Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 3.03: “Bone for Tuna”)

Vitals

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, political boss and bootlegger

Atlantic City, January 1923

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episode: “Bone for Tuna” (Episode 3.03)
Air Date: September 30, 2012
Director: Jeremy Podeswa
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I’m taking the blogger’s imperative and dedicating this whole week to Boardwalk Empire and its celebrated throwback style.

During its five-season run, Boardwalk Empire highlighted the spectrum of Prohibition-era men’s fashion from Jimmy Darmody’s street tweeds (link) and Mickey Doyle’s comic bowler-topped sack suits to Chalky White’s natty plaid suits accented by bold bow ties and Nucky Thompson’s distinctive take on white tie (link).

As a decidedly unconservative dresser, it thus becomes very meaningful when the typically bold-suited Nucky Thompson dons traditional morning dress for a morning in church. After all, this is a man far more comfortable in a smoky, champagne-soaked nightclub behind the bold distractions of a pastel-checked suit.

The dramatic second season ended with Margaret Schroeder saving Nucky from the clutches of the law by marrying him… and immediately regretting it upon deducing Nucky’s role in the death of his former protegé Jimmy Darmody. To punish her newlywed husband, Margaret deeds Nucky’s land to Saint Finbar’s Church.

The third season begins a year and a half later as Nucky is made Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Pius XI and is invited to accept his commendation at Saint Finbar’s. The episode of Nucky’s acceptance addresses the murkily ungrateful world that women faced in the early 1920s, as Margaret is forced to stand by her murderous husband as he receives an award for her good deed. A nosy neighbor jokes to Margaret that Nucky’s new knighthood means that his armor will need to be polished.

The empowered Margaret uses the knighthood reception to seek an audience with the bishop to open a women’s health clinic in the Catholic-run hospital despite the bishop’s spineless objection that “there are some delicate topics which would have to be avoided.” Nevertheless, Margaret persists.

What’d He Wear?

Receiving his award from the church is the perfect occasion for Nucky to dust off his morning dress in “Bone for Tuna” (Episode 3.03).

Nucky: You have no idea how uncomfortable this is.
Margaret: You’ve made your discontent abundantly clear.
Nucky: I meant the suit. It shrunk or something.
Margaret: You look fine.
Nucky: Do you know the last time I was even in a church? On our wedding day.
Margaret: Nervous?
Nucky: Tired. Barely slept again.
Margaret: Well, what do they say on Broadway? The show must go on.

Nucky’s morning coat is a heavy black wool tailcoat with the elegant touch of 1/4″ black silk ribbon braiding piped along the edges, including the softly notched lapels and the welted breast pocket.

The breast pocket is typically the only external pocket on a morning coat, giving gentlemen a place for their pocket squares without disrupting the coat’s fitted silhouette with additional pockets (and their bulging contents!) Nucky commits the faux pas of neglecting to fold a pocket square into his breast pocket… perhaps he forgot standard conventions in the years since he had last worn it.

The day is permeated by bitterness from all parties.

Morning Dress Guide, the definitive online source for daytime dress, offers a comprehensive history of morning dress and detailed descriptions of every element to offer readers a guiding hand for perfectly executing morning dress. I would recommend reading that for the ultimate expertise when exploring morning dress.

Morning coats widely varied in terms of details and styling, particularly at the height of their popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, but a feature present on nearly all morning coats are the distinctive open cutaway shape of the front skirt. Nucky’s coat, on the other hand, has straight front quarters that only cut away toward the back at the very bottom.

The height of morning coat popularity in the 1900s and 1910s also meant a variety of different styles with button options ranging from the standard one to up to four and a mix of peak, notch, and even shawl lapels. The decline of morning dress in the mid-1930s led to the current standardization of the morning coat to reflect only the most formal details: peak lapels and a single-button closure.

“The morning coat, still a semi-formal garment, was often cut with notched lapels until the 1920s,” explains Morning Dress Guide. “In the early 1900s to the 1920s, morning coat buttons were usually covered in intricately patterned damask silk. With a damask weave, the pattern is created by weaving the warp and weft in a special way rather than printing the pattern on the silk.” Nucky’s jacket appears to have this same damask silk-covered single button closure.

Nucky finds himself quite literally “sweating like a sinner in church,” as the expression goes.

The four-button cuffs are likely also covered in the same damask woven silk as are the two decorative back buttons that preside over the pleated back tails, located where the horizontal dart and the two side darts meet.

Contrasting waistcoats, particularly in dove gray or off-white “buff”, are a popular option for morning dress, but the most classic and formal option is to match the waistcoat to the morning coat. Nucky ups his outfit’s formality quotient by sporting a waistcoat made from the same heavy black wool as his coat.

The waistcoat reflects the styling of the morning coat with the same decorative black silk ribbon braiding along the edges and on each of the vest’s four welted pockets, six buttons all covered in the same damask woven silk, and the soft corners of the gently notched bottom.

Nucky holds court at his Ritz suite after the ceremony.

Nucky wears his gold pocket watch in the lower right pocket of his waistcoat, connected by a yellow gold bar-link chain worn “double Albert” style through the fourth buttonhole to a dropped fob on the left side.

Nucky casually refers to his outfit as a “suit” when complaining to Margaret, but his contrasting trousers more correctly define his attire as “morning dress” than the matching three-piece morning suit. His black-on-gray cashmere stripe trousers in worsted wool are perfectly on point for morning dress. The double reverse-pleated trousers rise high with the waist line properly concealed under the waistcoat.

Nucky tries to make nice in church.

Nucky correctly wears his trousers with suspenders, in this instance a pair of wide light gray paisley-patterned braces that peek out through the armholes of his waistcoat after he removes his jacket.

Nucky wears a white twill dress shirt with a detachable wing collar and double (French) cuffs fastened by dark enamel-filled round links. His neckwear is a gray striped silk tie that consists of light-and-gray horizontal stripes overlaid by thin dark navy stripes, each shadowed by a light gray stripe above it, crossing in the direction of the left shoulder down to the right hip.

The combination of a wing collar and a long tie dates Nucky’s outfit, as the morning dress standard since World War II has been long ties and turndown collars or Ascots with wing collars.

He looks reasonably concerned, but a guy like Nucky should be sweating a lot more inside a church.

Nucky wisely wears black leather oxfords, likely with the traditionally preferred cap-toe, as the ecclesiastical ceremony would call for the most formal footwear. He wears them with gray silk socks visible below the short break of the trousers’ plain-hemmed bottoms.

Nucky steps up to the altar to receive his Order of Knighthood.

Not that he necessarily deserves it, but Nucky is awarded his vestment as a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory, an eight-pointed cross with a representation of St. Gregory on the obverse and, presumably, the “Pro Deo et Principe” (“For God and Ruler”) motto on the reverse, suspended from a gold-red-gold striped ribbon around his neck. As a civilian recipient, Nucky’s cross hangs from a green crown of laurel; military recipients would wear the cross hanging from a trophy of arms.

That’s Sir Nucky to you.

The pontifical order of St. Gregory the great acknowledges not only the material generosity that our honoree exhibits daily, but his generosity of spirit as well… Enoch Malachi Thompson, for having answered the gospel summons to brotherly love and illustrating by your actions the ideals of the church, for having enriched the heritage of humanity and providing an example for others to serve, by order of Pope Pius XI, I now bestow upon you the title of Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory.

The Order of St. Gregory the Great was established on September 1, 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI.

Did You Know? Nucky shares his Order of St. Gregory the Great knighthood with G.K. Chesterton, Bob Hope, Rupert Murdoch, and Ricardo Montalbán.

How to Get the Look

Nucky Thompson seems to take his reluctant knighthood seriously, dressing for the occasion in period-specific morning dress with subtle touches of elegance throughout.

• Black wool single-button morning tailcoat with black silk ribbon edging, notch lapels, welted breast pocket, covered 4-button cuffs, and two decorative back buttons
• White twill dress shirt with detachable wing collar and double/French cuffs
  • Dark enamel-filled round cuff links
• Gray horizontal-striped silk tie with thin dark navy L-down-R overlay stripes
• Black wool single-breasted waistcoat with black silk ribbon edging, six damask silk-covered buttons, and four welted pockets
• Black-on-gray “cashmere stripe” worsted double reverse-pleated trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
• Light gray paisley suspenders/braces
• Black leather cap-toe oxfords/balmorals
• Gray silk socks
• Gold pocket watch, worn on “double Albert” chain through the vest’s 4th buttonhole and kept in the lower right pocket
• Gold wedding band, worn on the 3rd finger of the left hand

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the whole series, but Nucky’s shining moment featured in this post can be found in the third season.

Michael K. Williams as Albert “Chalky” White on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 4.08: “The Old Ship of Zion”)

Vitals

Michael Kenneth Williams as Albert “Chalky” White, nightclub owner and bootlegger

Atlantic City, Spring 1924

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
* “New York Sour” (Episode 4.01, aired September 8, 2013, dir. Tim Van Patten)
* “Resignation” (Episode 4.02, aired September 15, 2013, dir. Alik Sakharov)
* “Acres of Diamonds” (Episode 4.03, aired September 22, 2013, dir. Allen Coulter)
* “All In” (Episode 4.04, aired September 29, 2013, dir. Ed Bianchi)
* “The North Star” (Episode 4.06, aired October 13, 2013, dir. Allen Coulter)
* “William Wilson” (Episode 4.07, aired October 20, 2013, dir. Jeremy Podeswa)
* “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08, aired October 27, 2013, dir. Tim Van Patten)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

Background

As BAMF Style’s Boardwalk Empire week continues, the focus shifts to “Chalky” White, the shrewd, pragmatic, and popular bootlegger who rises through the hierarchy of the Atlantic City underworld to finally own his own nightclub at the outset of the fourth season.

Michael K. Williams is arguably one of the best actors of this generation, and his nuanced portrayal of Omar Little on The Wire has cemented that character as one of the greatest TV performances of all time. As a Star Wars fan, I was delighted to hear last month that he’ll be part of the star-studded cast of next year’s Han Solo-focused prequel as reported in Variety.

Boardwalk Empire‘s fourth season is a tour de force for Williams, building up to Chalky’s climactic arc gaining ground in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08) through the season’s tumultuous final episodes.

What’d He Wear?

Chalky presides over The Onyx Club on a nightly basis, always smartly and sharply attired in a striped dark navy tuxedo with a wing collar and fancy waistcoats.

The dinner jacket is duo-toned navy blue wool with tonal satin striping throughout. The wide, sharp peak lapels are faced in black grosgrain silk and roll to the high-stanced single-button closure, positioned a few inches above Williams’ natural waistline. The single front button and the four buttons on each cuff are all covered in the same black grosgrain as the lapel facings.

Chalky’s dinner jacket has a welted breast pocket, which he wears empty, and straight jetted pockets on the hips.

Chalky swaps out his waistcoats but maintains a similar black tie look each night for his hosting duties at The Onyx Club.

Chalky looks strong and imposing in his full cut dinner jacket, shaped by darts to flatter Michael K. Williams’ physique with padded, sloped shoulders and roped sleeveheads. The back is ventless, the most formal vent option for a dinner jacket.

In the left lapel of his jacket, Chalky wears a gold eight-pointed star pin with a large blue square-set stone.

Chalky is appropriately mesmerized by a rendition of “St. Louis Blues” as sung by Daughter Maitland (Margot Bingham) in “The North Star” (Episode 4.06).

The flat front formal trousers match the striped navy dinner jacket for a full dinner suit effect. They have a straight fly, on-seam side pockets, plain-hemmed bottoms, and – most notably – a very wide black grosgrain braid stripe down the outside of each leg.

Chalky relishes the position of power that he has long deserved.

Chalky wears two different fancy silk waistcoats with his tuxedo, each incorporating some degree of blue to call out the navy dinner suit.

His blue jacquard silk waistcoat gets the most screen time, worn in all but two of the episodes that feature him in a tuxedo. The pattern consists of lighter blue and beige abstract flurries printed on a navy silk ground. This single-breasted vest has short lapels, a high-fastening front with six self-covered buttons, and a notched bottom.

In “Resignation” (Episode 4.02), “Acres of Diamonds” (Episode 4.03), and “The North Star” (Episode 4.06), Chalky sports a dashing double-breasted waistcoat with a repeating pattern of blue-trimmed white squares printed on black silk. The squares abstractly alternate between full squares, dotted squares, round dots, and two bars – either horizontal or vertical.

This double-breasted vest has a “keystone”-style 6-on-3 button scheme with a straight-cut bottom and sweeping peak lapels. (“Keystone” means that the button rows taper in their spread from top to bottom…like the lower portion of a keystone.) All six buttons are covered in black grosgrain silk.

Chalky wears a white formal shirt with a narrow-pleated bib front and double (French) cuffs, always sporting cuff links to match his shirt studs whether they’re the silver-trimmed black set or gold mother-of-pearl set seen in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08). The shirt is worn with a detachable wing collar, secured to the front and back of the collar band with a gold stud.

According to a post-show auction that included this outfit, the shirt “by St. Laurie” was custom made for the production by Kozinn + Sons in New York.

Chalky trades a few playful punches in “Resignation” (Episode 4.02).

Chalky invariably wears a black faille diamond-pointed bow tie that coordinates nicely with the similarly textured black grosgrain facings of the jacket lapels.

Chalky wears black calf leather five-eyelet plain-toe oxfords with dark navy dress socks. Plain-toe oxfords (also known as bal-type or balmorals to us Americans) are the most formal practical footwear for black tie, and it makes sense that Chalky, whom Williams himself described as having “a shoe fetish,” wouldn’t sacrifice formality in this department.

Chalky prods a door open with his foot, wearing one of the well-shined black calf oxfords (inset) that were auctioned off after the show’s run.

Chalky wears his usual gold square-cased dress watch on his left wrist. It has a gold square dial and slim black leather strap.

Genevieve Valentine of The A.V. Club summed it up perfectly in her review of “Resignation” (Episode 4.02): “No one on this show, and honestly no one on many other shows, can deliver a death stare like Michael Kenneth Williams.”

Chalky’s black tie ensemble, as auctioned at ScreenBid.com in 2014.

The navy dinner suit, rather than the usual “darker than black” midnight blue is a curious choice that may reflect the retro-styling that Lisa Padovani mentioned in a 2013 article with Entertainment Weekly after the fourth season wrapped: “I’m inspired by contemporary stuff too and I’ll think, ‘That could translate into 1920s…’ We try to incorporate old pieces with new pieces and old trimmings and accessories with the new things we manufacture to give it a seamless quality.” Daniel Craig’s midnight blue dinner suit in Skyfall was color enhanced to a bolder navy on that film’s promotional material, briefly popularizing navy tuxedoes as seen on celebrities like Eddie Redmayne and Ryan Gosling.

After production wrapped on Boardwalk Empire, this entire outfit – including the dinner suit, shirt, bow tie, square-dotted waistcoat, and shoes – were auctioned at ScreenBid.com.

The outfit was described as:

This dark blue and black striped tuxedo has a black lapel and includes a black vest with a blue square pattern.  The tuxedo shirt, as worn by Chalky – as played by Michael Kenneth Williams – is a bib shirt with a detachable collar and white stripe by St. Laurie.  Also included in the lot is a black faille bowtie and silver/black square shirt studs, as well as Chalky’s shoes.

NB: The silver and black studs were not ever featured on the show, to the best of my knowledge.

How to Get the Look

Michael K. Williams as Albert “Chalky” White on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 4.03: “Acres of Diamonds”)

Chalky White incorporates a welcome dose of color into his black tie ensemble, hosting nightly at the Onyx Club in a striped navy tux and rotating cycle of fancy waistcoats.

• Dark navy satin-striped wool single-breasted 1-button dinner jacket with black grosgrain-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, black grosgrain-covered 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Gold eight-pointed star lapel pin with blue stone
• Blue-toned patterned silk 6-button waistcoat with lapels
• Dark navy satin-striped wool flat front formal trousers with black grosgrain side braid, on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White formal shirt with narrow-pleated bib and double/French cuffs
  • Detachable wing collar
  • Gold mother-of-pearl shirt studs
  • Gold cuff links
• Black faille diamond-ended bow tie
• Black calf leather 5-eyelet plain-toe balmorals/oxford shoes
• Dark navy dress socks
• Gold square-cased wristwatch with gold square dial on black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the whole series, but explore the fourth season to find these episodes of Chalky in his prime.

Vincent Piazza as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 5.02: “The Good Listener”)

Vitals

Vincent Piazza as Charles “Lucky” Luciano, Sicilian-American mobster

New York City, April 1931

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
* “Golden Days for Boys and Girls” (Episode 5.01, aired September 7, 2014, dir. Tim Van Patten)
* “The Good Listener” (Episode 5.02, aired September 14, 2014, dir. Allen Coulter)
* “Eldorado” (Episode 5.08, aired October 26, 2014, dir. Tim Van Patten)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

86 years ago tomorrow “Lucky” Luciano brought an end to the Castellammarese War – as mob historians refer to the bloody gangland conflict that divided New York City – by engineering the death of Sicilian-American mob chieftain Giuseppe “Joe the Boss” Masseria.

Masseria’s demise is one of the many colorful episodes that has, for better or worse, iconicized the history of the American Mafia… and it makes for a compelling and dramatic re-introduction to Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza) for the final season of Boardwalk Empire.

Vincent Piazza may be the best Lucky Luciano ever portrayed on screen, having convincingly grown from the swaggering young mob lieutenant bitching about his VD to a cool, calculating, and shrewd gangland boss who earns then swiftly betrays the trust of the old school “Mustache Petes” in his orbit.

A tale of two Luckies: The real Luciano’s February 1931 mugshot (left) and Piazza as Luciano in a scene set several months later (right).
Note the drooping left eye, the result of a scar left by Salvatore Maranzano’s faction many months prior after Lucky was “taken for a one-way ride”…and lived to tell about it. (Hence his nickname.)

