James Garner as Pete Aron in Grand Prix (1966)

Vitals

James Garner as Pete Aron, determined Formula One driver

Clermont-Ferrand, France, Summer 1966

Film: Grand Prix
Release Date: December 21, 1966
Director: John Frankenheimer
Costume Supervisor: Sydney Guilaroff

Background

#CarWeek continues with Grand Prix, the action-packed, globe-trotting racing epic that director John Frankenheimer made in the tradition of Grand Hotel with a talented international cast including James Garner, Eva Marie Saint (who celebrated her 95th birthday yesterday), Yves Montand, Toshiro Mifune, Jessica Walter, Brian Bedford, and Thunderball villain Adolfo Celi. As a talented driver in his own right, Garner looks natural behind the wheel as Pete Aron, the Formula One driver hoping to salvage his career after gaining a reckless reputation, and the unique racing cinematography—in part credited to “visual consultant” Saul Bass—make the film a must for fans of the racing genre and earned the film its well-deserved Academy Awards for Best Sound Effects (Gordon Daniel), Best Film Editing, and Best Sound (Franklin Milton).

Indeed, Garner—who would later show off his automotive prowess on The Rockford Files—trained extensively for the role with Bob Bondurant, who also appeared as one of the drivers, and the actor emerged from the experience with a firm, lifelong passion for motorsports. Bondurant and Frankenheimer both noted that Garner’s talent was on par with many professional Grand Prix drivers, and his dedication to the role and passion for driving meant that Garner himself performed much of the stuntwork himself, including the dangerous scene where a fuel leak at Brands Hatch during the British Grand Prix sets his car aflame.

Unable to find work as a driver due to his reputation for recklessness, Pete Aron takes a gig with the Federal Broadcasting Company (FBC) covering F1 races, beginning with the French Grand Prix at the Circuit de Charade in Puy-de-Dôme. As he and the other FBC correspondents step out of their station wagon, one of his co-workers assures him, “don’t look so glum, it’s an honorable profession… You’d rather be a dogcatcher or something?” “Or somethin’,” affirms Pete.

At the race, Pete confronts Scott Stoddard’s wife Pat (Jessica Walter), seeking the spotlight to “represent the Stoddard name” despite having not spoken to her injured husband in weeks. Fashion journalist Louise Frederickson (Eva Marie Saint) insists that Pete was too hard on her, but his debonair fellow driver Jean-Pierre Sarti (Yves Montand) suggests that Pete’s aggression was not unwarranted. All the same, Pete finds Pat in the stands and apologies for his “bad manners,” though the effects of his apology don’t last long:

Pat: What does it matter to you what I do or don’t do? Girl has to make a living.
Pete: Last time a girl said that to me, she was stepping out of her skirt and asking for a hundred-dollar bill.

Implications of prostitution aside, Pat ends their conversation on a flirtatious note by telling Pete to “speak for yourself” after he suggests the two don’t like each other. She picks things up without missing a beat the following day, asking for a truce over a drink at the race track bar.

Pat: You know, I’ve known you for—what—two and a half years? And all I know about you is that you drive cars. That’s all anyone knows, as far as I can tell.
Pete: You’ve just written my biography.

Pat then engages Pete’s sole known hobby by asking for a ride back to her hotel, cutting to his Shelby Mustang GT350H screaming around a mountainous bend and nearly blowing a sluggish Citroën 2CV off the road. “You know, I’ll never understand why none of you get this sort of thing out of your system on the track!” observes Pat. “You all drive like maniacs!”

Pat could be talking about Pete, or the line could be addressing James Garner himself, who—with his mentor Bondurant—attracted attention all through Europe in their black-and-gold GT350H, one of the approximately 1,000 “Rent-a-Racer” Mustangs developed by Carroll Shelby exclusively for Hertz.

At the door to Pat’s hotel room, Pete declines her invitation to enter but instead asks her to join him for dinner that night. Upon returning to his room, he finds a note from the powerful Izo Yamura (Toshiro Mifune), the film’s Soichiro Honda surrogate who offers Pete the opportunity to join his team and rejoin the F1 world as a driver rather than a journalist, ending their interview by assuring him: “By the way, you are a terrible broadcaster.” With Yamura’s job opportunity, Pete hangs up his burgundy FBC blazer and gets fitted for a new white fireproof driving suit.

What’d He Wear?

When Pete Aron alights from the “Federal Broadcasting Company” Citroën station wagon, we immediately sense from Pete’s glum expression and the burgundy blazer that matches his fellow passengers that the disgraced driver has taken a new job covering Grand Prix races. These melange flannel jackets are emblazoned with the gold shield-shaped crest of “FBC TV” stitched onto the breast pocket. The hip pockets are also patch pockets, both covered with a flap.

The blazer has three gold crested shank buttons on the front, flattering for James Garner’s 6’2″ height, with two smaller ornamental gilt buttons on the cuffs. Edge swelling is present from the slim notch lapels and all three pockets to a seam down the center of the back to the single vent.

Pete finds himself among his one-time peers, about to compete in the French Grand Prix as he’s reduced to broadcasting from the sidelines.

As burgundy menswear enjoys a gentle renaissance a half-century after Grand Prix, many retailers offer sport jackets and blazers in the spirit of Garner’s FBC uniform jacket, though the current trend toward two-button jackets adds a layer of difficultly to channeling his three-button look:

• Edwards polyester two-button blazer with flapped patch hip pockets (Amazon, up to $78.27)
• Gioberti polyester/rayon two-button blazer (Amazon, $54.99)
• Hardwick “Classic Fit” polyester/wool hopsack two-button blazer (Amazon, $295)
• Z Zegna melange wool/silk two-button sport jacket (Nordstrom Rack, $499.97)

Pete wears a white cotton shirt with a slim button-down collar, consistent with the narrowing fashions of the mid-1960s. The shirt has a front placket, breast pocket, and single-button rounded cuffs. The FBC correspondent uniform also includes a bright crimson red tie, a skinny and straight piece of neckwear that coordinates with the shirt’s narrow collar and the blazer’s slim lapels.

For Pete and Pat’s drive back to the hotel and their subsequent flirtation in the hallway, Pete has removed his red tie, wearing it tucked into his breast pocket like a display kerchief or pocket square.

Pete’s charcoal gray wool slacks are worn beltless, though his keeping the blazer on throughout the sequence prevents the audience from being able to easily ascertain if they are fitted around the waistband or detailed with side-adjuster tabs like Sean Connery’s celebrated “DAKS tops” included on his Anthony Sinclair-tailored trousers for his contemporary portrayal of James Bond.

Pete returns to his hotel room to find a note suggesting that he indeed has a future in the motorsport that he loves.

Pete balances the vibrancy of his upper half with a sober-toned lower half, keeping his footwear simple with a pair of black leather loafers with black socks. This was the decade that casual moc-toe driving shoes gained popularity, particularly among those speeding through Europe in elegant roadsters, but the new shoe would still likely be considered too informal—at least by FBC’s company standards—for wearing with a blazer, white shirt, and tie. (Read more about the history of drivers in Jake Gallagher’s August 2013 “Dropping Knowledge” article for GQ.)

If you’re in the market for a subtle black leather driving shoe—sans any contrast stitching, horsebit detailing, or even a “penny” strap—Amazon offers well-reviewed and relatively affordable drivers from Polo Ralph Lauren and Sperry that could suit your needs…and probably make a professional like Pete Aron green with shoe envy.

While most of Pete’s outfit is informed by his role as an FBC broadcaster, the stainless ID bracelet on his right wrist still unifies him with his fellow F1 drivers. Before the final Italian Grand Prix at Monza, we get a look at each driver’s bracelet, etched with his respective name and blood type, should an accident happen during the race.

Pete and his fellow drivers’ steel identity bracelets serve as a constant and grim reminder of the dangers that they face each time they take the wheel before a race.

While it was around this time that James Garner began wearing the Heuer Carrera 3647N racing watch with its black dial that would prominently appear on The Rockford Files, he wears a different watch as Pete Aron. (Read more about Garner’s real-life Carrera 3647N in this well-researched Calibre 11 article from August 2017.)

Based on the fact that Pete’s steel-cased wristwatch has only a crown without additional pushers, we can deduce that he’s not wearing a chronograph and thus not a different version of the Heuer Carrera as the Calibre 11 article suggests that he also had a Carrera with a white dial. Pete’s watch is strapped to his left wrist on a black leather band with a steel single-prong buckle.

Despite her fast lifestyle, Pat Stoddard (Jessica Walter) is far from enthusiastic regarding the speed at which Pete Aron drives her to her hotel.

Pete isn’t much to comment on style, but—walking Pat back to her hotel room—he has to ask her: “Why do you all do that…wear your sunglasses on top of your head? It looks ridiculous.”

What to Imbibe

“I’ll have one of those,” Pat Stoddard requests when she joins Pete Aron at the bar. Pete indicates to the bartender that he’s ordering a second drink for his companion. The drink itself—which sounds something like “la-mem-shows“—remains unidentified due to the lack of subtitles for that particular line on my DVD copy as well as the fact that we never see the bottle used by the bartender to fill the bottom of Pete and Pat’s highball glasses with this respective brown liquid.

A far easier spirit to identify—and one more traditionally associated with Formula One—comes at the end of the film as a victorious Pete is given a bottle of G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge to commemorate winning the world championship following the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

Pete Aron and his new racing chief Izo Yamura (Toshiro Mifune) celebrate his victory with a magnum of G.H. Mumm’s finest.

Not surprisingly, the long association of champagne and F1 racing began with the French Grand Prix, specifically the July 2, 1950, race at Reims-Gueux when winner Juan Manuel Fangio, a fascinating individual in his own right, was gifted a bottle of Moët & Chandon. However, it wasn’t until 1966—the same year that Grand Prix was set—that the now-famous “champagne spray” was born, albeit by accident, when Jo Siffert’s bubbly sprayed all over his well-wishers upon his opening the sun-pressurized bottle. (Read more about the history of champagne and F1 racing at The Wine Lifestyle.)

Although Garner’s Pete Aron toasts his victory with a bottle of G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge, it wasn’t until 2000 that G.H. Mumm became the official F1 sponsor, providing bottles for podium celebrations for the next 15 years of their sponsorship.

The Car

Throughout my lifelong fascination with muscle cars, I’ve long been intrigued by the brief but legendary history of the Shelby GT350H, the modified “Rent-a-Racer” fastbacks offered by Hertz in the late ’60s. Painted to promote Hertz’s corporate color scheme with gold LeMans racing stripes and rocker stripes on a black body, the GT350H was the result of a collaboration between Ford, Shelby, and the Hertz Corporation.

The car’s association with Grand Prix emerged when champion race car driver Bob Bondurant agreed to train James Garner, who he described as a “natural” behind the wheel of a fast car. Bondurant was a member of the Shelby American racing team, bringing the team a victory piloting a Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe during the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1964. The following year, Bondurant’s work with Garner found the two sharing a 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H for training on the track and motoring through Europe during the making of John Frankenheimer’s landmark racing film.

Despite Carroll Shelby’s role on the production, James Garner’s GT350H actually gets considerably few on-screen glamour shots, with the bulk of its screen time reduced to interior shots.

Within a year of Ford debuting its now-legendary Mustang for the “1964½” model year, Carroll Shelby embraced the powerful pony car’s potential and adopted its design for his own performance-based marque, introducing the Shelby Mustang GT350 later in 1965. Unlike the Ford Mustang, which balanced performance with relative luxury, Shelby’s GT350 was initially designed solely to be a street machine, though subsequent model years would see the addition of options that increased driver comfort and ease of driving. The GT350 was produced only with the highest performing Mustang engine, the 289 cubic-inch “Windsor” V8 with a larger 4-barrel Holley carburetor, glasspack dual exhaust, and high-riser aluminum intake manifold contributing to the increased power output of 306 horsepower.

By 1966, Shelby’s popular Mustang was being marketed solely as the “Shelby GT350” with “Mustang” dropped from the name. The company entered into a partnership with the Hertz Corporation to offer 1,000 GT350s—with another 800 pushed by Ford—to the company for rental use that would be returned, refurbished, and resold after their rental use… though legend has it that many of these Mustangs were returned to Hertz by weekend racers often with a lesser engine swapped in for the Shelby-modified HiPo 289 and even evidence that roll bars had been welded inside the car.

While most of the GT350H Mustangs were fitted with Ford’s “Cruise-o-Matic” three-speed automatic transmission, the first 85—including the one driven by James Garner in Grand Prix—had the four-speed Borg Warner T-10 manual transmission. These original “Rent-a-Racers” remain particularly desirable for collectors. (Check out full specs for the ’66 GT350H with four-speed manual here.)

1966 Shelby Mustang GT350H

Body Style: 2-door fastback

Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)

Engine: 289 cu. in. (4.7 L) Ford “Windsor” K-code V8 with 4-barrel Holley 715 CFM carburetor

Power: 306 bhp (228 kW; 310 PS) @ 6000 RPM

Torque: 329 lb·ft (446 N·m) @ 4200 RPM

Transmission: 4-speed manual

Wheelbase: 108 inches (2743 mm)

Length: 181.6 inches (4613 mm)

Width: 68.2 inches (1732 mm)

Height: 51.2 inches (1300 mm)

Thanks to Carroll Shelby’s role as Grand Prix‘s “technical consultant”, a 1966 Shelby GT350H with chassis #6S611 was loaned to the production for James Garner to drive both on- and off-screen.

Bondurant recalled that “the car drew a crowd everywhere Jim and I drove it. Every time we parked, there were more people around it than any Ferrari.” You can read more about Bondurant and Garner’s experience training for the film and see photos of the actual GT350H, recently restored to show quality, in Matt Stone’s 2015 article for Mustang 360°.

We get our final look at Garner’s GT350H as Pete arrives at the Monza race course before the fateful Italian Grand Prix later that summer, the final race of the film and the one that drives home the high stakes of his dangerous but thrilling sport.

Pete eases his GT350H into the paddock at Monza.

During the 2006 New York Auto Show, Ford revived the original Hertz concept with the updated Shelby GT-H, only available through the Hertz car rental agency. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of hte original GT350H, this limited run of 500 Mustangs echoed the original fastbacks of the ’60s with gold-on-black paint and performance upgrades that included the FR1 Power Pack and the FR3 Handling Pack, both from Ford Racing Performance Group.

James Garner as Pete Aron in Grand Prix (1966)

How to Get the Look

While the crested blazer, bright tie, and slacks may be part of Pete Aron’s new uniform as a race-day broadcaster, James Garner wears the outfit well…even if his character wears it with considerable disdain.

• Burgundy melange flannel single-breasted 3-button blazer with slim notch lapels, patch breast pocket (with gold “FBC TV” crest), patch hip pockets with flaps, 2-button cuffs, and single vent
• White cotton shirt with slim button-down collar, front placket, breast pocket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Crimson red straight tie
• Charcoal wool flat front trousers with beltless waistband, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black calf leather loafers
• Black socks
• Stainless steel identity bracelet (with name and blood type: “Pete Aron | Blood Type B.”)
• Stainless steel wristwatch with white dial on black leather strap (with steel single-prong buckle)

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

You should also visit the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving, located in Chandler, Arizona, outside of Phoenix. The 50-year-old school was just rescued from bankruptcy earlier this year, thanks to three former graduates. At a previous job, I had the privilege of hosting a classic car cruise at the Bondurant school, and it was thrilling to be at the track.

The Quote

I guess I’m just an old-fashioned boy at heart.

George Lazenby as James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Vitals

George Lazenby as James Bond, smooth British secret agent

Estoril, Portugal, September 1969

Film: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Release Date: December 18, 1969
Director: Peter R. Hunt
Tailor: Dimi Major
Costume Designer: Marjory Cornelius

Background

This year commemorates the 50th anniversary of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, often considered among the best of the James Bond canon. George Lazenby, the Australian actor who batted 1000 with OHMSS as his sole outing as 007, has also activated his Instagram presence this year, sharing photos of himself in many of the same locations he had made famous a half-century ago as the world’s most famous secret agent.

George’s #OHMSS50 tour included calling on the celebrated Palácio Estoril, the Portuguese hotel where his James Bond spent the early scenes of OHMSS chasing and seducing Diana Rigg’s character, Teresa “Tracy” di Vincenzo. During the visit, he even interacted with many of the hotel’s staff who were still in the Palácio Estoril’s employ 50 years after their on-screen cameos.

Today, on the 00-7th of July, let’s take a look at the timeless summer-friendly style that Lazenby’s James Bond wore when he pulled his Aston Martin into the parking lot at Palácio Estoril some fifty years ago.

What’d He Wear?

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service kicked off a trio of James Bond movies that featured 007 sporting neutral-toned linen lounge suits, the timeless choice for a gentleman dressing for warmer weather.

While only briefly seen during his check in to the famous hotel, George Lazenby’s cream linen suit marked a fashion-forward direction for the new Bond as audiences got acquainted with the first actor to assume the role since Sean Connery’s departure. You can read Matt Spaiser’s very in-depth analysis of this suit at The Suits of James Bond.

There’s little that can be added to Matt’s exploration of this suit, one of several tailored by Dimi Major for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The single-breasted jacket’s notch lapels roll to a two-button front that Lazenby keeps correctly fastened with just the top button throughout the sequence. The jacket’s flapped hip pockets are slanted, a fashionably less-than-formal detail of late ’60s tailoring, and Lazenby wears no pocket square in the welted breast pocket. The longer double vents indicate the predominant styles of the approaching decade, and the single button on each cuff is an additionally rakish detail that broke from Bond’s tradition to that point of wearing suit jackets and sports coats with multiple buttons on the cuffs.

Bond strides into the Palacio Estoril, where it is implied that he is a regular guest.

Pink is a fine accent color for beige or cream linen suits, though Lazenby’s pink cotton shirt is arguably better than the short pink tie that Sean Connery would wear with his linen suit in the following Bond adventure, Diamonds are Forever. The venerable Frank Foster crafted Lazenby’s shirt, which has a semi-spread collar, front placket, and one-button rounded cuffs, marking the first time that James Bond would wear a simple buttoned barrel cuff shirt with a suit and tie rather than French cuffs or the character’s signature “cocktail cuffs”.

Lazenby’s dark navy knit tie unifies his look with the legacy of James Bond’s wardrobe as featured in the novels of Ian Fleming, who often wrote of Bond’s black knitted silk ties with his navy suits, and the films featuring Sean Connery, who sported knitted silk ties in Goldfinger when not wearing the grenadine ties of his other movies. The dressy, businesslike aesthetic of a dark navy tie may be jarring, especially considering that it’s the same neckwear Lazenby would sport with his navy three-piece suit at the office, but the tie’s knitted texture harmonizes with the sporty linen suit.

“Everything seems up to the Palácio’s standards.”

As pleats were considered antiquated by 1969 (having yet to make their 1980s renaissance), it’s no surprise that Lazenby’s fashionable suit would break from James Bond’s sartorial tradition with its flat front, though they do likely have side adjusters and are not worn with a belt.

The trousers are straight and narrow through the legs to the plain-hemmed bottoms that break high that show off both his cream leather monk-strap plain-toe shoes and the dark socks that interrupt the leg line from trouser to shoe. Trousers with no break make it particularly important for the wearer to harmonize his hosiery as cream or beige socks would have done. Due to only fleeting glimpses we get of Lazenby’s socks, it’s difficult to ascertain the exact color, whether they’re an uninspired black or at least a dark navy to coordinate with his tie.

Bond checks out his latest digs.

Gents hoping to take the sartorial leap of owning a pair of well-made white or cream monk shoes would surely not regret their decision, though the current offerings of menswear retailers don’t make it easy with pickings limited to Stacy Adams’ excessively textured and detailed “Giannino” wingtip monk shoes or these Mezlan double monk shoes in off-white suede. Should neither option prove fruitful, one could always safely step into a pair of brown or tan monk shoes or go the Ripley route of white penny loafers à la Alain Delon in Plein soleil.

The brief sequence pays little attention to Lazenby’s wrist, but he no doubt wears the same stainless Rolex Submariner dive watch that had become a staple of James Bond’s style since Dr. No (1962), the first film of Sean Connery’s tenure, though Lazenby—and Roger Moore to follow—would wear their Rolex watches on a steel Oyster-style link bracelet rather than the striped nylon NATO straps. The Submariner, ref. 5513, has a black bezel and dial.

The Car

As this is technically #CarWeek, let’s refresh a previous look at the 1968 Aston Martin DBS Vantage that George Lazenby’s 007 drove in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, following the tradition of the earlier James Bond films that placed the quintessentially British secret agent behind the wheel of a quintessentially British sports car.

Bond gets a prime parking spot for his Aston Martin next to Tracy’s Mercury Cougar in front of the Hotel Palácio Estoril.

Aston Martin introduced the DBS in 1967 as an intended replacement for the smaller DB6, itself a successor to the DB5 that had been popularized as 007’s gadget-laden sports car in Goldfinger and Thunderball. The DBS incorporated a sleek, modernized look that was William Towns’ first design for Aston Martin.

