Left: Tyrone Power as Stan Carlisle in Nightmare Alley (1947)
Right: Bradley Cooper as Stan Carlisle in Nightmare Alley (2021)

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Tyrone Power (1947) and Bradley Cooper (2021) as Stanton “Stan” Carlisle, opportunistic drifter-turned-carny

Rural Kentucky, Summer into fall 1939

Film: Nightmare Alley
Release Date: October 9, 1947
Director: Edmund Goulding
Costume Designer: Bonnie Cashin

Film: Nightmare Alley
Release Date: December 17, 2021
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Costume Designer: Luis Sequeira

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Almost immediately after William Lindsay Gresham published his 1946 novel Nightmare Alley chronicling the grifters, geeks, and gals populating a second-rate sideshow, Tyrone Power asked 20th Century Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck to purchase the film rights.

Power had built his swashbuckling screen image in movies like The Mask of Zorro (1940), Blood and Sand (1941), and The Black Swan (1942), but—as so many had—returned from his World War II service as a changed man. The decorated Lieutenant Power was released from Marine Corps active duty in January 1946 and, after flying dangerous transport missions during the war, sought roles that would expand his image beyond the romantic hero he had established.

Director Edmund Goulding helmed the production that brought Gresham’s creepy carnival world to life via a working carnival constructed on ten acres of the Fox back lot, even employing actual carnies and more than 100 sideshow attractions to add verisimilitude. The talented cast also included Joan Blondell, appropriately appearing about fifteen years beyond her Warner Brothers heyday as she deliciously dives into the role of the washed-up tarot reader “Mademoiselle Zeena” whom the unscrupulous Stanton Carlisle manipulates into revealing the trick to her successful mentalist act. The married Zeena allows herself to fall for Carlisle’s romantic advances despite being married to her alcoholic stage partner Pete (Ian Keith) and Carlisle’s own obvious interest in the ingenue Molly (Coleen Gray).

Nightmare Alley premiered 75 years ago today on October 9, 1947, with Power’s performance lauded by critics like James Agee, who noted for Time that he “steps into a new class as an actor,” playing against type as Carlisle.

The Nightmare Alley story was recently revived for Guillermo del Toro’s re-adaptation of the novel, reinstating some of the darker components to blend Gothic horror with the noir-ish elements that were also present in Goulding’s film. Released in December 2021, del Toro’s Oscar-nominated Nightmare Alley featured a star-studded cast led by Bradley Cooper as Carlisle, Toni Collette as Zeena, Rooney Mara as Molly, David Strathairn as Pete, and Cate Blanchett as Dr. Lilith Ritter, the mysterious femme fatale who Carlisle meets after escaping the carnival world and re-establishing himself as the debonair mentalist “The Great Stanton”.

What’d He Wear?

Both the 1947 and 2021 versions of Nightmare Alley are structured with a first act in the dusty world of rural carnies, followed by a second act depicting the now-successful Stan and Molly perfecting their stage act in big cities. The films’ respective costume designers (Bonnie Cashin in 1947, Luis Sequeira in 2021) sought to appropriately differentiate the look of each locale, contrasting the sleek suits and formalwear in the latter half against the more hard-worn garb he has to wear while withstanding the rigors of carnival life.

“Everything he wears at the carnival is sagging and threadbare,” costume designer Luis Sequeira explained to Vogue of how he dressed Bradley Cooper in the 2021 adaptation. “At the beginning, the fit was looser, saggier, very well worn; which gave him a foundation of character,” he elaborated in conversation with Slash Film, ultimately theorizing that Stan likely burned all of his clothing before he and Molly began their new life.

A staple of Stan’s carny closet that was represented in both the 1947 and 2021 versions of Nightmare Alley was a variation of a shawl-collar cardigan.

Tyrone Power and Bradley Cooper each wore variations of a shawl-collar cardigan in their respective versions of Nightmare Alley, though Power’s was more of a jacket with cardigan-like ribbed-knit collar, cuffs, and hem while Cooper wore a more quintessential cardigan style.

Tyrone Power (1947)

Tyrone Power’s Carlisle wears a waist-length garment that’s more of a cross between a zip-up sweater and a blouson jacket, with a softly structured body of dark suede-like cloth rigged with ribbed-knit cuffs, waist hem, and the shawl collar of a cardigan sweater. The jacket has two vertical-entry side pockets at hand level.

Power’s Carlisle occasionally accessorizes with a dark paisley cotton bandana knotted around his neck and tucked into the top of his T-shirt like a day cravat.

Power wears the sweater-jacket over his undershirts, alternating between a white widely ribbed cotton sleeveless tank top or “A-shirt” (athletic shirt) and a plain white cotton T-shirt with a banded crew-neck and very short sleeves.

Power also alternates his trousers, switching between dark corduroy flat front trousers and lighter gabardine reverse-pleated trousers, both with a full fit and finished with turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms. He holds up his trousers with a dark leather belt that has a polished metal single-prong squared buckle. He wears very dark—probably black—socks and brown leather cap-toe oxford shoes.

Power completes Carlisle’s carny outfit with a twill tweed newsboy cap, differentiated by regular flat caps by the cloth-covered button at the center of the soft crown where all the top panels meet.

Zeena invites Stan to join her for a tarot reading.

Bradley Cooper (2021)

Bradley Cooper’s Carlisle had arrived at the carnival wearing a plaid mackinaw coat, giving him a little more variety and thus only reserving his cardigan-and-undershirt apparel for the most casual occasions, wearing it almost like a robe.

Made from a dusty taupe-gray shaker-stitched wool, his is a true shawl-collar cardigan, oversized in a manner that emphasizes Carlisle’s underfed stature, though this also lengthens the raglan sleeves to envelop his wrists, covering the vintage 14-karat gold Hamilton Hastings wristwatch that Carlisle proudly wears on a textured brown leather strap even after the rest of his pride is gone. The sweater has patch-style hip pockets with slanted side entries and four front buttons—though he typically only buttons the top two.

Like his cinematic predecessor, Cooper’s Carlisle wears the cardigan over just his undershirt, another wide-ribbed white cotton sleeveless tank top. He tucks the shirt into his dark taupe flannel trousers, with era-correct double forward-facing pleats that contribute to the overall bagginess of the look. He likely holds up the trousers with some of the striped tan cloth suspenders (braces) he wears through the carnival scenes.

The trouser turn-ups (cuffs) gather over the tops of his well-worn cap-toe work boots, made with russet-brown leather uppers and four sets of derby-laced eyelets.

Rather than Power’s soft newsboy cap, Cooper wears his character’s usual dark brown self-edged fedora with a matching brown grosgrain ribbon, purchased from Milano Hat Company as Sequeira explained to Below the Line.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the 1947 movie, the 2021 movie, and the 1946 source novel.

The post Nightmare Alley: Comparing Carlisle’s Cardigans in 1947 vs. 2021 appeared first on BAMF Style.

I’m again pleased to present a guest post contributed by my friend Ken Stauffer, who has written several pieces for BAMF Style previously and chronicles the style of the Ocean’s film series on his excellent Instagram account, @oceansographer.

Hugh Jackman as Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, in X-Men (2000)

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Hugh Jackman as Logan a.k.a Wolverine, itinerant and amnesiac cage-fighter and part-time superhero

Northern Alberta, Canada and Westchester, New York, in the not too distant future

Film: X-Men
Release Date: July 15, 2000
Director: Bryan Singer
Costume Designer: Louise Mingenbach

Background

Happy Birthday to Hugh Jackman! The charismatic Australian song-and-dance man turns 54 today.

Earlier this month, Ryan Reynolds broke the Internet with his announcement that Hugh would be strapping on the claws to play Wolverine once more in Deadpool III. Despite his repeated declarations that James Mangold’s Logan in 2017 would be his last dance with the character, it seems he just couldn’t say no to the prospect of reprising the role that made him famous.

X-Men catapulted a then-unknown 31-year-old Jackman into international stardom, but—in 1999—he was far from the first choice for the role of Logan. Diminutive rocker Glenn Danzig first expressed interest in the role in the 90s and, for a time, was seriously considered. Once pre-production began in earnest though, efforts turned to casting Russell Crowe as the Canadian mutant. When turning the part down, the Gladiator star recommended Jackman for the role. Even still, the producers were not on board and next offered the part to Scottish actor Dougray Scott, who did actually sign on. Then, due to production delays on Mission: Impossible II, Scott had to drop out at the last minute, finally leading to Hugh being cast three weeks into shooting. Nine months later, within two weeks of the film’s release, Jackman was invited on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (sandwiched between Lorraine Bracco and Eve 6), marking the first time most saw him clean-shaven and with his natural Aussie accent.

Now, the film itself is set in a near future where all televisions are HD, and there’s a seething, public distrust of mutants—those who discover at puberty that they possess a genetic abnormality, often resulting in random superhuman abilities. Those with these evolutionary gifts hide them for fear of violent persecution. When one teen girl discovers she’s no longer able to touch others without draining their life force, she leaves home, hitchhiking her way north to the fictional Laughlin City in snowy Alberta. It’s there that we first lay eyes on “The Wolverine”, shirtless, gulping down a shot of whiskey, and waiting for his next opponent in a rowdy bar’s chain link fighting cage.

Soon after grappling with an overzealous local oaf in the cage, Logan saunters up to the bar, now in all his well-worn regalia, and quietly orders a generic beer. Despite his unrivaled fighting skills, he seems content to keep to himself and eke out a humble, anonymous existence, echoing a classic Western trope. Of course, within the next five minutes he’ll have a knife and a shotgun pulled on him, forcing him to reveal his Adamantium claws, and then drift on down the highway. Just his luck, the next day he’ll be in a car accident, have his trailer explode, lose a fight to an even stronger, hairier mutant, and be kidnapped to Westchester while unconscious.

What’d He Wear?

Just as the character of Wolverine reflects a classic Western archetype, his clothes consist of many staples one might see on a traditional cowpoke. Over those, he wears a roadworthy motorcycle jacket that has seen better days. These layers reflect how guarded the character must be as he continually conceals his true nature amidst the bigotry that surrounds him. The distressed quality of each piece hints at how tough the last 15 years of drifting have been on him and perhaps how much violence he’s seen in that time.

If all of your bones are literally covered in metal, maybe it’s not the best idea to pick a fight with a guy called Magneto, the Master of Magnetism.

For the film’s production in 1999, Vanson modified their typical “Café Racer” jacket style to create the new Wolf model, recently re-released as part of a limited edition “made exactly the way [they] made it for the movie studio.” (Please note that wolves and wolverines are not at all related, despite the words sharing a common etymology; wolves are canine, while wolverines are mustelids, like weasels and otters.)

Unlike similar jackets from other brands that Jackman would don later in the series, this one was fully made for riding, cut from dark brown competition-weight full-grain cowhide measuring 1.4 mm thick. It has a typical snap-closed mandarin collar with an extended rectangular tab on the left side. The jacket closes symmetrically with a straight, central zipper, and no wind-flap. All the hardware on it is made of silver-tone chrome.

While a jacket of this type would typically have straight chest and slanted side pockets, this one has a pair of long, diagonal, zippered chest pockets that start at the center of the chest and end around the lowest point of the rib cage. Similarly, while it’s very common for motorcycle jackets to have zippered cuffs, the cuff opening here is cut extra wide with an extremely long zipper that extends just past the wearer’s elbow.

Don’t even think about touching the radio, bub!

Further differentiating this jacket are three contrasting “amber tan” leather arm stripes on the bicep of each arm, alluding to the three claws that Wolverine pops out of each hand. While each of the stripes is a bit torn and tattered, the top stripe on the left sleeve is completely gone, leaving behind only some yellow dye it shed while still attached.

Matching those six five stripes are two uniquely angular lower body panels. Beginning at the center opening, just above the belt line, the colored panels angle up and double in width as they travel around the sides of the jacket ending on the edge of the back panel. These are an homage to Wolverine’s costume in the comics from the ’80s to early ’90s.

The jacket carries many of the hallmarks of real riding gear, such as the bi-swing “action back” made with contoured shoulder gussets to allow more freedom of movement when reaching for handlebars. Likewise, the back panel is one solid piece of leather, providing much better protection in the event of a crash than one with multiple seams.

Not only are shoulder gussets ideal for riding, but they’re also helpful when grabbing luggage off the overhead rack.

Beneath the leather jacket, the character fittingly dons a “Canadian tuxedo”, consisting of a denim jacket and jeans. The well-worn trucker jacket is made from a dark blue denim in the typical Type III style with V-shaped stitching running down from its chest seam. Though this jacket was made by Helmut Lang rather than Levi’s, it still carries the familiar six-button placket, chest pockets with pointed button-down flaps, shirt-style buttoning cuffs, nickel rivet buttons, and button-through waist cinches on the back corners of the waistband.

When staying at Prof Charles Xavier’s luxurious Westchester mansion, only the finest Canadian formalwear will do.

Compared to the jacket, the character’s jeans have a lighter wash and browner finish but are equally tarnished with small rips and frays throughout. They’re straight cut with a low rise, and bear no leather patch, decorative pocket stitching, or other branding to denote their origin.

The faded black belt he wears with them closes with a large buckle depicting the face and headdress of an American Indian tribal chief through yellow, brown, black, blue, green, and red paint. It has a central row of large grommets along its entire length, with smaller nickel rivets above and below each one.

As if he didn’t already have enough metal on his body, Logan had to find a belt with the most hardware possible.

The first shirt we see Logan in was made by Canadian brand Western Craft, and is made of a thin cotton flannel in a plaid of red, blue, green, and yellow, with a large white overcheck. It’s cut in a traditional Western style, with pointed front and back yokes and two flapped chest pockets. There are six pearlized white snap buttons down the front, set in a traditional placket, with three on each squared cuff and one in the middle of each sleeve gauntlet. As is common, the plaid fabric of the yokes and front placket are oriented at a 45-degree diagonal angle for some visual interest. Beneath that shirt, he wears a simple gray ribbed tank top as an undershirt, which would end up becoming a staple for the character.

Logan’s wearing so many warm layers that he’s even comfortable sleeping outside in the snow.

Later in the film, once Wolverine has had time to acclimate to the X-Mansion (i.e. insult Cyclops, hit on Jean, and accidentally stab Rogue in the chest while having a nightmare), he dons his signature outfit again over a new set of shirts. The outermost button-up shirt is made of copper-colored cotton with a very large maroon paisley pattern. It has a regular fit, point collar, standard placket, charcoal mother-of-pearl buttons, and square shaped barrel cuffs. Unlike his other clothes, this shirt looks brand new. In the context of the story, since all his belongings blew up with his trailer a few days earlier, it’s logical to assume that the shirt was borrowed from tthe nearby closet of some prick that never takes off his sunglasses.

Beneath that dressier shirt is a black thermal, long-sleeve T-shirt with a waffle-knit texture. Based on this auction listing, he may have also worn a plain, long-sleeve black T under that. That would bring the total number of top layers on Logan to a whopping five! Honestly, at what point do you just consider buying a down-filled parka?

Watch out! Here comes Mr. Steal Your Girl Shirt.

Throughout the film, Logan appears to be wearing a pair of black roper boots. This minimalist style of pull-on boot has long been popular out West, and this pair has a plain, round toe. They’re finished with slightly raised heels and brown leather soles beneath black rubber half soles.

What temperature is it inside the X-Mansion exactly? Is Storm just warming up the air around herself?

The character’s sole accessory throughout the film is the single Canadian dog tag, hanging from a stainless steel ball chain, on a smaller matching loop. Curiously, there’s only one tag, the writing of which is situated upside down, and it’s the one that would be mailed back to the government in the event of the wearer’s death. The tag reads “458 25 243” on the top line and “WOLVERINE” on the second. Those first nine digits are theoretically Logan’s Social Insurance Number, and given the fact that he has no memory of his identity—or even his full name—he might want to spend a couple of minutes Googling it on a library computer.

Nothing to see here–just a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, stamped into steel.

How to Get the Look

Hugh Jackman as Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, in X-Men (2000)

You can build the look for yourself or seek out Hugh Jackman’s screen-worn pieces as auctioned since the production, including Logan’s leather jacket and flannel shirt, his double denim, belt, and paisley shirt, his dog tag and chain, and his signature claws.

• Dark brown café racer leather jacket with extended snap-tab mandarin collar, long, angled front zip-up pockets, 3 amber-colored stripes on each arm, amber colored lower body panels, shoulder gussets, one-piece back, and long zippered cuffs
• Dark blue distressed denim Type III-style trucker jacket
• Western-style plaid flannel snap shirt in red, blue, green, yellow, and white
  • … or rust-colored shirt with large paisley pattern, standard placket, square button cuffs, and gray mother of pearl buttons
• Gray ribbed tank top undershirt
  • … or black thermal long-sleeve T-shirt
• Blue faded denim five-pocket straight-cut jeans
• Black leather belt with nickel grommets and rivets, and a large, painted American Indian chief belt buckle
• Black leather plain-toe roper-style boots with brown leather soles and black rubber half soles
• Single Canadian dog tag on stainless steel ball link chain
• Adamantium-plated skeleton with three 10.6″ claws emerging from between the knuckles of each hand

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Take your shirt off, glug down some whiskey, and check out the movie, bub.

The Quote

There’s not many people that will understand what you’re going through, but I think this guy Xavier’s one of them. He seems to genuinely want to help you, and that’s a rare thing… for people like us. Okay, so what do you say? Give these geeks one more shot? Come on, I’ll take care of you.

The post Hugh Jackman’s Leather Jacket as Wolverine in X-Men appeared first on BAMF Style.

Sam Shepard with Brig Gen Chuck Yeager during production of The Right Stuff (1983)

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Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager, record-setting U.S. Air Force test pilot

Murac Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base), Kern County, California, from fall 1947 to summer 1961

Film: The Right Stuff
Release Date: October 21, 1983
Director: Philip Kaufman
Costume Supervisor: James W. Tyson

Background

Today marks the 75th anniversary of when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, piloting a rocket-propelled Bell X-1 aircraft—named Glamorous Glennis, after his wife—over the Mojave Desert at a speed greater than Mach 1. The event is depicted at the start of The Right Stuff, Philip Kaufman’s 1983 flight epic based on Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction book of the same name, chronicling the pivotal early years of American aeronautics between Yeager’s supersonic achievement and the conclusion of the successful Project Mercury manned space missions.

Producers Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler had originally hired the prolific William Goldman to pen the screenplay, but director Philip Kaufman disagreed with Goldman’s direction that discarded Yeager’s story in favor of focusing on the Mercury 7 astronauts. After Wolfe turned down the opportunity to adapt his own book, Kaufman drafted his own screenplay in eight weeks, restoring Yeager’s role as he notes that the pilot was one who “truly had ‘the right stuff’.”

The real Yeager served as a technical consultant on The Right Stuff, sharing his expertise, correcting errors, and even giving the actors flying lessons. In turn, the retired Yeager also briefly appeared on screen as Fred, a bartender at the Happy Bottom Riding Club operated by aviator Florence “Pancho” Barnes that featured heavily in the movie. Yeager commented that the cameo was an appropriate role as “if all the hours were ever totaled, I reckon I spent more time at her place than in a cockpit over those years.”

A smug NASA recruiter shares that “Yeager doesn’t fit the profile… he didn’t go to college,” just as the real Chuck Yeager makes his cameo looming over the man’s left shoulder in a weathered brown hat with a bottle of Jack. “Hey, y’all wanna drink whiskey?” he asks. The man turns down the offer, instead asking for Coca-Cola, “in a clean glass.”

The Right Stuff premiered 39 years ago this week at the Kennedy Space Center, followed five days later by a wide release on October 21, 1983. Though it failed to recoup the box office it deserved, The Right Stuff was rightfully lauded by critics and ultimately nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning four.

Among the nominations was a nod for Sam Shepard’s supporting performance as Yeager, portraying the pilot as quietly fearless, keeping his self-assurance even as he’s passed by for the more glorious NASA assignments due to his lack of the “right” academic credentials. “Sam Shepard did a good job portraying me,” Yeager shared in a 2017 interview with Forbes, published just six months before Shepard’s death and likely more rewarding praise for the actor than any awards.

“What we had done in the Air Force was being overshadowed by NASA. That’s where Tom Wolfe really shined. In doing a book on the seven Mercury astronauts, he began to see that they got professional PR guys to blow them out of shape. He looked back and saw the guys at Edwards were killing themselves doing research for NASA, but no one knew about it,” Yeager also explained in the interview, providing a context that validates Kaufman desire to focus on the entire program at large for his screenplay, which began with the groundbreaking Bell X-1 flight performed by then-USAAF Captain Yeager.

What’d He Wear?

The Right Stuff begins in mid-October 1947, which had already been a fortuitous week for Chuck Yeager as—three years prior, as a USAAF combat pilot—he attained “ace in a day” status by shooting down five enemy aircraft during a single mission on October 12, 1944. Now a test pilot in the newly re-dubbed U.S. Air Force, Captain Yeager has been tapped to become the fastest man on Earth with an opportunity to fly the experimental Bell X-1 rocket plane.

Over his green military flight suit, Yeager wears the dashing Type A-2 leather flight jacket that gained a heroic reputation through its association with World War II flying aces. Designated the “Jacket, Pilot’s (Summer)”, the A-2 was first authorized in 1931 for the U.S. Army Air Corps, replacing the button-up A-1 with its knitted collar.

Standing beside her husband as he’s about to take flight in the Bell X-1 he named after her, Glennis Yeager (Barbara Hershey) encourages Chuck to “punch a hole in the sky.”

Originally made of tanned horsehide before goatskin and cowhide were also sourced, the A-2 design replaces the A-1’s knitted collar with a shirt-style collar that can be secured into place with hidden snaps. The A-2 zips up the entire length of the jacket from waist to neck, covered by a fly that snaps closed at the top and bottom. Each patch-style hip pocket also closes with a hidden snap integrated inside each pointed flap. The cuffs and hem are finished with an elasticized ribbed wool for warmth and comfort.

The shoulders are finished with epaulets (shoulder straps), presumably for officers to secure their rank insignia; rather than wearing metal insignia, Yeager has a square patch with the two silver bars indicating his rank of Captain (O-3) embroidered onto a brown leather square that he has sewn over the shoulder of each epaulet. Stitched over the left breast, Yeager wears a similar brown leather patch simply detailed with his gold pilot’s wings and “CAPT YEAGER”.

Yeager’s fellow test pilot and X-1 flight engineer Jack Ridley (Levon Helm) was revered for his technical brilliance and practical problem-solving abilities… including providing Yeager with a cut-off broomstick that would more easily allow the injured pilot to lock the X-1 hatch.

General H.H. “Hap” Arnold had phased the A-2 out of service by 1943, initially replacing it with the simplified AN-J-3 (which notably lacked a front fly and snap-down collar) before eschewing leather jackets altogether in favor of the cotton sateen B-10 and nylon B-15. This unpopular decision frequently went ignored by airmen who continued to wear the A-2 through the end of World War II, during peacetime, and even into the Korean War by either keeping their originals or sourcing replacements from the hundreds of thousands produced by contractors in the first two years of WWII.

Thus, even two years after the war ended, Captain Yeager continues to wear not just his issued A-2 jacket but also one stripped of its military insignia and badging, worn with his “civvies” for days and nights spent riding and drinking at Pancho’s. This A-2 otherwise echoes his military jacket, similarly styled with its epaulets, fly front, flapped hip pockets, and knitted cuffs and hem.