As The New York Times would report the following day (link), “it took ten years and a lot of shooting to kill Giuseppe Masseria,” but Joe the Boss finally met his fate on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 15, 1931, when meeting Luciano for lunch, ostensibly to discuss the fate of their shared rival, Salvatore Maranzano. “It took him about three hours to finish that meal,” Luciano would later tell authors Martin A. Gosch and Richard Hammer for their definitive biography The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano. Following Masseria’s antipasto, spaghetti with red clam sauce, lobster fra diavolo, and a quart of chianti, Luciano noticed the nearly empty restaurant and suggested playing the Russian-Hungarian card game of Klob.

Boardwalk Empire reflected the known events of the afternoon closely, and as soon as Piazza’s Luciano excuses himself to go to the bathroom, blaming his five espressos, scholars of mob history know what’s coming. Luciano’s confederates, led by Bugsy Siegel, burst through the front door and emptied their handguns at Masseria. “I was in the can takin’ a leak,” Luciano reportedly told the police who arrived on the scene. “I always take a long leak.”

Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi) meets his fate in the first episode of Boardwalk Empire’s final season. A playing card within reach of his hand may have been inspired by the actual photo taken at the scene of the real Masseria’s murder in 1931 (inset).

(If the incorporation of a restaurant bathroom into a Mafia assassination plot sounds familiar to you, you should know that Mario Puzo was supposedly inspired by this murder when he scripted Michael Corleone’s monumental murder of Sollozzo and McCluskey in The Godfather, blowing their brains all over his “nice Ivy League suit.”)

What’d He Wear?

Blue suits have been a consistent favorite for Lucky Luciano on Boardwalk Empire, so it’s fitting that he wears this rich navy flannel three-piece suit for many significant scenes in the show’s final season.

When you’ve got the world at your fingertips, Lucky believe it’s important to keep said fingertips well-manicured.

Single-breasted jackets with peak lapels tend to be in vogue during eras of excess such as the Prohibition era of the ’20s and ’30s and its brief revival during the 1970s “disco era”. Some sartorialists, like Simon Crompton of Permanent Style, argue that the peak lapel only looks best with its long, sweeping elegance showcased by a double-breasted jacket or a low-stance single-breasted jacket. While I like these “stubby” peak lapels created by a higher button stance, I also think that a suit jacket styled in this manner should also follow the classic drape cut of larger shoulders and a suppressed waist to create a strong, flattering effect.

This short, wide peak lapel with a long, straight gorge is very evocative of 1930s menswear. Gentleman’s Gazette posted a very comprehensive analysis of the elegant “short peaked lapel” on suits of that era with delightful illustrations, diagrams, and screenshots from the 1932 George Raft and Mae West film Night After Night. Gentleman’s Gazette describes most short peak lapels of the era extending to nearly 4″ wide, considerably wider than today’s trends and very complementary with Luciano’s broad-shouldered jacket.

Power drag.

Luciano’s suit jacket is a fine example with its short, peak lapels that roll just over the top of his three-button jacket, effectively creating a 3-roll-2 button front. His shoulders are wide and padded with roped sleeveheads, and the jacket elegantly tapers to the suppressed waist, although Luciano’s habit of wearing his jacket open reduces the elegant effect.

Luciano’s suit jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and four-button cuffs. Interestingly, the jacket appears to also have double vents although ventless jackets were the most common and fashionable with men’s suit jackets in the early ’30s.

Luciano’s suit has a matching single-breasted six-button vest with no lapels and a notched bottom. He never removes his jacket during these scenes, but this vest (or waistcoat, if you will) likely has four welt pockets – two on each side – like the similarly styled darker blue striped suit he also wears during the fifth season.

The full cut trousers have single forward pleats, side pockets, and are finished with cuffs (turn-ups) on the bottoms. The trousers have belt loops, through which Lucky wears a slim dark leather belt with a flat gold buckle. Sartorial purists often eschew belts with three-piece suits as they can bulge through a waistcoat or, as in Lucky Luciano’s case, pop out just beneath it for an inconsistent flash of the belt’s buckle. However, gangsters of the era like Al Capone and “Diamond Jim” Colosimo were known for the flashy diamond belt buckles worn with their suits, turning a sartorial no-no into a status symbol…albeit a rather ostentatious one.

After filming wrapped on Boardwalk Empire, many props and costumes from the show were auctioned, including a chestnut brown leather belt that Vincent Piazza supposedly wore in the seventh episode of this season. The brass belt buckle is studded with faux diamonds and monogrammed with the letter “L” for Luciano. It’s certainly possible that Piazza wore this belt all through the season, including with this outfit.

Luciano holds court in “The Good Listener” (Episode 5.02).

In The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano, the real-life Luciano described to the authors the process of his creating his image under the tutelage of Arnold Rothstein in the early 1920s:

Arnold gimme a dozen French ties made by some guy by the name of Charvet; they was supposed to be the best and Arnold bought a hundred ties whenever he went to Paris. He also used to buy the silk for his shirts by the bolt at a place in France called Sulka, and he always would give me some as a present; that’s how I get the rep for wearin’ silk shirts and underwear and pajamas.

Lucky wears a pale blue-gray dress shirt with this suit with a luxurious finish added by its barely discernible hairline-width self-stripes. The shirt has a front placket, double (French) cuffs and a point collar that he wears with a looped spiral-ended gold collar bar that slides onto each collar leaf, behind the tie knot. Vintage collar bars like this are a dime a dozen online, but The Tie Bar offers vintage-inspired spiral-ended collar bars for only $15.

Lucky wears four different ties with this suit throughout the season, primarily ties in shades of light gray with minimal contrast against his shirt.

In “Golden Days for Boys and Girls” (Episode 5.01), Lucky dresses for his lunch with Joe Masseria with a pale gray silk tie with a burgundy pattern. The pattern consists of small burgundy squares – alternating between the square on its own (rotated 45° to a diamond square) and the square encased in an ornate burgundy octagon.

Lucky may not have physically pulled a trigger to end Masseria’s life, but his tie’s burgundy splashes against the pale ground of his shirt and tie evoke the image of Masseria’s blood spatter… the very blood that Luciano needed to spill to ascend to his ultimate position of power in one of the few outright violent sequences of his fifth season appearances.

In the following episode, “The Good Listener” (Episode 5.02), Lucky wears much more “peaceful” ties that evoke elegance rather than violence. His first tie, worn when meeting Nucky Thompson and Maranzano, is powder blue silk with a subtle gray box pattern.

A few scenes later, Lucky wears a silver silk tie with a small navy block pattern, with these micro-blocks spaced about an inch apart and bordered in white. He would later wear this tie with a gray sharkskin three-piece suit during his final appearance in the final episode.

“The Good Listener” (Episode 5.02)

In the series finale, “Eldorado” (Episode 5.08), Lucky wears a gray-and-cream patterned silk tie that I affectionately call his “Tetris tie” due to the sets of notched patterns against the tie’s dark gray woven pincheck ground, forming the appearance of broken stripes from the right shoulder-down-to-left hip.

A closer look at these “notched patterns” that resemble an incomplete crossword puzzle or Tetris game reveals eight boxes, each alternating in cream and gray silk.

Promotional photo of Vincent Piazza as “Lucky” Luciano in “Eldorado” (Episode 5.08)

“Eldorado” also gives us a look at Lucky’s footwear, which appear to be a pair of dark brown calf leather plain-toe chukka boots with two eyelets, worn with striped burgundy silk socks.

Chukka boots had only recently come into fashion during the Boardwalk Empire era, following the Prince of Wales sporting a pair of chukkas on his feet during a 1924 visit to the United States.

Lansky, Lucky, and Bugsy shoot the shit in a whorehouse parlor.

Since most of these scenes are indoors, Luciano’s hat makes its sole appearance in his inductory scene in “Golden Days for Boys and Girls” (Episode 5.01) when waiting for Masseria in the Nuova Villa Tammaro restaurant. He wears a gray felt wide-brimmed fedora with dark gray grosgrain trim on the edges of the brim and a wide black grosgrain ribbon around the base of the pinched crown.

According to Gosch and Hammer’s book, April 15, 1931 was “a beautiful warm and sunny day,” but there’s no denying the atmospheric qualities of the rain on the windows as Luciano waits for his doomed lunch date.

Gentleman gangster that he is, Lucky Luciano sports a sizable gold pinky ring with a large flush-set diamond on his right hand. This ring was also included in the auction, where it was described as “a fantastic, opulent piece of costume jewelry from company EDCO,” which evidently made several other pieces of jewelry worn by Boardwalk Empire characters during the show’s run.

The ring worn on Lucky’s right pinky most resembles this gold-finished ring with a large cubic zirconia sparkler.

Real gangsters match their gold rings to their collar bars.

As one of the more youthful characters on Boardwalk Empire, Luciano always wore a wristwatch rather than the more traditional pocket watch. The same auction where his belt and ring were sold included his wristwatch, described as a non-functioning 17-jewel Rensie watch. It has a flat, rectangular yellow gold case and is strapped around his left wrist on a black alligator band.

Some internet researchers have done some digging to discover the origins of this company, the Rensie Watch Company, which its German-American founder Paul V. Eisner christened by spelling his name backward. Eisner established his import company in New York and registered the Rensie brand in January 1943. Although it would be anachronistic for Lucky Luciano to be wearing a Rensie watch in 1931, the slim, square-cased watch certainly reflects the fashionable timepieces sported by men in the early ’30s.

Go Big or Go Home

A shrewd, hardworking professional, Charlie “Lucky” Luciano offers a fresh take on the concept of a productive “working lunch,” although Roger Sterling would have likely turned up his nose at the idea of replacing his three martinis with Lucky’s five espressos… not to mention the fact that Lucky’s business lunch ends with the grisly murder of his boss.

Lunch with Lucky isn’t always good for your health, as Masseria is soon to learn…

Assassination aside, Luciano’s lunch provides a fine template for recreating the art of the weekday lunch, topping it off with anisette-laced coffee, a round of cards, and pleasant background music.

The latter is a particular passion of mine, as I’ve always had a soft spot for music of the ’20s. Johnny Green and Edward Heyman’s standard “Out of Nowhere” – also a Woody Allen – serves as the motif for Luciano’s ascension with artist Marshall Crenshaw crooning along with Vince Giordano and his Nighthawks Orchestra for a Bing Crosby-soundalike version that plays over their lunch.

Gene Austin’s subtle and wistful recording of “My Blue Heaven” plays during the assassination itself. The bittersweet peace of the song, which Austin popularized with his 1927 recording, nicely juxtaposes the brusque violence of the scene.

A few scenes later in the same episode, “Out of Nowhere” again kicks onto the soundtrack as Maranzano orders his gangsters to follow Luciano’s lead in slicing their hands to show their loyalty.

If you prefer instrumental background music, “Eldorado” (Episode 5.08) features “The Nightmare”, recorded in 1931 by Clyde McCoy and his Orchestra.

How to Get the Look

Lucky Luciano’s vivid navy blue suit provides a snapshot of that era’s elegant gangland fashions.

Shades of Michael Corleone?

• Blue serge three-piece drape cut suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-roll-2 jacket with short/wide peak lapels, padded shoulders with roped sleeveheads, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, long double vents
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with notched bottom
  • Single forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Pale blue-gray hairline-striped dress shirt with point collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold looped spiral-ended collar bar
  • Round silver-trimmed cuff links
• Light gray patterned silk tie
• Chestnut brown leather belt with monogrammed brass buckle
• Dark brown calf leather two-eyelet plain-toe chukka boots
• Burgundy striped silk socks
• Gray felt wide-brimmed fedora with black grosgrain band
• Gold pinky ring with square flush diamond
• Rensie 17-jewel gold wristwatch with white square face and black alligator strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the whole series.

I’d love to see a movie accurately portray Lucky Luciano’s rise, the Castellammarese War, and the founding of the Mafia Commission. There’ve been a few sporadic attempts, most notably the Young Guns-does-Prohibition 1991 flick Mobsters, but the fifth season of Boardwalk Empire comes the closest to delivering the most accurate sense of what it would’ve been like to watch Lucky masterfully play both sides against each other in the Yojimbo-style gambit that led to his fast and furious half-decade at the top of the American mob.

The Quote

Anybody ain’t on board, and I mean anybody…they fuckin’ go.

Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens on Justified (Episode 1.05, “The Lord of War and Thunder”)

Vitals

Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, old school Deputy U.S. Marshal

Harlan County, Kentucky, Fall 2010

Series: Justified
Episodes:
– “The Lord of War and Thunder” (Episode 1.05, Director: Jon Avnet, Air Date: April 13, 2010)
– “Hatless ” (Episode 1.09, Director: Peter Werner, Air Date: May 11, 2010)
– “Cottonmouth” (Episode 2.05, Director: Michael Watkins, Air Date: March 9, 2011)
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designers: Ane Crabtree (Season 1) & Patia Prouty (Season 2)

Background

Justified took some time to find its footing at the beginning, developing the style of its characters as well as the show’s own format: would this be an episodic “case-of-the-week” procedural or more serial?

Luckily, the show found its place at the perfect intersection of these two as its lead character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, often had to handle a quick new case with eccentric, one-off criminals all developed against the longer arcs of his feud with the Crowder clan, his romantic entanglements in Harlan County, the consequences of his quick trigger finger, and frustrations with his own family, particularly his father Arlo (Raymond J. Barry) whom we meet in “The Lord of War and Thunder” (Episode 1.05).

What’d He Wear?

One of Raylan’s boldest unorthodox fashion statements is his frequent habit of wearing a jacket and tie with jeans. Often, the outer layer consists of his black suit jacket, but three episodes from early in the show’s run feature an interesting dark wool sport jacket in muted navy and brown plaid with a subtle red overcheck.

The jacket’s subtle, muted plaid emerges in the warm sunlight of southern California eastern Kentucky.

Raylan’s plaid jacket was made by British fashion designer Paul Smith, who celebrates his creations as “classics with a twist.” This sportcoat certainly fits that description, incorporating traditional hacking jacket elements like the slanted flapped pockets, ticket pocket, and long single vent with the unique plaid pick-stitched lightweight wool suiting. The equestrian associations of the hacking jacket work in favor of Raylan’s “cowboy” image.

The single-breasted two-button sport jacket has slim notch lapels, four-button cuffs, and a welted breast pocket in addition to the unorthodox welted, rather than flapped, ticket pocket cut just above the slanted and flapped hip pocket on the right side.

Note the distinctive ticket pocket: welted with no flap.

All three of the plaid sport jacket’s appearances follow a general formula for Raylan’s shirts and ties. All three shirts are primarily brown and all three vintage ties are dark, slim, and subtle.

In “The Lord of War and Thunder” (Episode 1.05), Raylan wears a plaid cotton shirt that channels the chromatic tones of his jacket but in a bolder brown and taupe with thin blue and gold windowpane overcheck grids. The shirt has a front placket, no pocket, and a seam down the back from the center of the horizontal yoke. His skinny tie is solid dark brown.

Raylan at work and at play in “The Lord of War and Thunder” (Episode 1.05).

Four episodes later, in “Hatless” (Episode 1.09), a beaten Raylan arrives at Wynn Duffy’s office in a subtler ensemble of dark brown cotton shirt and slim black tie. Raylan never removes the jacket, concealing some shirt details, but it has button cuffs, a front placket, and a slim spread collar with 1/4″ edge stitching.

Raylan’s not looking his best when he goes to meet with the enigmatic, neurotic, and idiosyncratic Wynn Duty (Jere Burns) in “Hatless” (Episode 1.09) after a barroom brawl leaves him in the titular predicament.

This plaid sportcoat makes its third and final appearance in “Cottonmouth” (Episode 2.05), worn with a brown custom-made shirt with a slim point collar, front placket, button cuffs, and a subtle tonal pattern of mini-swirls that cover the entire shirt.

Raylan wears a vintage black knit silk tie with sets of three staggered light pink embroidered vertical lines. This Knickerbocker Limited Hollywood tie makes several appearances with several different jackets and ties throughout Justified, most often worn with a black suit jacket and black shirt.

“Cottonmouth” (Episode 2.05)

“He wears Levi 501 jeans, never anything else,” explained Justified‘s costume designer Patia Prouty in a 2012 interview. Prouty’s statement is consistent with the blue jeans that were auctioned with this outfit on ScreenBid.com, a pair of size 31×32 Levi’s 501 straight-leg jeans, advertised by Levi’s as “The Original Button Fly Jean”. In addition to the Levi’s site, you can pick up a pair of classic 501s from online retailers like Amazon.

Classic all-American jeans for an all-American lawman.

In the name of brand consistency, Raylan’s tooled leather belt is also from Levi’s. Described in the auction listing as “a size 34, Levi’s branded belt (brown with a black embossed design),” this belt is edge-stitched along the top and bottom and closes with a steel single-prong buckle.

Raylan’s holster in these early episodes has been confirmed as a Bianchi Model 59 Special Agent®, a thumb break paddle holster that he wears on the right side of his belt for a smooth right-handed draw. It is likely the model #19128 as it fits Raylan’s full-size Glock 17 sidearm.

For details about the difference between Raylan’s Bianchi holster and his later holster, custom made for the show by Alfonso’s of Hollywood by request from Graham Yost, check out this comprehensive YouTube segment.

Based on the wedge in front of the trigger guard, it appears to be the Bianchi holster that Raylan blasts a hole through during a struggle in “Cottonmouth” (Episode 2.05).

Raylan coordinates his brown leather belt to his “cigar”-colored Lucchese ostrich leg boots, even calling out the tooling of the belt with the boots’ decorative stitching on the shafts and vamps.

Raylan’s boots get in the way of Wynn Duffy’s murderous motives in “Hatless” (Episode 1.09).