The base model of the DBS was powered by a naturally aspirated inline-six cylinder engine that produced 282 horsepower, though a Vantage performance option increased the output to 325 horsepower with Italian-made Weber carburetors. The DBS Vantage could reportedly reach a top speed of around 150 mph (241 km/h), a limit that Bond certainly would have been eager to test when racing Tracy in a previous scene.

The tuxedo-clad Bond left his Aston Martin parked on the beach during the pre-credits sequence.

1968 Aston Martin DBS Vantage

Body Style: 2-door coupe (2+2 seater)

Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)

Engine: 3995 cc (4.0 L) Aston Martin DOHC I6 with Weber carburetors

Power: 325 bhp (242 kW; 330 PS) @ 5750 rpm

Torque: 290 lb·ft (393 N·m) @ 4500 rpm

Transmission: 5-speed manual

Wheelbase: 102.8 inches (2611 mm)

Length: 180.5 inches (4585 mm)

Width: 72 inches (1829 mm)

Height: 52.3 inches (1328 mm)

(Above stats from Carfolio.com)

In 1969, Aston Martin introduced a V8 engine option for the DBS, and this 5340cc coupe was briefly the fastest four-seater production car in the world. The success of the V8 model signaled the end of the DBS, which ceased production after the 1972 model year, and the design was incorporated into the renamed “Aston Martin V8”.

George Lazenby wasn’t the only James Bond actor to prominently drive an Aston Martin DBS. As debonair dandy Lord Brett Sinclair on The Persuaders!, Roger Moore had a “Bahama Yellow” six-cylinder, five-speed 1970 DBS that was re-badged and re-wheeled to resemble the V8 model. Sinclair was Moore’s final major screen role before he took over as James Bond in Live and Let Die in 1973.

How to Get the Look

George Lazenby as James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). Photo sourced from Thunderballs archive.

With a new, younger James Bond came a refreshed wardrobe, with this summer-friendly cream linen suit accompanied by a colorful shirt and tie setting a fashionable standard for George Lazenby’s 007 at the dawn of a new decade.

• Cream linen tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped slanted hip pockets, single-button cuffs, and long double vents
  • Flat front trousers with side-adjuster tabs, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Light pink cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, and single-button cuffs
• Navy knitted silk tie
• Cream leather monk-strap loafers
• Dark navy socks
• Rolex Submariner 5513 stainless steel dive watch with black bezel, black dial, and stainless Oyster link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and follow @georgelazenbyofficial on Instagram to see “the other fella” himself visiting the film’s locations 50 years later!

The Quote

This’II do. This’lI do me nicely.

Cary Grant and Doris Day in That Touch of Mink (1962)

Vitals

Cary Grant as Philip Shayne, smooth, sophisticated, and suave investment executive and “perfect gentleman”

Bermuda, Spring 1962

Film: That Touch of Mink
Release Date: June 14, 1962
Director: Delbert Mann
Tailor: Cardinal Clothes (credited “for Cary Grant’s suits”)

Background

After being first splashed, then swept, off her feet by the charming tycoon Philip Shayne (Cary Grant), unemployed Manhattanite Cathy Timerblake (Doris Day) finds herself accepting his impromptu invitation to join her for a summery respite in Bermuda. “Nowhere else in the world an you see beaches with pink sand,” Philip promises.

Having purchased every seat on a Pan Am passenger jet to Bermuda, Philip is there to meet her as she deplanes, chauffeuring her in his 1961 Citroën roadster to their luxurious suite at the Victoria Hotel, which is doubled on screen by the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica. Cathy tries to allow herself to enjoy the glamorous getaway, but she feels judged everywhere she goes by everyone she sees.

What’d He Wear?

“During summer I’ve taken to wearing beige, washable poplin suits,” Cary Grant explained in his sartorial advice column included in the winter 1967/68 issue of GQ. “They’re inexpensive and, if kept clean and crisp, acceptable almost anywhere at any time, even in the evening. Also, the coat can be worn with gray flannels at the seashore or in the country…”

Grant appears to be following his own advice in That Touch of Mink, sporting a beige summer-weight sports coat for his trip to Bermuda. Constructed from a light cotton gabardine, this single-breasted sport jacket has a high-fastening three-button front, with the three buttons spaced widely apart to look proportional on Cary Grant’s tall, 6’2″ frame. Particularly in his later films like Charade, Grant’s habit of buttoning only his lower jacket buttons emerged, seen here when he only fastens the lower two on his beige jacket.

Beige has been Cathy’s signature color up to this point in That Touch of Mink, and Philip matching her with his summer sports coat shows that they’re truly in sync for the first time in the movie, particularly as she is outfitted in the new Bergdorf Goodman suit that Philip paid for and coordinated with the help of the laconic Leonard.

The jacket has a single vent, full chest, and rounded front skirt opening that cuts away at the lowest button. The patch pockets on the hips are rounded on the bottom and covered with flaps, and there is no breast pocket. There are two non-functioning buttons spaced apart on the cuff of each sleeve.

Throughout That Touch of Mink, Philip Shayne maintains a base layer of office-appropriate dress: white or blue dress shirts, a tie, and the trousers from one of his conservatively colored business suits, allowing for situational variance by taking off his suit jacket when it’s not needed and replacing it either with contextually appropriate top layers whether it’s a comfortable navy cardigan when not taking visitors at his office or this beige sports coat in Bermuda.

In Bermuda, Philip wears a pale blue cotton shirt with a point collar and double (French) cuffs. While the shirt would still be appropriate for the office, the blue color dresses it down to a level of informality appropriate for the context while also flattering Grant’s suntanned complexion. Philip wears a slate gray silk tie in a four-in-hand knot. (Though a brief continuity error during a scene in the hotel hallway appears to show Grant wearing a white shirt and gray silk tie.)

Cathy and Philip share a smile as they walk through their hotel lobby.

As suggested earlier, Philip’s dark gray single forward-pleated trousers are likely orphaned from the business suit he wore on the day that he met Cathy. Assuming that these trousers do belong to that opening scene suit, they would be fitted with the actor’s preferred buckle-tab side adjusters, or “side loops” as Grant described them to GQ, and they exhibit the same sheen indicative of the possibility of a mohair/wool blend. The legs are tapered down to the plain-hemmed bottoms which break high over his shoes.

A glamorous hotel arrival.

“The moccasin type of shoe is, to me, almost essential and especially convenient when traveling, since they can be easily slipped off in the airplane or car,” offers Grant in the same article, and his jet-setting Philip Shayne exemplifies the actor’s own advice with the slip-ons he wears during his tenure in Bermuda. When bringing Cathy back to the hotel, he appears to be wearing dark burgundy tassel loafers and light gray socks.

While not changing the rest of his clothes, Philip evidently freshened up his footwear for his carriage ride around town with Cathy, as he’s now sporting a pair of charcoal suede tassel loafers with mid-gray socks.

Philip is all smiles as the couple rides through town, but Cathy feels judgmental eyes upon them from everyone they encounter.

Months after the couple’s uncomfortable interlude in Bermuda, Philip’s summery outfit makes a reprise for the movie’s epilogue, albeit with a warm yellow shirt and tie, as Philip walks with Cathy and their baby—and Philip’s neurotic associate Roger (Gig Young)—through Central Park, where they run into Roger’s therapist, Dr. Gruber (Alan Hewitt).

Philip abandons his business-friendly tones after he and Cathy begin raising a family. Even Roger looks more relaxed in his seersucker sport jacket than his usual business suits and odd waistcoats.

Interestingly, Philip’s choice of a yellow point-collar shirt and a coordinating gold micro-textured silk tie offers more of a holiday-friendly aesthetic than the businesslike blues and grays when he was actually in Bermuda. Perhaps this colorful sartorial direction signals the character’s more laidback demeanor after settling down and beginning a family with Cathy?

The Car

Philip Shayne’s preferred wheels for motoring through Bermuda is a “Panama beige” 1961 Citroën DS 19 Décapotable Usine Chapron, the roadster model of the iconic DS 19 that set a new standard for the French automotive industry.

As noted in the film’s “Goofs” entry on IMDB, not only should Philip not be driving on the right side of the road as Bermuda enforces left-side driving, he shouldn’t be driving himself as Bermuda doesn’t offer car rental and only residents are allowed to own cars. It makes for a picturesque scene, though!

Citroën introduced the DS 19 in 1955, kicking off a groundbreaking two-decade production run that immediately grabbed attention for its futuristic design that looked—as structuralist philosopher Roland Barthes wrote in 1957—as though it had “fallen from the sky”. This aerodynamic design was the result of a collaboration between Italian sculptor Flaminio Bertoni and French aeronautical engineer André Lefèbvre. The DS 19 was also considered a technological triumph for innovations like Paul Magès’ hydropneumatic self-leveling suspension that included an automatic leveling system for providing a smooth driving experience over rough or uneven terrain as well as its power steering and the “semi-automatic” transmission that still required shifting by hand but without the need of a manual clutch.

Over its twenty years and three generations of production, Citroën sold 1,455,746 DS 19 automobiles in various configurations from sedans and wagons to convertibles like the roadster introduced in 1961, the very model driven by Cary Grant in That Touch of Mink.

1961 Citroën DS 19 Décapotable Usine Chapron

Body Style: 2-door roadster

Layout: front-engine, front-wheel-drive (FWD)

Engine: 116.7 cu. in. (1.9 L) Citroën inline-four cylinder

Power: 76 hp (57 kW; 78 PS) @ 4500 RPM

Torque: 103 lb·ft (139 N·m) @ 3000 RPM

Transmission: 4-speed manual with automatic clutch

Wheelbase: 123 inches (1325 mm)

Length: 189.8 inches (4820 mm)

Width: 70.5 inches (1790 mm)

Height: 57.1 inches (1450 mm)

You can read more about the Citroën DS 19 driven in That Touch of Mink, with registration plates P3129, at IMCDB or find specs about the model itself at Automobile Catalog.

Cary Grant as Philip Shayne in That Touch of Mink (1962)

How to Get the Look

As a debonair tycoon played by Cary Grant, Philip Shayne elegantly balances his conservative business wear with resort-appropriate garb, dressed and ready for both a touristy ride through Bermuda or an impromptu business meeting.

• Beige summer-weight cotton gabardine single-breasted 3-button sport jacket with notch lapels, straight flapped hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and single vent
• Pale blue cotton shirt with point collar and double/French cuffs
• Slate gray silk tie
• Dark gray mohair/wool single forward-pleated suit trousers with buckle-tab side adjusters, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Charcoal suede moc-toe tassel loafers
• Gray socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

A gentleman always allows the lady to undress first.

Robert Redford as Jack Weil driving a 1955 Cadillac in Havana (1990)

Vitals

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

Santa Clara, Cuba, December 1958

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

Background

Extending #CarWeek to get to casual Friday gives us the opportunity to pay tribute to Robert Redford’s classic casual warm-weather attire behind the wheel of a grand Cadillac convertible from the fabulous ’50s. The film in question is, of course, Havana, Sydney Pollack’s 1990 paean to Casablanca that starred Redford as Jack Weil, a cynical American gambler who finds love in the form of Cuban revolutionary Roberta “Bobby” Duran (Lena Olin) on the eve of that country’s revolution.

A man of unapologetically luxurious taste, Jack takes his Cadillac with him to Cuba and ends up motoring this opulent convertible out of the titular capital city to Santa Clara in search of the fugitive Bobby, hoping to convince her to flee the country with him and hoping to finance their escape with the diamond that he had long ago sewn into his arm.

What’d He Wear?

After spending much of his time hopping between casinos and bars in his colorful suits and sports coats, Jack Weil dresses down in a simple shirt and slacks for his romantic rescue mission. The silky blue shirt was no doubt made by Anto Beverly Hills, then known as Nat Wise of London, who had been Redford’s preferred shirtmaker on- and off-screen since the early years of his career. The shirt fastens up the plain front with tonal sew-through buttons, and each sleeve closes over the cuff with a single button on a pointed tab.

This soft silk shirt has a wide camp collar that is often referred to as a “Cuban collar” by clothiers like Scott Fraser Collection and is—in this case—a particularly appropriate moniker given the film’s setting. A small loop on the left side of the collar ostensibly connects to a small button under the right collar leaf that would button the shirt up to the top, though Redford wears the shirt more comfortably open at the neck. Both patch pockets on the shirt’s chest are covered with flaps with no buttons to close.

Jack and Bobby take cover as he spirits her away from Santa Clara.

Jack wears the same tobacco brown trousers that he had previously worn for the dressier outfit of a cream linen sports jacket and light blue dress shirt. These trousers rise to the natural waist and have single reverse-facing pleats on each side of the fly and pockets along the side seams. Through the trouser belt loops, dropped about a quarter-inch from the top of his waistband, Jack wears an inch-wide dark brown leather belt with a gold rectangular box-style buckle. The bottoms of Jack’s trousers are finished with turn-ups (cuffs), which—like pleats—enjoyed more popularity during the fifties than some other decades.

Despite the relatively conservative outfit (when compared to items like his brushstroke-printed tie), he still wears a pair of spectator shoes, albeit a more subdued pair in walnut brown leather and tan nubuck that offer a softer visual contrast than the black-and-white correspondents that he wore with his blue dupioni silk sports coat. As identified by an auction listing, these five-eyelet wingtip oxfords were made by Bragano. Jack wears them here with black ribbed socks.

Production photo of Robert Redford and Lena Olin in Havana.

Jack wears a pair of large gold-framed aviator-style sunglasses with dark lenses, possibly a product of Ray-Ban. Originally developed for American military pilots in the late 1930s, the aviator is a suitable choice for Jack Weil with his military background and adventurous spirit.

Even when not spending late nights in a casino, Jack wears the gold jewelry and accessories emblematic of his gambler lifestyle, including his all-gold wristwatch and the gold signet ring on his right pinky that has seemingly replaced the actor’s own silver ring that he has worn on the third finger of his right hand in most of his movies since receiving it as a gift from the Hopi tribe in the late 1960s.

This type of shirt appears to be a favorite of Jack’s, as he later wears one in beige silk—with the same brown trousers, two-tone shoes, and gold accessories—upon returning to Havana.

Back in Havana, Jack seems to be turning away from his usual suits and sport jackets in favor of more utilitarian dressing.

The overall look of the beige flapped-pocket shirt with the brown slacks presents the effect of a military uniform, making it particularly suitable for Jack’s final on-screen outfit before leaving Cuba, illustrating his transformation from a cynical gambler to invested revolutionary sympathizer.

The Car

In mid-century America, few material possessions signified status so much as a Cadillac, and the wealthy Jack Weil would be well aware of this as he cruises along the Cuban coastline behind the wheel of his silver 1955 Cadillac Eldorado convertible.

Jack Weil cruises through Cuba in his classic Cadillac.

A symbol of premium luxury, the Cadillac Eldorado was added to the marque’s lineup for the 1953 model year in commemoration of Cadillac’s golden anniversary. The name evokes El Dorado, the mythical South American “lost city of gold” that intrigued generations of explorers.

The Eldorado convertible was Cadillac’s top-of-the-line offering upon the model’s introduction in 1953, sharing the same 331 cubic-inch V8 as Cadillac’s entry-level Series 62 but commanding a price of $7,750 (nearly $75,000 in 2019 dollars), available only as a special-bodied convertible designed by Harley Earl. Only 532 were produced and sold during that first year.

For the following year, Cadillac settled the Eldorado into more of a standard production car, differentiated more by added trim than a unique body style, sacrificing this exclusivity for more accessible prices and, thus, nearly quadrupled sales from the ’53 model. Sales almost doubled with 3,950 units sold in 1955, the same year that Cadillac added its elegant and now-iconic tailfins to the Eldorado’s rear end.

1955 Cadillac Eldorado

Body Style: 2-door convertible

Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)

Engine: 331.1 cubic inch (5.4 L) Cadillac OHV V8 with Rochester 4-barrel carburetor

Power: 270 hp (201 kW; 273 PS) @ 4800 rpm

Torque: 345 lb·ft (468 N·m) @ 3200 rpm

Transmission: 4-speed GM Hydra-Matic automatic

Wheelbase: 129 inches (3277 mm)

Length: 223.2 inches (5669 mm)

Width: 79.8 inches (2027 mm)

Height: 61 inches (1550 mm)

Check out the specs and details about the 1955 Cadillac Eldorado at the comprehensive Automobile Catalog, and read more about the Eldorado featured in Havana at IMCDB.

Jack glides his Cadillac through a Cuban checkpoint.

The second generation of the Cadillac Eldorado concluded with the 1956 model year when the body was shortened by an inch but slightly widened out to an 80.1-inch wingspan. For the first time, a hardtop model was introduced and Cadillac began differentiating its two Eldorado options as the “Eldorado Biarritz” (convertible) and the “Eldorado Seville” (coupe).

The Eldorado remained in continuous production, evolving over five decades before General Motors announced that the Eldorado would cease production in 2002, appropriately the 50th anniversary of the very model it introduced for Cadillac’s own 50th anniversary.

Robert Redford as Jack Weil in Havana (1990)

How to Get the Look

Jack Weil proves that dressing down doesn’t mean sacrificing elegance, donning a simple outfit of a blue shirt and brown trousers resplendent with ’50s details like a wide camp collar and flapped shirt pockets, pleated and cuffed slacks, and spectator shoes that elevate an otherwise basic ensemble into something more interesting.

• Blue soft silk long-sleeve shirt with wide “Cuban” camp collar, two flapped patch pockets, and pointed-tab button cuffs
• Tobacco brown reverse-pleated trousers with dropped belt loops, straight/on-seam pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Dark brown leather belt with gold rectangular box-style buckle
• Brown two-tone leather five-eyelet wingtip spectator oxfords
• Black ribbed socks
• Gold wristwatch with round gold dial on flat bracelet
• Gold signet pinky ring
• Gold-framed aviator sunglasses with dark blue-gray lenses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I came 200 miles after you without a cigarette.

Danny Huston as Ben “the Butcher” Diamond in “Feeding Frenzy”, episode 1.02 of Magic City (2012-2013)

Vitals

Danny Huston as Ben “the Butcher” Diamond, sadistic and volatile Miami gangster

Miami Beach, spring 1959

Series: Magic City
Episodes:
– “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02, dir: Ed Bianchi, aired April 13, 2012)
– “The Harder They Fall” (Episode 1.06, dir: Ed Bianchi, aired May 11, 2012)
– “Crime and Punishment” (Episode 2.01, dir: Clark Johnson, aired June 14, 2013)
Creator: Mitch Glazer
Costume Designer: Carol Ramsey

Background

Considering classic gangland style evokes images of pinstripe suits, flashy jewelry, and wide-brimmed fedoras… but what do gangsters wear when the sun’s at its brightest? On #MafiaMonday, let’s travel down to sunny Miami Beach where—even in the middle of January—mobster Ben “the Butcher” Diamond is dressed in lightweight linen for days by the swimming pool and nights at the cocktail lounge in Starz’s canceled-too-soon period drama Magic City.

What’d He Wear?

Ben the Butcher’s summer-friendly style includes a variety of colorful shirts from across the rainbow, from deep purple and seafoam green to bright yellow and baby blue. Villain that he is, he looks natural in his black linen shirt, but he also embraces the comfortably airy nature of white linen.

In the first season, Ben’s go-to white linen shirt is a classic guayabera, the Cuban dress shirt distinctive for its decorative alforzas and the four patch pockets—two on the chest, two on the hips—each decorated with a pointed yoke and decorative button. It is this full complement of four pockets that makes a true guayabera, as the Ramon Puig website writes:

History traces the roots of the guayabera back to the beginning of the 18th century to the province of Sancti Espiritus, Cuba where Ramon Puig was born. As legend has it, an Andalusian immigrant by the name of Jose Gonzalez asked his wife Encarnacion to make him a long-sleeve white linen shirt with four large pockets so that he could carry his cigars, writing instruments, handkerchief and “otras cositas” (other small things) during the course of his work day. The elegance and overall practicality of the shirt caught on with the local “guayaberos” (guava farmers) who then filled the lower pockets with guayabas (guava fruits) and baptized the shirt “guayabera.”

The second distinctive feature of a guayabera, the alforzas, are also present on Ben’s shirt. These vertical strips run from shoulder to hem, met at each end with a pointed yoke finished with a decorative button similar to the pocket detail. Ben’s white shirt has a single set of alforzas down each chest panel through the center of the pockets as well as three on the back.

Ben’s white guayabera appears to be a size too large for him, though this—as well as its lightweight linen shirting—would make it a very breezy garment for a warm day in Miami Beach.

Production photo of Danny Huston taking aim as Ben Diamond, clad in a white guayabera in “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02).

Ben wears the shirt’s cuffs loosely rolled up in “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02), though he’s fastened them—either with buttons or cuff links—for his late meeting with Bel and Ike in “The Harder They Fall” (Episode 1.06).

For the shirt’s first appearance in “Feeding Frenzy”, worn with a pair of plain black trousers, Ben is taking a phone call in his living room when he grows annoyed with his girlfriend Lily’s dog and, swapping the phone in his hand for a .38-caliber revolver, marches outside to quell the dog’s barking before all-too-calmly resuming his call. As he’s relaxing at home, he wears a pair of elegant black velvet Prince Albert slippers with black leather trim and gold embroidering on the vamps.