Just before he’s scheduled to fly the X-1, Yeager broke two ribs after falling from his horse after a night at Pancho’s. Note that this A-2 jacket lacks the military insignia of the one he wears in flight.

The day before Yeager’s record-setting, sound barrier-breaking X-1 flight in October 1947 (in real life, it was two nights earlier), he rides up to Pancho’s to enjoy a few drinks with his fellow fliers and their dates, dressed in his usual civilian duds of his unmarked flight jacket, plaid shirt, and khakis.

This first shirt is checked in a muted blue and brown shadow plaid, designed with the usual Western-influenced styling of pointed chest yokes and mother-of-pearl snaps up the front placket. It was reportedly Rockmount Ranch West founder Jack A. Weil who pioneered the addition of snaps (or “poppers”) onto cowboys’ shirt plackets, cuffs, and pocket flaps to allow them to easily break away without tearing or snagging should the wearer get caught among fences, branches, or other obstacles.

In addition to the placket, Yeager’s shirt has two chest pockets with double-pointed “sawtooth” flaps, each with a snap over each point. The shirt cuffs remain covered by the jacket’s sleeves, but they’re presumably also detailed with snap closures. Unlike some Western shirts, the top button on Yeager’s shirt is also a snap like those down the rest of the placket.

Yeager wears khaki cotton straight-leg trousers, similar to those he would have been issued in the Army Air Forces and exemplifying how returning servicemen popularized this style after World War II, expanding them from G.I. garb to an everyman wardrobe staple. These flat-front trousers have “quarter top” slanted side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. He holds them up with a brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned square single-prong buckle with a matching metal keeper.

The brown belt leather coordinates to his brown leather cowboy boots, naturally appointed with spurs for riding.

After his friendly rival Scott Crossfield’s November 1953 flight that breaks Yeager’s own record by flying at twice the speed of sound, we follow Yeager from newsreel footage congratulating Crossfield to consulting with Dr. Jack Daniels back at Pancho’s. (Just weeks later, a determined Yeager would reclaim his status as “the fastest man alive” by flying at a new record speed of Mach 2.44.)

Recently promoted up the chain to Major and now Lieutenant Colonel, Yeager wears his USAAF (now Air Force) flight jacket, complete with his rank insignia embroidered on his epaulet patches and his name-and-rank badge sewn over his left breast, though the rest of his attire is consistent with his civilian apparel. He wears another plaid shirt, though with a traditional button-up front instead of snaps, checked in a brown, navy, and white tartan plaid with a narrow spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs. His khaki trousers and belt appear to be the same as he had worn six years earlier.

Yeager meditates on his surpassed achievement after rival pilot Scott Crossfield flew at twice the speed of sound in November 1953. Note the badging on his jacket in the “newsreel footage”, illustrating that he’s wearing his USAF-issued A-2.

By the summer of 1961, the U.S. was entering a new era of aeronautics as the newly inaugurated President John F. Kennedy was prioritizing the Space Race, Alan Shepard became the first American in space during the Mercury-Redstone 3 mission, and—perhaps most critically—Pancho’s Happy Bottom Riding Club had been destroyed by fire for nearly a decade. (The actual fire had been November 13, 1953, a week before Crossfield’s flight, but The Right Stuff depicts it during the early 1960s.)

While the world around him launches into orbit, the Yeagers ride out to the charred structure, where Glennis reflects on the complicated mix of anxiety and pride that she had felt about her husband’s risky career… and her hope that he won’t become tangled in nostalgia as his career comes to an end. “You know, I’m a fearless man, but I’m scared to death of you,” Chuck deadpans. “Oh, no you’re not… but you oughta be,” she responds before embracing him.

Yeager again wears his unmarked civilian flight jacket, showing considerable patina after decades of wear. His twill flannel shirt is checked in a rich red, green, and ecru tartan plaid, styled with a long point collar, front placket with pearl snaps, and two chest pockets with pointed snap-down flaps. As found on many Western-styled shirts, the top button is a traditional sew-through button rather than a snap.

Rather than his mil-spec khakis, he’s dressed more for Western riding in his dark indigo denim Levi’s 501 jeans, identifiable by the signature “red tab” on the back-right patch pocket. He wears a wider brown leather belt with a tall rectangular gold-finished single-prong buckle.

Yeager and “Glamorous Glennis” herself, peering out into the Mojave Desert from the charred ruins of Pancho’s.

Through the movie, Yeager wears a stainless steel chronograph on what appears to be a matching expanding “twist-o-flex” bracelet. Designed for tracking speed, the watch has a complicated beige dial with gold numeric hour indices and two sub-registers at the 3 and 9 o’clock positions.

Yeager’s watch can be most clearly seen as he shares a laugh with the Mercury Seven astronauts following the return of Ham, who became the first chimpanzee in space on January 31, 1961.

The real Chuck Yeager wore Rolex watches throughout his career, including the Rolex Oyster on his wrist when he broke the sound barrier in 1947. You can read more about Yeager’s long association with Rolex watches at Jake’s Rolex World, which includes such insights as Rolex stating that Yeager had actually advised and influenced some of their watch designs, possibly including the venerable GMT Master that he had started wearing in the late ’50s.

What to Imbibe

October 14 was a Tuesday. On Sunday evening, October 12, Chuck Yeager dropped in at Pancho’s, along with his wife. She was a brunette named Glennis, whom he had met in California while he was in training, and she was such a number, so striking, he had the inscription “Glamorous Glennis” written on the nose of his P-51 in Europe and, just a few weeks back, on the X-1 itself. Yeager didn’t go to Pancho’s and knock back a few because two days later the big test was coming up. Nor did he knock back a few because it was the weekend. No, he knocked back a few because night had come and he was a pilot at Muroc. In keeping with the military tradition of Flying & Drinking, that was what you did, for no other reason than that the sun had gone down. You went to Pancho’s and knocked back a few and listened to the screen doors banging and to other aviators torturing the piano and the nation’s repertoire of Familiar Favorites and to lonesome mouse-turd strangers wandering in through the banging doors and to Pancho classifying the whole bunch of them as old bastards and miserable peckerwoods. That was what you did if you were a pilot at Muroc and the sun went down.

— Tom Wolfe, The Right Stuff

Pancho’s Happy Bottom Riding Club is colorfully brought to life on screen, in the spirit of a wild west outpost as Yeager strides in ahead of his X-1 flight and is greeted by Pancho (Kim Stanley) herself, with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in her hand, barking: “Well, Yeager, you old bastard. Don’t just stand there in the doorway like some lonesome goddamn mouse-shit sheepherder, get your ass over here and have a drink!”

Pancho’s regulars Yeager, Crossfield, and Pancho herself convene around a bottle of Jack Daniel’s when a pair of NASA recruiters stroll in. “Anybody that goes up in the damn thing is gonna be Spam in a can,” Yeager jokes.

Ever the gracious guest, Yeager takes that familiar bottle of Tennessee whiskey and pours himself a glass—drinking it neat—while also pouring some Jack into his drinking pals’ Cokes while listening to the swaggering Slick Goodlin (William Russ) predict he‘ll be the first to break the sound barrier.

How to Get the Look

Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983)

Even when not defying the laws of physics in flight, Chuck Yeager dresses like the rugged and risk-taking adventurer in leather flight jackets, plaid Western shirts, and cowboy boots that authentically reflect every aspect of his personality and talents, whether in the cockpit or on a saddle.

• Brown horsehide leather U.S. Army Air Force Type A-2 flight jacket with snap-down collar, zip-up front with covered fly, patch-style hip pockets with covered-snap flaps, and ribbed-knit cuffs and hem
• Plaid Western-styled long-sleeve shirt with snap-front placket, two chest pockets with snap-down flaps, and snap-closed cuffs
• Khaki cotton flat-front trousers with belt loops, “quarter” top slanted side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
  • or dark indigo denim Levi’s 501 Original Fit five-pocket button-fly jeans
• Brown leather belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Brown leather cowboy boots
• Stainless steel pilot’s chronograph watch with beige dial (with gold numeric hour indices and two sub-dials) on steel expanding bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, and read Tom Wolfe’s source book.

The Quote

So, when do we go?

The post The Right Stuff: Sam Shepard’s Flight Jacket as Chuck Yeager appeared first on BAMF Style.

Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession (Episode 1.01: “Celebration”)

Vitals

Brian Cox as Logan Roy, media mogul and domineering patriarch

New York, Fall 2018

Series: Succession
Episode: “Celebration” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: June 3, 2018
Director: Adam McKay
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Catherine George (Pilot episode only)

Background

The third season of Succession premiered a year ago today, and many—including yours truly—still eagerly await the return of this deliciously profane HBO series that satirizes the culture of unscrupulous wealth in corporate America via the fictional Roy family, a dysfunctional dynasty fighting for control of the global entertainment conglomerate started by the aging patriarch, Logan. Brian Cox has received much deserved acclaim for his performance as the manipulative, tyrannical Logan Roy, said to be partially inspired by real-life media magnates like Rupert Murdoch, Sumner Redstone, and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger.

Succession begins on Logan’s 80th birthday, and while the brusque business mogul is hardly the type to celebrate with balloons and cake, he’s still having a party in his honor, hosted by his third wife Marcia (Hiam Abbass). The party gives us an opportunity to meet the offspring constantly vying for either control of the company, their toxic father’s affection, or the supremely unfeasible combination of both.

What’d He Wear?

The first time we see Logan Roy fully dressed, he’s comfortably layered for his birthday, which is suggested to be sometime in late fall based on the state of the foliage. In her InsideHook interview with Brian Cox last year, Caroline Reilly described Logan as “TV’s best dressed dad, if not TV’s best dressed man at large.” Having amassed unfathomable wealth and power in his fourscore years, Logan no longer needs to project the image of a successful businessman by wearing suits, regularly dressing in comfortable knitwear that still flatters yet challenges any sartorial nay-sayers to fuck off.

When we first meet Logan in “Celebration”, the mogul is dressed not in a crisp white shirt and tie but rather a soft navy-blue long-sleeved polo made from a luxurious knitted cloth like cashmere. The shirt has a three-button top, which Logan wears with the bottom two buttons done to cover most of the charcoal crew-neck T-shirt he wears as an undershirt.

Logan wears khaki trousers rigged with a set of pleats on each side that add the roominess appropriate for a man who, as Mr. Cox described himself to Ms. Reilly, has “this tendency to look like a bulldog standing on his hindquarters.”

Despite the actor’s own deprecating description of himself, the trousers are still smartly cut to provide an appearance more sophisticated than the stereotypical octogenarian’s khakis. Held up by a dark brown leather belt that remains mostly unseen under his untucked shirt hem, the trousers have side pockets and jetted back pockets, the left of which closing through a buttoned loop. The bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs) that break over his brown pleather plain-toe derby shoes.

Once it’s time for the party, Logan pulls on a dark brown sports coat with a sophisticated check pattern of a tonal brown plaid shadow-framed by a dark blue windowpane check. The woolly cloth is lightly napped like flannel, though I wouldn’t rule out cashmere and/or silk for a man with Logan’s luxurious taste.

The single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that roll to a lower two-button stance, in addition to a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, three-button cuffs, and double vents. The wide shoulders flatter Cox’s broad frame and project an imposing silhouette as the power-mad Logan Roy would want. (Michelle Matland, who took over as costume designer for the second episode onward, explained to Ms. Reilly in a 2019 interview for Variety that she had Logan’s suits tailored by the prolific Leonard Logsdail, though I’m not sure if Mr. Logsdail would have provided the tailored jacket for this first episode before Ms. Matland’s tenure.)

Logan clearly favored this look, repeating the aesthetic—if not the exact same jacket—for yet another “surprise” party in his honor in “Dundee” (Episode 2.08).

When Logan travels into the office to “visit” his son Kendall (Jeremy Strong) at the office, he layers for the city in a navy cashmere double-breasted overcoat. The buttons are arranged in a classic 6×2 formation, with a narrow wrap that typically flatters shorter and stouter men like the 5’9″ Brian Cox by narrowing the waist and emphasizing height.

The coat has peak lapels—per usual on double-breasted garments—with sporty swelled edges. Though longer and heavier, the coat features all the hallmarks of traditional suit jacket design like the welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and cuff buttons.

After the party, Logan deems that “it’s my birthday, so yes, we’re playing the game,” flying the family—and their entourage—out of the city for their traditional softball game. Logan demonstrates a canny sartorial sensibility by wearing not his navy cashmere coat but a more countrified “double coat” with a black suede thigh-length outer shell, lined in brown leather with three snaps up the front that close the coat over a charcoal knitted inner shell that zips up from waist to neck, though Logan wears the top unzipped to mid-chest to allow for his scarf.

The outer shell only snaps up to mid-chest, though the collar can be folded up like a funnel-neck and closed through a belted throat latch with a nickel-coated buckle. The set-in sleeves have half-straps at each cuff that close via one of two snaps to adjust the tightness over each wrist. Each side of the jacket has a vertical hand pocket at chest level and a bellowed hip pocket with a button-down flap, showing brown leather behind the pocket folds.

In their cozy fall layers with copper mugs in hand, Logan and his daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) negotiate her potential position in the Waystar organization.

With both coats, Logan wears the same brown cap, scarf, and leather three-point gloves.

Much has been written about the obsession among Succession‘s elite with what Jacob Gallagher described in the Wall Street Journal as “status baseball caps” to “subtly telegraph their affluence.” These blank baseball caps are completely devoid of logos, emblems, or ornamentation of any sort, instead sturdily constructed of expensive cashmere that allows brands like Brunello Cucinelli Loro Piana to justify charging hundreds of dollars for plain headgear like Loro Piana’s “My Baseball Cap” that Kendall wore through the third season. Logan’s charcoal-brown mini-checked wool cap offers the “storm system” of tuckable flaps that can be extended to protect the wearer’s ears against the elements, be they weather or protestors outside his home.

Unlike Brian Cox, who explained that “many scarves in my wardrobe have a particular sentimental value, either given to me as first-night gifts or more probably by girlfriends, but then I wear them too much, they age and I have to part with them,” it’s hard to picture Logan Roy attaching sentimental value to anything—even his own children, let alone a scarf. In the first episode, Logan wears a scarf with a brown, black, and stone houndstooth arrangement similar to a traditional gun club check, the stalwart estate pattern that originated in Scotland, like Logan and his portrayer Brian Cox.

“One of the upsides of having light sensitive eyes, is that it provides a great excuse to don designer shades,” Brian Cox had shared with Caroline Reilly, and we see this exemplified throughout Succession with his black acetate rectangular-framed Persol PO3048S sunglasses, easily identifiable by the Italian eyewear brand’s signature silver arrow temple logo.

Even when wearing his sunglasses, Logan regularly keeps his reading glasses handy, attached to a black cord around his neck. The glasses could be described as a modified or modernized “browline”-style, with straight black rectangular semi-frames across the top of each lens and flush with the wide arms, while the narrow lenses themselves have only a thin silver rim. Logan’s glasses are otherwise detailed with squared silver panels over each temple and two vertically arranged rivets on each end of the front.

For all of its prestigious trappings and easily identifiable watches (Shiv’s Cartiers! Cousin Greg spending $40,000 on a Rolex!), the exact timepieces dressing Logan Roy’s wrist remain surprisingly mysterious. We even get a few good looks at his watch in the first episode, strapped to a black exotic leather bracelet with a round silver-toned case that’s likely platinum or white gold of elegantly simple design with an unguarded crown. The round white dial features a silver ring for the hour indices and dark blue hands.

Craig Karger theorized for Wrist Enthusiast that Logan may wear an IWC Big Pilot Big Date and, while he may in another episode, that does not appear to be the watch in the pilot episode. (A Redditor also suggested a Breguet 7147BB, though that doesn’t appear to be quite right either.)

What do you get a man who wears an elegant Swiss watch? Why, goo, of course.

While we’re not sure what’s really on his watch, there’s no doubt about the Patek Philippe that Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen) purchases as Logan’s birthday gift in the desperate yet futile attempt to impress his possible future father-in-law. Unfortunately for Tom, Logan Roy may be one of the few men that a new Patek Philippe would not impress.

Tom: It’s just a- it’s a Patek Philippe, so…
Logan: Yeah, it says “Patek Philippe.”
Tom: Yeah. I know. It’s incredibly accurate. Every time you look at it, it tells you exactly how rich you are.
Logan: (not laughing) That’s very funny. Did you rehearse that?
Tom: No. Yeah, well, no. Yes. But…

Tom may have done just as well saving his money and buying Logan a Casio. Note that Tom wears a Barbour jacket, as evident by the brand’s embroidered logo on his left pocket flap.

How to Get the Look

Brian Cox and Sarah Snook on Succession (Episode 1.01: “Celebration”)

Brian Cox himself described the “elegant contemporary look of Logan Roy’s quiet but pronounced style,” and I couldn’t describe it better myself. The template was set from the get-go, as the mogul dressed in comfortable yet luxurious layers for his 80th birthday party with a tasteful plaid sports coat over his elevated menswear staples of a navy polo and khakis, adapted with the appropriate outerwear for both city and country.

• Brown tonal-plaid and blue shadow-windowpane check wool single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and double vents
• Navy cashmere 3-button long-sleeve polo shirt
• Khaki pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets (with button-loop back-left pocket), and turn-ups/cuffs
• Brown leather belt
• Brown leather plain-toe derby shoes
• Dark brown mini-checked wool baseball cap
• Persol PO3048S black acetate rectangular-framed sunglasses with silver temple logos and green frames
• Black semi-“browline” reading glasses on black neck-cord
• Brown, black, and stone gun club check cashmere scarf
• Black suede thigh-length “double coat” with brown leather lining, charcoal zip-up insert, vertical chest pocket, flapped bellow hip pockets, and snap-strap cuffs
• Dark brown leather three-point gloves

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series, currently streaming on HBO Max.

For fans of the show’s style, I recommend following the great Instagram accounts @successionfashion and @successionfits.

The Quote

Politics is what comes out the asshole. Wouldn’t you rather be up front, feeding the horse?

The post Succession: Logan Roy’s Birthday Party Style appeared first on BAMF Style.

Robert Redford in The Electric Horseman (1979)

Vitals

Robert Redford as Norman “Sonny” Steele, championship rodeo rider-turned-cowboy cereal spokesman

Red Rock Canyon, Nevada, Fall 1978

Film: The Electric Horseman
Release Date: December 21, 1979
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Designer: Bernie Pollack

Background

I’ve been feeling romantic leading up to my wedding this weekend, so today’s fall-inspired fashions come by way of The Electric Horseman, Robert Redford’s fifth collaboration with director Sydney Pollack.

Redford plays Sonny Steele, the eponymous equestrian and former rodeo champion turned cynical after selling out to hock cereal touted as “a champ’s way to start a better day!”

You thought Wheaties were great? Wait ’til you try Ranch Breakfast.

Unlike the experiences of so many, Sonny actually finds his soul in Las Vegas, where he’s been scheduled to ride a valuable thoroughbred named Rising Star who’s been drugged into submission. Understandably cynical over his cheapened career, Sonny seeks a shot at redemption by giving the corporate-captive horse a chance at freedom. Luckily for Sonny and Rising Star, a cowboy galloping down the Strip on a horse covered in electric lights is just another Tuesday in Sin City, giving him reasonable cover as he trots into the desert to the tune of Willie Nelson’s countrified cover of “Midnight Rider”.

Willie actually made his screen debut in The Electric Horseman as Wendell Hickson, Sonny’s trusted manager who shares many of his portrayer’s own laidback qualities. As Wendell holds down the fort in Vegas, Sonny continues his pilgrimage to release Rising Star in a canyon of wild horses until he encounters the eager TV journalist Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda), hoping to break the Rising Star story and ultimately falling for the cowboy.

Hallie: Where the hell are we?
Sonny: Well, you’re not in jail, look at it that way.

The Electric Horseman also marked the third of four movies to co-star Redford and Jane Fonda, whose romantic chemistry on screen had originated in The Chase (1966) and especially Barefoot in the Park (1967), the latter considered Redford’s breakthrough role before he shot to stardom two years later in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

What’d He Wear?

Before absconding with Rising Star, Sonny Steele had primarily dressed to present a corporate idealization of a Westerner in suede jackets, snap-front shirts, and jeans… when not wearing his electrified getup, of course. After their escape, Sonny returns to his true roots with an authentic cowboy jacket, specifically the iconic Lee Storm Rider characterized by its corduroy collar and wool “blanket lining” on the reverse of its rugged denim shell.

Sonny flashes the signature blanket lining of his Lee Storm Rider as he helps Hallie pull on her own jacket.

The Storm Rider had evolved from Lee’s original denim “Cowboy Jacket”, the 101J introduced in the 1930s. By the end of the following decade, Lee had added an 101LJ variant with the “L” denoting the woolly lining that added an insulating layer to keep riders warm. In 1953, Lee standardized this style as the “Storm Rider”, a fast favorite among true cowboys and westerners that also gained big-screen recognition on the backs of stars like Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Alain Delon, and Marilyn Monroe. Lee no longer regularly produces the storied Storm Rider, though you can find similar jackets—and a deeper history outlining its Hollywood association—in a recent post from my friend Iconic Alternatives.

Otherwise designed similarly to the standard denim trucker jackets, the Storm Rider features a tan corduroy-covered collar that may be the most obvious visual differentiation from Lee’s unlined denim jackets, added to presumably protect the wearer’s neck from chafing. The waist-length jacket features the traditional blue denim outer shell, lined along the inside with a striped gray wool “saddle blanket” lining.

The straight chest yokes angle slightly downward from shoulder to center, with each chest pocket flap positioned along these yokes and fastened with a branded brass rivet button; at this point, Lee and Levi’s fashioned their iconic trucker jackets with only chest pockets rather than the additional hand pockets that would be added in the mid-1980s. Though a few outfitters had hijacked the Storm Rider design, you can tell Sonny wears a genuine Lee by the branding sewn along the bottom of the left pocket flap, with “Lee” embroidered in yellow against a black background.

Pleated strips extend down from each yoke to the waistband. Six branded brass rivet buttons close up the front, with the buttonholes positioned against Lee’s now-signature zigzag contrast stitch. These buttons match those on the pockets and fastening the end of each set-in sleeve though, curiously, not the adjuster-tabs on each side of the waist that close through one of two dark blue plastic buttons.

Shop the jacket:

Yours truly wearing a '70s-era Lee Storm Rider sourced from eBay, October 2020. Perfect for walking a friend's dog.

For a true vintage Lee Storm Rider jacket, I recommend checking resellers like eBay, which is where I found my own '70s-vintage Storm Rider. Iconic Alternatives also has a wonderfully comprehensive guide to finding a modern equivalent of the Storm Rider at every price point.

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Since Lee doesn't regularly manufacture and market modern Storm Riders, anyone looking for a new jacket may want to consider these alternatives:

• Ginew Thunderbird Jacket in Japanese Kurabo Denim (Ginew USA, $385)
• Iron Heart 17oz Natural Selvedge Denim Fleece Lined Modified Type III - Indigo
  • Division Road, Inc., $600
  • Franklin & Poe, $600
  • Iron Heart America, $600
• Lee Zip Front Cord Collar Denim Jacket (ASOS, $217)
• Mango Corduroy Collar Denim Jacket (Mango, $89.99)
• Studio D'Artisan Stormy Rider Denim Jacket (Corlection, $260.11)
• Wrangler Men's Western Style Lined Denim Jacket (Amazon, $64.20 and up)

Prices and availability current as of Oct. 17, 2022.