Raylan’s trademark hat is a “sahara” tan cattleman’s hat made from 200XXX Beaver, custom made by Baron Hats of Hollywood for their long-time customer and fan Timothy Olyphant to wear on the show. The crown is 4.25″ with a 3.25″ “Prairie Wave” brim and a 3/8″ hand-tooled leather band that has a steel Ranger-style buckle on the left, further evoking the image of an Old West lawman.

“We crafted the crown in the ‘Cattleman’s’ shaping, to express solid-as-a-rock values with a ‘no nonsense’ strength”, explains Mark Mejia of Baron Hats on their site. “This was enhanced with a classic yet simple leather hatband. Nothing fancy, no frills. And a brim that also shows smooth lines, with a raw edge to go with his raw courage and resolve. A hat of its time, and like the character, functional, real and true.”

If you’re looking for the real thing, Baron Hats currently offers The RG, based on the exact hat they created for Olyphant.

Although he’s a century removed from the days of marshals on horseback, Raylan evokes that bygone era with a silver horseshoe ring on the third finger of his right hand.

Raylan displays excellent trigger discipline – and a nice view of his ring! – when handling a crook’s Beretta in “Hatless” (Episode 1.09).

Raylan’s wristwatch throughout Justified is a TAG Heuer Series 6000 Chronometer on a brushed steel case with a white dial. He alternates between a black debossed leather strap (as seen in “The Lord of War and Thunder”) and a brown alligator strap (as seen in “Hatless” and “Cottonmouth”).

Same watch, different bands.

This jacket was auctioned on ScreenBid.com after the show ended, selling for $975 along with other elements of the outfit as it was worn in “Cottonmouth” (Episode 2.05).

Raylan’s muted plaid jacket and “Cottonmouth” (Episode 2.05) outfit, as auctioned by ScreenBid.com.

How to Get the Look

A sport jacket, tie, and jeans isn’t an orthodox look, but it perfectly fits Raylan’s image as a rugged yet professional lawman who needs to be comfortable – and quick on the draw – in both his office or the back woods of Harlan County, Kentucky.

Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens on Justified (Episode 2.05, “Cottonmouth”)

• Dark navy and brown muted plaid pick-stitched wool single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets with welted ticket pocket, 4-button cuffs, and long single vent
• Dark brown (solid or patterned) shirt with slim spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Dark (solid or subtly-patterned) vintage “skinny” tie
• Medium-dark blue wash denim Levi’s 501 straight-leg button-fly jeans
• Brown tooled leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Tan full-grain leather Bianchi Model 59 Special Agent® paddle holster for a full-size Glock pistol
• Lucchese cigar-colored brown ostrich leg Western-style boots with decorative stitched calf leather shafts
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt/A-shirt
• Baron Hats “The RG” sahara tan 200XXX beaver cattleman’s hat with a thin tooled leather band
• TAG Heuer Series 6000 Chronometer wristwatch with brushed steel case, white dial, and brown alligator strap
• Sterling silver horseshoe ring with braided side detail

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the entire series. The screenshots featured here are from the first and second seasons.

The Quote

You’re gonna bob and weave out of the path of a bullet? That I’d like to see.

Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker in a colorized photo from Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Vitals

Burt Lancaster as J.J. Hunsecker, powerful and domineering newspaper columnist

New York City, Fall 1956

Film: Sweet Smell of Success
Release Date: June 27, 1957
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Costume Designer: Mary Grant

Background

One of my favorite movies is Sweet Smell of Success, the atmospheric film noir starring Burt Lancaster as a Walter Winchell-like columnist and Tony Curtis as the opportunistic young PR flack desperate to get in good with him.

Ernest Lehman, who contributed to the screenplay based on his own novelette, declined to direct the film due to his fear of Lancaster, but the actor’s aggressive and volatile temperament paid off to create the needed aura of his intimidating character, the sort of man who could and would destroy an enemy’s career on a whim.

“Burt was really scary,” recalls Elmer Bernstein, who composed the film’s jazzy score, memorably performed by the Chico Hamilton Quintet. “He was a dangerous guy. He had a short fuse.”

Despite the fear that Lancaster imposed on the film’s cast and crew, director Alexander Mackendrick worked with cinematography master James Wong Howe to create a dazzling tribute to 1950s New York, Weegie’s dog-eat-dog world of hot jazz, seductive shadows, and poison-loaded pens, delivering a sense of isolation in even the most crowded scenes.

The snappy screenplay by Lehman, Mackendrick, and playwright Clifford Odets has been immortalized by lines like J.J.’s comment to Falco: “I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full or arsenic,” voted the 99th greatest movie line by Premiere magazine in 2007.

What’d He Wear?

J.J. Hunsecker wears two different suits over the course of the film, both double-breasted to create a sense of enveloping him in the trappings of his power while also projecting an intimidating image to the world.

For the taping of his ironically named radio broadcast It’s a Wonderful World, J.J. wears a medium-dark flannel suit with a ’50s full cut that gives the 6’2″ Lancaster an additionally hulking presence as he “greets” his sister and her beau.

J.J. makes quite an impression on his sister’s new suitor.

J.J.’s double-breasted suit has a four-on-one button “Kent”-style front that he leaves open, ignoring the convention of always wearing a double-breasted jacket closed. The second row of buttons is placed a few inches below the waist, indicative of the gradually falling button stance during the 1950s that would fall out of fashion in the following decade. The lower button stance also helps balance Lancaster’s height. The upper buttons are only slightly further outside the functioning lower buttons, creating a boxy look that emphasizes J.J.’s relentless machine-like personality.

The wide, padded shoulders with roped sleeveheads add an intimidating touch to this ensemble. There are four buttons on each cuff.

The pick-stitched peak lapels are wide but sleek with minimal belly as they roll to the waist line. Each lapel has a sloped gorge and, following conventions for a double-breasted jacket, a buttonhole.

Also per the usual for double-breasted jackets, the back is ventless and the hip pockets are jetted without visible flaps. J.J. wears a light-colored silk display kerchief in his welted breast pocket that likely matches his silk tie.

Press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) is never far away if J.J. needs anything, be it reassurance or a match for his cigarette.

Although J.J. always wears his suit jacket open, the overlap of the double-breasted jacket is enough to mostly conceal (or shadow) his trousers. Still, it can be ascertained that his trousers have a high rise, rising above the lower row of buttons on his jacket to the hollow of his lapel at the natural waist line.

The flat front suit trousers have slim belt loops, where he wears a thin dark leather belt with a small square single-prong buckle. The trousers are fully cut through the leg to the bottoms, which are finished with cuffs (turn-ups).

J.J.’s dress shirt is light-colored, not white, and possibly the same pale blue-gray as it often appears in colorized photos. It has a large semi-spread collar, front placket, and double (French) cuffs worn with square diamond links.

“Some men just want to watch the world burn,” warned Michael Caine’s Alfred in The Dark Knight.

The Windsor knot was famously derided by Ian Fleming in 1957’s From Russia With Love, writing that “Bond mistrusted anyone who tied his tie with a Windsor knot. It showed too much vanity. It was often the mark of a cad.”

J.J. Hunsecker hit the screen that same year wearing a Windsor knot, and it’s fitting that this almost proudly untrustworthy character would knot his tie in a manner that makes even James Bond suspicious. J.J.’s light silk tie is so finely woven that the finished effect is shiny like satin. The tie, often colored to look silver, has only a slight contrast against his light-colored shirt. The blade perfectly meets the trouser waistband at the natural waist.

J.J.’s feet almost never appear on screen, but the shoes that he wears with this same outfit in the promotional artwork for It’s a Wonderful World appear to be brown leather cap-toe oxfords.

A lobby card with a promotional photo from this scene reveals a pair of light-colored socks, probably light gray, that would have otherwise been hidden under the full break of the trouser bottoms.

Steve Dallas (Martin Milner) and Frank D’Angelo (Sam Levene) can’t escape the powerful presence of J.J. Hunsecker, even before entering his studio.

J.J. wears a yellow gold dress watch, possibly Lancaster’s own. The watch has a rectangular case with a square white dial on a black leather strap.

J.J. prepares for a broadcast.

First manufactured by Shuron Ltd. under the “Ronsir” brand in 1947, browline glasses had been in fashion for nearly a decade by the time famously Lancaster donned his black-framed pair in Sweet Smell of Success. Mackendrick had requested that Lancaster wear his own browline glasses, giving him the presence of “a scholarly brute” and enhancing the effect by supposedly spearing a thin layer of Vaseline over the lenses to prevent Lancaster from focusing his eyes as he judges his world with a perpetually blank gaze, as described in James Naremore’s Sweet Smell of Success: A BFI Film Classic.

Like the watchful eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg in The Great Gatsby, J.J.’s eyes are forever judging the characters in his orbit through his spectacles.

The bold upper frames of Lancaster’s browline glasses also gave Mackendrick the opportunity to shape the character, filming an overhead-lit Lancaster from a low angle with a wide lens, causing the frames to cast shadows over his eyes.

Go Big or Go Home

Fresh from duly intimidating his sister’s unworthy suitor, J.J. heads to 21 Club with Sidney Falco reliably in tow. Named for its address, 21 West 52nd Street, the 21 Club dates back to its speakeasy origins during the early days of Prohibition in the 1920s. The eatery quickly gained prominence as the favored hot spot for luminaries ranging from Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, and Marilyn Monroe to Ernest Hemingway, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Aristotle Onassis. Every U.S. president since FDR (except for W.) has dined at 21, and John F. Kennedy was such a frequent visitor that he had a private wine collection stored there.

.. in short, it’s the sort of place that’s perfect for a see-and-be-seen columnist like J.J. Hunsecker to hold court.

J.J. enjoys his usual 21 Club lunch of Gibson martinis and raw oysters.

J.J.’s preferred cigarette brand, English Ovals, dates back to 1854 as the first brand manufactured by London tobacconist Philip Morris.

More than a century later, the brand had been popularized as the cigarette-of-choice for Frank Costello, “the Prime Minister of the Underworld,” himself a regular patron of the 21 Club as Gay Talese recalls: “Even in jail, Costello baffled the law. He continued to smoke English Ovals, although nobody knew how he smuggled them in. He ate steak – ebony on the outside, claret on the inside – just as he’d ordered it at 21…”

How to Get the Look

J.J. Hunsecker unashamedly dresses to look powerful and intimidating, unafraid to appear untrustworthy and taking full advantage of using the contemporary fashions of the ’50s to flatter his strong physique.

• Medium-dark gray flannel full-cut suit:
  • Double-breasted 4-on-1-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front high-rise trousers with slim belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Pale blue-gray dress shirt with large semi-spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Large square diamond cuff links
• Silver silk tie
• Slim brown leather belt with small square single-prong buckle
• Brown leather cap-toe oxfords/balmoral shoes
• Light gray socks
• Black plastic-framed “browline” eyeglasses
• Gold dress watch with square white dial and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

I’d hate to take a bite outta you. You’re a cookie full of arsenic.

Jack Nicholson as Francis “Frank” Costello in The Departed (2006)

Vitals

Jack Nicholson as Francis “Frank” Costello, sadistic Irish-American mob boss

Boston, Summer 2006

Film: The Departed
Release Date: October 6, 2006
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell

Background

To celebrate Jack Nicholson’s 80th birthday today, April 22, BAMF Style is looking at an iconic role from his latter career as crime boss Francis “Frank” Costello in The Departed. Nicholson reportedly wanted “a little something more” for his character*, and elements of real-life Boston mobster Whitey Bulger were incorporated into Jack’s eccentric and erratic character.

This brief but memorable scene, featuring Nicholson in some timely springtime pastels, was filmed June 28, 2005 at the Long Wharf in Boston. Two of Massachusetts’ finest, Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg), are monitoring Costello’s movements and decide to show their face.

What’d He Wear?

This outfit is one of the more conservative of Costello’s increasingly chaotic wardrobe choices, which include a seersucker blazer with a purple polo shirt, a leopard-print tie  with a Glen plaid jacket, and a leopard-print robe (in case he didn’t drive home his animal print fervor strongly enough.)

Nicholson’s desire for his character to jump from the screen extended to his wardrobe as well, as costume designer Sandy Powell explained*: “Basically everybody else is in ordinary street clothes in neutral tones of black, brown, gray, and beige. Originally, we were just going to make Nicholson’s Frank Costello blend in, but after meeting Jack, it was obvious he wanted to take the look a little more to the extreme in terms of color and design. Costello is a guy who has so much power, he can wear whatever he wants and no one would dare question it. So we definitely had more leeway with his character’s wardrobe.”

A hallmark of Costello’s appearance is that his outfit would be congruous if not for one bold item that launches it into chaos; with his Glen plaid jacket, it’s the leopard-print tie, and with his seersucker blazer, it’s the bright fuchsia polo. As he strolls along the Long Wharf, Costello’s relatively traditional outfit of a white shirt, navy striped silk tie, and khakis is thrown off by a lavender jacket. A navy blazer or matching khaki suit jacket would have been the obvious outer layer, but Francis Costello is never one to take the obvious route.

Costello is unnerved – albeit briefly – when confronted by Queenan and Dignam.

Costello’s lavender linen sportcoat is single-breasted with notch lapels that roll down to the two smoked mother-of-pearl front buttons. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, single rear vent, and four buttons on each cuff that match the two on the front.

Beyond the jacket, Costello’s attire consists mostly of conventional menswear staples. His white cotton poplin dress shirt has a semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs with a second button to close the gauntlets.

Costello’s tie consists of a repeating pattern of three thin beige, white, and beige stripes running left-down-to-right over a navy jacquard silk ground.

Costello wears khaki gabardine trousers with a full cut that appear to be aided by darts to comfortably curve over Nicholson’s hips. Nicholson wears the trousers low, below his waist line and stomach. They have curved on-seam side pockets and jetted back pockets. His espresso brown leather belt has a curved gold single-prong buckle.

A production photo of Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Jack Nicholson shooting the shit on set.

Costello’s dark brown cow leather moc-toe penny loafers coordinate with his belt, worn with dark taupe dress socks.

(Left) Costello makes his date with the angels.
(Right) A contemplative Nicholson sits on location at the Long Wharf.

Costello’s all-brown sunglasses appear to be the Revo “Transport” model with brown alloy frames and “terra” brown polarized lenses. They’ve been discontinued in the years since The Departed but can still be found from online retailers like Amazon or Sierra Trading Post.

Throughout The Departed, Frank Costello wears two distinctive rings on his left hand, a white gold twist ring on the third finger and a yellow gold twisted knot ring on his pinky.

Sunnies and cell phone in hand, Costello shares some insight for Colin about the future prospects of “Little Miss Freud’s ass.”

Costello also wears a distinctive digital watch that has been identified by Glenn Moller* as a Nike Big Al “D-Line” WC0001-001. The digital display is flush with the aluminum links, looking more like a bracelet than a traditional wristwatch. The expanding aluminum links are elasticized on a black urethane band. Costello wears the digital model, but an analog version is currently still available on Amazon (as of April 2017) for $150. You might also have some luck on eBay.

How to Get the Look

Jack being Jack. On set in Boston, 2005.
Note that the photographed jacket looks pinker than the lavender garment of the finished film.

In The Departed, Jack Nicholson’s clothing illustrates how just one item – say, a bold pastel sport coat – can totally change the look of an otherwise traditional and conservative outfit into something much bolder.

• Lavender linen single-breasted 2-button sportcoat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, long single vent, and smoked mother-of-pearl buttons
• White cotton poplin dress shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, button cuffs
• Navy jacquard silk over-striped tie
• Khaki gabardine flat front trousers with belt loops, curved on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark brown leather belt with curved gold single-prong buckle
• Dark brown cow leather moc-toe penny loafers
• Taupe dress socks
• Revo “Transport” brown alloy-framed sunglasses with terra brown polarized lenses
• White gold twist ring
• Yellow gold twisted knot ring
• Nike Big Al “D-Line” WC0001-001 aluminum digital sport watch on expanding link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Excuse me, I’ve got a date with some angels.

Footnote

This outfit, and Nicholson’s unapologetic on-set presence, were beautifully chronicled by James Devaney for Getty Images. These images can be found in the below gallery and also offer some additional insight and details into this idiosyncratic outfit.

Al Pacino as Ricky Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Vitals

Al Pacino as Ricky Roma, ace real estate closer

New York (or maybe Chicago…), September 1992

Film: Glengarry Glen Ross
Release Date: October 2, 1992
Director: James Foley
Costume Designer: Jane Greenwood

Background

This is a big week for iconic actor birthdays! Today is the 77th birthday of Al Pacino, born April 25, 1940 in New York.

After a dormant post-Scarface career through most of the ’80s, Pacino shot back onto the screen in the following decade, returning to the part that made him famous as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part III and taking on the role of confident and cut-throat real estate salesman Richard Roma in Glengarry Glen Ross from a screenplay adapted by David Mamet of his own Pulitzer- and Tony-winning 1984 play.

The ultimate closer, Roma has no need to be in the office while the rest of his colleagues are being berated by the gold Rolex-wearing “motivational speaker” sent by their corporate office. Roma has his own style, balancing a temperament that can range from smooth to explosive as he manages to close a large sale to a drunken bar mate (Jonathan Pryce) over drinks.

Pacino’s portrayal of the ruthless but loyal Ricky Roma led to a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at that year’s Academy Awards, the same year that he won Best Actor for Scent of a Woman.

What’d He Wear?

Ricky Roma stands out from his fellow neutral-toned salesmen in a flashy take on a “summer power suit” for a long night at the local bar closing deals over Cutty Sark. Roma is clearly a fashionable guy, as his suit suffers from putting trendy before timeless, but his outfit can serve as inspiration for  reinterpretation 25 years later in the form of an ensemble like this.

You’d think a guy doing as well as Ricky Roma would drink something higher shelf than Cutty Sark, but hey, the guy likes what he likes.

