Robert Redford as Paul Bratter in Barefoot in the Park (1967)

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Robert Redford as Paul Bratter, newlywed lawyer

New York City, February 1967

Film: Barefoot in the Park
Release Date: May 25, 1967
Director: Gene Saks
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

With Valentine’s Day a few days behind us, I want to focus on a movie that takes a lighthearted look at that awkward period in a new marriage between the “honeymoon phase” and the hard truths of reality setting in. Adapted from Neil Simon’s play of the same name, Barefoot in the Park was an early star-making role for Robert Redford, reprising the role of Paul Bratter that he had played in more than 1,500 performances over nearly four years on Broadway.

Contrasting his free-spirited new wife Corie (Jane Fonda), Paul is the more conservative type, focused on his ambitions as a “rising young attorney” who—despite his youth—still scowls at the progressive Beatniks living in their five-story walk-up in Greenwich Village.

What else did you expect in the Village, Paul?

Buoyed by the easy chemistry between Redford and Fonda, Barefoot in the Park follows Paul’s progression as he learns to embrace life on Corie’s level, while she gradually comes to appreciate his sense of responsibility… when he’s not drunkenly running barefoot through Washington Square Park, that is.

What’d He Wear?

Consistent with his buttoned-up personality, we initially never see Paul wearing anything but a full suit, tie, and—due to the hole in their top-floor apartment’s skylight—an overcoat. (According to IMDB, Redford so loathed the costume requirements of his character that he would don a cowboy hat and boots during breaks in the filming.)

Paul’s expression evidently mirrors Redford’s own attitude about exclusively wearing conservative suits and ties for the character.

“It’s a nice coat ya got there,” Paul hears from a homeless man as he stumbles through Washington Square Park, the man astutely commenting on Paul’s black woolen Chesterfield. Developed by George Stanhope, 6th Earl of Chesterfield, during the 1840s, the traditional Chesterfield was defined by Sir Hardy Amies in ABC of Men’s Fashion as “single-breasted, close-fitting and shaped at the waist, velvet-collared and very long,” an apt description for Paul’s knee-length coat.

Paul’s single-breasted Chesterfield has a three-button covered-fly front, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and single back vent. The set-in sleeves are finished with two buttons at each cuff, and the cran necker (or Parisian) lapels are narrowly notched between the black velvet collar and the self-faced lower half of each lapel.

The happy couple.

By this point in the late 1960s, such traditional Chesterfields were more typically worn with formal attire while semi-formal overcoats and raincoats appeared more over day-to-day business-wear, especially among younger Americans of limited means like Paul, though his regular preference for the formal Chesterfield indicates his haughty aspirations… as well as his abandonment of them when he ultimately pulls off the coat and gifts it to the man who complimented it in the park.

But before Paul gets to that degree of desperation, he dresses to convey the image of a respectable rising young attorney, complete for the winter with scarf and gloves, specifically three-point dress gloves made from a supple taupe-brown suede.

The very happy couple.

Paul wears a plain gray scarf, woven from soft wool with short fringed ends.

Given the hole in the skylight during February that has Paul keeping his coat and scarf on, Corie is certainly making some sacrifices by staying stripped down to just her bra in their new apartment.

The limited closet space in Paul and Corie’s fifth-story walk-up apartment doesn’t allow for a sprawling wardrobe, but Paul accommodates by dressing for work each day in the same gray suit, reserving his only other suit—a dark navy two-piece—for a dinner outing.

Rather than the traditional worsted wool, the gray cloth looks like a “wash-and-wear” polyester or cotton-blend poplin weave that was growing increasingly popular through the decade, as made by classic American outfitters like Brooks Brothers and Haspel and modeled by Cary Grant when he wore his “drip dry” suit into the shower four years earlier in Charade.

Paul’s gray suit is detailed in the Ivy fashion that had been growing in mainstream popularity for more than a decade, as evident by the jacket’s natural shoulders, 3/2-roll button configuration, and lack of darts that present a fuller and boxier (but still not baggy) cut. Only the double vents significantly depart from the single-vented American Ivy tradition.

Though worn for business, Paul’s suit jacket also exhibits some sporty styling like swelled edges along the notch lapels and patch pockets over the hips, each covered with a flap. Paul may be a bit of a “square”, but he shows some creative latitude with his display kerchief, dressing the jacket’s breast pocket not with the traditional straight-folded white pocket square but rather a puffed navy silk kerchief that echoes the predominant colors in his ties as well as tonally coordinating to his oxford shirts. The sleeves are finished with two vestigial buttons on each cuff.

Paul deconstructs his buttoned-up appearance as he goes coatless, loose-tied, and barefoot in Washington Square Park.

Paul’s trousers also illustrate the shifting trends in menswear through the ’60s with a medium rise (lower than the traditional high rise) and a flat front (rather than pleats). Belt loops had been gradually integrating onto men’s trousers for four decades leading up to the time Barefoot in the Park was made, but this era saw increased standardization of ready-to-wear clothing with its washable fabrics and belt loops that could correlate to a wearer’s general size rather than being specifically tailored for his waist.

The trousers have plain-hemmed bottoms with a medium break over the tops of his black shoes, which coordinate to the leather of his black belt with its rounded, silver-toned single-prong buckle.

Paul exclusively wears oxford-cloth button-down (OCBD) shirts—the standard-bearers of Ivy style. John E. Brooks had been influenced by English polo players fastening their collars to the bodies of their shirts when he introduced the button-down collar on the Brooks Brothers Original Polo® around the turn of the 20th century.  The increasingly relaxed American business dress code saw this sporty collar gradually rise from a casual staple to being worn with jackets and ties at the office by mid-century (and even with tuxedoes… albeit only by Dean Martin), though the OCBD would always be considered a less formal alternative to traditional point and spread collar styles.

Paul represents this American Ivy business standard by wearing his OCBD shirts to work, woven from blue and white cotton to present an overall light-blue finish. The collar’s elegant roll (when actually buttoned to the body of the shirt) echoes the predominant style produced by Brooks Brothers at the time. Paul’s shirts also feature button cuffs, a front placket, and a breast pocket.

“Before we were married, I thought you slept with a tie,” Corie jokes about Paul’s sense of sartorial dignity. “No, just for very formal sleeps,” he quips back. Indeed, until his minor breakdown at the movie’s end, we rarely see Paul without a tie fastened tightly to the neck.

Paul’s first tie is navy-blue, covered in a neat but tightly arranged field of white pin-dots.

For the final act of the movie, Paul wears another navy tie, patterned with widely spaced sets of balanced cream, crimson, and cream stripes in the “downhill” direction that had been introduced to differentiate American ties from the “uphill” stripe direction of English club, school, and regimental neckwear.

The typical shoe spectrum in the 1960s ranged from the casual penny loafers that had been embraced by Ivy students and sartorially liberated American businessmen to the black leather oxfords that remain a vanguard in footwear formality. Paul gears more toward the formal, though his black leather oxfords are dressed down by virtue of being “full brogues”, complete with perforations along the seams and the wingtip toes. Brogues had traditionally been country shoes once totally unacceptable for business (think the “oxfords, not brogues” maxim guiding Kingsman agents), but Paul’s polished black leather uppers make them dressier than their brown leather contemporaries.

To counter the cold nights in their apartment, Paul sleeps not just in his Chesterfield coat and dark gray gloves but also a navy ribbed-knit wool beanie, detailed with a red pom and bands of gray and red encircling the opening.

Paul’s jewelry consists only of the gold wedding ring he now wears on his left hand as well as a simple gold watch with a round champagne-colored dial on a silver-toned expanding bracelet.

How to Get the Look

Robert Redford as Paul Bratter in Barefoot in the Park (1967)

An ambitious attorney in 1960s New York, Paul Bratter blends Ivy staples with contemporary yet classically informed business-wear.

• Gray “wash-and-wear” polyester poplin Ivy suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/2-roll jacket with swelled-edge notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped patch hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and double vents
  • Flat front medium-rise trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Light-blue oxford cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Navy tie with either white pin-dots or cream-and-crimson “downhill” stripes
• Black leather belt with rounded silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather perforated wingtip oxford brogues
• Dark-navy cotton lisle dress socks
• Black wool single-breasted knee-length Chesterfield coat with cran necker lapels (with black velvet collar), 3-button covered-fly front, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and single vent
• Gray woolen scarf with fringed ends
• Taupe-brown suede three-point gloves
• Gold wedding ring
• Gold wristwatch with round champagne dial on silver-toned expansion band

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

And thus it was written: some shall die by pestilence, some by the plague… and one poor schnook is gonna get it from a hole in the ceiling.

The post The Ivy Newlywed — Robert Redford’s Gray Suit in Barefoot in the Park appeared first on BAMF Style.

Sidney Poitier as Dr. Matt Younger in A Warm December (1973)

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Sidney Poitier as Matt Younger, widowed father and clinic physician

London, Summer 1972

Film: A Warm December
Release Date: May 23, 1973
Director: Sidney Poitier
Wardrobe Supervisor: John Wilson-Apperson

Background

To remember the late screen legend Sidney Poitier KBE—born 96 years ago today on February 20, 1927—today’s post returns to the Oscar-winning actor’s second directorial effort, A Warm December.

In addition to directing, Poitier also stars as the recently widowed Dr. Matt Younger, who arrives in London with his daughter Stefanie (Yvette Curtis). Looking for nothing more than a mindless vacation with his daughter and riding his motorbike, Matt’s trip becomes considerably more complicated after an interesting encounter outside his Pall Mall hotel with the mysterious Catherine Oswandu (Ester Anderson).

What’d He Wear?

Matt arrives in London wearing a camel-colored twill single-breasted blazer, handsomely tailored but not without some concessions to ’70s trends like the wide notch lapels and long double vents that align with the vertical side seams under each armpit. (In this, “camel” refers only to the rich tan color and not the specific fabric, which appears to be a wool serge.)

The blazer has roped sleeveheads and appropriately sporty patch pockets over the hips and left breast. The metal buttons contribute to the jacket’s definition as a blazer and not simply a sports coat, with three brass shank buttons on the front and three smaller matching buttons on each cuff.

Matt’s cotton poplin shirt is a pale cream—just a shade warmer than white, softening the contrast against his blazer—most likely made by London shirtmaker Frank Foster given the setting, the front placket stitching, and the fact that Sidney Poitier was a customer in real-life. The shirt has a substantial spread collar and single-button rounded cuffs.

He wears a woolen flannel tie woven in a gun club check pattern, consisting of an alternating black and olive houndstooth check with a red houndstooth overcheck against a beige ground.

Matt keeps his outfit tonally coordinated with dark brown flat-front trousers, detailed with then-fashionable “frogmouth”-style open-top front pockets and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms. The trousers are held up with a wide dark brown leather belt that closes through a squared gold-toned single prong buckle.

The belt leather coordinates with his dark brown leather moc-toe loafers, each detailed with a silver-toned three-piece horsebit detail. For additional consistency, Matt wears dark chocolate brown dress socks that continue the trouser leg-line into his shoes.

Poor Sidney’s tumble was not in vain, as it granted us a fine look at his uniquely detailed loafers, socks, and trousers.

Later in the film, Matt plans to take the train to Portsmouth for a motorbike race but ultimately aborts his journey in favor of returning to London with Stefanie and using their car trip to educate Stefanie about Catherine’s sickle cell anemia.

Matt wears the same blazer, trousers, belt, and shoes but with a drab mustard turtleneck instead of his previous shirt and tie. Likely made from merino wool, this sweater has a soft, tightly woven body and a narrowly ribbed roll-neck.

How to Get the Look

Sidney Poitier as Dr. Matt Younger in A Warm December (1973)

Matt Younger dresses to make a stylish impression upon his arrival in London, modeling how to tastefully pair light and dark shades of brown with his camel-toned blazer and dark trousers, with additional visual interest from his checked flannel tie and horsebit loafers.

• Camel wool serge single-breasted 3-button blazer with wide notch lapels, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long double side vents
• Pale-cream cotton poplin shirt with spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Beige multicolor gun club check woolen flannel tie
• Dark brown flat front trousers with belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark brown leather belt with squared gold-finished single-prong buckle
• Dark brown leather moc-toe horsebit loafers
• Dark brown socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, most accessibly available on DVD as part of a four-film “Sidney Poitier Collection” box set from Warner Brothers.

The Quote

You take a chance. After all, how many times do you pass through?

Footnote

Shortly after his arrival, Matt also meets up with his friend and fellow doctor Henry Barlow, played by George Baker, whom Bond fans may recognize as the real Sir Hilary Bray in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).

George Baker’s hat was a choice.

The post A Warm December: Sidney Poitier’s Camel Blazer appeared first on BAMF Style.

Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line (2005). Photo credit: Suzanne Tenner.

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Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, country rock star

London, Ontario, February 1968

Film: Walk the Line
Release Date: November 18, 2005
Director: James Mangold
Costume Designer: Arianne Phillips
Tailor: Pam Lisenby

Background

Fifty-five years ago on February 22, 1968, Johnny Cash surprised both the audience and perhaps also his frequent performing partner, June Carter, by proposing to her in the middle of a performance in London, Ontario. The pair had been friends—and eventually lovers—for nearly a decade, as depicted in the 2005 biopic Walk the Line, which culminated with Cash’s on-stage proposal following their performance of “Ring of Fire”, the song June had composed with Merle Kilgore four years earlier to meditate on her own emotions about their relationship.

“June acted all flustered—and maybe she was caught off guard by the timing, but the two had been talking for weeks about getting married, even discussing specific dates,” wrote Robert Hilburn in his biography, Johnny Cash: The Life. “Excited to be part of such a special moment, the crowd showered the couple with affection when June accepted his proposal.”

Johnny Cash and June Carter, on stage in London, Ontario after she accepted his marriage proposal, February 22, 1968.

It had been just over a month since Cash’s landmark concert at Folsom Prison and four days before his 36th birthday when the Man in Black popped the question in front of an audience of 7,000 at London’s Gardens hockey arena. Walk the Line presents the moment as a surprise—and not a wholly welcome one—for June, who had been joining Johnny in a duet of their popular “Jackson” when he interrupted it to ask the question.

In real life, their recording of “Jackson” received a Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Performance Duet, Trio, or Group just one week later on February 29. “What a nice wedding gift this is!” June announced to a reporter that evening. The following day, Johnny and June were married at the First Methodist Church in Franklin, Kentucky, and they would remain married for 35 years until their deaths months apart in 2003.

What’d He Wear?

By the late 1960s, Johnny Cash had established his habit of dressing in black as he would immortalize himself in the 1971 song “Man in Black”. For the ’68 on-stage proposal, Cash wears his usual black layers, though each has a unique texture or design that adds some visual interest beyond just an all-black shirt, waistcoat, and trousers.

The shirt is all black with a tonal mini-diamond weave, designed with a spread collar worn open at the neck. Consistent with the increasingly fashionable trends that would even reach James Bond’s closet, the front pleats and French cuffs are frilled with ruffles, finished with pale-gray edges. He fastens the double cuffs with a set of gold rectangular cuff links, detailed with a black line across the center and a raised black semi-spherical stone in a round setting.

Cash’s black silk waistcoat (vest) is patterned all over in a tonal basket-woven print and styled like a formal waistcoat with its smooth-finished shawl collar and low-fastening front. The long shots and his guitar placement conceal how many buttons are on the front, but I would suspect two or three above the notched bottom. There are two welted pockets on each side.

Cash wears black flat-front trousers with a silky finish that shines under the bright stage lights. Though this material makes them flashier than you’d find on a ranch, the trousers incorporate elements of Western styling—consistent with Cash’s country genre—such as the wide, pointed belt loops, slanted full-top front pockets, and back pockets with pointed flaps. The trousers are cut straight through the legs down to plain-hemmed bottoms that break over Cash’s black leather boots, which coordinate to his black belt leather.

How to Get the Look

Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line (2005)

Johnny Cash was famous for frequently dressing in black, a sartorial habit dating back to his salad days at Sun Records in the ’50s, with Walk the Line establishing his mastered completion of the “Man in Black” image by this pivotal moment in his life, taking the stage in a black shirt, waistcoat, and trousers.

• Black tonal mini-diamond weave long-sleeved shirt with spread collar, ruffled front, and ruffled double/French cuffs
  • Gold rectangular cuff links with black line and raised black stone
• Black basket-woven printed silk formal waistcoat with smooth shawl collar, four welted pockets, and notched bottom
• Black silky flat-front straight-leg trousers with wide Western-pointed belt loops, slanted full-top front pockets, pointed-flap back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather belt
• Black leather boots

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, and pick up some Johnny Cash records.

In the spirit of Johnny and June’s professional (and personal) partnership, I recommend their great 1967 album Carryin’ On, which my wife kindly gave me for a birthday gift two years ago. The album includes “Jackson” as well as covers of Bob Dylan (“It Ain’t Me, Babe”) and Ray Charles (“I Got a Woman” and “What’d I Say”) as well as a pair of Cash/Carter-penned songs, including my favorite “Oh, What a Good Thing We Had”.

The Quote

In case none of y’all heard, she said yes!

The post Walk the Line: Johnny Cash in Black for an On-Stage Engagement appeared first on BAMF Style.

Noah Segan in Blood Relatives (2022)

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Noah Segan as Francis, classical music-loving vampire

Across the Great Plains and Southwest, Summer 2022

Film: Blood Relatives
Release Date: November 22, 2022
Director: Noah Segan
Costume Designer: Michael Bevins

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Sometimes I read a description of or watch a trailer for a movie and think that it had to have been written specifically for me. A recent example of this phenomenon is Blood Relatives, Noah Segan’s directorial debut that premiered on Shudder four months ago, following a leather-jacketed Jewish vampire on a Paper Moon-style road trip in a classic muscle car through the neon-lit small towns of the Midwest and Central Great Plains while unpacking generational trauma with his daughter.

Needless to say, I loved the movie and urge all fellow fans to vote for it as Best First Feature for the 2023 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards, which ends on Monday, February 27.

Last month, I had the privilege of talking to Segan about his costume as laidback loafer Derol in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and I was delighted to recently reconnect and discuss Blood Relatives, which he also starred in and wrote in addition to directing. Much of the story sprang from Segan’s transition to fatherhood, with additional inspiration from classic movies like Paper Moon, Near Dark, Ganja & Hess, Raising Arizona, and even The Apartment (specifically the excellent “be a mensch” exchange.)

Our neon-lit journey begins somewhere in Texomaland, where Francis has put enough elbow grease into his ’69 Barracuda to land in a small town in Oklahoma, where he manages to score a $20-per-night motel room. Little does he know that, while he’s been blasting Wagner, he’s been tracked across the country by the teenage Jane (Victoria Moroles), whose mother had spent a Wednesday night with Francis fifteen years earlier while working at a bar in Idaho.

Having noted some of her own vampiric traits, Jane sought out her mysterious father to learn the truth about her true nature… and ends up with a lot more than she bargained for as the bodies begin to stack up. After all, the family that slays together, stays together.

Francis in his everyday costume of black leather motorcycle jacket and dark T-shirt, while Jane wears a Screeching Weasel T-shirt. “I had been a Screeching Weasel fan since I was Jane’s age and became buddies with Ben Weasel over the course of the pandemic,” Segan shared. “He was gracious enough to offer music for the movie.”

What’d He Wear?

Jane: We should talk about your style.
Francis: I look bitchin’.
Jane: You look like you’re dressed as the Fonz for Halloween. Every day.
Francis: (after a beat) Nice Jewish boy.

Noah Segan worked with Michael Bevins, whom he praised as “the ultimate Swiss Army knife costume designer” for his resourcefulness within the film’s limited budget, to develop the costume he envisioned for Francis, “a man stuck ‘out of time’… I led with the car as the initial basis for what we do with the rest of the aesthetic of the film and character,” Segan explained of Francis, who ostensibly halted his growth around 1970, around the time his Barracuda would have been only a year old.

Francis’ wardrobe centers around a black leather motorcycle jacket, a style dating back to the late 1920s when Schott introduced its Perfecto model which, “more than any other garment suggested a kind of anarchy,” according to Josh Sims in Icons of Men’s Style. This association between motorcycle jackets and rebellion was solidified through characters like Marlon Brando’s disaffected biker in The Wild One (1953) and—more relevant to the themes of Blood Relatives—Bill Paxton’s psychotic vampire Severen in Near Dark (1987). Segan would also wear a black leather motorcycle jacket in his first movie, Rian Johnson’s 2005 directorial debut feature Brick.

Noah Segan’s primary costume in both the first movie he acted in (Brick) and the first movie he directed (Blood Relatives) consisted of a black leather motorcycle jacket over a dark T-shirt.

With its asymmetrical front zipper and abundance of zips, studs, and straps including a full belt around the waist, the waist-length motorcycle jacket remains one of the most recognizable pieces of outerwear nearly a century after its conception.

Bevins built Francis’ two screen-worn cowhide leather jackets from the First Manufacturing Co. “Fillmore” model, with the primary “hero jacket” sized to fit Segan while the other was tailored slightly too tight, reflecting the character’s weight gain. The Fillmore reflects many hallmarks of the classic motorcycle jacket, including the slanted zip pockets over the hips, an additional zip-up pocket slanted over the left chest, and an additional set-in pocket lower on the left side with a pointed snap-down flap. A zipper closes the end of each sleeve, and the “bi-swing” back pleats allow a greater range of arm motion for bikers.

The rest of Francis’ outfit is comprised of simple but classic staples consistent with his “bitchin'” mid-century badass persona. He wears a plain dark brown cotton short-sleeved crew-neck T-shirt which Segan recalls was likely from Uniqlo.

