The Secret to Bruce Lee’s Underrated Style

For a Chinese man in 1960s America, this was obviously easier said than done. There was no preexisting trail for Bruce to follow, no brushy corridors cleared. Representation was a non-issue back then: Asians onscreen tended to exist within the realm of goofy caricature, like Mickey Rooney’s depiction of a “Mr. Yunioshi” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

In a way, the ascent of Bruce Lee to the height of culture was less a triumph of will than it was a triumph of his imagination. Bruce was enamored by the trappings of fame — he loved nice clothes, beautiful women, cool cars — and he intended to use martial arts to make a name for himself. He was stubborn. Brash and headstrong. But he also understood that adaptability was a powerful tool for leveling the playing field, and fluidity, as evidenced by his famous quote about water, could be applied not just to fighting but getting dressed, too.

He developed an understanding of optics as a teenager, and an early love for dancing cha cha imbued in him a love for performance, for reading the room. That he was quick on his feet is a convenient metaphor because he would deliberately toy with outsider aesthetics as a Chinese man in white Hollywood to destabilize the people around him and make himself memorable. Subverting expectations takes a nose for mischief, so here was Bruce Lee, wearing preposterously tall Cuban heels with a dashiki.

According to biographer Matthew Polly, he was constantly toying with expectations, dressing more Western in the East and as someone who defied easy definitions in the West. “In Hollywood, he had burnished his Oriental otherness by wearing kaftans, dashikis, and Nehru jackets,” wrote Polly. “In Hong Kong, he emphasized his Westernized persona by sporting Elvis-style sunglasses, bright flowered shirts, big-lapeled leather jackets, and bell-bottom jeans, which helped partially conceal the four-inch platform shoes he wore to make himself seem taller.”

One of the ways Bruce liked to fuck with people was to dress up in his chicest suit and hit the town with his students. They’d go to a nice restaurant, where he’d masquerade as the son of a Chinese diplomat who didn’t speak any English, and his friends, pretending to be his bodyguards, would translate his wishes for the waitstaff.

“My father loved fashion and clothes,” Shannon Lee, his daughter, explained to me. “Growing up in Hong Kong, he had access to custom-made clothing at low cost so he would have clothes made that were fashionable for the times. In the ‘50s it started with James Dean and progressed to the skinny tie suits like The Beatles. In the ‘60s he embraced turtlenecks and color blocking. In the ‘70s he went full hippie with the caftan and sandals or bell bottoms with wide-collar shirts as his mood and circumstance dictated. He shopped at high-style places, like Fred Segal and others.”

This fluidity, this penchant for trouble, is why Bruce Lee is the ideal avatar for Lu’u Dan, which collaborated with the late actor’s estate for its latest collection in celebration of Asian American Pacific Island month. When designer Hung La started the brand back in 2021, in fact, an image of Bruce Lee was the first thing on the moodboard.

“People focus on Bruce Lee the martial artist, but I still think Bruce Lee the style icon is underrated,” La told me. “The silhouettes, the sensuality, the confidence — it still feels modern now. He dressed like a gangster, a movie star, and a philosopher all at once.”

This collection features ringer tees with subtle distressing. A sick calfskin moto jacket in a yellow that nods to Bruce’s iconic yellow jumpsuit in Game of Death. Lots of sweats, of course. (“I mean he wore a lot of sweat pants when he was training, which he did a lot!” said Shannon.) And flared trousers cut to fit a movie star.

As for Bruce’s personal closet? A trove of tasteful gems — as well as fun surprises.“He had a belt buckle with a knife hidden inside,” Shannon recalls, when I asked if there was anything in there that stood out. “I remember not being so much surprised but more just intrigued by the discovery!” The best fashion is a little dangerous, after all.

Chris Gayomali is the editor of SSENSE.