Roma’s suit is cream silk with a subtle white pinstripe. You need look no further than the vast suit jacket if you’re looking for examples of the worst in ’90s sartorial excess: everything about this large and loose jacket is elongated, from the length itself to the long lapels down to the low buttoning point where Roma’s suit jacket closes on only one of the six buttons.

The jacket otherwise maintains the usual style points of a double-breasted suit jacket with sharp peak lapels, a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and a ventless back. There are four buttons on each cuff. The trousers are pleated and worn with a slim dark leather belt that has a small gold-toned single-prong buckle.

Ricky Roma: a man made for his era.

Roma wears a navy silk shirt with a front placket and squared button cuffs. It’s miraculous that Roma doesn’t remove his jacket, because you know that shirt is unflatteringly billowing out over the waistline.

The burgundy tonal-grid silk tie coordinates nicely with the red color scheme of the China Bowl restaurant where the salesmen drown their sorrows. It is tied long with a small four-in-hand knot buried under the leaves of the shirt’s slim point collar.

Two of my all-time favorite actors, Al Pacino and Jack Lemmon, sharing the screen as The Closer and The Loser.

On his right pinky, Roma flashes a yellow gold ring with a triple stone set up of a diamond, ruby, and diamond.

If that’s not enough to signal that this guy is a closer, his left wrist is adorned by a gold Rolex DateJust wristwatch with a white dial and a two-tone Jubilee bracelet.

His clothes are all silk, his jewelry is all diamonds and gold, and he has to go flashing a wad like that at the bar? We get it, Ricky Roma, you’re doing well for yourself.

Rolex watches are clearly a big deal in the Glengarry Glen Ross universe as the aggressively arrogant Blake (Alec Baldwin) proudly flashed his yellow gold Day-Date as an indicator of his status.

How to Get the Look

A hot shot closer like Ricky Roma puts fashion and luxury before function and legacy, sporting a contemporary summer suit with stylish potential that is undone by its deference to early ’90s trends.

• Cream silk pinstripe suit:
  • Double-breasted 6-on-1-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Pleated trousers with belt loops
• Navy blue silk shirt with slim point collar, front placket, and squared button cuffs
• Burgundy tonal-grid silk tie
• Slim dark leather belt with small gold-toned square single-prong buckle
• Yellow gold pinky ring with two diamonds and a ruby
• Rolex DateJust gold wristwatch with white dial on a two-tone Jubilee bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

You ever take a dump made you feel like you’d just slept for twelve hours?

Footnote

Following The Departed on Saturday, this is the second BAMF Style post in a row to feature a film where Alec Baldwin offers a brief but memorable appearance.

Michael Douglas as Nick Curran in Basic Instinct (1992)

Vitals

Michael Douglas as Nick Curran, suspended homicide detective

San Francisco, April 1991

Film: Basic Instinct
Release Date: March 20, 1992
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick

Background

Nick Curran’s investigation gets increasingly personal the deeper he looks, taking him all over hte Bay Area from Cloverdale and Berkeley to Salinas and back to San Francisco as he researches details about the elusive “Lisa Hoberman”‘s history with seductive murder suspect Catherine Trammell (Sharon Stone).

Due to his suspension, Curran is working off-the-clock, dressing down from his professional daywear to provide a perfect example of a stylish cop’s attire for Casual Friday.

What’d He Wear?

This casual off-duty outfit is similar to a look that would be popularized more than a decade later by David Duchovny on Californication and very appropriately so as the sex-obsessed Hank Moody shares plenty in common with the depraved Nick Curran.

Both his on- and off-duty outfits are anchored by a dark olive suede single-breasted sportcoat, likely also a Cerruti 1881 piece like his suits. This jacket blends traditional sporty details like the patch pockets on the breast and hips with very contemporary early ’90s styling like the wide padded shoulders and widely-notched lapels that sharply taper down to the low two-button stance. There are three buttons on each cuff and the back is ventless.

A suede sport jacket is a good investment that balances work wear and weekend wear.

Curran’s charcoal off-duty shirt is darker than his dress shirts but made by Douglas’s preferred shirtmaker Anto Beverly Hills using the same end-on-end cotton cloth with a light and luxuriously silky finish from the alternating light and dark warp and weft threads. It has a point collar, worn open with the top two white plastic buttons undone down the shirt’s plain front.

Curran wears the same medium-light blue wash jeans as he did with his black nylon bomber jacket, with the familiar red tag on the back pocket and the straight leg indicating that these may be the Levi’s 505™ Regular Fit jeans in “medium stonewash”.

The 505 is still available from the Levi’s site, which describes them as “The original zip fly jeans. First created in 1967, the 505™ Regular Fit Jeans are one of our most popular straight fits, and work for all body types.” You can also find the Levi’s 505 on Amazon.

As the film was made in the early ’90s, Curran spends much of his type hopping in and out of some of Detroit’s most boxy automotive offerings, from his Fox-platform Mustang to Gus’s “bustle-back” Cadillac.

Curran’s brown leather belt coordinates with his shoes, a pair of chestnut brown suede desert boots worn with black socks. These desert boots are evidently his off-duty footwear, also worn with his black nylon bomber jacket.

This jacket also makes a brief appearance the previous day at the office, a situation calling for the more professional dress code of a tie and trousers. Curran breaks his blue dress shirt pattern by sporting a taupe cotton shirt with a point collar, front placket, and button cuffs. His tie is the same navy silk tie with the tan micro-foulard pattern that he previously wore with his taupe silk suit.

While looking restrained under questioning (left), Michael Douglas appears to be offering a forceful aria during a day at the office (right).

Curran’s work trousers are dark brown, likely styled with double reverse pleats and plain-hemmed bottoms and worn with what appears to be the same brown leather belt.

His work day is sunnier than the following day, so he accessorizes with his usual big black-framed aviator sunglasses with wide brown lenses and thin frames.

Promotional photo of Michael Douglas in Basic Instinct.

Nick Curran’s plain stainless watch has a white dial and a steel expanding bracelet, strapped to his left wrist.

Yikes!

How to Get the Look

Nick Curran provides an effective primer how to combine casual and professional wardrobe elements for a cool, dressed-down weekend outfit.

• Dark olive suede single-breasted 2-button sportcoat with wide notch lapels, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 3-button cuffs and ventless back
• Charcoal lightweight cotton shirt with open point collar, plain front with white buttons, and button cuffs
• Medium blue stonewash Levi’s 505 Regular Fit straight-leg denim jeans
• Dark brown leather belt with single-prong buckle
• Chestnut brown suede desert boots
• Black socks
• Stainless steel wristwatch with round white dial on steel expanding bracelet
• Black thin-framed oversized aviator sunglasses with brown lenses

The Gun

Forced to give up his own when suspended, Curran arms himself with his partner Gus’s Glock 17 for a confrontation toward the end.

Curran aims Gus’s Glock 17 during a stressful encounter.

Interestingly, the San Francisco Police Department was still armed with 4″-barreled Smith & Wesson Model 28-2 Highway Patrol revolvers chambered in .357 Magnum in 1992. Two years later, officers would switch to the department’s first semi-automatic pistol, the Beretta 96G in .40 S&W. To the best of my knowledge, Glock pistols have never been issued by SFPD.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas (1990)

Vitals

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito, volatile and violent Mafia associate

New York, Spring 1979

Film: Goodfellas
Release Date: September 19, 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

We always called each other “good fellas.” Like you said to somebody, “You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.” You understand? We were good fellas. Wiseguys.

The line may have been an afterthought to explain the new Goodfellas title after Scorsese was unable to use the book’s original Wiseguy title, but it provides the perfect context and framework for Tommy DeVito prepping for his “made man” ceremony, especially against the optimistic driving piano exit of Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla”.

Of course, little does Tommy know that he’s in for the ultimate case of the [Mafia] Mondays…

What’d He Wear?

This isn’t the first Mafia “made man” ceremony covered in BAMF Style, so we know from Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos that this is a time for an ambitious mafioso to look his best…and shoot his cuffs.

Tommy DeVito has a closet full of sharp silk suits and jackets that we’ve seen throughout Goodfellas, but this is the most prominent appearance of this sportcoat in black and white Glen Urquhart plaid silk with a blue overcheck.

The details of the jacket are proportional for Joe Pesci’s 5’4″ height such as the single-button closure and the short double vents, a more flattering style for a shorter guy than the exaggeratedly long vents that were characteristic of late ’70s jackets. Esquire’s The Handbook of Style suggests single-button jackets for “the short guy” as it lengthens the silhouette and “the deep V will give length to your torso,” although Pesci doesn’t take full advantage of that since he wears his jacket open.

The single-breasted jacket has wide-notched lapels and a single blue-gray button that fastens at his waist line, but Tommy wears his jacket unbuttoned and open. The jacket has sporty slanted flap pockets over the hips and a welted breast pocket for his black satin display kerchief. At the end of each sleeve is the same distinctive 1″ turnback cuff that differentiates most, if not all, of Tommy’s jackets in the film, accented by two non-functioning buttons.

Tommy preps for his big day.

Tommy’s white shirt has thin white satin stripes for a touch of contrast. It has a front placket, a box-pleated breast pocket with Tommy’s monogram, and double (French) cuffs that he fastens with a set of gold ball cuff links.

This shirt features the same long point collar distinctive to Mafioso in Scorsese’s films. This collar, marketed alternatively as a “Goodfella collar” or “Tony collar” by some retailers, has an almost non-existent spread with a consistently narrow tie space between the long collar leaves. His wide black silk tie thus appears to explode out from the collar as the knot is almost completely hidden by the collar.

Speaking of exploding… the black and white tones of his outfit make Tommy’s blood all the more jarring as the stark red splashes all over his clothing.

Tommy wears black silk flat front trousers with a high rise that perfectly meets his jacket’s fastening button and his tie blade at his waist. The trousers have a fitted waistband, worn sans belt. The trousers’ plain-hemmed bottoms are worn over the decoratively stitched shafts of his black leather cowboy boots, a fitting choice for Tommy in terms of both form (evocative of his wild “cowboy” reputation) and function (adding an inch or two of height).

Crime doesn’t pay!

Tommy wears all of his gold jewelry on his left hand, a square-cased wristwatch and a diamond pinky ring.

The Dressed-Down Polo

This jacket makes a brief appearance earlier in the film when Tommy meets Henry and Jimmy at the Department of Probation to discuss their burgeoning cocaine business. (Odd choice of venue, no?)

Tommy dresses down his jacket, wearing a black knit long-sleeve polo shirt with a large collar. All other elements, including his black trousers and cowboy boots, remain the same.

Henry got pretty dolled up for his probation officer, didn’t he?

How to Get the Look

The Goodfellas gangsters are frequently colorful dressers, but Tommy dresses for the solemnity of the occasion in subdued but stylish black and white… unknowingly giving his murderers a stark visual palate for his violent murder.

• Black-and-white Glen Urquhart check silk single-breasted single-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 2-button “turnback” cuffs, and short double vents
• White-on-white satin-striped dress shirt with long “Goodfella” point collar, front placket, monogrammed box-pleated breast pocket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold ball cuff links
• Black silk tie
• Black silk flat front high-rise trousers with fitted waistband and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather cowboy boots
• Gold square-cased wristwatch
• Gold diamond pinky ring

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Footnote

Fans of Goodfellas know that Joe Pesci’s character, Tommy DeVito, was primarily based on real life mobster Thomas “Two-Gun Tommy” DeSimone, a burly associate of the Lucchese crew who shared Pesci’s on-screen temperament if not his physical characteristics.

The real DeSimone was killed in the months following the December 1978 Lufthansa heist in relatively similar circumstances as his on-screen death in Goodfellas. “It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things,” explains Henry’s on-screen narration, although Hill himself didn’t explain the “lot of other things” until his 1994 book Gangsters and Goodfellas.

Already unpopular among mob leadership for his violent volatility, DeSimone sealed his fate by attempting to rape Karen Hill, not only the wife of then-imprisoned associate Henry Hill but also the mistress of capo Paul Vario. Vario went to the Gambino crew, explaining that Tommy had killed two of its members without permission and developing the plan to lure DeSimone to his death under the pretense that he will be formally inducted as a “made man”.

Hill accompanied Jimmy Burke to Florida in the last week of 1978 with DeSimone remaining in New York for his supposed ceremony. Burke called from Florida to ask about the ceremony and, as seen in Goodfellas, reacted to the news of Tommy’s murder with overwhelming sadness, slamming the phone down and crying. Hill posits that the notorious John Gotti, who had been a personal friend to one of Tommy’s victims, was the actual triggerman.

Henry’s narration in Goodfellas explains that “they even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn’t give him an open coffin at the funeral,” but the actual corpse was never discovered. Tommy’s wife Cookie reported him missing on January 14, 1979, a few weeks after the last time she had seen him. By that time, Burke had already started his wave of post-Lufthansa killings that would lead to a dozen violent deaths of mob associates and their girlfriends, including DeSimone’s mistress Theresa Ferrara, a former fashion model found dismembered in Barnegat Inlet the following month.

The Quote

Oh, n-

Frank Sinatra as Mike Connor in High Society (1956)

Vitals

Frank Sinatra as Macauley “Mike” Connor, swaggering tabloid reporter

Newport, Rhode Island, Summer 1956

Film: High Society
Release Date: July 17, 1956
Director: Charles Walters
Costume Designer: Helen Rose

Background

BAMF Style is fulfilling a timely request from Ryan to explore the puppytooth jacket, pink shirt, and tie worn by Frank Sinatra for his early scenes in High Society, the 1956 remake of The Philadelphia Story that found Sinatra acting with his idol, Bing Crosby. The film lives up to its title with an abundance of luxury cars, opulent homes, and plenty of champagne.

Though set in summer, Sinatra’s ensemble is a nice bold springtime look as the April showers turn to May flowers.

What’d He Wear?

In 1964’s ABC of Men’s Fashion, Hardy Amies describes dogtooth check as “a small zig-zaggy broken check, most effective in plain, contrasting colors such as black and white.” Also known as houndstooth or “pied-de-poule,” this duotone tessellated textile pattern traces its origins in the Scottish highlands.

In High Society, Frank Sinatra wears a jacket in a smaller-scaled houndstooth check often referred to as “puppytooth.” The subtlety of puppytooth check can make it a less flashy alternative to traditional houndstooth and can even appear solid gray from a distance, the perfect choice for Mike’s summer weekend at Newport where he has to look casual yet luxurious while making a good enough impression on the Lord clan to get his story.

Mike shares a moment with Tracy.

The full cut of the 1950s could threaten to overwhelm a skinny man like Sinatra, but the jacket is well-tailored – likely by Sy Devore, his preferred tailor at the time – to flatter his physique rather than swamp him like the overly baggy jackets of the late 1980s. The darted jacket has wide, padded shoulders, high armholes, and a single back vent.

The single-breasted jacket has widely-notched lapels that roll to two gray plastic front buttons. The jacket’s closed quarters were characteristic of the ’50s, thought they’re more flattering for a slim man like Sinatra as he doesn’t look as bottom-heavy as a more corpulent gent would. The straight hip pockets are positioned below his waist, lined up with the lower of the two buttons, and closed with wide flaps. He wears a white linen kerchief in his welted breast pocket.

Liz Imbrie (Celeste Holm) leads Mike in song.

Sinatra’s light pink oxford cloth shirt injects a nice touch of bold yet subtle color to break up the monotony of his grayscale outfit. Like Cary Grant’s distinctive shirts in Notorious, this shirt has the seemingly incongruous combination of a button-down collar and double (French) cuffs.

The large button-down collar, very American with its Brooks Brothers origins, signals informality while the double cuffs – albeit soft ones – indicate a more formal approach to dressing. The incongruity fits with the setting: casual yet classy and definitively American.

Sinatra fastens his double cuffs with a set of dark onyx square links with rounded corners.

Spy Magazine‘s finest.

The thick black knit tie fills the collar space with a large Windsor knot.

Always a prankster…

The wider blade of the tie perfectly meets the fastening button of his jacket and the trouser waistband at Sinatra’s natural waist. He wears the menswear staple of dark gray flannel trousers, here with belt loops, side pockets, and the contemporary fashion details of reverse pleats and wide cuffs.

Mike experiences differing levels and types of discomfort at the Lord estate.

Mike coordinates his black leather belt to his shoes, a pair of black leather tassel loafers, a relatively new entry to the menswear arena after actor Paul Lukas commissioned his first pair from Alden in 1948. Sinatra’s loafers are likely also from Alden as no other manufacturers made the shoe until Brooks Brothers introduced its own tasseled slip-on in 1957. He wears his with black dress socks.

Mike makes the rounds.

This being Sinatra, the outfit isn’t complete without a hat for the outdoor scenes. He wears a black pork pie made from Milan straw with a wide white pleated puggaree ribbon. A few years later, Frank would be illustrated wearing a very similar hat for the cover of his masterful 1958 concept album Come Fly with Me.

In a 2001 forum, Nancy Sinatra herself weighed in to confirm that this is almost definitely from Cavanagh, the hatmaker mentioned to be Frank’s favorite in Bill Zehme’s seminal The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Living.

One of Sinatra’s iconic straw porkpie hats, seen on-screen and fooling around for Grace Kelly’s camera behind the scenes.

Mike’s gold tank watch can be spied under his left shirt cuff, strapped to his wrist on a black leather bracelet.

Go Big or Go Home

Sinatra may be the first name that pops into your head when you think of iconic drinkers, but I wouldn’t recommend his tactic of singing to bartenders. In addition to the decreased chance of better service, there’s also a far increased chance of being removed from whatever drinking establishment you’re patronizing at the time.

I always liked that Scotch decanter behind the bar…

How to Get the Look

Mike Connor attempts to make up for his boorish attitude with a colorful and classy outfit, perfect for a spring or summer weekend spent hobnobbing among the rich and famous.