Sonny wears a plaid flannel shirt in the Western-styled tradition with pointed front and back yokes and the snap (or “popper”) closure that had been reportedly pioneered at the start of the 20th century by Rockmount Ranch Wear founder Jack A. Weil to dress cowboys in shirts that could easily break away if snagged on fencing or other obstacles.

Rather than the all-white snap shirts Sonny had worn across the first act, he dresses more for authentic cowboying in a woolen flannel shirt patterned in a blue-on-slate shadow plaid framed with a blue, brown, and white check. The shirt has a point collar and front placket with the expected mother-of-pearl snaps. The two chest pockets are covered by pointed flaps that each close through a single snap. Each sleeve also ends with double-snap cuffs and an additional snap on each gauntlet.

Sonny regularly wears the top few snaps undone, showing the darker slate satin-finished lining that insulates while also protecting his skin from the itchier wool fabric. This practice also reveals his silver rope-chain necklace.

Sonny actually cycles through two different sets of jeans, wearing both Levi’s and Lee. He favors the Levi’s, distinguishable by the traditional “red tab” sewn along the back-right patch pocket as well as the arcuate stitching across both back pockets. The Levi’s are cut slim through the hips and thighs, flaring out for ’70s-influenced boot-cut bottoms.

The Levi’s are nearly the same shade of blue denim as his jacket, though his Lee Rider jeans are a shade darker and more obviously identifiable by the distinctive “lazy S” stitch across the back pockets and the “X” bar-tacks over the upper corners of each pocket seam.

Sonny typically prefers to mix his denim brands with the Lee jacket and Levi’s jeans, but a few moments in The Electric Horseman swap out his Levi’s for Lee Riders.

The jeans are held up by a smooth russet-brown leather belt that closes through a sterling silver ornamental buckle that, while substantial, still pales in size compared to the oversized gold rodeo buckles he’d worn across the first act. The oval-shaped buckle has a recessed center where a turquoise stone is set, flanked by a scale-like texture filling the rest of the buckle’s surface.

Buckles like this are popular from Native American artists, such as this Navajo-made buckle that somewhat resembles the style worn by Redford on screen.

Sonny’s boots are plainer—and thus, considerably more practical—than the rhinestone-adorned Justin boots that he had worn with his electric showman costume. Little can be seen of these boots under the boot-cut legs of his jeans, though we can discern smooth tan leather uppers and the tall raised heels designed specifically for riding.

Sonny often pulls on his well-worn work gloves, made from a pale-yellow leather like deerskin with three-point detailing on the back of each hand.

Anyone can wear a denim “Canadian tuxedo”, oversized belt buckle, snap shirt, and riding boots, but it takes a true buckaroo to effectively wear a cowboy hat. With a light taupe-gray color suggesting the natural “silverbelly” felt sourced from a beaver’s stomach, Sonny’s hat follows the traditional cattleman’s style with its tall, shaped crown and dramatically curved brim. The feathered hat band is comprised of copper-colored feathers with streaks of white that maintain the same general width around the base of the crown.

About forty years after they were developed for airmen, aviator sunglasses had a fashionable renaissance through the ’70s with Robert Redford among their most visible advocates, wearing them behind the scenes of The Sting and Three Days of the Condor as well as Ron Galella’s famous 1974 photos of the actor arriving at a party. Redford had briefly sported aviators on screen in the ’40s-set scenes of The Way We Were, but it was The Electric Horseman where he would finally include them as a prominent part of his wardrobe, though his gold-framed shades are less to protect his eyes against the sun but more to protect his anonymity while on the run.

As Sonny’s wide-brimmed cowboy hat provides most of his eye protection against the sun, he reserves his sunglasses for shielding his appearance while shopping for provisions.

After misplacing his own aviators, Sonny is reduced to borrowing Hallie’s prescription sunglasses… which are considerably less timeless (and masculine) than his aviators.

Robert Redford wore a Rolex Submariner dive watch in real life, specifically the ref. 1680 variant that was the first to include a date function, seen in his previous movies The Candidate (1972) and All the President’s Men (1976). He wears the same watch here, with its usual stainless steel case, black rotating bezel, and black dial with its 3:00 date window, albeit swapped onto a turquoise-plated bracelet that neatly incorporates a more western flair appropriate for the Sonny Steele character.

Turquoise jewelry is often associated with Native American culture, specifically of indigenous tribes in the southwestern United States like the Apache, Navajo, and Hopi, who—according to TSKIES—”considered turquoise to be the excrement of the lizard who travels between ‘the above’ and ‘the below,’ and Hopi miners carried turquoise to give them security and strength in their work.”

Redford had lived in Utah since the 1960s, and it was likely here that he developed a relationship with the Hopi whom he explained to The Hollywood Reporter had gifted him the etched silver ring that he would wear in most of his movies from 1966 onward. The Electric Horseman is no exception, though it may be one of the more organic instances of one of Redford’s characters wearing this tribal ring.

Rather than standing out as an actor’s affectations, Redford’s Rolex and ring neatly add to his cowboy characterization.

How to Get the Look

Robert Redford in The Electric Horseman (1979)

After years of well-tailored roles in movies like The Sting and The Great Gatsby, Robert Redford returned to his rugged roots as an honest-to-goodness Western cowboy, appropriately clad in his Lee Storm Rider denim jacket with Levi’s jeans, snap-up shirt, turquoise-detailed belt buckle and watch bracelet, and a cowboy hat and boots.

• Blue denim Lee Storm Rider “cowboy jacket” with tan pinwale corduroy collar, rivet buttons, two button-down flap chest pockets, button cuffs, button-tab side adjusters, and gray striped wool “saddle blanket” lining
• Blue-on-slate shadow-plaid woolen flannel western-style shirt with point collar, pointed yokes, snap-front placket, two chest pockets with pointed snap-down flaps, and double-snap cuffs
• Blue denim Levi’s boot-cut jeans
• Russet-brown smooth leather belt with large oval textured silver turquoise-mounted buckle
• Tan leather cowboy boots
• Silverbelly felt cattleman’s-style cowboy hat with brown feathered band
• Gold-framed aviator-style sunglasses
• Silver rope-chain necklace
• Silver tribal ring
• Rolex Submariner ref. 1680 dive watch with stainless steel case, black rotating bezel, black dial (with 3:00 date window), and turquoise-plated bracelet
• Yellow deerskin leather three-point work gloves

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Boy, are you fulla shit… with all due respect, ma’am.

The Astro Zone

“You got any eucalyptus leaves?” Sonny asks at a natural foods store along the way. “You must be a Capricorn!” smiles back the delighted clerk, though Steele is none too delighted himself. She may be right, as Steele’s—well, steely—nature reflects the serious, job-oriented nature of those born between late December and late January. His deep connection to the Earth also befits Capricorn being an Earth sign.

Real-life Capricorn cowboys include “Catch-’em-alive Jack” Abernathy (born January 11, 1876), cowboy poet Baxter Black (born January 10, 1945), Pat Garrett’s killer Wayne Brazel (born December 31, 1876), rancher and Earp ally Henry Hooker (born January 10, 1828), “Wild Bunch” outlaw Ben Kilpatrick (born January 5, 1874), cowboy-turned-Rough Rider Billy McGinty (born January 1, 1871), Lincoln County Regulator “Doc” Scurlock (born January 11, 1849), English-born rancher Oliver Wallop, 8th Earl of Portsmouth (born January 13, 1861), and the unfortunately nicknamed outlaw “Little Dick” West (born December 31, 1860).

The post The Electric Horseman: Robert Redford’s Denim Western Style appeared first on BAMF Style.

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally (1989)

Vitals

Billy Crystal as Harry Burns, sarcastic political consultant and recent divorcée

New York City, Fall 1987

Film: When Harry Met Sally…
Release Date: July 14, 1989
Director: Rob Reiner
Costume Designer: Gloria Gresham

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today being my wedding day (congratulations to me!) feels like an appropriate time to revisit the style of one of my favorite romantic comedies, When Harry Met Sally. In addition to being a famously great fall movie, Rob Reiner’s chronicle of enemies-becoming-friends-becoming-lovers also demonstrates a surprising parade of great autumnal menswear, from Billy Crystal’s cozy sweaters to military surplus jackets.

For those unfamiliar with the story, we begin in the spring of 1977, when Harry met Sally (Meg Ryan) on a road trip from the University of Chicago to New York City. Both are recent UChi grads who get along like oil and water as he shares his contention that men and women can never be just friends, a point he drives home with a comment that Sally interprets as a misguided pass at her, given that she only knows him because he’s dating her friend.

The two part ways upon reaching New York, only to find themselves on the same flight five years later, both now in serious relationships. A somewhat matured Harry shows a willingness to be friends, but Sally recalls his previous tenet disavowing friendships between men and women and the two once again separate after a short trip.

Yet another five years pass before Harry spies Sally from the personal growth section of Shakespeare & Co. bookshop in the Upper West Side. She’s newly single and he’s recently divorced, sharing their respective miseries and neuroses over coffee.

Sally: At least I got the apartment.
Harry: That’s what everyone says. But, really, what’s so hard about finding an apartment? What you do is look in the obituary section. You see who died, find out where they lived, and tip the doorman. What they could do to make it easier is combine the two. You know, Mr. Kline died yesterday, leaving behind a wife, two children, and a spacious three bedroom apartment with a wood burning fireplace.

Finally, Harry seems willing to move past his half-baked hypothesis of a decade earlier as he and Sally evolve their acquaintanceship into a deep and sincere friendship.

Harry: You know, you may be the first attractive woman I’ve not wanted to sleep with in my entire life.
Sally: That’s wonderful, Harry.

What’d He Wear?

Harry wears what may qualify as “smart casual” while trolling the self-help shelves at Shakespeare & Co., clad in a tweed sports coat layered over a denim-like shirt with jeans and loafers. (To Harry’s credit, the outfit came in second place when Sophia Benoit published in GQ a ranking of all 32 of Billy Crystal’s tracked costume changes.)

Tweed may only come second to corduroy on my short-list of favorite jacket cloths to wear with jeans, as famously exemplified by Robert Redford’s wintry layers in Three Days of the Condor. Harry wears a professorial taupe tic-woven tweed, comprised of lighter multi-colored yarns woven in staggered sequence against the dark taupe woolen tweed ground.

Harry’s single-breasted sports coat is cut in a generally classic style, with straight shoulders and front darts that add shape. The notch lapels roll to two brown woven leather buttons, positioned at a fashionably lower stance, and the jacket is styled with the usual welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and single vent. The sleeves are gently roped at the shoulders, with professorial brown suede patches over the elbows and three decorative woven leather buttons on each cuff.

Harry wears a casual shirt made from a rich indigo denim-like cotton, a popular shirting through the late ’80s into the ’90s, though Harry avoids Jay Leno or Jerry Seinfeld cosplay by wearing a darker wash shirt with a trimmer fit… and no tie!

The shirt has a point collar, worn open, with smoke-colored plastic buttons up the front placket. The two chest pockets are each covered with a rounded flap, although the jacket mostly covers them to the extent that we can’t tell if they close with a button or not.

Harry’s favorite jeans are his medium-wash Levi’s, well-chosen here as the blue denim is a shade lighter than his shirt while also providing textural harmony with the coarse finish of his sports coat. He wears a brown leather belt with a shining gold-finished single-prong buckle, the belt leather coordinating neatly with his brown leather moc-toe penny loafers. As the tailored jacket makes this one of Harry’s dressier casual outfits, despite the jeans, his loafers are a smarter complement than his usual Nike sneakers.

Oh, but those white sneakers I was talking about? Harry does briefly wear them with this jacket and jeans during a later vignette depicting his and Sally’s growing friendship. For this instance, he now wears a brown shirt with a button-down collar that restrains it to within the V-neck of his tan Fair Isle-knit sweater vest.

How to Get the Look

While Harry’s reunion with Sally isn’t exactly a romantic encounter, his smart tweed sports coat, casual shirt, loafers, and jeans provides a sophisticated yet versatile template when dressing for a fall date.

• Taupe tic-woven tweed single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, brown suede elbow patches, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
• Indigo denim cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, two flapped chest pockets, and button cuffs
• Blue denim Levi’s jeans
• Brown leather belt with gold-finished single-prong buckle
• Brown leather moc-toe penny loafers

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

What’s the statute of limitations on apologies?

The post When Harry Met Sally: Harry’s Tweed Sports Coat appeared first on BAMF Style.

Christopher Lee as Dracula in Horror of Dracula (1958)

Vitals

Christopher Lee as Count Dracula, debonair and deadly vampire

Transylvania, Spring 1885

Film: Dracula, aka Horror of Dracula
Release Date: May 7, 1958
Director: Terence Fisher
Wardrobe Credit: Molly Arbuthnot

Background

With less than a week until Halloween, I was inspired by a request from BAMF Style reader Jonathan last month to bite into the Hammer horror films, specifically Christopher Lee’s iconic debut as Count Dracula in the 1958 adaptation of Dracula, also released as Horror of Dracula in the United States to avoid confusion with the 1931 movie starring Bela Lugosi.

Lee makes the most of his scant seven minutes of screen-time, speaking only sixteen lines for the entirety but re-establishing Bram Stoker’s famous vampire as a tragic romantic anti-hero, albeit still the embodiment of evil that Jonathan Harker (John Van Eyssen) and Dr. Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) seek to destroy.

What’d He Wear?

Christopher Lee makes his dramatic debut as Dracula with an orchestral clang, standing atop the stairs in his Transylvanian estate to greet his new librarian—and potential assassin—Jonathan Harker. As he glides toward Harker, the sartorial differentiation between Lee and Lugosi becomes apparent.

“I was always against the whole tie and tails rendition,” Lee had shared in an interview in Leonard Wolf’s A Dream of Dracula. “Surely it is the height of the ridiculous for a vampire to step out of the shadows wearing white tie, tails, patent leather shoes, and a full cloak.”

This first of nine times that Lee portrayed Dracula set the template for his particular portrayal, anchored by a black opera cape over a simple black suit. Unlike most of his future Dracula appearances, this black floor-length cape is a single layer of wool fabric without the bright scarlet-red satin lining that would become a more flamboyant signature of his look. The cape has a shirt-style collar and a black silky rope tie that knots at the neck but is otherwise a simple garment, lacking the layers, buttons, and sleeves of an inverness cape. (The screen-worn cape, authenticated by Lee himself, was auctioned by Bonhams in June 2009.)

Decorum of the era would call for a white shirt, though little can be seen of Dracula’s shirt due to the full coverage of his black cape and black three-piece suit. The shirt has a soft white cutaway spread collar that accommodates his black silk cravat and white double (French) cuffs that he closes with gold cuff links boasting large red stones that echo the blood he famously drinks from his victims.

A typical date night with Dracula.

Rather than the white tie and tails associated with Bela Lugosi’s characterization, Lee’s Dracula wears a black subtly self-striped suit, cut to resemble fashions of the 1880s with its long four-button single-breasted jacket. Lee wears only the top button done, a common practice of the era that also adds to the visual drama of Count Dracula’s appearance as the skirts of the jacket flare rearward like a secondary cape. The back of the jacket remains covered by the cape, but we can observe its short notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and the seam separating the ends of the sleeves with their four functional cuff buttons.

The black trousers match the jacket, detailed simply with a flat front and plain-hemmed bottoms and almost certainly held up with suspenders (braces) if not self-suspended with adjuster tabs along the waistband.

When Van Helsing and his improvised cross bring an end to Dracula’s eponymous horror, sending the vampiric count onto his astrologically arranged floor tiles, his jacket falls apart and reveals a black single-breasted waistcoat (vest) with lapels The dignified addition of white cotton marcella slips are an old-fashioned detail recalling morning suits of the era, buttoned into place along the waistcoat’s neckline to present the neat impression of an additional layer. Though all but archaic in modern fashion, white waistcoat slips can still be purchased from eBay as well as from outfitters like Budd, Montague Ede, and RJW Shirts.

The power of Cushing compels you!

Count Dracula wears black leather Chelsea boots, an ankle-high style that was not only developed during the Victorian era but also likely by Queen Victoria’s own shoemaker, Joseph Sparkes Hall, who patented the signature elastic side gussets following Charles Goodyear’s invention of vulcanized rubber in the late 1830s.

More than a century later, Chelsea boots re-emerged as a favorite footwear among English mods during the swinging ’60s, prompting sartorialist Sir Hardy Amies to observe with his trademark wit that their popularity “has certain erotic implications; boots must surely be a symbol of virility.” One imagines Count Dracula wouldn’t disagree.

Unlike modern Chelsea boots with continuous vamps from throat to toe, Count Dracula’s Victorian-styled Chelsea boots are constructed with a bottom piece echoing low oxford shoes and an ankle-high top piece with the elastic-gusseted sides.

On his left pinky, Dracula wears a gold signet ring with a crest engraved on the round surface. Though not seen clearly in Horror of Dracula, the ring has been replicated by sellers like Haunted Studios.

How to Get the Look

Christopher Lee as Dracula in Horror of Dracula (1958)

Christopher Lee’s revisionist characterization of Count Dracula from the late ’50s proves that the Reservoir Dogs crooks were hardly the first cinematic killers to wear black suits, white shirts, and black neckwear, though our Victorian-era vampire’s cape and fangs elevate his look to something best reserved for Halloween costumes or Transylvanian dinner parties.

• Black wool floor-length cape with shirt-style collar and silky rope-tied neck closure
• Black self-striped wool Victorian-styled suit:
  • Single-breasted 4-button jacket with short notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and seam-separated 4-button cuffs
  • Flat-front trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton shirt with soft spread collar and double/French cuffs
  • Red stone cuff links
• Black silk cravat
• Black single-breasted waistcoat (vest) with notch lapels and white cotton marcella slips
• Black leather Chelsea boots
• Black socks
• Gold crested signet pinky ring

Needing an all-black cape for your upcoming Halloween party? Amazon‘s got you covered with a collared and neck-tied cape that could suit many a costume from Count Dracula to Frank Costanza’s lawyer.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Then we’re both satisfied. An admirable arrangement.

The post Christopher Lee as Dracula appeared first on BAMF Style.

Kevin Costner as Crash Davis in Bull Durham (1988)

Vitals

Kevin Costner as Lawrence “Crash” Davis, minor league baseball catcher

North Carolina, Spring and Summer 1987

Film: Bull Durham
Release Date: June 15, 1988
Director: Ron Shelton
Costume Designer: Louise Frogley

Background

Tonight is game 1 of the World Series! One of my favorite baseball movies, Bull Durham, shines a light on Minor League Baseball, based on writer and director Ron Shelton’s own experiences as a Minor League infielder.

When not following the national pastime and registry discussions out on the baseball diamond, the extremely quotable Bull Durham follows a romantic triangle with “Church of Baseball” groupie Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) balancing her seductions between the Durham Bulls’ rookie pitcher Ebby “Nuke” LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) and catcher Crash Davis (Kevin Costner), a veteran with 12 years in the minor leagues who’s been recruited onto the team to help temper LaLoosh’s wild pitching. (Crash’s name was inspired by real-life second baseman Lawrence “Crash” Davis, who played for the Durham Bulls in the late 1940s and befriended Shelton after the production.)

Crash and Annie meet while she’s out for drinks with Max Patkin, the Clown Prince of Baseball himself, who talks up Crash’s intellect: “He’s really different. I actually saw him read a book without pictures once!” LaLoosh interrupts their conversation to hit on Annie but is quickly rebuked by Crash, whom he challenges to a fight.

Once outside, Crash pulls a baseball from his pocket, challenging LaLoosh to pitch it at his chest: “Show us that million-dollar arm ‘cos I got—oh, I got a good idea about that five-cent head of yours… from what I hear, you couldn’t hit water if you fell out of a fuckin’ boat.” LaLoosh misses completely and falls into a blind rage as he storms into Crash, who—in turn—crashes the hotheaded pitcher into some boxes and introduces himself:

I’m Crash Davis, I’m your new catcher, and you just got lesson #1: don’t think, you can only hurt the ball club.

What’d He Wear?

Having reached a position where he can take pride in his talent and reputation, Crash Davis dresses less to impress and more for stylish comfort, cycling between a black unstructured sports coat (as when we first meet him during a conference with the Bulls management) and a sage-green nylon. Alpha Industries MA-1 bomber jacket.

Crash’s nylon MA-1 may be a spiritual update to the leather jacket worn by fellow baseball old-timer Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) in The Natural, set in the 1930s when leather was the prevailing flight jacket material. During and after World War II, the air branches of the U.S. military generally phased out leather shells in favor of nylon jackets like the fur-collared B-15, eventually resulting in the “Jacket, Flyer’s Man Intermediate, MA-1” authorized by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and produced under contract by Alpha Industries from September 1963 onward.

The MA-1 was originally produced in midnight blue to reflect Air Force uniforms before transitioning to more ground-adaptable shells in sage-green, a slightly grayer alternative to the venerated olive-drab. The shirt-style and fur collars of previous flight jackets had been replaced by a short ribbed-knit standing collar echoed by the cuffs and blouson-style hem, all made from a durable blend of wool and acrylic fiber. The slanted set-in hand pockets are covered by single-snap flaps, and the left sleeve is detailed with a utility pocket (originally a cigarette pocket) comprised of a vertical-zip side entry with two inset pen slots to be accessed by a pilot in flight.

The jacket was designed to be easily reversible, allowing a downed pilot to wear the bright “Indian Orange” nylon emergency lining on the outside to be more easily spotted by potential rescuers. This side also boasts two snap-closed hand pockets, deep enough for Crash to keep a baseball handy for a night out at a Durham bar.

Like so many hardy military garments, the MA-1 found a following among civilians and even made its debut as a Steve McQueen-approved style when the “King of Cool” wore a sage MA-1 in his final film, The Hunter (1980). After its vicennum restricted primarily to military fliers, the practical and comfortable MA-1 became a statement piece favored

You can read more about the MA-1 bomber jacket from my friend Iconic Alternatives and see Kevin Costner’s screen-worn jacket here.

Though decidedly a flight jacket, the cut and collar of the MA-1 bomber jacket resemble the classic baseball or varsity jacket, which may explain some of its appeal to Crash Davis.

After the trio meet at a local bar, Annie assures Crash and LaLoosh that “I love a little macho male bonding,” and invites them both back to her home to “try out” which of the men will be scoring with her for the season, though Crash doesn’t take kindly to the arrangement as “I don’t try out. Besides, I don’t believe in quantum physics when it comes to matters of the heart.”

Through this first evening that the three are acquainted, Crash wears a plain gray cotton pique short-sleeved polo with a short two-button placket, worn undone.

The ’80s saw a resurgence in pleated trousers, particularly among the khakis and slacks that had become a dressed-down favorite for the American everyman thanks to brands like Dockers.

Crash wears beige chino-cloth cotton slacks with two ample forward-facing pleats flanking each side of the wide fly, finished with plain-hemmed bottoms. Despite some insisting on a “rule” that pleats are most compatible with cuffs rather than plain-hems, Matt Spaiser has explained in his blog Bond Suits that “pleated trousers with plain hems are a classic British style” and were evidently at their peak of popularity through the late 1980s when Timothy Dalton’s trousers as James Bond were accordingly rigged with pleats and plain bottoms.