For Francis’ dark indigo denim, a pair of off-the-rack jeans were over-dyed and waxed by Bevins to harmonize with the rest of his biker-influenced appearance, worn self-cuffed. He holds them up with a black leather belt that closes through a large squared silver-toned single-prong buckle.

Francis wears black leather engineer boots, a natural complement to his motorcycle jacket. Developed in the late 1930s, this style was originally intended for railway engineers (as its nomenclature implies), but their full protective coverage and laceless design quickly found favor among the burgeoning biker movement in the years following World War II.

The shaft height may vary, but traditional engineer boots are characterized by steel-buckled straps around the inset and—more often than not—an additional steel-buckled strap around the gusseted top of each shaft. The uppers are heavy-duty leather, typically double-layered through the shafts with rounded, plain toe-boxes and attached to heavy leather outsoles.

Francis attends a single-parent support group, still wearing his signature engineer boots; the frayed edges are not of his dyed and waxed jeans but rather of the navy-blue coveralls he wears working as a mechanic for Mopar Mike.

Francis’ transition into a family man requires more diurnal activity than a vampire would typically enjoy, so has to don additional layers to protectively cover his skin while still looking relatively common enough to avoid attention. As seen while securing work from the mechanic Mopar Mike (Aaron Spivey-Sorrells), he dons a plain navy-blue cotton twill baseball cap, black leather gloves, and a set of classic black-framed wayfarer-style sunglasses.

When Francis and Jane reach California and need extra funds to establish a more normal domestic life, he pawns the trusty watch we’ve seen on his right wrist for the entirety of the movie and—as we learn—at least seven or eight decades leading up to this moment. While haggling over the pawnshop owner’s $600 offer, Francis insists on more given that the watch is a German air force relic.

A watch enthusiast in real life, Segan had been very intentional about Francis’ timepiece, deciding that—for consistency with his background—he would wear one of the B-Uhr observation watches developed for Luftwaffe air crews during World War II. These watches were supplied at the time by five manufacturers across Germany and Switzerland, including A. Lange & Söhne, and in two iterations: the Type A was functionally simple with only an outer ring white numeric hour indices against the plain black dial, while the Type B introduced in 1941 pushed the hours into a center ring and the minutes and seconds—denoted in intervals of five—to the outer ring.

Segan purchased a pair of inexpensive, quartz-powered B-Uhr watches (with the Type B inner hour ring) to represent the A. Lange & Söhne piece that Francis would wear on screen. He then sent the watches to Weston Cutter—whose company Haven Watch Co. produced the tie dye-dialed watch Segan wore in Glass Onion—who, in turn, worked with master watchmaker Donovan Paradise to rebuild, age, and modify the two watches for screen use: one with the second hand removed to conceal the tell-tale tick of a quartz watch, and another with the second hand left intact but the battery removed.

“This kind of watch—this really simple, well-made, mechanical, hand-wound watch—ostensibly could run for eight decades, but I figured that the band would have worn out, so I opted for a simple nylon pass-through NATO-style strap,” Segan explained.

Francis hesitantly parts ways with his B-Uhr watch, letting go of the past in order to fund his future with the daughter he’s getting to know.

Settling into domestic life means enrolling Jane in school and meeting her new principal, for which Jane convinces Francis to adopt a new style more consistent with the traditional idea of suburban fatherhood.

Francis: I can’t tell if I’m schvitzing because it’s getting light out or because I look like a…
Jane: Dad?
Francis: …schlemiel.
Jane: It’s great. You look ten years older.

On an early fall day, he now wears a khaki zip-up windbreaker over a teal camp shirt with a maroon baseball cap for added protection against the daylight. The jacket and shirt still feel very mid-20th century, an era with which Francis is clearly comfortable, with Segan sharing that the rest of his outfit was more traditional off-the-rack “Dad gear” like Walmart khakis and Avia sneakers.

Francis sticks to his ’50s aesthetic for a parent/principal conference, though it’s less The Wild One and more Weekend Ward Cleaver.

Eventually, feasting on a vampire’s idea of “junk food”—pre-packaged raw meat instead of human flesh—grows out Francis’ dad bod to the point where he can’t even comfortably fit into his favorite jacket anymore. Jane gifts her old man a new leather jacket that she stole expressly for him… then asks if she can wear his old one.

Sourced from Michael Bevins’ collection, Francis’ new black leather John Varvatos jacket is a “café racer”, a style developed in mid-century England that has also been popular with motorcyclists but more of a streamlined cut than the snappy and flappy Perfecto-style moto jacket.

Once again clad in some well-fitting leather, Francis seeks out one more deserving victim.

The Car

Jane: Your car… 1969 Barracuda fastback with a 383 in blue.
Francis: That’s the one…
Jane: They made two shades: Ice Blue, code B-3, and Blue Fire—that one was B-5, that was one was rare. I didn’t know which blue it was.
Francis: They also made a B-7: Jamaica Blue.
Jane: Not in the 383. They only made 272 fastbacks in the 383 and the slapstick automatic… and only 16 in Ice Blue, 11 in Blue Fire.

Francis and Jane then confirm in tandem that his 1969 Plymouth Barracuda parked outside is, indeed, one of the eleven produced with a Blue Fire exterior, finished with a black stripe across each side. “It’s not exotic, it’s domestic,” Francis corrects Jane when she mocks him for driving such an eye-catching car while trying to maintain a low profile.

With a little elbow grease here and some questionably acquired carb gaskets there, Francis has kept his blue Barracuda running for more than half a century.

Jane reveals to Francis that her internet research led to her discovering that only three of those eleven Blue Fire-painted 1969 Roadrunner fastbacks with a 383 V8 and “slapstick automatic” are still registered, including his, which was registered to “an elderly woman in Minnesota,” whom Francis claims to be his aunt.

This on-screen narrative charmingly parallels the actual Barracuda’s origins, which Segan shared had been purchased in the early 2000s by his friend, cinematographer Tom Richmond, from “a little old lady in Pasadena” who kept it running but never restored it, as the car was a daily driver rather than a show car. Richmond was living in Venice, California when he had purchased the ’69 Barracuda, and—when he moved to New York about ten years later—he gave the car to Segan with the instructions to “keep it running… take care of it,” which Segan has done in the decade since.

While much of the dialogue matches up to accurately describe the car, Segan shared that his Barracuda actually has a 318 cubic-inch V8 rather than the 383 described by Jane. “I wanted it to be a rarer car that would make it easier to find,” he explained, while also sharing that his Barracuda does indeed have “a slapstick automatic… which is a very cool transmission from back in the day.

Introduced by Hurst for the 1967 Pontiac GTO, this transmission was technically marketed as the “dual gate” shifter for its ability to either perform as a typical automatic transmission (shift the lever into “drive” and let it shift, well, automatically) or by moving the lever into a second gate that would allow the driver to manually upshift and downshift like a standard transmission, albeit without the clutch.

1969 Plymouth Barracuda

Body Style: 2-door fastback coupe

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

Engine: 318 cu. in. (5.2 L) Chrysler LA-series V8 with Carter 2-barrel carburetor

Power: 230 hp (171.5 kW; 233 PS) @ 4400 RPM

Torque: 340 lb·ft (461 N·m) @ 2400 RPM

Transmission: 3-speed TorqueFlite “slapstick” automatic

Wheelbase: 108 inches (2743 mm)

Length: 192.8 inches (4897 mm)

Width: 69.6 inches (1768 mm)

Height: 52.8 inches (1341 mm)

The striking blue ’69 Barracuda may look familiar to fans of the new Peacock series Poker Face, starring Natasha Lyonne and created by Segan’s friend Rian Johnson.

“It’s the same car!” Segan laughed, sharing that Johnson specifically wrote this model Barracuda into the series. “When they were getting ready to produce the series, they took pictures of the car and scanned it to build show cars recreated for the show.”

How to Get the Look

Noah Segan in Blood Relatives (2022)

Francis maintains a look inspired by mid-20th century rebels, anchored by a classic black leather motorcycle jacket and engineer boots with unique details informed by his past like his distinctive German pilot’s watch.

• Black cowhide leather motorcycle jacket with asymmetrical front zip, slanted zip left chest pocket, slanted zip hip pockets, set-in lower left pocket (with snap-down flap), bi-swing back pleats, full belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle, and zip-back sleeves
• Dark brown cotton crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt
• Over-dyed dark indigo waxed denim jeans with belt loops and five-pocket configuration
• Black leather belt with squared silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather engineer boots
• Black-framed wayfarer-style sunglasses
• B-Uhr “Type B” German pilot’s watch with plain steel case, black dial with white outer minute/second ring and inner hour ring, and black vinyl NATO-style pass-through strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, currently streaming on Shudder.

The Quote

Come on, man. Be a mensch. Be a person.

The post Noah Segan in Blood Relatives appeared first on BAMF Style.

Woody Harrelson in Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Vitals

Woody Harrelson as Thomas Smith, cynical Communist Marxist luxury yacht captain

Mediterranean Sea, Summer 2020

Film: Triangle of Sadness
Release Date: September 28, 2022
Director: Ruben Östlund
Costume Designer: Sofie Krunegård

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As we near the 95th Academy Awards ceremony in a couple weeks, I wanted to look at one of the more offbeat nominees. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, Triangle of Sadness joins the current trends of productions like The Menu, Parasite, Succession, and The White Lotus that satirize—often darkly—the entitlement and excess of the wealthy ruling class.

The commentary is clear in Triangle of Sadness, with its middle act set aboard a luxury yacht where the staff—itself split by the tip-earning stewards and below-decks crew—are at the whim of their ultra-privileged passengers that range from social media influencers to arms dealers and oligarchs like the gregarious Dimitry (Zlatko Burić).

At the helm, or at least supposed to be, is the ship’s American captain Thomas Smith (whose surname is never mentioned on screen, I believe, though it certainly recalls the similarly named captain of the Titanic, a disaster which also has become allegorical for class disparities in the decades since it sank in 1912.) An outspoken Marxist, Thomas doesn’t fit neatly into any of the passenger and crew categories, though he’s the first to admit—once he stumbles through the challenges of drunken alliteration—that he’s “a shit socialist because I have too much! I have too much abundance in my life, I’m not even—I’m not a worthy socialist… a shit socialist.”

After not emerging from his cabin for days on end, Thomas stubbornly insists on hosting his captain’s dinner on a Thursday night, the one night he had been advised to avoid due to the threat of storms. As sober as he’s ever been, Thomas stands in the tilting dining room to greet the insufferable guests as they parade up to him and his responsible first officer Darius (Arvin Kananian).

“I’m not a fan of fine dining,” Thomas admits as he’s served a simple hamburger and fries while the envious guests around him are presented with more opulent plates of fish roe, sea urchin, oysters, and octopus. Unfortunately, the heaving sea and the poorly prepared fish—the result of Dimitry’s wife Vera (Sunnyi Melles) insisting on sending the crew for a mid-afternoon swim—results in an orgy of vomit and diarrhea… leaving only Thomas and the hardy Dimitry unaffected, growing increasingly drunk as they trade quotations to support their radically different political theories, like Edward Abbey’s maxim that “growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell” or Karl Marx’s statement that “the last capitalist we hang will be the one who sold us the rope.”

Dimitry: A Russian capitalist and an American communist…
Thomas: …on a $250 million luxury yacht.

The night devolves into nightmarish parody as the drunk Thomas and Dimitry commandeer the ship’s sound system while the incapacitated passengers roll around in their own shomit. Unfortunately for our captain, few are safe from the next calamity to befall the yacht: a pirate attack that sinks it in seconds, leaving only a handful alive.

What’d He Wear?

We meet the ragged captain when he opens his cabin door clad only in a bathrobe and underwear, but he dresses ceremoniously for the Thursday night dinner in his resplendent white uniform, primped to perfection by head stewardess Paula (Vicki Berlin).

Thomas wears a white uniform tunic that echoes the classic U.S. Navy “dress whites” with its gilt buttons and standing “mandarin collar”. The jacket has two straight jetted hip pockets and two rounded patch pockets over the chest. The chest pockets each have a pointed flap that closes through a single gold-toned button echoing the five half-dome shank buttons up the front from the waist to the neck. Finished with four similar buttons on each cuff, the set-in sleeves have more pronounced shoulder roping than Navy uniform tunics.

The shoulders are detailed with epaulets, on which Thomas wears soft black loops each embroidered with a gold fouled anchor and four gold-braided stripes signifying his position, similar to the OF-5 insignia for the Captain rank in the U.S. Navy, Royal Navy, and many other navies around the world.

Thomas and Darius greet the passengers in their gilt-buttoned nautical attire.

The pin that Thomas wears over his left breast offers a visual hint into his political beliefs. Set against a gold base, the design consists of a ruby red textured five-pointed star, with a round white enamel-filled center hosting a gold relief depicting Vladimir Lenin as a child. These pins were issued in Soviet Russia to children between 7 and 9 years of age who belonged to the Little Octobrists (Oktyabryonok) organization before they would graduate to be Young Pioneers. The group dates back to the early 1920s, in the years following the Russian Civil War as the Soviet Union recognized the children born in 1917, the same year as the October Revolution. As Soviet youth organizations evolved through the century, the Little Octobrists adopted this “Young Lenin” red star pin as a badge by the late 1950s, and it went through several design iterations until the group was disbanded with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Thomas’ wristwatch more subtly calls out his philosophical differences with most of his passengers like the Rolex-wearing Dimitry and the Patek Philippe-wearing Jarmo, wearing a simple black-finished quartz watch with a plain round white dial on a black resin bracelet, like the inexpensive plastic 35mm Casio MQ24.

Thomas downs the first of many drinks, having easily stymied his crew’s attempts to keep him sober for the dinner. Note the simple watch and Soviet-era pin that signify his philosophical differences with the wealthy capitalists aboard his yacht.

Thomas completes the uniform with a pair of matching white double-pleated trousers, styled with slanted side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs). He holds them up with a white woven leather-looking belt that closes through a curved silver single-prong buckle. (The belt is probably a synthetic material, as Woody Harrelson’s strict veganism prevents him from wearing animal hides like leather—even in costumes like Tallahassee’s snakeskin jacket in Zombieland.)

Illuminated only by Dimitry’s phone and the purple dawn emerging through the window, the inebriated Thomas is stripped down to just his trousers, belt, and socks as he recalls his earlier writings.

Rather than anything ceremonial or dressier to complement his handsome uniform, Thomas wears a pair of simple white synthetic sneakers with a rubber cap-toe and five sets of derby-laced eyelets, likely preferable for their comfort, traction on wet decks, and the fact that he likely wouldn’t be bothered to care to wear anything dressier. He wears thin white cotton lisle socks.

Thomas wears a white cotton sleeveless undershirt under his tunic. Known as an “A-shirt” (athletic shirt) upon its development by Jockey in the 1930s but soon denigrated with the “wife-beater” nickname after an unfortunately publicized mugshot the following decade, this undershirt style would be an unlikely choice for a professional captain to wear under his tunic, as at least a short-sleeved T-shirt (like the U.S. Navy designates for wear under their dress white tunics) would prevent more armpit sweat and body oil from directly touching the tunic material… but note that I said it would only be an unlikely choice for a professional captain. Spending most of the voyage drunk in his cabin, Thomas has given up most pretenses of professionalism and looks all the more indelicate as he kicks back in his cabin with too much to drink.

Featured on some of Triangle of Sadness‘ promotional material, Thomas naturally has the expected peaked cap with white cover, gold braiding, and black patent leather visor, though he never wears it on screen, instead reserving the honor for Dimitry as the latter drunkenly pontificates from the captain’s cabin.

What to Imbibe

The crew tries to prevent the captain from falling back on his usual self-destructive boozing habits by serving him a champagne substitute as he greets the guests, but he scowls and discards it in favor of some true bubbly.

Once the literal shit hits the fan (and floor and ceiling and…), Thomas sits down with Dimitry and opens a bottle of red wine, specifically Becker Family Pinot Noir from the Weingut Friedrich Becker estate in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of western Germany. The label suggests a 2013 vintage, which Anna Lee C. Iljima described for Wine Enthusiast as “Integrated notes of bramble, toast and spice recollect two years of oak maturation in this bold, concentrated Spätburgunder. While at first voluptuous on the palate in bold red-cherry and plum flavors, lip-smacking cranberry acidity and elegant tones of granite and violet freshen the mid-palate. Persistent, mouth-coating tannins carry a long finish.”

Once the wine is gone (or considered insufficient for their desired level of drunkenness), Thomas switches to the hard stuff, though I can’t see enough of the label on the squat bottle he pours from to determine if it’s whiskey, brandy, or possibly even something else.

As Thomas and Dimitry’s evening continues to devolve into drunken rambling, they return to the captain’s cabin and his significant stash of booze, which also includes that very recognizable, Belle Époque-inspired bottle of St.-Germain elderflower liqueur.

How to Get the Look

Woody Harrelson in Triangle of Sadness (2022)

Consistent with his philosophical self-conflict, Thomas balances the expected appearance of a luxury yacht captain in his handsome white uniform while also incorporating his own sartorial touches of rebellion, like a drug store watch, sneakers, and a Soviet-era propaganda pin.

• White single-breasted uniform tunic with standing mandarin collar, five gilt half-dome buttons, rounded patch chest pockets (with button-down pointed flaps), straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and shoulder straps/epaulets (for four-stripe Captain rank insignia)
  • “Young Lenin” red star pin over left breast
• White double-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White woven leather belt with curved silver single-prong buckle
• White synthetic-upper sneakers with rubberized cap-toe and five-eyelet derby-style lacing
• White cotton lisle socks
• White cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Black plastic quartz wristwatch with round white dial on black resin bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

And don’t forget the ginger candy! It’s good for seasickness.

The Quote

You can’t be rich and expect the rest of the world to be poor. And while you’re swimming in abundance, the rest of the world is drowning in misery. That’s not the way it’s meant to be.

The post Triangle of Sadness: Woody Harrelson’s Captain Uniform appeared first on BAMF Style.

F. Murray Abraham as Bert Di Grasso on The White Lotus (Episode 2.06: “Abductions”)

Vitals

F. Murray Abraham as Bert Di Grasso, libertine grandfather

Sicily, Summer 2022

Series: The White Lotus
Episodes:
– “Bull Elephants” (Episode 2.03, aired 11/13/2022)
– “Abductions” (Episode 2.06, aired 12/4/2022)
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

During the 29th annual SAG Awards on Sunday night, the acclaimed second season of The White Lotus was awarded Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Speaking on behalf of the cast while accepting the award, F. Murray Abraham said that “this was the best job I ever had,” not unsubstantial praise from the prolific actor whose six-decade career included his Oscar-winning performance in Amadeus (1984).

The first season had premiered as a limited series, produced in Hawaii during the final months of 2020, its limited location and characters making it ideal to be produced under COVID-19 guidelines. Following the show’s success, a second season was green-lit, filmed at the Four Seasons San Domenico Hotel in Taormina, Sicily.

The second season followed a similar structure as the first, with the opening scene suggesting a mysterious death and only providing a handful of characters whom we knew would be still alive by the season’s end. We then cut to a week earlier as the guests begin arriving, greeted at the dock by their pink-suited hotel manager. The oldest of the guests is Bert Di Grasso (F. Murray Abraham), traveling with his wealthy son Domenic (Michael Imperioli) and grandson—and ostensible namesake—Albie (Adam DiMarco), all intent on tracing their family’s heritage.

While most White Lotus guests tend to bring more emotional baggage than can fit in their suitcases, Bert may be the most untroubled, freely flirting and farting with every woman they encounter… a source of contention for Dom (whose own womanizing has resulted in marital estrangement) and the sensitive—if perhaps too sensitive—Albie.

Bert maintains his nonchalance above their somewhat hypocritical judgement, winking at his awareness when he finds the two escorts hired by Dom half-dressed in his hotel room that morning and welcoming the young women that Albie meets to join them on their excursions, whether touring locations from The Godfather or driving to meet the Sicilian members of the Di Grasso clan: a trio of surly women who all but threaten the men to leave them alone.

The failed reunion finally pierces Bert’s happy-go-lucky armor, albeit briefly, knocking him down into a martini-soaked melancholia that gets washed away by the eventual embrace of a grateful woman.

What’d He Wear?

Despite his distinctive vacation wardrobe, Bert Di Grasso remains one of the few characters from The White Lotus-verse whose clothing has gone mostly unexplored and unidentified. Bert is one of my favorite dressers from the series, blending tasteful styles and cuts with interesting pieces that are appropriate for a sun-bleached vacation.

The Safari-Inspired Jacket

For off-resort outings, Bert often pulls on a beige cotton jacket with safari-inspired styling that suggests adventure. Few men in the series wear jackets for anything except dinner, but Bert’s advanced age suggests he may be the type who likes an additional layer, even in the midst of a Sicilian summer.

The jacket has notch lapels like a sport jacket, with a buttonhole through the left lapel. The four patch pockets contribute to the safari-inspired look, with two box-pleated pockets over the chest and two bellows pockets on the hips, each covered by a rectangular flap that closes through a large dark brown 4-hole button  matching the three on the front of the jacket. The set-in sleeves are detailed with sewn-on pointed shoulder straps (epaulets) and finished at the cuffs with pointed tabs that close through a single button.

Rather than the full self-belt that characterizes traditional safari jackets, Bert’s jacket has gusseted sides that slightly pull in the waist to add some shape to the unstructured jacket. The back has a single vent.

Episode 3: “Bull Elephants”

Bert first wears the jacket in the third episode, “Bull Elephants,” as he meets his family—and Albie’s new pal Portia (Haley Lu Richardson)—for breakfast. After questioning Dom about the two women in his hotel room that morning (“they didn’t look like maids, they looked like prostitutes,” mouthing the last word), he shares their touring plans that day, inspired by his watching The Godfather in his room the previous night.

