits, the camera tilts up from his red shoes to reveal his bell-bottoms, short black leather jacket, tight red open-collar shirt and gold medallion necklace. Right away, that Brooklyn beefcake, Tony Manero, telegraphs that we’re in for some seriously stylish male swagger.

Not since Gene Kelly graced the screen has an actor practiced dancing as such a virtuoso macho exercise, albeit in tight pink polyester bell-bottoms and a printed polyester shirt. And who can forget that three-piece white suit? A bit of trivia: the late film critic Gene Siskel saw the film over 20 times and ended up buying that white suit, which is now in the Smithsonian Institution.

6. CHARIOTS OF FIRE (1981)
Chariots won four Oscars in 1982, including Best Picture and Best Costume Design for Milena Canonero, in this story of two track athletes running for Great Britain in the 1924 Olympics. It’s one of those rare cinematic achievements — visual poetry from start to finish. The clothing and costumes are so stunning — set against the background of Cambridge University and Scotland — you could literally watch the movie with the sound turned off.

At Cambridge we see tweed suits paired with double-breasted vests; rich belted raglan-sleeve overcoats, bi-swing back jackets; knickers; cable pullovers, and regatta looks like a braid-edged blazer worn with an intarsia vest and bow tie. As if that weren’t enough, there’s a boatload of scarves wrapped around necks and artfully flung over men’s shoulders; hats of every kind — from fedoras to newsboy caps; plus-fours worn with argyle socks; and spectator shoes galore.

7. WALL STREET  (1987)
Michael Douglas, in his Oscar-winning turn as Gordon Gekko, a piranha of the financial world, inspires much admiration from style mavens. This Mephistophelean character required aggressive power clothes for his rarefied and cutthroat world of insider dealmaking. Alan Flusser, who helped design Douglas’ wardrobe, put him in sharply tailored custom-made double-breasted suits, silk foulard ties, a gold tie pin and striped suspenders. Slicked-back hair and a cigar finished off the ’80s power look for this alpha male. 

In one scene, Gekko, while lunching at the 21 Club, advises his protégé, played by Charlie Sheen, to “buy a decent suit.” It is unforgettable advice for those who know the power of clothing in the business and financial world.

8. THE THIN MAN (1934)
William Powell and Myrna Loy play the amateur sleuths Nick and Nora Charles with great aplomb in this classic screwball comedy. This glamorous, urbane pair engages in some of the wittiest badinage to ever hit the silver screen. The body-skimming pinstriped peak-lapel suits, dressing gowns and luxurious topcoats of this 1934 film are just icing on the cake for what is essentially an excuse to look at swells drinking, smoking and having a ball. A favorite scene is when Powell opines on the “art” of cocktails: “The important thing is the rhythm, to always have rhythm in your shaking. A Manhattan you shake to a Fox Trot, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time.”

9. THE WILD ONE (1953)
Riding around with the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, Marlon Brando made an indelible image — a tough, laconic nonconformist who was hugely appealing to young people of that generation.

It may be hard to believe that this film was banned in Britain until 1968. But Brando’s style and attitude in that role have been enshrined in men’s fashion. The leather motorcycle jacket, denim jeans and ringer T-shirt are now a standard uniform of both real rebellion (the rock band the Ramones) and the faux variety seen on suburban streets.

10. THE GREAT GATSBY (1974)
Theoni Aldredge won an Oscar for Best Costume Design, but this film was a critical and commercial dud, an empty vessel compared to that other Twenties’ period film, Chariots of Fire. The ladies’ clothing is absolutely gorgeous, but except for Robert Redford’s wardrobe (which Aldredge commissioned from Ralph Lauren), the men’s costumes look oddly contemporary. That natty dresser, writer Tom Wolfe, supposedly dismissed Gatsby as “Fitzgerald as interpreted by the Garment District.” The story goes that there was some bad blood between Aldredge and Lauren — she did not thank him when she picked up her award — because Lauren was allegedly taking credit for the costume design in the press.

Redford’s clothing is undeniably beautiful and evocative of the Roaring Twenties. His pink three-piece summer suit with a French blue tie is a stunner. The obligatory fashion scene comes when Redford as Jay Gatsby, attired in a three-piece white suit, tells his love interest, Daisy Buchanan, “I’ve got a man in London who buys all my clothes.” And then, in a gauche new money display, proceeds to throw his multihued shirts around the room like so many scoops of sorbet.

11. TOP HAT (1935)
With Ginger Rogers at his side, Fred Astaire sums up the film when he sings, “I’m stepping out, my dear, to breathe an atmosphere that simply reeks with class.” Does it ever! Watching Top Hat is like eating a rich dessert. It’s a frothy confection — but it’s one of the most sublime musicals in movie history, with songs by the inimitable Irving Berlin.

Here we see Astaire in his signature looks for day and evening: a double-breasted tux with a white boutonniere; and his soft-shoulder tweed two-button sportcoat tapered in the waist, worn with relaxed gray flannel trousers and finished off with a striped tie, a fedora and suede oxfords.

12. THE STING (1973)
This picture about con men in Depression-era Chicago continues the long Hollywood tradition of stylish gangsters. It earned seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Costume Design for Edith Head, the most honored costume designer in Academy Award history.

The clothes are an integral part of the plot, helping maintain the “front” by which Redford and Newman score their intricately plotted sting. Every man who’s part of this operation has to look the part in order to be convincing. Hence it’s one of the most gorgeous films for menswear — a tailored clothing tutorial of the 1930s, a high point of men’s style.

The most stunning outfit may be seen on the character of Kid Twist, who wears a navy shadow-stripe peak-lapel suit with a pearl gray double-breasted vest edged in white, a luxurious cream-colored overcoat and gray gloves that match his grey homburg.

And of course, Redford and Newman conduct the big sting while wearing elegant tuxes.

There are many other great fashion films — La Dolce Vita, The Talented Mr. Ripley, To Catch A Thief, The Rat Pack’s Ocean’s Eleven (1960). And, of course, it’s a moving target, across so many years and so many stylistic eras. The point is to build your own list, or simply to cultivate a heightened appreciation for the role of costume and dress, and, when you’re ordering Netflix, to think, “Hey, maybe it would be fun to watch Wall Street one more time.”