Crash holds up his medium-rise trousers with a russet-brown leather belt that closes through a gold-finished single-prong buckle. In addition to the their standard side pockets and jetted back pockets, a coin pocket is set-in just below the belt-line with a short button-down flap that overlaps the forward-most of the two pleats on that side.

Though Crash’s shoes are oxford-laced, the unique texture of the brown woven leather uppers dresses them down considerably to the level of more casual footwear like loafers or even elevated sneakers. The shoes have four sets of eyelets for the round brown laces and hard leather soles. His white ribbed cotton crew socks may be unstylish, but their athletic association befits his profession and the dressed-down nature of his wardrobe.

The flashy Nuke LaLoosh in his tropical shirt and light linen tailoring vs. the considerably more practical Crash Davis in pique polo and slacks.

Later in the Bulls’ season, LaLoosh—now nicknamed “Nuke” by Annie—has been promoted to the majors, prompting a bitter Crash to drunken rebuff his willingness to celebrate. Crash comes into the Bulls locker room as Nuke packs to make amends, again wearing his MA-1 bomber jacket but with a teal V-neck sweater casually layered over a long-sleeved shirt. Patterned with pale blue-on-white stripes against a lilac cotton ground, the shirt has a spread collar and front placket with the top few buttons undone to keep his look nonchalant.

As his brawl with Nuke resulted in a black eye, Crash now wears his black “browline”-style sunglasses, detailed with gold rims under the frames.

The striking browline style of eyewear had been pioneered by Shuron in the late 1940s, developing the “Ronsir” frame that became associated with mid-20th century figures like LBJ, Vince Lombardi, and Malcolm X.  Browline sunglasses appeared shortly later from lesser-known companies like Marwitz and OAI Eyewear, as researched by my friend Shawn Michael Bongiorno for his blog Individual Elegance, seeking to find the truth behind the oft-mistaken claim that the Ray-Ban Clubmaster was the original browline sunglass frame; indeed, while arguably among the most popular varieties thanks to visible ambassadors like Tom Cruise in Rain Man, Ray-Ban was hardly the first to the browline party, as eyewear stalwarts American Optical, Art-Craft, Persol, Shuron, and Victory were among those also making browlines through the ’80s. Costner himself would famously wear a pair of Art-Craft “Clubman” non-tinted glasses as Jim Garrison in JFK (1991).

Shop the sunglasses

The Ray-Ban Clubmaster Classic RB0316 in "black-on-gold" with green (G-15) lenses.

Now marketed as the Ray-Ban Clubmaster Classic RB3016, these browline-framed sunglasses are available from:

• Amazon ($146.70)
• Ray-Ban ($163)

Prices and availability current as of Sept. 30, 2022.

For the final scene back at Annie’s house, Crash wears his usual MA-1 and beige pleated slacks with a white-and-blue hairline-striped shirt with a button-down collar, front placket, and button cuffs. He further dresses the look with a light taupe cashmere scarf with fringed ends.

After quitting a gig in Asheville, Crash returns to Durham… and to Annie, explaining to her that “I just… wanna be.” “I can do that too!” she responds.

What to Imbibe

Miller High Life seems to be the unofficial beer of the Durham Bulls, as not only are Larry (Robert Wuhl) and Skip (Trey Wilson) drinking bottles of “the Champagne of Beer” when Crash first joins the team, but Crash and his teammates also crack cans of High Life for their rain-out stunt on the road.

“Oh my goodness, we got ourselves a natural disaster,” Crash laughs after activating the field sprinklers.

Miller Brewing Company introduced the venerable High Life pilsner on New Year’s Eve 1903, soon advertised as “the Champagne as Bottled Beers” in reference to its high levels of carbonation. Despite its budget-friendly pricing these days, High Life had spent much of the 20th century considered a premium beer until McCann-Erickson rebranded Miller’s flagship brand as more of a common man’s brew in the early 1970s, in tandem with the “Miller Time” campaign, the introduction of 7 oz. pony bottles, and the development of Miller Lite.

How to Get the Look

Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham (1988)

Though the generous fits of his shirts and slacks may date his wardrobe to the ’80s, Crash Davis’ classic nylon flight jacket never strikes out.

• Sage-green nylon MA-1 bomber jacket with ribbed-knit collar, cuffs, and hem, slanted and snap-flapped side pockets, zip-up utility pocket with two inset pen slots, and reversible orange nylon lining
• Gray cotton pique short-sleeved 2-button polo shirt
• Beige chino cotton double forward-pleated medium-rise slacks with belt loops, side pockets, right-side coin pocket (with button-down flap), jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Russet-brown leather belt with gold-finished single-prong buckle
• Brown woven leather oxford-laced shoes
• White combed cotton crew socks
• Black browline-framed sunglasses with gold-rimmed lenses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Well, I believe in the soul. The cock. The pussy. The small of a woman’s back. The hangin’ curveball. High-fiver. Good Scotch. That the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there oughta be a Constitutional amendment outlawing astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, softcore pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve, and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft wet kisses that last three days. Good night.

The post Bull Durham: Kevin Costner’s Green Bomber Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.

Peter Cushing as Lorrimer Van Helsing in Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

Vitals

Peter Cushing as Professor Lorrimer Van Helsing, occult researcher and descendant of the famous vampire hunter

London, Fall 1972… A.D. 1972, that is

Film: Dracula A.D. 1972
Release Date: September 28, 1972
Director: Alan Gibson
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows

Background

Happy Halloween! Today’s post takes us back fifty years to 1972—A.D. 1972, to be exact—when Hammer Film Productions reunited Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing as the debonair vampire Count Dracula and his nemesis Van Helsing, respectively, for the first time since Dracula (1958), a.k.a. Horror of Dracula.

I was first made aware of Dracula A.D. 1972 by BAMF Style reader Alan, who had suggested Cushing’s wardrobe that remained timelessly tasteful despite the film’s setting at the dawn of the disco era. Cushing stars as Lorrimer Van Helsing, descended from the famous doctor who had slain Count Dracula during the Victorian era. A century later, Lorrimer’s granddaughter Jessica (Stephanie Beacham) joined her hippie pals for a bloody ritual that sacrificed her friend Laura (future Bond girl Caroline Munro) to resurrect the infamous vampire. Darn hippies!

Dracula gradually converts Jessica’s friends to vampires, seemingly saving her for last to complete his revenge against the Van Helsing family, leaving the self-described “crackpot” Lorrimer to save his granddaughter and finally—and funkily—defeat Dracula.

What’d He Wear?

Van Helsing dresses for his climactic confrontation in earthy layers that, while contemporary to the early 1970s, could double as a costume for the story’s original Victorian setting. He appropriately wears a hunting jacket, albeit one of elevated elegance with its olive-brown suede shell. Like a traditional oxford shirt, the long-pointed collar buttons down at the ends though Van Helsing wears the buttons undone. Five buttons fasten up from the natural waist to the neck, with buttons to close the pointed cuffs at the end of each set-in sleeve. Van Helsing foregoes wearing any of these buttons fastened as well as the buttons that would close the four flapped pockets. The jacket also has long side vents.

Van Helsing wears an ecru shirt with a long point collar, indicative of the era, and squared button cuffs. The front placket features narrowly spaced stitching flanking the buttonholes, suggestive of London shirtmaker Frank Foster, of whom Peter Cushing—like so many of his talented contemporaries—was a customer.

Within the open neck of the shirt, Van Helsing wears a day cravat in navy and burgundy paisley silk, adding a rakishly romantic dash of color to his kit.

Under his brown suede jacket, Van Helsing wears… a brown suede waistcoat! Also known as a vest (here in the U.S., at least), the waistcoat has six marbled shank buttons and two hip-level pockets. Van Helsing keeps his gold pocket watch in the left pocket, with a gold “single Albert”-style chain hooked through the third buttonhole with a hanging fob.

Van Helsing’s flat-front trousers are a more medium shade of taupe-brown, tonally harmonious with enough contrast to differ from the darker olive-tinted jacket and waistcoat. The trousers have side pockets and are finished with plain-hemmed bottoms.

There’s no rule that vampire-hunters need match their footwear to their jackets and vests, though Van Helsing’s brown suede ankle boots nicely complete his outfit. These simple plain-toe boots lack the laces of chukka boots or the elastic gussets of Chelsea boots, instead seemingly equipped with narrow gusseted strips along the side that expand to allow Cushing to slip his feet in. His chocolate-brown cotton lisle socks also match the ensemble’s palette.

It almost feels redundant to say so at this point, but Van Helsing’s gloves are also made of brown suede.

How to Get the Look

Peter Cushing as Lorrimer Van Helsing in Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

Though suede can be a vulnerable fabric that can require extensive treatment to keep in shape (as made famous by Jerry Seinfeld), its napped finish also suggests a romantic ruggedness that befits our vampire-hunting hero in his silk cravat. Van Helsing’s sartorial guidance seems to be “if it can be suede, wear suede,” reserving only his shirt, slacks, and socks to be different cloth.

• Olive-brown suede hunting jacket with long button-down collar, 5-button front, four pockets (with button-down flaps), pointed button cuffs, and double vents
• Ecru shirt with long point collar, front placket, and squared button cuffs
• Navy and burgundy paisley silk day cravat
• Olive-brown suede single-breasted waistcoat/vest with 6 marbled shank buttons and hip pockets
• Taupe-brown flat-front trousers with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Brown suede slip-on ankle boots
• Chocolate-brown cotton lisle socks
• Gold pocket watch on gold “single Albert” chain
• Brown suede gloves

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post Dracula A.D. 1972: Peter Cushing’s Vampire-Killing Suede appeared first on BAMF Style.

Tom Savini as “Sex Machine” in From Dusk till Dawn (1996)

Vitals

Tom Savini as “Sex Machine”, whip-snapping biker

Mexico, Summer 1995

Film: From Dusk till Dawn
Release Date: January 17, 1996
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Costume Designer: Graciela Mazón

Background

Though it may be a few days late to celebrate Halloween, it’s always the right time to celebrate Tom Savini, my fellow Pittsburgher who turns 76 tomorrow!

Born November 3, 1946, Savini grew up in the Bloomfield neighborhood and served in the Vietnam War before following his cinematic passion to become an iconic figure in horror movies, working extensively on both sides of the lens as a prosthetic makeup artist, stunt performer, actor, and director. (Non-horror fans may recognize Savini as the beleaguered shop teacher Mr. Callahan in the Pittsburgh-filmed The Perks of Being a Wallflower.)

Perhaps best known for his six (to date) collaborations with George A. Romero, Savini memorably appeared in From Dusk till Dawn, perhaps one of his earliest prominent roles in which he was solely credited as an actor. Savini co-stars as “Sex Machine”, a biker who becomes one of only a half-dozen initial survivors after the vampiric employees of a rowdy bar in the Mexican desert turn on its customers.

Despite his persona as a tough biker, we also get a sense of Sex Machine’s sincerity as he happily partners up with the teenage Kate Fuller (Juliette Lewis) in “staking” some of the vampires, eagerly sharing that Peter Cushing had improvised making crosses to defeat his undead foes:

Garlic, sunlight, holy water… I’m not sure, isn’t silver have somethin’ to do with vampires?

What’d He Wear?

As a stereotypical biker, the leather-clad Sex Machine naturally wears a black leather motorcycle jacket, characterized by its asymmetrical front zipper, wide-shouldered and waist-length cut, and abundance of zips and snaps. Though often associated with the fabulous ’50s after Marlon Brando dressed for his aimless rebellion in The Wild One (1953), the jacket’s origins actually date to 1928 when the Staten Island-based outfitter Schott developed the leather Perfecto jacket in response to a request from Harley Davidson. Nearly a century later, the Perfecto-style jacket remains a quintessential staple among the edgier subsets of counterculture.

And there are few things edgier than a whip-snapping, vampire-killing biker who can literally shoot bullets from his groin.

Sex Machine’s black leather motorcycle jacket follows the Perfecto template, with its broad, snap-detailed notch lapels that close over his torso when the asymmetrical silver-toned zipper is fastened, though Savini exclusively wears the coat open, thus also leaving the self-belted waist totally undone… resulting in a hanging belt strap that provides yet another suggestive shape protruding from his groin area.

When fastened, the belted waist would help shape the jacket into a piece ideal for riding, leaving a full fit through the wide shoulders that additionally benefit from the “action back” side pleats behind each arm that allow a greater range of movement.

If I were to tell you there was a movie where Tom Savini uses a groin gun to shoot a vampiric Danny Trejo… how could you pass it up?

The jacket features the four usual external pockets, including the small set-in coin pocket with a snap-closed flap positioned low on the left side. The three other pockets—a vertical hand pocket on each side and a slanted chest pocket on the left side—are all detailed with a row of squared silver-tone studs flanking each side of the zipper.

The shoulders are finished with epaulets (shoulder straps), a military-inspired detail that provides another avenue for riders to secure their belongings. The set-in sleeves have zippers at the end of each cuff that can be unzipped up the forearm for a looser fit when not needing to be secure over the wrists. Echoing the studded pockets, the ends of each sleeve are detailed with rows of ball-shaped studs that taper into a bullet-like formation pointing back from each cuff.

Motorcycle jackets are typically made from rugged leather like steerhide to better protect the wearer against the elements as well as during accidents, so it likely would have afforded some protection against the fangs of the Titty Twister’s vampiric staff. Unfortunately, Sex Machine strips out of the jacket when repelling the survivors’ initial attacks, perhaps to relieve himself of the stifling warmth of the restrictive leather or to give himself even greater movement than the built-in “action back” pleats would allow.

Under the jacket, he wears a plain black cotton crew-neck tank top shirt, tucked in and tightly fitted to Savini’s torso. He also protects his wrists with a pair of very wide black leather studded bracelets, each detailed with four rows of spikes and two belted straps to secure the bracelets in place. As well as making him look tough, the bracelets would serve the added purpose of potentially protecting his wrists in the event of an accident.

Sex Machine wears black denim jeans that we barely glimpse under the full coverage of his black leather riding chaps, which cover most of his legs from thigh to ankle, where they each close with a triple-snap closure over the tops of his black leather cap-toe riding boots.

Despite his high-caliber bollocks, Sex Machine occasionally resorts to more traditional methods of self-defense.

Despite the heritage and ornamentation of his motorcycle jacket, Sex Machine reserves his arguably most interesting apparel for below the belt. The belt itself is black leather (of course) with three rows of spiked square studs, fastened through a silver eagle buckle.

Hanging from his waist, Sex Machine wears a black leather codpiece, a triangular item that originated in Europe during the late Middle Ages. Initially meant to cover a gentleman’s groin, codpieces were refashioned to emphasize this area—rather than hide it—as men’s trousers evolved into more practical realms. Aside from their athletic cousins that provide needed protection, codpieces today are generally reserved for more performative attire.

As his nickname would suggest, Sex Machine’s codpiece unites all of these purposes, both performative and protective with its, er, erectile functionality that presents a milled aluminum barrel fed from two six-round testicles cylinders.

Is that a gun in your crotch or are you just unhappy to see me?

According to IMFDB, this fictional firearm was originally featured briefly in Robert Rodriguez’s previous film Desperado (1995), before the director insisted on bringing it back in From Dusk till Dawn as Sex Machine’s first line of defense against the Titty Twister’s vampires.

What to Imbibe

Another returning item from Desperado is the fictional Cerveza Chango beer, though Sex Machine saves himself from the “piss-warm” drafts served at the Tarasco bar by lassoing himself a fellow patron’s bottle at the Titty Twister.

Hey, isn’t that Buscemi’s favorite brand?

How to Get the Look

Tom Savini as “Sex Machine” in From Dusk till Dawn (1996)

If you’re going to dress head-to-toe in biker gear like a leather motorcycle jacket, chaps, studs, and boots, make sure you can at least hold your own on a motorcycle. If you’re going to arm yourself with a codpiece gun, make sure you’ve boned up on your state’s open-carry, concealed-carry, and crotch-carry laws.

• Black leather Perfecto-style motorcycle jacket with widely notched lapels (with collar snaps), asymmetrical zip-up lancer front, snapped epaulettes/shoulder straps, studded zip-up hand pockets, studded zip-up slanted left chest pocket, left-side coin pocket (with pointed single-snap flap), half-belt (with mitred-corner steel single-prong buckle), studded zip-up sleeves, and pleated “action back”
• Black cotton crew-neck tank top
• Black denim jeans
• Black leather chaps
• Black leather plain-toe riding boots
• Black leather studded belt with silver eagle buckle
• Black leather codpiece with milled aluminum shaft and cylinders
• Black leather studded bracelets with double belted straps

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Now let’s kill that fucking band.

The post From Dusk till Dawn: Tom Savini as Sex Machine appeared first on BAMF Style.

Roddy Piper in They Live (1988)

Vitals

Roddy Piper as “Nada”, tough drifter and anti-alien vigilante

Los Angeles, Spring 1988

Film: They Live
Release Date: November 4, 1988
Director: John Carpenter
Costume Supervisor: Robin Michel Bush

Background

Released on this day in 1988, They Live followed the example of most of John Carpenter’s work by finding a cult following considerably after it came out, though it debuted at the top of the North American box office.

Adapted from Ray Nelson’s 1963 short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning”, They Live stars Canadian-born wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as an unnamed drifter who arrives in Los Angeles looking for work… and finds a box of sunglasses that literally open his eyes to the fact that an alien ruling class has been subliminally manipulating the public to conform, consume, and reproduce.

“Unlike most Hollywood actors, Roddy has life written all over him,” Carpenter had explained of the unconventional but ultimately effective casting choice. Keith David, who had previously collaborated with Carpenter in The Thing six years prior, was cast as Frank, the colleague-turned-co-vigilante who joins “Nada” (as Piper’s character would be credited) in taking on the alien forces seeking to control them. Before they join forces, Frank resists Nada’s attempts to recruit him, resulting in a six-minute street fight that remains a standout of the film alongside its iconic imagery of aliens walking among us, which Carpenter himself tweeted was a statement against “yuppies and unrestrained capitalism.”

What’d He Wear?

Nada arrives in a worn-in brown leather flight jacket detailed in the Type A-2 pattern that became iconic through its associated with American aviators during World War II. The screen-worn jacket is a commercial update contemporary to the ’80s rather than a true WWII-era mil-spec A-2, as evident by looking more closely at the type of leather and specific details like the exposed snaps, additional hand pockets, and the semi-belted back effect.

Nada’s blouson jacket otherwise reflects the overall signature of the A-2, with a shirt-style collar with hidden snaps, dark brown ribbed-knit cuffs and hem, and a front zip under a narrow storm flap fly, though the snaps securing this fly in place at the neck and waist are another modern update. Like its military forebears, Nada’s jacket has shoulder straps (epaulets) where an officer could presumably wear his rank insignia, with a pointed end that snaps closed near the neck. Each of the large hip pockets are covered with a snap-down flap, with the brown-painted snap echoing those on the epaulets and fly. As mentioned, the inset hand pockets with a vertical welted entry atop each hip pocket differs from the original A-2 design.

The back echoes motorcycle jackets designed for easier arm movement, with “action back” pleats behind each shoulder—with two ventilation grommets under each armpit—and a half-belt sewn along the back of the waist line to present a more fitted appearance. You can see more of Piper’s screen-worn jacket at Your Props.

Our hero exclusively wears the plaid flannel shirts associated with the hardworking everyman. His first shirt is a green, navy, and faded white tartan plaid with a faint yellow windowpane overcheck, styled with a point collar, front placket (with white plastic buttons), and presumably long sleeves with button-fastened cuffs. He layers it over a white waffle-woven thermal cotton crew-neck long-sleeved T-shirt.

After finding work and an ostensible friend in Frank, Nada changes into a shirt with a similar color scheme, though predominantly dark-blue with a green and white plaid scheme. This “Perma-prest” cotton flannel twill shirt was made by Fieldmaster and, according to the Your Props listing, is a size XL (17/17½ neck) to comfortably accommodate Roddy Piper’s muscular 6′ build. The shirt design follows the traditional work shirt styling with a pair of non-matched chest pockets, each covered with a mitred-cornered flap that closes with a recessed dark-blue button matching those up the front placket.

Though the details and plaid colorway are essentially the same, contrast the ways that the check is placed on the left pocket flap to illustrate the different (and almost-identical) shirts used during production.

Consistent with his work shirt and work boots aesthetic, Nada wears classic Levi’s 501® Original Fit jeans in a lighter-wash blue denim that hardly hides the dirt of his hard-wearing life. The jeans can be identified as the venerable 501® variety due to the button-fly and cut as well as regular Levi’s fixtures like the traditional five-pocket layout with telltale brand signatures like the red tab and arcuate back pocket stitching. A pair of Piper’s screen-worn Levi’s can be seen with one of the Fieldmaster flannel shirts at iCollector.

Nada holds up his jeans with a brown tooled leather belt that closes through a brass-finished single-prong buckle.

Consistent with his profession, Nada wears rugged wedge-style work boots with the light tan “wheat” nubuck leather uppers often associated with Timberland. The boots have a swelled moc-toe, five sets of brass-finished eyelets, and brown leather trim around the tops.

As much as I appreciate Nada’s classic workwear wardrobe, no discussion of his costume would be complete without mentioning the now-iconic sunglasses that are the key to his uncovering the aliens secretly living among him. The box he discovers in the church are full of generic and (of course) unbranded sunglasses, each identically styled with large square black plastic frames. One could argue that the design was intended as a subtle visual commentary on the Ray-Ban Wayfarer that reigned supreme as the unofficial eyewear of the eighties, thanks to its heavily publicized association with stars like Tom Cruise.

They Live informs us that these sunglass lenses offer its wearers the ability to see the world as it really is: black-and-white, with the aliens fully unmasked and all advertising stripped down to its intended messages like “BUY”, “STAY ASLEEP”, “MARRY AND REPRODUCE”, “OBEY”, and “CONSUME”. “You see, I take these glasses off, she looks like a regular person, doesn’t she?” Nada demonstrates during a market meltdown. “Put ’em back on… formaldehyde-face!”

As the messaging of They Live may resent major brands like QUAY and Ray-Ban offering square-framed sunglasses that resemble Nada’s shades, you can truly echo the spirit of the movie with the “IRL Glasses” that were funded via Kickstarter to develop eyewear that actually filters out digital screens and advertising, as reported by Bloody Disgusting.

One that can see…

After Nada recruits Frank and holes up in a motel, he changes into a new clean flannel shirt—this one patterned in a blue and white tartan plaid with a pale-pink overcheck—which he also layers over one of his white waffle-knit long-sleeved undershirts. The flannel shirt has a medium point collar, plain front (no placket), and two non-matched chest pockets. (This screen-worn shirt can also be viewed at Your Props, though it appears to have been additionally distressed after the film was completed and perhaps washed with a load of red laundry as the white portions now present as a light pink.)

Nada’s sole jewelry is a plain gold wedding ring on his left hand. He doesn’t wear a watch, unlike the aliens who all wear gold Rolex Day-Date watches on the prestigious three-piece “President” bracelets. Considered a status symbol in ’80s yuppie culture, the Rolex goes unmentioned by name but referred to only as “expensive watches” with the actual logo removed.

What to Imbibe

Assuming you’re also out of bubblegum, you could channel Nada’s late night-in-a-motel snack combo of Uneeda Biscuit crackers and Miller Genuine Draft canned beer.