Under the jacket, Bert wears a simple yet elegant white cotton short-sleeved polo shirt, detailed with a two-button placket and tonal ribbed horizontal stripes that add subtle texture.

Bert energetically recalls Apollonia’s death scene from The Godfather. It’s fun watching F. Murray Abraham describe Pacino’s acting, especially with the knowledge that the actor had worked with Pacino in Serpico (1973) and, much more prominently, in Scarface (1983).

Bert protects his bald head with a duo of natty hats that keep his head cool while also coordinating with the rest of his outfit. In “Bull Elephants”, he wears a straw wide-brimmed fedora with a brown grosgrain band.

Linen trousers are a warm-weather essential, as the lightweight natural fiber wears cool and allows air to pass through the legs while looking more traditionally dignified than shorts.

Flanked by his Gen Z grandson’s ’90s retro-informed rugby shirt and cargo shorts and his depressed son’s unseasonal black shirt, Bert emerges as the best-dressed Di Grasso in his safari jacket, white polo, and linen slacks that best suits the family’s elegant summer vacation.

Episode 6: “Abductions”

Three episodes later, the Di Grasso boys are back out enjoying the sights of Sicily, this time intending to visit distant relatives for what they hope to be a happy homecoming. Albie brings along his latest friend, Lucia (Simona Tabasco), whose presence complicates things as she was the local escort whom Dom had initially hired for companionship before his change of heart. Unfortunately for all involved, Lucia’s pimp Alessio has followed the family and intimidates her into leaving with him, leaving the Di Grasso family without anyone to translate as they flail through a terrible first—and only—impression with their Sicilian kin.

Bert dresses for the reunion in his trusty beige safari jacket over a white-and-blue striped cotton long-sleeved shirt with a button-down collar and front placket. The shirt’s fancy stripe pattern consists of a wide cornflower-blue self-bordered awning-stripe (itself decorated with a repeating tonal pattern), bordered on the left side by a medium-width white stripe, a medium-width blue stripe, a thinner white stripe, and then a hairline white stripe.

Bert excitedly confers with Dom before their planned visit to their Sicilian relatives’ home. Note the sewn-on epaulets on Bert’s safari jacket and the fancy self-detailing in his shirt stripes.

Bert frequently wears white linen trousers, which may be part of the white two-piece suit he wears to dinner on the last night. Cut with a straight leg, these flat-front trousers have belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Bert often wears Skechers, a brand that integrates supportive comfort technology into its performance-oriented footwear, making them popular among those like Bert who fit the “active senior” profile. With their substantial white rubber wave-shaped outsoles, Bert’s sneakers are from Skechers’ Arch Fit® line intended to provide “podiatrist-certified arch support” and flexible traction to keep the prone-to-falling Bert upright. The tan uppers are a washable synthetic mesh, with six eyelets for the flat white cotton laces.

Bert’s supportive Skechers and cane give him the balance he needs to keep from falling over from the shock of rejection by his Sicilian kin.

Shop the shoes:

  Skechers Men's Arch Fit 232040 in beige/taupe (Amazon, $85)

Bert wears another straw hat to visit his relatives, though the straw is a darker mix and the hat’s shorter-brimmed profile makes it more of a trilby. The wide hat-band is a violet bandana-print paisley cotton, thrice-pleated like a puggaree band.

Many Internet detectives have already ascertained the sunglasses and watch brand worn by most of The White Lotus‘ characters, but Bert’s accessories remain a mystery.

His silver-framed sunglasses are the squared aviator shape made famous by those produced by American Optical and Randolph Engineering for military pilots, though Bert’s hooked temple tips reassure that these aren’t either of those mil-spec models, nor do they have the telltale “Ray-Ban” logo printed in the corner of the lens as on his grandson’s sunglasses.

Bert’s elegant automatic wristwatch should be easier for eagle-eyed horological experts to identify. Worn on a russet exotic scaled leather strap around his left wrist, the watch’s stainless steel case encircles a round white dial, detailed with silver non-numeric indices at each hour around the dual-ringed edge, a second-counting sub-register above the 6:00 position, and a curved date window complication that shows the correct date at 3:00, presumably with the two preceding dates above it and the two following days under it. (For example, if I were looking at this watch today on February 28th, it would show “26 27 28 1 2″. Really putting the “complication” into complication here.)

You can see the watch in greater detail—as well as the manufacturer’s logo—in this screenshot from the second episode.

How to Get the Look

F. Murray Abraham as Bert Di Grasso on The White Lotus (Episode 2.06: “Abductions”)

Bert Di Grasso blends adventure and leisure into his Sicilian vacation wardrobe, with some choices informed by his age but mostly the sense of taste that would come with experience, an eye for elegance, and an appreciation of comfort.

• Beige cotton safari-inspired 3-button sport jacket with notch lapels, two box-pleated chest pockets (with button-down flap), two bellows hip pockets (with button-down flap), single-button pointed cuffs, side gussets, and single vent
• White-and-blue fancy-striped cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, and straight hem
• White linen flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Tan leather belt with gold-toned squared single-prong buckle
• Skechers Arch Fit® sneakers with light olive synthetic mesh uppers and white rubber outsoles
• Dark straw short-brimmed trilby with wide violet bandana-paisley cotton puggaree band
• Silver square-framed aviator sunglasses
• Stainless steel automatic dress watch with round white dial (with non-numeric hour indices, 6:00 sub-register, and curved five-day 3:00 calendar window) on russet exotic scaled leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series, streaming on HBO Max.

The Quote

They used to respect the old. Now we’re just reminders of an offensive past everybody wants to forget.

The post The White Lotus: F. Murray Abraham’s Beige Safari Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.

Daniel Craig as James Bond in No Time to Die (2021). Photo credit: Nicola Dove.

Vitals

Daniel Craig as James Bond, retired British secret agent

Jamaica to Cuba, Spring 2020

Film: No Time to Die
Release Date: September 30, 2021
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga
Costume Designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb

Background

Happy birthday, Daniel Craig! Born March 2, 1968, the English actor celebrates his 55th birthday today. I had been debating how to sartorially celebrate Craig, especially considering his stylish reprisal of detective Benoit Blanc in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, but my upcoming Jamaican honeymoon encouraged a return to his style in No Time to Die as a now-retired James Bond, living a life of comfortable solitude in Jamaica.

Bond fans are well-aware of the significance of Jamaica to the 007 series: it was at his Goldeneye estate on Oracabessa Bay where Ian Fleming wrote the first novel (Casino Royale) in 1952, most of the first movie (Dr. No) was set and filmed in Jamaica, and Roger Moore’s first Bond film (Live and Let Die) was also filmed extensively in Jamaica. There’s very much a “where it all began” association between Bond and this scenic Caribbean nation, making it all the more appropriate that No Time to Die establishes it the setting for Bond’s retirement, specifically a secluded home on Jamaica’s northeastern coast near Port Antonio.

Bond returns home from a tranquil day of fishing on his Spirit 46 sailing yacht, quickly detecting that he’s had an unplanned intruder. Having fished out a Browning Hi-Power, Bond stalks through his comfortable seaside villa until encountering the remnants of a Delectado cigar… suggesting his visitor had been his old CIA pal Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright).

What’d He Wear?

Since a tuxedoed Sean Connery first introduced himself as “Bond, James Bond” in Dr. No more than sixty years ago, agent 007 has been intrinsically linked with an aspirational wardrobe of tailored suits and luxury clothing. We’ve seen Mr. Bond go rogue on several occasions, but once he seems to have hung up his shoulder holster for good, Daniel Craig’s retired Bond dispenses with the need for the sharp duds associated with the character as he spends his seafaring retirement in a tattered T-shirt and inexpensive shorts. (You can read more about this outfit at Bond Suits and James Bond Lifestyle.)

Of course, this is still Daniel Craig’s Bond so the T-shirt is a product of British luxury brand Orlebar Brown, specifically the “OB-T” model in light gray melange “super-soft” jersey-knit cotton, currently retailing for $115 as of March 2023. (Despite the franchise’s reputation for conspicuous product placement, the shirt was modified for the screen with the telltale red-lettered “O.B.” tag removed from the hem.)

The short-sleeved T-shirt’s tailored fit shows off Craig’s well-maintained physique, though the shortness of the rounded hem suggests that it’s still undersized, adding a lived-in, washed-and-worn quality to the shirt also characterized by the fraying along the edges and the tears along the seams of the round crew-neck and around the set-in arm holes.

Shop the shirt:

The Orlebar Brown "OB-T" tailored fit T-shirt worn by Daniel Craig in No Time to Die can be purchased from several outfitters:

• Marissa Collections ($115)
• MR PORTER ($95)
• Orlebar Brown ($115)

Prices and availability current as of Feb. 28, 2023.

Based on the aquatic context and the water-repellant synthetic fabric, I initially assumed Bond was wearing navy-blue swim trunks, but the excellent Instagram account @whatsdanielwearing identified these as Jed North “Agile” shorts, specifically intended for athletic endeavors like bodybuilding, running, and lifting.

Made from a soft, stretchy, and sweat-wicking blend of 90% polyester and 10% spandex, these unlined shorts have a drawstring waist, black zip-up side pockets, and a short (4″) inseam. As with the T-shirt, these were modified to conceal their maker by removing the neon green “Jed North” logo from the left thigh and replacing the matching neon drawstring with a much more subdued dark navy drawstring.

You can read more about these shorts at James Bond Lifestyle, including a primer on how to modify them from the stock version to resemble the screen-worn shorts.

His big catch in one hand and speargun in the other, Bond strides up the dock to his seaside Jamaican home. Note that his Orlebar Brown T-shirt had its hem shortened (thus removing the brand tag) and the Jed North shorts have also been de-branded.

Shop the shorts:

The Jed North "Agile" bodybuilding shorts modified for Daniel Craig to wear in No Time to Die are among the most affordable items ever identified as a Bond garment, available from several outfitters:

• Amazon ($25.95)
• Jed North ($30)

Prices and availability current as of Feb. 28, 2023.

After wearing Persol and Tom Ford sunglasses, Craig’s Bond landed on Vuarnet as his preferred eyewear brand after wearing their glacier goggles in his previous film, Spectre. Bond rotates between two pairs of Vuarnets in No Time to Die, beginning with these Vuarnet Legend 06 sunglasses that he wears in Jamaica. Vuarnet advertises these as “James Bond’s choice” and, like so many other items from Bond’s screen closet, they’re also a real-life favorite of Daniel Craig.

The frames come by their sleek retro design honestly, as French star and style icon Alain Delon had popularized the Vuarnet 06 when he wore a black nylon pair in the 1969 thriller La Piscine. A half-century later, these Vuarnets have been appropriately renamed the Legend model before they received the star treatment in No Time to Die when Craig wore a brown-framed pair with Brownlynx mineral glass lenses, suspended around his neck on a blue neoprene Croakies® strap.

The end of Bond’s employment with MI6 evidently doesn’t mean the end of his preference for wearing Omegas, as the new model specifically designed for No Time to Die debuted during the scenes of Bond’s Jamaican retirement.

“When working with Omega, we decided that a lightweight watch would be key for a military man like 007,” Daniel Craig explained in Omega’s official announcement. The resulting product is the Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Co-Axial Master Chronometer (210.90.42.20.01.001), worn on a metal “shark mesh” or “Milanese” bracelet that closes through an adjustable-fit deployable clasp. The 42mm case and bracelet were made from a lightweight yet durable and anti-corrosive Grade 2 titanium that offer a tactical advantage given the resistance to reflecting light.

“I also suggested some vintage touches and colors to give the watch a unique edge,” Craig shared in the announcement, no doubt referring to the unique “tropical brown” unidirectional bezel and dial, made from a weight-saving aluminum and providing an attractive alternative to Bond’s usual black and blue dials. The hours are indicated by luminous non-numeric markers, with a “broad arrow” just above the 6:00 marker that James Bond Lifestyle reports was “used by British Armed Forces and visible on some vintage watches issued and owned by the British Ministry of Defense (especially the W.W.W. watches from the Second World War).”

The watch is powered by Omega’s self-winding Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 8806 movement with a power reserve of 55 hours and resistant to magnetic fields reaching 15,000 gauss. In addition to the screw-in crown, the Seamaster has a helium escape valve extending from the side at the 10:00 position.

You can purchase the No Time to Die Omega from Amazon and Omega… or check out the more affordable alternatives for both the watch and the mesh bracelet identified by Iconic Alternatives.

Bond finds the remnants of Felix’s cigar.

After tossing his black 30.5″-bladed Riffe Defender fins on the dock upon disembarking his fishing yacht, Bond spends the rest of the scene barefoot, though behind-the-scenes photography show that Daniel Craig wore mustard-colored Havaianas flip flop sandals with blue straps on set.

The Guns

Bond emerges from his fishing yacht carrying a Riffe Euro E-55 speargun, as identified by James Bond Lifestyle. These are designed specifically for underwater spearfishing, though Bond has also improvised using a speargun for defensive purposes, as seen when Sean Connery’s 007 used one to swiftly dispatch of the silent henchman Vargas in Thunderball.

Spearguns typically fall into two categories: air-powered pneumatic spearguns and rubber band-powered elastic spearguns. Bond’s Riffe is the latter, propelled by two heavy-duty black-coated rubber bands. The E-55 has a 32″ low-profile teak stock that houses the actual spear, with a stainless steel two-piece trigger mechanism and spring-loaded safety.

Bond’s speargun skills landed him a hefty haul.

After a spot of cigar ash tips him off to a potential intruder while he was away fishing, Bond arms himself with a Browning Hi-Power that we can assume is his personal pistol after he likely had to turn in his MI6-issued Walther PPK following his retirement. (We don’t see where Bond had fished it out from, but fans of The Sopranos may be suspicious of why he had been carrying that large fish in the previous scene…)

“Bond is a man of heritage, of classics, and of familiarity,” explained my friend Caleb Daniels, who manages the Commando Bond website and Instagram, previously quoted in my post about Bond’s black Tommy Bahama shirt in the subsequent scene. “A retired 007, whether a ‘former SAS type’ or SBS, would have been very familiar with this firearm. It only fits that when reaching for a dedicated home defense firearm, he would reach for a functional classic like the Hi-Power.”

This production photo of Daniel Craig, armed with his Browning Hi-Power and noirishly illuminated by the Jamaican sun filtered through his blinds, was one of the first official images released from No Time to Die.

The Hi-Power design dates back to firearms pioneer John Moses Browning, whose protégé Dieudonne Saive brought the pistol to fruition after Browning died in 1926. In 1935, the Belgium firm Fabrique Nationale (FN) produced the first P-35 Grande Puissance, or “Hi-Power”, named in reference to its then-unprecedented 13-round magazine capacity. Given that the pistol was chambered for the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge, the Hi-Power was a precursor to what firearm writers would eventually dub the “Wonder Nine”, though this term would be more traditionally applied to double-action/single-action (DA/SA) pistols that appeared decades later.

With its single-action trigger and short recoil operation, the Hi-Power echoed the functionality of Browning’s iconic 1911 pistol design, though even the designer had to work outside of that earlier design since he had sold the 1911 rights exclusively to Colt. Despite this obstacle, the Hi-Power has ultimately emerged as a well-regarded pistol in its own right and has been continuously produced by FN Herstal since 1935, aside from a short four-year hiatus when production ended in 2018, only to be resumed this year as the modified “FN High-Power”.

The Hi-Power had long been the designated service pistol of the British military, beginning with the 1950s when it was designated the L9 as the replacement for the aging Webley and Enfield revolvers; an upgraded Hi-Power was re-designated L9A1 during the following decade.

With his service record as a Commander in the Royal Navy and possibly the Special Boat Service (SBS), Bond would have been intricately familiar with the Hi-Power. The character’s iconic Walther PPK was a suitable choice when Bond needed a pistol that could be easily concealed, but his lifestyle in Jamaica would have reduced his armament needs to something reliable that he wouldn’t need to worry as much about carrying outside of his home. With its double-stack magazine loaded with the universally obtainable 9mm ammunition, the hardy Hi-Power would have been the perfect choice for his updated needs.

Read more about the firearms of No Time to Die at IMFDB.

How to Get the Look

Daniel Craig as James Bond in No Time to Die (2021)

An abused gray T-shirt, gym shorts, and Croakies may not be an outfit you’d expect from James Bond, but you have to admit it’s pretty perfect for a fit fiftysomething spending his retirement fishing in solitude off the Jamaican coast.

• Gray heathered cotton crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt
• Navy polyester/spandex short-inseam athletic shorts with navy drawstring waist and two black-zip side pockets
• Vuarnet Legend 06 brown nylon-framed sunglasses with Brownlynx mineral glass lenses on blue neoprene Croakies®
• Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Co-Axial Master Chronometer 210.90.42.20.01.001 titanium 42mm-cased self-winding watch with “tropical brown” aluminum dial and rotating bezel on titanium mesh bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post No Time to Die: Retired Bond’s T-Shirt and Shorts in Jamaica appeared first on BAMF Style.

John Garfield as Harry Morgan in The Breaking Point (1950)

Vitals

John Garfield as Harry Morgan, cynical charter fishing boat captain and Navy veteran

Newport Beach, California and Ensenada, Mexico, Spring to Summer 1950

Film: The Breaking Point
Release Date: September 30, 1950
Director: Michael Curtiz
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of the most intense and talented actors of his generation, John Garfield was born 110 years ago today on March 4, 1913 in New York’s Lower East Side. His birth name was Julius Garfinkle, with Julius added as a middle name that resulted in his nickname “Julie” among friends and family.

Garfield delivered many excellent performances during his too-brief life and career, eventually citing his personal favorite to be in his penultimate film The Breaking Point, a more faithful retelling of Ernest Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not than the popular and stylish 1944 adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Lushly photographed and set against the docks of Newport Beach, The Breaking Point stars Garfield as self-described “boat jockey” Harry Morgan, a World War II veteran who makes a living for his supportive wife and daughter by chartering his fishing boat, Sea Queen, that ferries passengers back and forth from Mexico. His life grows more complicated after meeting a flirtatious passenger named Leona Charles (Patricia Neal) and getting embroiled into a plot through his shifty lawyer acquaintance F.R. Duncan (Wallace Ford) to smuggle eight Chinese stowaways aboard the Sea Queen, only to find both Leona and his loyal mate Wesley (Juano Hernández) have snuck back aboard the boat to help him… and that Duncan’s contact has double-crossed him.

In my opinion, The Breaking Point is one of the finest films of the era, though it suffered—as did Garfield himself—from the Red Scare hysteria that ruined so many Hollywood lives. “Before it was released, Julie’s name appeared in the anti-Communist pamphlet Red Channels, which alleged he was connected to seventeen different Communist organizations,” wrote Carla Valderrama in her excellent volume This Was Hollywood: Forgotten Stars and Stories. “The report made Warner Bros. nervous, and they released The Breaking Point with little fanfare in September.”

The resulting blacklist inspired Garfield to produce and star in films through his own company, though he only had the opportunity to complete the excellent noir He Ran All the Way before he died on May 21, 1952, at the age of 39. “The official cause of death was a heart attack,” explained Valderrama, but “his friends and family believed it was the strain of the government’s decade-long crusade against him that did him in.”

What’d He Wear?

Harry’s meager means and hardy profession limit his wardrobe to a rotation of hard-wearing pieces over the course of The Breaking Point, all anchored—so to speak—by his peaked mariner’s cap. The cap follows the traditional design for captain’s hats, with a dark navy wool serge cover detailed in the front with a gold bullion-embroidered pair of crossed fouled anchors superimposed by a life ring, a crest often associated with private yachtsmen though it also resembles the foundation of the U.S. Coast Guard seal. A black braid decorates the hat’s black grosgrain band, and the visor is also black patent leather.

While his hat, belt, and shoes (for the most part) remain a constant, Harry rotates through a selection of button-up shirts, contrasting undershirts, and coordinated trousers as he navigates the increasing stakes of his personal dramas at sea and on shore.

The Dark Flannel Shirt

Harry frequently wears a dark mid-weight flannel long-sleeved button-up shirt over a pale-colored cotton undershirt with a narrow crew-neck.

Though it lacks the characteristic breast pocket, the cloth and cut of Harry’s dark over-shirt reminded me of the dark blue woolen flannel shirts worn at the time by U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officers, resulting in its colloquialization as the “CPO shirt”. The shirt has a point collar, a substantial front placket, and button cuffs. All the buttons are a dark recessed plastic with two holes.

While waiting for Duncan at the Shore Club while “I Guess I’ll Have to Change My Plan” plays int he background, Harry shares a drink and a smoke with Leona, who finally registers that he’s devoted to his wife… at least too devoted to his wife to cheat on her.

Harry’s dark flat-front casual trousers are made from a stiff, textured denim-like cloth, styled with belt loops and slanted “frogmouth”-style full-top front pockets, though no back pockets. The trousers have a comfortably full cut through the legs down to the plain-hemmed bottoms. His belt is made from a dark, well-worn leather and closes through a plain-finished metal single-prong buckle.

Harry typically wears sneakers (more on those later), but there are a few scenes where John Garfield can be spied wearing dark leather penny loafers attached to a set of lifts that would give the 5’7″ actor a few inches more height while acting opposite the 5’8″ Patricia Neal as his potential love interest.

During the scene in Leona’s apartment, Harry’s quip recalling his glory days that “I was eight feet tall all the time” feels particularly ironic as Garfield’s lifts are particularly visible.

Harry’s most frequently worn outerwear is a medium-colored cotton canvas zip-up work jacket with a large box-pleated patch pocket on each side of the chest, each covered by a large rectangular flap that closes through a single button.