Following that episode, Ben restricts his on-screen white shirts to evening visits to the Miramar Playa’s swanky Atlantis Lounge, first when accompanied by Del for a private meeting with Ike Evans in “The Harder They Fall” (Episode 1.06).

For this outing, he wears a pair of off-white trousers, possibly the same cream-colored Brooks Brothers trousers made from 100% Irish linen that he would also wear with many of his other shirts. If so, they have a zip fly, straight side pockets, and jetted back pockets that are all covered by the untucked shirt hem. The plain-hemmed bottoms break cleanly over his tan leather shoes.

Ben and Bel call on Ike for a late meeting at the Atlantis Lounge in “The Harder They Fall” (Episode 1.06).

The second season premiere, “Crime and Punishment” (Episode 2.01), is set in spring 1959, shortly after the first season ends. Again, Ben makes a grand entrance to the Atlantis Lounge, bedecked in a new white linen shirt but back to the plain black trousers, worn with black leather shoes that may possibly be his bicycle-toe buckle-strap ALDO loafers seen in other episodes.

The second season shirt could be accurately described as a “pocketless guayabera” as it retains the classic alforza pleats though they are unencumbered by pockets as they make their vertical journey down from shoulder to hem, met by a decorative button at each end, similar to the black Renato shirt he wears throughout the series. This white shirt also has a concealed fly front and double (French) cuffs, which he dresses with a set of gold cuff links that each consist of a rectangular frame with a horizontal gold bar across the center.

Ben wears jewelry apropos his name, notably the large diamond shining from the gold ring on his right pinky. On the opposing hand, he wears his classic gold wristwatch. In the first season, this timepiece has a round black dial with gold non-numeric markers on a gold case, strapped to his left wrist on a black leather band.

Accessorizing like a gangster: pinky ring, gold watch, and nickel-plated .38.

For Magic City‘s second season, Ben would swap out his gold watch for a Hamilton Electric with a light silver dial and gold numeric markers on a dark brown alligator strap. Given how many of these particular scenes are set inside, Ben has no need to wear his usual black Victory sunglasses, though they would be a natty touch to this summer-friendly ensemble.

The Gun

The Smith & Wesson Model 10 with its four-inch barrel spent the better half of the 20th century as the sidearm of choice for most American police departments, apropos the revolver’s original designation as the Smith & Wesson “Military & Police Model” when it was introduced to the market in 1899.

While a professional killer like Ben Diamond would no doubt appreciate the reliability of this venerable weapon, there’s no way the unapologetic gangster would want to carry a blued steel model that could be mistaken for a police officer’s weapon, instead selecting his armament finished in a bright nickel that gleams when drawn under the shining Florida sun.

Don’t do it, Ben!

The selection seems to be in line with Ben Diamond’s firearm preferences as he also makes use of a M1911A1, the classic .45 pistol made famous by American GIs during World War II, though Ben the Butcher’s 1911 is nickel-plated unlike the military-issued models in their blued or “parkerized” finish.

How to Get the Look

Danny Huston as Ben “the Butcher” Diamond in “Feeding Frenzy”, episode 1.02 of Magic City (2012-2013)

Ben Diamond illustrates how to elevate a white shirt and black trousers into an interesting summer ensemble that transcends its own relative simplicity.

• White lightweight linen guayabera shirt with spread collar, four patch pockets (with pointed yokes and decorative buttons), and double-strip alforzas down each front panel with decorative buttons
• Black flat front trousers with belt loops, zip fly, straight/on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather belt
• Black velvet Prince Albert slippers with gold-embroidered vamps
• Gold pinky ring with set-in diamond
• Gold wristwatch with a dark leather strap

If you’re more into the all-white look for summer, you can follow Ben’s example of swapping out the black trousers and slippers for cream linen slacks and tan derbies.

Ben’s only other white shirt makes a brief appearance in the penultimate episode when he accosts Lily in the pool while wearing a white linen Cubavera shirt with fancy taupe, brown, and black embroidered striping down each chest panel. This unique garment seen may possibly be the subject of its own BAMF Style post at a later date.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series.

The Quote

Abso-fucking-lutely I’m threatening you.

James Cagney as Cody Jarrett in White Heat (1949)

Vitals

James Cagney as Arthur “Cody” Jarrett, ruthless gang leader and devoted son

Los Angeles, Spring 1950

Film: White Heat
Release Date: September 2, 1949
Director: Raoul Walsh
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 120th birthday of James Cagney, the intense actor who brought realism and energy to his performances that ranged from deadpan comedy to complex tough guys. It was for the latter that Cagney, who Orson Welles described as “maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of the camera,” is most remembered, particularly for his mature performance as the complex gangster Cody Jarrett in White Heat.

Released 70 years ago this September, White Heat capped off nearly two decades of Cagney’s iconic gangster roles from his explosive star-making performance in The Public Enemy (1931) through more developed, nuanced criminal characters in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and The Roaring Twenties (1939). The latter marked Cagney’s last gangster role for nearly a decade as his career evolved with more romantic and comedic roles through the ’40s, and it was his performance as the decidedly non-criminal George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) that earned Cagney his Academy Award. “Movies should be entertaining, not blood baths,” Cagney had stated during the waning days of his contract with Warner Brothers. “I’m sick of carrying a gun and beating up women.”

However, his subsequent movies were received with decreasing enthusiasm, and Cagney found himself back where he started: playing a gangster for Warner Brothers. “It’s what people want me to do,” the actor expressed around the time he signed on for White Heat in May 1949, shortly before his 50th birthday. “Someday, though, I’d like to make just one picture kids could go see.”

Though Cagney had hoped to avoid the typecasting that came with playing gangsters in “blood baths,” White Heat had the potential to be a much different kind of movie, a noir-ish character study written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, based on a story by Virginia Kellogg. To Jack Warner’s dismay, both screenwriters suggested Cagney for the role, explaining that “there’s only one man who can play [Cody Jarrett] and make the rafters rock.” Cagney, however, was initially disappointed with his and stereotypical character and the formulaic plot so, with the help of pals Humphrey Bogart and Frank McHugh, he worked on script revisions that added dimension to the Cody Jarrett character with his blinding migraines and psychotic rage based on what Cagney recalled of his own alcoholic father.

The new direction also took inspiration from the true story of Ma Barker and her criminal sons who terrorized the Depression-era Midwest with a half-decade spree of bank robberies, kidnappings, and killings. While the real “Ma” no doubt sympathized with her offspring, she was hardly the ruthless gang leader that the FBI posthumously presented her to be. In fact, Alvin Karpis⁠—a Canadian-born criminal who was most likely the actual leader of the gang⁠—described Kate Barker as “an old-fashioned homebody from the Ozarks… superstitious, gullible, simple, cantankerous and, well, generally law abiding.” Adding to that, bank robber Harvey Bailey suggested in his autobiography that the aging woman “couldn’t plan breakfast,” let alone a criminal enterprise.

In fact, the side of White Heat‘s depiction of “Ma” Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly) as a sympathetic enabler of her son’s criminal plight rather than a gun-toting gang member is more consistent with the known facts of Ma Barker than the reputation that has dogged her in the 84 years since she and her son Fred were killed during a gunfight with the FBI at their rural Florida hideout in January 1935. Historians have dismissed the image of Ma Barker as a vicious criminal matriarch as merely J. Edgar Hoover’s justification of the fact that a 61-year-old woman had been killed by his agents. Unfortunately for the late Mrs. Barker’s reputation, this characterization of the violent, promiscuous gang leader has clearly resonated with Hollywood, whether in retellings of the Barker-Karpis Gang’s story in movies like Ma Barker and her Killer Brood (1960), Bloody Mama (1970), and Public Enemies (1996, not the Michael Mann movie) or works of fiction inspired by the idea of a brutal old woman at the helm of a gang of criminals, like James Hadley Chase’s novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish and its 1971 adaptation, The Grissom Gang.

The inspired new direction for the character and plot led to James Cagney delivering a masterful comeback performance, cited to be Oscar-worthy by his co-star Virginia Mayo, in what is now considered one of the greatest gangster movies of all time.

Freshly escaped from prison with his new pal Vic Pardo (Edmund O’Brien)—in fact an undercover police agent named Hank Fallon—Cody Jarrett has already taken revenge on the treacherous gang member who ran away with his wife, Verna (Virginia Mayo), and is deep in planning his next caper, the “Trojan Horse”-style robbery of $426,000 from a chemical plant’s payroll office, filmed at the Shell Oil refinery at 198th Street and Figueroa in Torrance. “Vic” has used Verna’s radio to send a transmitter signal to his pals on the police who track the gang’s tanker to Long Beach and surround the building. Having watched most of his gang fall whether to police bullets or those fired by his own gun, Cody flees to the top of a spherical gas tank that provides him one last opportunity to toast his deceased mother before two of his own gunshots set the whole structure aflame…

Cody Jarrett’s last words also reflect another inspiration for his character, the diminutive New York spree killer Francis “Two Gun” Crowley, whose brief but brutal streak of shootings in the spring of 1931 ended the lives of dance hall stewardess Virginia Brannen and Nassau County police officer Fred Hirsch. Crowley was finally cornered in his West 91st Street apartment on May 7, the day after he killed Hirsch, engaging in a two-hour gun battle with police that attracted nearly 15,000 bystanders before Crowley was finally wounded four times and arrested, though police had to remove two additional pistols strapped to his legs as he was being brought into custody.

Convicted of Hirsch’s murder (while his partner Rudolph “Fats” Derringer was found guilty of killing Brannen), the 19-year-old Crowley was executed on January 21, 1932, having reportedly uttered the final words, “You sons of bitches. Send my love to my mother,” though others report his final words were to ask for a rag to wipe down the electric chair after it had just been used to fry Derringer.

What’d He Wear?

During the Depression-era crime wave, a pattern emerged of outlaws like John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and even the scrappy Clyde Barrow of dressing in their finest suits, ties, hats, and coats for their bank takeovers, treating them almost as debutante balls rather than dangerous armed robberies. The fictional Cody Jarrett of White Heat takes the opposite approach, dressing in double-breasted suits and silk ties while at leisure but donning utilitarian and casual work wear for his heists.

Cody dresses for the climactic chemical plant heist in a casual jacket, fedora, and khaki trousers, essentially a retread of his outfit from the film’s opening train robbery in the Sierra Mountains though he replaces the rural-appropriate corded jacket with a leather blouson jacket more fitting for this urban scenario.

Made from what appears to be seal brown horsehide, Cody Jarrett’s leather jacket has a zip front, hip pockets that close with single-snap flaps, and ribbed-knit cuffs and waist hem. The epaulettes (shoulder straps) suggest a military influence, particularly suitable during the postwar wave of patriotism that popularized the look of the heroic American aviation officers in their leather A-2 jackets as they piloted bombers across the skies during World War II. (Read more about the history of American flight jackets and bomber jackets in this two-part series from Heddel’s, focusing on 1927 through 1946 and 1947 to the present day.)

White Heat may be one of the first post-war pop culture appearances of the modern military-style flight jacket as casual civilian wear. In fact, Cody’s leather flight jacket takes many styling cues from the classic A-2, though the collar lacks the A-2’s hidden snaps at the collar points and hook-and-eye throat latch, instead fitted with a shirt-style collar that lays flat and a snap closure at the neck.

Cody Jarrett confronts his one-time pal “Vic Pardo”.

Modern A-2 jackets are also a dime a dozen (or several hundred for a single jacket) on Amazon, offered by brands like Cockpit USA and Landing Leathers. Those seeking to crib Cody Jarrett’s look could find success with the vintage-inspired Expedition Shirt offered in several colors for $125 by Magnoli Clothiers, paired with the same brand’s Adventure Jacket ($635) or Civilian A-2 Jacket ($670).

Cody wears a dark cotton work shirt with a long point collar, wide front placket, and button cuffs. The shirt has two patch pockets on the chest that each close with a single button through a mitred-corner flap. Though dark, Cody’s shirt is a few shades lighter in color than his leather jacket.

Production photo of James Cagney during White Heat‘s iconic final scene.

Cody wears a pair of medium-colored work trousers almost certainly made from khaki chino cotton, adding more military pedigree to the bandit’s casual ensemble. Chino cloth developed with the Spanish introduction of “pantalones chinos” made from a durable Chinese cotton twill to European militaries in the 1800s. The distinctive khaki color was a by-product of British Army Lieutenant Harry Lumdsen’s experimentation of using either river mud or tea to dye his bright white cotton uniform while serving in India. By the end of the 19th century, the material now popularized as khaki chino cloth found its way to the United States in time to meet the lightweight uniform requirements of soldiers fighting the Spanish-American War in tropical Cuba. (You can read more about the evolution of menswear originally developed for the military in my 2018 piece for Primer.)

These flat front trousers have a high rise to his natural waist, where Cody wears a dark leather belt with a dulled rectangular single-prong buckle. The belt loops themselves are inconsistent in width with loops nearly an inch long in the front but only a thin loop in the rear center.

Cody leads his gang, almost all dressed in leather jackets, fedoras, and casual shirts, through the chemical plant.

Cody’s trousers have a button fly, slightly slanted side pockets, and jetted back pockets with a button closing through the top of the left pocket only. They have a full cut and are straight through the legs down to the plain-hemmed bottoms. Cody wears a pair of dark leather work boots with open derby-style lacing and speed hooks.

Like the classic black-hatted villains of Western serials, the irredeemable baddie Cody Jarrett wears a dark fedora, likely made from black felt, with a black ribbed silk grosgrain band.

Between Cody’s gloves and the ribbed cuffs of his jacket, his wristwatch is mostly hidden for the duration of the oil refinery heist, though he appears to be wearing the same watch with its metal bracelet as he was wearing before he went to prison. His medium-colored gloves are likely made from tan leather.

The couple that robs together…evidently doesn’t stay loyal to the other, as Verna proves time and time again to be all too eager to betray her criminal husband.

The film’s wardrobe is credited to Leah Rhodes, the Warner Brothers costume designer who was born 117 years ago this Sunday (sharing my birthday of July 21!) and won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design in recognition of her work in Adventures of Don Juan (1949). The prolific Ms. Rhodes had started working at Warner Brothers upon moving to Hollywood with her husband in the late 1920s, graduating to the role of Orry-Kelly’s chief assistant and then taking over for the legendary designer’s duties in 1942 when he was called for duty in the U.S. Army. Rhodes continued her role after the war, designing costumes for iconic Warner Brothers thrillers and crime films including The Big Sleep (1946), Key Largo (1948), and Strangers on a Train (1951).

The Gun

While it may have been more realistic for a group of expert bandits like Cody Jarrett’s gang to be armed with the latest technology as real-life criminals of the ’30s and ’40s often were, the Motion Picture Production Code (colloquially the “Hays Code”) that began rigorous enforcement in 1934 stipulated firearm usage among the points where “good taste be emphasized,” often interpreted to mean that law enforcement could not be outgunned by criminals. Thus, Winchester rifles and shotguns replaced Thompson submachine guns and Browning Automatic Rifles in the hands of crooks like Humphrey Bogart’s Dillinger-esque outlaw in The Petrified Forest (1936) while James Cagney and his crusading team of federal agents in G Men (1935) could freely carry Tommy guns while trading shots with the violent gangs that ruled the Midwest.

By the late 1940s, the practice had softened a bit, no doubt due to the public’s exposure to fast-firing machine guns, submachine guns, and automatic rifles in the abundance of war movies released during the World War II years. However, movies like Dillinger (1945) and White Heat (1949) remained on the safe side of the long arm of the Hays Code by arming its police with Thompsons while the criminals fired back with the non-automatic rifles and shotguns developed decades earlier while the west was still wild.

Interestingly, Cody and his crew tend to stick to handguns only for their heists, including the final chemical plant payroll job. The shotgun eventually used on screen, a Winchester Model 1897 pump-action riot gun, was dropped by the accounting department security guard who was accosted by Bo Creel (Ian MacDonald). The shotgun still remained on the floor as Cody’s men worked on cracking the safes, not entering play until a desperate Hank Fallon grabbed it once Bo identified him to Cody as “a copper!”

Cody himself gets his hands on the guard’s Winchester shotgun after one of his men knocks out Fallon and alerts Cody to the police outside, necessitating Cody to arm himself with more firepower than the snub-nosed .38 he was carrying for the job.

“‘Come out with your hands up’, the man says! How do you like that, Ma? Here’s my answer, ya dirty-“

Of course, it isn’t long before the shotgun is out of shells and the trigger-happy Cody again turns to his trusty Colt Detective Special that he had packed in his jacket pocket. Introduced in 1927, the Detective Special found almost instant popularity among lawmen and lawbreakers alike for its ability to carry six of the powerful .38 Special rounds in an easily concealable and relatively compact package, setting a new standard for the prototypical “snub-nose” revolver that would dominate 20th century detective fiction.

Cody takes refuge with his last surviving gang member, Tommy Ryley (Robert Osterloh).

How to Get the Look

Colorized VHS of White Heat (1949) starring James Cagney

Perhaps hoping to project the image that he leads his gang with military precision, Cody Jarrett dresses for the explosive climactic robbery in White Heat in a leather flight jacket and khaki chinos that evoke the attire of U.S. Army attire who fought in World War II earlier in the decade. More than 70 years later, flight jackets and chinos remain essential staples of men’s casual wear.

• Seal brown horsehide leather flight jacket with shirt-style collar, epaulettes, zip front (with neck snap), snap-flapped hip pockets, and ribbed-knit cuffs
• Dark cotton work shirt with point collar, two patch pockets (with mitred-corner button-down flaps), and button cuffs
• Khaki chino flat front trousers with wide belt loops, slightly slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark leather belt with squared single-prong buckle
• Dark leather derby-laced work boots
• Dark fedora with ribbed-silk grosgrain band
• Tan leather gloves
• Wristwatch on metal bracelet

To the best of my knowledge, there is no existing accessible record of the colors of Cagney’s attire in White Heat, though a colorized version of the film depicts this final outfit to consist of a dark brown leather jacket, a charcoal work shirt, and khaki trousers. (You can watch a colorized clip here!)

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. Once you’ve seen it, I recommend reading Mike D’Angelo’s analysis of this “all-time great ending” for The AV Club.

The Quote

Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

Alain Delon as Tom Ripley in Purple Noon (1960)

Vitals

Alain Delon as Tom Ripley, charming American con artist and sophisticated sociopath

on Mediterranean Sea off Italy, August 1959

Film: Purple Noon
(French title: Plein soleil)
Release Date: March 10, 1960
Director: René Clément
Costume Designer: Bella Clément

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As I leave for my annual week at the beach tomorrow, I’ll be hoping to channel the style—if not the discomfort and petty cruelty—of the idyllic-looking, sun-drenched Mediterranean voyage where sociopathic American con man Tom Ripley (Alain Delon) forms an uncomfortable seagoing trio with the brash, arrogant playboy Philippe Greenleaf (Maurice Ronet) and Philippe’s demure girlfriend Marge (Marie Laforêt).

Clearly, a fun time was had by all.

After one of Philippe’s “pranks” leaves him with a bad case of sun poisoning, Tom retreats to his bunk on the boat for endless rounds of solitaire when Philippe attempts to apologize for his prank-gone-wrong… and Tom solidifies his plan for revenge.

Marge returns to the Italian shore after discovering evidence (planted by Tom) of Philippe’s infidelity, leaving an uneasy tension between the two men who continue sailing and agree to bury the hatchet (so to speak) over a poker game. The stakes rise quite dramatically as Tom breezily admits to the plan he has concocted to murder Philippe and steal his identity. Once he realizes he can’t dismiss Tom as joking, Philippe panics and offers his former friend a substantial sum to stay away from he and Marge. Tom appears to accept the offer… until he pulls a Bowie knife and stabs Philippe to death!

For anyone who hadn’t read Patricia Highsmith’s original 1955 psychological thriller novel, the murder is shocking. We knew there was some tension between the two men, but the film had established Tom as its central character… surely he wouldn’t brutally murder a “friend” in cold blood? And yet, thanks to Patricia Highsmith’s compelling narrative, René Clément’s masterful direction, and the chillingly charming performance of 24-year-old Alain Delon, we buy it… and we can’t help but to root for the wily Tom to evade justice.

What’d He Wear?

When Tom Ripley first sets sail with Philippe and Marge, he spends a pleasant day at sea wearing a pink linen shirt with his usual cream jeans, feeling so carefree that he falls asleep in the sunlight… until Philippe sets the sleeping Tom loose in a dinghy, overexposing him to the sun and leaving Tom with a bad case of sun poisoning.

As Tom recovers back on Philippe’s yacht, he’s already shifted toward villainy, symbolized by his rejection of the brightly colored pink linen as he sits alone, now clad in a black linen long-sleeved camp shirt. Black clothing is traditionally symbolic of evil (consider Darth Vader), but the choice of a black shirt is also practical for Tom as it protects his sun-poisoned skin while the lightweight linen material allows the air to flow through and prevents him from overheating.

Tom’s black shirt is constructed of slubbed linen or a linen and silk blend, a comfortable and luxurious material for summer shirts. The shirt has a plain front with horizontal button holes for the five large off-white plastic 2-hole sew-through buttons with a loop on the left side of the camp collar that fastens an unseen button under the right collar leaf.