The Guns

The grand total of seven firearms detailed below may be a new BAMF Style record for a single post, but a guy like Nada is going to need to be well-armed to effectively battle the alien forces taking over the world. (Though I hesitate to even say that, given some of the crazy conspiracy theorists today who think They Live is more of a documentary than sci-fi horror.)

Nada’s familiarity with weapons—as well as his flight jacket—suggest that he may have a military background, which he puts to use after knocking out two alien LAPD officers who confront him in an alley. He takes a nickel Colt Python service revolver from one, using it to dispatch them both:

So you bastards die just like we do?

Colt introduced the large I-framed Python in 1955 to accommodate the powerful .357 Magnum cartridge pioneered by Smith & Wesson two decades earlier, and it quickly gained a reputation for its smooth trigger, accuracy, and reliability. Offered in a range of blued, nickel, and stainless steel finishes, the Colt Python is easily recognizable with its ventilated rib atop the barrel length as well as Colt’s rounded knob-like cylinder release latch. Multiple available barrel lengths ranged from a 2.5″ “snub-nose” barrel to the massive 8″ barrel, though the Python taken by Nada has a 6″ barrel.

After knocking out an alien LAPD patrolman, Nada takes the officer’s Colt Python to quickly amend the fact that he “doesn’t appear armed.”

Nada then pulls an Ithaca 37 shotgun from the LAPD squad car, pumping a 12-gauge round in the chamber before strolling into a nearby bank where he delivers his now-famous line:

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.

The New York-based Ithaca Gun Company developed the Model 37 prior to World War II, differentiated among pump-action shotguns for the novel loading/ejection port located on the underside of the frame. The Ithaca 37 saw some limited military usage during the Vietnam War, though it served primarily as a sporting and law enforcement shotgun through the latter half of the 20th century, particularly associated with the NYPD and LAPD.

If you’re anything like me, you can’t see this screenshot without hearing it too.

Making his escape with Holly Thompson (Meg Foster), Nada also wields a large Smith & Wesson Model 28 revolver, likely taken from the non-alien LAPD officer that he disarmed and ordered to “beat your feet”. Nada carries the Model 28 while still keeping the Colt Python in his waistband, prompting Holly to comment “no, you have two guns, you’re not sorry… you’re in charge,” echoing a similar moment in Three Days of the Condor during Joe Turner’s (Robert Redford) reluctant kidnapping of Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway).

The Model 28 is essentially a budget variant of the Smith & Wesson Model 27, both built on the large N-frame and descended from the original Smith & Wesson Registered Magnum that had introduced the .357 Magnum cartridge in 1935. Smith & Wesson introduced the Model 28 in 1954 as the “Highway Patrolman”, a no-frills service revolver that literally lacked the polish of the Model 27 but retained its reputable functionality.

Hammer cocked, finger on the trigger… that’s one precarious way for Nada to be riding with his commandeered Smith & Wesson.

Gilbert (Peter Jason) easily recruits Nada and Frank into his resistance organization’s “assault group”, escorting them to a pile of weapons spread out on a long table. Nada immediately picks up a Heckler & Koch HK94A3 carbine rifle converted to resemble the MP5A3 submachine gun, which becomes a fortuitous choice as he uses it to ably defend himself only minutes later when the LAPD busts into the meeting, guns blazing.

Heckler & Koch developed the HK94 series in the early 1980s as a variant of the MP5 that could be imported into the United States for civilian usage, configured with a 16.5″ barrel and a two-position trigger group for “safe” and “single-fire” rather than the “continuous-fire” and “three-round burst” options available on the MP5. Like the MP5, the HK94 was available with an A2 fixed stock or A3 retractable stock in addition to an unpopular SG-1 short-range sniper rifle variation.

The HK94, and specifically the HK94A3, was often featured in ’80s action movies like Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Commando (1985), Lethal Weapon (1987), Die Hard (1988), and They Live to stand in for the MP5A3, though IMFDB notes that these “chopped and converted” HK94A3s can be easily recognized by their lack of the genuine MP5’s paddle-style magazine release, a more pronounced thumb rest, and different pistol grip. Converted HK94A3 carbines often had a “chopped” barrel, though the They Live HK94A3 retains its shrouded full-length barrel.

Nada fires a one-handed burst at the invading LAPD officers. Since the weapon is a modified HK94A3 rather than a true MP5A3, Nada’s ability to fire fully automatic is a bit of Hollywood magic.

From Gilbert’s stash of guns, Nada also grabs a blued Desert Eagle, the excessively sized sidearm that had also been a favorite among larger-than-life ’80s action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando, Dolph Lundgren in The Punisher (1989), and through the three original RoboCop movies.

The Desert Eagle was designed in collaboration between Israel Military Industries and the U.S.-based Magnum Research in 1983, initially only for the .357 Magnum revolver cartridge until larger calibers were added as refinements were made to the design. This first iteration of the Desert Eagle is known as the Mark I, followed by the Mark VII and the Mark XIX

In addition to its intimidating appearance and power, the Desert Eagle is notable for its unique gas operation, more similar to rifles than the blowback or short-recoil systems found in most other semi-automatic pistols. Indeed, its this operation that allows Desert Eagles to fire such powerful ammunition as the .41 Magnum, .44 Magnum, .440 Cor-Bon, and the massive .50 Action Express that remains one of the largest production handgun rounds available.

Though popular due to its usage in many movies, TV shows, and video games—beginning with Mickey Rourke in Year of the Dragon (1985)—real-life usage of the Desert Eagle is generally limited to sporting purposes as its unwieldy ten-inch length and weight over four pounds makes it quite impractical for anyone not built like guys like Arnie, Dolph, or Rowdy Roddy, who had carried Desert Eagles back to back in both They Live and Hell Comes to Frogtown.

Only guys of Roddy Piper’s size could so convincingly pull off carrying Desert Eagles.

After infiltrating the alien base at the Cable 54 TV station, Nada and Frank arm themselves with a pair of M16 rifles from the guards. Though several evolved variations of the M16 had been developed by the late ’80s, these appear to be the original design that had been adopted by the U.S. military during the early years of the Vietnam War, identifiable by its flat “slab side receiver”, three-prong flash hider, and lack of forward assist, according to IMFDB.

Colt had internally designated this rifle as the Model 602 when crafting its derivative of the ArmaLite AR-15 in 1964, though its become better known by its “M16” military designation.

Nada and Frank with their commandeered M16 rifles.

When Nada gets cornered at the film’s conclusion, he proves to have one more trick up his sleeve… literally. Though probably too heavy in practice to have stayed there throughout the intense action, Nada keeps a subcompact Beretta 950 Jetfire semi-automatic pistol folded in the left sleeve of his waffle-knit undershirt. You gotta love a character who uses both a massive Desert Eagle and a minuscule Beretta Jetfire in the same movie!

Evolved from its earlier .25-caliber pocket pistols (consider the literary James Bond’s choice!), Beretta introduced the single-action Model 950 Jetfire in 1952. Its anemic .25 ACP ammunition allows for a simple blowback operation, fed from an eight-round box magazine though the tip-up barrel also allows the user to load a round directly into the chamber, providing a particular benefit for shooters who may lack the strength to rack a slide.

Weighing less than ten ounces and measuring under five inches long, the lightweight Jetfire quickly became a favorite for concealed carry and deep-cover, though I’m not sure if there have been any confirmed reports of users actually carrying it a shirt sleeve like our hero Nada.

After all that heavy firepower, it all comes down to Nada and the diminutive .25-caliber Beretta he’d kept up his sleeve.

How to Get the Look

Roddy Piper in They Live (1988)

An everyman fighting back against the repressing ruling class, Nada dresses in classic rugged workwear staples of plaid flannel shirts, jeans, and work boots, initially anchored by the durable and dashingly heroic A2-inspired flight jacket.

• Brown leather civilian flight jacket with snap-down shirt-style collar, brass front zip under snap-down storm fly, epaulets/shoulder straps (with snap-down pointed ends), large patch-style hip pockets (with snap-down flaps), inset hand pockets (with straight vertical welted entry), shoulder pleats and half-belted “action back”, and dark brown ribbed-knit cuffs and hem
• Blue, green, and white plaid cotton flannel work shirt with point collar, two chest pockets, and button cuffs
• White thermal waffle-knit crew-neck long-sleeve T-shirt
• Light blue wash denim Levi’s 501® Original Fit five-pocket jeans with button-fly
• Brown tooled leather belt with brass-finished single-prong buckle
• Wheat nubuck leather moc-toe work boots with 5-eyelet derby-style lacing
• Gold wedding ring
• Black plastic square-framed sunglasses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.

The post Roddy Piper in They Live appeared first on BAMF Style.

Robert Redford and Karen Carlson in The Candidate (1972)

Vitals

Robert Redford as Bill McKay, charismatic lawyer-turned-senatorial candidate

California, Spring through Fall 1972

Film: The Candidate
Release Date: June 29, 1972
Director: Michael Ritchie
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
Costume Supervisor: Bernie Pollack

Background

In case my fellow Americans’ phones haven’t been buzzing with incessant reminders about it… this Tuesday is Election Day!

Fifty years ago, American electoral politics were lampooned in The Candidate, starring Robert Redford as Bill McKay, an idealistic California lawyer tapped to run for a supposedly unwinnable seat in the U.S. Senate.

Inspired by screenwriter Jeremy Larner’s own experiences working on Senator Eugene McCarthy’s unsuccessful bid for the presidency in ’68, The Candidate chronicles the unpredictable insanity of American politics ranging from the mundane to the dramatic.

What’d He Wear?

When not swathed in suits and ties for his public appearances on the campaign trail, McKay still dresses tastefully down in a woolen tweed sports coat. The jacket is woven in a prominent twill that alternates between tan and brown for an overall light brown finish. Charcoal pinstripes separate each section where the twill changes direction, alternating between a single stripe and twin track stripes that frame the chevron-like apices where the twills meet.

The single-breasted jacket has then-fashionably wide notch lapels, finished with prominently swelled edges and rolling to a two-button front. The jacket also has a welted breast pocket, large patch-style hip pockets with flaps, four-button cuffs, and a long single vent.

We first see McKay wearing the tweed jacket when he drops by a spring campaign rally in support of the bland but popular Republican incumbent, Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter). McKay’s appetite for politics had already been whet after a visit from Democratic campaign strategist Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle), but his disgust at the banality and inauthentic mendacity of Jarmon’s campaign inspires McKay to rethink his reluctance to campaign against him.

When he publicly confronts Jarmon during the senator’s San Diego rally, McKay wears a blue chambray cotton shirt with a rusty-colored contrast stitch and dark blue plastic recessed buttons. The shirt has a long, soft collar, front placket with the top few buttons undone, and two large chest pockets each covered by scalloped button-down flap.

McKay’s tweed jacket and chambray shirt echo his normal off-duty style of dressing while also subliminally establishing him as the “people’s” candidate, especially during his very public confrontation against the suit-and-tied Crocker Jarmon.

After McKay’s genuine interest is informed by Jarmon’s uninspiring rally, McKay and Lucas meet with gregarious image consultant Howard Klein (Allen Garfield), who is the first to suggest that McKay may have more of a chance than he thinks, praising his gutsy stances… though he does advise that “for starters, we gotta cut your hair and eighty-six the sideburns.”

McKay wears a similar work shirt, albeit dressier in its light blue end-on-end cotton construction, more structured long point collar, and white buttons up the front placket and fastening both chest pocket flaps. He wears the shirt tucked into a pair of navy flat-front trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms styled with a distinct flare as was fashionable in the early ’70s. Though we can’t see his shoes, it’s evident that he wears navy socks that continue the leg line from his trousers.

That fall, in the midst of rumors swirling that McKay’s own father—former Governor John McKay (Melvyn Douglas)—may be endorsing his opponent, the candidate visits his father in northern California. The personal nature of the visit calls for a more dressed-down wardrobe than the pinstripe suits and ties he’s been wearing as his campaign grows momentum, so McKay layers the tweed jacket over a black turtleneck knit in a soft wool, possibly merino or cashmere. The sweater body is widely ribbed with a more tightly ribbed roll-neck.

McKay keeps it casual with his dark blue jeans, which are styled with the traditional five-pocket layout and boot-cut legs, though we don’t see enough of them on screen to determine any more detail than that. His brown leather boots have squared toes.

McKay sports a ring on each hand, with Redford’s usual silver Hopi tribal ring now on the ring finger of his left hand while he dresses his right hand with a silver ring with a narrow turquoise-filled band around the center. In addition to the Hopi ring, Redford also wears his own stainless Rolex Submariner dive watch that would also appear in his later movies like All the President’s Men (1976) and The Electric Horseman (1979). Worn on a steel Oyster-style link bracelet, the watch has a black bezel and a black dial with a date window at 3:00, as the ref. 1680 worn by Redford was the first Submariner model to include a date function.

Under his shirt, McKay wears a silver rope-style necklace with a turquoise pendant that was likely another piece of Redford’s personal jewelry.

What to Imbibe

The McKay family evidently prefers Hamm’s beer, as this was not only the same brand that Bill had served to Melvin Lucas, but when Bill calls upon his father, John hands him the very can of Hamm’s he had just been drinking. Of course, it’s not long before John looks up at his wife and comments: “Say, Mabel, did you know Bud here is running for United States Senate? Get him a real drink, he’ll need one!”

The Hamm’s story began in 1865 when German immigrant Theodore Hamm inherited the Excelsior Brewery in Milwaukee from a deceased friend and partner. The brewery grew steadily, rising to the second largest brewery in Minnesota within two decades and—after surviving Prohibition—the fifth largest brewery in the country by the 1950s, the result of aggressive national expansion that opened new Hamm’s breweries across the country, including two in California that likely helped establish it as a favorite among the McKays representing the Golden State.

How to Get the Look

Robert Redford as Bill McKay in The Candidate (1972)

How does the “man who shoots from the hip and a man who’s hip when he shoots” dress when he’s not shaking hands and kissing babies? Bill McKay gets plenty of mileage from a sturdy and eye-catching tweed sport jacket that works with chambray shirts and slacks or a black turtleneck and jeans.

• Light brown twill (with charcoal striping) woolen tweed single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with wide notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped patch-style hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and long single vent
• Black cashmere ribbed turtleneck sweater
• Dark indigo blue denim five-pocket jeans
• Brown leather squared-toe boots
• Silver ring with turquoise-filled center ridge
• Silver tribal ring
• Rolex Submariner ref. 1680 dive watch with stainless steel case, black bezel and black dial, and steel Oyster-style bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post The Candidate: Robert Redford’s Tweed Sport Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.

Wendell Corey as Johnny Ryan in Desert Fury (1947)

Vitals

Wendell Corey as Johnny Ryan, stone-cold mob enforcer

Nevada, Spring 1947

Film: Desert Fury
Release Date: August 15, 1947
Director: Lewis Allen
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

In the spirit of #Noirvember, I want to celebrate an entry in the relatively rare “color noir” category as well as the career of Wendell Corey, the Massachusetts-born actor and one-time AMPAS President who died on this day in 1968.

Corey was a familiar face in classic film noir like I Walk Alone (1948), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), and The File on Thelma Jordon (1950) before his perhaps most recognized performance as the skeptical Detective Tom Doyle assisting Jimmy Stewart‘s peeping amateur crime-solver in Rear Window (1954). It had been an impressive rise for an actor whose feature film debut had only been a few years earlier, appearing in Desert Fury (1947) as the gay-coded mob killer Johnny Ryan, right-hand man to smooth racketeer Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak).

Also starring Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster, with whom Corey would again co-star in I Walk Alone, Desert Fury joins contemporaries like Leave Her to Heaven (1945) and Niagara (1953) as the rare examples of full-color movies that maintain enough of the themes, style, and sinister story elements of traditional film noir to still qualify for this classification.

“The desert… I’d personally give it back to the Indians,” Johnny moans as he and Eddie arrive in the fictional mining town of Chuckawalla, Nevada, where Eddie had been banished after his wife died under suspicious circumstances years earlier. First, Johnny, I don’t think the Indians would mind so much if you were the one to return their land. Secondly, maybe you wouldn’t have such disdain for the desert if you weren’t wearing tweed?

What’d He Wear?

Though Johnny’s wardrobe varies during their stay in Chuckawalla, his most prominent costume—worn for his and Johnny’s arrival and their departure with Paula (Lizabeth Scott)—is a black-and-cream herringbone tweed suit that presents a warm gray appearance.

After the end of fabric rationing following World War II, tailors took advantage of the more abundant material to them. Even generally simple suits like Johnny’s tweed clabber reflected this sartorial celebration after years of restrictions due to the Depression and the war, with fuller cuts, wider-shouldered jackets, and trousers resplendent with pleats and cuffs.

Johnny’s single-breasted suit jacket has wide shoulders with considerable padding, though the silhouette is still softer than Eddie’s more squared shoulders. Front darts add shape despite the generous cut, and the back is ventless. The notch lapels roll low to three buttons spaced closely at the waist, with the jacket otherwise traditionally detailed with its welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and four-button cuffs.

Note the softer silhouette of Johnny’s suit compared to the more squared cut and features of Eddie’s double-breasted suit.

When not orphaning the jacket with odd trousers, Johnny wears the suit’s matching trousers that rise appropriately high to Wendell Corey’s natural waist, where they’re held up with his usual narrow brown leather belt that closes through a rectangular leather-covered single-prong buckle. Consistent with the prevailing post-war tailoring trends, the trousers have double forward-facing pleats and cuffed bottoms. In addition to on-seam side pockets, the back pockets are jetted with a button to close the back left pocket only.

Johnny wears a pale-mauve shirt in a soft mottled fabric that hangs and wrinkles like linen or a linen blend, at least providing a comfortably light-wearing layer under the warm tweed suit. The shirt has a spread collar, front placket, straight back yoke, and double (French) cuffs. When he wears the shirt sans tie, we see the top of a white cotton crew-neck short-sleeved undershirt.

Generally abandoning neckwear after their first night in town, Johnny wears a simple black knitted wool tie for his and Eddie’s arrival in Chuckawalla.

Johnny eventually comes to resent Eddie romancing the blonde dropout Paula Heller (Lizabeth Scott), daughter of Eddie’s prior paramour Fritzi (Mary Astor). One night, he returns to the ranch wearing the jacket orphaned with odd trousers and a dark navy flannel sport shirt, layered under an olive gabardine raincoat and water-logged dark fedora. The coat has a long fly front, with only the button at the neck exposed and flapped patch-style pockets on the hips.

With all of his outfits, Johnny tends to wear plain brown leather derby shoes, with a pair of blue socks visible as he returns to the ranch that rainy night.

On his left wrist, Johnny always wears a silver-toned dress watch with a squared beige dial on a brown leather strap. A gold signet ring shines from his left pinky.

The Gun

In the final act of Desert Fury, Eddie tells Johnny that he’s quitting the rackets and their partnership—and its myriad of implications—to stay with Paula in the desert. With the budding couple planning to skip town and get married, Johnny asks for a ride at least as far as Las Vegas, which was in the midst of its invention as America’s gambling mecca thanks to the likes of real-life racketeer Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel.

En route, the trio stop at a roadhouse for cigarettes, coffee, and a long-awaited confrontation, which Johnny punctuates by drawing his Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless semi-automatic pistol.

Introduced to the market in 1903, the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless quickly became a favorite of civilians and criminals alike for its shrouded hammer (it wasn’t exactly “hammerless”) that allowed it to be smoothly drawn from a pocket without any protrusions that could snag on clothing. Of course, its single-action operation and hair trigger would have been quite unsafe to carry in one’s pocket with a round chambered, even with its external thumb safety catch.

The Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless was initially offered for just .32 ACP ammunition with a variation for the .380 ACP available within five years, though this larger round meant one less could be loaded in the magazine. Colt produced these popular pocket pistols through the first half of the 20th century, when they were even issued to famous generals like Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall, and George Patton, who had his grip panels decorated with the stars reflecting his rank. On the opposing end of the lawful spectrum, the pistol was also rumored to be in bank robber John Dillinger‘s trouser pocket when he was killed by FBI agents and police on July 22, 1934.

How to Get the Look

Wendell Corey as Johnny Ryan in Desert Fury (1947)

• Black-and-cream herringbone tweed suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, on-seam side pocket, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Pale-mauve linen shirt with spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
• Black knitted wool tie
• Brown leather narrow belt with leather-covered single-prong buckle
• Brown leather derby shoes

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

It’s funny, ain’t it? People think they’re seein’ Eddie and, all these years, they been really seein’ me. I’m Eddie Bendix. Why is it women never fall in love with me?

The post Desert Fury: Wendell Corey’s Herringbone Tweed Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.

Dennis Haysbert as Raymond Deagan in Far From Heaven (2002)

Vitals

Dennis Haysbert as Raymond Deagan, affable gardener and widowed father

Suburban Connecticut, Fall 1957

Film: Far From Heaven
Release Date: November 8, 2002
Director: Todd Haynes
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell

Background

Far From Heaven premiered twenty years ago this week, a smart, sincere, and stylish drama that stands alone as a thoughtful story beyond its oft-discussed intentional parallels to the Douglas Sirk melodramas of a half-century prior.

The Sirk homages are evident not just in the autumnal photography but also the plot, recalling the romance between a woman and her gardener in All That Heaven Allows (1955) as well as the racial themes driving Imitation of Life (1959). In this case, the woman is housewife Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore), who raises her friends’ eyebrows through her growing bond with Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), a kind gardener taking over his late father’s accounts.

Far From Heaven pushes through the storytelling boundaries that restricted even Sirk in the 1950s to present a stunningly photographed story of the autumnal attraction between Cathy and Raymond), while Cathy’s “man in the gray flannel suit”-type husband Frank (Dennis Quaid) comes to terms with his sexual orientation.

What’d He Wear?

There’s dressing for fall, and then there’s Dennis Haysbert in Far From Heaven, whom costume designer Sandy Powell dressed in vivid shades of red, green, and gold that reflects the lush foliage surrounding them, signaling his connection to the flora that he now cares for following the death of his father.

Under his jacket, Raymond’s red plaid shirt and tan chinos could have been cribbed from Rock Hudson’s wardrobe in All That Heaven Allows, particularly his introductory scene where he introduces himself to the widowed housewife he eventually romances. The woolen flannel shirt has a bright red body with a black triple check, framed by a narrow gold windowpane check. The style echoes popular work shirt design of the era, with a convertible camp collar, button cuffs, and two non-matched chest pockets. Large red buttons matching the body of the shirt fasten up a plain (non-placket) front. He wears a light heathered-gray cotton crew-neck short-sleeve undershirt that serves as both as “decency layer” should he need to remove his shirt due to the rigors of his work as well as also protecting his skin from the potentially itchy wool over-shirt.

Raymond’s olive-green jacket also follows a pattern typical of 1950s work jackets, cut like a waist-length windbreaker with two flapped hip pockets and a zip-closed breast pocket. (For example, check out these true vintage whipcord jackets from Day’s, Penney’s, and Titan.) The two patch-style pockets over the hips each have a pointed flap that closes with a brass-finished snap, matching the brass zipper up the front and on the breast pocket.

The set-in sleeves are finished with cuffs that close with a single snap, with “bi-swing” pleats behind each shoulder to allow a greater range of movement that would aid a manual laborer like Raymond. The waistband has a short angled tab on each side that tapers down to a brass snap that closes on one of two studs.