The darker ribbed-knit collar, cuffs, and hem recall the nylon blousons being authorized for aviators at the time as the MA-1 bomber jacket, though Harry’s jacket may more accurately be considered a civilian evolution of the “jungle cloth” cotton deck jackets worn early in the war by U.S. Navy air crews, standardized by the Department of the Navy as NAF 1168 (contract no. NXs-1404).

Later, when Harry is down bad and needing to make payments on his boat, he reluctantly agrees to take on yet another shady job for Duncan, this time helping a group of pinstripe-suited gangsters make their getaway from a racetrack robbery.  Harry dresses for his initial meeting with the group in his usual garb of a dark shirt, trousers, and peaked cap but with a brown leather flight jacket like the A-2 that was worn by U.S. Army Air Forces pilots through the beginning of World War II.

The iconic A-2 is recognizable for its shaped shirt-style collar that can be fastened into place with concealed snaps, the fixed epaulets (shoulder straps), a covered-fly zip-up front, flapped patch pockets over the hips, and ribbed-knit cuffs and hem.

Khakis

After spending much of the Sea Queen‘s initial voyage from Newport Beach to Mexico fending off Leona’s advances, Harry drops her and her supposed fiancé Hannagan (Ralph Dumke) off in Ensenada and runs into Duncan at a cantina/cockfight arena.

For this part of the journey into his evening, Harry dresses in matching shirt and trousers that are most likely khaki, echoing a service uniform he may have worn while in the Navy during World War II. The cotton gabardine service shirt has a point collar, front placket, button cuffs, and two chest pockets with mitred corners and rectangular flaps that each close with a single button, keeping his deck of Chesterfields in the left pocket. Consistent with his usual practice of contrasting layers, he wears the light-colored shirt over a dark crew-neck T-shirt.

The trousers are a similar shade as the shirt, likely made from a khaki chino-cloth cotton, and styled with wide belt loops, curved front pockets, and no back pockets. Harry wears the same dark belt and sneakers as with the previous outfit.

Mock-neck Jumper

During a brief scene of Harry and Wesley fixing up the Sea Queen after its return from the Coast Guard, the captain wears a dark ribbed cotton mock-neck jumper with swelled seams across the shoulders and set-in sleeves.

Harry and Wesley argue with Mr. Phillips (Alex Gerry), the ship’s owner who wants to repossess it from the pair.

Chambray Work-wear

Harry’s other most prominent outfit is seen mostly across the movie’s second half, as the action stretches from spring well into the summer. Over another dark crew-neck T-shirt that we see has very short “muscle” sleeves, he wears a chambray work-shirt similar to the blue chambray shirts he would have been familiar with during his Navy service.

The design of Harry’s chambray shirt differs from Navy-issue work-wear, with a mil-spec button-through patch pocket on the right chest but contrasted against a smaller, dropped patch pocket on the left side that closes with a single button through a shallow pointed flap. Assuming the fabric is a light-blue chambray cotton, we can also further assume the plastic buttons down the front placket, on the cuffs, and closing the pockets are all dark blue.

Harry dresses for the day.

With the chambray shirt, he wears a lighter, medium-toned version of the trousers that he wore with his dark flannel shirt, following the same design with belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, and no back pockets, though the plain-hemmed bottoms appear to have more flare than was present on the darker trousers.

When preparing for his job with the mobbed-up crew of racetrack robbers, Harry pulls on the same two-pocket work jacket with the knitted collar, cuffs, and hem.

Once Harry makes it out to sea with the gangsters, he’s dressed in his shirt-sleeves while at the helm when he tells the gangsters he needs to retreat belowdecks for a jacket. He re-emerges in a dark woolen zip-up work jacket with a flat collar and set-in sleeves with knitted cuffs. The left side of the chest appears to have a leather patch similar to the insignia/ID badges often affixed to the same position on USAAF fliers’ A-2 jackets.

Captain Morgan’s last stand.

Everything Else

Harry’s everyday shoes are “high-top” sneakers, constructed with black canvas ankle-high uppers and dark rubber toe-caps and outsoles, specifically treaded for better traction which would serve Harry well aboard the potentially wet and slippery decks of the Sea Queen. These sneakers have nine sets of metal eyelets for his dark laces, with two similar grommets positioned on the inside of each shoe’s arch to ventilate the wearer’s foot.

Though Harry occasionally wears black leather cap-toe oxfords or the penny loafers hitched to a set of lifts, those are less congruous with his attire and seen considerably less, so we can consider the dark high-top sneakers to be Captain Morgan’s “canon” shoes, invariably worn with very dark socks.

Harry’s sneakers lack any clear badging that could easily identify their manufacturer, as used at the time by still-prominent shoemakers like Converse and Keds. This may also be an example of Harry continuing to wear military-inspired gear in his civilian life, as branches including the U.S. Army issued similarly styled basketball shoes for athletic training during World War II.

Harry typically wears a tonneau-cased wristwatch on a brown leather strap. The dial is framed with the Roman numeral hour indices offset from the center.

In what’s most likely a continuity error, some shots depict Harry at home wearing a round-cased wristwatch.

As actors typically wore their personal wristwatches with little regard to what appeared on screen in the days before Rolex, Omega, TAG Heuer, and other brands vied for top product placement, it makes sense that some watch-related continuity errors could happen.

The Guns

Given the shady characters in his orbit and his willingness to take on dangerous jobs for some extra cash, it’s little wonder that Captain Morgan feels the need to keep a few guns stashed around his boat and home. His primary long arm at sea is a Winchester Model 1892 lever-action rifle, which he loads when taking the Sea Queen out to pick up the eight stowaways he was hired to pick up by the mysterious Mr. Sing (Victor Sen Yung).

Upon finding that neither Leona nor Wesley had heeded his advice to stay away so that they wouldn’t be part of the dangerous and illegal job, he hands Wesley the Model 1892 and asks “you know how to use this?” “Just pump the lever and shoot it,” Wesley answers. “Yeah,” Harry responds, tossing him a box of ammunition, “only don’t put any holes in the hull.”

Designed by John Browning, the Winchester Model 1892 was an evolution of Browning’s prior lever-action design for Winchester, the venerable Model 1873 also known as “the gun that won the West.” Browning’s prototype of the Model 1892 was reportedly delivered within two weeks of Winchester requesting a design to compete with Marlin. More than a million Model ’92 rifles were manufactured by Winchester from its eponymous year of introduction through the end of production during World War II, available in a range of ammunition that included the .44-40 Winchester Center Fire (WCF) round popularized in the Model ’73 as well as small-game rounds like .25-20 WCF, .32-20 WCF, .38-40 WCF, and even a handful in the late ’30s produced for the .218 Bee cartridge.

Perhaps most prominently modified as John Wayne’s famous “Mare’s Leg” carbine, the Winchester Model 1892 became a Hollywood mainstay due to its ubiquity during the early studio years and its similarity to earlier lever-action rifles.

Captain Morgan loads his Winchester rifle upon hearing a noise on his boat.

Harry’s wife Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter) senses the danger of the racetrack job when she spies the Colt Official Police in Harry’s waistband before he leaves the house. “This is my business, this is what I’m good at!” he responds, gesturing to the grips of the revolver in his waistband, before offering some gentle reassurance. “I’m just being careful, that’s all. The gun doesn’t mean anything unless it goes off! I got a right to be careful.”

Harry then exercises said caution by nailing a pair of leather holsters inside the top of a hatch aboard the Sea Queen, then sliding his pair of Colt revolvers inside them so he could unobtrusively access them while feigning mechanical issues. (Knowing that the gangsters may be looking for guns aboard the boat, he keeps the now-emptied Winchester rifle in a locker where they could easily find it… and toss it overboard.)

Harry readies his Colt Official Police revolvers for action aboard the Sea Queen.

As implied by its name, the Colt Official Police was intended for the law enforcement market upon its introduction in 1927. The concept of double-action service revolvers with four-inch barrels and six-round cylinders of .38 Special had been standardized for a quarter of a century by Smith & Wesson, Colt’s primary competition. Colt evolved the existing medium-framed Colt Army Special by generally just rebranding it as the Official Police, and it became a fast favorite among cops, civilians, and crooks alike for more than forty years until production ended in 1969 with more than 400,000 manufactured.

Harry proves that you don’t officially need to be a police officer to use the Official Police.

Though differing in some details, the armament generally aligns with how Ernest Hemingway had described Harry’s on-board arsenal in the third chapter of To Have and Have Not:

Then I went below and got out the pumpgun and the Winchester 30-30 that I always had below in the cabin and hung them up in their cases from the top of the house where we hung the rods usually, right over the wheel where I could reach them. I keep them in those full-length, clipped sheep’s wool cases with the wool inside soaked in oil. That’s the only way you can keep them from rusting on a boat.

I loosened up the pump and worked her a few times, and then filled her up and pumped one into the barrel. I put a shell in the chamber of the Winchester and filled up the magazine I got out the Smith and Wesson thirty-eight special I had when I was on the police force up in Miami from under the mattress and filled it up and put it on my belt.

The pump-action gun—presumably a shotgun though pump-action rifles also exist—doesn’t appear among Harry’s on-screen arsenal in The Breaking Point, though he does still carry a .38 Special police revolver and a Winchester rifle. (The Model 1892 was never chambered for the .30-30 cartridge, which was introduced for the similar Winchester Model 1894 and is almost certainly the weapon that Papa was describing on Harry’s boat.)

What to Imbibe

Despite his rum-associated name, Captain Morgan is strictly a beer and whiskey drinker. None of the beer brands are clearly visible (unless he’s served the El Cerro cerveza clearly advertised in the Ensenada cantina where Leona orders a daiquiri), but you can stock a small bar with the varieties of whiskey he swills on screen.

When Harry and Duncan plan the captain’s potential route with his eight smuggled stowaways, they do so with a bottle of PM De Luxe blended whiskey and a pair of shot glasses that suggest it’s been fueling their brainstorm. Advertised for its “clean, clear taste”, PM De Luxe was a product of National Distillers, one of the “big four” American distilleries that rose to prominence in the decades following Prohibition.

If only a clean, clear taste could mean keeping a clean, clear head while planning a dangerous smuggling job.

After his boat gets impounded by the Coast Guard for his involvement, Harry again goes to meet Duncan at the Newport Beach tiki bar Christian’s Hut, where Duncan tries to talk him into yet another ill-conceived idea until Harry smartly dismisses him: “I had friends of yours on it, it took too long to blow the stink off. Now get away from me, you smell bad.”

Harry evidently has some pull at the bar, as Charlie the bartender leaves the bottle of Old Crow bourbon with Harry to serve himself. Even after that, Harry asks “Charlie, I got any credit here? I wanna tear myself loose,” prompting Charlie to smile in response: “Go ahead, put a dent in it.”

Across the bar, he spies Leona—who had been singing “Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone” to a group of male customers—and they sit together for an increasingly flirtatious conversation as Harry gets increasingly inebriated, though he smartens up enough to abruptly end the conversation when his wife Lucy struts into the bar and approaches them, having been called by Charlie to give Harry a ride home if he drank too much… as he’s very blissfully doing. When Lucy is stunned to see that Leona is far more attractive than the homely description Harry gave of her, she helps herself to a shot from his bottle of Old Crow.

While now comfortably populating the bottom shelves at most liquor stores, Old Crow has a long and illustrious history—of which I’ll spare you most of the detail—as one of the oldest continuously produced American bourbon brands, first distilled by Scottish immigrant Dr. James C. Crow in the 1830s and eventually a favorite of American icons like Henry Clay, Ulysses Grant, Hunter S. Thompson, and Mark Twain.

As she had while they were drinking together in Ensenada, Leona suggestively reaches into Harry’s shirt pocket to help herself to his cigarettes. He’s getting too blotto on Old Crow to care.

If drinking together in a dark corner of a tiki bar wasn’t compromising enough, Harry later visits Leona in her apartment, where she greets him in a satin gown and invites him to have a drink. He pours himself a dram of Old Angus blended Scotch, ignoring the Ron Merito that she had poured for herself. (Between that and her daiquiri order in Ensenada, it’s safe to say that Leona is a rum drinker… no wonder she falls so hard for Captain Morgan!)

MORGAN

After drinking Old Crow and Old Angus, Harry completes the trio of “Old” whiskies when he finds a bottle of Old Overholt rye whiskey on his boat, taking pulls from it during the racetrack robbery getaway.

Old Overholt remains the oldest continually maintained brand of whiskey in the United States. It was first produced in the first decade of the 19th century by Henry Oberholzer, a German Mennonite farmer who had relocated to western Pennsylvania, where he continued his family’s tradition of distilling korn liquor into whiskey. Business gradually grew, with the “Old Overholt” brand finally solidified by 1889, featuring the likeness of Henry’s son Abraham Overholt, who had taken over the operation in 1810.

Thanks to its association with Andrew W. Mellon, then Secretary of the Treasury in President Warren G. Harding’s famously corrupt administration, Old Overholt was one of the few American liquor brands to survive the restrictions of Prohibition by receiving a permit to continue selling its whiskey for, uh, “medicinal use”. (This situation was dramatized in the third season of Boardwalk Empire, featuring the great James Cromwell guest-starring as Mellon.)

Though once favored by presidents (including, again, General Grant), Old Crow slowly fell out of favor over the course of the 20th century until the rye-naissance of the last few decades returned it to its still-modestly priced prominence.

With Abraham Overholt’s recognizable visage staring back at him from the label, Harry confronts the gunmen in the Sea Queen‘s cabin with a bottle of Old Overholt rye in hand.

How to Get the Look

John Garfield as Harry Morgan in The Breaking Point (1950)

Captain Morgan’s seafaring profession and financial position call for a limited wardrobe of hard-wearing staples inspired by his naval career, rotating through rugged work-shirts—inspired by the Navy’s khaki service shirts, navy CPO shirts, and blue chambray shirts—with coordinating trousers and always worn with his peaked captain’s hat, trusty deck jacket, and the traction-soled sneakers that allow him to effectively keep his footing on the Sea Queen‘s wet decks.

• Dark cotton canvas zip-up work jacket with dark ribbed-knit collar, cuffs, and hem and two large box-pleated chest pockets (with button-down flaps)
• Navy-inspired long-sleeve button-up shirt, including:
  • Navy cotton flannel shirt
  • Blue chambray cotton work-shirt with button-through right pocket and flapped left pocket
  • Khaki cotton gabardine service shirt with two flapped chest pockets
• Contrasting crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt
• Flat-front trousers with belt loops, slanted “frogmouth”-style full-top pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark leather belt with plain metal single-prong buckle
• Black canvas “high-top” sneakers with nine-eyelet lacing, ventilation grommets, and black rubber toe-caps and outsoles
• Dark socks
• Peaked cap with navy wool serge cover, gold-embroidered crossed anchors, black braided hatband, and black patent leather visor
• Tonneau-cased wristwatch with Roman numeral hour indices on brown leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out this excellent movie. They don’t make ’em like this anymore… and to be honest, they barely even made ’em like this back then!

The Quote

A man alone ain’t got no chance.

The post John Garfield in The Breaking Point appeared first on BAMF Style.

Simon MacCorkindale and Lois Chiles in Death on the Nile (1978)

Vitals

Simon MacCorkindale as Simon Doyle, newlywed honeymooner

Egypt, September 1937

Film: Death on the Nile
Release Date: September 29, 1978
Director: John Guillermin
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As my wife and I are basking in the sun during our Jamaican honeymoon this week, I wanted to focus on another cinematic honeymoon… though I hope I’m not dooming us by pulling an example from Agatha Christie’s poison pen. Based on her 1937 novel of the same name, the 1978 adaptation of Death on the Nile was the first of six films to star Peter Ustinov as Christie’s eccentric Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, here pulled into a dangerous love triangle.

Simon Doyle (Simon MacCorkindale) was a simple young Englishman, relatively devoid of funds and creativity, but charming enough to attract the fiery Jacqueline de Bellefort (Mia Farrow). The seemingly happy couple’s engagement doesn’t last long after Simon meets Jackie’s dazzlingly wealthy and glamorous friend, Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles), and it’s she whom Simon marries instead. The Doyles spend their honeymoon touring Egypt and exploring the pyramids, “some of the most recognizable—not to mention pointiest—buildings in history,” according to the great Philomena Cunk.

Unfortunately, their marital bliss is frequently interrupted by Jackie, hell-bent on harassing the new Mr. and Mrs. Doyle for stealing the life that should have been hers. Linnet’s troubles will soon be compounded upon boarding the Nile steamer where seemingly every other passenger has a grudge against her, but it’s the pistol-packin’ Jackie who harbors the most personal grievance… one which Hercule Poirot is all too eager to prevent from turning deadly.

What’d He Wear?

Simon Doyle’s costume for a horseback trek through the pyramids is about as uncomplicated as the man himself, consisting of a nearly matching off-white shirt and breeches, held up with a sash and worn with the requisite riding boots.

The setting of Death on the Nile is only a few years advanced from René Lacoste standardizing the pullover shirts with collars and short plackets known alternately today as polo shirts, golf shirts, and—in the spirit of Mr. Lacoste’s profession—tennis shirts. However, these shirts quickly grew popular through the ’30s, particularly among the leisure class who could afford a casual wardrobe for every season and were already familiar with the easy comfort afforded by these shirts due to their sporting pursuits. That said, decorum would have still restricted their regular wear to only the most casual situations, with an activity like horseback riding through the Egyptian desert certainly qualifying.

Simon wears a light cream knitted polo shirt with a soft collar, ribbed short-sleeve ends, and a three-button placket that he wears totally open.

Simon tucks the shirt into a pair of cream-colored riding breeches, as evident by not just the context but also fullness through the thighs. Rather than on-seam side pockets, these trousers have front pockets positioned just below the belt-line, gently slanting out toward the side seams. Pockets styled and positioned like this allow the contents to stay in place while the wearer is seated, such as on horseback.

Through the trouser belt loops, Simon uniquely wears a long dark brown sash, patterned with a tan motif, similar to the sashes that Fred Astaire often worn in lieu of belts while dancing. There may have been some functional reason, perhaps to avoid introducing hard leather or metal that could hurt the horse or its rider (though this defies the oversized belt buckles famously worn by rodeo champions), or this may have simply been chosen to add a dash of rakishness to Simon’s otherwise uncomplicated attire.

The newlyweds stand united in all white as they confront Jackie about obsessively following them on their honeymoon.

Both Simon and Linnet wear black cowhide leather riding boots with the traditional calf-high shafts, so designed to protect the wearer’s legs.

Simon wears a gold tonneau wristwatch on a tan leather strap around his left wrist. Characterized by its convex-rounded sides, tonneau watches were popular through this era among men and women as an elegant alternative to the function-driven designs of tank watches and hefty converted pocket watches.

How to Get the Look

Simon MacCorkindale and Lois Chiles in Death on the Nile (1978)

Simple apparel for simple Simon, dressed in all white to beat the heat with the requisite riding boots and the rakishly unique touch of a cloth sash around his waist rather than a belt. Sometimes it’s just a matter of adding those subdued, tasteful, and distinctive decisions to make an uncomplicated outfit more interesting.

• Cream knit short-sleeved 3-button polo shirt
• Cream flat front riding breeches with belt loops and slanted front pockets
• Dark brown patterned sash, worn like a belt
• Black leather calf-high riding boots
• Gold tonneau-cased watch on tan leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and read Agatha Christie’s original novel.

Death on the Nile has been adapted at least twice more since 1978. Of these two, I still have yet to see Kenneth Branagh’s recently released adaptation, though I can recommend the version produced in 2004 as a ninth-season episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, starring David Suchet as Poirot, Emily Blunt(!) as Linnet, and JJ Feild as Simon.

Footnote

While casting Lois Chiles and Mia Farrow as frenemies may be a nod to their earlier portrayals of flapper pals Jordan Baker and Daisy Buchanan in the 1974 adaptation of The Great Gatsby (also set during the interwar era, of course), an unexpected reference to Chiles’ career would also become prescient when Simon mentions that Jackie had also followed them to the famous Hotel Danieli in Venice, the very hotel where Chiles’ character Dr. Holly Goodhead would be a guest in Moonraker, the James Bond film released just one year later.

The post Death on the Nile: Simon MacCorkindale’s Honeymoon on Horseback appeared first on BAMF Style.

Tom Cruise and Elisabeth Shue in Cocktail (1988)

Vitals

Tom Cruise as Brian Flanagan, ambitious tropical bartender

Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Spring 1988

Film: Cocktail
Release Date: July 29, 1988
Director: Roger Donaldson
Costume Designer: Ellen Mirojnick

Background

As I’ve already stated in a few recent posts, I’m spending this week enjoying my honeymoon in Jamaica, the setting for a handful of James Bond movies as well as the critical flop but mega box-office hit Cocktail, released 35 years ago this summer.

Adapted from Heywood Gould’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, Cocktail stars Tom Cruise as Brian Flanagan, an ambitious and arrogant Army veteran with Wall Street dreams… and a TGI Fridays reality, as he begins working as a bartender to make money while attending business school.

Brian finds he has a knack for bartendering, specifically the flashy brand of flairtending taught to him by more experienced barman Doug Coughlin (Bryan Brown), with whom he partners at a trendy club and leaves his business ambitions behind. As with all friendships where both parties end up sleeping with Gina Gershon, the tension between Brian and Doug culminates in a very public blowout that results in Brian’s self-imposed exile to a beachside tourist bar in Jamaica.