The long-sleeved shirt also closes with a single button on each cuff and has two button-through chest pockets. The shirt’s straight hem allows Tom wear it fashionably untucked, which he does.

Tom has no qualms about sharing with Philippe his desire to murder the man.

Tom’s cream cotton twill jeans are the same that he has worn throughout the first half of Plein soleil, held up with a black leather belt that closes through a squared steel single-prong buckle. These button-fly jeans are configured with the traditional five-pocket layout of two in the back and two in the front plus a coin pocket on the right side.

Cream, beige, or light khaki have been stylish alternatives to classic blue denim jeans since the beginning of the latter half of the 20th century, thus some of the most prolific jeans manufacturers have expanded their lines to include offerings in this color spectrum.

Philippe does not allow Tom to wear shoes on his boat, so Tom discards the navy-and-white rope-soled espadrilles he had worn when boarding and walks the decks barefoot with the bottoms of his cream jeans cuffed up.

Tom prepares to take his revenge on Philippe.

Tom wears his usual gold necklace with a round gold pendant.

On his left wrist, Tom wears his usual plain steel wristwatch on a navy strap.

Solitaire at sea.

Let’s Go Shopping

(All prices as of June 26, 2019.)

The Shirt:

• • Basic Rights black Tencel long-sleeved camp shirt with white buttons, set-in breast pocket (Basic Rights, $130)
  • 28 Palms black linen long-sleeved guayabera with camp collar, smoke buttons, four pockets, alforzas (Amazon, $45… also available in short-sleeve)
  • Cubavera black linen/rayon long-sleeved guayabera with point collar, black buttons, four pockets, alforzas (Amazon, $59.05)
  • H&M black linen long-sleeved shirt with point collar, white buttons, breast pocket (H&M, $49.99)
  • Island Importer “Amalfi Shirt” in black linen with “Roma” spread collar, black buttons, straight hem (Island Importer, $60)
  • Isle Bay “slim fit” black linen long-sleeved shirt with point collar, white buttons, breast pocket (Amazon, $28.90)
  • Isle Bay “standard fit” black linen long-sleeved shirt with button-down collar, white buttons, flapped pocket (Amazon, $19.50)
  • J. Crew Factory “deep harbor” slim linen long-sleeved shirt with button-down collar, white buttons, breast pocket (J. Crew Factory, $29.50)
  • Lucky Brand “Havana Linen” long-sleeved shirt with point collar, brown buttons, and two flapped breast pockets (Lucky Brand, $79.50)
  • Short Fin linen long-sleeved shirt with point collar, white buttons, breast pocket, and roll-up sleeve tabs (Amazon, $26.50-$32.50)

The Jeans:

• • Dockers Straight Fit Jean with zip fly in “new British khaki” 60% cotton/37% polyester/3% elastane stretch fabric (Amazon)
  • Levi’s Men’s 502 Regular Taper Jean with zip fly in “true chino/bull denim” 98% cotton/2% spandex (Amazon)
  • Levi’s Men’s 541 Athletic Taper Fit Jean with zip fly in “timberwolf/cruz twill” 65% cotton/33% polyester/2% elastane (Amazon)
  • Lucky Brand 121 Slim Jean with zip fly in “saddle” 98% cotton/2% elastane (Lucky Brand)
  • Signature by Levi Strauss & Co. Gold Label Straight Jeans with zip fly in “British khaki” 99% cotton/1% elastane (Amazon)
  • Wrangler Classic Relaxed Fit Jean with button fly in “khaki flex” 99% cotton/1% spandex (Amazon)

The Watch:

• • Timex Weekender TW2T29200 with round silver-toned brass case, cream dial, and blue nylon strap (Amazon, $38.84)

How to Get the Look

Alain Delon as Tom Ripley in Purple Noon (1960)

Despite the bright sun shining down on them, Tom Ripley (Alain Delon) dresses for a dark day at sea in Plein soleil with a black linen shirt balanced by his go-to cream jeans for a classic casual summer look.

• Black slubbed linen camp shirt with looped camp collar, plain front, two button-through chest pockets, and button cuffs (all with large white plastic 2-hole sew-through buttons)
• Cream cotton jeans with belt loops, button-fly, five-pocket layout, and self-cuffed bottoms
• Black leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Gold pendant necklace on thin gold chain
• Steel watch with round silver dial on navy blue strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I might not look it, but I’ve got lots of imagination.

Today is July 21, which means…

While today is, indeed, my 30th birthday, I’m greeting the day with considerably more enthusiasm than The Great Gatsby‘s despondent narrator Nick Carraway, who rings in “the portentous menacing road of a new decade” during a contentious confrontation between romantic millionaire Jay Gatsby and brutish Tom Buchanan over the affections of Daisy, Tom’s wife and Gatsby’s former flame. (For a more in-depth look at the style of my favorite book and its multiple cinematic adaptations, check out this post from last month!)

Sam Waterston and Lois Chiles in The Great Gatsby (1974)

Fellow July 21 birthday celebrators include:

• Sam Bass (born 1851), an outlaw who died on his 27th birthday following a gunfight with police in Texas
• Sara Carter (1898-1979), lead singer of the Carter Family
• Hart Crane (1899-1932), American writer and poet who died by suicide
• Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), American writer and adventurer who also died by suicide
• Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), the media theorist I know best from his famous cameo in Annie Hall
• Kay Starr (1922-2016), described by Billie Holiday as “the only white woman who could sing the blues”
• Norman Jewison (born 1926), director of stylish flicks including The Cincinnati Kid (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), among many others
• Sonny Clark (1931-1963), jazz pianist who recorded prolifically for Blue Note in the late 1950s
• Janet Reno (1938-2016), first woman to serve as United States Attorney General
• Edward Herrmann (1943-2014), actor who famously portrayed FDR (and also appeared in 1974’s The Great Gatsby)
• Robin Williams (1951-2014), Academy Award-winning actor and comedian considered among the funniest people of all time
• Jon Lovitz (born 1957), comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member
• Brandi Chastain (born 1968), American soccer champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist
• Godfrey (born 1969), comedian, actor, and 7 Up spokesperson
• Josh Hartnett (born 1979), actor who starred in Pearl Harbor, Sin City, and 30 Days of Night
• Paloma Faith (born 1981), eccentric singer-songwriter

Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong in First Man (2018)

Vitals

Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong, NASA astronaut and former U.S. Navy pilot

Houston, Texas, August 1962 through March 1966

Film: First Man
Release Date: October 12, 2018
Director: Damien Chazelle
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres

Background

In addition to being my 30th birthday, today is also the 50th anniversary of when Neil Armstrong became the first person to step onto the surface of the Moon at 02:56:15 UTC on July 21, 1969, six hours after he and Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle as part of the Apollo 11 spaceflight, a mission also manned by command module pilot Michael Collins.

Last year, Damien Chazelle directed Ryan Gosling in First Man, a biopic focused on Neil Armstrong’s life and career through the 1960s from the tragic death of his young daughter Karen to his triumphant first steps on the Moon… “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

First Man traces Armstrong’s career as an astronaut back to his initial application that led to interviews for astronaut selection at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston, Texas, on August 13, 1962. The astronauts chosen would be attached to Project Gemini, NASA’s second human spaceflight program and so named for its goal of sending two humans into space, an expansion on the previous Project Mercury’s achieved goal of sending one man into Earth’s orbit…and returning him safely, of course.

Pete Conrad: Neil, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.
Neil Armstrong: I’m sorry, is there a question?
Pete Conrad: What I… What I mean is… Do you think it’ll have an effect?
Neil Armstrong: I think it would be unreasonable to assume that it wouldn’t have some effect.

In addition to his celestial achievements during the 1960s, First Man also focused on Neil Armstrong’s personal life, including how the family grieved and healed following Karen’s death and how his relationship with his wife Janet (Claire Foy) evolved over the course of a decade that ended with one small step on the lunar surface.

What’d He Wear?

The excellent period costumes in First Man were designed by Mary Zophres, working again with director Damien Chazelle and actor Ryan Gosling after their successful earlier collaboration in La La Land (2016). Zophres shared insight during a November 2018 interview with Janet Kinosian for the Los Angeles Times, published about a month after the film’s release.

For the world of Gemini-era NASA, Zophres considered that “the story centers in Houston, and they were in a secluded suburb outside of Houston and had maybe three stores they shopped at — Sears and a couple of others,” explaining her more conservative approach to dressing the film’s characters despite the increasingly colorful palette of 1960s menswear. “I proposed to Damien early on that it’s not the Brady Bunch, and the research backed us up, so we took a very conservative approach to the way the people dressed.”

One item of muted color that gets plenty of wear from Neil Armstrong’s closet is a gun club check flannel sport jacket. Also known as the Coigach, Alan Flusser describes this Scottish-originated check as “an even check pattern with rows of alternating colors.” In Armstrong’s case, these colors alternate between brown and black horizontal stripes that cross-cross olive and blue vertical stripes.

The single-breasted sports coat has narrow notch lapels with short notches that roll to a three-button front. The jacket has two-button cuffs and a welted breast pocket, though details like the hip pockets and the back vent situation are not readily available from the garment’s screen appearances.

Armstrong’s go-to office shirt in the film’s early scenes, set throughout 1962, is light blue oxford-cloth cotton with a large button-down collar, front placket, breast pocket, and box-pleated back. Most notable are the short sleeves often associated with NASA engineers of this era.

Though the simple blue short-sleeved button-down marks him as far from a fashion plate, Armstrong further assures his exclusion from Eleanor Lambert’s storied International Best Dressed Hall of Fame List by wearing it buttoned to the neck, sans tie.

When dressing up for his interview for astronaut selection in August 1962, Armstrong dresses up the shirt with his gun check sport jacket and a skinny navy blue tie patterned with a series of white six-segmented parallelograms arranged like “downhill”-direction stripes.

Armstrong’s well-intended sartorial approach would have benefited from full-length shirt sleeves, but I suppose 1960s NASA is one of the few places where wearing a short-sleeved shirt and tie actually helps during your job interview.

The interview sequence begins with a close shot of Armstrong’s feet, including the cuffs of his dark navy blue trousers, recalling a story that Zophres relayed from Ryan Gosling’s first costume fitting with “the perfect pair of trousers:”

I’d found a pair of 1960s dead stock [unworn] with the tags still on. They were Ryan’s perfect size; I don’t think we even had to hem them! It was the very first fitting and the second trousers we tried; I remember saying, “OK, that’s Neil.”

Armstrong’s feet in this sequence are dressed in black leather apron-toe four-eyelet derby shoes and black socks.

By spring 1966, the on-screen Armstrong has finally graduated to long-sleeved shirts under his sports coats and suit jackets, abandoning the NASA-associated practice of short-sleeved shirts with skinny ties.

Having noted that Sears likely directed most of the astronauts’ sense of style, Zophres explained to the Los Angeles Times that she “looked at Sears’ period catalogs and paid attention to the colors that were available and also checked the material’s content. There were light yellows and ivories and such. And I also used shirts with texture, natural fibers where you could actually see the warp and weft of the cotton—the vertical and horizontal—since there were so many close-ups. Today’s material just looks thinner and flimsier for some reason; it doesn’t have the same texture that a white cotton dress shirt from the 1960s had. When you wash them, they sort of come alive vs. disappear.”

Armstrong’s white cotton long-sleeve shirt for the Gemini 8 presser has a point collar and is worn with a slim black tie with a pattern of small white boxes, appropriately evoking a celestial scene of stars across the night sky. He is possibly wearing the same brown wool flat front trousers with side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) that he wore when dancing with Janet two years earlier, though the navy trousers from his 1962 interview would also be suitable.

NASA Exceptional Service Medal pinned to his left lapel, Armstrong fields the media during a press conference for Gemini 8 in the spring of 1966.

The Gemini 8 presser calls for Armstrong to wear his NASA Exceptional Service Medal on his left lapel, a commendation established in July 1959 that recognizes U.S. government employees who have shown “significant, sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement which contributes to NASA programs.” The light blue horizontally ribbed grosgrain ribbon is flanked on each side by a yellow vertical stripe, each bisected by a thin navy stripe. Suspended from the ribbon is a round , 39mm-wide gold medallion with “NA” and “SA” flanking a grid globe resting on two olive branches.

A simpler but no less symbolic accessory that Armstrong wears at all times is the gold wedding band on the third finger of his left hand.

First Man also features Neil Armstrong wearing several Omega watches, an accurate reflection of Omega’s storied history with the space program rather than straight product placement. During the scenes of Armstrong returning to work in early 1962 shortly after the death of his daughter, he is depicted wearing a classic steel Omega CK 2605 with a silver dial and 6:00 sub-dial, gold markers and “dauphine” hands, and a tan leather strap.

Even before NASA’s best and brightest were sporting Omegas in orbit, Armstrong wears a classic CK 2605 during a mournful day at work in early 1962.

Omega introduced the Speedmaster chronograph in 1957, intending its use for motorsports though its place in history would be during the space race rather than any car race. The durable, reliable, and fashionable watch caught the eye of astronauts like Wally Schirra, who first wore his personal Omega Speedmaster CK 2998 aboard the fifth manned U.S. space mission, Mercury-Atlas 8, in October 1962.

I took this photo of Michael Collins’ Omega Speedmaster worn during Apollo 11 at the Smithsonian’s traveling exhibit “Destination Moon” that was at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh from September 2018 through February 2019.

Less than three years later, the manual-winding Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph had passed all of NASA’s qualifying tests for space flight under extreme conditions and was approved to be the official watch of the space program on March 1, 1965. The same month, Gus Grissom and John Young would wear their Speedys during Gemini 3, and an Omega Speedmaster 105.003 was strapped to the left wrist of Ed White’s G4C space suit with a long nylon Velcro-secured strap during his famous space walk during Gemini 4 in June 1965.

Much was made of the fact that the iconic Omega Speedmaster would be appearing in First Man, reported on by Esquire, Forbes, and The Hollywood Reporter, and promoted by Omega as the company proudly supplied period-correct Speedmasters to the production. This was no doubt met with enthusiasm by its star Ryan Gosling, a vintage watch enthusiast, who would wear on screen both the ST 105.003 reference which was tested by NASA in 1964 and the ST 105.012 “Moon watch” that Armstrong famously wore both for his training and the eventual mission to the Moon.

Though during the lunar landing itself, Armstrong did leave his ST 105.012 inside the lunar module as a backup as the module’s electronic timer had malfunctioned and the Speedmaster was more reliable, thus making Buzz Aldrin‘s ST 105.012 the first actual watch to be worn on the Moon. Of his decision, Aldrin wrote, “few things are less necessary when walking around on the Moon than knowing what time it is in Houston, Texas. Nonetheless, being a watch guy, I decided to strap the Speedmaster onto my right wrist around the outside of my bulky spacesuit.”

Back on Earth, Armstrong sports his Omega Speedmaster Professional Chronograph through press conferences and internal meetings. The watch is housed in a 42mm stainless steel case with a slim black rotating bezel and black dial with three sub-dials. As he’s wearing it with a sport jacket and slacks rather than a space suit, Armstrong sticks to the classic steel link bracelet rather than the black Velcro-fastening nylon strap worn in orbit.

Having returned from his first mission in space, Armstrong wears a NASA-approved Speedmaster as he meets with the organization’s top brass following Gemini 8.

You can see more of the screen-worn watches from First Man with context about their use in this Watch Advisor article. Though Aldrin’s Moon-worn Speedmaster was lost or stolen en route the Smithsonian Institution, you can find the real Neil Armstrong’s watch among the displays at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

What to Listen to

One of the most tender moments in First Man finds Neil and Janet dancing late at night to “Lunar Rhapsody” from the first of three records featuring the collaboration of thereminist (and podiatrist) Dr. Samuel J. Hoffman and exotica maestro Les Baxter.

“That’s an old favorite of mine… it’s an album made about 20 years ago, called Music Out of the Moon,” Armstrong stated when he played a cassette tape of tracks from the album, compiled for him by Hollywood producer Mickey Kapp, during Apollo 11’s flight back from the Moon.

Recorded and released in 1947, Music Out of the Moon was one of the first albums to have a full-color cover and considered the best-selling theremin record of all time.

How to Get the Look

Ryan Gosling as Neil Armstrong in First Man (2018)

Not everyone who worked at NASA in the ’60s wore white short-sleeved shirts and skinny ties… though Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong is seen wearing his share of that combination in First Man. For meetings with the public and top brass, Armstrong dresses it up with a subdued but interesting gun check sport jacket and a long-sleeved shirt.

• Brown, black, olive, and blue gun club check single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and vented back
• White cotton long-sleeve dress shirt
• Black slim and straight tie with small white boxes
• Dark flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather belt
• Black leather apron-toe four-eyelet derby shoes
• Black socks
• Omega Speedmaster Professional ST 105.012 stainless steel “Moon watch” chronograph with black rotating bezel and black dial (with three sub-dials) on steel link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and James R. Hansen’s definitive biography of Neil Armstrong.

The Quote

I had a few opportunities in the X-15 to observe the atmosphere. It was so thin, such a small part of the Earth that you could barely see it at all. And when you’re down here in the crowd and you look up, it looks pretty big and you don’t think about it too much… but when you get a different vantage point, it changes your perspective.

Gregory Peck as Harry Street in Ernest Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

Vitals

Gregory Peck as Harry Street, expatriate writer and former newspaper reporter

French Riviera (Côte d’Azur), Summer 1936

Film: The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Release Date: September 17, 1952
Director: Henry King
Wardrobe Supervisor: Charles Le Maire

Background

As I spend this week on vacation, I reflect on how my birthday buddy Ernest Hemingway—born 120 years ago this week on July 21, 1899—would have spent his daiquiri-soaked summers. A brief vignette from Henry King’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro, an adaptation of Papa’s short story of the same name, may shed some light on the life of a bored writer spending the warm season in the French Riviera.

Gregory Peck stars as Hemingway surrogate Harry Street, an adventurous and accomplished American author who’s living with his flighty lover, Countess Elizabeth (Hildegard Knef), and spending his days in front of one of the typewriters that she had offered to entice him, writing “an interview with myself on the subject of success.”

Harry in his study, “probably doing something constructive,” according to his uncle.

Harry’s writer’s block is interrupted by a visit from his urbane and witty Uncle Bill (Leo G. Carroll) who advises him to “Marry her, my boy. It’s the surest cure.” Of what, we wonder? His love for the glamorous Cynthia? Before we can find out, Liz herself strides into the room and quickly brings an end to their meeting, though Bill leaves with the very Hemingway-esque parting advice to see that Harry hunts more as “a man should never lose his hand at hunting.”

What’d He Wear?

For a day spent in front of a typewriter and taunted by the alluring scene outside straight out of Jacques Henri Lartigue, Edward Quinn, or Slim Aarons, Harry Street dresses down in a checked cotton camp shirt, silk scarf, and pleated pants, a comfortable and classic ensemble perfectly suitable for a decade when casual sportswear was becoming more modernized, acceptable, and accessible.

As Alan Flusser writes in Dressing the Man, “the neckerscarf folded in a four-in-hand knot adds a spot of flair to the unattended neckline… elevating a simple shirt-and-trouser outfit into an ensemble of surprising stylishness.”

Gregory Peck’s long-sleeved shirt is patterned with a blue mini-grid check on a white ground. The particularly long-pointed camp collar (with left-side loop) is worn open at the neck to accommodate the royal blue printed silk scarf that Harry wears around his neck. The shirt buttons up a plain front with a single button to close the breast pocket and button cuffs, though Harry wears them undone to roll his sleeves up to the elbows.

Harry and Liz trade bon mots about his mail.

The blue grid check has endured as a timeless men’s shirting pattern in the decades since The Snows of Kilimanjaro was set and produced, though it’s much easier to find in modern dress shirts from companies like Charles Tyrwhitt and Mizzen+Main than in this vintage-inspired long-sleeve camp shirt more ideal for a slow weekend afternoon. With its line of wool and cotton board shirts, Pendleton Woolen Mills is one company that still specializes in this style of shirt with the closest equivalent (as of July 2019) being this brushed cotton flannel board shirt in blue and gray plaid.

Harry’s gray flannel trousers rise to Gregory Peck’s natural waist, a long rise that may look high by modern standards but is classically proportioned. The trousers have double reverse-facing pleats flanking the fly, on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms. Through the trouser belt loops, Harry wears a blue striped surcingle belt with a light blue stripe directly through the center of the blue canvas web body, fitted with tan leather ends and closing through a gold-toned single-prong buckle.

Canvas belts are particularly popular in the summer as a fitting accompaniment for the lighter-weight trousers that gents wears to stay cool during the hotter months. A number of retailers offer canvas belts detailed with various blue stripe patterns, including this D-ring buckle belt from Polo Ralph Lauren (and a budget version by Faleto) though, curiously, it’s Abercrombie & Fitch and Under Armour that (as of July 2019) offer more screen-accurate updates of Peck’s belt with its brown leather ends and metal single-prong buckle.