Raymond wears flat front trousers in a rich golden shade of tan chino cotton, continuing a decade-long workwear trend that had been popularized after people took notice of the practical khaki trousers worn by returning servicemen after World War II. The trousers have an era-correct long rise to Dennis Haysbert’s natural waistline, where he holds them up with a worn-in brown leather belt that closes through a squared brass single-prong buckle. An English tan leather studded sheath rigged to the left side of his belt holsters a gardening tool.

The trousers have slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms with a full break enveloping the tops of his tan leather moc-toe derby-laced work boots.

Not clearly visible in these scenes but evident in others, Raymond wears a gold-toned wristwatch with a round white dial on a tan leather strap.

How to Get the Look

Dennis Haysbert as Raymond Deagan in Far From Heaven (2002)

The adage says to dress for the job you want, so Raymond Deagan’s workwear reflecting the green, red, and gold of the changing leaves around him suggests that he’s certainly found his calling in the world of floriculture. The fit and details are true to Far From Heaven‘s 1950s setting but could be effectively and comfortably translated to a modern fall day.

• Olive-green gabardine waist-length work jacket with shirt-style collar, zip-up front, horizontal zip-fastened breast pocket, snap-flapped patch hip pockets, single-snap cuffs, bi-swing back shoulder pleats, and snap waist adjuster-tabs
• Red black-checked woolen flannel work shirt with convertible collar, plain front, two non-matched chest pockets, and button cuffs
• Tan chino cotton flat-front trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Thick brown leather belt with squared brass single-prong buckle
• Tan leather moc-toe derby-laced work boots
• Gold wristwatch with round white dial on tan leather strap (with gold single-prong buckle)

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post Far From Heaven: Dennis Haysbert’s Green Work Jacket and Red Plaid Shirt appeared first on BAMF Style.

Kevin Costner as John Dutton on Yellowstone

Vitals

Kevin Costner as John Dutton, wealthy ranch patriarch and Montana Livestock Association commissioner

Western Montana, Fall 2017

Series: Yellowstone
Episodes:
– “Daybreak” (Episode 1.01, dir. Taylor Sheridan, aired 6/20/2018)
– “Kill the Messenger” (Episode 1.02, dir. Taylor Sheridan, aired 6/27/2018)
– “The Remembering” (Episode 1.06, dir. Taylor Sheridan, aired 8/1/2018)
– “A Monster Is Among Us” (Episode 1.07, dir. Taylor Sheridan, aired 8/8/2018)
– “A Thundering” (Episode 2.01, dir. Ed Bianchi, aired 6/19/2019)
– “New Beginnings” (Episode 2.02, dir. Ed Bianchi, aired 6/26/2019)
Creator: Taylor Sheridan & John Linson
Costume Designers: Ruth E. Carter & Brit Ellerman (Season 1) & Johnetta Boone (Season 2 onward)

Background

Tomorrow night, the Dutton family returns to TV with the fifth season premiere of Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan and John Linson’s modern-day Western series chronicling the fictional conflicts of a cattle ranch, an Indian reservation, and land developers against a lush Montana landscape.

The series centers around the widowed Yellowstone Ranch patriarch, John Dutton III (Kevin Costner), who puts considerable thought into his words and actions and whose primary motivation seems to be proudly maintaining his ranch to continue his family’s legacy to his now-adult children.

The heir apparent to the Yellowstone ranch appears to be John’s oldest son Lee (Dave Annable), who gets killed while serving in his official capacity for the Montana Livestock Association, attempting to retrieve the ranch’s cattle from the Broken Rock Reservation. The loss leaves John looking to his remaining three children: the uptight lawyer Jamie (Wes Bentley), the dangerously protective Beth (Kelly Reilly), and the wild card Navy SEAL Kayce (Luke Grimes), who is all but estranged from the rest of his family. With family like this, who needs enemies?

What’d He Wear?

Yellowstone takes ranch dressing to the next level, though it’s brands like Filson, Barbour, Carhartt, and Wrangler in the spotlight rather than Hidden Valley or Wishbone. The authentic, lived-in cowboy gear contributes to the show’s overall verisimilitude, though John Dutton—whose position has elevated him above the daily fray—wears an elevated version of this workwear, still rugged enough to be respected by his wranglers while also just tasteful enough to serve him adequately when representing the ranch in town.

“John Dutton is continuing a legacy and will let nothing get in his way,” costume designer Johnetta Boone explained this month to Cowboys & Indians magazine. “He’s also a cowboy, so we keep his lines defined. He always pops his collar to emphasize power. He has a subtle elegant Western look with a stylish flare. It’s one that’s not mistaken for a trend. It communicates his core values. He’s a cowboy to the deepest part of his heart.”

The Jacket

An early staple of John’s screen wardrobe is a distinctive ski jacket, characterized by a rusty orange Western-pointed yoke over the shoulders of the tan waist-length body. “We made him the old-style ’70s ski coat which was popular amongst the Western dress,” confirmed Ruth E. Carter, costume designer for the first season of Yellowstone, in a behind-the-scenes featurette.

The style was inspired by the down jackets pioneered in the early 1970s by the Powderhorn company of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Carter explained to IndieWire that she began her work on the series by visiting Costner in Utah, where he cycled through an assortment of Western wear that could be replicated for use on the series. “One of them was a ’70s ski jacket that we recreated as a beige and orange,” added Carter. “It turned out to be a nice signature piece with a vintage color combination on him.”

Costume designer Ruth E. Carter and star Kevin Costner determined early in the series’ development that the orange-over-tan ski jacket would be a signature piece for John Dutton, seen as early as the first episode.

John’s orange-over-tan ski jacket prominently debuts in the first episode and would be featured throughout the first two seasons of Yellowstone. The outer shell appears to be nylon ripstop as used for sailing cloth, good for resistance to the elements while also wearing light over his typical layers. The orange yoke is sewn to the jacket along the back, though each pointed front portion also serves as a short flap that closes over the two patch-style chest pockets with a single brass-finished snap. The jacket also has two hand pockets, each with a vertical entry. The fixed set-in sleeves are tan to match the body of the coat, with snap-fastened cuffs.

The collar is orange to continuously match the surrounding shoulder yokes and can be flipped up to serve as a full-covering funnel neck, should the wearer choose to zip the jacket all the way up. The waistband also has a short tab extending from the left side that could snap onto the right side of the waistband to snugly close the jacket over the waist, with an additional snap-closed adjuster tabs rigged on each side of the waistband toward the back.

The three types of Dutton styles: hard-wearing workwear as sported by Lee, fashionably tailored business suits worn by Jamie the politically inclined lawyer, and the balance between both: John Dutton’s polished but practical ranch gear as epitomized by his ’70s-inspired ski jacket and RRL jeans.

Episode 1.01: “Daybreak”

While struggling to treat his head wound after the auto crash that kicked off the series, John has a heated conversation with his son Jamie about his reluctance to be properly seen by a doctor as well as to capitulate to a developer’s request to buy their land, advising his son that “leverage is knowing if someone had all the money in the world, this is what they’d buy.” We then follow him as he makes his rounds, joining Lee at the contentious scene at the Broken Rock Reservation, where he hopes Jamie can find some legal recourse for action.

These scenes establish a template for John Dutton’s everyday attire, typically comprised of a Western-style snap shirt and jeans, layered under a vest and jacket.

In this case, the shirt is a blue denim cotton with Western-style pointed yokes, two flapped pockets, and triple-snap cuffs. The silver-toned snaps on the front placket, pocket flaps, and cuffs are filled in white for a rich contrast against the rich blue body of the shirt. Snaps (also known as “poppers”) have a time-tested and authentic heritage on Western wear, pioneered in the early 20th century by Rockmount Ranch Wear founder “Papa Jack” A. Weil to dress cowboys in shirts that would easily break away should the cloth get snagged on anything. Traditionally, all of the buttons are snaps except for that at the neck, which is fastened by a traditional button as seen on John’s shirts.

“Daybreak” also debuts a vest that John would wear for much of the first season, with charcoal quilted flannel outer shell, piped along the edges and lined in a gray plaid fleece. The vest has six gunmetal-finished snaps that extend from the straight-cut waist hem up to the neck, where the vest has a large shirt-style point collar with a waxed cotton reverse side. The vest also has a large hand pocket on each side, with the curved entries positioned along the seams below each armpit.

John initially wears the blue denim jeans you’d expect, though the light-medium wash jeans we see beginning in “Daybreak” aren’t from the venerated Western-favorite brands like Levi’s or Wrangler as worn by his cowboys. The distinctive medallion stitch over each back pocket has clearly identified John’s preferred jeans as Double RL, the Western-oriented Ralph Lauren brand inspired by the owner’s RRL ranch in Colorado.

The Ralph Lauren jeans weren’t just favored by the fictional John Dutton, but they had also been a favorite of Kevin Costner in real life. Unfortunately for the actor, his favorite pair had been discontinued but this challenge was swiftly met by costume designer Ruth E. Carter and her team. “We had to go to the denim doctor and fix that up for him,” Carter explained to Gold Derby. “We had to have fabrics specially dyed, but when he saw them and tried them on, he actually liked them better,” Carter elaborated for IndieWire, explaining that the RRL jeans were recreated right down to the same denim gauge and exact button bindings, ultimately creating an additional 14 pairs to supplement Costner’s original jeans.

Prominently seen at the Broken Rock Reservation and the following scene at the Greater Montana Livestock Auction, John fastens his dark brown leather belt with an oversized gold buckle with an equestrian relief, similar to those awarded to rodeo winners.

A true cowboy, John comes by his wide-brimmed hats honestly, appropriately favoring those in the cattleman style, as characterized by their tall, narrow crowns with a ridge through the center, flanked by a crease on each side. The shape resulted from Carter’s research of hats worn specifically by Montana ranchers as opposed to other parts of the country, as she told IndieWire that “these details were important to know so that we weren’t mixing up the hats with what they wear in the Southwest.”

For the first three seasons of the series, hats for most of the principal cast—including Kevin Costner as John—were made by Greeley Hat Works of Greeley, Colorado. The chocolate brown felt cattleman’s hat we see first with this jacket has a narrow band of the same brown felt, detailed with a silver-toned ranger-style buckle on the left side.

Later in “Daybreak”, John’s work on the ranch is interrupted when he spots developer Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston) golfing on adjacent land, riding out to confront him and assure him that “nothing happens in this valley I don’t know about.” After leaving Dan to consider his threats, John returns to the ranch where his once-estranged son Kayce has brought his young son Tate (Brecken Merrill) to ride with his grandfather.

Though he wears the same charcoal quilted vest as he had previously, the rest of John’s wardrobe varies aside from his ski jacket and boots. His Western shirts are generally styled the same, with pointed yokes and snaps on the placket, pockets, and cuffs, and this pale-blue shirt with its narrow white stripes is no exception.

John also debuts another cattleman’s-style hat from Greeley Hat Works, this time in a lighter beige felt similar to silverbelly, derived from the soft stomachs of beavers. The black braided band is woven in three rows, with the center row intermittently woven in a white thread for a “dotted line” effect. As of 2022, Greeley Hat Works sells replicas of this hat they made for Costner, described as having a “classic Reiner crease” with a 5 3/4″ crown and 4 1/4″ brim.

John often wears a pair of tan cotton jeans that maintain the same style as traditional jeans with their belt loops and five-pocket layout, with the stitching across the back pockets identifying these as also RRL-inspired trousers. He wears a dark brown tooled leather belt but with a plain dulled brass single-prong buckle rather than the more ornate rodeo-style buckle he had worn earlier. A small sheath for his pocketknife or multi-tool is holstered on the right side of his belt.

Episode 1.02: “Kill the Messenger”

John wears the jacket again in the second episode, “Kill the Messenger”, during the brief sequence at a rodeo where he asks his friend Carl (Fredric Lehne) for help to “unscrew something”. His outfit is essentially the same as the last time we saw the jacket, worn with his charcoal quilted collared vest, tan jeans, and the silverbelly hat with black-and-white woven band.

The light blue denim snap-front shirt under his layers appears to be the same one worn earlier in the day when talking to Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) about their newest cowboy. The shirt has a narrow point collar, the usual pointed front and back yokes, and pointed pockets with shallow pointed flaps. These flaps have the same mother-of-pearl snaps as seen on the cuffs and up the intentionally bunched-looking front placket.

The unique stitch pattern over each pocket resembles those on the back pockets of his tan jeans, suggesting that his shirt is either Double RL or one of the shirts custom-made by Carter’s team to resemble them.

Episode 1.06: “Remembering”

John keeps the orange-over-tan ski jacket in the back of his closet for a few episodes, reemerging for the drama of the sixth episode where his day begins by finally explaining the root of his and Kayce’s conflict to Kayce’s wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille). After he speeds Kayce to her school to comfort Monica after she was knocked out trying to break up a fight between students, John returns home only to be confronted by Jamie and Beth about hiding his cancer diagnosis… though he has some confronting of his own planned.

John again wears his silverbelly hat with the black-and-white woven band, his RRL blue jeans, and his brown tooled leather belt with the hefty matte brass single-prong buckle, the knife holster rigged to the right side.

Over a sky-blue flannel snap-front shirt with double-snap cuffs and the usual Western-style pointed yokes, John wears a different charcoal vest than the collared version we’d seen previously. Unlike the snap-front collared vest, this is cut more like a traditional waistcoat, with a V-shaped opening at the top of the chest and five buttons to close. Four rectangular patch-style buttons cover the front, with the chest pockets open at the top and the larger hand pockets accessed from the gently slanted side openings.

I feel confident identifying this as the Filson Mackinaw Wool Vest, made from 24-oz. virgin Mackinaw wool, the weather-resistant fabric that Filson describes as “manufactured with uncommonly-tight weave [that] excels at blocking the wind and withstands hard use for decades… There’s a very good reason it’s been a cornerstone in the Filson product line for more than half a century—it performs admirably in countless situations out of doors, or in.”

Episode 1.07: “A Monster Is Among Us”

Following a post-colon cancer MRI, John encounters his grandson Tate at Bozeman General Hospital and drives him back to the ranch, layered for the chilly early winter’s day in his usual first-season kit of ski jacket, silverbelly hat, and tan jeans held up by the brown tooled leather belt. He has returned to wearing the charcoal quilted collared snap-front vest, now worn over a light slate-colored denim snap-front shirt with Western yokes, two chest pockets with snap-down flaps, and triple-snap cuffs.

Episode 2.01: “A Thundering”

When costume designer Johnetta Boone took over for the second season, she noted in a behind-the-scenes featurette that the characters’ “closets were kind of established already” by the first season’s costume designers Ruth E. Carter and Brit Ellerman, so Boone was able to smoothly continue each character’s aesthetic. To reintroduce John Dutton to audiences for the new season, she cited that “iconically, the JD jacket was the first thing that popped, which is the taupe with the rust Western yoke. It was perfect, it fit him perfectly, and then I was able to build his additional costumes from there.”

John wears the jacket while out with his cowboys, including Kayce who has risen as the prodigal son in the wake of Jamie’s recent estrangement. As he had in the first season, he continues layering the ski jacket over a vest and Western shirt, though the execution generally differs from what we had been used to seeing.

With its standing collar reminiscent of bomber jackets, thick black-taped zipper, and prominent patch-style hand pockets with slanted openings, this forest-green sleeveless vest is likely the Filson Mackinaw Wool Vest Liner, which “doubles as a zip-in liner with select Filson jackets,” according to Filson and is made from the same naturally water-repellant 24-oz. virgin Mackinaw wool as the earlier-mentioned Filson vest.

“It’s only reckless if you can’t see it through,” John yokes to his senior ranch hand Lloyd (Forrie J. Smith) in the second-season premiere.

John’s shirt is a lighter shade of olive than his vest, detailed with the usual snap-front placket and Western yokes, though the deep plunging back yoke adds some additional character to the shirt. The two chest pockets are covered by double-snap “sawtooth”-style flaps, and each cuff closes with two snaps.

Given that he’s been riding, John appoints his usual look with yellowed tan leather three-point work gloves and chaps over his usual tan RRL jeans, held up here by a dark brown leather belt with a squared brass-toned single-prong buckle. The tan fringed leather chaps have a wide dark brown tooled leather waist that ties in the front and buckles closed in the back through a silver-toned single-prong buckle.

Of the jeans, costume designer Johnetta Boone was grateful for the additional pairs created by Carter’s team for the first season. “He’s worn the same pair of Double RL jeans probably for 15 years,” Boone revealed to Gold Derby of Costner’s denim preferences. “He doesn’t take kindly to replicating something, so we replicated it only to use for stunt scenes so we don’t burn the original heroes. Luckily, Double RL rereleased that jean, so I was able to get a few more pairs, which then built on the collection that we had. And he absolutely does keep them with him because they are in his arsenal. That’s all he wears. That’s how we move about. We use the replicas when we need to destroy something and then keep the authentic pairs in pristine shape so that we can use them throughout the series.”

With a new season also comes new cowboy hats for John, almost certainly by the same Greeley Hat Works that made the Dutton family’s headgear in the first season. In the first episode, he wears what appears to be a reimagining of the silverbelly hat from the first season, maintaining the same color felt but with a more straightforward black-and-white woven band that keeps a generally continuous white stripe through the center. The hat shape also has a lower crown that his cattleman-style hats of the first season, perhaps closer to the cutter style as it maintains its dramatically wide and curved brim.

Episode 2.02: “New Beginnings”

John wears the jacket for the last time (to date) in the second episode of the second season, appropriately titled “New Beginnings”. Following his release from the hospital, he makes the controversial decision for Kayce to lead the day’s cattle drive rather than the tried-and-true Rip, whom he assigns to ride drag with Lloyd.

For the tough conversations he has with Kayce and Rip around this decision, John wears a dusty black felt cutter-style cowboy hat with a narrow black tooled leather band that closes through a sterling silver ranger-style buckle with matching keeper and tip.

He maintains his shirt-and-vest aesthetic through the jacket’s final appearance, layering it over a charcoal heavy twill work shirt that differs from his earlier shirts with its russet-toned traditional buttons rather than snaps.

Identified by a small branded leather patch at the top of the back, the Barbour gilet has a charcoal baffle-quilted polyester body and brown suede patches curved over the front of each shoulder. The vest has a short standing collar that matches its body, with the front zip closing all the way up to create a short “funnel neck”. We don’t see much of the vest below the fence rail, but we can assume that there are hand pockets, either simple set-in pockets or snap-flapped bellows pockets with handwarmer pockets behind them like the current edition of the Barbour Bradford Gilet.

Moving Out

The orange-over-tan ski jacket makes its final appearance in “Resurrection Day” (Episode 2.07) as John moves into Lee’s old cabin, allowing Kayce and Monica to live in the main house. Among the sparse belonging John carries, we see the yoked jacket slung over his shoulder.

Perhaps concerned that the one-off coat made by the first-season costume designers couldn’t be replicated, Yellowstone‘s costume team likely chose to quietly retire the jacket, replaced in spirit by the similarly colored shearling jacket with brown Western-yoked shoulders that would appear through the later episodes of the third season.

Everyday Gear

Aside from the jacket itself, John Dutton maintains some general consistency with his apparel like his boots and sunglasses.

There are certainly folks better versed in cowboy boots than I am, so I can only default to organizing the well-informed thoughts of what others have shared. A comment on Northwest Farm Dad’s Youtube video The Boots of Yellowstone” cited that John’s brown leather cowboy boots through the first season were detailed with a cutter toe, full-stitch welt, and stacked leather heels that were unique to the San Antonio-based bootmaker Lucchese at the time of the show’s premiere. Others, including Jeremiah Craig, have decided that John likely wore the classic-looking Justin “Shawnee” model, detailed with the usual “bug-and-wrinkle” medallions stitched over each toe-box.

An IndieWire interview with costume designer Ruth E. Carter seems to put the confusion to rest, explaining that “Costner’s boots were custom-made, based on his favorite pair, but he also fell in love with a pair of Justins that were soft and comfortable.” Whether Justin made any screen-worn boots or not, they capitalized on a partnership with the series with a Yellowstone collection released in 2019.

In the second-season premiere “A Thundering”, John takes a meeting with Cassidy Reid (Kelly Rohrbach), the lawyer and former rodeo queen whom Beth has positioned to run against Jamie for district attorney.

Though John often thumbs his nose at talk of progress, he doesn’t rely entirely on the wide brims of his cowboy hats to keep the sun out of his eyes, often pulling on a pair of dark tortoise rectangular-framed sunglasses made by John Varvatos, as identified by the guitar headstock-shaped temple logos.

The specific model has been determined to be the John Varvatos V791, as suggested by several Redditors, constructed from dark tortoise cellulose acetate (or “zyl” plastic).

How to Get the Look

Kevin Costner as John Dutton on Yellowstone (Episode 1.01: “Daybreak”)

The cowboy hat and boots may be best reserved for anyone with the equestrian or cattle-ranching experience to earn them, but the rest of John Dutton’s Western-influenced workwear provides a comfortable and rugged template for practical layering during chillier seasons, anchored by an unobtrusive but eye-catching two-toned ski jacket over a vest, snap-front shirts, and blue or tan jeans.

• Tan nylon zip-up waist-length ski jacket with orange Western-pointed yoke with snap-flapped chest pockets, straight-entry side pockets, snap-fastened cuffs, and snap-fastened waist adjuster tabs
• Charcoal quilted flannel vest with six gunmetal snaps, shirt-style collar, and curved side-entry pockets
• Blue Western-styled shirt with pointed yokes, snap-up front placket, two chest pockets (with snap-down flaps), and triple-snap cuffs
• Blue denim or tan cotton Ralph Lauren “Double RL” jeans with belt loops and five-pocket layout
• Dark brown tooled leather belt with large matte brass single-prong buckle
• Brown leather cutter-toe cowboy boots with raised leather heels
• Silverbelly felt cattleman’s-style cowboy hat with narrow black-and-white braided band
• John Varvatos V791 dark tortoise zyl rectangular-framed sunglasses

Unless you’re looking for a screen-perfect Yellowstone costume, you’d be well-advised to stick to finding your own style from among the trusted Western brands that the Dutton family and ranch get their gear. Washington-based outfitter Filson is among the most prominent of the bunch, capitalizing on its Yellowstone connection with a dedicated page on its site.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series. The first four seasons are available on Blu-ray and also streaming on Peacock.

The popularity of the series has already inspired a trio of spinoffs that follow the Dutton family saga, including the historically set 1883 and 1923 with the upcoming 6666 set in modern-day Texas.

You can also learn more about the costume design on Yellowstone from these articles and videos that were sourced for this post:

• Behind the Lines: “RUTH CARTER dives deep into the fabric of the American West with YELLOWSTONE” by Debbie Elias (April 4, 2019)
• Gold Derby: “Ruth E. Carter explains how she made Old West outfits look new again for ‘Yellowstone’” by Joyce Eng (June 9, 2019)
• Gold Derby: “Why ‘Yellowstone’ costume designer Johnetta Boone loves giving characters ‘signature pieces’” by Joyce Eng (June 30, 2020)
• IndieWire: “Oscar Winner Ruth Carter Reimagined Western Costume Design for ‘Yellowstone’ Patriarch Kevin Costner” by Bill Desowitz (April 29, 2019)
• Jeremiah Craig on Youtube: “Cowboy Boots in 5 Modern TV Shows” (Aug. 12, 2021)
• Northwest Farm Dad on Youtube: “The Boots of Yellowstone” (Feb. 25, 2022)
• Northwest Farm Dad on Youtube: “The Cowboy Boots of Yellowstone” (Jan. 25, 2022)
• South China Morning Post: “How Yellowstone’s John Dutton and Beth Dutton keep it real in clothes that fit their characters and the top-rated US show’s Montana ranch setting” by Vincenzo La Torre (Jan. 4, 2022)
• Yellowstone on Youtube: “Costume Designer Ruth E. Carter Breaks Down the Wardrobe” (Oct. 22, 2018)
• Yellowstone on Youtube: “Working the Yellowstone: Costume Designer Johnetta Boone” (Aug. 5, 2020)

The Quote

When you say no, it must be the death of the question. If there’s even a hint of maybe, the questions won’t stop until they find something you can’t say no to.

