Regaine Style Icon: James Franco

From his Freaks and Geeks cult hero status to becoming major Hollywood star, James Franco has been an all round cool guy for quite a while, with a pretty decent eye for style too.

By Adrian Collins

James Franco has a pretty interesting life. When he's not studying for a PhD or teaching, he's writing novels and acting in huge movies, which is a pretty decent way to pay for college, all told.

From his first appearance in Freaks and Geeks, he had an instant cool factor, and when it's done right, retro is always a slick look.

Franco's style is also almost always relaxed, which suits his laid-back personality well. It's a fairly underrated part of choosing your outfit, but wearing clothes to suit you is vital.

Don't just throw together all the latest styles from the high-street stores or one particular icon, mix and match them to what you're comfortable with, which makes sure that you have that personal touch to your outfit. Your style needs to be exactly that: yours.

Here, he wears a shirt and jumper, which can look very formal depending on your outfit choice, but in a relaxed fit, giving him a certain air of devil may care.

The grey works well with the lighter pink shade underneath, and both the shirt and sweater are very simple, without any over the top design features or logos.

Denim or leather jackets with wool lining are certainly retro, and they're making a pretty strong come back at the minute, so you can actually wear them without looking like Bane from the Dark Knight Rises.

They're pretty versatile and can be worn with a number of looks, but they'll look at their best when you throw a retro t-shirt or a checked shirt underneath to complete the vintage style.

A ticket to being instantly cool is throwing on a pair of shades with anything, but if you add some iconic Ray-Ban style sunglasses to a suit you're going to look incredibly slick.

In particular the Clubmaster model that Franco is seen sporting here, or the iconic Wayfarer frames are two styles that fit with the retro theme.

We feel like we've mentioned this a lot recently, but his suit is well fitted and looks all the better for it, which is key to wearing a suit well. The skinny dark red tie also has a Mad Men feel to it, and a simple white shirt with the navy suit is a colour palette that just works well together. You could probably lose the disposable camera though, that might be a bit too retro.

The key to being as effortlessly slick as James Franco probably has something to do with his movie star good looks, living in New York and dating a series of the hottest actresses around, but if you take a page form his style book it will certainly give you an air of retro cool.