Harry’s two-tone wingtip shoes appear to be at thematic odds with the rest of the outfit, constructed of black leather with gray fabric vamps. He wears them with light gray socks that harmoniously continue the trouser leg line into the shoes.

Harry ensures privacy before one last brief conference with his wise old Uncle Bill.

Harry’s steel watch with its steel link bracelet is a bit more contemporary to the film’s early 1950s production than this scene’s setting of the mid-1930s, a time when leather bands were the prevailing wristwatch bracelets for men, though bonklip and Milanese metal bracelets were certainly in use in the years immediately following World War I. By the late 1940s, Rolex would patent its now-iconic Jubilee and Oyster link bracelets that would forever change the face—or more accurately, the bands—of men’s wristwatches.

Gregory Peck as Harry Street in Ernest Hemingway’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952)

How to Get the Look

Harry Street dresses for leisure and luxury for his summer days spent fighting writer’s block and romantic boredom on the French Riviera.

• Blue-on-white mini-grid check cotton long-sleeve shirt with large camp collar (with loop), plain front, button-through breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Royal blue printed silk scarf
• Gray flannel double reverse-pleated high-rise trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Blue striped canvas surcingle belt with tan leather ends and gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Black-and-gray two-tone wingtip lace-up shoes
• Light gray socks
• Stainless steel wristwatch with steel link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and Papa’s original short story. The film’s years in the public domain led to an abundance of low-quality prints available on home media and streaming, but the best way to enjoy the stunning Oscar-nominated art direction and Technicolor cinematography is with a restored version as available on The Ernest Hemingway Classics Collection DVD box set offered by 20th Century Fox, the very set sourced for the screenshots in this post.

The Quote

How did I get in the habit of getting involved with women who always open my mail?

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr on The Last Tycoon (Episode 8: “An Enemy Among Us”)

Vitals

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr, charming studio wunderkind

Hollywood, February 1937

Series: The Last Tycoon
Episode: “An Enemy Among Us” (Episode 8)
Streaming Date: July 28, 2017
Director: Scott Hornbacher
Developed By: Billy Ray
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Do you celebrate Christmas in July? If so, do you struggle with finding just the right thing to wear for your holiday fun in the sun when celebrating with swimming pools and margaritas rather than snowmen and mulled wine?

On the much-too-short-lived Amazon original series The Last Tycoon, developed by Billy Ray from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished final novel, the young and dashing Hollywood hotshot Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) is rarely seen in anything less than a beautifully tailored three-piece suit or white tie and tails, but he gives himself a sartorial break in the name of love and leisure for a warm February morning on the terrace with his new paramour, aspiring actress Kathleen Moore (Dominique McElligott).

Ever the decent businessman and romantic partner, Monroe advises Kathleen not to sign or even discuss the details of her contract with Monroe’s studio with him without consulting her lawyer, citing that he’s well-aware that it’s his “job” to exploit her… to which she responds, “Okay, movie man. Exploit me.”

What’d He Wear?

Expert costume designer Janie Bryant brought her vast expertise and experience working on period dramas like Deadwood and Mad Men to create the enviable wardrobe for The Last Tycoon‘s elegant players from Hollywood’s fabled “Golden Age”.

The first seven episodes of The Last Tycoon established Monroe Stahr as a dapper dresser with an impressive rotation of beautifully tailored three-piece suits with elegant double-breasted jackets and interesting suitings that add much character to the debonair movie executive. We rarely see this workaholic at leisure, which makes his briefly seen casual attire all the more significant when he emerges on his terrace in the eighth episode, “An Enemy Among Us”, sporting a green Aloha shirt, cream Bermuda shorts, and loafers.

Bryant skillfully adapted a more modern approach to casual dressing with classic flair, dressing Matt Bomer in not just any off-the-rack Hawaiian shirt but one with a retro-inspired pattern and cut that could have indeed been among the summer wardrobe of the rich and famous during the latter interwar period. The modern Aloha shirt is considered to have originated in the early 1930s at the Waikiki-based King-Smith Clothiers and Dry Goods shop established by Chinese merchant Ellery Chun, who began advertising his Aloha shirts in The Honolulu Advertiser on June 28, 1935. While locals were first to take notice, buying almost all of Chen’s in-house stock, the natty shirts were quick to catch on with tourists who brought them back to the American mainland over the course of the decade.

Monroe Stahr would have no doubt been turning heads in 1937 Los Angeles with his rich forest green camp shirt printed in vivid white and red bird silhouettes flying over the clouds with what my friend at Aloha Spotter has described as a “border pattern” of red and white palm trees bordering the sleeves, back, and the large white sew-through buttons down the plain front.

Aloha Spotter found this retro-styled shirt from Best Made that conveys the spirit, if not the exact pattern, of Monroe’s mid-’30s shirt. There are other options if you’re really leaning into the Christmas theme… but I’d recommend staying neutral.

Aloha shirts enjoyed their greatest boom in the decades following World War II, beginning with the waves of American service members who returned from serving in the Pacific with Hawaiian shirts. The dawn of the Jet Age that increased ease of travel to the Hawaiian islands in the 1950s, Hawaii’s admission to American statehood in August 1959, and the popularity of films highlighting the region like Blue Hawaii (1961) elevated the Aloha shirt to high fashion thanks to manufacturers like Alfred Shaheen and Tori Richard.

Most Aloha shirts have the classic flat camp collar with the left-side loop, but this shirt’s wide, sharp collar points are indeed more consistent with how a shirt from the late 1930s would have been styled.

Luckily for Monroe, his warm day at home is made more palatable by the era’s increasing acceptance of shorts for men. Like much of popular menswear, shorts have a military pedigree that, in this case, extends to the days of the British empire when the British Army was seeking more comfortable alternatives to uniform trousers in tropical and desert climates. By the roaring ’20s, bankers and businessmen in Bermuda were inspired by the new military garment and soon adopted shorts of their own, establishing what would become an accepted business uniform in Bermuda of wearing a jacket, tie, and heavy gray wool knee socks with a pair of tailored flannel shorts that extended to approximately six inches above the knee.

As tourism to Bermuda increased over the following decade thanks to the expansion of air services to the islands, travelers took note of the trend and began spreading the practice of wearing shorts back to the United States, Canada, and England. The popularity of “Bermuda shorts” and their newfound association with tropical leisure rather than business meant seeing shorts in brighter and lighter fabrics rather than the staid gray flannel of the Bermuda business uniform. By the late 1930s, Bermuda shorts had a firm stronghold among the leisurewear of America’s upper class with no less than General George C. Marshall enjoying the world’s last peacetime summer before World War II, sporting a summer-weight sport jacket, bow tie, and Bermuda shorts in this August 1939 photo from Fire Island. (You can read more about the history of Bermuda shorts in these articles from Brand Riddle, Condé Nast Traveler, and GARMANY.)

Monroe plays it safe by restricting his Bermuda shorts to his home, sporting a pair of cream pleated shorts that rise a few inches above his knees. The shorts have side pockets and jetted back pockets with the back left pocket closing through a loop.

To co-opt another F. Scott Fitzgerald’s titles (itself borrowed from Rupert Brooke), one could say that Monroe Stahr has landed in This Side of Paradise.

Monroe appears to be wearing brown leather penny loafers, another indication of his cutting-edge style as this type of shoe had only been developed the previous year by G.H. Bass & Co.

Since the shoe’s inception in 1936, the Wilton, Maine-based manufacturer has marketed the shoe as “Weejuns” (from “Norwegians”), though the American prep school practice of sliding a penny into the distinctive diamond-shaped slit in the leather strip across the shoe’s saddle popularized its “penny loafer” moniker.

Again, with apologies to F. Scott’s titles, this screenshot could easily be captioned The Beautiful and Damned.

Monroe wears his gold signet ring with an etched “S.” on his right pinky. Though the letter no doubt signifies his adopted professional surname of Stahr, it could also stand for his birth surname of Sternberg.

How to Get the Look

Matt Bomer and Dominique McElligott on The Last Tycoon (Episode 8: “An Enemy Among Us”)

Not surprising for an L.A. wunderkind, Monroe Stahr proves to be on the forefront of the fashion battleground, adopting modern menswear staples that had only just been introduced like the Aloha shirt (1935), Bermuda shorts (1920s), and penny loafers (1936). This casual and comfortable ensemble also sets an unintentional template for a classic approach to channeling some holiday color for a summertime adventure.

• Forest green Aloha shirt printed in white-and-red palm tree “border pattern” and white-and-red flying birds-over-clouds pattern with wide sharp camp collar, plain front, and short sleeves
• Cream pleated Bermuda shorts with side pockets and jetted back pockets (with back left button-loop closure)
• Brown leather penny loafers
• Gold monogrammed signet ring, right pinky

Several retro-minded retailers carry a selection of Bermuda shorts that would suit the purpose here such as Mango, with its Bermuda shorts in sand-colored cotton or off-white linen, and Scott Fraser Collection, with the brand’s vintage-inspired high-waisted riviera shorts complete with pleats and button-tab side adjusters.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check it out on Amazon Video. It’s truly a shame that The Last Tycoon had to end its run after just a single nine-episode season as it was a well-acted, well-dressed, and well-plotted series that showed plenty of promise for future storytelling.

Of course, you could also read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Love of the Last Tycoon and watch the first cinematic adaptation, released in 1976 starring Robert De Niro as the debonair but doomed Monroe Stahr.

The Quote

It’s my job to exploit you!

Footnote

I had always believed “Christmas in July” to be a more modern concept until I recently learned of a 1940 film directed by Preston Sturges entitled Christmas in July starring Dick Powell, Ellen Drew, and Sturges stock player William Demarest. Curiously enough, production on Christmas in July lasted from June 1 to June 29, 1940, ending just two days before the actual month of July!

Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Vitals

Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, Hollywood stunt performer and Vietnam veteran

Los Angeles, Summer 1969

Film: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Release Date: July 26, 2019
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Arianne Phillips

How to Get the Look

Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt’s stylish late-sixties outfits in Tarantino’s ninth film, released in American theaters today, will receive fuller BAMF Style coverage once the movie has been released to home media and streaming services, but I wanted to take an early look at Cliff Booth’s scrappy summer attire that has gotten plenty of exposure in the film’s promotional posters, photos, and trailers.

The Aloha Shirt

Brad Pitt’s stuntman character wears a somewhat undersized yellow printed Aloha shirt emblazoned with volcanic surf scenes and detailed with a non-matched pocket and five brown faux-coconut buttons down the plain front.

Your humble blogger channels Cliff Booth while in respite earlier this summer, dressed in King Kameha printed Aloha shirt, Champion T-shirt from Amazon, Ray-Ban RB3025 aviator sunglasses, Invicta Speedway watch, Goodfellow & Co. jeans, and brown Timberland Chelsea boots. (Should anyone be curious, the contents of the rocks glass are Templeton rye.)

• Palm Wave Men’s Hawaiian Shirt in “yellow sunset” cotton (Amazon, $19.00 to $37.00), discovered by UPROXX to be a very close match to Pitt’s screen-worn shirt down to the faux-coconut buttons
• King Kameha Funky Hawaiian Shirt in “surf yellow” polyester (Amazon, $14.99 to $24.99), a somewhat more budget-friendly alternative that echoes the black and red colors in the T-shirt

The Champion T-shirt

Ever since the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood‘s promotional artwork, the internet (and Amazon alone) has been increasingly populated with retailers and shirt printers across all levels of reputation seeking to offer their own take on Cliff Booth’s well-worn white T-shirt with a fading version of the iconic black-and-red logo for Champion spark plugs, detailed with the registered trademark icon under the “N” that establishes the shirt as an official product of the company.

• Novelskeer white cotton graphic T-shirt (Amazon, $28.55)
• Red Bubble white cotton graphic T-shirt (Red Bubble, $17.77)
• Image Creations ash gray cotton graphic T-shirt (eBay, $8.49), a screen-inspired “faded” logo but also includes the words “EQUIPPED WITH…” and “…SPARK PLUGS” above and below the logo itself

The Jeans

Brad Pitt confers with Quentin Tarantino on set.

Cliff Booth’s jeans are almost definitely classic Levi’s with straight or bootcut legs. Levi Strauss & Co. had actually introduced its 517 “Bootcut” style in 1969, the year the film was set, though the modernized 501 and the “Regular Fit” 505—introduced in 1947 and 1967, respectively—would also suit Cliff’s needs.

• Levi’s 501 Original Fit button-fly jeans in dark stonewash cotton (Amazon or Levi’s, up to $59.50)
• Levi’s 505 Regular Fit zip-fly jeans in dark stonewash cotton (Amazon or Levi’s, up to $59.50)
• Levi’s 517 Bootcut zip-fly jeans in dark stonewash cotton (Amazon or Levi’s, up to $59.50)

The Belt

The most specific detail of Cliff’s outfit is the large brass oval belt buckle announcing him as a “STUNTMEN’S ASSOCIATION MEMBER”, flanking an embossed old-fashioned movie camera in the center, worn on a thick tan leather belt.

To avoid the suspicions of actual stunt performers who may not appreciate copycats stealing their valor via a decorative belt buckle, you could echo the spirit of Cliff Booth’s profession with a Western-style belt complete with ornate four-piece engraved silver Ranger-style buckle like this piece available from Amazon for $29.95.

Another option may be a simple belt made from worn brown leather like “The Bootlegger” belt by Main Street Forge, available on Amazon for $39.95.

If you have a belt buckle you’d like to wear with this ensemble—be it claiming membership in the Stuntmen’s Association or not—you can wear it with a belt like this made for interchanging buckles.

Still in need of a buckle? Consider this copper oval piece with the patriotic motif of an eagle grasping the American flag from Western wear experts Nocona, available from Amazon for only $20.

The Boots

From the promotional material, Cliff appears to be wearing brown suede boots with outside lacing and inside zippers.

“You’re Rick fuckin’ Dalton,” Cliff Booth assures our protagonist in the film’s red-band trailer.

The Sunglasses

Cliff wears large gold-framed aviator sunglasses with brown lenses and a reinforced bridge. Given Brad Pitt’s longstanding preferences for Oliver Peoples sunglasses, it’s possible that these on-screen aviators are an OP product, though they may also be a true vintage pair.

• J+S Premium Classic Aviator with gold 58mm frame and brown lenses (Amazon, $16.99)
• Ray-Ban RB3025 Aviator with gold 58mm frame and crystal brown “classic” lenses (Amazon or Ray-Ban, $153)

The Bracelet

A detail of Cliff’s attire consistent with the laidback aesthetic of his Aloha shirt is his dark brown leather bracelet detailed with blue and brown beads, flat white shell, and tan leather cord.

Such a specific piece would be difficult to pin down with 100% accuracy, but this is also a character piece that gives its wearer a chance to establish their own unique identity so you can scour the booths of handmade jewelry crafters at an art show or select something that speaks to you from an assortment of more mass-produced jewelry like this.

The Watch

Per the daredevil nature of his work, Cliff Booth’s watch resembles the Rolex Daytona chronograph that was eventually popularized by Paul Newman, whose interests of race car driving and acting mirror the fictional Cliff Booth’s role at the intersection of stuntwork and Hollywood.

Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in promotional artwork for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

In fact, Cliff’s watch has been identified as a vintage Citizen 8110 Bullhead, so named for the unique top placement of its dual buttons at the top of the case, and still available to find from some sellers on eBay or Etsy. Cliff’s particular gold Citizen watch has three black sub-dials on a round gold dial.

• Citizen CA7020-07A Chandler “Eco-Drive” quartz chronograph in stainless steel with twin black sub-dials on beige dial (Amazon, $192.01)
• Invicta 1479 Sea Spider Chronograph in rose gold with black sub-dials on rose dial (Amazon, $71.12)
• Invicta 14929 Speedway Chronograph in gold-ion plated steel with three black-ringed sub-dials on gold dial (Amazon, $75.21)
• ORIENT WV0021TY Horizon Solar Chonograph in stainless steel with black sub-dials on green gradient dial (Amazon, $209.38)
• Rolex Daytona ref. 116503 in gold-and-stainless steel with black sub-dials on ivory dial with Oyster-style link bracelet (Amazon, $15,980)
• Rolex Daytona ref. 116518 in gold with black sub-dials on ivory dial with brown leather strap (Amazon, $21,275)

Cliff wears this gold watch on a light brown leather “bund” strap that weaves in and out of the wider cuff, replacing the 18mm gold link bracelet.

• DASSARI 20mm-wide bund strap in rust-colored Italian leather (Amazon, $44.99)
• M18 18mm-wide bund strap in brown leather (Amazon, $22 + $6.50 shipping)
• Vintage 1946 offers multiple sizes of an aviator-inspired leather band in 16mm, 18mm, 20mm, and 22mm widths (Amazon, $37.50)

Just want the general look of a bund-strapped watch without having to fuss with fitting your favorite watch onto a different band?

• AVI-8 AV-4024-08 “Lancaster Bomber” quartz watch on 20mm-wide brown leather bund strap (Amazon, $224.99)

Note: All prices above are as of June 30, 2019.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, which Variety calls “a heady and engrossing nostalgia piece and love letter to 1960s L.A.” in theaters today!

Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse in The Band Wagon (1953)

Vitals

Fred Astaire as Tony Hunter, musical comedy star

New York, Spring 1953

Film: The Band Wagon
Release Date: August 7, 1953
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Costume Designer: Mary Ann Nyberg

Background

On National Dance Day (July 27), who better to feature on BAMF Style than that most elegant, sophisticated, and talented of dancers, Fred Astaire. In particular, let’s look at an iconic dance sequence in The Band Wagon, that most homaged and visually spectacular of Astaire’s prolific filmography.

We encounter song and dance man Tony Hunter as he gets out his aggression about the Faustian creative direction of what was supposed to be his latest lighthearted musical comedy as well as his contentious relationship with his co-star, virtuoso ballerina Gabrielle Gerard (Cyd Charisse). Having walked off the set of the show, he takes out his anger in an uncharacteristically destructive tantrum, ravaging the sheet music, books, and records in his hotel room, forced to a halt when he encounters an “unbreakable” record of Micaëla’s aria from Carmen. Interrupted by a guest at the door, he throws the record to the ground only to be shocked to be greeted by the very object of his furious scorn, an apologetic Gabrielle: “Lady, you must have the wrong apartment!”

Tony’s attitude toward Gaby is softened by her genuine appreciation for the art he keeps in his hotel room and finds himself moved by her tearful insecurities and frustrations with the show, and the two dancers decide to put their issues aside and talk through how to make the production best for all involved.

Gaby: Tony, can you and I really dance together?
Tony: I don’t know… let’s find out!

In the hopes of finding out their performance chemistry, Tony and Gaby embark on a carriage ride that spirits them away to a well-lit patio in Central Park populated only be dancing young couples and a five-piece band serenading them. The two silently stroll onto a secluded path, where they find themselves in each other’s arms for the iconic “Dancing in the Dark” dance sequence against the romantic backdrop of the New York City skyline at night.

What’d He Wear?

Tony and Gaby may be dancing in the dark, but he’s dressed in his brightest outfit yet! This natty summer-friendly ensemble consists of a beige tailored odd jacket with yellow shirt, coordinating tie, off-white trousers, and two-tone spectator shoes, accessorized as usual with colorful silk pocket square, askew tie clip, and silk sash for a belt. It’s the sort of outfit that doesn’t come to one naturally, but Fred Astaire’s successful execution supports his maxim that dressing well is like putting on a show as both require much rehearsal in order to get right.

Tony’s beige jacket is made from a lightweight material with imperfect slubbing indicative of either raw silk, linen, or a blend of both summer-friendly fabrics. The single-breasted jacket is perfectly tailored with the notch lapels rolling to a two-button front that fastens exactly at Fred Astaire’s natural waist, cleanly dividing the tie on the top half with the trousers on the bottom half.

As Alan Flusser wrote in Dressing the Man, “the placement of the coat’s waist button should divide the body so that the torso and legs appear at maximum length,” sage wisdom in general but particularly handy for a graceful hoofer like Fred Astaire.

“Oh, that’s right, dancers shouldn’t smoke,” Tony sarcastically reminds himself after offering her his deck of Chesterfields. “You mind if I do?”

The beige jacket has short double vents, roped sleeveheads, and three-button cuffs that appear to be downsized versions of the mother-of-pearl or pearlesque plastic sew-through buttons used on the front. The hip pockets are flapped with a right-side ticket pocket also covered with a flap.

Tony wears a red-and-yellow paisley silk pocket square “puff-folded” in the jacket’s welted breast pocket, providing a colorful contrast just harmoniously bold enough to keep the interesting outfit from looking too monochromatic.

Tony’s yellow cotton shirt delivers a welcome colorful brightness to the look without contrasting too much against his neutral-toned jacket, trousers, and tie. While most gents almost certainly have an oxford-cloth button-down shirt in white, light blue, and possibly even pink, an OCBD in yellow cotton is an inspired and refreshing alternative, available from retailers like IZOD. Per Flusser, a yellow shirt’s “champagne sparkle can impart an élan and vitality to any suit from the browns through the grays to navy.”

The shirt has a button-down collar, front placket, and rounded barrel cuffs that close with a single button. The beige micro-textured silk tie is knotted in a perfect four-in-hand and held in place with a gold tie clip slotted in place just above the jacket’s buttoning point.