The post Yellowstone: Kevin Costner’s Western Ski Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in This Gun for Hire (1942)

Vitals

Alan Ladd as Philip Raven, cold-blooded, cat-loving contract killer

San Francisco to Los Angeles, Spring 1942

Film: This Gun for Hire
Release Date: April 24, 1942
Director: Frank Tuttle
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I had already been planning to write about This Gun for Hire this month when I realized that today would have been the 100th birthday of Veronica Lake, who was born in Brooklyn on November 14, 1922 with the decidedly less glamorous name of Constance Ockelman. Lake was still in her teens when cast in her first starring role in Sullivan’s Travels (1941), the success of which convinced Paramount to cast her in their upcoming thriller, which would also be a vehicle to launch their next up-and-comer, Alan Ladd.

Despite Ladd’s “introducing” credit that buries him in the cast roll, the stories centers around his eponymous hired gun: Philip Raven, whom we meet immediately at the start of the movie as he wakes from a nap in a San Francisco flophouse with a tinkling piano downstairs. After reviewing the details of the blackmailing chemist he’s been hired to kill, he loads his pistol, completes dressing, and sets out to complete the hit… though not without stopping to attend to the thirsty cat purring outside his window.

Once the job is complete, Raven meets with his shifty employer, the excessively garrulous Willard Gates (a perfectly blustering Laird Cregar), who slyly taunts that, should he have underpaid Raven for his services, it’s not like the hitman could go to the police, a dimwitted threat to make to a professional killer who deadpans in response “I’m my own police” while suggestively spinning a pocket knife between his fingers.

As the heat closes in, led by vacationing LAPD Lieutenant Michael Crane (Robert Preston), Raven escapes San Francisco to pursue to double-crossing Gates on a Southern Pacific train bound for Los Angeles. As luck or coincidence would have it, Raven’s seat-mate is Ellen Graham (Lake), the alluring nightclub performer who’s not only dating Lt. Crane but also has just been hired by Gates to work at his Neptune Club in L.A.

The train ride might have passed without incident, but Raven is so desperately down bad that he’s reduced to attempting to crib Ellen’s last five dollars from her purse when she goes to the bathroom, resulting in their conversation about his making the journey to seek revenge on “a fat man who likes peppermints” and ending with Raven falling asleep on her shoulder, bewildering Gates as he passes through their sleeper car. As the train pulls into the City of Angels, Raven enlists Ellen to help evade the police trap Gates had arranged at the station, though it wouldn’t be the last time as their fates are now woven together through a labyrinth of police dragnets and peppermints, hog-tying chauffeurs and hungry cats.

Even while on the run with a beautiful blonde, all Philip Raven needs is a hat, a gat, and a cat.

Based on Graham Greene’s 1936 novel A Gun for Sale but with a wartime-relevant subplot layered in, This Gun for Hire showcases many hallmarks of classic noir: the femme fatale, murky morals, brisk pacing with elements of humor, shadowy cinematography, and even its setting that travels between the noir-favorite cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. This Gun for Hire also marked the first of three successful screen pairings of Ladd and Lake, compatible not just for their chemistry but also their height as the 5’7″ Ladd could still stand tall over the 4’11” Lake.

In his explosive debut that contemporary critics likened to James Cagney’s impact in The Public Enemy, Ladd typified the film noir figure of the tough-talking gunman in a trench coat and fedora, kicking off a cinematic wave that would continue through contemporaries like Bogart and Mitchum and even be revived a quarter-century via Alain Delon in Jean-Pierre Melville’s thematically similar Le Samouraï (1967).

What’d He Wear?

When costume Alan Ladd for his debut back in 1942, it could have hardly been considered groundbreaking to dress him in the standard businessman’s attire for a rainy day, yet This Gun for Hire seems to be the earliest prominent example of a film noir protagonist clad in the raincoat, fedora, and tie now considered a quintessential costume for the genre. Prolific costume designer Edith Head was credited only for Veronica Lake’s gowns, but it’s no surprise that someone of her cinematic stature would be connected to such an influential costume aesthetic.

The look is most commonly associated with Humphrey Bogart (via Casablanca, released months later, and The Big Sleep), Dana Andrews in Laura, and Robert Mitchum (specifically in Out of the Past), and there had been preceding films with hard-boiled types dressed in raincoats and hats, but Ladd was arguably the first hero—or anti-hero—from the movement typically considered film noir.

Iconic noir looks: Alan Ladd with a fedora, raincoat, and pointed gat as Veronica Lake wears a gown designed by the singular Edith Head.

This Gun for Hire begins with Philip Raven’s alarm clock waking him up in time for another hit. He’s half-dressed—in his shirt-sleeves, loosened dark woolen knit tie, and trousers—and begins constructing the look that he would wear through almost the end of the movie. The light-colored shirt has a long, shaped “spearpoint” collar that was typical to this era, additionally detailed with button cuffs, plain front (no placket), and a breast pocket. Pockets on dress shirts were a primarily American phenomenon, with many anecdotal recollections from mid-century of men using the pocket for cigarette storage at a time when more than half the American male population smoked.

Production photo of Alan Ladd at the start of This Gun for Hire.

After tightening his tie and loading his pistol, Raven climbs out of bed and pulls on the single-breasted suit jacket to match his flat-front trousers. The color of the worsted wool suiting is lost to history, though it has a subtle pinstripe and likely falls somewhere along the traditional tailoring spectrum from the conservative business shades of dark gray and navy blue to earthier but still common likes like dark olive and brown.

The two-button jacket follows the typical lounge suit design that has hardly changed in 80 years, though tailored in accordance with trends of the early 1940s with wide, padded shoulders, ventless back, and a generous cut that looks especially roomy on Alan Ladd’s lean frame. The notch lapels, welted breast pocket, and straight jetted hip pockets should all be familiar elements to anyone at all versed in men’s fashion, and the sleeves are finished with two buttons on each cuff.

The flat-front suit trousers rise to Ladd’s natural waist, where they’re held up by a dark leather belt with a single-prong metal buckle. The trousers also have side pockets and turn-ups (cuffs) over the bottoms. His derby shoes present lighter than black, almost certainly suggesting brown leather uppers.

As Raven tends to his feline friend’s needs, note the tartan check lining of his raincoat that may suggest Burberry.

And now… Raven’s coat. Though it shares many characteristics with a trench coat, it lacks the defining belt as well as other details like epaulets (shoulder straps), storm flaps, and button-down pockets, so the most accurate description for this knee-length garment would simply be: raincoat.

The outer cloth is likely a khaki waterproofed gabardine with a checked lining. Aquascutum and Burberry both lined their outerwear in plaid, though the tartan plaid of Raven’s raincoat suggests the recognizable Burberry house check that had been in practice since at least the 1920s.

The double-breasted arrangement consists of eight total buttons—two columns of four, with four to close (8×4)—though it presents as a 6×3 when he wears the top undone and the lapels laid flat over the chest. The coat has raglan sleeves that allow greater arm movement, each finished at the cuff with a semi-strap that closes through a button. The coat also has a long single vent and hand pockets with welted openings on a vertical slant.

Raven completes his look with a wide-brimmed fedora that rarely leaves his head, made of a dark felt with a black grosgrain band.

After Raven and Ellen spend the night holed up on the train tracks, he gives her his coat and hat to serve as a decoy for the police to allow enough time for him to make his escape. The ruse briefly works, though losing this “suit of armor” that had protected him through the dragnets and duplicity to this point now leaves Raven more vulnerable as This Gun for Hire approaches its conclusion.

As gorgeous as Veronica Lake may have been, I think we can all agree the fedora and raincoat worked better for Ladd.

For the final act of This Gun for Hire, our hero hitman goes the Agent 47 route of knocking out a nemesis and taking his clothes—in this case, the uniform worn by Gates’ chauffeur Tommy (Marc Lawrence) as well as the convenient gas mask he was wearing due to the Nitro Chemical gas attack drill being conducted at the same time.

If a KN95 doesn’t feel protective enough…

Strapped to his left wrist—the same with his telltale deformation—Raven wears a tank watch on a dark leather strap.

The Gun

Apropos a title like This Gun for Hire, we see plenty of our hired gun’s go-to gat. Philip Raven carries a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, the venerated semi-automatic “pocket pistol” designed by John Browning just after the turn of the 20th century.

Colt introduced the pistol in 1903 chambered for the .32 ACP cartridge, expanded to include a .380 ACP variant five years later that fired slightly larger ammunition but at the expense of one round in the magazine. The Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless received its name from a smooth design that shrouded the hammer, making it less prone to snag on clothing when drawn. This factor, in addition to its reliable mechanics and concealment value, made it quickly popular among civilians and criminals alike, reported to be the pistol that bank robber John Dillinger carried in his trouser pocket when he was cornered and killed by federal agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago in July 1934.

Though many more sidearms had appeared on the market in the nearly forty years since its introduction, the Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless remained both popular and in regular production at the start of the 1940s. It found its way into many movies, particularly effective in the hands of smaller-framed actors like Humphrey Bogart and Alan Ladd as it would look more proportional than the full-sized .45-caliber M1911A1 service pistol.

Philip Raven holds his Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless on Annie (Pamela Blake).

This Gun for Hire features considerably more sophisticated firearm handling than many movies of its era, which often featured a character simply pulling a gun when the drama called for it. For a 1940s movie, Philip Raven takes more of an active role with loading, reloading, and operating his guns, somewhat echoing how Ian Fleming would write about armament in the world of the literary James Bond beginning a decade later.

At the start of the movie, Raven picks up his Colt pistol and pulls back the slide, ostensibly to load a round into the chamber… though he holds it about a second too long before letting the slide snap back into place, all with his finger on the trigger, no less, all but assuring an accidental discharge given the hair-trigger on those single-action blowback pistols. I own a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless that was manufactured in 1917, and it’s certainly the one handgun from among my two dozen that I have to be the most cautious when handling as it lacks many of the integrated safety features or load indicators found on modern pistols.

When Raven draws a second gun while on the run with Ellen, she comments “you certainly pack an arsenal.” He responds that he took this second piece from Gates’ chauffeur Tommy, who seems to share Raven’s preference for the sleek Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless. The second pistol comes in handy when Raven gets cornered by a policeman who disarms him of one of his Colts without realizing he has a second one.

The seven-shot magazine glimpsed as Raven checks the load informs us that his Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless is chambered for .32 ACP, as the .380 ACP models required a six-shot magazine due to the larger round.

How to Get the Look

Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire (1942)

An iconic film noir look was born with Alan Ladd’s explosive debut in This Gun for Hire, establishing the stereotypical gun-toting protagonist in a raincoat and fedora.

• Khaki gabardine knee-length raincoat with double-breasted 8×4-button front, raglan sleeves with semi-tab buttoned cuffs, slanted hand pockets, and long single vent
• Dark pinstripe wool suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Off-white shirt with spearpoint collar, plain front, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Dark knitted wool tie with squared bottom
• Brown leather belt with metal single-prong buckle
• Brown leather derby shoes
• Dark felt wide-brimmed fedora with black grosgrain band
• Tank watch on dark leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, also currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

The Quote

Who trusts anybody?

The post Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire appeared first on BAMF Style.

Michael Douglas as Dan Gallagher in Fatal Attraction (1987)

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Michael Douglas as Dan Gallagher, lawyer

New York City, Fall 1986

Film: Fatal Attraction
Release Date: September 18, 1987
Director: Adrian Lyne
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick

Background

Inspired by costume designer Ellen Mirojnick’s recent podcast appearance on From Tailors With Love that clarified a few misconceptions held around Michael Douglas’ tailored costumes in some of his most prominent movies, let’s finally cover the 35-year-old noir-ish thriller that spawned a cinematic sub-genre centered around Douglas’ sex life getting him in deep trouble.

Despite some behind-the-scenes hesitation about the cast and its controversial story, Fatal Attraction stormed the box office as the highest-grossing film of 1987 at the worldwide box office. The movie was ultimately nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Adrian Lyne, early in his specialty for telling sexually charged cinematic stories of dangerous affairs like 9½ Weeks (1986), Indecent Proposal (1993), Lolita (1997), Unfaithful (2002), and Deep Water (2022).

Fatal Attraction revolves around Dan Gallagher, a successful, charismatic attorney and—for the most part—family man, living with his beautiful wife Beth (Anne Archer) and their bright six-year-old daughter Ellen (Ellen Hamilton Latzen) in Manhattan. Dan’s work representing a publishing company introduces him to the enigmatic Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) during a Friday evening soiree.

After seeing his family off for a weekend in the country, Dan is called into a Saturday morning meeting where, by chance, Alex is in attendance. The two flirt over congressional dalliances and nasally smeared cream cheese until she observes him getting a little too wet and provides the opportunity for him to get something to eat and light her fire.

Alex: And you’re here with a strange girl, being a naughty boy.
Dan: I don’t think having dinner with anybody’s a crime.
Alex: Not yet.

Okay, so after they escape the rain for dinner and a cigarette (what else do you think I meant?), the sexually charged conversation leads to a brief weekend fling that he increasingly regrets as Alex gets a little too… Close, if you will.

What’d He Wear?

“If I remember correctly, Michael had come back from another project, and he wasn’t in the shape that he wanted to be in for Fatal Attraction and so we started, but then we—like, in five days—changed everything and so everything was off-the-rack but, of course, everything is always tailored for the actor,” costume designer Ellen Mirojnick shared in conversation with Pete Brooker and Ken Stauffer on a recent episode of From Tailors With Love. “On that film, nothing was bespoke at all.”

Dan wears a wardrobe of handsomely tailored suits in conservative blues and grays, though he dresses down for his Saturday morning meeting in a sport jacket, polo, and khakis, an outfit that would effectively pass the “smart casual” dress code accepted by many modern-day businesses.

Dan may be dressed for a meeting, but he’s already engaging in some risky business—wait, no, wrong ’80s sex movie!

The sports coat that Dan wears as he engages in his affair with Alex is woven in a unique variation of glen plaid, comprised of fine black and cream tics and further characterized by irregular but intentional slubbing. The jacket follows typical single-breasted design with its notch lapels, welted breast pocket, and straight flapped hip pockets.

As he spends most of these scenes either seated or wearing a raincoat, some other details are difficult to discern but it appears to be ventless. The jacket is fully cut with wide, padded shoulders, consistent with the “power suit” silhouette that was fashionable through the late ’80s. The sleeves are roped at the shoulders and finished with three buttons on each cuff, made of a marbled taupe to match the two buttons positioned low on the front.

Consistent with his dressing down for Saturday morning at the office, Dan foregoes a more formal shirt and tie in favor of a soft-knit black long-sleeve polo, with the three-button top fully fastened.

His khaki slacks are rigged with double reverse pleats, another then-fashionable element of ’80s menswear, and styled with side pockets, button-through back pockets, and cuffed bottoms with a full break over the black leather derby shoes that match his black leather belt which closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle.

Given the nature of the movie—and this specific sequence—we also find out firsthand that Dan wears the same style of white cotton briefs as we’d seen during the curiously costumed opening scene where Dan, Beth, and even the young Ellen were relaxing in the Gallagher family apartment clad only in white shirts and white underwear.

You can tell Dan probably wasn’t planning on getting laid that day or he may have worn underwear a bit more intriguing than his tired tighty-whities.

Dan may not have much luck with his umbrella, but he’s at least prepared for the post-meeting downpour in his sage-green waterproofed gabardine raincoat, designed in the classic balmacaan style with its Prussian collar and raglan sleeves that allow a greater range of motion while layering over the padded shoulders of a 1980s sport jacket.

The knee-length coat has a single-breasted fly front with five buttons extending up from waist to neck, supplemented by a full belt that Dan tucks the end of into each welted vertical hand pocket. The coat also has a long single vent and semi-straps that close through one of two buttons on each cuff.

For most of Fatal Attraction, Dan wears a simple black watch that honestly it looks like it could be a Swatch with its plain white dial, detailed with black numeric hour markers and a rectangular day/date window at 3:00.

These Swiss-made quartz watches were all the rage through the ’80s, developed to compete in the “quartz crisis” that had found inexpensive battery-powered watches overtaking venerated mechanical watchmakers. The brand name is a portmanteau meaning “second watch”, intending for wearers to add Swatch timepieces to their collection as backups. We do indeed see Dan wearing a fancier gold watch while later walking his dog Quincy with Alex, though he curiously wears his Swatch-like watch for business and dressier occasions while reserving his gold watch for an afternoon at the dog park with his mistress?

Dan further dresses his hand with a plain yellow gold wedding ring, which clearly needs to be more prominent to keep our hero more faithful to his marriage!

Love that we get a solid glimpse at Dan’s wedding ring at the very moment we see him about the cross the point of no return when deciding to violate his marital vows. Come on, Dan—think of your wife, your daughter, your future bunny!

How to Get the Look

Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (1987)

Shoulder pads, pleated pants, whitey-tighties, and a Swatch… not to mention a wedding ring. On the surface, it sounds surprising that this would be the outfit to attract a paramour into an illicit tryst, but I appreciate the coordination between Dan’s black shirt and khaki trousers pulled together in the distinctive plaid sports coat.

• Black-and-cream finely woven glen plaid slubbed single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Black soft-knit long-sleeved polo shirt with three-button top
• Khaki double reverse-pleated slacks with belt loops, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather derby shoes
• Black socks
• Sage-green gabardine knee-length balmacaan-style raincoat with Prussian collar, raglan sleeves with buttoned semi-strap cuffs, 5-button fly front, full belt, and vertical welted-entry hand pockets
• Gold wedding ring
• Black plastic-cased Swatch Original watch with round white dial (with 3:00 day/date window) on black plastic strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick’s appearances on From Tailors With Love.

Three months after Fatal Attraction was released, Moonstruck arrived in theaters, asking the question “why do men chase women?” and coming to a quasi-consensus that it’s because men fear death. However, Fatal Attraction may have spun this theory around, causing men to fear death if they chased women.

The Quote

Yes, I’m discreet.

The post Fatal Attraction: Michael Douglas’ Plaid Sport Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.

James Coburn as Louis Sedgwick in The Great Escape (1963)

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James Coburn as Louis Sedgwick, Australian RAAF Flying Officer

Sagan-Silesia (Zagan, Poland), Spring 1944

Film: The Great Escape
Release Date: July 4, 1963
Director: John Sturges
Wardrobe Credit: Bert Henrikson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today is the 20th anniversary of the death of James Coburn, the prolific and reliable Nebraska-born star who grew to fame through memorable appearances in the ’60s, including the requisite Westerns and war films including the 1963 ensemble epic The Great Escape, dramatizing the real-life mass breakout of more than six dozen Allied airmen from Stalag Luft III during World War II. Ultimately, there were three successful escapees; of the 73 captured, 50 were summarily executed on Hitler’s direct orders.

Coburn portrayed the fictional Australian officer Louis Sedgwick, an amalgamation of the camp “manufacturer” Johnny Travis (RAF) and Dutch flying ace Bram “Bob” van der Stok, one of the three successful escapees who made his getaway, crossing much of occupied Europe with the help of French Resistance networks.

Details of van der Stok’s escape, chronicled in chapter 21 of Paul Brickhill’s definitive 1950 book The Great Escape, paralleled those of his fictionalized counterpart Sedgwick, including his traveling by bicycle and by foot, witnessing a massacre of German soldiers by Allied resistance, and ultimately being guided by a Maquis to neutral Spain. In July 1944, van der Stok was flown to England, where he rejoined the RAF No. 41 Squadron before ultimately taking command of the Dutch RAF No. 322 Squadron. Flight Lieutenant van der Stok survived the war, was inducted as an MBE, and died at home in Virginia Beach in February 1993.

What’d He Wear?

RAAF War Service Dress

Sedgwick eagerly engages in some “knuckles” during his first day in Stalag Luft III, staging a mock argument with his fellow prisoner Haynes (Lawrence Montaigne) over a battle jacket leant to them for the scuffle by Danny Welinski (Charles Bronson), despite the fact that both Sedgwick and Haynes are wearing their own respective RAAF and RCAF uniform jackets.

An officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, Sedgwick wears the waist-length war service dress jacket that the Royal Air Force had developed in response to the No. 5 combat uniform developed by the British Army, though those worn by the RAF and the Commonwealth flying services were produced in shades of dark blue to mimic service uniforms and designated “war service dress” instead of the Army’s “battledress” terminology.

My understanding is that the RAAF uniform color differed slightly from “RAF blue”, with Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams having determined that the cloth would be colored by only three indigo dye dips as opposed to four (source: Wikipedia). I’ve also read that Australian battledress wasn’t introduced until after World War II, though that may only apply to land forces as the Australian War Memorial page includes a photo of RAAF and Royal New Zealand Air Force air crew sporting war service dress in 1944.

Made from a rich indigo blue wool serge, Sedgwick’s war service dress jacket follows the standard design with a five-button fly front and an extended self-belt that fastens closed through a gunmetal-toned single-prong buckle on the right side of the waistband. There are two large box-pleated chest pockets, each with a scalloped flap that closes through a concealed button, and the cuffs also close through a single button. He proudly wears the RAAF embroidered “wings” insignia above his left breast pocket, and his epaulets (shoulder straps) are looped with the narrow sky-blue stripe over a wider black stripe designating his rank of Flying Officer (OF-1). At the top of each shoulder, he wears a small arced patch with “AUSTRALIA” in sky-blue against a navy ground that specifically denotes his service in the RAAF as opposed to the RAF or other Commonwealth nation.

Haynes and Sedgwick—already in service tunic and war service blouse, respectively—develop an on-the-spot diversion to fight over Danny’s uniform jacket.

Consisting with his rakish demeanor, Sedgwick often wears a tattered dark navy woolen watch cap, torn away in the front of the crown to show a patch of Coburn’s chestnut hair. To my knowledge, these weren’t standard issue among Commonwealth forces during World War II, though the crafty officer may have cribbed a U.S. Navy A4-style beanie from an American serviceman he encountered during  his escapades.

Sedgwick routinely wears a turtleneck like fellow Commonwealth aviator Robert Hendley (James Garner), albeit in a brick-red wool that contrasts from the more militaristic off-white shade of Flt Lt Hendley’s submariner sweater. With its heavy ribbed roll-neck and well-pilled body, Sedgwick’s jumper looks cozy but oversized in this context as the ribbed hemline hangs well below the waistband of his war service dress jacket.

Presumably under his sweater, Sedgwick wears a standard uniform shirt though the body is a darker shade of slate-blue than I would expect of a commissioned officer, suggesting that he may have scrounged the shirt issued to an “ordinary airman”.

While the Americans had already adopted uniform shirts with attached collars and full plackets, Commonwealth services still issued pullover shirts to be worn with detachable collars with a crisp, correct appearance. Given the informality of his situation, Sedgwick wears the shirt sans collar, showing the contrasting white neckband kept open at the top as he also foregoes the neck stud. He keeps all three buttons fastened on the long semi-placket that extends to his stomach. The shirt’s original long sleeves appear to have been camp-modified to half-length sleeves, ending at his elbows.