Two years after their barroom brawl, the now-married but still-mischievous Doug arrives on the island and quickly makes amends with Brian… in fact, it’s almost jarring how quick Brian is to not only forgive but eagerly greet his manipulative old pal. And it’s almost jarring how quick Doug is to sabotage yet another of Brian’s romantic entanglements, knowing that the insecure Brian will take the bait when Doug challenges that he can’t take home any of the “moneyed females” in the bar, inadvertently causing Brian to ruin his budding relationship with the charming Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue) when he sleeps with the cougar Bonnie (Lisa Banes). Was it worth it to win a $50 bet?

What’d He Wear?

Wall Street was Ellen Mirojnick’s previous costume design credit before Cocktail, which illustrated how effectively she could design for the beach as well as the boardroom. While Brian Flanagan may have once aspired to Gordon Gekko’s level of bespoke tailored suits, he seems happily at ease in his Jamaican wardrobe of oversized and brightly printed tropical shirts that contribute to the convivial atmosphere at the beachside bar he maintains.

For the pivotal sequence where Brian takes Doug’s bet to seduce Bonnie and ends up betraying Jordan, he wears an oversized long-sleeved silky shirt with a floral all-over print against a dark violet ground. The shirt has a point collar, non-matching breast pocket, and a plain front (no placket) that Brian wears with the top few white pearl-esque plastic buttons undone.

I don’t have the botanical expertise to determine if the print is meant to represent a specific flower or leaf, but I can tell you the overall shape reminds me of a windmill. Each four-petaled shape has a violet squiggle separating the pale pink blade from the white mid-section, with a pale-pink stigma in the center that is semi-bordered by a violet arc.

Brian’s favorite trousers in Jamaica are his white cotton medium-rise slacks, designed with short single pleats that contribute to their comfortably full fit. The wide belt loops go unused, and the trousers clearly fit Tom Cruise well enough that they’re able to remain in their intended position just below his natural waist without needing a belt. The trousers have slanted side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms with a tendency to bunch over the tops of his shoes when he doesn’t self-cuff them.

Brian wears the same white canvas deck sneakers that had him and Jordan pondering who invented the plastic “flugelbinders” at the ends of his white laces. An evolution of the Sperry CVO that was the world’s first non-slip deck shoe upon its invention in 1935, these follow the general “circular vamp oxford” closed-lace design that resulted in the CVO name, albeit with the unorthodox addition of an apron-toe seam.

In the nearly two years since he left New York, Brian must be doing well enough for himself tending bar at this tropical paradise that he was able to update his watch to a Rolex Air-King. Introduced in 1958 to honor the RAF pilots who flew during the Battle of Britain, the Air-King was Rolex’s entry Oyster Perpetual for decades, a downsized alternative to the Explorer model that had been introduced five years earlier. Brian’s stainless steel Air-King boasts a silver dial and is worn on a steel “Oyster”-style three-piece link bracelet.

Tom Cruise models Brian’s stylish Persol sunglasses and Rolex watch in a promotional photo with Elisabeth Shue.

As most of these scenes are set during the evening hours, even a cocky yuppie like Brian isn’t louche enough to wear his sunglasses at night—thankfully resisting Corey Hart’s synth-pop call to arms released four years earlier. That said, Brian’s tortoise square-framed Persol sunglasses are so stylish that he would almost be excused for doing so. Almost.

What to Imbibe

Bartender, serve thyself. Though they’re never mentioned by name, the cream-colored tropical long drinks that Brian mixes for himself and Doug are almost certainly the famous Piña Colada—the venerated rum, coconut, and pineapple concoction that was having something of a moment through the decade following the 1979 release of Rupert Holmes’ single “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)”.

Legend has it that the piña colada can trace its origins to the early 19th century Puerto Rican pirate Roberto Cofresí, who mixed cocktails of rum, coconut, and pineapple to boost his crew’s morale. Whether the account is true or not, it would be nearly a century after Cofresí’s death until the piña colada first appeared in print when Harry Craddock published a similar mix of ingredients in his 1930 publication of the Savoy Cocktail Book, stipulating white rum, coconut milk, and crushed pineapple, blended with ice. More claims to its invention—or at least perfection—were made as the decades passed, with Puerto Rican bartender Ramón “Monchito” Marrero credited with perfecting it with his 1954 recipe while working at the Caribe Hilton Hotel. The piña colada was named the official drink of Puerto Rico in 1978, just a year before Mr. Holmes appropriated it for his soft-rock ear-worm.

There are many different ways to make a piña colada, with the IBA stipulating five parts white rum, three parts coconut cream, and five parts pineapple juice, the latter essential as “piña colada” is literally Spanish for “strained pineapple”. According to the IBA, the three ingredients can either be blended or mixed together on the rocks, as long as they’re poured into the distinctively shaped poco grande glass.

Yes, Brian likes piña coladas, but the jury’s still out on his thoughts about dancing in the rain.

After accepting Doug’s bet, Brian moves across the bar to take Bonnie’s order. “A vodka on the rocks with a squeeze of lime” is hardly tropical enough for the environment, so he insists on instead making her a Jus D’Amour… which he helpfully translates as “juice of love,” in case his overall demeanor didn’t already telegraph his bedroom intentions with her.

In addition to white rum, sweet red vermouth, and a dark rum floater, Brian explains that his love juice is “made with fresh fruit, right off the vine… trust me when I tell you that it is nothing short of spectacular.”

You’d think Brian would know that the kind of person ordering a vodka on the rocks probably doesn’t want your blend of rums and fruit… even if she is interested in your juice of love.

I’m inclined to believe that Brian’s “spectacular” cocktail is a creation of his own, as contemporary searches for Jus D’Amour primarily yield a perfume marketed as “a love song in a bottle.”

How to Get the Look

Tom Cruise in Cocktail (1988)

Tropical bartender Brian Flanagan maintains his own uniform of loose and flowy printed shirts with white trousers and deck sneakers while mixing up rum-soaked cocktails for privileged vacationers, flashing the fruits of their tips via a Rolex strapped to his wrist.

• Violet four-petaled floral print silky long-sleeved shirt with point collar, plain front, button cuffs, and breast pocket
• White cotton flat front trousers with self-suspended waistband, slanted side pockets, button-through back pockets, and self-cuffed plain-hem bottoms
• White canvas four-eyelet deck sneakers with white outsoles
• Rolex Air-King stainless steel watch with silver dial and steel Oyster-style link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post Cocktail: Tom Cruise’s Violet Four-Petaled Tropical Shirt appeared first on BAMF Style.

Jake Lacy as Shane Patton on The White Lotus (Episode 1.02: “New Day”)

Vitals

Jake Lacy as Shane Patton, smug and spoiled newlywed

Maui, Hawaii, Summer 2020

Series: The White Lotus
Episode: “New Day” (Episode 1.02)
Air Date: July 18, 2021
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

While it’s the second season of The White Lotus that’s currently dominating memes and award show headlines, my honeymoon this week had me—for better or worse—recalling the frat-tastic style of the newlywed realtor Shane Patton (Jake Lacy) from the first season, set in Hawaii.

Lacy himself has described Shane as “the most entitled victim possible,” unable to enjoy his Hawaiian honeymoon with his new wife Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) after being assigned to a different luxury suite than expected, beginning a private battle against the beleaguered hotelier Armond (Murray Bartlett) that escalates through a series of drugs, defecation, and daggers. But before that… breakfast!

Shane’s buffet-to-pool apparel at the start of the second episode is one of my favorite fits from his wardrobe, to some extent reminding me of the classically inspired warm-weather gear I packed for Jamaica this week. (That said, it’s hard for anything to beat my delight at seeing the sage OAS terry shirt he wears later in the season.)

What’d He Wear?

Shane smartly combats the tropical heat in a camp shirt made of seersucker, the light-woven cotton with its distinctive puckering that retains cool air pockets against the skin. The blue-and-white “railroad stripe” is the most traditional seersucker pattern, but many variations have emerged over the years, including Shane’s configuration of wider “candy stripes” in pink and white.

Shane’s short-sleeved shirt follows the traditional design of a leisure-oriented camp shirt, so named for its flat, notched one-piece camp collar (also known as a “Cuban collar”, among other names). The shirt has a breast pocket, six ivory buttons up the plain front, and a straight hem (with short side vents) that befits sporty shirts like this that are meant to be worn untucked.

Another day, another round of Shane harassing the hapless hotel manager Armond about the specificities of the suite he—or, rather, his mother—had booked for his honeymoon.

“Jake Lacy was really into clothes and all about the tiny details,” costume designer Alex Bovaird explained to Tanya Mehta for Grazia. “In his fitting, we talked about how we could make his character a bit more boyish. We shortened every pair of shorts to just the right length where you know he is conscious of his body and we tailored all the shirts to make them just a little snug. Shane’s character reminds me of the time I went on a boat to Nantucket, where I saw three men sport the same salmon shade of trousers, this reinforced the idea of conforming to a certain aesthetic.”

Dressed to digest his hearty breakfast poolside, Shane wears a pair of mid-thigh swim trunks in teal-blue polyester with a unique white border print depicting what look like ancient Romans—vignettes of knights on horseback alternated with toga-swathed philosophers—all positioned above white wavy borders framing each thigh’s hem. The shorts have slanted side pockets and a patch-style back-right pocket.

The “white knights” on Shane’s swim trunks may signal his inflated sense of self, seeing himself as his new wife’s protector.

Shane leaves his brown leather Gucci loafers in their suite to sit poolside in his blue-and-red rubber flip flops by the affordable and popular Brazilian brand Havaianas. Shane’s sandals consist of navy footbeds against red soles with red thongs detailed with the Brazilian flag and the white-lettered “havaianas” branding.

Shane’s tonneau-shaped wristwatch has been identified as a Franck Muller Conquistador, an appropriately named model given the series’ overall themes of colonialism while also echoing Shane’s own desire for conquest, whether it be of a beautiful trophy wife or the upper hand in a battle of wits (and shits) against a hospitality manager.

Like a few other Franck Muller timepieces, the Conquistador’s dial is detailed with baroque numeric hour markers, adapted in varying sizes to fit around a ringed center within the swelled tonneau-shaped parameters. Shane’s stainless Conquistador has a white dial, worn on a russet-brown crocodile-scaled leather strap. He also wears his gold wedding ring on his left hand.

Shane’s gluttonously overloaded plate quietly horrifies the waitstaff at what he calls a “decent” breakfast buffet.

How to Get the Look

Jake Lacy as Shane Patton on The White Lotus (Episode 1.02: “New Day”)

Shane’s quasi-classic summer leisurewear reminds me of how I first aspired to pull off Sean Connery’s Thunderball outfit with pink camp shirts, blue swim trunks, and a nice watch.

• Pink-and-white candy-striped seersucker cotton short-sleeved camp shirt with breast pocket
• Teal polyester mid-thigh swim trunks with white Roman-figure border print, side pockets, and back-right pocket
• Navy-and-red rubber Havaianas flip flops
• Franck Muller Conquistador stainless tonneau-shaped wristwatch with white dial and russet-brown croc leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series, streaming on HBO Max.

You can also read more about The White Lotus‘ costume design from these source articles:

• Grazia: “Paradise Lost: The Vision Behind The Costumes On The White Lotus“ by Tanya Mehta
• Vanity Fair: “Caftans, Goyard, and Elvis: Inside The White Lotus’s Costumes” by Matthew Jacobs
• W: “On The White Lotus, Resort Attire Weaves Its Own Tawdry Tale” by Gabe Bergado

The Quote

Welcome to the rest of your wonderful life.

The post The White Lotus: Shane’s Pink Seersucker Shirt and Swimwear appeared first on BAMF Style.

Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum on Magnum, P.I. (Episode 1.13: “All Roads Lead to Floyd”)

Vitals

Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, private investigator and former Navy SEAL

Hawaii, Summer 1981

Series: Magnum, P.I.
Episode: “All Roads Lead to Floyd” (Episode 1.13)
Air Date: March 12, 1981
Director: Ron Satlof
Creator: Donald P. Bellisario & Glen Larson
Costume Designer: Charles Waldo
Costume Supervisor: James Gilmore

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

It’s been about six months since I last posted about Thomas Magnum, and some renewed interest in the style of Magnum, P.I. (at least according to a few Instagram DMs I’ve received!) inspired me to check back in with Tom Selleck as the paradise-dwelling private eye—er, private investigator.

With St. Patrick’s Day at the end of this week, it feels appropriate on this #MagnumMonday—which isn’t as much of an established thing as I’d like it to be—to find Magnum wearing some Irish green. Fans of the series know he wore rugby shirts and polos with almost as much frequency as his famous aloha shirts, including a Kelly green short-sleeved rugger that made its sole appearance in the first-season episode “All Roads Lead to Floyd”, which originally aired 42 years ago yesterday on March 12, 1981.

The eponymous Floyd Llewelyn (Noah Beery) is a small-time con artist, whose estranged daughter Cindy (Anne Bloom) hires Magnum to track him down after a fender-bender where her car damaged Magnum’s iconic borrowed Ferrari. A comedy of errors results in Magnum behind the wheel of Floyd’s own miniature Honda 600 as he navigates Floyd’s unfortunate position as a target of both Klansmen and the Japanese mob led by debonair crime boss Mizamura (Seth Sakai).

What’d He Wear?

Rugby shirts are primarily differentiated from similar polo shirts by their stiffer contrasting collars and plackets—usually white—with rubber buttons designed to become easily undone (rather than popping off) if a shirt is tugged during a rugby match. Shirts intended for gameplay were often banded with bold horizontal stripes and made from a durable polyester or poly-cotton blend, though the shirts grew increasingly fashionable off the pitch to become a preppy casual staple by the early ’80s. By this time, rugby shirts were available in a variety of colors, cuts, and cloth, varying between simple short-sleeved shirts and heavier long-sleeved shirts with “kangaroo”-style pockets… all of which would end up in Thomas Magnum’s closet.

In “All Roads Lead to Floyd”, Magnum wears a trim-fitting bright Kelly green polyester rugby shirt, characterized by its stiff collar and placket made from a woven cotton that’s more cream than white. The relatively long placket extends down to mid-chest with three white rubber 4-hole buttons, all worn undone. The short set-in sleeves extend about midway down his biceps, where they’re finished with a narrow self-band.

What is Kelly green? This brilliant shade of mid-green took its name from the common Irish surname “Kelly” and, through its similarities to the lush Irish landscape, has come to be closely associated with St. Patrick’s Day.

Before the four-pocket dungarees would be rotated into Magnum’s wardrobe three episodes later, he exclusively wore Levi’s jeans through the first season, specifically those with the unique “orange tab” (rather than the brand’s familiar red tab), which Levi’s used to denote non-basic cuts like bell-bottoms and boot-cuts from the 1960s through the ’90s. These light blue denim jeans otherwise follow the now-conventional jeans configuration with belt loops and the five-pocket layout of two curved-entry front pockets, right-side watch pocket, and patch-style back pockets.

A holdover from his Navy service, Magnum almost exclusively wears khaki cotton web belts. From the second season onward, the box-frame buckle would be detailed with the Navy’s Surface Warfare insignia above his name “MAGNUM”, but the buckle was a plain gold-finished brass throughout the first season. These lightweight yet trusty belts are still made by contractors like Rothco.

Magnum may be admiring how well the floral print of the King Kamehameha Club’s bikini-clad lounger would translate into an aloha shirt.

When not wearing boat shoes, Magnum typically favors his white nylon PUMA Easy Rider sneakers, detailed with blue-striped leather side trim, blue wedge-style midsoles, leather-studded rubber outsoles, and off-white suede overlays on the T-toes, lacing, and heel counters.

Introduced in 1977, just three years before Magnum, P.I. debuted, the Easy Rider was revolutionary as PUMA’s first jogging shoe. Features like stable uppers and shock-absorbing soles to aid distance runners made it popular among pros, including San Jose State University running coach Don Riggs, who publicly endorsed the Easy Rider’s comfort, durability, and overall quality in contemporary advertisements.

Magnum may be one of the coolest characters in TV history, but one of the drawbacks of being 6’4″ is that it made it especially hard for Tom Selleck to climb in and out of small cars. Guess I can be glad I’m 5’9″ if I ever need to borrow a vintage Honda 600?

Through the first three seasons of Magnum, P.I., Magnum wore a stainless steel Chronosport Sea Quartz 30 dive watch on a black tropic rubber strap. The watch has a slim black tick-marked rotating bezel, a black dial with luminous markers and Arabic numeral indices for 12, 6, and 9 o’clock with a black day-date window at the 3 o’clock position. The dial is simply marked “Quartz” as the full “Sea Quartz 30” designation wasn’t added until after 1982. Flashbacks depict this watch on Magnum’s wrist during his service in Vietnam, a choice that reportedly carries historical provenance as some Navy SEAL teams evidently did wear Chronosport watches during the early ’70s.

Beginning at the top of the fourth season, Magnum’s watch was retconned to be his aviator father’s prized “Pepsi bezel” Rolex GMT Master, and the Chronosport all but disappeared from the series.

Looking for Magnum’s POW/MIA bracelet? He wouldn’t begin wearing that until the end of the third season.

Magnum and his war buddies T.C. and Rick (Larry Manetti) each wear matching gold signet rings with the French Croix de Lorraine (“Cross of Lorraine”) in relief against a black enamel-filled oval face. After the first episode, Magnum would wear the ring on his left hand throughout the first season before reverting it back to his right hand for all episodes to follow.

What to Imbibe

Also appropriate for the week of St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, Thomas Magnum is a beer drinker… but not just any beer! Why, our beloved TV private investigator simply can’t get enough of the beloved brew Coops.

No, that’s not a misprint on the Bubble Boy’s Trivial Pursuit card—the Magnum, P.I. production team, aware of the potential liabilities of featuring actual alcohol brands on the show, mocked up a golden label with a black-scripted “Coops”, just close enough to the real-life yellow-labeled Coors Banquet beer that the Bandit had driven eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin’, just a few years prior.

The boys are thirsty in Oahu, and there’s beer in Texarkana

How to Get the Look

Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum on Magnum, P.I. (Episode 1.13: “All Roads Lead to Floyd”)

Looking for a more tasteful approach for that upcoming St. Patrick’s Day party? Maybe this is the year you leave that “Kiss Me I’m Irish” T-shirt behind and opt for a green rugger, with a touch of Thomas Magnum via dive watch, web belt, and PUMA trainers.

• Kelly green polyester short-sleeved rugby shirt with cream woven collar and three-button placket
• Blue denim Levi’s “orange tab” five-pocket jeans
  • Available via Secondhand Levi’s
• Khaki cotton web belt with gold-finished box-frame buckle
  • Available via Amazon
• PUMA Easy Rider sneakers with white nylon uppers, off-white suede overlays, dark blue side stripes and midsoles, and raised black studded rubber outsoles
• Chronosport Sea Quartz 30 stainless steel dive watch with narrow black-finished rotating bezel, black dial with luminous markers and 3:00 day-date window, and black tropic rubber strap
• Gold team ring with black enamel-filled Croix de Lorraine
  • Replicas available via Amazon

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the entire series and the extensively researched fan site Magnum Mania!

The post Tom Selleck’s Kelly Green Rugby Shirt on Magnum, P.I. appeared first on BAMF Style.

Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us

Vitals

Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller, tough pandemic survivor and former contractor

Boston to Utah, Fall through winter 2023

Series: The Last of Us (Season 1)
Air Dates: January 15, 2023 – March 12, 2023
Created by: Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
Costume Designer: Cynthia Ann Summers

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

It was fascinating to see my distaste for mushrooms validated in such a distressing manner in one of the biggest shows of the year.

Based on Naughty Dog’s popular video game of the same name, The Last of Us concluded its acclaimed first season on Sunday night. The series was primarily set in a post-apocalyptic 2023 in the grim aftermath in a global pandemic (albeit far more dystopian than our current reality), caused by a mass fungal infection that transforms its human hosts into grotesque quasi-zombies (shroombies?) that still roam the tattered world two decades following the societal collapse.

After a brief prologue that introduces a viral epidemiologist (John Hannah) on a Dick Cavett-type talk show in 1968, outlining the threat of a fungally spread pandemic triggered by climate change, we jump ahead to the fateful Friday in late September 2003, when Texas contractor Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and his sweet-natured daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) are celebrating his 36th birthday. Twenty years later, when Joel is asked how it all happened (other than that “the shitty government failed to prevent a pandemic”), he tries to sum up the situation to the best of his knowledge:

No one knows for sure, but best guess… cordyceps mutated, got into the food supply, probably a basic ingredient like flour or sugar. There were certain brands of food that were sold everywhere—all across the country, across the world. Bread, cereal… pancake mix. You eat enough of it, it’ll get you infected. So the tainted food all hits the store shelves around the same time Thursday. People bought it, ate some Thursday night or Friday morning. Day goes on. They started to get sick. Afternoon, evening, they got worse. Then they started bitin’. Friday night, September 26, 2003. By Monday, everything was gone.

After losing his daughter to a misguided military sentry’s rifle on the Friday night everything went to hell, we catch up with Joel twenty years later, now living among a large group of fellow haggard survivors in a federal-run quarantine zone in the ruins of Boston. Though he’s garnered a reputation for capability among people on all sides of what passes for law, Joel is forced to earn his rations through grim duties like disposing of infected corpses, maintaining sewers, and the occasional drug deal. He has developed a partnership—both personal and professional—with the equally apocalypse-hardened Tess (Anna Torv), which grows more complicated after they’re compelled by “Firefly” underground revolutionaries to spirit the fiery teenage survivor Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of the QZ and into the ostensible hands of fellow revolutionaries at the overgrown Massachusetts state house.