Tony and Gaby find their attitudes softening toward the other.

Fred Astaire’s appreciation for perfect tailoring gives him the sartorial freedom to experiment with flashier color palettes like this. On its own, every garment fits perfectly and, together, they harmonize beautifully with the jacket’s buttoning point neatly separating the shirt and tie on the top half from the full-fitting white trousers on the bottom as their elegant reverse pleats flare out from Astaire’s waistband through his legs to the bottoms finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

The dance begins…

Fred Astaire has often been cited along Cary Grant as the best dressed American leading men, though while Grant often played it safe with elegant, simple, and timeless suits, Astaire embraced a more casual and colorful—but never ostentatious—approach with a breezy, knockabout charm that contrasted with his early on-screen image of the top hat, white tie, and tails, preferring “tailored sport jackets, colored shirts and slacks—the latter usually held up by the idiosyncratic use of an old tie or silk scarf in place of a belt.”

“In the way of belts, Astaire likes to use silk handkerchiefs—purely for utilitarian purposes rather than theatrical. He has a 31-inch waist and loses pounds when he is dancing. The resilient silk allows him to draw his pants right.” Astaire himself explained this practice to GQ during a 1957 interview: ‘I used to use old neckties for the same purpose but the handkerchiefs are better.’ At home he will use a belt, usually shoving the buckle to one side, ‘simply to get it out of the way.'” Similar to his pocket square, Astaire’s silk sash belt appears to be red with a speckled gold center band.

Like his entertainment contemporary Bing Crosby, Astaire seemed to prefer socks that screamed from his ankles, though his mustard hosiery with this outfit is comparatively muted when measured against the blue and red socks he wears elsewhere in The Band Wagon.

Perhaps the most essential item in the dancer’s wardrobe are his shoes, and Astaire wears a natty pair of burgundy and white spectator derbies. The outsoles and the apron-style toe-box are burgundy leather with a burgundy strip extending over the back of each elegantly long white leather vamp for the forward three of the five lace eyelets. The laces are burgundy to match the darker portion of the shoes.

It’s difficult to find modern-made spectator shoes that aren’t wingtip oxfords, though Stacy Baldwin seems to at least take a retro-minded approach with footwear like these unique two-tone derbies and these brown-and-tan cap-toe oxfords.

Promotional photo of Cyd Charisse and Fred Astaire for The Band Wagon.

Tony wears his (and no doubt Astaire’s own) signature jewelry of a gold curb-chain bracelet on his left wrist and a gold signet ring on his right pinky.

Unbreakable indeed.

The dapper dancer was known for his wardrobe both on- and off-screen, and the marvelous color cinematography by Harry Jackson (who died four days before the film was released) makes the most of Mary Ann Nyberg’s Academy Award-nominated costume design.

The Yellow Shirt Redux

A rainy opening means good luck!

The yellow shirt makes a brief reprise just before the show returns to New York for its Broadway opening, represented on screen with the famous “Girl Hunt” ballet in the spirit of Mickey Spillane. Outside the stage door, Tony and Gaby run into each other with the former wearing his previously seen yellow shirt but with a black-and-white plaid tie.

Gaby and Tony share one last moment before taking the stage.

As it’s raining, the rest of his outfit is covered with a knee-length khaki raincoat with a covered fly, plain cuffs, and large patch hip pockets with flaps. Tony tops it off with a taupe brown fedora that has a wide black ribbed grosgrain silk band and coordinating black grosgrain edges.

How to Get the Look

Fred Astaire as Tony Hunter in The Band Wagon (1953)

Fred Astaire blended elegance and interesting dressing both on- and off-screen, dressing brightly for dancing in the dark with this neutral-toned and beautifully tailored outfit accented with pops of color in all the right places.

• Beige raw silk single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets with flapped ticket pocket, 3-button cuffs, and short double vents
• Yellow cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Beige micro-textured silk tie
• Gold tie clip
• Off-white gabardine high-rise reverse-pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
• Red-and-yellow silk sash belt
• Burgundy-and-white apron-toe five-eyelet spectator derbies
• Mustard yellow socks
• Gold signet pinky ring
• Gold curb-chain bracelet
• Red-and-gold paisley silk pocket square

As the character of Tony Hunter was dressed consistent with Fred Astaire’s own personal style, I highly recommend reading his 1957 interview with GQ that explores the entertainer’s sartorial approach in his own words: “I never think of myself as spic and span or all duded out—just as someone who wants to be comfortable and satisfy his own taste.”

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. Musicals are not among my favorite movie genres, but the always charming Fred Astaire and his colorful supporting cast, the stunning color cinematography, and impressive song and dance numbers featuring some of the era’s top talent make The Band Wagon a winner.

The Band Wagon‘s signature dance number, Astaire and Cyd Charisse’s “Dancing in the Dark” performance, was paid homage by a white-suited Steve Martin and Gilda Radner in the April 22, 1978, episode of Saturday Night Live.

The Quote

Here we are, the only animals given the greatest means of communication—human speech—and all we do is snarl at each other.

William Powell as Jim Wade in Manhattan Melodrama (1934)

Vitals

William Powell as Jim Wade, crusading assistant district attorney

New York City, Spring 1934

Film: Manhattan Melodrama
Release Date: May 4, 1934
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Costume Designer: Dolly Tree

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy birthday, William Powell! The suave actor was born July 29, 1892, in my hometown of Pittsburgh, though he moved to Kansas City as a teenager. He only stayed there three years before moving to New York at the age of 18 to pursue a career as an actor, eventually becoming one of the best known actors of Hollywood’s “golden era” with three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor recognizing his performances in The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947).

Powell’s chemistry with Myrna Loy, most famously showcased as detective couple Nick and Nora Charles in the “Thin Man” series, made them one of the most iconic on-screen duos, though their first of 14 cinematic collaborations was Manhattan Melodrama in 1934. This pre-Code crime drama co-starred Clark Gable as “Blackie” Gallagher, a smooth gangster and childhood friend of Powell’s Jim Wade, an honest lawyer who is forced to choose between his duty and his friendship as he rises the ranks from assistant district attorney to governor of New York.

Manhattan Melodrama was still in theaters on July 22, 1934, when infamous bank robber John Dillinger strolled into Chicago’s Biograph Theater with his new girlfriend, Polly Hamilton, and local brothel madam Anna Sage. Little did Dillinger know that Sage had tipped off federal agent Melvin Purvis to the outlaw’s whereabouts that evening. After Dillinger took in an hour and a half of watching the charismatic Gable pay the ultimate toll for his character’s crimes, he left the theater with Hamilton and Sage. Signaled by Sage’s conspicuous orange skirt, Purvis and his agents moved in with guns drawn, cornering Public Enemy Number One, as Special Agent Charles Winstead fired the fatal shots into Dillinger with his .45. More than 85 years later, the killing remains shrouded in controversy and mystery: Was Dillinger actually reaching for a pistol in his trouser pocket, or was he unarmed when he was killed? Was it even the real John Dillinger or a stand-in who was shot that evening?

Much as Dillinger’s ultimate fate was brought about by someone he believed to be his friend, so too was Blackie Gallagher’s execution sealed by his former friend Jim’s decision to prosecute him. Wracked by guilt, Jim sent a note to his erstwhile pal, apologizing but explaining that “I had to do it.” Blackie’s response? “Okay kid, I can take it. P.S. and can you dish it out.”

What’d He Wear?

After my weeklong beach vacation, it’s another Monday back at work for me and a return to the world of three-piece suits and ties. One of the most elegant actors of his time, William Powell was characteristically dressed in a sharp suit fashionable for the early 1930s as Jim Wade. One of my particular favorites was the briefly seen chalk-striped flannel three-piece suit he wears during the climactic courtroom scene for his successful prosecution of his former friend Blackie Gallagher. Given the staid setting of a courtroom, we can expect that Wade’s suiting is a conservative business color like blue or gray, most likely a medium-dark shade of the latter.

Peak lapels are typically associated with double-breasted jackets—to the extent that they’re also known as “double-breasted lapels”—but the cyclical nature of men’s fashion sees a return of single-breasted, peak-lapel suit jackets every 40 years or so, beginning with the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Additional character to Powell’s suit jacket comes from the shape of his peak lapels with slanted gorges and a full, rounded belly. The lapel shape emphasizes the shoulders, with their roped sleeveheads, and they roll to a single-button closure that fastens at the natural waist, suppressed for a more athletic silhouette.

The ventless suit jacket has a welted breast pocket (where Wade wears a white linen pocket square), straight flapped hip pockets and a jetted ticket pocket with no flap, and four-button cuffs at the end of each sleeve.

Jim Wade makes his impassioned case for the jury.

Jim Wade opts for a classic white cotton shirt, a simple and elegant choice that lends the appropriate gravitas to his suit. The shirt is appointed with the textbook definition of a point collar, though it could be argued that a collar with greater spread could be more complementary to William Powell’s lean frame and head shape. Wade’s white shirt also has squared double (French) cuffs, dressed with unobtrusive cuff links.

Wade wears a woven silk tie in a neat micro grid check, similar to a Macclesfield, tied in a tight four-in-hand.

The suit’s matching waistcoat (vest) has five buttons down the single-breasted front to the notched bottom. Powell wears all five fastened though standard practice for waistcoats is to leave the lowest button undone like a suit jacket. The waistcoat has two welted pockets, in line with the center of the five buttons, and Powell wears his character’s pocket watch in one of them.

Little is seen of the trousers, but they have an appropriately high rise that conceals the top under the waistcoat and are detailed consistent with ’30s trends with pleats and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms. His shoes are dark oxfords, the most appropriate footwear for the suit and occasion.

Particularly in the cooler months, hats and coats were still a de facto requirement for gents in the early ’30s. Jim Wade wears a light felt fedora with a black ribbed grosgrain silk band.

His long, heavy tweed overcoat is made from a light-colored birdseye wool cloth with a 6×3-buttoning double-breasted front for an extra layer of warmth against the chill of a Manhattan spring, reinforced by a self-belt. The coat also has peak lapels and large patch pockets on the hips with rectangular flaps and rounded bottoms.

Wade completes his outerwear with a light-colored scarf with dark stripes spaced just under an inch apart.

How to Get the Look

William Powell as Jim Wade in Manhattan Melodrama (1934)

While Jim Wade’s three-piece suit may sacrifice formality for its unique and fashionable detailing such as a single-button jacket with full-bellied peak lapels and flapped ticket pocket, the debonair William Powell wears it with his characteristically smooth panache that never fails to command the courtroom.

• Dark chalk-stripe flannel suit:
  • Single-breasted 1-button jacket with full-bellied peak lapels (with slanted gorges), welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, flapped ticket pocket, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 5-button waistcoat with welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Pleated trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton shirt with point collar and double/French cuffs
• Mini grid-check silk tie
• Dark oxford shoes
• Pocket watch
• Light-colored birdseye woolen tweed double-breasted overcoat with peak lapels, 6×3-button front, self-belt, and rounded-bottom patch pockets (with rectangular flaps)
• Light-colored felt fedora with black ribbed grosgrain silk band
• Light-colored scarf with dark stripes

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, just be more careful than John Dillinger was after you’re finished watching it.

David Niven and Jean Seberg as Raymond and Cécile in Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

Vitals

David Niven as Raymond, bon vivant single father

French Riviera, Summer 1957

Film: Bonjour Tristesse
Release Date: January 15, 1958
Director: Otto Preminger
Costume Coordinator: Hope Bryce

Background

Thanks to Otto Preminger’s direction and Georges Périnal’s lush color cinematography that captures the richness of the French Riviera, the visual delights of Bonjour Tristesse secure its place among the great “summer movies” of Hollywood’s celebrated golden era.

Based on Françoise Sagan’s 1954 novel, Bonjour Tristesse—which translates to “Hello, Sadness” in English—tells the story of the precocious but undisciplined teenager Cécile’s (Jean Seberg) summer holiday in the Côte d’Azur with her libertine father Raymond (David Niven) and his bevy of mistresses, often barely older than Cécile herself. While some storytelling tropes would dictate Cécile’s resentment toward her father dating women close to her own age, Cécile is delighted by the female companionship and eagerly gossips with her father about his active social life and sexual escapades.

Cécile begins by recounting “that wonderful summer on the Riviera” the previous year when she was 17 when she, Raymond, and his latest paramour Elsa (Mylène Demongeot) formed a “very happy household” complemented by a rotation of young French sisters (Albertine, Léontine, and Claudine, all played by Eveline Eyfel) serving as housekeeper. Cécile may be close in age to Elsa and the rotating sororal trio and Raymond may be sleeping with Elsa, but Bonjour Tristesse immediately establishes that no one is closer than father and daughter, who greet each other in the morning with a kiss while wearing near-matching monogrammed work shirts and referring to each other on a first-name basis.

Raymond: Good morning, Cécile.
Cécile: Good morning, Raymond.

Raymond and Cécile playfully team up to wake up the sleeping and sunburned Elsa, further blurring the boundaries as father and daughter flank the presumably nude woman in her bed while Raymond wakes Elsa with a kiss and a greeting eerily similar to his exchange with Cécile.

Raymond: Good morning, Elsa.
Elsa: Good morning, Raymond.

Despite her cerebral shortcomings, Elsa seems to be a good fit for this unorthodox family dynamic, unconcerned that her boyfriend is waking her up while his teenage daughter sits at the foot of the bed trying on one of Elsa’s new pins, but more perturbed by the fact that it was before she had a chance to wash her face.

Leaving the happily high-maintenance Elsa to her own devices, Raymond and Cécile get a head start on the day’s aerobic and aquatic adventures before they are joined by “the lobster lady” herself, with Cécile commenting that she likes Elsa for being “fun and unpretentious” unlike Raymond’s previous conquest.

Elsa, Cécile, and Raymond enjoy the good life on their beach outside Saint-Tropez.

Throughout the morning, all but Raymond are concerned with a piece of unopened mail that he received, the very communication that sets the film’s plot—and its tragic climax—into motion.

What’d He Wear?

Raymond arrives for his morning coffee in a sky blue chambray cotton shirt, an ironic choice given the garment’s traditional connotation as a work shirt and Raymond’s eschewal of all forms of labor during his Riviera holiday. The shirt has a long point collar, two button-through patch pockets with a blue “R” monogram embroidered on the left pocket, and button cuffs that he wears undone to roll up his sleeves to the elbows.

The rakishly laidback way that Raymond wears his chambray shirt draws attention to the letter in his breast pocket that goes unread through the duration of the scene.

Raymond buttons only two of the white plastic buttons on the shirt’s front placket, situated just above the waist line to coordinate with where he curiously ties and knots the lower portion of the shirt.

Further muddying the boundaries between father and daughter, Cécile not only wears what is most likely one of Raymond’s chambray shirts (with the telltale “R” monogram on the left breast) but wears it in the same manner, barely buttoned and tied at the waist…though this practice is more commonly associated these days with women’s clothing so it looks somewhat more natural on Cécile.

Cécile and Raymond choose to begin their day by smelling it in concert.

Raymond wears a pair of simple black swimming trunks that, despite their amphibious lifestyle, appears to be his sole swimwear. These short-inseam trunks have a very short vent on each side and appear to be fitted with a single extended waist tab that fastens through a single black button with no adjustable tabs or drawstrings to modify their fit.

Raymond and Cécile work on their respective suntans.

Raymond dresses his feet in blue canvas slip-on espadrilles, the classic and classy alternative to sandals with origins dating back to 14th century peasants in France and Spain, first mentioned in writing in 1322 by a Catalan text referring to “espardenyas”, according to Emily Lever’s August 2017 Esquire article “The Revolutionary History of Espadrilles”. Following its service protecting the feet of Basque and Catalan soldiers and revolutionary factory workers in the late 1800s, the casual rope-soled espadrille emerged during the 20th century as a fashionable favorite for those idling in the Riviera or other warm vacation spots as the elegant European alternative to the preppy American boat shoe.

In the spirit of Niven’s comfortable and classic rope-soled espadrilles in Bonjour Tristesse, you can find authentic Spanish-made espadrilles with blue canvas uppers and true jute soles from companies like Soludos or Viscata, though other retailers like ALDO, H&M, and Orlebar Brown (including an exclusive espadrille based on Sean Connery’s on-screen footwear as James Bond in Thunderball) also offer their own variations on this classic warm-weather footwear.

Raymond and Cécile laugh as they barge in on his still-sleeping girlfriend, Elsa.

Through his career, David Niven maintained a habit of wearing elegant, simple wristwatches. The Watches in Movies online database identified his timepiece in The Sea Wolves (1980) as a gold Omega Seamaster, and it’s possible that his gold dress watch worn on a dark brown leather strap in Bonjour Tristesse is also a 1950s-era Seamaster similar to this piece.

Raymond wakes the naked Elsa up with more than a few kisses, unmoved by his 17-year-old daughter’s presence not only in the room but on the bed.

Evidently, some versions of this early scene had been filmed with Niven’s character sporting a short, thigh-length light blue terry cloth robe with notch lapels and patch pockets instead, but this didn’t make the final cut. Perhaps Preminger or the costume team determined that it would be more meaningful to dress father and daughter alike in their monogrammed chambray shirts.

A lobby card from the era depicts Raymond and Cécile’s morning greeting with Niven dressed in a short toweling robe rather than a chambray shirt tied at the waist.

This photo of Niven in his short toweling robe can also be found in greater resolution on Alamy.

How to Get the Look

David Niven as Raymond in Bonjour Tristesse (1958)

David Niven’s hedonistic Raymond dresses solely for comfort for his Côte d’Azur vacation in Bonjour Tristesse, appropriating the classic chambray work shirt as a dressed-down accompaniment for his holiday-oriented swim shorts and espadrilles.

• Sky blue chambray cotton work shirt with large point collar, front placket (with white buttons), two button-through patch chest pockets (with “R” monogram on left pocket), and button cuffs
• Black short-inseam swim trunks with extended waist tab
• Blue canvas rope-soled slip-on espadrilles
• Gold dress watch on dark brown leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and Françoise Sagan’s novel.

The Quote

Look at that wonderful sea. High time we threw ourselves in.

Elvis Presley in promotional art for Blue Hawaii (1961). His character Chad Gates never actually wore this actual shirt on screen, instead wearing a differently patterned red Aloha shirt.

Vitals

Elvis Presley as Chadwick “Chad” Gates, young tour guide and U.S. Army veteran

Honolulu, Hawaii, Summer 1961

Film: Blue Hawaii
Release Date: November 22, 1961
Director: Norman Taurog
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

Particularly on #AlohaFriday, Aloha shirts are an obvious necessity for life in the Hawaiian islands, though these tropical printed tops are enjoying a renaissance here in the continental United States this summer as well. But what makes the difference between an out-of-touch tourist and a stylish tropical traveler? To illustrate how to effectively pull off the decades-old Hawaiian shirt, we turn to prolific clotheshorse Elvis Presley.

Blue Hawaii was the first of a trio of movies the king filmed in the “paradise of the Pacific”, and—despite its questionable quality—finished as the tenth top-grossing movie of 1961.

The filmmakers were eager to show off the beautiful sights and scenery of the 50th state so a plot was cobbled together by Allan Weiss and adapted by veteran Hollywood screenwriter Hal Kanter that would showcase the “typical South Seas musical hullabaloo,” as reported by Variety following the movie’s release. Presley starred as Chad Gates, a recently returned Army veteran who ignores his stodgy family’s desire for him to take over his father’s fruit company in favor of becoming an island tour guide. Elvis being Elvis, of course, this also gives him ample opportunity for performance.

Chad invites his first group of tourists, a quartet of lovely young students and their equally attractive teacher, to a luau at the Island Inn where he performs “Hawaiian Sunset”, one of many original songs written for the movie by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett. Following the song, the most troublesome of these nubile students—the bored blonde Ellie (Jenny Maxwell)—flirts with a drunk tourist to the degree that Chad finds the need to step in and prevent Ellie from doing something she’ll regret…leading to a fight that results in Chad and his pals behind bars, where he sings “Beach Boy Blues”, my personal favorite of Tepper and Bennett’s contributions to the Blue Hawaii soundtrack.

What’d He Wear?

Let’s run down the basics of what makes a classic Aloha shirt as Elvis wears in Blue Hawaii worth your investment. (For a comprehensive breakdown of all of the King’s shirts in Blue Hawaii, check out this fantastic post from Aloha Spotter!)

Tip 1: A tasteful print.

As Elvis’ Chad Gates is meant to be a kamaʻāina (Hawaiian resident), he accurately opts for more muted or traditional printed shirts as opposed to the louder or more garish designs of Aloha shirts favored by tourists or newcomers (Malihini). Neither of Elvis’s shirts are decorated with tacky beach scenes or hula dancers, nor are there more than three colors present. Given that Elvis was hardly known for his restraint, this should set a simple parameter for all but the most daring of aloha-wearers.

The actual screen-worn shirt is broken into an imperfect burgundy grid of red and coral squares, each square filled with an abstract, Pacific-influenced brush-stroke pattern.

Chad gets an earful from his father after having to bail him out of jail.