• Black-and-white puppytooth check single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single back vent
• Light pink oxford shirt with large button-down collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Dark onyx rounded-corner square cuff links
• Thick black knit tie
• Dark gray flannel reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Slim black leather belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather tassel loafers
• Black dress socks
• Gold tank-style dress watch on black leather strap
• Black Milan straw porkpie hat with wide white pleated puggaree band

For a stylish finishing touch, Mike wears a classic white linen pocket square.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Inbreeding always produces idiots.

Sean Connery as James Bond in You Only Live Twice (1967)

Vitals

Sean Connery as James Bond, sophisticated British MI6 agent

Miyazaki, Japan, Summer 1966

Film: You Only Live Twice
Release Date: June 13, 1967
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Wardrobe Master: Eileen Sullivan
Tailor: Anthony Sinclair

Background

Sean Connery’s wardrobe as James Bond is remembered for its timeless elegance, developed for his first appearance as the character in Dr. No. The elements of Connery’s Bond style generally differed from Ian Fleming’s literary vision, with Connery often sporting gray suits rather than blue, long-sleeve shirts rather than short-sleeved, and derby shoes rather than non-laced casuals.

However, there are a few occasions where Connery’s 007 sartorially overlapped with Fleming’s vision. His dark blue suit when visiting Osato’s Tokyo office in You Only Live Twice thus serves as an appropriate post for the 00-7th of May, Ian Fleming’s birth month.

This is some of the closest that Connery’s Bond ever came to Fleming’s sartorial vision for 007, even down to the “thick comma” of hair above his eyebrow.

What’d He Wear?

Ian Fleming’s Bond was a very practical dresser, a minimalist who would have hardly approved of the designer wardrobes from Brioni and Tom Ford that line the expansive closets of Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig’s interpretations of the character. (For more on the literary James Bond’s clothing, check out my May 2014 post.)

007’s daily business suit was stipulated by Fleming to be “dark blue tropical worsted,” mentioned specifically in Diamonds are Forever and Dr. No. This description is very telling as the nine novels and stories that describe this suit refer it only as “dark blue” and rather than “navy” (other than a reference to the “dark blue trousers of navy serge” in Moonraker, which refers to the naval-oriented material rather than the color.)

For his meeting with Osato in You Only Live Twice, Sean Connery wears a lightweight wool suit in dark blue, not quite navy, that comes the closest of all of the Connery Bond suits to Fleming’s sartorial vision.

Connery’s single-breasted suit jacket is also distinctive for its single-breasted front. This would be the first appearance of the then-fashionable single-button closure on a non-dinner jacket for Bond (Roger Moore would later wear a single-button jacket with his cream summer suit in Moonraker and Pierce Brosnan’s striped charcoal three-piece suit in The World is Not Enough also had a single-button front.) The single-button also reflects the minimalist simplicity of Fleming’s Bond, although the author never stipulated just how many buttons were on the front of Bond’s suit jackets.

The single-button closure is perfectly placed at Connery’s natural waist for a flattering fit as Connery’s midsection started to expand.

The suit jacket remains otherwise consistent with the details we expect from Connery’s beautifully tailored “Conduit Cut” suits from Anthony Sinclair: the narrow notch lapels, natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads, and a full chest with a suppressed waist. The straight hip pockets are flapped, the welted breast pocket has no pocket square, and both sleeves have four buttons spaced on the cuffs.

Bond checks out Osato’s distinctive office decor.

The elements of Connery’s trousers that have followed him since his first “Conduit Cut” suit in Dr. No were less stylish by 1967, particularly the pleated front and the cuffs.

Despite the fashion-forwardness of his jacket, Connery still retains these more traditional elements on his double forward-pleated suit trousers in You Only Live Twice, with the same tapered leg, cuffed bottoms, and three-button “Daks top” side adjusters that we associate with the Connery Bond of the ’60s.

A rough day at the docks for 007.

This suit would be the last appearance of Connery’s traditional pale blue shirt and navy silk tie that had been a staple of his 007 look since Dr. No in 1962. The poplin shirt from Turnbull & Asser has a spread collar, front placket, and two-button turnback cuffs (or “cocktail cuffs”) that Connery’s Bond popularized.

Straightening his tie, adjusting his cuffs… Bond always finds time for a wardrobe adjustment after a major action sequence.

Connery’s slim solid silk ties in the ’60s alternated between grenadine ties (in Dr. No, From Russia With Love, and Thunderball) and silk knit ties (in Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice); his silk knitted tie in this scene is navy, a shade darker than the blue of his suit and certainly evocative of the “thin black knitted silk tie” described in Fleming’s novels.

Composed and cool in Osato’s office.

In Moonraker, the third of his Bond novels, Ian Fleming described Bond’s “black moccasin shoes.” The closest that Connery’s Bond ever came to this casual footwear are these black grain leather slip-on shoes that he, appropriately enough, wears with this Fleming-esque blue suit in You Only Live Twice. Though the shoes’ plain toes prevent them from being true moccasin-style loafers like Fleming had envisioned, they certainly reflect the same comfortable, informal spirit of a man who “abhors shoe laces” (as we learned in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service).

Connery wears black ribbed dress socks with his loafers.

Bond holds his feet to the fire.

He also carries a navy felt trilby into the meeting but never actually wears it on his head.

Much like You Only Live Twice broke from Bond tradition by never featuring the hero wearing a tuxedo or behind the wheel of a car, it was also the first of the official films to not prominently feature Bond’s wristwatch. Connery’s Rolex Submariner had indeed received prominent screen time in Dr. No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and Thunderball. Here, barely glimpsed under his left shirt cuff, is the Gruen Precision 510 dress watch that Dell Deaton identified on his informative site, James Bond Watches.

For more about this suit and outfit, check out Matt Spaiser’s blog post on The Suits of James Bond.

How to Get the Look

Hey, that’s no Walther PPK!

You Only Live Twice incorporated many style elements of Ian Fleming’s literary James Bond, blended with the trends of a later decade and the template set for Sean Connery’s 007 to deliver a fashionable and fitting summer business suit for Bond’s visit to Osato’s office.

• Dark blue lightweight wool “Conduit Cut” tailored business suit:
  • Single-breasted 1-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, spaced 4-button cuffs, and long single vent
  • Double forward-pleated trousers with 3-button “Daks top” side adjusters, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Pale blue poplin dress shirt with spread collar, front placket, and 2-button turnback/”cocktail” cuffs
• Navy blue knitted silk tie
• Black grain leather plain-toe slip-on shoes/loafers
• Black ribbed dress socks
• Navy felt trilby
• Gruen Precision 510 yellow gold dress watch

Bond’s blue suit in You Only Live Twice would be the last Fleming-esque blue-suited outfit of the series for decades until Daniel Craig’s sharkskin suit for a Moroccan gunfight in Spectre, which I’ll be featuring in a few weeks as we get closer to Ian Fleming’s birthday.

The Gun

Even non-firearm enthusiasts knew by You Only Live Twice that James Bond famously carried a Walther PPK in his shoulder holster. In fact, the year after the film was released, Walther developed the PPK/S model for importation to the United States after the passing of the Gun Control Act of 1968. The U.S. was Walther’s largest market for the PPK, doubtlessly due to its popularity as Bond’s sidearm of choice, so the Walther PPK/S was developed to meet the parameters for legal importation into the country.

It’s thus very questionable that Blofeld would be able to deduce from Osato’s x-ray machine that: “only one person we know uses this sort of gun: James Bond.” Not only is this a very silly supposition due to the fact that this is one of the most popular firearms in the world, but also because two of Blofeld’s own SPECTRE agents – Vargas and Count Lippe – had used their own Walther PPK pistols in the previous film, Thunderball, and Dr. No had established the PPK as the well-known sidearm of the CIA!

Look out, Q, Osato’s got some fancy gadgets as well.

The confusion is compounded in the following scene, when Bond draws his sidearm for a gunfight at the port of Kobe and it isn’t a Walther PPK at all, but rather appears to be a cosmetically different Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol.

The early Bond films are known for making quite a few forgivable firearm-related errors, but to swap out the hero’s trademark weapon leaves some questions. A PPK had actually been used earlier in the film, so it’s not that the filmmakers didn’t have access to one as was the case for Dr. No.

PPK or not, Bond’s pistol serves him well when he gets into a sticky situation.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Mr. Osato: You should give up smoking. Cigarettes are very bad for your chest.
Helga: Mr. Osato believes in a healthy chest.
Bond: Really?

Yes, Bond, really.

Jean Dujardin as Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

Vitals

Jean Dujardin as Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, suave French agent OSS 117

Cairo, Spring 1955

Film: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
(French title: OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d’espions)
Release Date: April 19, 2006
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Costume Designer: Charlotte David
Tailor: Joseph Kergoat

Background

After exploring the handsome blue suit worn by Sean Connery in that most parodied of 007 flicks, You Only Live Twice, BAMF Style is continuing its theme of debonair international spies in blue suits with a look at Jean Dujardin’s tailored suit in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.

Michel Hazanavicius’ comic reboot of the OSS 117 character also meant a re-identification. In both Jean Bruce’s original novels and its subsequent “serious” cinematic adaptations, Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath was an American agent who graduated from the wartime OSS to the CIA and NSC. The OSS 117 of Hazanavicius’ films retains his character’s name and codename but reimagines him as a quintessentially French secret agent in service of the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE).

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is probably the most fun I’ve ever had in another language. The film parodies both the original OSS 117 series of the ’50s and ’60s as well as Sean Connery’s James Bond and the multitude of Eurospy flicks inspired by the 007 phenomenon although its style and tone are more like a live-action (and French!) Archer than traditional Bond. As far as spy comedies go, OSS 117 is wisely more along the comedic lines of the witty and smart Kingsman: The Secret Service than the flat and family-friendly Get Smart adaptation.

What’d He Wear?

For much of his action in Cairo, Hubert wears a rich marine blue suit in a lightweight wool or a wool-mohair blend, suggested by the suiting’s distinct sheen under certain light. Jean Dujardin’s wardrobe in the film was made by Joseph Kergoat, a Paris tailor who coincidentally began his career around the time of the film’s setting in 1955.

OSS 117 hams it up in a suit beautifully tailored for the occasion.

The suit is styled to reflect the fashions of the late 1950s with a single-breasted jacket cut with a lean chest but a relatively boxy fit through the waist. The notch lapels roll to the top of the three-button front, allowing Hubert to maintain an elegant appearance when wearing the top two buttons fastened. (“Sometimes, always, never” is an easy rule to remember when deciding which buttons to fasten on a three-button jacket.)

The three buttons on the front and the three buttons on each cuff are navy plastic to coordinate with the cyanic suit. The soft shoulders, single vent, and less shaped structure of the jacket is more evocative of the American sack cut than a European suit. The straight hip pockets have flaps, and Hubert wears a neatly folded white linen pocket square in the jacket’s welted breast pocket.

The boxy fit and Hubert’s decision to wear the top two of his three buttons fastened lends him the square appearance of a “super G-man” of the 1950s.

The flat front trousers have a lower rise than one would have found on a genuine 1950s suit. In addition to the straight side pockets along the side seams, there is a jetted pocket on the back right. The legs gently taper down to plain-hemmed bottoms. Hubert wears a black leather belt with a steel single-prong square buckle.

OSS 117 hangs out in Cairo.

Beneath his suit, Hubert wears a Bond-style shoulder holster with a light brown suede harness under his left armpit and a black leather strap that crosses over his right shoulder.

Hubert’s white cotton shirt has a spread collar with a front placket and double (French) cuffs, in which our hero wears a set of gold keystone-shaped cuff links. Each link consists of four gold bars that slightly taper in length to form a keystone shape, bisected by a single gold bar.

A shaken and stirred OSS 117 recovers after his latest misadventure.

Hubert wears two slim silk neckties, both with subtle patterns that prominently incorporate navy to coordinate with his rich blue suit. His first tie is solid navy with muted gray pin dots.

Hubert confers with Larima (Bérénice Bejo).

Later in the film, Hubert wears the same outfit with a blue-on-black jacquard silk tie.

OSS 117 is confronted by a revolver-wielding Raymond Pelletier.

Hubert wears a pair of black calf leather semi-brogue oxfords with a medallion-punched cap toe, bal-type closed lacing with tive eyelets, and black leather soles. His socks are also black.

Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath manages to step in and out of trouble with ease.

The watch that Jean Dujardin wears on screen has been identified as a Tissot Heritage 150 Chronograph, one of a limited run manufactured to celebrate Tissot’s 150th anniversary in 2003.

Inspired by a 1946 Tissot design, this stunning and classic chronograph has a light silver dial with three sub-dials at 9:00, 3:00, and 6:00 with a date window between the latter two. With its gleaming 39.5mm stainless steel case and dark brown alligator leather band, Dujardin is almost certainly wearing the T66.1.712.31 model.

This Tissot Heritage 150 would have originally sold for $3,300; the T66.1.712.31 is currently available from official retailers like Times Circle for just shy of $3,000. The total run of the Tissot Heritage 150 was 10,891: 8,888 stainless, 1,853 gold, and 150 platinum.

How to Get the Look

French promotional art for OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies that features Hubert’s blue suit.

OSS 117 is dressed to the nines during his mission in Cairo, sporting a sharp blue lightweight suit that would have been fashionable at the time that Ian Fleming was dressing his literary James Bond in the 1950s…

• Marine blue lightweight wool/mohair tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Flat front medium-rise trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back right pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton shirt with spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold bisected keystone cuff links
• Narrow navy patterned silk tie
• Black leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Black calf leather 5-eyelet punched cap-toe semi-brogue oxfords/balmorals
• Black dress socks
• Brown suede shoulder holster (RHD) with black leather strap
• Tissot Heritage 150 Chronograph with stainless 39.5mm case, silver dial (with three sub-dials), and dark brown alligator leather strap

The Gun

OSS 117 carries a Walther PP, the original and slightly larger pistol that would be developed into the PPK and  famously carried by James Bond.

Like all the best bumbling spies, OSS 117 finds himself at the point of his own gun by the end of the story.

Like its more famous variant, the Walther PP is a blowback semi-automatic pistol primarily chambered to fire .32 ACP (7.65x17mm) or .380 ACP (9x17mm) ammunition, carrying an extra round of each over the PPK. It was introduced in 1929 as the Polizeipistole (get it?) and quickly grew in popularity among European police forces, including France.

The German disarmament after World War II meant that Walther had to look beyond its German borders. In 1952, Walther licensed production of the PP series of pistols to Manufacture de Machines du Haut-Rhin (Manurhin) in 1952, and all European-made PP series pistols manufactured between that time and 1986 were made at the Manurhin factory in Alsace.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

To think I almost let you make love to me! What a fine mess!

Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in Casino (1995)

Vitals

Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, Vegas casino executive and mob associate

Las Vegas, Spring 1973

Film: Casino
Release Date: November 22, 1995
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Rita Ryack & John A. Dunn

Background

Ever have one of those days where you just feel like you’re surrounded by idiots?

Welcome to the life of Sam “Ace” Rothstein, the meticulous gambler tasked by the Chicago mob with running the Tangiers casino in Las Vegas.  Of course, Rothstein is a fictional interpretation of the real-life Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, but the issues faced by Casino‘s Ace were all too real.

Despite the complications of running a Vegas casino, Ace still found the time to be a hell of a dresser, borrowing a sartorial approach from the real-life Lefty Rosenthal to create ensembles like this creative mix of somber charcoal and bold pastel pink.

Not even inept cowboys or psychotic gangsters can cramp Ace’s style.

What’d He Wear?

Ace wears a charcoal suit in the same style and from the same material, likely a linen/silk blend, as the dark blue suit he wore when kicking the two cheating gamblers out of his casino earlier in the film.

Although it incorporates many elements of ’70s design, Ace’s suit remains relatively timeless while Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) looks like a gaudy time capsule with his flashy silk earth tones and bold details like the excessive lapels and inverted box-pleat pockets.

As one would expect of a perfectionist like Ace, his suit fits perfectly with the single button of his jacket fastening at the waist line, nicely unifying the jacket to the flat front trousers and preventing the unsightly triangle of shirt or tie material below the buttoned jacket. Beneath that, not much of Ace’s trousers are seen, although it’s reasonable to expect that they have slightly flared bottoms finished with plain hems.

The single-breasted jacket has a welted breast pocket, patch pockets on the hips, and a non-functioning single button at the end of each notched cuff. The double vents are appropriately long for the era.

The blue cast of the suit under certain light made me wonder if this was the same suit that Ace wore when expelling the gamblers, but production photos and behind-the-scenes footage seem to prove it to be charcoal (or at least charcoal blue).
Note details like the edge stitching on the lapels, the decorative single-button cuffs, and the long vents.

The jacket’s edge-stitched peak lapels are wide with a full belly and convex break line. The edges of the lapel point to the padded shoulders that work in tandem with the single-button front to give De Niro a flatteringly powerful silhouette.

De Niro wears a pink silk display kerchief folded into his breast pocket, puffing out to call out the shirt and tie, all made by Anto for a coordinated match… again indicative of Ace’s methodical nature.

Ace has no time for petty squabbles in his casino.

All of Ace’s beautifully colorful shirts, ties, and handkerchiefs were made by Anto Beverly Hills, the same shirtmaker that created Lefty Rosenthal’s original bespoke shirts. In this scene, Ace wears a pink soft silk shirt with a matching pink tie made from the shiny satin side of the charmeuse fabric.

The shirt has the same “1977” point collar as his other shirts in addition to a monogrammed breast pocket and “Lapidus” single-button tab cuffs. Based on these features, it likely has a plain front and epaulettes that remain unseen as Ace never removes his jacket or tie during the scene nor does he appear to wear the shirt elsewhere.

Ace puts Nicky in his place…as carefully as he can.

Ace’s jewelry is white gold with blue accents, from the 14-carat ring on his right pinky with an emerald cut aquamarine stone in a geometric polished shank to the 18-carat vintage Bueche Girod wristwatch with its blue square face.