Though Joel has been rendered cynical by hearing similar stories countless times before, the bitten-but-not-infected Ellie is told that her resilience may contain the secret to unlocking a cure. Their attempt to smuggle Ellie to a local band of Fireflies is stymied when they find the state house abandoned… aside from hordes of infected. It’s hardly the last of their unexpected troubles, marking only the beginning of a nightmarish journey across the ruined nation. (Though set across the United States, The Last of Us was almost entirely filmed in Alberta, Canada.)

Their cross-country journey features the varying effectiveness of community philosophies that emerged after societal collapse, ranging from isolated individualism and self-sustaining communism to self-destructive totalitarianism and cannibalistic theocracy. And, while the badass battle sequences to be expected of post-apocalyptic fiction certainly delivered thrills, what I found most compelling about The Last of Us was the series’ nuanced focus on humanity, survival, and love.

What’d He Wear?

“When you’re on the run or the road like Joel and Ellie, you only have what you can fit in your backpack [and] on your body,” costume designer Cynthia Ann Summers explained to Emma Fraser for The Daily Beast‘s Obsessed, also expressing her surprise that there has been so much interest in Joel’s costume. “I didn’t want him to look like he thought about what he chose to put on. He needed utilitarian wear.”

Waxed jackets have been popular on screen recently, particularly among hardy characters like James Bond (specifically Daniel Craig’s Barbour sports jacket in Skyfall and the Rogue Territory supply jacket in No Time to Die) and the Dutton family and ranch cowboys on Yellowstone. In the bleak world of 2023, Joel maintains his hard-wearing style by adding a waxed, blanket-lined trucker jacket to the trusty jeans and boots he had worn two decades earlier as a contractor, the type of job that would have prioritized rugged function over fashion.

Sturdy jackets and jeans serve Joel and Ellie well as they walk through the wasteland of post-apocalyptic America in “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03).

The Waxed Trucker Jacket

Arguably the most popular item from Joel’s wardrobe is his flannel-lined trucker jacket from the Los Angeles-based outfitter Flint and Tinder, made from a waxed 7-oz. sailcloth cotton in the “field tan” shade.

“We were making our own jacket, because the jacket in the game kind of looked like a Carhartt… Carhartts are very boxy, and they’re also super stuff, and even though we have these amazing breakdown people, they’re super hard to break in,” Summers explained to Caroline Reilly for GQ UK. “So we decided to make our own, but the oiled cotton is super hard to work with, and it’s hard to break down. So we built several, none of them worked for various reasons. We got to one that Pedro really liked, but it didn’t fly with everybody else, the producers. And that’s the name of the game. So at the 12th hour, I was like, ‘Okay, shoppers, just get me every jacket on the market that we can multiply by 30 or more at the end of the day. And just let’s get as many here as we can, and let’s just see what we can do.’ And there was another close contender, but we landed on this one, it just fit him well.”

After some alterations and artificial aging, Summers’ team was ready to go with an array of Flint and Tinder jackets for Joel. Though Flint and Tinder prides their jackets on the protective qualities of the Martexin wax applied to both sides of the shell, Summers reported that this waxing was actually removed to make the cloth more vulnerable to their aging process.

Even at the relative start of their journey in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), Joel’s Flint and Tinder trucker jacket has already clearly withstood considerable wear.

Joel’s jacket follows the general design that has evolved in the decades since Levi’s 1905 introduction of the waist-length, rivet-button “Type I” 506XX—now considered the first trucker jacket.

The jacket has six nickel “donut”-style tack buttons up the front from the straight waist hem to the neck. A horizontal yoke extends across the chest above the second button, with a similarly positioned yoke straight across the back. A pointed patch pocket is situation on the left side of the chest (just below the yoke), with a mitred flap that closes through a single button. Vertical welted pockets are set-in at hand level on each side. The set-in sleeves are finished with squared cuffs that close through a single button, and the waist also has short squared tabs to adjust the fit by closing through one of two buttons.

The polyester flannel “blanket lining” is stripes in two shades of blue, offset by golden yellow bar stripes through the darker blue stripes. A “media pocket” made from the same waxed cloth as the outer shell is sewn against the inside left of the lining, specifically designed so that right-handed users could easily slip their cell phones in and out of this pocket, though Joel often carries his flashlight in it.

Note the distinctive striped flannel lining, both while leading his group through the museum in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), with the flashlight visible in his pocket, and as Ellie hands the jacket back to him in the following episode, “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03).

Joel’s Shirts

For the first three episodes of scenes set in 2023, Joel wears an indigo-blue denim shirt chosen to specifically reflect his clothing in the early stages of the game. After testing many blue denim and chambray work shirts, Summers chose a Wrangler shirt that she favored for its simplicity, specifically its lack of the pointed Western-style chest yokes that often characterize these snap-front shirts. This was an important factor for Summers, who told GQ that “Joel’s style is that of an everyday man, paying little attention to personal style details,” elaborating to The Daily Beast that “he’s angry, so I didn’t want to diffuse that with anything fashionable.”

“It actually is a piece that Wrangler does exclusively for Walmart,” Summers shared with Caroline Reilly for GQ UK. “Which makes total sense, because that’s where these guys go to get their workwear.”

Made from a ringspun denim cotton, the long-sleeved shirt appears to have been through plenty by the time we find Joel in the Boston QZ, with considerable wear along the seams and edges, including around the spread collar. The front placket closes with seven simple brass-finished snaps that match those on the two pointed chest pocket flaps and on the single-snap cuffs, which Joel typically wears unsnapped and rolled up his forearms.

Even with a broken watch, Joel’s never off the clock while trying to make ends meet in the Boston QZ.

Wrangler must be a favorite brand in the Texan-born Miller family, as Joel’s brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) also wears a dark blue denim Wrangler shirt when they reunite in Wyoming in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), though Tommy’s shirt features both the pointed yokes as well as the brand’s characteristic “W”-stitch on both chest pockets. By that point, Joel has already changed his shirt anyway.

When tasked with corpse disposal for the Boston QZ in “When You’re Lost in the Darkness” (Episode 1.01), Joel briefly supplements his garb with a red-striped beige neckerchief that covers his nose and mouth, though he presumably abandons this after leaving the QZ.

In “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03), Joel and Ellie arrive at the home of the recently departed Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett). After the two travelers freshen up themselves and their supplies—including Bill’s arsenal and “piece of shit Chevy S10″—Joel also helps himself to the green plaid flannel shirt we had previously seen Frank wearing in a 2010 flashback.

The handsome shirt was first identified by Rachael Griffiths in New York‘s The Strategist as the laurel-green Fjällglim shirt by Swedish outdoor outfitter Fjällräven. The pattern consists of a wide-scaled black shadowed plaid framing a light-red windowpane overcheck, all against a forest-green ground.

Frank’s sartorial legacy lives on through Joel taking his shirt on the next leg of his journey.

Made from a lightweight polyester flannel twill, the shirts were significantly restructured from their stock configuration to better resemble the game-worn shirt. The standard Fjällglim has a red-branded button-through patch pocket over the left breast, with a vertical zip-up pocket set-in behind it. “For this particular shirt, we needed it in multiples of 30 for Joel, Joel’s stunt double, Joel’s photo double, and Frank,” Summers explained to Griffiths. “We took the fronts off the shirts, removing the zip pocket and creating our breast pockets to mimic the game shirt.”

The resulting screen-ready shirts present two button-through chest pockets with mitred corners on the bottom. The sleeves also have standard button cuffs, with the mid-bicep buttons removed from each sleeve.

As the action following “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03) continues through the increasingly chilly weather of fall, Joel layers his new plaid flannel shirt over a simple ecru cotton undershirt. The long-sleeved T-shirt has a crew-neck with a V-notch, the functional feature often found on sweatshirts that was introduced to catch sweat and keep the neck shape intact. A thread at The RPF, which I consider to be an ultimate source for identifying screen-worn gear, strongly suggested that Joel wore the Todd Snyder x Champion Midweight Pocket Sweatshirt in “heather fog” cotton.

Joel wears the green flannel Fjällräven button-up shirt and the ecru undershirt until “When We Are in Need” (Episode 1.08), as it was damaged two episodes earlier at the end of “Kin” (Episode 1.06).

Following his recovery, Joel appears at the start of “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09) wearing a new shirt, identified as the River Island Regular Fit Washed Denim Shirt. The solid color and snap-front design recalls his earlier Wrangler shirt from the first three episodes, though the River Island shirt notably features the pointed shoulder yokes that Summers had specifically tried to avoid for the Wrangler, perhaps reflecting Joel’s warmer nature as he seeks to be more playful with Ellie… even suggesting the two play Boggle!

Made from a washed gray 100% cotton denim twill, the shirt has a spread collar and a straight hem that would typically allow it be effectively worn untucked, though Joel may have benefited from a curved hem that would better suit the holstered revolver on his belt. There are seven black-finished snaps up the front placket, matching the single snaps on each cuff and gauntlet. There are two pointed-bottom chest pockets, each covered with a narrow pointed flap that closes through another single snap.

Joel and Ellie bond in Salt Lake City.

The Jeans

Ellie: Joel… did you know diarrhea is hereditary?
Joel: What?
Ellie: Yeah… it runs in your jeans.

Luckily, 20-year-old cans of Chef Boyardee don’t seem to have this effect on Joel, as he’d be literally shit out of luck given that he’s been wearing the same pair of jeans since 2003.

Despite the many trials that went into finding the right items for the rest of Joel’s wardrobe, Summers reported to Digital Spy that “we were lucky” with the jeans, as the Levi’s 505 Regular Fit were one of the first two pairs that Pedro Pascal tried on during initial costume tests.

The 505 Regular Fit was introduced in 1967, with a zip fly differentiating it from the button-fly 501 Original Fit. The roomier fit of the straight-leg 505 would likely be more comfortable for the long-traveling Joel than the straighter-fitting 501. Joel’s screen-worn denim appears to be the’s dark indigo “Flying Bird” wash, with the signature Levis “red tab” removed from the back-right patch pocket, though each back pocket retains the brand’s characteristic arcuate stitch.

“Jury’s still out, but man… you can’t deny that view.”

Joel holds up his jeans with a dark burgundy leather belt that closes through a hefty silver-toned single-prong buckle. He keeps his defensive gear in handy reach, attached to the right side of his belt. He carries his revolver in a brown leather Triple K outside-the-waistband (OWB) holster with a snap retention strap.

Just behind it, he carries his steel Buck 119 Special fixed-blade knife in a Buck-branded black leather sheath with a single-snap loop that attaches around his belt. This venerated hunting knife has a stainless 6″ clip-shaped blade and a black phenolic handle and aluminum guard and pommel.

After the events of “Endure and Survive” (Episode 1.05), Joel has started wearing the backpack he obtained from Henry Burrell (Lamar Johnson), though he still has his same Buck knife and holstered Taurus in the final episode of the first season (“Look for the Light”) as he did when first setting out from Boston at the start of the season.

The Boots

Heavy-duty boots are requisite footwear for the unexpected calamities of dystopian post-pandemic life, whether wading through thigh-high murky water in a bombed-out hotel lobby or hiking up the snowy Grand Tetons.

Throughout the show from the 2003 scenes through 2023, Joel wears only Irish Setter boots, a brand of purpose-built footwear “for work and hunt” that evolved from the introduction of the iconic russet Red Wing 854 boots in 1950. The “Elk Tracker” and “Trailblazer” models have both been suggested as the screen-worn Irish Setter boots, though discussion among The RPF members and on Gear Patrol generally concludes that Joel wears the the former—specifically the Elk Tracker, style #861.

Though both mentioned varieties of Irish Setters are generally similar from the ankles down, certain details like the side wing shapes, number of visible outsole lugs, and the Goodyear welt appearance more closely align with the Elk Tracker style than the Trailblazer.

These plain-toe hunting boots are comprised of waterproofed dark brown full-grain leather uppers that rise 10″ to mid-calf and are Goodyear-welted to black lugged carbon rubber Bulls-Eye® Air Bob Aggressive outsoles, reinforced by a steel shank for added stability. Though it would have been significantly tested through Joel’s years of heavy wear, Irish Setter treats the memory foam insoles with a proprietary ScentBan odor control technology, designed to kill bacteria and its associated odors.

The boots are derby-laced through four sets of gilt-finished eyelets, plus four more sets of speed hooks up the shaft, though the lowest pair of hooks are larger and positioned farther back on each side of the boot. Irish Setter typically characterized this specific boot style with kilted tongue extensions, though these were evidently removed from Joel’s boots.

Joel’s “new” Elk Trackers are already considerably worn by the time he’s rampaging through the Fireflies’ hospital in “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09).

At the start of “Kin” (Episode 1.06), Joel’s boots begin falling apart as he needs to secure the outsole of his right boot by duct-taping it around the rest of the boot. After reaching his brother Tommy at a Wyoming commune, Joel attempts to mend the boot himself, but Tommy simply presents him with a nearly identical pair of Irish Setters… an impressive find in a camp that prides itself on a collective notion of property.

Joel accepts Tommy’s donated Irish Setters, which appear to be the same model of Elk Trackers that he had been wearing up to this point.

Constantly in a state of alertness to avoid being caught off-guard by raiders or the infected, Joel rarely has his boots off. In the rare occasion that he does, attempting to mend the separated outsoles in the safety of that Jackson Hole commune workshop in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), we see that he wears light-gray woolen boot socks with gold-woven toes.

The Watch

“Your watch is broken,” Ellie comments shortly after their first meeting. Joel’s daughter Sarah (Nico Parker) had taken his watch to get repaired for him as a 36th birthday gift. Indeed, the affable jeweler’s fix was one of the last actions seen under any shred of normalcy before society unraveled overnight. While trying to make their escape in the early morning hours the next day, both the watch and poor Sarah herself were shot by a soldier ordered to kill them. Though it hasn’t functioned in the two decades since, Joel continues wearing it as a memento of the beloved daughter he lost.

Joel keeps his broken watch dutifully strapped to his wrist.

The watch was custom-made for the production by Andrew Taylor, an instructor at South Plains College Video Production Technology. Taylor’s collection of military memorabilia had attracted the attention of an assistant prop master on The Last of Us, who then contacted Taylor to hire him to construct Joel’s wristwatch. As instructed, Taylor’s design followed the simple but sturdy A-17 watches worn by American pilots during World War II as well as the aesthetics of the Lüm-Tec Super Combat B2 watch that reportedly inspired the game-worn timepiece.

The result was a plain steel-cased field watch with an unguarded crown and straight lugs through which an olive-green nylon NATO-style strap passes through. The round black dial has luminous hands and Arabic numeral indices, with the 12, 3, and 9 particularly prominent while a white-ringed sub-register at the 6 o’clock position features a red hand.

Before disaster strikes, Joel looks over the long-neglected watch that Sarah had fixed for him on his 36th birthday.

Shop the watch:

Joel's watch was custom-made for the series, but the shape and style reminds me of the simple and affordable Timex Weekender:

• Timex Weekender T2N647 (Amazon, $49 $36.02)

Especially if you're putting the look together for cosplay or costume purposes and plan on breaking the watch glass for a screen-accurate look, you may be glad to go with an inexpensive—yet still surprisingly reliable—piece like the Timex.

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Once you've got the watch, you can swap out the bracelet for an Army green NATO-style vinyl strap like Joel wears, with silver-toned buckle and keepers to match the watch metal:

• Benchmark Basics Nylon Watch Band in Army green (Amazon, $9.95)

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Prices and availability current as of March 15, 2023.

Winter Gear

By the sixth episode (“Kin”), Joel and Ellie finally reach Wyoming, where he layers against the snow in a thigh-length shearling coat over his trucker jacket.

The cognac-brown leather shell has a dual closure with a full-length zipper as well as an extended storm fly with five dark brown buttons that extend up to the top of the funnel neck. The inside of the coat is finished in a darker brown oiled leather with an inset piled shearling-style fleece.

The coat has set-in sleeves, left plain at the end of each cuff though there a seam rings around each forearm. On the front, the shoulders are yoked with seams that slant upward toward the neck, with another seam crossing horizontally above the fourth button. The back is similarly divided with a horizontal seam across the upper back while two perpendicular seams below it divided the rest of the back into four quadrants. There are also two slanted welt-entry hand pockets.

To the best of my knowledge, the coat remains unidentified, though Paolo Sandoval almost definitively reported for Inside Hook that Pascal wears the Aston “Laredo Shearling Coat” while others, including BAMF Style reader Jimmy Peeler, made the case for the Overland “Lucas Merino Shearling Sheepskin Coat”. To my eye, neither appears to be a 100% match for the screen-worn outerwear, but both are fine coats!

“Kin” also introduces Joel’s russet-brown cowhide gloves, uniquely detailed with red leather-piped edges, outward-facing seams, and paracord wrist adjusters. These specific features aided its identification as the Wakayama retro-inspired ski gloves in the “cork and brown” colorway. The Wakayama gloves have removable wool terry liners and neoprene cuffs for comfort. Each elasticized cuff has a short tab with a gunmetal grommet, through which the red-and-olive paracord passes through to adjust the fit around the wrist.

T-Shirt and Jeans in 2003

Joel’s look was much simpler twenty years earlier, when dressing for work on his 36th birthday—September 26, 2003. He rolls into breakfast with Sarah wearing his navy blue T-shirt inside-out, until she points it out so he can correct it before work. “That outfit was super hard to get, which sounds nutty because it is literally a T-shirt, jeans, and boots,” Summers shared with The Daily Beast, explaining the specific challenge posed by showrunner Craig Mazin’s vision for its color palette.

The navy-blue T-shirt that Mazin favored for the scene was from the Italian knitwear brand Crossley, detailed with a narrow crew-neck and double-banded short sleeves. With only four of the discontinued shirts initially sourced, Summers and her team worked to collect the at least 30 needed to account for the hardships of the scene and needs of stunt and photo doubles. Once obtained, the shirts were put through the usual breakdown rigors to present as well-worn staples from a contractor’s closet.

Joel already showed a preference for his dark blue denim Levi’s 505 Regular Fit jeans and brown leather Irish Setter boots that he would still be wearing two decades later. As Summers had mentioned the Irish Setter “Trailblazer” as a model worn by Pascal on screen, it’s possible that the Trailblazers were Joel’s 2003 boots before they were replaced by the Elk Trackers by 2023.

Forest-Green Flannel in 2010

The only other time we see Joel between the initial outbreak and the present-day scenes are his 2010 visit with Tess to the survivalist Bill (Nick Offerman) and his gregarious partner Frank (Murray Barlett) in “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03), during which the paranoid Bill warily keeps his .45 trained on Joel for much of their dinner.

Joel wears a forest-green soft flannel long-sleeved work shirt with two button-through chest pockets, as well as his usual Levi’s jeans and Irish Setter work boots.

The Guns

Ellie: Can I have a gun?
Tess: No!
Joel: Absolutely not!
Ellie: Okay! Jesus… fine! I’ll just throw a fuckin’ sandwich at them.

Ellie asks the question after watching Joel pick up his rifle from the floor in the abandoned SuperClips where she just minutes earlier awakened to find him aiming it at her. Stepping out into the light of a bombed-out Boston, we see that he supplements the rifle with the same holstered revolver he had picked up from under the floorboards in the previous episode… and which Ellie spends much of the early part of the season begging to carry.

Joel digs up the 4″-barreled Taurus Model 66 revolver he keeps in a Triple K belt holster, stored under his floorboards.

Taurus Model 66

Following the example set in the game, Joel’s primary sidearm is a Taurus Model 66 service revolver, its once-blued finish considerably worn. Introduced by the Brazilian arms manufacturer Taurus in 1978, the Model 66 initially resembled many other medium-framed, traditional double-action service revolvers with its six-round cylinder until a new variant was introduced in 1999 with a unique seven-round cylinder. Despite the tactical advantage of an extra round, I believe Joel carries the more conventional six-shot model, holstered in a tan leather Triple K OWB holster on the right side of his belt.

The Model 66 is primarily chambered for .357 Magnum ammunition, though—like many other .357 revolvers—it can also fire the lower-powered .38 Special. As we see in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), he keeps the revolver’s spare rounds in his jacket’s right-hand pocket. The black rubber grips are detailed on each side with the familiar golden Taurus emblem at the bottom.

Standard barrel lengths are three, four, and six inches, with Joel’s four-inch model resulting in a total length of 10.5 inches and weighting just over two pounds with all six rounds loaded.

Joel keeps his trusty Taurus drawn while inspecting a Colorado college building in “Kin” (Episode 1.06).

M4A1

When Joel, Tess, and Ellie initially set out from the Boston QZ, they’re briefly stopped by the corrupt FEDRA soldier Lee (Max Montesi), whom Joel beats to death and relieves of his M4A1 carbine.

Joel primarily uses the M4A1 in combat when they’re attacked by a group of infected in the Bostonian Museum in “Infected” (Episode 1.02), then he stashes it with his backup supplies in the Cumberland Farms convenience store on the way to Bill and Frank’s compound in the following episode, “Long, Long Time” (Episode 1.03). “There’s not much ammo out there for this thing,” he rationalizes to a questioning Ellie, which “makes it mostly useless.”

Adapted from the AR-15 and M16 series of 5.56x45mm NATO battle rifles, the 14.5″-barreled M4A1 carbine served as the standard American military service rifle at the time of the show’s outbreak in 2003, so it makes sense that FEDRA soldiers would still be armed with it twenty years later, though—like many weapons in The Last of Us—the frames show considerable wear from years of usage and likely not much ability to properly clean or store it.

The M4A1 that Joel takes from Lee has a fore-end light but simple iron sights, likely configured to avoid needing to rely on battery-powered optics given the limited resources of The Last of Us‘ 2023. In addition to the standard triangular-shaped A2-style fixed post front sight, this particular M4A1 has an LMT fixed rear sight, a robust style designed to maintain zero during heavy combat usage by military and police.