Given Sedgwick’s presumed role in several past escapes that would have landed him at the more secure Stalag Luft III, he’s likely had to cobble together enough uniform pieces to keep himself properly attired after sacrificing some for escape disguises, resulting in his mismatched olive-brown wool battledress trousers rather than the blue serge that would match his RAAF war service blouse.

Sedgwick’s double forward-pleated trousers are designed with large button-down belt loops, slanted side pockets, an additional pocket forward of the right hip, a flapped pocket over the left thigh, and two flapped back pockets, finished with plain-hemmed bottoms devoid of button-tabs as seen on some battledress patterns. As worn by some of his fellow prisoners like Dennis Cavendish (Nigel Stock), these appear to be an amalgamation of battledress patterns, blending the pocket placement of the 1937 pattern with the button-through pocket flaps introduced in 1940 and the unique waistband and plain-hemmed bottoms of the anachronistic 1949 pattern.

A guard breaks up the tussle between Haynes and Sedgwick.

Sedgwick wears black calf leather ankle boots similar to “ammo boots”, the derby-laced footwear authorized for British Commonwealth land and air forces throughout World War II. Boot design varied by bootmaker, whether in number of eyelets or whether or not it was finished with a toe-cap, but overall profile and construction remained the same. Sedgwick completes his camp costume with a set of pale blue-gray socks with a black banded stripe above a sky-blue stripe.

Camp-made Norfolk Jacket

Of all the escape disguises tailored in the camp, Sedgwick’s countrified Norfolk jacket and flat cap may be my favorite. For what its worth, Sedgwick’s closest real-life counterpart, Bob van der Stok, was described by Brickhill as making his escape as “Number 18 out of the tunnel, had traveled alone, wearing a dark-blue Australian Air Force greatcoat, Dutch naval trousers, and a beret.” Sedgwick’s attire departs from this, but I feel like there must be some connection to the filmmakers making his character Australian—like van der Stok’s escape coat—and dressing him in a flat cap, similar enough to a beret.

The brown Norfolk jacket worn for Sedgwick’s escape has a contemporary cut that slightly differs from tradition, with the obvious in-universe explanation being that it would have been secretly tailored in the camp from a modified uniform, possibly a flying officer’s belted service tunic as this would already have some of the structure to be transformed into a belted sports coat like the Norfolk jacket.

Developed in mid-19th century England as a roomy shooting jacket, the Norfolk jacket can vary in its design but the most traditional design is single-breasted with notch lapels and the characterizing details of a full belt around the waist and box pleats on the front and back. Sedgwick’s jacket is designed accordingly, with a full belt around the waist that closes through two walnut shank buttons that match the two on the front and the two on each cuff. The front quarters are squared for a full skirt, allowing more space for the large patch-style pocket on each hip that could be valuable for Sedgwick to store essential provisions while making his solitary escape.

The Maquisards escorting Sedgwick to the Pyrenees look pretty natty themselves in their flat caps and leather coats.

Rather than van der Stok’s beret, Sedgwick wears a brown-and-black checked wool flat cap that harmonizes with his countrified Norfolk jacket. It’s easy to see how his olive-brown serge shirt and charcoal worsted wool tie could have been made from pieces of an officer’s uniform with little modification needed.

There must have been some sophisticated tailors among the prisoners at Stalag Luft III to make such convincing civilian-wear, as details like the pleats on Sedgwick’s Norfolk jacket would suggest.

Sedgwick keeps his look appropriately subdued and neutral with a pair of gray woolen trousers, black leather derby shoes, and black socks, all likely appropriated from uniform pieces.

Dressing for escape, Sedgwick patiently waits his turn in line.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and read Paul Brickhill’s 1950 book that formed the basis for the movie. Like the fictional Sedgwick, Brickhill was an Australian prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III though his claustrophobia prevented the author from escaping with the others. After the murder of the 50, Brickhill was determined to chronicle the details of the mass escape.

The Quote

Patience is a virtue, Roger!

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Sidney Poitier as Dr. John Prentice in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

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Sidney Poitier as Dr. John Wade Prentice, widowed physician and professor

San Francisco, Spring 1967

Film: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Release Date: December 12, 1967
Director: Stanley Kramer
Costume Designer: Joe King

Background

As we gear up for arguably the biggest family dinner of the year this week, I want to revisit one of the most famous “dinner movies” despite never actually seeing the titular meal on screen. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner broke ground upon its release 55 years ago for its positive portrayal of an interracial relationship when the white Joanna Drayton (Katharine Houghton) returns from a Hawaiian vacation with her new fiancé, a widowed black doctor named John Prentice (Sidney Poitier).

Joanna’s parents Matt (Spencer Tracy) and Christina (Katharine Hepburn) are surprised by the engagement, with Christina quicker to warm up to her daughter’s decision while Matt fears for their potential unhappiness and lack of acceptance in a country where interracial marriage was still illegal in 17 states until the Supreme Court’s landmark Loving v. Virginia decision in June 1967, just weeks after filming concluded on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

The film illustrates the complexity of their situation by also introducing John’s parents, John (Roy E. Glenn, Sr.) and Mary (Beah Richards), who are equally nonplussed to learn that their son plans to marry a white woman, resulting in John’s emotional and memorable monologue outlining how their generational differences alter their perspectives:

You listen to me. You say you don’t want to tell me how to live my life. So what do you think you’ve been doing? You tell me what rights I’ve got or haven’t got, and what I owe to you for what you’ve done for me. Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you’re supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world, and from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don’t own me! You can’t tell me when or where I’m out of line, or try to get me to live my life according to your rules. You don’t even know what I am, Dad, you don’t know who I am. You don’t know how I feel, what I think. And if I tried to explain it the rest of your life you will never understand. You are 30 years older than I am. You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it’s got to be. And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs! You understand, you’ve got to get off my back! Dad… Dad, you’re my father. I’m your son. I love you. I always have and I always will. But you think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man. Now, I’ve got a decision to make, hm? And I’ve got to make it alone, and I gotta make it in a hurry. So would you go out there and see after my mother?

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, ultimately winning for William Rose’s original screenplay and Hepburn’s lead performance as Christina Drayton. Following the death of Sir Sidney Poitier this January at the age of 94, Houghton remains the only living member of the principal cast.

What’d He Wear?

1967 was a watershed year for Sidney Poitier, who starred in three excellent films that each address societal issues and race relations: To Sir, With Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Poitier spends at least a portion of each movie dressed in a tastefully tailored gray wool suit, perhaps visually communicating that the stalwart “man in the gray flannel suit” was being expanded beyond its image introduced in the segregated 1950s to men who look like Sidney Poitier: the new American everyman.

After wearing his dark gray flannel suit to meet the Draytons, John changes for dinner into an elegant dark navy suit with the unique combination of peak lapels on a single-breasted jacket, perhaps hoping to sartorially signal an alliance with his similarly tailored father.

Interestingly, John wears a suit fashioned to mimic each respective father as he and Joanna are introduced to them as a couple, here wearing a dark suit with a single-breasted, peak-lapel jacket like his father John Sr. wears.

John’s suit is made from a navy wool with an elegantly fine nap suggestive of doeskin, a woolen flannel that has been felted into what Sir Hardy Amies described in his 1964 volume ABCs of Men’s Fashion as “a smooth, almost velvety finish,” with its close weave making it an appropriate suiting for cooler climates like springtime in San Francisco. Doeskin is typically reserved for sportier tailoring like blazers and slacks, but Poitier wears it effectively with his well-tailored suit that delivers a strong silhouette despite the soft surface.

The two-button jacket has peak lapels of moderate width though they perhaps wider than was “fashionable” in the late ’60s, indicating John’s preference for timelessness rather than trendiness. The ventless jacket has wide, padded shoulders with gently roped sleeveheads and four-button cuffs. In addition to the straight flapped hip pockets, the jacket has a welted breast pocket that John dresses with a scarlet silk pocket square.

John’s matching flat-front suit trousers are held up with a black leather belt, seen most prominently when the silver-toned single-prong buckle shines from his waist as Spencer Tracy delivers Matt’s memorable monologue. The trousers also have side pockets and the bottoms finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

John wears a light cream cotton shirt that provides a warmer contrast against his navy suit than a more businesslike white shirt. As he dresses, we see him slipping the plastic collar stays into his spread collar. The shirt also has a plain front (sans placket) and double (French) cuffs. Knotted in a small four-in-hand, John’s navy tie has an arrangement of pale-pink pin-dots that add a reddish cast which neatly coordinates with his pocket square.

John wears black socks and black leather lace-up shoes, likely the same well-polished cap-toe derbies that he had worn earlier in the day with his gray flannel suit.

What to Imbibe

John and Joanna stop for drinks with friends before picking up his parents from the airport. The other couple appear to be drinking Old Fashioneds—suggested by the amber color and the cherry and orange slice garnishment—while John and Joey clearly drink Martinis, each garnished with a single olive.

Martinis had long been traditionally made with gin and vermouth, though of the latter it’s often been stipulated to use as little as possible per Noël Coward’s oft-quoted guidance that “a perfect Martini should be made by filling a glass with gin, then waving it in the general direction of Italy.”

After centuries confined primarily to Russia, Poland, and Sweden, vodka grew sharply popular through the 1940s, thanks to drinks like the Bloody Mary, Moscow Mule, and Screwdriver and shady marketing tactics touting Smirnoff as a “no smell, no taste… white whiskey.” David Embury published the vodka martini as a viable alternative to the venerated gin-based cocktail in his 1948 volume and the “vodka martini, shaken not stirred,” would soon be immortalized as the cinematic James Bond’s signature drink. By the late ’60s, as John and Joey joined their friends for a night on the town in San Francisco, it very possibly could have been gin or vodka used to make their martinis.

How to Get the Look

Sidney Poitier as Dr. John Prentice in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)

Consistent with his elegant screen persona, Sidney Poitier illustrates how a few touches—like a warmer-shaded shirt and a red, rather than white, pocket square—can convert traditional business-wear like his navy flannel suit into contextually appropriate attire for a more intimate family dinner.

• Dark navy doeskin woolen flannel suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Cream cotton shirt with spread collar, plain front, and double/French cuffs
• Navy with pale-pink pin-dots tie
• Black leather belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather cap-toe derby shoes
• Black cotton lisle socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

You think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.

The post Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: Sidney Poitier in a Navy Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.

Steve Martin as Neal Page in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Vitals

Steve Martin as Neal Page, advertising executive and family man

New York City to Chicago… via Kansas and Missouri, Fall 1987

Film: Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Release Date: November 25, 1987
Director: John Hughes
Costume Designer: April Ferry
Steve Martin’s Costumer: Dennis Schoonderwoerd

Background

It’s two days to Thanksgiving! If you’re an ad man in New York for a creative presentation with an indecisive client, that should give you just enough time to unsuccessfully race Kevin Bacon for a taxi and join up with a talkative shower curtain ring salesman—excuse me, shower curtain ring sales director—for a series of transportation-related hijinks to make it home to Chicago just as that stuffed bird is ready to come out of the oven on Thursday.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles remains one of the few bona fide classic Thanksgiving comedies, released 35 years ago this week as commemorated today with an all-new 4K home video release that includes more than an hour of deleted and extended footage. The movie arguably succeeds best thanks to the comedic chemistry between Steve Martin and John Candy, balancing humor and heart as both the banal Neal and garrulous Del are humanized beyond initial stereotypes in what both actors described as a career-favorite film.

They meet over a “stolen” cab during rush hour on Park Avenue, with Neal desperately hoping to make his 6:00 flight home to Chicago. Neal’s troubles are only beginning when the taxi he manages to secure via $75 to an unscrupulous attorney is taken instead by an unsuspecting Del, who—despite being a million bucks shy of being a millionaire—offers Neal a hot dog and a beer as penance during a delay the airport. Finally able to board the plane, Neal’s horrors increase as, not only is the voluminous and voluble Del his seat-mate, but the prophesy foretold by six bucks and Del’s right nut comes true as the plane lands not in Chicago but is diverted to Wichita.

Writer and director John Hughes explained he was inspired to develop the movie after his own New York-to-Chicago flight had once been diverted to Wichita, requiring an extra five days until he got home. It took only three days for Hughes to draft the initial screenplay, illustrating his talent for not only writing a masterful script but also producing perfect improv from his actors, from Martin and Candy to Edie McClurg’s memorable turn as the “you’re fucked” rental car agent.

What’d He Wear?

Much of Neal Page’s wardrobe is desperately tethered to the fading fashions of the ’80s, but I’m a sucker for a good “road wardrobe”, especially one that devolves as the wearer’s journey grows increasingly dire. I also find many of the details to be very interesting for, as much as Neal may have meant to represent the typical conservative conformist in Reagan-era corporate America, looking more closely at his attire reveals that he’s dressed much beyond the quintessential “man in the gray flannel suit”.

Meet Neal Page, who hasn’t yet mastered work/life balance.

April Ferry is credited as the primary costume designer on Planes, Trains & Automobiles, but Steve Martin was dressed by Dennis Schoonderwoerd, who served as Martin’s own costumer from Pennies From Heaven (1981) through Bowfinger (1999). According to Christa Worthington’s New York Times Magazine profile of Martin in 1988, a year after this movie was released, Schoonderwoerd said of his famous client: “He knows exactly what he wants, what he likes… He’s not trendy, but he’s very current. He doesn’t dress to be noticed, but because he likes certain fabrics and the way things fit.”

Neal may have arrived in New York only that morning and, planning on just a short in-and-out business trip, doesn’t have quite the eclectic wardrobe available to him as his co-tripper Del, whose inconvenient steamer trunk affords him the opportunity to rotate through a more extensive “road closet” of bow-ties and big-and-tall menswear from cardigans to three-piece suits.

Neal Page may pack lighter, but at least Del gets to wear fresh underwear the next day.

Given the intended duration of his trip, Neal has little else to wear except the suit from his client presentation. All he carries are a simple garment bag (of which we don’t see the contents, but we know doesn’t include a change of underwear) and a briefcase, which becomes the first casualty of his attempted trip home. Working as an executive in the marketing industry may at least Neal some license to dress more creatively, beyond the conservative blue and gray worsteds that defined appropriate business-wear for much of the 20th century.

Neal’s suit is constructed from a black-and-cream tick-patterned wool, woven to present a warm gray overall finish. Much of the jacket reflects the fashions of the ’80s, echoing his costumer’s description that Steve Martin preferred a “very current” style. The shoulders are wide and padded, consistent with the “power suit” silhouette popularized through the decade, establishing a baggy fit for the ventless jacket that hangs straight around Martin’s torso like a curtain at a voting booth, full but not flattering like tailoring of the late ’40s and ’50s.

The low, steep gorges of the notch lapels compete with the higher-positioned placement of the welted breast pocket, and the hip pockets are sportier patch-style pockets. Each sleeve is finished with three-button cuffs. (The suit jacket presumably burns up in Del’s rented LeBaron, leaving only Neal’s overcoat as his main layer over his shirt.)

The matching suit trousers have reverse-facing pleats, side pockets, and button-through back pockets where Neal keeps his wallet, much to his own detriment after he pulls it out and stores it in the doomed LeBaron’s glove compartment to get more comfortable. Consistent with the full fit of his clothing, the trousers are full through the legs to the plain-hemmed bottoms that have a full break over his shoes. Neal holds his trousers up with a black leather belt through a silver-toned single-prong buckle.

“I’ve never seen a guy get picked up by his testicles before.” — Del Griffith

Neal wears a pale ecru shirt patterned with a slate-gray banker’s stripe, each stripe faintly detailed with a narrow dobby-textured stripe bordering the top that alternates between rust and blue. The shirt has a narrow point collar, front placket, squared single-button cuffs, and an inverted box pleat in the center of the back that echoes the inverted box-pleated breast pocket.

Although Neal loses his hat, suit jacket, and much of his sanity over the course of his journey with Del, he continues wearing the tie from his business meeting, perhaps hoping to keep some consistency from his life before the nightmarish voyage home. The maroon silk tie has a tonal leafy pattern, overlaid with large black polka dots scattered around the tie.

Rather than more traditional lace-ups or even penny loafers, Neal wears a unique pair of slip-on shoes with black scaled leather uppers, resembling huaraches though—as we see after the shoes accrue considerable snow damage at the St. Louis airport—the texture isn’t the result of interwoven leather, as huaraches had been traditionally constructed. The lightweight construction, low vamps, and thin black leather soles suggest that, while these shoes may be comfortable for air travel and hours trapped in a conference room, they’re hardly practical for any rigors of the road beyond that… especially in a snowy Midwestern winter!

Neal’s dark gray socks with their burgundy polka-dots coordinate with his overall color palette while also subtly reflecting the pattern in his tie.

“Please… have mercy. I’ve been wearing the same underwear since Tuesday,” Neal begs a sleepy Missouri motel clerk (Martin Ferrero) late on Wednesday night. “I can vouch for that,” affirms Del, who has likely at least had the opportunity to change out of his massive white Jockeys. (A lesson for everyone, especially in this modern age of flight delays and misplaced luggage: always keep at least a backup pair of underwear in your carry-on bag!)

On the first night of their acquaintanceship that brings them closer than the two men could have ever expected, Neal strips down to his undershirt and shorts for his attempt to catch forty winks in the beer-soaked motel bed he shares with the snorting Del. Neal’s undershirt is of the plain white cotton crew-neck short-sleeved T-shirt variety, and his long-suffering underwear is a pair of pale ecru striped cotton boxer shorts.

Those weren’t pillows!

Neal wears a huge dark gray wool knee-length overcoat, which looks particularly oversized on Steve Martin, who may stand 6′ tall but with a lean, athletic frame that wouldn’t fill out such a large coat as well as, say, John Candy. At least the voluminous coat can comfortably double as a makeshift blanket when Neal naps in the defective passenger seat of Del’s rental LeBaron coming out of St. Louis.

Every detail follows ’80s trends, including the notch lapels with their dropped gorges and the low two-button stance that seems to fall below Martin’s natural waist, rather than considerably above it as an overcoat should. The coat has a long single vent, a vestigial button sewn onto each cuff, and large patch-style hip pockets.

The lawyer who charges Neal for his cab may be of poor character, but he exhibits a fine taste of clothing in that tailored double-breasted coat with its martial epaulets, a decided improvement over Neal’s baggy ’80s overcoat.

Despite some of the funky ’80s fashion infused into his business-wear, Neal still clings—at least for as long as he can—to his old-fashioned hat, a gray felt self-edged fedora with a narrow black grosgrain band.

As he grips the hat on a crowded bus into St. Louis, we see a gold-etched logo along the inside of the black leather sweatband that appears to be from famed Italian hatmaker Borsalino… making it all the more tragic when the hat finally gets run over by a truck.

On the plane to Chicago Wichita, Neal optimistically dons a pair of tortoiseshell reading glasses as he hopes to read a GQ article penned by a friend. Unlike narrower rectangular reading glasses, the frames are more of the oversized square shape that was fashionable through the ’80s.

Given the wintry weather, Neal has gloves—but, oop, never mind… he left those in Brian’s office.

Luckily, the generous Del isn’t out of compassion after suffering much of Neal’s abuse and evidently lends his co-traveler a tan corduroy topcoat, shepherd’s check woolen scarf, and red-and-black buffalo plaid hunting cap that allow him to bundle up a little more warmly for their Thanksgiving morning ride in the exposed and burnt-up LeBaron.

Neal and Del test the limits of their supposedly road-worthy LeBaron on a snowy Thanksgiving morning.

Our on-screen introduction to Neal Page at the start of the film is a close-up of his luxurious Piaget Polo watch, which he anxiously continues to check while waiting on feedback from a particularly persnickety client (William Windom), a situation to which pretty much any advertising professional can relate.

Watch ID has specifically identified the unique watch as a quartz-powered Piaget Polo ref. 8273 with a 27mm 18-karat yellow gold case. The watch features a brushed gold case and matching inset dial, detailed only with small dots serving as minute markers, the “PIAGET” logo across the center, and gold-finished hour and minute hands, though it’s most distinctively characterized by the three ridges that run vertically across the case and dial—one through the center and two flanking it, each aligned with the lugs that secure Neal’s watch to the black exotic-textured leather band.

“$17 and a hell of a nice watch,” Neal offers as his final assets when bargaining with the El Rancho motel clerk in the middle-of-nowhere, Missouri… it’s evidently just enough to snag him a room that he ultimately shares with Del, who gets to keep his two dollars and digital Casio.

Stuck in a meeting at 4:46 p.m. with no end in sight… it’s amazing that Neal is still able to catch his 6 p.m. flight, but that just illustrates the difference between the world of 1987 and today.

The gold wedding band on Neal’s finger constantly serves to remind him of the warmth and love awaiting him at home… should he ever get there. Even at his most down bad, you can be sure Neal would rather sleep on a snow-covered highway than sell his ring for a hotel room.

What to Imbibe

Neal had kept himself sober for much of the journey with Del, but—after relieving himself of his remaining valued possessions in return for a warm motel room—he finally gives in and splits a world tour of mini-bottled booze with his traveling companion.

“Where ya been? Been to Italy… amaretto?” asks Del. “Amaretto… and this is a gin,” Neal responds, a mini-bottle of Beefeater in hand. “Give me that third tequila there?”

“Ah, a little Mexican trip,” responds Del, tossing over a bottle. His Doritos in the other hand, Neal raises the tequila and asks: “Is this a good combo or what?”

“No, probably not,” Del reassures him.

A Thanksgiving Eve tour of the world’s spirits, 50 mL at a time in a rural Missouri motel room. Is that a good combo or what?

He raises the Beefeater for a last sip as they share their toast “to the wives!”

How to Get the Look

Steve Martin as Neal Page in Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

By the time Neal Page finally does make it home for Thanksgiving, he’s lost his gloves (Brian’s office), his hat (run over by a truck), his suit jacket (burned in a rental car), and his “hell of a nice watch” (sold for a motel room), but at least he gained some precious memories on the road with a colorful shower-ring salesman.

• Black-and-cream tick-patterned wool suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with low notch lapels, welted breast pocket, patch-style hip pockets, wide padded shoulders, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and full-break plain-hemmed bottoms
• Ecru—with slate-gray banker’s stripe and alternating dobby-textured rust and blue border stripes—cotton shirt with narrow point collar, front placket, inverted box-pleated chest pocket, 1-button squared cuffs, and inverted box-pleated back
• Maroon silk self-patterned tie with large black polka-dots
• Black leather belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black scaled leather low-vamp loafers
• Dark gray cotton lisle socks with burgundy polka-dots
• White cotton crew-neck short-sleeved undershirt
• Pale-ecru striped cotton boxer shorts
• Dark gray wool single-breasted 2-button knee-length overcoat with low-gorge notch lapels, patch-style hip pockets, decorative 1-button cuffs, and long single vent
• Dark gay felt self-edged fedora with narrow black grosgrain band
• Tortoiseshell-framed reading glasses
• Gold wedding ring
• Piaget Polo ref. 8273 quartz-powered watch with triple-ridged 18-karat yellow gold case and dial on black exotic-textured leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. Gobble gobble!

The Quote

Those aren’t pillows!

The post Steve Martin in Planes, Trains & Automobiles appeared first on BAMF Style.