One idiot at a time. Ace flashes his ring, watch, and lit Dunhill cigarette while telling Don Ward (Joe Bob Briggs) how it is.

Unseen through the sequence are Ace’s shoes, although Ibraheem Youssef’s poster depicts them to be pink to match his shirt, tie, and pocket square. Ace likely wore the black leather raised-heel loafers that he wears with many of his suits and sport jackets, but the pink shoes is inspired and certainly on brand with some of Ace’s louder ensembles.

How to Get the Look

By keeping his color scheme limited to two colors – one muted, one bold – Ace can get away with flashy duds like this pink-on-pink shirt and tie combo and still be taken seriously… very seriously.

• Charcoal (or charcoal blue) linen/silk tailored suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 1-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 1-button cuffs, and double vents
  • Flat front trousers with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Pink charmeuse silk dress shirt with long point collar, plain front, and single cuffs
• Pink satin silk tie
• White gold 14-carat cuff links with half bezel set, emerald cut aquamarine stone
• Black leather horsebit slip-on loafers with silver horsebit detail and black raised heels
• Black dress socks
• Bueche Girod 14-carat white gold vintage wristwatch with blue square face
• White gold 14-carat pinky ring with emerald cut, geometric shank-set aquamarine stone
• Pink satin silk display kerchief

Pink is a fine color to channel spring as well as to incorporate into your wardrobe for any upcoming Mother’s Day dinner plans…

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

There are three ways of doing things around here: the right way, the wrong way, and the way that I do it.

Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, armed with his BlackBerry and a Glock in this promotional still from Justified (Episode 1.02: “Riverbrook”)

Vitals

Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, old school Deputy U.S. Marshal

Harlan County, Kentucky, Spring 2010

Series: Justified
Episodes:
– “Riverbrook” (Episode 1.02, Director: Michael Dinner, Air Date: March 23, 2010)
– “The Collection” (Episode 1.06, Director: Rod Holcomb, Air Date: April 20, 2010)
– “Veterans” (Episode 1.11, Director: Tony Goldwyn, Air Date: May 25, 2010)
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designer: Ane Crabtree

Background

In the second episode of Justified, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is assigned the unenviable task of escorting Dewey Crowe (the hilarious Damon Herriman) from jail to prison.

Perhaps to treat himself for taking on such a Herculean test of his patience, Raylan allows himself some gloating at the expense of the recently ventilated Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) and, following Dewey’s successful delivery to the Kentucky State Prison, stops off for some “road food”… and that’s when the action starts.

What’d He Wear?

Before the Justified costume design team settled on his denim trucker jacket, Raylan Givens’ off-duty outerwear was typically an unstructured tan suede sport jacket. (Although it would surely be inaccurately marketed as an “unstructured blazer” in the current menswear climate…)

This jacket only appears during the first season when Ane Crabtree was the show’s costume designer and, even then, predominantly at the outset of the second episode, “Riverbrook” (Episode 1.02). After Patia Prouty took over as the costume designer for the second season onward, it was never seen again.

Raylan’s smirk isn’t long for his face after facing the business end of an escaped convict’s shotgun.

The unstructured jacket has three dark brown buttons down the front, although the short fishmouth-style notch lapels often flap back over the buttons since Raylan always wears it open. Two smaller buttons decorate each cuff.

A reasonable look for anyone’s face upon the realization that some one-on-one time with Dewey Crowe is imminent.

The jacket is fully lined in what appears to be taupe satin-finished rayon. There is a single vent in the back. The three outer pockets are all patch pockets with rounded bottoms. The large hip pockets close with a rectangular flap.

In “Riverbrook” (episode 1.02), Raylan wears an indigo blue chambray shirt with white plastic buttons up the edge-stitched front placket to the collar, worn open with the top two buttons undone to reveal the white ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt beneath it.

The two patch pockets on the chest have mitred bottom corners and close at the top through a white plastic button, and the left pocket has a stitched slot for a pen. Each cuff also closes with a single white plastic button.

The shirt may be a darker version of the medium-sized Merona “denim shirt” included in a 2014 ScreenBid auction lot with another of Raylan’s first season outfits. If so, the choice to place Raylan in a budget shirt from Target’s house brand would be very on brand for the no-nonsense lawman who always puts function before fashion.

As of May 2017, Target currently offers a very similar woven cotton shirt, “Crafted by Lee”, albeit with metal buttons and pocket flaps.

When the jacket reappears in “The Collection” (episode 1.06) and “Veterans” (episode 1.11) later in the season, Raylan is now wearing it with a brown plaid flannel shirt half-buttoned over a beige cotton long-sleeve henley.

The plaid pattern consists of a large-scaled grid of thin beige shadow stripes, windowpaning over the shirt in sets of two spaced out a half-inch apart. The shirt itself has a front placket, flapped chest pockets, and buttoned cuffs.

Raylan confronts Boyd in the U.S. Marshals’ office in “Veterans” (episode 1.11). Note the brown band on his wristwatch, swapped out from the black strap in “Riverbrook” (episode 1.02).

Raylan also wears a pair of classic Levi’s 501 jeans in dark blue stonewashed denim. Advertised by Levi’s as “The Original Button Fly Jean”, the straight-leg 501 jeans would be Raylan’s preferred bottom half for the show’s duration. In addition to the Levi’s site, you can pick up a pair of classic 501s from online retailers like Amazon.

A dazed Raylan.

Raylan’s light brown tooled leather belt is also likely from Levi’s, as his later belts would be, with brown embossed designs and a steel single-prong buckle. He clips his Deputy U.S. Marshal badge to the front of his belt, just to the right of the buckle.

Fixed to the right of his belt, Raylan wears the light brown full-grain leather Bianchi Model 59 Special Agent® thumb break paddle holster, model #19128, for a smooth right-handed draw of his full-size Glock 17.

Raylan is even forced to surrender his backup weapon at the hands of the fugitive criminals in “Riverbook” (episode 1.02), giving viewers a good look at his belt and holster as well as the distinctive red tag of his Levi’s jeans.

The embossed tooling of his brown leather belt coordinates with his slightly darker but equally decorative custom Lucchese cowboy boots in “cigar” brown ostrich leg.

Raylan steps out in “Veterans” (episode 1.11).

After switching between a Rolex and a TAG Heuer in the pilot episode, “Riverbrook” (episode 1.02) establishes the latter as Raylan’s everyday timepiece.

He wears a brushed steel Series 6000 Chronometer with a white dial, switching between a black debossed leather strap (as seen in “Riverbrook”) and a brown alligator strap (as seen with his browner outfit in “The Collection” and “Veterans”).

Career criminal Douglas Cooper (Chris Ellis) immediately finds himself on Raylan’s bad side by purloining the lawman’s treasured cowboy hat, a sahara tan cattleman’s hat in 200XXX beaver, custom made by Baron Hats of Hollywood for their long-time customer and fan Timothy Olyphant to wear on the show.

In addition to the 4.25″ crown and 3.25″ “Prairie Wave” brim, the hat – marketed as The RG by Baron Hats – has a brown hand-tooled 3/8″-wide leather band with a steel Ranger-style buckle on the left.

“Honestly? I tried it on one time, and it fit,” is Raylan’s explanation for his iconic hat when questioned later by Rachel in “Riverbrook” (episode 1.02).

Old school cowboy cop that he is, Raylan also wears a sterling silver horseshoe ring on the third finger of his right hand, channeling the preferred transportation of spiritual forebears like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.

How to Get the Look

Before a layered denim trucker jacket and jeans was firmly established as his standard off-duty look, Raylan Given’s preferred casual attire consisted of this unstructured suede jacket and jeans that, when paired with a cowboy hat and boots, is certainly reminiscent of the traditional Western lawman.

• Tan suede single-breasted unstructured sport jacket with three-button front, short fishmouth notch lapels, patch breast pocket, flapped patch hip pockets, decorative 2-button cuffs, and single back vent
• Indigo blue chambray shirt with front placket (with white plastic buttons), button-through patch pockets on chest, and button cuffs
• Dark blue stonewashed denim Levi’s 501 straight-leg button-fly jeans
• Brown tooled leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Tan full-grain leather Bianchi Model 59 Special Agent® paddle holster for a full-size Glock pistol
• Lucchese cigar-colored brown ostrich leg Western-style boots with decorative stitched calf leather shafts
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt/A-shirt
• Baron Hats “The RG” sahara tan 200XXX beaver cattleman’s hat with a thin tooled leather band
• TAG Heuer Series 6000 Chronometer wristwatch with brushed steel case, white dial, and black alligator strap
• Sterling silver horseshoe ring with braided side detail

I can’t testify personally to its quality, but one of the closest examples I’ve been able to find online is this “Sublime Suede Pickstitch Blazer” (link) from Territory Ahead for $375, although it lacks the patch pockets of Raylan’s jacket.

The Guns

At the sound of a pump shotgun being chambered behind him, Raylan Givens’ hand flies to the Glock 17 worn in a Bianchi holster on the right side of his belt.

“There’s no way in hell you’re gonna be able to draw and fire before your head comes off,” warns the shotgun-toting Cooper behind him. “I could get him,” assures Raylan, indicating the possible fate of the dimwitted Price in front of him.

Raylan doesn’t make much of an effort to conceal the Glock on his belt, but a more experienced crook like Cooper knows that a guy like Raylan is almost certainly carrying a backup piece.

“And your backup,” instructs Cooper, and the not-oft-foiled Raylan is forced to reach behind his back to slowly produce the subcompact Glock 26 pistol that he occasionally is seen carrying as a secondary sidearm.

Raylan is forced to hand over his backup Glock 26.

The Glock 26 was developed in 1995, introduced as a concealed carry alternative aimed for the civilian market. Chambered for 9x19mm Parabellum, the Glock 26 feeds from a standard magazine of 10 rounds, but – like most of Glock’s subcompact pistols – is designed to feed magazines interchangeable between models of the same caliber; thus, the Glock 26 can also feed from the full-size Glock 17’s standard 17-round magazine and the compact Glock 19’s standard 15-round magazine.

The relationship of service and subcompact Glocks can also be found in the film U.S. Marshals (1998), when Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) is forced to hand over both his .40-caliber full-size Glock 22 and its subcompact .40-caliber variant, the Glock 27, as he boards a plane.

In addition to being Raylan’s backup weapon for at least the first four seasons of the show, the Glock 26 is also prominently featured on Justified as the standard sidearm of Deputy U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks (Erica Tazel).

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the entire series. The screenshots featured here are from the first season.

The Quote

What you’ll have to do now is ride the rap, as they say. That’s all anybody has to do.

Robert Redford as Jack Weil in Havana (1990)

Vitals

Robert Redford as Jack Weil, smooth, cynical gambler and U.S. Navy veteran

Havana, December 1958

Film: Havana
Release Date: December 14, 1990
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Designer: Bernie Pollack

Background

Gambling is Jack Weil’s raison d’être. Having arrived in Havana on Christmas Day 1958 to make the most of the city’s poker scene, Weil never anticipated getting caught up in the throes of the Cuban Revolution… unless it would get him laid or make him an extra buck.

Of course, his chance meeting with Roberta Duran (Lena Olin) made both possibilities an enticing reason to help the cause.

Janet Maslin nicely describes Jack Weil’s ethical turning point in her otherwise lukewarm contemporary review for the New York Times:

After Bobby and her husband disappear during a military raid, Jack finds himself playing cards with their captors, perhaps even their killers… There is, in this authentically high stakes game, an irony and forboding that give the film a welcome toughness. “These people want to bring down everything you’re here for!” exclaims one of Jack’s new poker-playing acquaintances, speaking aptly of the imminent revolution.

What’d He Wear?

A sporty lightweight suit is a must for a slick gambler looking to make his mark in a Havana poker game, and Jack Weil is nattily dressed for just that occasion in this tan gabardine suit, styled and tailored similarly to the turquoise suit worn earlier for a night out on the town.

While the turquoise suit ensemble consisted of bold, colorful pastels, this outfit makes use of creamy and brown earth tones from head to toe.

For being such a legendary gambler, Jack’s “poker face” leaves something to be desired.

Redford’s tan gabardine suit from the film, here featured with a navy cotton dress shirt worn with a different outfit in an earlier scene.

Jack’s tan suit gets plenty of wear, primarily for a high stakes, high class poker game in Joe Volpi’s hotel suite. As described by The Golden Closet:

The two piece custom made tan suit has a notch lapel, three patch pockets, two button front closure, and pleated pant with cuff.

Internal Western Costume jacket label with ” 2208-1, Robert Redford, Chest 41, Sleeve 17 1/2, 2A, #1″.

Internal Western Costume pant label with “2208-1, Robert Redford, Waist 32, Inseam 32 1/2, 3A”. Costume tag attached with “1, R.R. Jack, Chg #2, Chg #6”

The sporty patch pockets on the left breast and hips drop the suit’s formality down a level. The back is ventless and there are three buttons at the cuff of each sleeve.

Jack Weil, VIP.

The single-breasted jacket’s low two-button stance is appropriate for the film’s 1950s setting and creates a flattering “V” effect that is accentuated by the wide, padded shoulders that appear on most of Redford’s tailored clothing in his movies.

The lapels have a narrow semi-notch rather than the traditional equilateral notch.

Unshaven and rumpled but still unruffled.

Per the era’s fashions, the trousers have double reverse pleats, cuffed bottoms, and a high enough rise to perfectly meet the jacket at the buttoning point on Redford’s natural waist. Straight pockets are cut along each side seam, and the back pockets are jetted (with a button through the back left pocket.) The bottoms are cuffed.

The trousers’ slim belt loops are positioned about a half-inch down from the top. Jack wears a 1″-wide dark brown leather belt with a gold rectangular box-out buckle.

Production photo of Lena Olin and Robert Redford in Havana with Jack’s snazzy silver Caddy convertible behind them.

Robert Redford, a regular customer of Anto Beverly Hills dating back to the start of his career, wore an array of custom shirts in Havana made by Anto (with a tag from “Nat Wise of London”.)

For his hotel suite poker game, Jack sports a dark chocolate brown cotton shirt with the shaped “Mr. B.” spread collar that Anto used on all of his Havana dress shirts. The fitted shirt has no darts or pleats in the back and closes up the front with large white buttons on a placket. The shirt has a single breast pocket and single-button cuffs, although Jack often unfastens them to roll up his sleeves when not wearing his jacket.

A poker game may call for a coat and tie, but Jack’s solitaire round has a more liberal dress code.

Printed ties were quite fashionable in the 1950s, and a flashy gambler like Jack would have quite a few in his collection, always perfectly coordinated to the colors of his outfits. (Think the blue and gray Deco-patterned tie in the opening sequence or the red floral motif tie with his turquoise suit…)

In this sequence, Jack wears a cream printed silk tie covered in abstract brown brush strokes, at times evocative of an animal print or tiger stripe. He wears the tie in a four-in-hand knot, often loosening up when a situation doesn’t call for total formality.

As Redford learned in The Sting, high stakes poker games require a tie… of course, they never say just what that tie should or shouldn’t look like, allowing Jack Weil the freedom to dangle a piece of silk-printed ’50s decadence around his neck.

Jack would also wear this suit for a long night of revelry in a Havana casino, dressed down in a navy rayon short-sleeve sport shirt and the same black belt, black socks, and black-and-white spectator shoes from the opening scene. This combination of suit and shirt is currently available at The Golden Closet, where it is currently on sale for $1,950.

According to The Golden Closet, the shirt is tagged internally with “Venice Custom Shirts” and dated for November 1989. It has a flat camp collar, large breast pocket, and plain front with seven large blue plastic buttons. The fit is comfortably large with the short sleeves ending half-heartedly cuffed at his elbows.

This suit’s first appearance is technically during Jack’s burlesque night out before the big game. The two inset Polaroid photos, ostensibly taken by the film’s costumer, are sourced from The Golden Closet.

NB: The other navy shirt featured with this suit on The Golden Closet is a long-sleeve cotton dress shirt made by Anto in the same style as the brown shirt. It was never worn with this suit on screen; instead, it was featured with a blue dupioni silk jacket and deco-printed tie during the opening scenes.

Jack Weil is the sort of guy who would have two-tone shoes for every occasion. In fact, it is a shot of his black and white spectator shoes that introduce us to the character during a shipboard poker game at the outset of the film. The hotel suite poker game marks the first appearance of his brown duotone spectator shoes from Bragano, a pair of derby-style brogues in dark brown leather and light brown canvas with medallion punched wingtips and dark brown laces through five eyelets.

His socks are obviously dark, but the costumer tag available at The Golden Closet confirms that they too are brown, the next-best option if he wasn’t going to wear tan socks that would continue the trouser leg line.

Big shot that he is, Jack Weil exudes confidence as he struts into Joe Volpi’s private poker game, accompanied by Joe (Alan Arkin) himself.

He would later wear the same shoes with his cream linen jacket, light blue shirt, and brown trousers.

Jack’s jewelry is all gold, reflective of his gambler image and – in this case – well-coordinated with his earth toned outfit. He wears a gold signet ring on his right pinky and, also on his right wrist, he wears a yellow gold wristwatch with a round gold dial and flat gold bracelet.

Flashing the gold.

Go Big or Go Home

Hosting a poker night soon? Class it up with a playlist reminiscent of Jack Weil’s Havana.

Because when you think poker, you think Sinatra, right?

1. Frank Sinatra – “Let’s Get Away From It All” (YouTube)
2. Frank Sinatra – “London By Night” (YouTube)
3. Fats Domino – “One Night” (YouTube)
4. Dean Martin – “Memories are Made of This” (YouTube)

Frank Sinatra is Jack’s background music of choice for lonely nights in, first seen listening to “Let’s Get Away From It All”.

Sinatra originally recorded this tune when with Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra but re-recorded the 1957 version heard in the film for Sinatra’s concept album Come Fly With Me!, the same album that yielded “London By Night,” which he listens to during a round of solitaire at the Duran residence.