Joel’s M4A1 also has duct tape over the fore-end of the collapsible stock, suggesting that Lee—or a previous user—made a simple field repair rather than swapping out for a different rifle.

During his rampage through the Firefly-controlled hospital in Salt Lake City in the finale, “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09), Joel gets his hands on another M4A1 rifle after his commandeered Ruger Mini-14 is empty. This M4A1 also has iron sights, though it has carry handle rear sights affixed to the “flat top” A2-style upper.

In “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09), Joel fights his way to Ellie through the hospital with a variety of high-powered weaponry like the M4A1.

Beretta Model 70

After Bill dies alongside Frank in “Long, Long Time”, Bill bequeaths all of his weaponry to Joel, stored in his basement bunker… but, even then, Joel doesn’t permit Ellie to arm herself. Luckily for her, she finds Frank’s Beretta Model 70 stashed in a desk drawer and figures that what Joel doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

In fact, it actually saves him only an episode later in “Please Hold to My Hand” (Episode 1.04) when she uses it to paralyze the twerpy Bryan (Juan Magana), one of the desperate aggressors they encounter in Kansas City. After realizing Ellie can handle herself—and that he wasn’t responsible for the first time she had to shoot someone, as she later discloses—he agrees to help her learn how to shoot it. His first step is to correct the technique she was taught by FEDRA: “thumb over your thumb, left hand squeezes down on right.”

Joel corrects Ellie’s grip on Frank’s Beretta Model 70 in “Please Hold to My Hand” (Episode 1.04).

Despite its nomenclature, Beretta actually introduced its semi-automatic Model 70 series in the late 1950s, intended to be an improvement on the World War II-era Model 1934 and 1935 pistols. Marketed as the “Puma”, the Model 70 was chambered for .32 ACP (7.65x17mm SR Browning), the same small but popular ammunition found in James Bond’s Walther PPK; in fact, continuity errors during the making of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) actually swapped in a Beretta Model 70 for 007’s usual PPK during a few scenes.

The Model 70 series also included the .22-caliber Model 71 Jaguar (famous for its use by the Mossad) that shared the Model 70’s compact dimensions of a 3.5-inch barrel, though there were also longer-barreled variations on full-sized and target frames.

Like Joel’s Taurus Model 66, the Beretta Model 70 was also Ellie’s handgun in The Last of Us game.

Winchester Model 70

From Bill’s collection, Joel helps himself to a Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle with black synthetic furniture that he ably uses to defend himself and Ellie against a pair of armed ambushers in Kansas City in “Please Hold to My Hand” (Episode 1.04).

Bill’s truck and rifle get Joel as far as Kansas City, where he’s forced to abandon both.

After he’s forced to abandon Bill’s blackened Model 70, Joel quickly arms himself with another after taking out an aging revolutionary sniper, Anthony (Ron J. Anderson), who had been sniping at Joel’s small group of survivors on their way out of Kansas City in “Endure and Survive” (Episode 1.05).

Anthony’s wooden-furniture Winchester Model 70 appears to have been a generally better-received pre-1964 version, operationally distinguished by a Mauser-type controlled round feed and cosmetically characterized by cut checkering. Anthony’s Model 70 also has a long-range scope, which Joel uses to battle Kathleen’s heavily armed revolutionary forces that chase after his band.

Remington Model 700 BDL

After Maria (Rutina Wesley) takes Joel’s pre-1964 Model 70 upon “welcoming” him into the protected Wyoming commune that used to be Jackson Hole, Joel borrows his brother Tommy’s “old 700”, presumably the same scoped Remington Model 700 BDL bolt-action rifle we had seen the brothers use during the outbreak scenes at the start of the series.

Remington has continuously produced the Model 700 since 1962, when it was introduced as an improvement on the earlier Model 721 and 722 sporting rifles. Available in over two dozen calibers and many different barrel lengths, finishes, and stock configurations, the Model 700 is typically fed from an internal tube magazine of between three to six rounds.

Tommy’s Model 700 “Better Deluxe” (BDL) variant is described by Remington as “American’s most popular bolt-action of all time,” with a high-gloss walnut stock capped with a black fore-end. The current lineup includes 6.5mm Creedmoor, .243 Winchester, .270 Winchester, .308 Winchester, .30-06 Springfield, all with 22″ barrels and four-round internal tube magazines, in addition to 7mm Remington Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum, with 24″ barrels but three-round tube magazines.

On their way to Colorado in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), Joel uses the Model 700 to teach Ellie how to shoot: “deep breath in, slow breath out… you squeeze the trigger like you love it. Gentle, steady… nice and slow.” “You gonna shoot this thing or get it pregnant?” she quips in response.

Both Joel and Ellie effectively use it as their preferred weapon through the next several episodes, until the Salt Lake City band of Fireflies take it from Joel in “Look for the Light” (Episode 1.09).

Ruger Mini-14 GB-F

Upon learning that the Fireflies intend to perform a fatal operation on Ellie’s brain in the hopes of extracting a potential cure, Joel overpowers the two Firefly guards escorting him out of the hospital, taking their Ruger Mini-14 GB-F and a spare magazine before charging back into the hospital to retrieve Ellie… and execute any Firefly in his path.

The Ruger Mini-14 was introduced in 1973 as a commercial evolution of the briefly issued M14 battle rifle, though the lightweight Mini-14 was chambered for the smaller 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge used in the newer M16 series (rather than the larger 7.62×51 mm NATO round used in the M14) as well as the dimensionally equivalent .223 Remington caliber. It became popular as a sporting rifle, though—as described in The Complete World Encyclopedia of Guns—”as a select-fire rifle for military or police use, the Ruger Mini-14 proved to be just a bit too lightly constructed and not accurate enough.”

In the half-century since it was introduced, Ruger developed several variations of the Mini-14 like the “Government Barrel” (GB) and the GB-F, the latter fitted with a side-folding stock for additional portability.

Joel reloads his commandeered Ruger while battling Fireflies in the Salt Lake City hospital.

When he takes the Ruger Mini-14 GB-F from one downed Firefly, he also curiously appears to take a STANAG magazine from another Firefly that had been armed with an M4. While both rifles can fire 5.56×45 mm NATO ammunition, I don’t believe they have transferable magazines as the Mini-14 feeds from proprietary 20- and 30-round Ruger magazines.

Beretta 92FS

Finally, after his M4A1 runs out of ammunition, Joel picks up yet another discarded weapon—the Beretta 92FS. He performs a brass check to confirm one in the chamber and charges into the operating room.

The Beretta 92 pistol series consists of semi-automatic pistols with a traditional double-action/single-action trigger, chambered for the universal 9×19 mm Parabellum ammunition that feeds from double-stack magazines. Now almost universally recognizable following its role in movies like the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon series, Beretta had introduced the full-size 92F/92FS pistol in the 1980s as an improvement upon its earlier Model 92, also intended to compete in U.S. military trials to replace the aging M1911A1 service pistol.

With one fateful shot, Joel secures his and Ellie’s freedom for the moment… though at what potential cost for humanity?

Read more about the firearms in The Last of Us at IMFDB.

What to Imbibe

There are little opportunities for drinking in the world of The Last of Us, though the excellent third episode “Long, Long Time” depicts Joel and Tess spending an idyllic afternoon in 2010 with their new friends Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) on Bill’s fortified compound in Lincoln, Massachusetts, drinking some of the Caymus Vineyards red wine that we saw Bill liberating from their local liquor store during the initial outbreak. The label indicates that they’re enjoying the Cabernet Sauvignon variety, which the Napa Valley winery describes as characterized by “rich fruit and ripe tannins – as approachable in youth as in maturity.”

Bill only wants to serve his guests hot lead from his .45 while the far more genial Frank is willing to share their cabernet sauvignon with Joel and Tess.

When he has the choice, Joel seems to prefer whiskey, drinking from a sorry bottle in his apartment in the first episode and again pulling from a flask around the campfire with Ellie in “Kin” (Episode 1.06), reluctantly handing it over to her for a sip. Later in “Kin”, he joins his brother Tommy at the Jackson Hole bar—his first proper watering hole in decades—where Tommy pours them each a glass of homemade whiskey over ice.

The taped-on label suggests that Tommy’s commune had distilled the whiskey only months prior, in June 2023.

If you’re looking for a The Last of Us-approved meal to pair with your whiskey or wine, may I recommend 20-year-old cans of Chef Boyardee? As a one-time college student whose culinary skills left something to be desired, I’ve definitely subsisted on Beefaroni a few years past its expiration date, but I can attest that—as Joel admits—it was still pretty good.

Joel celebrates finding an untouched can of Beefaroni.

What to Listen to

Obviously:

How to Get the Look

Pedro Pascal on the set of The Last of Us (Sourced from @bellaramsey on Instagram)

Joel’s frayed yet functional fashions on The Last of Us are appropriate for both dystopian survival or a standard weekend adventure, built on timeless staples like a waxed trucker jacket, rugged work shirt, blue jeans, and hardy hiking boots.

• Tan waxed sailcloth cotton trucker jacket with 6 nickel “donut” tack buttons, horizontal chest and back yokes, patch chest pocket (with button-down flap), vertical welted hand pockets, button-tab waist adjusters, and squared single-button cuffs
  • Flint and Tinder Flannel-Lined Waxed Trucker Jacket
• Blue or gray denim cotton snap-front long-sleeve shirt with spread collar, two chest pockets (with narrow pointed snap-down flaps), and single-snap cuffs
• Dark blue denim straight-leg jeans with belt loops, zip-fly, and five-pocket layout
  • Levi’s 505 Regular Fit
• Dark burgundy leather belt with large silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Dark brown waterproofed leather 10″-high plain-toe work boots with four-eyelet derby-lacing, four sets of speed hooks, and Goodyear-welted black lugged outsoles
  • Irish Setter Elk Tracker 861
• Light-gray woolen boot socks
• Stainless steel field watch with unguarded crown, straight lugs, and round black dial (with luminous Arabic numeral indices and 6:00 sub-dial) on olive-green nylon NATO strap

Shop the jacket:

Flint and Tinder Flannel-Lined Waxed Trucker Jacket in field tan (Huckberry, $298)

Shop the blue denim shirt:

Wrangler Men's Premium Slim Fit Denim Shirt in dark wash (Walmart, $17.97)

Shop the plaid flannel shirt:

Fjällräven Fjällglim shirt in laurel green (Fjällräven, $110)

Shop the gray denim shirt:

River Island Regular Fit Washed Denim Shirt in gray cotton (River Island, £32)

Shop the jeans:

Levi's 505 Regular Fit in "Flying Bird" wash

• Amazon ($48.65)
• J.C. Penney ($59.99)
• Levi's ($59.99)

Prices and availability current as of March 15, 2023.

Shop the boots:

Irish Setter Elk Tracker boots

• Amazon ($152.93 and up)
• Cabela's ($204.99)
• Irish Setter ($239.99)
• Sportsman's Warehouse ($214.95)

Prices and availability current as of March 15, 2023.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series, streaming on HBO Max.

To read more about The Last of Us, check out these sources for today’s post:

• The Daily Beast: “Finding Pedro Pascal’s Perfect ‘The Last of Us’ Jacket Was a Herculean Effort” by Emma Fraser
• Digital Spy: “The Last of Us costume designer reveals Pedro Pascal’s surprising reaction to Joel outfit” by Joe Anderton and Gabriella Geisinger
• Everything Lubbock: “South Plains instructor recreates watch featured in HBO TV show ‘The Last of Us'” by BrenShavia Jordan
• Gear Patrol: “These Are the Perfect Boots for Pedro Pascal in HBO’s ‘The Last of Us'” by Evan Malachosky
• GQ: “All of the Menswear We’ve Clocked on The Last of Us So Far” by Tyler Chin
• GQ: “The Best Part of The Last of Us Is Pedro Pascal’s Jacket” by Tyler Chin
• GQ: “Here’s Where to Buy Pedro Pascal’s The Last Of Us Denim Shirt” by Tyler Chin
• GQ UK: “Joel’s watch is The Last Of Us’s greatest and most confounding mystery” by Robert Leedham
• GQ UK: “On The Last of Us, costumes for the end of the world” by Caroline Reilly
• Huckberry: “Hey, Is Pedro Pascal Wearing a Huckberry Flannel-Lined Waxed Trucker Jacket in The Last of Us?”
• Inside Hook: “The Internet Wants to Know: Where Is Joel’s ‘The Last of Us’ Episode 6 Coat From?” by Paolo Sandoval
• The RPF: “The Last of Us HBO Joel Thread” (For my money, there are no better screen-sartorial detectives than The RPF community!)
• SEEK (Instagram Reel): “Brilliant @cynthiasummers breaks down Joel’s jacket from @thelastofus”
• The Strategist (New York): “We Found Pedro Pascal’s Flannel Shirt From The Last of Us” by Rachael Griffiths

The Quote

Sometimes things don’t work out the way we hope. You can feel like you’ve come to an end and you don’t know what to do next, but if you just keep going, you find something new to fight for.

The post Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us appeared first on BAMF Style.

Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed (2006)

Vitals

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

Boston, Spring 2007

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, BAMF Style readers!

After decades of cinematic focus on Italian-American culture and its proximity to the Mafia, Martin Scorsese turned his directorial lens onto the Irish mob in The Departed, the film which finally earned the director an Academy Award for Best Director after five previous nominations.

Based on the 2002 Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs, The Departed centers around two policemen—the corrupt Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) and the deeply undercover Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio)—and their association to the ruthless criminal Francis Costello (Jack Nicholson), who may share a name with real-life Mafia figure Frank Costello but was closely based on Boston gangster Whitey Bulger.

Although Martin Sheen rolling through “microprocessors” in a Boston accent lives rent-free in my head, the details of Costello’s varying crimes hardly matter as much as the sadistic pleasure he takes from heists and homicide. The “cheese-eatin’, fuckin’ rat” in his organization gnaws at him as he grows increasingly unhinged until the double-dealing Sullivan utilizes Costigan as his own informant to bust one of Costello’s drug deals, resulting in an explosive shootout that leaves most of Costello’s mooks dead and pits Costello and Sullivan mano a mano.

What’d He Wear?

Unlike the flashy silk suits and spearpoint-collared shirts often associated with Scorsese’s cinematic criminals, Frank Costello meets his end while dressed like anyone’s paunchy middle-aged dad running some errands on the weekend… except that Costello’s errands consist of a coke deal instead of an afternoon at Home Depot. Given Costello’s increased recklessness by this point, I can’t be sure if he’s tactfully dressed to avoid detection (which shouldn’t matter, given the extensive police surveillance) or if he simply can’t be bothered to be dressing better anymore.

Costello wears the same black microfiber polyester waist-length, zip-up windbreaker that he had previously worn while dealing microprocessors to the Triad gangsters. The shirt-style collar is lined along the inside with a strip of khaki polyester that extends out to a pointed throat-latch tab on the left side that ostensibly connects to a single button under the right side of the collar. The jacket has hand pockets, an elasticized blouson-style hem, and raglan sleeves that have a squared single-snap closure at the end of each cuff, though Costello wears these undone and self-cuffed up his forearms for this sequence.

And what could be more appropriate on St. Patrick’s Day than a T-shirt that just says “IRISH” printed across the chest in dark green with a small shamrock positioned just below it. Made from a light-gray heathered cotton, the short-sleeved T-shirt is a likely reference to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, which would be The Departed‘s second reference to the university as Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) had earlier mentioned that his son attends the school.

The gunshot wound to Costello’s gut suggests that this is one Irishman whose luck is running out.

Costello wears medium-dark blue denim jeans which may be Lee, as suggested by the deep curvature of his front pockets. Nicholson had long been a fan of Lee jeans, wearing Riders in his early movies like Five Easy Pieces. His shoes are black leather sneakers.

More than a decade before the Roy family brought them back into vogue on Succession, Costello adds anonymity with a dark navy twill baseball cap, perhaps more forgiving headgear than the bucket hats he occasionally favors.

On his left hand, Costello wears his usual wristwatch and pair of twisted metal rings: a white-gold ring on his ring finger and a yellow-gold pinky ring. His sporty watch is a Nike Big Al “D-Line”, distinguished by a rectangular green-figured analog display that runs flush with the silver aluminum links on an expanding black urethane band.

Note the analog display of Costello’s Nike D-Line watch that distinguishes it from the digital models in the lineup.

The Gun

Frank Costello regularly carries an early model of the Beretta 84 Cheetah semi-automatic pistol, memorably drawn to intimidate Billy Costigan in a moment that Jack Nicholson reportedly improvised (much to the possible dismay of the on-set armorer.)

Beretta introduces its Series 81 pistols in 1976 with the .32-caliber Model 81, with the Model 84 to follow in 1977. Models 83, 84, and 85 are all chambered for .380 ACP (9x17mm Short), though the Model 84 is slightly wider to accommodate double-stacked magazines that carry 13 rounds, as opposed to the single-stack—and, thus, slimmer-gripped—Models 83 and 85.

Though blowback-operated rather than recoil-operated, the Series 81 pistols cosmetically and internally echoed the larger, full-sized Beretta 92 series that would ultimately be adapted as the U.S. military’s M9 service pistol. As the 92 was improved to the 92F and 92FS models, so too were the Series 81 pistols; Costello’s screen-carried Beretta 84 can be distinguished as an older model as it has a rounded trigger guard, as opposed to the squared trigger guard of the Beretta 84F and 84FS.

During the final confrontation, Costello kept his Beretta concealed under his jacket.

The Series 81 pistols would ultimately be marketed as the “Cheetah” series, in keeping with Beretta’s later habit of adopted big cat-inspired nomenclature as illustrated by their Bobcat, Cougar, Jaguar, and Minx pistols. Most of the Cheetah pistols were discontinued by the mid-2010s, though Beretta announced at the 2023 SHOT Show that the series would be revived with the reimagined 80X Cheetah that blends classic design with modern features.

How to Get the Look

Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello in The Departed (2006)

Martin Scorsese’s gangster kingpins are often associated with tailored suits, silk ties, and shirts with dangerously sharp spearpoint collars… subverted by the boorish Frank Costello, who indeed rotates through a few distinctive jackets and ties in The Departed but meets his gruesome end while dressed like an aging suburban dad running weekend errands. Trimmer fits could transform Costello’s baseball cap, college T-shirt, windbreaker, sneakers, and jeans into decent street style, but that ain’t Costello’s priority.

• Black microfiber polyester zip-up windbreaker with shirt-style collar (with throat-latch tab), hand pockets, and raglan sleeves with squared single-snap cuffs
• Light gray heathered cotton “IRISH” crew-neck short-sleeve T-shirt
• Blue denim jeans
• Black leather sneakers
• Dark navy twill baseball cap
• White gold twist ring
• Yellow gold twisted knot ring
• Nike Big Al “D-Line” aluminum sport watch on expanding link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Don’t laugh! This ain’t reality TV!

The post The Departed: Jack Nicholson’s IRISH T-Shirt appeared first on BAMF Style.

Billy Drago as Frank Nitti in The Untouchables (1987)

Vitals

Billy Drago as Frank Nitti, ruthless Chicago Outfit enforcer

Chicago, Fall 1930 to Spring 1931

Film: The Untouchables
Release Date: June 3, 1987
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance
Wardrobe: Giorgio Armani

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Eighty years ago today on the morning of March 19, 1943, 57-year-old Chicago resident Frank Nitti enjoyed breakfast with Toni, his third wife whom he had married the previous May. He began drinking heavily and, after Toni left for church, Nitti walked five blocks to a local railroad yard in North Riverside, where he attempted to shoot himself in the head. The first shot merely perforated his hat and the second wounded him in the jaw, but the third shot hit its mark as the inebriated mob boss slumped to his death.

Loosely based on the end of Al Capone’s infamous reign of the Chicago underworld (and more directly based on the 1950s TV show of the same name), Brian De Palma’s 1987 film The Untouchables retains a few basic details of Capone’s fall from power, including real figures on both sides of the law like self-aggrandizing Prohibition agent Eliot Ness and the vicious mobster who would ultimately succeed Capone as leader of the Chicago Outfit: Frank Nitti, chillingly portrayed by the late, great Billy Drago.

Nitti’s ascension to power isn’t depicted in The Untouchables, which instead fictionalizes his quick descent from the top of a building thanks to the long arm of justice… or at least Kevin Costner’s long baseball-pitching arm as Mr. Ness. Unlike the cinematic Nitti who meets his cathartic end several flights below, the real Nitti lived to see his former boss Capone behind bars before he assumed his leadership of the Outfit, consolidating power as Prohibition ended in 1933.

However, not all was well for the new boss, who was now facing another prison stretch as the result of an indictment indicating the Outfit’s role extorting major Hollywood movie studios. Still mourning his second wife’s death and possibly diagnosed with terminal cancer, the depressed Nitti despaired at the idea of spending yet another claustrophobic stretch in prison, leading to his fateful march to the railroad tracks eighty years ago today.

Though not exactly wearing an all-white suit, the real Frank Nitti could still stand out when surrounded by men in more traditional dark business suits and coats, as seen here during his 1930 arrest. As photographed by the Chicago Evening American, the mustached Nitti is flanked by state attorney general’s investigator Pat Roche, Sgt. John Greer, Lt. Julius Siegan, and Sgt. David Lavin. (Photo sourced from Chicago Tribune.)

The Untouchables capitalizes on Nitti’s real-life nickname as “The Enforcer” by depicting him as Capone’s chief hitman—a killer called in to remove high-stakes enemies like Ness’ “Untouchable” officers. There’s some basis in reality here as the real Nitti had started as one of Capone’s bodyguards and “button men”. However, Nitti’s business acumen made him more valuable to the operational side of the Outfit’s hierarchy, and he was elevated from “dirty work” to running Capone’s liquor smuggling and distribution network that pipelined whisky from Canada into Chicago speakeasies.