As our friend at Aloha Spotter points out, this shirt gets the most screen time of all of Elvis’ Aloha shirts.

Tip 2: A flattering fit.

Elvis’ Aloha shirts have a trim, straight cut that flatters the 26-year-old actor who, only a year out of the Army at the time, was likely in the best shape of his life during the production of Blue Hawaii.

The short-sleeved shirt has a camp collar (or revere collar) with a loop on the left to ostensibly connect with a button under the right collar leaf. The shirt has a breast pocket and five pearlesque plastic sew-through buttons up a plain front sans placket. The shirt is cut straight across the hem, meant to be worn untucked.

Tip 3: Welcome white.

If you’re even considering wearing an Aloha shirt, chances are that you’re expecting some warm weather and, as the inimitable sartorial expert Sir Hardy Amies would write regarding white summer-weight trousers only three years after Blue Hawaii was released, “there is nothing more comfortable to wear or more pleasant to see than those.”

Elvis dresses for his performances—first at the hotel bar, then behind bars—in a pair of light cream flat front trousers that balances the more chaotic and colorful tropical pattern of his upper half. The trousers have a shine indicative of a lightweight silk in the construction. The slim legs taper down to the plain-hemmed bottoms that break clean and high over his shoes.

Chad and his pals make the most of their time in jail.

Elvis’ shoes are the most ill-advised aspect of his outfit. He appears to be wearing the same black patent leather derbies he wore with his khaki service uniform, an already dressy shoe on its own but with a high two-eyelet lacing that extends the vamp down to the minimal plain toe that adds a degree of formality hardly fitting with this casual ensemble.

Not only do the formality of the shoes create a jarring contras, but the black leather disrupts the outfit’s laidback harmony. A far more harmonious choice of footwear would have been the sand-colored derbies that Chad wears with his bronze printed camp shirt and the briefly seen blue-and-green printed shirt.

Tip 4: Accessorize à la king… the King, that is.

Elvis wears his personal watch, a Hamilton Ventura that evokes Space Age style with its dramatically asymmetrical 31mm stainless steel case shaped like a triangle with the apex on the left at 9:00 while the hypotenuse extends straight down from 1:00 to 5:00 on the right side. Designed by Richard Arbib, the Ventura was introduced among Hamilton’s line of groundbreaking electric watches in 1957.

More than 60 years later, Hamilton has reissued the Ventura with the ref. H24411732. This quartz-powered tribute to the original 1957 model features the same distinctive mid-century styling and atomic elements, available for $845 through the official Hamilton site or discounted to $568 on Amazon. (Prices as of July 2019.)

Though Hamilton capitalizes on the Ventura being worn most recently in the Men in Black series, it was arguably Elvis who established it among the mainstream when he sported his futuristic Ventura in Blue Hawaii.

The Hamilton Ventura worn by Presley in Blue Hawaii has a black triangular dial with “atomic-style hour markers” and is strapped to his left wrist on a black double-ridged leather band.

On the pinky of the same hand, Elvis wears a diamond-studded gold ring, a surprising affectation for a humble young singer trying to cut it as a Hawaiian tour guide… but not surprising for the rock star he was in real life.

Chad wears his gold pinky ring and his futuristic Hamilton Ventura watch on his left hand.

The Promo Shirt

Despite not featuring in the actual movie, the red floral-printed Aloha shirt that Elvis wore to promote Blue Hawaii has become iconic in its own right with replicas available online from companies like Aloha Funwear, Sun Surf, and HINOYA, though the latter appears to be sold out of the Elvis-approved red color as of July 2019.

Aloha Spotter has identified the pattern as Alfred Shaheen’s “Tiare Tapa” design, consisting of a large-scaled white floral motif against a subtle tonal backdrop of floral-filled squares. This shirt follows the more common contemporary image of the Aloha shirt that incorporates tropical imagery as opposed to traditional Hawaiian quilt and tapa designs.

Promotional photo of Elvis with Joan Blackman, who played Chad’s girlfriend Maile in Blue Hawaii. Photos from this session were used to promote the soundtrack and the movie itself despite this shirt not being worn in the final cut.

Curiously, Elvis wears a more traditional wristwatch than his screen-worn Hamilton Ventura for this photo shoot.

Elvis Presley as Chad Gates in Blue Hawaii (1961)

How to Get the Look

Aloha Friday is here! Elvis Presley provides a solid template for how to sport one of these shirts like a true resident with his red printed top and off-white trousers in Blue Hawaii.

• Red-and-coral brushstroke-grid patterned Aloha shirt with camp collar, plain front, breast pocket, and short sleeves
• Cream lightweight silk flat front trousers with slightly slanted side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black patent leather two-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes
• Black socks
• Hamilton Ventura electric wristwatch with 31mm triangular stainless steel case, black triangular dial, and black double-ridged leather strap
• Diamond-encrusted gold pinky ring

Rather than the King’s ill-advised black patent leather derbies, I suggest a shoe that better harmonizes with the outfit’s color and casual nature, perhaps an Elvis-approved sand-colored suede lace-up shoe?

If you’re determined to follow Presley’s footsteps by sporting black footwear, I would recommend a napped leather like suede and a more casual style like moccasin loafers, driving shoes, or even chukka or desert boots.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and follow my friend Aloha Spotter!

Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Vitals

Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf, narcissistic profligate playboy

Italy, Summer 1958

Film: The Talented Mr. Ripley
Release Date: December 25, 1999
Director: Anthony Minghella
Costume Design: Ann Roth & Gary Jones

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As this summer continues into August, so too did summer advance for the idiosyncratic trio of rich Amalfi Coast playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), his girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow), and their pathological companion Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) in Anthony Minghella’s 1999 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic psychological thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Spending time with Marge and Dickie allows Tom Ripley to grow increasingly enamored with the latter, and the young con artist manipulates an opportunity for the couple to insist that he remain with them at the picturesque seaside villa in Mongibello. After Tom literally drops his bait, a collection of American jazz records, all that the bebop-loving Dickie needs to hear is Tom’s declaration that Charlie “Bird” Parker is “a god” for Dickie to not only invite the strange young man to stick around but also to accompany him to a jazz club in Naples.

Production photo of Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Jude Law in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

What began as a fun summer romp for the trio quickly grows tiresome for Dickie, who loses his pregnant mistress Silvana (Stefania Rocca) to suicide and finds the obsessive Tom Ripley to be increasingly tiresome himself, despite Tom offering to take the blame for the conditions that led to Silvana drowning herself after the father of her unborn child refused to help her. To the destructive Dickie, who deals with the tragedy by retreating to the familiar comforts of his saxophone, it may seem like merely a moment of misguided selflessness on Tom’s part, but it’s actually a long game in Tom’s long con to take over Dickie’s life.

What’d He Wear?

Ann Roth and Gary Jones, nominated for a well-deserved Academy Award for their costume design in The Talented Mr. Ripley, artfully juxtaposed the faux Ivy League grad Tom Ripley’s style with the laidback opulence of Dickie Greenleaf’s warm-weather wardrobe for days and nights on the Amalfi Coast.

One distinctive piece of Dickie’s wardrobe that appears during a few significant scenes in The Talented Mr. Ripley is this white knit resort shirt with its gray mesh-textured chest panels, each flanked on the outside by a slim black stripe. The material may be a softly knit cotton or a more luxurious fabric like cashmere.

The chest panels are bisected by a white-shadowed gray stripe down the center that. The stripes and chest panels end above the bottom, a white banded hem about two inches tall. The shirt has six flat white mother-of-pearl four-hole sew-through buttons up the plain front, including one on the bottom hem and one just below the sharp, wide revere collar.

Dickie only buttons about two or three buttons in the center of the shirt for a more insouciant, laidback look.

Dickie wears the shirt with his favorite cream-colored lightweight trousers, hand-cuffed at the plain-hemmed bottoms. Their medium-high rise buries the waistband well under the shirt, but Dickie’s practice of wearing his lowest shirt buttons undone showcases the trousers’ long and luxurious double reverse pleats flanking the fly as well as the telltale “G”-shaped silver buckle of his black leather Gucci belt.

Dickie had first been seeing wearing this shirt with his own pale pink Bermuda shorts, another garment that makes a few appearances in the film though they don’t fare quite as well as his others in Bustle’s article ranking his shorts to commemorate the film’s 15th anniversary. The shorts close with an extended waistband tab, appear to have side adjusters in lieu of belt loops, and are once-cuffed at the wide-opening bottoms. Dickie would later wear them with his white diamond-textured short-sleeved polo shirt.

After a few years out of vogue in men’s fashion, colorful shorts have firmly regained a foothold—or leg-hold—in American menswear, and few can travel to popular beaches or summer destinations across the United States without running into scores of shorts in bright coral, teal, or canary yellow. Thus, pink shorts for men are hardly as elusive as they may have been. Brands like Nautica and even Amazon’s house brand Goodthreads offer their own safe and simplified takes of own pale pink flat front shorts made from a stretch cotton chino material. But seekers of a true mid-century men’s short à la Dickie Greenleaf, complete with elegant pleats from hem to hem and made from a summer-weight fabric? Your search continues.

Tom twice catches the pink-shorted Dickie unawares: first when riding shirtless through town with Silvana, his mistress, and again when announcing his initial departure…cleverly dropping enough jazz records for Dickie to insist that he stay.

Dickie sports an extremely casual pair of backless sneakers, appropriately worn sans socks. Despite the four white-laced eyelets, these shoes are meant to be slipped on like sandals and their well-worn white canvas uppers indicate that our favorite profligate makes much use of them over his brunch, beach, and bar lifestyle.

For gents preferring the more traditional shoe with a full back, you can crib Dickie’s aesthetic with the classic Sperry Cloud CVO Deck Sneakers. Backless sneakers are marketed more frequently toward women as these offerings from Keds, Kenneth Cole, and Sturrly suggest.

Dickie crouches in excitement as he processes his and Tom’s mutual fondness for jazz.

On his left wrist, Dickie wears his stainless steel watch of unconfirmed make, though online speculation has suggested that it may be a vintage model produced either by Bulova, Hamilton, Longines, or Wittenauer. The wristwatch has a silver dial and is worn on a mesh-like bracelet with the appropriately evocative name of a “Milanese strap,” closing over his wrist with a single-prong buckle.

Production photo of Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, and Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Dickie adorns both hands with rings, sporting a gold ring with double ridges on the middle finger of his right hand and a flashier gold ring with a green stone that gleams from his left pinky, described as a gift from that Marge that he “had to promise—capital P—never to take it off.”

How to Get the Look

Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

Dickie Greenleaf’s resort-friendly garb should inspire gents to adopt a light and unique summer wardrobe, designed first and foremost for stylish comfort.

• White knit short-sleeve resort shirt with gray mesh-textured chest panels, wide camp collar,
• Pale pink double forward-pleated Bermuda shorts with side adjusters, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and self-cuffed bottoms
• Cream double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight side pockets, button-through back pockets, and self-cuffed bottoms
• Black leather Gucci belt
• White canvas slip-on backless sneakers
• Steel wristwatch with silver dial on silver Milanese mesh bracelet
• Gold double-ridged ring, worn on right middle finger
• Gold signet pinky ring with green stone, worn on left pinky

The unique shirt would be next to impossible to find, but you can use it as inspiration to discover your own signature summer tops like this retro-influenced Felix Jacquard navy-and-“cloud” pique vintage resort polo shirt by Orlebar Brown.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and read Patricia Highsmith’s novel.

Quote

I don’t know why people say this country’s civilized!

Roger Moore, flanked by co-stars Maud Adams and Britt Ekland, in his second film as James Bond, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Vitals

Roger Moore as James Bond, British government agent

Macau, Spring 1974

Film: The Man with the Golden Gun
Release Date: December 20, 1974
Director: Guy Hamilton
Tailor: Cyril Castle
Wardrobe Supervisor: Elsa Fennell

Background

Following the release of Orlebar Brown’s 007-inspired collection earlier this year, the company’s take on Roger Moore’s green safari jacket from The Man with the Golden Gun renewed my interest in the actor’s sophomore adventure as James Bond which also happened to be the first 007 movie I had ever seen.

After Bond retrieves a gold bullet during his rendezvous with Saida the belly dancer, Q identifies the soft 23-karat gold dum-dum bullet plopped from Saida’s navel as a product of Portuguese gunmaker Lazar (Marne Maitland), currently living in Macau.

“An unexpected honor, Mr. Bond,” Lazar greets him. “Your reputation precedes you.” Well… so much for that whole “secret agent” thing.

What’d He Wear?

On the 00-7th of August, we explore the summer-appropriate sport jacket and tie that Roger Moore’s James Bond wore for his visit to Lazar in Macau, an outfit that has been previously analyzed in brilliant detail by The Suits of James Bond.

The Man with the Golden Gun is the first of two consecutive Bond movies where Moore’s 007 sports a safari-style jacket over a shirt and tie, though he always appropriately wears these garments in warm settings. This particular jacket is well-suited for Macau’s humid subtropical climate while his tan safari-inspired sports coat in The Spy Who Loved Me befits that scene’s Egyptian setting.

While undoubtedly consistent with the much-maligned safari-inspired men’s fashions of the 1970s, Moore’s cream lightweight silk jacket in Macau suggests a military bearing with its structured cut and style elements that it shares with some countries’ service uniform tunics. It’s a unique garment specific to its era, though Iconic Alternatives has done excellent work researching and exploring modern alternatives in this comprehensive article about Moore’s safari style.

While he’s not on safari, Bond’s safari-inspired sport jacket is nonetheless appropriate for the warm climate and the informal nature of his visit to Lazar.

Bond’s cream-colored jacket has lapels with an extended collar that droops down into where the notches would be, creating the effect of a narrow slit between the collar and the lower halves of the lapels. There are four mixed tan sew-through buttons down the front, and Moore fastens the bottom three while leaving the top button undone similar to the practice employed by RAF officers and others.

There are four inverted box-pleat pockets⁠—a sporty detail common to 1970s safari wear⁠—that all close through a single button on a pointed flap, with the two smaller pockets over the chest mirroring the two large pockets on the hips. The shoulders are appointed with military-like epaulettes (shoulder straps) that were also a common feature of safari shirts and jackets during the ’70s. The sleeves are finished with pointed straps that fasten to a single button on each cuff. All of the buttonholes are reinforced with a dark brown thread that echoes the broken contrast stitching along the jacket’s edges, including the lapels, pockets, cuff tabs, and epaulettes.

Bond takes aim at something Lazar values even more highly than his custom-built rifle.

Made by Roger Moore’s usual shirtmaker, Frank Foster, Bond’s light cream poplin shirt nicely coordinates with the cream silk of his jacket while providing a softer contrast than a stark white shirt. The shirt has a spread collar, front placket, and the distinctive two-button “cocktail cuff” that continued the tradition of the character’s signature shirt style that began with Sean Connery’s first outing in Dr. No (1962).

Bond’s distinctive cocktail cuff emerges from the sleeves of his jacket as he coolly interrogates Lazar.

Moore complements the light earthy tones of the outfit’s color palette with a dark brown silk tie, knotted in a large four-in-hand that fills the tie space of his shirt’s spread collar.

Promotional photo of Maud Adams, Roger Moore, and Britt Ekland in The Man with the Golden Gun. As these three costumes never appear together on screen, it’s evident that whoever directed the shoot wanted to convey the warmth of the film’s subtropical setting.

Bond’s brown silk flat front trousers are likely worn with a belt, consistent with Bond’s other trousers in The Man with the Golden Gun, though his waistband remains covered by the squared corners of the buttoned sport jacket throughout the scene. The only retail details of the trousers apparent on screen and in the promotional images are the plain-hemmed bottoms with their then-fashionable slight flare and a full break that drapes over his footwear.

The footwear in question is a pair of dark brown leather apron-toe Salvatore Ferragamo loafers with a strap across the vamp decorated with a small squared gold buckle on the outside of each shoe. Moore wears these slip-on shoes with dark socks, possibly dark brown or black, though the former would be more thematically appropriate.

The Man with the Golden Gun was Roger Moore’s swan song for Cyril Castle-tailored clothing and the Rolex Submariner dive watch that had been Bond’s signature timepiece since it appeared affixed to Sean Connery’s left wrist via leather strap in Dr. No. It would be the last time any James Bond actor would wear a Rolex until another Submariner appeared on Timothy Dalton’s wrist in Licence to Kill (1989).

Roger Moore’s Submariner, ref. 5513, has a black rotating bezel and black dial and is worn on a stainless Oyster-style link bracelet. Unlike the Sub with its rotating buzz saw in Live and Let Die, this Rolex has no discernible gadgets or abilities aside from telling accurate time.

Bond collects evidence.

Forgive this humble blogger’s wrinkles as I hope to channel Sir Roger’s 007 in this unstructured Nautica sports coat, brown tie and trousers, stainless dive watch, and exotic leather loafers.

Roger Moore’s safari-influenced clothing may not have many fans in the universe of James Bond sartorial enthusiasts, but I always appreciated this creative approach to a sport jacket and tie for warm weather. When shopping at a Nautica outlet three years ago, I came across a beige lightweight cotton twill jacket that, while missing a few of the exact details of Moore’s garment such as the epaulettes, second chest pocket, and button-tab cuffs, allowed me to effectively channel this unique look.

Constructed from a lightly napped twill 97% cotton, 3% spandex cloth in a color that Nautica describes as “sandcove”, this Nautica “Utility Blazer” is more of an unstructured sports coat with slim notch lapels and only one breast pocket as opposed to the two on Moore’s garment. Furthermore, the sleeves are finished with two non-functioning buttons to match the three nut buttons down the front. Like the Moore jacket, it has two large inverted box-pleated pockets on the hips that each close with a single-buttoning flap. All in all, it is a very comfortable and distinctive layer to dress up a shirt and tie on a hot summer day.

To the right, please find this blogger humbly offering a photo of my own attempt at channeling Sir Roger, albeit with more of a budget than 007 ever had, with the sandcove cotton Nautica sport jacket over a cream Geoffrey Beene shirt, brown viscose-and-silk Michael Kors tie, brown twill flat front Lee trousers, and alligator tassel loafers by Florsheim. The Rolex Sub “tribute” watch is a stainless steel Invicta diver with black bezel and dial, though the sun’s glare through the window in this particular photo reflects a not-unwelcome brown in the watch’s dial.

(The outfit looked much better at the start of the workday, but it wasn’t until after 5 and a full day at the office that the opportunity arrived for this blogger’s patient girlfriend to snap the photo you see to your right.)

The Gun

Here you will find only craftsmanship and quality. Mass production—your Walther PPK, for instance—l leave to others.

Lazar alludes to James Bond’s signature PPK (again suggesting that 007 should really brush up on the “secret” part of being a secret agent), but the firearm that Bond uses to greatest effect during the scene is the customized bolt-action rifle that Lazar had built for a three-fingered hitman.

“A custom-built model for a client who recently lost two fingers,” Lazar proudly declares, further explaining that the trigger is housed in the butt, which has been balanced for the pressure of three fingers rather than Bond’s full complement. Thus, when five-fingered Jimmy Bond takes a shot with the rifle, the bullet hits the target an inch too low.

An expert marksman with traditional firearms, Bond finds himself frustrated by the compensations that Lazar made for the three-fingered assassin.

Interestingly, the concept of a trigger-less rifle did not originate with the Bond series. In the early 20th century, Winchester Repeating Arms modified its own Winchester Model 1902 for a unique .22-caliber youth rifle that replaced the traditional trigger with a thumb-activated sear behind the bolt. The purpose of this simplified system was to remove the amount of disruptions before firing the weapon’s single shot.

You can learn more about this distinctive Winchester “Thumb Trigger Rifle” in this comprehensive video from Forgotten Weapons. One of the approximately 76,000 produced between 1904 and 1923 was auctioned by Rock Island Auction Company in the spring of 2015.

How to Get the Look

Roger Moore as James Bond in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Roger Moore’s dressed-up approach to ’70s safari fashions may not have passed the test of time as well as some of his other tailored attire, but this lightweight cream silk jacket is contextually appropriate for his mission to Macau while also reflecting a military pedigree apropos of Commander Bond’s service.

• Cream lightweight silk single-breasted safari-inspired sport jacket with “dog-ear” lapels, epaulettes, four-button front, four inverted box-pleat patch pockets, single-button tab cuffs, and long single vent
• Light cream cotton poplin shirt with large spread collar, front placket, and 2-button turnback “cocktail” cuffs
• Dark brown silk tie
• Brown silk flat front trousers with slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Brown Italian leather Salvatore Ferragamo strap loafers with gold side-bit detail
• Dark brown dress socks
• Rolex Submariner 5513 stainless dive watch with black rotating bezel, black dial, and stainless Oyster-style link bracelet

Iconic Alternatives has done some marvelous research into finding modern equivalents to Roger Moore’s safari-influenced clothing as James Bond with a few options for this classic off-white jacket. Check it out!