The high stakes poker game in Joe Volpi’s hotel is scored by Dean Martin’s playful 1955 hit “Memories are Made of This”. Interestingly, the song was adapted into the “Honvágy-dal” (“The Song of Homesickness”) after the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and Ida Boros’ recording became an unofficial anthem for refugees and protesters around the world, an interesting parallel to the political situation in Havana.

For a more boisterous late-night poker game in a burlesque bar, Jack is serenaded by the appropriately titled “One Night (of Sin)” by Fats Domino. Though “One Night” had found commercial success in the late ’50s, first by Smiley Lewis then by Elvis Presley, Fats’ version wasn’t recorded until 1961, making it a slight anachronism for this scene set in 1958.

How to Get the Look

Jack Weil looks cool and ready in his tan gabardine suit as he joins his high stakes pals for the big game that drew him to Cuba in the first place.

• Tan gabardine wool sport suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with narrow semi-notch lapels, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Dark chocolate brown cotton dress shirt with large shaped spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and 1-button cuffs
• Brown-on-cream abstract brush-printed silk tie
• Dark brown leather belt with gold rectangular closed buckle
• Brown two-tone leather/canvas five-eyelet derby-style wingtip spectator brogues
• Dark brown dress socks
• Gold wristwatch with round gold dial on flat bracelet
• Gold signet pinky ring

Your best bet for a brush stroke tie? Finding a vintage piece on eBay. (There’s also this, um, interesting tie that often comes up in “brush stroke tie” searches.)

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Cary Grant as Roger Thornhill in North by Northwest (1959)

Vitals

Cary Grant as Roger O. Thornhill, Madison Avenue ad man mistaken for an international spy

Mount Rushmore, Fall 1958

Film: North by Northwest
Release Date: July 28, 1959
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Department: Harry Kress

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Appropriately timed for Casual Friday, today’s post examines the off-the-rack casual duds that Cary Grant’s “mistaken man” Roger O. Thornhill wears during the climactic chase across Mount Rushmore during the film’s finale.

The brilliant final sequence of North by Northwest proves that Alfred Hitchcock, even six decades after the film was released, will forever be the true master of suspense.

What’d He Wear?

Cary Grant’s tailored suit has become legendary as one of the most iconic suits in movie history, but Roger Thornhill is forced to shed his “suit of armor” for the film’s final act. Thornhill spends the bulk of North by Northwest mistaken for a secret agent by Phillip Vandamm (James Mason) and his henchmen, but it’s worth mentioning that, when Thornhill is actually acting like a spy, he dresses far less elegantly in his anonymous, off-the-rack casual wear. Perhaps this is Hitchcock’s statement on the duality of movie spies and real-life operatives?

Given the “witness protection” nature of the situation, it makes sense that The Professor (an avuncular Leo G. Carroll) would choose Thornhill’s anonymous and relatively ill-fitting new clothes, far from what one would expect to see on Cary Grant. Of course, this is Cary Grant so he still manages to look good even as his puffy sleeves make you wonder if he’ll be swinging in on a chandelier to ultimately save the day.

Hiding in the shadows of a debonair spy’s swanky home, Thornhill has graduated from a petulant ad man mistaken for a spy into a legitimate spy… unfortunately, it was at the cost of his beautiful gray plaid suit.

Nearly everything about this shirt is too big, a natural concession for an off-the-rack shirt that would still comfortably fit Grant’s famously large 17.5″ neck. Unlike the Bond movies, where 007 often falls back-asswards into perfectly fitting clothes, the ill-fitting duds that The Professor buys for Thornhill is a neat dose of reality.

The pale gray oxford shirt is from Brooks Brothers, with the traditional button-down collar that they introduced in 1896 after John E. Brooks noticed the fastened collars of polo players overseas. Even with Cary Grant’s slim frame, the shirt’s shoulders are broad enough that they look proportional to Grant even when the rest of the sleeve is so long that Thornhill is forced to half-fold back each of the shirt’s buttoned barrel cuffs.

Like his white dress shirt, this shirt has a front placket and no pocket. The fitted back has a high yoke and no darts or pleats…and certainly none of the shirring distinctively found on the back of his white dress shirt.

Thornhill considers his options when he gets to Vandamm’s abode. Are three days of being on the run enough “training” for him to launch a counterattack against an international criminal?

Thornhill’s charcoal wool slacks have double forward pleats that rise high to his natural waist. Since we watch him dressing, we see that the trousers have a long zipper fly and a straight gig line, although the gig line is disrupted by the belt that he receives from The Professor. It is a plain black leather belt with a small gold square single-prong buckle.

The long rise of Thornhill’s new trousers is accentuated by the billowing shirt above it.

The bottoms of Thornhill’s trousers are plain-hemmed with a short break.

There is a straight pocket along each side seam and a jetted pocket on the right back side that comes in handy while scaling the side of Mount Rushmore.

Trouser pockets save lives!

If you look closely at the heels of Grant’s loafers, you can spy the raised stitching on the sides of the heel cup that differentiates these as the Brooks Brothers model.

The Professor also brings Thornhill a new pair of loafers, of which our hero seems initially wary to take delivery despite effectively coordinating with the casual nature of this outfit.

Thornhill’s new kicks are tassel loafers in dark burgundy cordovan leather with long tassels, an apron toe (or “moc toe” based on its resemblance to the classic moccasin), and low vamp.

Slip-on shoes had been an increasingly fashionable footwear option in the United States for decades, and the tasseled loafer was one of its most recent developments. In this month’s post about Frank Sinatra in High Society, we explored the first pair of tassel loafers, commissioned by actor Paul Lukas in 1948 from Alden.

As explained in this 1998 Cigar Aficionado article, Alden recognized the potential in Lukas’ commissioned shoe and introduced it into its production line two years later. Alden retained its foothold (get it?) on the tassel loafer for most of the decade until Brooks Brothers approached in 1957 with a request to market the shoe. As Alden rep Robert Clark explained to Cigar Aficianado: “Especially for them, Alden produced a tassel loafer with a distinctive decorative foxing at the back part of the shoe, which remains exclusive to Brooks Brothers.”

This distinctive foxing remains a fixture of the Brooks Brothers tassel loafer, as opposed to the plain heel cups of the Alden loafers. The raised stitching on each side of Grant’s heel cups identify his loafers as the Brooks Brothers model. Whether you’re in the market for an Alden loafer or the Brooks Brothers variant, you’ll still be paying upwards of $700.

Thornhill’s light gray socks are the only outer item that he retains from his previous outfit, and they get much more exposure here due to the shorter trouser break and lower shoe vamps. The soft material of the sock appears to be thin ribbed cashmere.

The contrast of the socks also looks more dramatic due to the darker color of these trousers, reinforcing the importance of trying to match hosiery to trousers as much as possible!

Thornhill’s other personal items that he retains from his suit remain unseen after he finishes dressing. He wears the same yellow cotton boxer shorts that had previously gotten some airtime when he removed his suit trousers in Eve’s hotel room.

It’s a bit cruel of The Professor to provide Thornhill with all new clothes… but make him wear the same underwear and socks that he’s had on for three days on the run!

In the entertaining and informative “Cary Grant, Style Icon” piece, The Retro Set explores the meaning of the thin gold necklace seen in several of his films. Evidently, the necklace was a personal item of Grant’s with a charm for each of his wives’ religious preferences.

In 1959, Grant was in the middle of his third marriage; thus, his necklace has three small gold pendants.

Cary doles out some on-screen fan service for his admirers.

Another piece of Grant’s personal style shows up on screen in the form of his sleek Cartier Tank gold watch, strapped to his left wrist on a black leather band.

Imagine what a bummer this movie would have been if Valerian (Adam Williams) had been successful in killing Thornhill here. One of the unsung henchmen of North by Northwest, Adam Williams had a distinguished service record as a U.S. Navy pilot in World War II and worked as an FAA examiner before beginning his career as an actor in the early 1950s.

The Cartier Tank was introduced in 1919 as one of the first mass produced men’s wristwatches following its post-WWI popularity boom. It’s still produced nearly a century later in a variety of styles, although the closest to the one worn by Grant would be the $5,200 Cartier Tank Solo CRW5200004 in 18-karat yellow gold with a black alligator strap.

Go Big or Go Home

…and, either way, don’t go to Mount Rushmore unprepared!

Hooked on Houses has a great article exploring the iconic Atomic Age set design and architecture of North by Northwest with a special focus on the Modernist house owned by Phillip Vandamm. As many fans of the film know, not only did the house not exist atop Mount Rushmore, but it didn’t exist at all… instead, the wide shots of the exterior featured a matte painting of a house designed to evoke the organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Check out Hooked on Houses and my previous post about Vandamm’s gray tweed suit to learn more.

This house may be unavailable (due to not actually existing), but Zillow features some lovely offerings in the Rapid City area…

Recognizing that Eve is in danger, Thornhill eventually infiltrates the painting house, using Chekhov’s Matchbook to warn her of the predicament.

He may have been running out of time, but goddamn do I respect Roger Thornhill for taking the time to add the apostrophe to “they’re.” All heroes should hold grammar to such high esteem.

This is no good, we’re on top of the monument!

…Thornhill exclaims after Vandamm’s goons chase he and Eve from the landing strip. Of course, Hitchcock was unable to obtain permission from the U.S. Department of the Interior to film the criminal activity and attempted murder on a national monument.

There was also no way that the scene would be scrapped since the chase across Mount Rushmore was one of the concept seeds that led to the film itself; Hitchcock had only three elements in mind when pitching his story to screenwriter Ernest Lehman: a mistaken identity, the United Nations building, and a chase across the faces of Mount Rushmore. In fact, Hitchcock had conceptualized a scene of Thornhill sneezing inside Lincoln’s nose (and even considered the title The Man in Lincoln’s Nose) before both ideas were quashed by park officials.

So, Gutzon Borglum’s famous mountainside was recreated in a studio, and the end result was so effective that Hitchcock happily encouraged the rumor that the scene had been filmed on Mount Rushmore… to the point that the Department of the Interior requested that the credit thanking them for their cooperation be removed.

Perhaps Thornhill didn’t like the way Teddy Roosevelt was looking at him before because T.R. knew that Thornhill would be stepping all over his face later that evening. (Or maybe T.R. resented the way Grant’s character in Arsenic and Old Lace patronized his brother who believed himself to be Teddy Roosevelt!)

The final chapter of David Borgenicht and Joe Borgenicht’s outrageously entertaining The Action Hero’s Handbook is reserved for the very relatable situation of finding yourself trapped atop Mount Rushmore and needing to find the best path for descent. With tips from champion climbers Jason and Tiffany Campbell, the book outlines the ideal route:

1. Work your way from Jefferson’s hair down to the left of his [right] ear
2. Lower yourself slowly to Washington’s chin
3. Traverse under Washington’s chin and across Jefferson’s neck
4. Arrive between Roosevelt and Lincoln on the down slope just above the trees

Not only should this path safely deposit you on more level ground, but you’ll also avoid the wrath of the U.S. Department of Interior by steering clear of Lincoln’s nose (and any potential sneezing fits that could result inside.)

For more than 40 other tips that will perfectly prepare you for life as an action hero, check out the brothers Borgenicht’s book… recommended “for anyone who’s ever wanted to be as smooth as James Bond, as clever as Captain Kirk, or as tough as Charlie’s Angels.”

Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in North by Northwest (1959)

How to Get the Look

Although somewhat ill-fitting, Roger Thornhill’s quintessentially American casual wear provides a nice template for a subtle, dressed-down outfit with a touch of Ivy League influence.

• Pale gray oxford cotton Brooks Brothers shirt with button-down collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Charcoal wool double froward-pleated high-rise trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back right pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather belt with small gold square single-prong buckle
• Dark burgundy cordovan leather Brooks Brothers moc-toe tassel loafers
• Light gray ribbed cashmere socks
• Gold thin necklace with three gold religious pendants
• Cartier Tank wristwatch with yellow gold case and white square dial on black leather strap
• White cotton short-sleeve crew neck undershirt
• Pale yellow cotton boxers

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Eve: What happened with your first two marriages?
Roger: My wives divorced me.
Eve: Why?
Roger: They said I led too dull a life.

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street (1987)

Vitals

Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, smug and successful Wall Street businessman

New York City, Spring 1985

Film: Wall Street
Release Date: December 11, 1987
Director: Oliver Stone
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick
Tailor: Alan Flusser

Background

Returning to the office on Monday is no excuse to slack off on your wardrobe, especially on Wall Street.

It’s business as usual for corporate raider Gordon Gekko, who enrages his young protege Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) by targeting Bluestar Airlines, the “unpolished gem” that employs Bud’s father, Carl (Martin Sheen).

Bud: Why do you need to wreck this company?
Gekko: Because it’s wreckable, all right? I took another look at it and I changed my mind!

What’d He Wear?

Gordon Gekko’s outfit in this brief but pivotal scene incorporates several throwback elements from the turnback cuff jacket to the club collar shirt. The dark gray wool suit, designed by Ellen Mirojnick, was tailored by Alan Flusser and maintains the “power suit” profile popular in the ’80s with its excessively wide padded shoulders.

The single-breasted, peak-lapel layout is a throwback as well, recalling its heyday in the 1920s… interestingly, another period of hedonistic economic boom. The wide peak lapels have slanted gorges and point sharply at each of the jacket’s roped shoulders, rolling down to a low two-button front that meets the trouser at the waist line.

Something about Michael Douglas’ expression here makes him the spitting image of his father, Kirk.

The jacket has long double vents, straight jetted hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket where Gekko wears a solid black silk display kerchief.

The most unique detail of Gekko’s suit jacket are the turnback cuffs, an Edwardian detail also found on Sean Connery’s first dinner jacket as James Bond and many of Nucky Thompson’s suits in the early seasons of Boardwalk Empire. Each sleeve ends with about a two-inch turnback cuff that cuts away at the vent, fastened by four functioning buttons.

Note Gekko’s wide turnback cuffs. This appears to be his only suit in the film with them.

All of Gekko’s trousers are forward-pleated with a medium-low rise, fitted around the waist to be worn with suspenders but supported with a buckle-tab adjuster on each side, positioned just below the belt line. All of his trousers have straight pockets along the side seams with jetted pockets in the back, usually with a button closure on the left pocket. The bottoms of these particular trousers are left plain-hemmed with no cuffs.

Gekko has several sets of bold cloth suspenders, any of which he could be wearing here: red, which would coordinate well with his shirt and tie; the center-striped suspenders from his introductory scene; or the white polka dot-on-black suspenders worn earlier when flying with Bud. All of his suspenders have gold adjusters and white leather ears that hook onto his trousers’ suspender-button tabs in the front and back.

An earlier scene of Gekko and Bud in mid-flight reveals the typical details of Gekko’s suit trousers.

Gekko wears a very distinctive dress shirt in a pink mini-gingham check with a contrasting collar and cuffs. In Dressing the Man, Alan Flusser himself writes “only the rounded, club-type (preferably pinned) or the very open, almost cutaway model are stylish enough to hold their own when contrasted against a different color or patterned shirt body.”

A contrast collar itself isn’t that unique, but the rounded shape evokes the classic Etonian “club collar” developed in the mid-19th century to differentiate the students of that esteemed boarding school. The club collar maintained its popularity through the early decades of the twentieth century due to itssuitability with the then-fashionable collar bar; Gekko himself wears a gold “safety pin”-style collar bar with his shirt. Eton’s signature collar dropped from vogue as men’s dress shirts were increasingly produced with attached collars, but the club collar retains its dressy, retro value today.

The shirt has a placket for the mother-of-pearl buttons, and the double (French) cuffs are fastened with a set of gold bars that resemble second lieutenant insignia. The inside of each cuff link is a small ring.

Gordon Gekko channels the glory days of reckless investing with his dramatic peak lapels, turnback cuff jacket, and rounded club collar fastened by a pin.

From a distance, Gekko’s silk tie appears to be thick left-down-to-right stripes in gray and crimson red, but each “stripe” actually consists of a dozen thinner duotone stripes in light and dark shades of each color. Thus, the pattern under the knot is: a single gold stripe, twelve alternating medium and dark gray stripes, twelve alternating red and maroon stripes, and repeat.

The tie nicely coordinates with his outfit; the gray stripes call out the suit, the red stripes harmonizes with the pink shirt, and the subtle gold striping winks at Gekko’s all-gold accessories… including the ridged gold clip that holds the tie into place just above the jacket’s buttoning point.

Staring contests are easy when both men are the same height. (In the case of Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen, that height would be 5’10”.)

Gekko’s black leather oxfords are the most formal acceptable footwear to be worn with a business suit. He correctly wears dark gray dress socks to continue the trouser leg line.

The aforementioned yellow gold accessories, an appropriate tone for Gekko’s avarice, include a chain-link bracelet and signet pinky ring that flash from his right hand while he blows a puff of Winston smoke into Bud’s face.

About the classic film noir Out of the Past (1947), Roger Ebert wrote that “the real hostility came when Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas smoked at each other.” Here, Michael Douglas shows that he inherited his father’s gift for intimidating inhalation.

On the opposing hand, Gekko wears a Cartier Santos de Cartier Galbée dress watch, naturally in 18-karat yellow gold.

How to Get the Look

Gordon Gekko may be the ultimate ’80s businessman, but he channels the roaring ’20s in this throwback dark gray suit with its wide peak lapels, turnback cuffs, and a club collared shirt. Nucky Thompson would be proud.