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I’m now aiming precisely at your groin… so speak or forever hold your piece.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at Big Sur during production of The Sandpiper (1965)

Vitals

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt, self-righteous Episcopal boarding school headmaster

Big Sur, California, Spring 1965

Film: The Sandpiper
Release Date: June 23, 1965
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Costume Designer: Irene Sharaff

Background

After fighting his own urges for the better part of the movie, uptight headmaster Dr. Edward Hewitt succumbs to romantic temptation. Edward tells his loving wife Claire (Eva Marie Saint) that he must depart for San Francisco to conduct a fundraising drive for his church but instead arrives at the beach home of Laura Reynolds (Elizabeth Taylor), the Bohemian mother of one of his students and the object of his obvious affections, and the two embark on a three-day romantic interlude against the stunning backdrop of Big Sur.

The Sandpiper‘s greatest artistic value is arguably shots like this that showcase the awesome glory of Big Sur. Kudos to cinematographer Milton R. Krasner.

The two share an idyllic picnic with white wine out of paper cups while Laura sketches Edward—without his knowing and to her great amusement!⁠—and talk about how the “matrimony game” has been ribbed by “the whole male establishment,” which she agrees has been a conspiracy “ever since Adam stool-pigeoned on Eve!”

The next day finds a wistful Laura starting the “what are we?” speech all-too-familiar to new relationships, asking Edward, “does this happen to married people?”

Though The V.I.P.s (1963) and Cleopatra (1963) were their first movies together, The Sandpiper (1965) was the first of Burton and Taylor’s collaborations as a married couple. Interestingly, they played a married couple in The V.I.P.s when they were “secretly” seeing each other… but they played secret lovers in The Sandpiper when they were actually married in real life. The adulterous irony was not lost on contemporary critics or audiences.

“The critics were savage to The Sandpiper when it was released, and for good reason,” wrote David Talbot in his 2017 retrospective review for the San Francisco Chronicle, though he notes that “it’s no surprise why The Sandpiper has acquired an ardent cult following over the years. Yes, it’s a laughably fictitious version of California bohemia in the mid-’60s. But it still channels Taylor’s feisty spirit and the heartfelt bond she felt for the outcasts of the world. She might have been a Hollywood goddess, but she knew that her almost absurd beauty made her into some kind of freak.”

As Liz herself shared in her autobiography, “We never thought it would be an artistic masterpiece… We were playing two people in love, so it was not particularly difficult. I must say, when we looked at each other, it was like our eyes had fingers and they grabbed hold, and perhaps something special did happen.”

What’d He Wear?

After spending the first half of the story buttoned up in blazers and tweeds, Edward lets loose, dressing for casual days and nights on the beach in a comfortable blue sweatshirt and near-matching pants.

Edward’s slate-blue cotton sweatshirt has a wide crew neck, evoking the wide “boat neck” of classic maritime jerseys, and set-in sleeves with long, finely ribbed cuffs.

The ribbed, triangle-shaped patch stitched under the front of the neck is a holdout from the days when this reinforced “V-Stitch” insert served the functional purpose of a sweat-catching sponge, as explained by Mister Freedom owner Christophe Loiron for Valet. “By the ’60s, it often became just a flat overlock stitch on the collar, just for decoration,” explained Loiron, though the elasticized V-insert also is suggested to control the way the neckline stretches as a wearer pulls the sweatshirt over his head. You can read more about the history of the classic crew-neck sweatshirt at GQ and Sunspel.

As an added layer against the cool, Northern California climate, Edward brings a beige windbreaker down to the beach. While this zip-up jacket takes some style cues from the classic Baracuta G9 popularized as a “Harrington jacket” around this time in tribute to Ryan O’Neal’s Peyton Place character, Burton’s windbreaker has only a single button on the rounded tab extending from the standing collar (similar to the navy Tom Ford jacket that Daniel Craig would wear in Quantum of Solace), and the waist is partially elasticized rather than ribbed-knit all around the hem like the G9.

Burton’s jacket has slanted hand pockets that are unencumbered with flaps or buttons. The back is pleated at the shoulders (without a G9 or G4-style storm flap), and the sleeves end in ribbed-knit cuffs.

Edward enjoys a cup of white wine as Laura draws on the beach.

Edward wears sky blue cotton flat front trousers, just a shade lighter than his sweatshirt. The trousers evoke a similar pair worn by Sean Connery during the Crab Key beach scenes in his first James Bond movie, Dr. No (1962). Like Richard Burton in The Sandpiper three years later, Connery’s 007 would wear a similarly colored shirt, though Mr. Bond opts for a tucked-in short-sleeve polo rather than the more casual crew-neck sweatshirt.

Burton wears his sweatshirt untucked with the hem often covering the top of the trousers, concealing whether they have front pockets (as they decidedly do not have side pockets), though there is a jetted pocket on the back left. The trousers are cut straight through the legs to the plain-hemmed bottoms.

Edward takes in Laura’s humorous sketch of him.

Edward’s navy slip-on beach shoes share characteristics with the classic espadrilles, though they have white rubber soles rather than the espadrilles’ traditional “jute” rope soles.

Promotional photo of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor on the beach at Big Sur during the production of The Sandpiper.

While you can’t go wrong with a pair of classic canvas rope-soled espadrilles like these authentic pairs by Soludos and VISCATA, you can go a Burton-inspired route with rubber-soled variants like the classic TOMS shoe or the more stylized Tommy Bahama “Jaali” slip-on shoe with mesh uppers. A compromise would be the ALDO “Vilfredo” with jute-like binding between the navy textile uppers and white rubber soles.

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at Big Sur during production of The Sandpiper (1965)

Embracing the freedom of his beach interlude, Edward leaves his gold watch behind. Some behind-the-scenes shots show Richard Burton in a pair of cool, mid-sixties sunglasses with thick black frames shaped straight across the top with thick arms. As these sunglasses are more consistent with the actor than the character, they did not make it on screen for the final cut.

How to Get the Look

For the first time in The Sandpiper, Richard Burton dresses for comfort as his button-up Dr. Edward Hewitt leaves behind the trappings of his married life as an Episcopal boarding school headmaster and allows himself the freedom (sartorial and otherwise…) that comes from a romantic beach interlude with the free-spirited Laura.

• Beige zip-up windbreaker with rounded single-button standing collar tab, slanted hand pockets, back shoulder pleats, and ribbed-knit cuffs
• Slate-blue cotton crew-neck sweatshirt with set-in sleeves
• Sky-blue cotton flat front trousers with frogmouth front pockets, jetted back-right pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Navy canvas slip-on beach shoes with white rubber soles
• Black thick-framed sunglasses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie or see a variety of movies that Liz and Dick made together with the Taylor and Burton Film Collection.

Robert Walker as Bruno Antony in Strangers on a Train (1951)

Vitals

Robert Walker as Bruno Antony, obsessive psychopath who “never seemed to do anything”

On the train from Washington, D.C., to New York, Late Summer 1950

Film: Strangers on a Train
Release Date: June 30, 1951
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Costume Designer: Leah Rhodes

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

This week, BAMF Style commemorates the birthday of Alfred Hitchcock, showcasing some notable men’s style across the oeuvre of the “Master of Suspense” who was born 120 years ago today on August 13, 1899.

Alfred Hitchcock’s trademark cameo in Strangers on a Train was directed by his daughter Patricia, who would also star in the film as Barbara Morton, younger sister of Guy Haines’ sophisticated love interest Anne Morton (Ruth Roman).

Strangers on a Train kicked off what is often considered Hitch’s renaissance following the director’s lack of box office success in the late 1940s. By concealing his identity, he was able to obtain the rights to Patricia Highsmith’s first novel for a paltry $7,500, frustrating the author when she learned that it was the famous director who had so cheaply purchased the rights. Highsmith’s opinion of the adaptation would waver over the years, but she remained steadfast in her praise for Robert Walker’s electrifying performance as Bruno Antony, the almost childlike psychopath “who held the movie together as he did the book.”

Robert Walker was pleased to learn during the production that he had been Hitchcock’s only choice for the role of Bruno, though the movie would sadly prove to be the last released during his lifetime; the talented actor died eight months after filming wrapped at the young age of 32 when he suffered an allergic reaction to the effects of amobarbital administered by his psychiatrist, Frederick Hacker, and its reaction to the alcohol already in his blood stream.

Farley Granger and Robert Walker on the set of Strangers on a Train, getting along far more affably than their characters.

While Walker may have been Hitchcock’s first choice, the director was less than pleased with the first screenwriter who agreed to take on the project. Armed with a compelling treatment by Whitfield Cook that softened the Bruno character and drizzled in a homoerotic subtext, Hitch approached numerous “name” writers for what would be his comeback project to kick off his peak decade. Neither Dashiell Hammett, John Steinbeck, nor Thornton Wilder would take the project, and the Strangers on a Train screenplay was eventually assigned to pulp writer Raymond Chandler who had found success with his series of detective novels featuring Philip Marlowe and his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Double Indemnity. The two auteurs got along like oil and water and Chandler in particular grew impatient and combative with Hitchcock, leading to his dismissal from the project in September 1950, shortly before production would begin.

Unavailable to help on the project himself, Ben Hecht offered his assistant, Czenzi Ormonde, whose well-received short story collection and striking good looks both appealed to Hitchcock. Ormonde, Hitchcock’s associate producer Barbara Keon, and Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville proved to be a fruitful collaboration as the three women completed the working script by early November, incorporating such iconic elements as Guy Haines’s “A to G” monogrammed Ronson cigarette lighter, Miriam’s thick glasses, and the runaway merry-go-round during the climax. Despite the trio’s hard work and Chandler’s early dismissal, Warner Brothers insisted that the latter be credited to capitalize on his prestige so the final screenplay was credited to Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde. The movie remains one of Ormonde’s only six screenwriting credits, two of which include televised adaptations of Strangers on a Train.

The movie begins with Hitchcock’s frequently visited motif of the “perfect murder”. Guy Haines (Farley Granger), an affable tennis star in a loveless marriage to the promiscuous music store clerk Miriam (Kasey Rogers, credited as Laura Elliott), takes his seat across from the charismatic Bruno on his train ride to New York, via his fictional hometown of Metcalf, New Jersey. This crucial opening scene is an instance of Hitchcock’s detail-oriented involvement in all aspects of the production, right down to determining Bruno’s lunch order on the train in accordance with the director’s belief that “preferences in food characterize people,” explaining that:

Bruno orders with gusto and with an interest in what he is going to eat — lamb chops, French fries, and chocolate ice cream. A very good choice for train food. And the chocolate ice cream is probably what he thought about first. Bruno is rather a child. He is also something of a hedonist. Guy, on the other hand, shows little interest in eating the lunch, apparently having given it no advance thought, in contrast to Bruno, and he merely orders what seems his routine choice, a hamburger and coffee.

Despite his charm, Bruno is perhaps not well-versed in the art of small talk and the polite conversation soon shifts to his much-considered murder scheme of two perfect strangers agreeing to “swap murders,” with Bruno killing the vulgar Miriam in exchange for Guy eliminating Bruno’s despised father:

You do my murder, I’ll do yours.

What do you say to a thing like that? Guy feigns amusement for the sake of politeness, but the psychopathic Bruno mistakes this as an endorsement of the deadly scheme.

What’d He Wear?

With Bruno’s multi-striped suiting, pinned shirt collar and cuff links, lobster-printed tie and personalized (aka mommy-made) clip, and the boldly contrasting two-toned shoes, Leah Rhodes’ expert costume design and Hitchcock’s involved direction effectively establish the fussy chaos that defines the deranged Mr. Antony, particularly when compared to the humbler Guy Haines and his more subdued sartorial approach of a woolen tweed sack-style sports coat and flannel slacks, white button-down collar shirt, classic checked tie, dark sweater vest, and—of course—dark brogues.

Production photo of Farley Granger and Robert Walker in Strangers on a Train.

Bruno Antony spends this memorable first scene in a medium-dark flannel suit that is alternately striped in a single pinstripe and a triple track-stripe. The style is consistent with fashions of the late 1940s and early 1950s with a full fit through the drape-cut jacket and pleated trousers. Regarding color, a contemporary colorized lobby card suggests that the suit is an olive shade of brown, but that may have been the subjective choice of the illustrator rather than influenced by the suit’s actual appearance.

The single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels that roll to a two-button front. The shoulders are padded and roped at the sleeveheads, and each sleeve is finished with a three-button cuff. The nature of his appearance in these scenes—often seated behind a table—conceals much of his lower half, but we see that the jacket has a flapped ticket pocket on the right side in addition to the straight, flapped hip pockets. Bruno wears his usual white linen pocket square folded and on display in his welted breast pocket.

Bruno turns on the charm when making Guy’s acquaintance on the train.

As mentioned, Bruno doesn’t show off much of his suit below the lapels as he spends most of his time on the train either hunched or reclined behind a table, but his trousers appear to have reverse pleats and are most assuredly finished at the bottoms with turn-ups (cuffs). Despite the “overdone” lamb chops, Bruno’s fulfilling lunch results in him unhooking his trouser fly and loosening his belt, a strap of dark leather that fastens through a single-prong buckle.

The detail of Bruno’s undone belt is subtle but effective. Our attention is never drawn to it, but it reflects his deep lack of decorum despite overly polite mannerisms while also being suggestive in itself by having Bruno loosening his trouser fly while entertaining Guy in his private room.

Bruno balances his striped suit and boldly patterned tie with a plain white broadcloth cotton shirt. With the exception of a thinly striped shirt that appears later in the film, he exclusively wears these white shirts with his lounge suits. The shirt has a front placket, double (French) cuffs worn with dark round links, and a spread collar pinned under the tie knot. The pinned collar has recently come back en vogue thanks to Roger Sterling’s style on Mad Men and Daniel Craig’s most recent adventures as James Bond in Spectre.

For someone with obsessive tendencies like Bruno Antony, a pinned collar ensures that one’s appearance stays fastidious whether leaning back after a large lunch or hanging on for life on an out-of-control merry-go-round.

Alfred Hitchcock personally designed the distinctive lobster-printed tie that Bruno wears, the menacing claws of the many lobsters communicating how Bruno already has his “claws” into Guy from their first fateful meeting on the train. The lobsters on his tie are likely red like the actual crustacean, printed on a dark ground. Novelty ties like this are now available on Amazon without requiring the design of the Master of Suspense himself, with large red lobsters on black or navy, depending on your preference; if you prefer a more subtle approach, Alynn offers a silk tie with a neater, organized pattern of smaller lobsters against a mixed navy ground.

Note Guy’s signature “A to G” lighter, having essentially already shifted into Bruno’s possession. The Ronson lighter is undeniably present throughout the scene, foreshadowing its significance to follow.

“By the way, my name is Bruno… Bruno Antony,” he introduces himself before offering his gold personalized tie clip of his cursive-scripted first name as evidence: “See?”

“Well, I suppose you think it’s corny, but my mother gave it to me, so I have to wear it to please her,” Bruno overshares, establishing his twist on the classic Oedipal complex within seconds of making Guy’s acquaintance.

FADE IN:

EXT. UNION STATION, WASHINGTON, D.C. DAY LONG SHOT THE CAPITOL DOME IN THE B.G. AND THE AUTOMOBILE ENTRANCE TO THE STATION IN THE F.G. LOW CAMERA

Activity of cars and taxis arriving and discharging passengers with luggage, busy redcaps, etcetera.

We FOCUS on a taxi pulling up and stopping, The driver hands out modest looking luggage, including a bunch of tennis rackets in cases to a redcap. CAMERA PANS DOWN as the passenger gets out of the taxi so that we see only his shoes and the lower part of his trousers. He is wearing dark colored brogues and a conservative suit apparently. The feet move toward, the entrance to the station and out of scene. Immediately a chauffeur-driven limousine drives up and an expensive place of airplane luggage is handed out of this, and the passenger alighting from the back is seen to be wearing black and white sport shoes which, as before, are all we see of him. The sport shoes start off in the wake of the brogues.

As intended by the original screenplay, Bruno’s and Guy’s shoes are the first we see of the characters, and their respective footwear does wonders to establish their personalities. Guy’s plain dark brogues communicate that he is our Hitchcockian “everyman” while the gaudier two-tone spectator shoes evoke the questionable characters of the early 20th century that led to the shoe’s moniker as the “correspondent shoe” in reference to the caddish “correspondents” often cited as the offending party in the era’s divorce proceedings.

Bruno’s medallion oxfords have black leather on the cap toe, over the bal-type closed lacing, and on the rear quarters, while the rest of the shoes are a stark white leather. The shine suggests patent leather, a flashier choice for an already flashy style of shoe. Bruno wears them with dark ribbed socks.

The contrast of Bruno’s bolder suit trousers and two-tone shoes communicate that he will be the agent of chaos for the more soberly dressed gentleman with whom he collides on the train.

We get a glimpse of Bruno’s wristwatch on its dark leather strap as he first settles in beside Guy on the train, but the audience’s best look at Bruno’s watch comes in a later scene, minutes after he has strangled Miriam at Magic Isle and is checking the time during his getaway. The chronograph’s dial fills the screen, displaying the gold Arabic number markers around the dial, three hands (including a second hand), sub-dial registers at 11:00 and 7:00, and the words “SWISS MADE” flanking the 6:00 marker. Three red rings circle the center of the watch dial;  The watchmaker’s logo has been removed from the middle ring, but the word “SPORT” is visible in the bottom of the center ring.

I suggest following the discussion at Watches in Movies, where horological detectives have narrowed down the possible manufacturers to Endura and Rego, two watchmakers from the era who made very similar-looking watches that could both be contenders for Bruno’s particular timepiece.

Note where the watchmaker’s name was “scrubbed” from the dial. Both Endura and Rego watches placed their brand name here.

Bruno wears a medium-colored felt fedora throughout Strangers on a Train, though it’s only seen in this early sequence from behind during the opening montage of both men boarding the train.

The striped suit appears once more during Strangers on a Train when Guy spots Bruno among the audience at one of his tennis matches. Bruno makes his presence apparent by not moving his head to follow the match like his fellow spectators, instead keeping his eyes trained directly on Guy.

One of many masterful shots by cinematographer Robert Burks in Strangers on a Train.

Following the match, Guy encounters Bruno speaking French with the Darvilles, friends of the Morton family, and charms his way into an invitation to a party at the Mortons’ house that Thursday. Anne is alarmed when she recognizes Bruno’s distinctive tie clip, worn here with a dark knitted silk tie, a subdued alternative to the lobster-print tie from the opening scene.

Anne catches sight of Bruno’s unusual tie clip, here worn on a much more conventional knitted silk tie, and recognizes that something is amiss with their mysterious interloper.

While the soigné Bruno is well-tailored throughout Strangers on a Train from his dapper suits to formal white tie and tails, one of his most notable costumes is the satin silk printed dressing gown that he wears with dark silk pajamas and scarf while lounging around the family estate in Arlington. The dark robe’s pattern is a series of light saucers and swirls, the latter resembling a Deco-inspired take on smoking cigarettes, a particularly suitable motif as Bruno lights one of his tiny cigars with Guy’s trademark lighter while explaining to Anne that Guy must have left said lighter on Magic Isle after he killed Miriam there. (Which, of course, he did not.)

Bruno strides through his living room after hearing Anne’s chat with his mother.

The dressing gown has been identified as one of the same robes that Monty Woolley wore in The Man Who Came to Dinner, one of several notable pieces of leisurewear that Woolley’s character Sheridan Whiteside sports in that 1942 comedy. Orry-Kelly designed the gowns and costumes for The Man Who Came to Dinner, and it was likely passed down to his one-time chief assistant Leah Rhodes who took over his duties as Warner Brothers’ chief costume designer when Orry-Kelly joined the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.

What to Imbibe

“I guess I’m a little jittery,” Guy offers as his apology for rightly dismissing Bruno’s prodding into his personal life. “Oh, there’s a new cure for that,” Bruno slyly responds, calling over a waiter to order:

Scotch and plain water, please, a pair. Doubles.

He turns to his tennis-playing acquaintance and charmingly adds, “the only kind of doubles I play.” Guy initially refuses the drink but, once it’s served, he realizes it could help steady his nerves about seeing his wife in Metcalf and joins Bruno, a sign that he’s already somewhat corrupted by the charming psychopath.

“Here’s to the next Mrs. Haines!”

How to Get the Look

Robert Walker as Bruno Antony in Strangers on a Train (1951)

Bruno Antony’s personality can be summed up by his tie and tie clip; a potentially dangerous, menacing animal once he gets his claws into you, kept in place only by his sense of decorum, his devotion to his mother, and the impression he initially gives off of a harmless eccentric. Eccentric touches aside, Robert Walker dresses very well throughout Strangers on a Train.

• Medium-colored suit with alternating pinstripe and triple track-striped flannel:
  • Single-breasted 2-button drape-cut suit jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Single reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops and turn-ups/cuffs
• White broadcloth cotton shirt with pinned collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Dark round cuff links
• Lobster-printed tie
  • Personalized gold tie clip with cursive “Bruno”
• Dark leather belt with rectangular single-prong buckle
• Black-and-white patent leather medallion cap-toe spectator oxfords
• Dark ribbed socks
• Dark fedora
• Vintage sport chronograph watch with sub-dials at 11:00 and 7:00 on a dark leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and learn more about Strangers on a Train in this Mental Floss article. You should also read Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel, the first of a prolific career that would include The Price of Salt and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

The Quote

Oh, I certainly admire people who do things.