• Dark gray wool suit, tailored by Alan Flusser:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, double back vents, 4-button turnback cuffs
  • Double forward-pleated trousers with suspender button tabs, buckle-tab side adjusters, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Pink mini-gingham check dress shirt with white contrast club collar and double/French cuffs
  • Gold “safety pin” collar bar
  • Gold bar cuff links
• Gray-and-crimson L-down-R striped silk tie
  • Gold center-ridged tie clip
• Wide cloth suspenders with gold adjusters and white leather ears
• Black leather balmorals/oxford shoes
• Black dress socks
• Large gold signet ring
• Cartier Santos de Cartier Galbée gold wristwatch
• Gold chain-link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

The richest one percent of this country owns half our country’s wealth: five trillion dollars. One third of that comes from hard work, two thirds comes from inheritance, interest on interest accumulating to widows and idiot sons and what I do, stock and real estate speculation. It’s bullshit. You got ninety percent of the American public out there with little or no net worth. I create nothing. I own.

We make the rules, pal. The news, war, peace, famine, upheaval, the price per paper clip. We pick that rabbit out of the hat while everybody sits out there wondering how the hell we did it. Now you’re not naive enough to think we’re living in a democracy, are you buddy? It’s the free market. And you’re a part of it. You’ve got that killer instinct. Stick around pal, I’ve still got a lot to teach you.

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Spectre (2015).

Vitals

Daniel Craig as James Bond, British government agent

Morocco, November 2015

Film: Spectre
Release Date: October 25, 2015
Director: Sam Mendes
Costume Designer: Jany Temime

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

For Ian Fleming’s upcoming birthday on May 28, BAMF Style is taking a look at a navy suit worn by Daniel Craig in Spectre… the closest approach to Fleming’s outlined sartorial vision for James Bond’s business dress since Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice (link).

Through the course of his Bond books, Fleming had often stipulated a dark blue suit of tropical weight worsted or serge, worn with a white short-sleeved shirt, black knit tie, and black moccasin slip-ons. The filmmakers discarded the exact details (like Fleming’s preferred short-sleeve shirts) but adapted the outfit’s simplicity into the agent’s on-screen style.

More than 60 years after Fleming drafted his first manuscript for Casino Royale on a typewriter in Jamaica, Daniel Craig’s James Bond allows himself to be lured into a trap set by his oldest enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), who reveals himself to be “the author of all your pain.”

What’d He Wear?

In the grand tradition of Bond villains dating back to Dr. No, Blofeld lays out a luxurious tailored suit for 007 to wear while in captivity. Much has been written about this navy sharkskin wool suit, which was also featured on much of the film’s promotional artwork, including an excellent post at The Suits of James Bond where Matt Spaiser digitally “corrects” the tight fit.

Blofeld shows quite the depth of his knowledge of Bond by providing for him the same “O’Connor” model as several other Tom Ford suits that Bond wears in Spectre. The simple and elegant combination of a solid navy suit, white shirt, and dark tie is likely Fleming-inspired… but the ill-fitting tightness is straight out of Jany Temime’s tenure as the franchise costume director.

The “back-to-the-roots” sartorial approach is augmented by the sharkskin suiting, a lighter weight wool softly woven in two tones of blue yarn to deliver a vivid shine accentuated by an action-packed afternoon under the Moroccan sun. (It’s a much different look than the admittedly more desert-suitable brown linen jacket and odd trousers he wore for his arrival.)

The single-breasted navy sharkskin suit jacket has a 3-roll-2 button front as the notch lapels roll over the top button, presenting like a two-button jacket. The lapels themselves are narrow with high gorges and a long, double-stitched buttonhole on the left lapel. The shoulders are narrow with roped sleeveheads.

The “Blofeld intentionally gave Bond a shrunken suit” theory would hold more water if this suit didn’t share its fit issues with Bond’s own suits in Spectre.

Craig on set, with small trousers and a large weapon.

Bond wears a white pocket square (Blofeld thinks of everything!) in the jacket’s curved “barchetta” breast pocket. The jacket also has straight flapped hip pockets, a single back vent, and functioning four-button cuffs that Bond wears with the lowest button undone.

Oy vey, these trousers!

The low rise and high break work together to create a shrunken pant that looks rather ridiculous both with and without the jacket. When the jacket is buttoned, the waistband’s positioning a few inches below the jacket’s buttoning point reveals an unsightly white “triangle” of shirt fabric. The cuffed bottoms break high over the tops of his shoes.

Fit aside, the trousers are detailed elegantly with buckle-tab side adjusters in lieu of a belt or braces. The squared waistband extends across the fly for a hidden hook closure, disrupting the gig line.

Each side pocket is placed along its respective side seam as it gently curves toward the front of the trousers, and both jetted back pockets close with a button.

It’s always nice for a gentleman to remove his jacket when on a date with a lady… however, it’s preferred that he lend said jacket to said lady rather than to ditch it for an assault rifle and use it to shoot up a desert terrorist compound. To each their own, I suppose.

It’s a shame that the suit fits so poorly, as I rather enjoy the shirt and tie worn beneath it. The shirt is one of the standard Tom Ford dress shirts in white cotton poplin that Craig wears throughout Spectre, furnished with a point collar, front placket, and double side darts on the back.

The double (French) cuffs are worn with cuff links, also from Tom Ford, that coordinate with the outfit’s simplicity. They are silver discs with blue enamel-filled centers that call out the navy tones of the suit and tie.

Bond must be yearning for the good old days where villains at least had the decency to serve him a martini before subjecting him to torture.

The dark navy silk tie, also from Tom Ford, is a few shades darker than the solid navy tie Craig wore with his blue Prince of Wales check suit in the opening scene. At 3″ wide, the tie is a slight wider than the narrow lapels of his suit.

The Bond franchise’s newfound association with Crockett & Jones, which began in the previous film with Skyfall, paid off during this scene in Spectre when Craig’s black calf Norwich model derbies get plenty of screen time once he’s hooked up to Blofeld’s torture device. The angle showcases not only the straight toe cap and the five-eyelet open lacing, but also the Dainite studded rubber soles. They are the same type of shoes that he wore with the blue Prince of Wales check suit, and he again wears them with solid black socks.

More information about Bond’s Crockett & Jones Norwich derby shoes can be found at James Bond Lifestyle.

Blofeld springs for the best when outfitting his prisoners, unlike Le Chiffre.

At the outset of the scene, Bond shows up wearing a pair of Tom Ford Henry Vintage Wayfarer FT0248 sunglasses with “Havana” tortoise and dark metal browline-style frames and gray lenses (color code 52A). As of May 2017, you could still pick up a similar pair for less than $200 on Amazon. You can also always read more at James Bond Lifestyle.

Thankfully, these are the same pair that he wore when he was picked up by Blofeld’s henchmen, as it would be simply too much to believe that Blofeld sprung to outfit Bond with designer sunglasses in addition to a pair of £390 shoes.

Bond and Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) are greeted by a Kingsman-wannabe and two glasses of champagne.

One of the most heralded product tie-ins with Spectre was Bond’s watch, a steel Omega Seamaster 300 chronometer on a true NATO strap designed to be reminiscent of the striped strap that Sean Connery wore with his Rolex Submariner in Goldfinger and Thunderball. The watch, powered by Omega’s Master Co-Axial calibre 8400 movement, has a 41mm brushed and polished stainless steel case. The bi-directional black ceramic bezel is marked at each hour from 1 to 0 (0 instead of 12) and coordinates with the black dial housed under the sapphire crystal.

The five-striped nylon strap alternates in black and gray like a true NATO strap and can be purchased separately from Omega in two different widths. Of course, that could be costly, so retailers like CheapestNatoStraps put their money where their mouth is with a wide variety of straps available for around $7.95, including the classic black-and-gray Spectre stripe model (link). You can also find affordable strap alternatives on Amazon.

Now why would Blofeld let him keep his watch?

In addition to the standard 233.32.41.21.01.001 Seamaster (link), Omega’s site has a page dedicated to the SPECTRE Limited Edition model (link).

The Omega Seamaster 300 SPECTRE Limited Edition was sold in a limited number of 7,007 pieces (of course) and is still marketed for $7,500 on Omega’s site. You can read more about it at James Bond Lifestyle.

Theatrical poster for Spectre (2015) featuring Daniel Craig (in this navy sharkskin suit) and Léa Seydoux

How to Get the Look

Fit issues aside, Daniel Craig’s Bond sports an elegant two-color ensemble that recalls elements of Ian Fleming’s sartorial formula for his face-off against a classic enemy.

• Navy blue “sharkskin” woven pick wool Tom Ford “O’Connor” tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-roll-2 button suit jacket with narrow notch lapels, curved “barchetta” breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 4-button functional cuffs, and single vent
  • Flat front medium-low rise trousers with extended front waist tab, slide-buckle side adjusters, curved on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs with short break
• White cotton poplin Tom Ford dress shirt with point collar, front placket, back side darts, and double/French cuffs
  • Blue-filled silver disc Tom Ford cuff links
• Dark navy silk Tom Ford tie
• Black calf Crockett & Jones “Norwich” 5-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes with Dainite studded rubber soles
• Black dress socks
• Omega Seamaster 300 SPECTRE Limited Edition (233.32.41.21.01.001) stainless steel wristwatch with black dial (and “lollipop” seconds hand) on black-and-gray striped NATO strap

The Gun

Despite traditional elements like the navy suit a la Fleming and the return of Blofeld, Bond isn’t fighting off baddies with his usual Walther PPK as his weapon of choice. Instead, he manages to get his hands on a SA vz. 58 Compact assault carbine, made by Czech Small Arms.

Given the situation, this is an upgrade from the seven-shot PPK.

This isn’t the first time James Bond has wielded a member of the SA vz.5 8 weapons family. In Octopussy, the late Roger Moore scored some extra cool points for his Bond when he too disarmed a guard of his rifle – that time, a full-size SA vz. 58 V – and fired at Kamal Khan’s henchmen while sliding down a banister (check it out!).

The SA vz. 58 was designed in 1956 and entered service by the end of the decade, produced by Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod. Though it shares the 7.62x39mm cartridge and some cosmetic similarities with the AK-47 and its variants, it’s a much different weapon that shares no interchangeable parts with the Kalashnikov series. The fixed stock (SA vz. 58 P) and folding stock (SA vz. 58 V) full-length models both weigh in around 6.4 pounds with 15.4″ barrels.

The SA vz. 58 Carbine and SA vz. 58 Compact are shorter-barreled variants made by Czech Small Arms (rather than Česká zbrojovka) that shorten the barrel down to 11.8″ on the Carbine model and 7.5″ on the Compact model. Both still use 30-round magazines like the full-size SA vz. 58 rifles, but can also be chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge in addition to the 7.62mm. In Spectre, Bond appears to wield a 7.5″-barreled Compact model chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Tempus fugit.

Footnote

This appears to be the same suit that Daniel Craig wears for the “gunbarrel sequence” at the beginning of Spectre.

Bang!

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in “Golden Days for Boys and Girls”, Episode 5.01 of Boardwalk Empire.

Vitals

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, bootlegger and former Atlantic City political boss

Havana, April 1931

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episode: “Golden Days for Boys and Girls” (Episode 5.01)
Air Date: September 7, 2014
Director: Tim Van Patten
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

Background

To commemorate this unofficial start of summer with Memorial Day tomorrow, BAMF Style is checking in with fashion plate Nucky Thompson from Boardwalk Empire as he enjoys a warm spring evening in Havana at the start of the fifth season.

Having exiled himself to Cuba in the seven years since we last saw him, Nucky is still wheeling and dealing in the illegal liquor trade, currently working on an export deal with the good folks of Bacardi rum in the possible wake of Prohibition’s imminent end. 

What’d He Wear?

Nucky Thompson dresses appropriately for the warmth of a Havana night in a beige linen three-piece suit, styled to meet the era’s fashions and Nucky’s own evident preferences. This suit was included in an auction shortly after the show ended, giving us even better looks at some of its finer details than we would get from its brief time on screen.

The single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that roll to the top of the three brown urea buttons placed high on the chest. The high button stance, a holdover from Nucky’s Edwardian-inspired suits worn earlier in the series, means that Nucky could theoretically wear all three buttons fastened, especially as the lower foreparts do not cut away until well below the lowest button.

The inverted box-pleat patch pockets on the hips and left breast indicate a more casual, sporty suit perfectly appropriate for an American spending his comfortable exile in the tropics. The jacket also has roped shoulders, a long single vent, and four-button cuffs.

(Left) Nucky’s linen suit in action.
(Right) Nucky’s linen suit at auction.

Formality would not have been a major requirement for a sporty summer suit in 1931 Havana, but Nucky’s preference for exclusively three-piece suits calls for a matching vest (waistcoat) with this suit. The six-button single-breasted vest has notch lapels and a notched bottom.

The trousers’ high rise is covered by the waistcoat, but it’s almost certain that he wears them with suspenders (braces) per his usual. The forward pleats reflect the fashionable expectations of a well-to-do gentleman in the early 1930s as do the slightly flared bottoms finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

This being Nucky Thompson, a solid beige suit would be far too conservative to wear without a pop of color. He thus wears a bright lilac broadcloth shirt with a tab collar with long points that fill the V-shaped opening between his tie and the top of his waistcoat. The collar is held in place with a gold collar bar.

Nucky flashes his cuffs while reaching for his cocktail. The suit’s auction page provided a nice view of the shirt cuff and links featured on screen.

His shirt’s double (French) cuffs are worn with a unique vintage set of double-sided dulled silver octagonal cuff links. Each link has a mother-of-pearl setting encapsulated by a yellow enamel border.

Nucky wears a silver dot-printed tie that the auction identified as the Geneva brand. The tie is covered in a motif of dotted squares, each consisting of nine repeating dot sets: the three upper-left dots are purple, then three pink dots, and three lavender dots on the lower-right. The dots nicely add a Deco touch of contrast to the lighter-colored outfit while also providing tonal coordination with his lilac shirt.

Season five’s first glimpse at Nucky is a stoic one, hardly the face you’d expect from someone about to embark on a night of drinking and dancing in Prohibition-era Havana.

Briefly glimpsed while dancing with Sally are Nucky’s two-tone wingtip spectator shoes in brown and cream leather, worn with cream socks that nicely fill the leg line between the trouser bottoms and his shoes.

Nucky and Sally sway their way through the Havana nightlife.

Nucky wears a wide-brimmed straw Panama hat with a classic, center-creased optimo crown, unlike the more fedora-like pinched and dented crown on some more modern Panama hats. The optimo style remains popular among British travelers throughout the tropics.

The wide black grosgrain ribbon is striped with a white stripe through the center and a single thin gold stripe above and below it.

Sally and Nucky have tough talks over after-dinner drinks.

Jaxon Hats offers the similarly styled Cuenca Panama Straw Habana Hat for $88, although the hatband is slimmer and solid black. Super premium custom Optimo Montecristi Panama Hats are also available from The Panama Hat Company of the Pacific if you’re willing to shell out a few hundred bucks.

What to Imbibe

Nucky: How’s the Presidente?
Senator Lloyd: That’s what this is called? Damn refreshing.

Close enough. The cocktail that Nucky Thompson, Sally Wheet, and Senator Wendell Lloyd enjoy in Havana is actually likely meant to be the El Presidente, a rum concoction that indeed shot to popularity among Havana’s upper class during the years of Prohibition. It was named in honor of President Gerardo Machardo, Cuba’s fifth president who served from 1925 to 1933 and would have been in office at the time that Nucky and Senator Lloyd tipped their glasses.

Although Nucky likely viewed himself as a “presidente” as well…

Much debate seems to surround the actual ingredients of the El Presidente, with the only seemingly agreed-upon facts being that the main component is light rum and that it is served straight up in a chilled cocktail glass.

The two recipes that exist in my well-loved 2009 edition of the Mr. Boston Official Bartender’s Guide differ from the sweeter No. 1 to the more bitter No. 2, which is essentially a dry Manhattan made with light rum instead of whiskey:

El Presidente Cocktail No. 1: 1.5 oz. light rum, 1 oz. lime juice, 1 tsp. pineapple juice, 1 tsp. grenadine, shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.

El Presidente Cocktail No. 2: 1.5 oz. light rum, .75 oz. dry vermouth, 1 dash bitters, stirred with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.

Further investigation muddies the waters – or the rum – by blending both the grenadine and dry vermouth of both recipes and adding curaçao! According to Wikipedia: stir together 2 parts rum, 1 part curaçao, 1 part dry vermouth with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange peel twist. This Wikipedia recipe reflects the ones featured in Cold Glass and Imbibe, albeit with slightly different proportions. Both the latter recipes call for a double garnish of a maraschino cherry joining the twist of orange peel.

Based on my own personal preferences, I would likely go with a variation of Cold Glass recipe but with the addition of grenadine:

El Presidente à la BAMF Style: Stir two ounces of aged Bacardi light rum, 1 ounce of Dolin Blanc vermouth, a half teaspoon of Grand Marnier, and a half teaspoon of grenadine over ice, then strained into a well-chilled cocktail glass with a twist of orange peel and a maraschino cherry. Yum.

Given the lack of consensus here, my best suggestion would be to grab all of the ingredients, call up some close friends, and taste-test to determine which recipe you prefer!

How to Get the Look

Steve Buscemi and Patricia Arquette as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson and Sally Wheet on Boardwalk Empire.

Nucky Thompson looks cool, refreshed, and classic in a three-piece linen suit accented by springtime pastels in his shirt and tie.

• Beige linen tailored three-piece suit:
  • Single-breasted high-buttoning 3-button suit jacket with notch lapels, inverted box-pleat patch pockets on breast pocket and hips, 4-button cuffs, and long single vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with notch lapels and notched bottom
  • Forward-pleated high-rise trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
• Lilac broadcloth dress shirt with long-pointed tab collar and double/French cuffs
  • Gold collar bar
  • Dulled silver octagonal double-sided cuff links with mother-of-pearl setting on yellow enamel crown
• Silver silk tie with purple tri-toned dotted square motif
• Brown and cream two-tone leather wingtip spectator shoes
• Cream dress socks
• Wide-brimmed straw “Optimo crown” Panama hat with striped black grosgrain ribbon

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the whole series, but also check out the fifth and final season.