(For a more accurate depiction of Nitti’s duties and demeanor, watch Stanley Tucci’s brief but charismatic performance in Road to Perdition. Coincidentally, Road to Perdition also featured a cut scene featuring Al Capone played by Anthony LaPaglia… who also portrayed Nitti in a less-than-great 1988 made-for-TV biopic.)

The Untouchables still depicts Nitti as Capone’s ostensible second-in-command by the time of Capone’s trial, though it’s still in more of an enforcement capacity, as signaled by the gun that Ness spots under Nitti’s jacket in court. The offense results in Ness and the bailiff escorting Nitti outside, where Ness borrows Nitti’s matchbook and sees a scribbled address that informs our hero that the white-suited psychopath had killed his friends. In the ensuing chase, Ness pursuits Nitti to the rooftop, where Nitti finds out that there’s a limit to how much our stalwart Mr. Ness will enforce to the letter of the law.

What’d He Wear?

We know the movie begins in mid-September 1930, which should give you an immediate reason to distrust Frank Nitti… who can you trust that would wear so much white after labor day? (You may also be dissuaded from trusting him as he knowingly plants a bomb that kills a little girl.)

I doubt that the real Frank Nitti—with all of his bookish business sense—would have outfitted himself in such flashy tailoring, but I appreciate that The Untouchables‘ prolific costume designer Marilyn Vance dressed him in accordance with the movie’s reimagining of his character, his bleached linen suit recalling the pale horse of Revelation (who personified death) as hell follows Nitti through Chicago.

“I wore a white suit in the movie because we thought of him as the angel of death,” Billy Drago explained in a 2013 interview with Owen Williams, also sharing this interesting anecdote from his first day of filming: “The first scene we shot was where the little kid gets blown up. So I’m outside waiting on the street where they’re lighting, and some older woman comes up with a little boy and asks for a picture, so I put my arm around the little boy and all that. And the next day in the newspaper I found that the picture was there! And the little boy was like Nitti’s great great grandson.”

Though Armani’s involvement in The Untouchables has often been exaggerated, three lead characters—Frank Nitti, Eliot Ness, and Oscar Wallace—were regularly dressed in Armani suits, while most of the rest of Armani’s donated suits were issued to extras or worn in the scene featuring Capone’s tuxedoed mooks. (You can read more about the costume and wardrobe credit clarifications in this contemporary article in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.)

Nitti’s ivory linen three-piece suit follows a conventional design for the 1930s, when even summer suits were often designed with double-breasted jackets that closed over waistcoats, a configuration that may seem stifling to modern dressers but remained a standard through the “golden age” of menswear across the first half of the 20th century, helped by the quality of fabric during the era.

For what it’s worth, Nitti’s three-piece double-breasted suit probably did get a bit stifling after charging up five flights of stairs during a running gunfight against a federal agent.

Nitti’s suit boasts a roomy cut, contemporary both to early 1930s gangsterdom as well as the late ’80s when The Untouchables was released, though even this fullness isn’t enough to keep his holstered pistol from showing under the left side of his double-breasted jacket when buttoned.

Nitti could have done himself a favor by buttoning the second row of his jacket instead of just the bottom, but that’s what hubris—and a card granting you a free pass from Chicago’s corrupt mayor—will do to you!

The jacket features the traditional double-breasted 6×2-button arrangement, though its lower stance shows a concession to ’80s styling that likely reflects the involvement of Giorgio Armani, who understandably would have cared more about designing for contemporary fashionability over historical integrity. The wide shoulders are padded and roped at the sleeveheads—all consistent with ’30s tailoring—and the sleeves are finished with three vestigial buttons on each cuff. Full through the chest, the jacket is shaped with front darts to slightly taper at the waist and through the long, ventless skirt.

Nitti dresses the left peak lapel with a squared pin, framed in ornate gold with a gold shield-shaped center, connected to a long gold chain that hangs low and may connect to something tucked into his welted breast pocket—possibly a key, a permanent match, or a watch as we don’t see Nitti wearing any other timepiece. The jacket also has flapped hip pockets aligned with the lowest row of buttons.

The 1911-shaped bulge printing under Frank Nitti’s suit jacket leads to his being escorted from the courtroom.

The suit’s matching waistcoat (vest) has five cream-colored buttons matching those on the jacket, fastening appropriately high over the chest and with a notched bottom. The waistcoat has four welted pockets and an adjustable strap across the lower back.

With his jacket removed, we also see Nitti’s shoulder rig, a self-suspended system made of stiff black leather with the holster under his left armpit (for a right-handed draw) while a support strap loops around his right shoulder to keep it in place, without any of the lower fastening straps often seen on shoulder holsters for full-sized pistols.

The double reverse-pleated trousers rise appropriately high to Billy Drago’s natural waistline, concealing the top of the trousers under the closed waistcoat though the action of the scene shows that the trousers are rigged with belt loops that go unused. Instead, Nitti wears a set of ivory knitted suspenders (braces) with gold-finished adjusters. Suspenders are often considered preferable to belts when wearing three-piece suits as they keep the trousers in place without the telltale bulge that a belt buckle can create under a waistcoat.

The trousers have vertical jetted side pockets positioned between the rearward pleat and the side seams, and the set-in back pockets are covered with scalloped flaps. The fit remains full and roomy through the legs, down to the plain-hemmed bottoms.

Nitti learns a hard lesson in taunting an armed federal agent after insulting his friend that he knows you killed.

For Capone’s court appearance, Nitti breaks up the monotony of his all-white suit with a white cotton shirt patterned in double sets of blue stripes. Consistent with Nitti’s fussy sartorialism, the shirt has a pinned point collar and double (French) cuffs, all with gold hardware—a gold safety-style collar pin and polished gold rectangular cuff links with narrow bronze bars in the center.

Ever the dandy, Nitti pulls a comb from his waistcoat pocket to primp his hair before taking the long way back down to ground level.

Nitti’s off-white ties often echoed his suit, including the cream-colored grenadine woven silk tie for the opening bar-bombing scene, best seen in the image at the top of this post. During the courtroom-to-rooftop sequence, he wears an ivory silk tie with a tonal paisley weave.

The pure white grounding Nitti’s shirt emphasizes the warmer, cream-hued tones of his suit and tie.

Even as the action stretches into the fall, Nitti continues primarily wearing the summer-friendly Panama hat, a contextually appropriate pairing with an off-white linen suit. Made from a light natural straw, Nitti’s hat features the uniquely shaped “optimo crown”, a classic Panama hat style recognizable for its raised ridge from front to back across the otherwise flat top. The hat also has a narrow black grosgrain band around the base.

During the rooftop gunfight, Ness damages Nitti’s hat by firing a shot that zings a bullet through the front of the crown. Possibly a coincidence, this may also be a reference to the real Frank Nitti’s death, when he fired three shots at his head in a suicide attempt, the first of which merely damaging his hat before the following two entered his head and ultimately ended his life.

Nitti almost always wears his Panama hat, except for the fateful night he stakes out 1634 Racine. For this, he wears an ivory felt fedora with a matching grosgrain band.

In addition to his all-white fedora, Nitti also wears tan rawhide gloves, possibly to protect his hands during some sustained Thompson-gunning later in the evening.

Nitti also wears a topcoat made from—you guessed it—off-white linen, in a cream color just a shade warmer than his suit. A lightweight linen coat isn’t going to do much to keep its wearer warm in the Windy City, though it would presumably conceal a Tommy gun when spiriting away from a crime scene… as well as granting Nitti a “badass longcoat”.

The knee-length coat follows the same roomy design as his suit jacket, configured with a 6×2-button double-breasted front and broad peak lapels. The voluminous set-in sleeves are plain at the cuff, sans any buttons or straps, and there is a large patch-style pocket over each hip.

While the rest of Capone’s henchmen in their traditional gray and tan overcoats are ultimately hapless mooks, Nitti stands apart as the “white knight” he can always rely on to get the job done.

Rather than wearing all-white shoes, Nitti opts for sporty spectator shoes in black-and-white calf leather. These cap-toe oxfords have white vamps while the toe-caps, lace panels, heel counters, and outsoles are all black. This snappy shoe style had a rakish reputation during the era, also known as “co-respondent shoes” for their association with the third-party co-respondents in English divorce cases.

Though the full break of his trouser bottoms often cover the tops of his shoes, we do ultimately see that he wears cream-colored socks that tonally continue the leg line of his trousers into his shoes.

The Gun

Most of the cops and crooks in The Untouchables are armed with 1911-style pistols. However, rather than the historically accurate .45-caliber Colt M1911 and M1911A1 series, The Untouchables joins that wide fraternity of films made from the 1960s through the ’80s that used the Star Model B pistol, a Spanish-made clone of the 1911 chambered for 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition.

The Basque small arms manufacturer Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. introduced its Modelo B pistol in the late 1920s, shortly after John Browning had updated the M1911A1 design to shorten the trigger, arch the mainspring housing, widen the front sight, and lengthen the grip safety spur while shortening the hammer spur.

My dear Nitti, there are some things that just aren’t done, such as pulling your gun on a uniformed police officer when you have a free pass from the mayor to do literally anything else you want without consequence.

Visually distinguished by an external extractor on the right side of the slide as well as the lack of the 1911’s traditional grip safety, the Star Model B is otherwise a serviceable substitute for the M1911A1 from an era when Hollywood armorers encountered difficulty in converting 1911s to effectively cycle blank .45 ACP ammunition. The replacement can be prominently seen in scores of movies including The Wild Bunch (1969), The Getaway (1972), Three Days of the Condor (1975), and even Pulp Fiction (1994), though the latter allows the Model B to portray itself (rather than a .45-caliber 1911) when Samuel L. Jackson refers to it as “Mr. Nine-millimeter.”

While the conservative-suited “Untouchables” are all armed with blued Model B pistols, the white-suited Nitti carries a bright nickel-plated Star Model B that extends his sartorial flashiness to his choice of firearms. He carries the Model B in a shoulder holster under his suit jacket—though not concealed enough to evade Eliot Ness’ eye—and he keeps a spare magazine in his trouser pocket.

For high-priority hits, like a legendary Untouchable, Nitti arms himself with a Thompson submachine gun. This distinctive firearm has been immortalized as “the gun that made the ’20s roar” and the “Chicago typewriter”, the latter specifically regarding its use in the Windy City beer wars waged by Capone and his enemies.

Nitti specifically uses the classic “gangster” configuration of the Thompson, either the M1921AC or the M1928, distinguished by an angled wooden foregrip with finger-shaped cutouts, Cutts compensator on the muzzle, knurled bolt handle atop the receiver, and the adjustable Lyman Model 55B rear sight, as well as the round drum magazines that could carry—depending on size—either 50 or 100 rounds of powerful .45 ACP ammunition, fired at a rate of up to 800 rounds per minute.

As the Thompson became more widely adopted by the U.S. military leading up to and during World War II, the design was simplified from the iconic M1921AC and M1928 configurations, resulting in the dressed-down M1 and M1A1 Thompson variants that were considered easier (and less expensive) to produce and more ultimately functional for combat.

How to Get the Look

You’ve got to hand it to Frank Nitti* for being such an unapologetic sartorial individualist, wearing all white all year, regardless of seasonality. Representing Al Capone’s “angel of death” in Chicago, he wreaks havoc while layered in ivory linen three-piece suit and matching coat, topped by a Panama hat and detailed in gold accents from his collar pin and lapel chain to his shining cuff links.

Billy Drago as Frank Nitti in The Untouchables (1987)

• Ivory-white linen suit:
  • Double-breasted 6×2-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 5-button waistcoat with four welted pockets, notched bottom, and adjustable back strap
  • Double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight jetted side pockets, flapped back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White (with blue double stripes) cotton shirt with gold-pinned collar and squared double/French cuffs
  • Gold rectangular cuff links with bronzed center bars
• Ivory tonal-paisley silk tie
• Ivory knitted silk suspenders with gold-toned adjusters
• Black-and-white calf leather cap-toe spectator oxfords
• Cream socks
• White straw “optimo crown” Panama hat with black grosgrain band
• Cream linen knee-length topcoat with peak lapels, 6×2-button double-breasted front, large patch-style hip pockets, and plain cuffs
• Black leather shoulder holster
• Gold-framed lapel pin with gold chain

*Speaking only for Drago’s Nitti, of course. Regarding the real-life mobster Frank Nitti, you do not, under any circumstances, “gotta hand it to him”.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Come on, Mr. Treasury Man… arrest me!

The post The Untouchables: Billy Drago’s White Suit as Frank Nitti appeared first on BAMF Style.

Today’s post about a much-requested character’s style is the second to be written by the curator of the popular Instagram account @jamesbondswardrobe. Enjoy!

Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester in Supernatural (Episode 10.06: “Ask Jeeves”)

Vitals

Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester, nonchalant monster hunter

New Canaan, Connecticut, Fall 2014

Series: Supernatural
Episode: “Ask Jeeves” (Episode 10.06)
Air Date: November 18, 2014
Director: John MacCarthy
Costume Designer: Kerry Weinrauch

Background

If the successful spin-offs of this eponymous piece of small-screen history is anything to say, Supernatural is probably one of the greatest TV shows to ever premiere, arguably up there with the likes of M*A*S*H and Friends. The show centers around two monster-hunting brothers—Sam and Dean Winchester—who are likely just as iconic as the show itself. Trailblazing across and around the American heartland in their family heirloom of a car, the duo investigate and hunt all things that go bump in the night.

With fifteen seasons-worth of lore, it’s quite the task to jam all of it into a brief summarization. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve a knack for iconic jackets, flannels, old-school muscle and classic rock. In this specific article, we’ll be going over a surprising piece of outerwear worn by Dean: an olive Barbour jacket very likely inspired by Skyfall, which had premiered just two years prior.

What’d He Wear?

That Barbour Jacket

As just mentioned, Dean dons a surprising piece of outerwear in this autumn-set episode; the rest of his outfit is somewhat unremarkable, and before you come at me for saying that, do understand that an outfit template for the Winchester brothers had been observably laid out ten seasons before this: a T-shirt, then a flannel/work shirt, and an outer jacket, with jeans and work boots to pair, of course. There isn’t much deviation from this formula, but it also doesn’t wear on the viewer, as their clothes do change quite often.

As a current owner of the very jacket that Dean wears in this episode, I can obviously declare that Dean wears it appropriately. considering the season. I’m not saying this to sound stuffy, but instead to lead into a brief rant about the jacket’s odd lining; which makes wearing it on a daily basis a bit of a task. Especially if you’re prone to perspiration.

For whatever reason, while the body of the jacket is lined in Barbour’s iconic tartan, the sleeves are not. Instead, the sleeves are lined in gray polyester, which may not sound too unappealing on paper (or screen), but do remember that polyester doesn’t breathe. Basically, your arms will sweat first, if anything, which delegates the jacket to being worn with heavy or light long-sleeve layers, and never with short-sleeves. That’s been my experience, anyhow.

Even though he’s smiling, his arms are probably sweating.

Anyway, this jacket is officially known as the Barbour “Heritage Beacon Sports Jacket”, constructed from the same olive 6 oz. “Sylkoil Thornproof” waxed cotton as the “X To Ki To” worn by Bond in Skyfall. The single-breasted jacket is cut with a two-button front, plus a third button at mid-chest. A fourth button placed near the top is designed to be fastened to a throat latch that’s under the left lapel.

The Beacon jacket has notched lapels with a dark-brown leather collar. When the collar is raised, two smaller buttons can be seen under each collar point. These two buttons are designed to hold a removable triangular throat flap in-place, which would provide its wearer with an additional level of protection against the elements. I wouldn’t know, personally—never used mine. Further brown leather trimming is found elsewhere on the jacket, most notably on the edges of each cuff. Additional sporty details include semi-circle shoulder patches and oval elbow patches.

You’d expect a BAMF like Dean to turn his collar up. After all, who doesn’t while wearing this jacket?

The set-in chest pocket on the left breast closes with a single button under a pointed flap. Two large bellowed patch pockets protrude on each hip, each one also closing with a pointed single-button flap. The left pocket possibly has a “Barbour Dept. B” text patch near the top, but there are aren’t any clear-enough shots in this episode to confirm. The jacket was briefly known as the “Dept. B Commander” before quietly switching to the current “Heritage Beacon” name. The distinction between the “Dept. B” and the original “X To Ki To” was the lack of an inner storm flap, hood, and additional buttons that adorned the latter jacket. The ‘Dept. B’ was obviously designed as a reaction to the original’s explosive debut in Skyfall—pun intended.

The back is ventless, with two vertically zipped “poacher pockets” near the bottom. These pockets were unironically designed as a way for conniving poachers to hide [pretty] small illegal game. Unfortunately for small-game enthusiasts, Dean hides no such things in his rear zip pockets.

Shop the jacket:

 

Barbour Beacon Heritage Sports Jacket

The Barbour sports jacket has undergone several subtle redesigns but remained popular in the more than a decade that has passed since it was famously featured in Skyfall. You can find the current iteration of the "Beacon Heritage Sports Jacket" at:

• FarFetch
• Michael Stewart Menswear

Availability current as of Feb. 5, 2023.

Everything Else

As mentioned earlier, the rest of Dean’s combination isn’t exactly exciting, but it’s still tasteful. Here, he contrasts the subtle British-ness of the Barbour with a mid-blue pair of straight-leg “361 Vintage” jeans from Lucky Brand. Dean’s Luckys, like many other pairs of jeans, have four silver-toned metal buttons on the fly, along with the usual five-pocket layout.

Shop the jeans:

Lucky Brand 361 Vintage Jeans

The Lucky Brand 361 Vintage jeans are still in production and available from:

• Amazon ($53.91)
• Lucky Brand ($119 $24.97)

Prices and availability current as of Feb. 5, 2023.

Dean also wears a pair of brown leather 8-inch Chippewa logger boots. The character had consistently worn these boots more than any other pair throughout the whole series. They’re made with a rubber sole, featuring a rather tall heel, along with a steel toe and an oiled look. Dean likely pairs them with black ribbed cotton socks.

In this episode, Dean wears two shirts under his Barbour jacket. The base layer appears to be a basic brown or perhaps burgundy T-shirt. It looks darker in some shots, but the consistency of the brown leads me to believe it actually is brown. This shirt is most likely cut like any regular modern T-shirt, with short sleeves, (possibly) a breast pocket, and a decent, trim fit.

The layer worn over the T-shirt is a light-taupe and light-brown tartan plaid flannel shirt with a small brown overcheck, designed with a plain front (French placket), and two patch pockets on the chest that close with pointed button-down flaps.

On his wrist, Dean wears his black Luminox “Navy Seal” ANU 45mm Quartz, ref. XS.4221.NV.F. The watch has a traditional 12/24-hour analog dial, with easy-to-read Arabic numerals and a unidirectional bezel. Dean wears his on the stock leather strap, featuring the embossed logo.

The Car

Did you seriously think I’d cover an outfit of Dean Winchester without talking about his Baby?

The car that ignited, for countless people, an admiration for old-school muscle.

Ah, the 1967 Chevrolet Impala SS. Usually, people shy away from a sedan when it comes to classic muscle. Admittedly, it’s not exactly a common sight. Reports from those lucky enough to pilot this beauty liken it to driving a pickup truck, or a boat. Either way, I can get with the boat-driving if it means I’m gonna look this cool while driving to Walmart or whatever.

The Impala itself was an ever-evolving car. In 1967, the Super Sport (SS) models were probably the most changed from the rest of the line. They were less decorated than the other existing models, distinguished by front grille and rear fender accents, along with body-side accents. These models also lacked the common bright wheel trim of other models. Engine sizes varied greatly, with the top choice being a 427 CID V8, rated at 385 horsepower. Stepping down from that was the 396 CID V8, rated at 325 horsepower. For those that didn’t want the most powerful V8s on the block, Chevy offered the modest 327 CID V8, rated at 275 horsepower. Even lower than that were two versions of the 283 V8, but at the bottom of the barrel was the (poor-selling) 250 CID V6.

When Supernatural began, the Impala was (mostly) stock, meaning it had the aforementioned modest 327 CID V8. Several wrecks, one totaling and more than one restorations later, Dean wisely aims for power in his Impala SS, ostensibly replacing the stock engine for the eighth season with a 502 Big Block, rated at an alleged 550 horsepower. Chevrolet themselves make a 502 Big Block engine, albeit rated a little lower in terms of horsepower. Due to lack of more approximate information, I’m gonna roll with the real-world variant.

Looking inside the car, one will find front and back black leather bench seats, with its gearshift located on the steering column. The front seat does recline, and one can assume the passenger seat does the same. With a skinny leather-wrapped steering wheel, beige suede/vinyl upholstery, an automatic transmission, a cassette player/radio and no CD player, the Impala bears a nostalgic example of late ’60s vehicular interior design. Just look past the extensive weapons compartment built into the trunk.

1967 Chevrolet Impala SS

 Body Style: 4-door hardtop sedan

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

Engine: 502 cubic-inch (8.2 L) Chevrolet “Big Block” V8

Power: 461 hp (343 kW; 467 PS) @ 5100 rpm

Torque: 558 lb·ft (756 N·m) @ 3400 rpm

Transmission: 2-speed “Paraglide” automatic

Wheelbase: 119.0 inches (3023 mm)

Length: 213.2 inches (5415 mm)

Width: 79.9 inches (2029 mm)

Height: 54.4 inches (1381 mm)

How to Get the Look

Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester in Supernatural (Episode 10.06: “Ask Jeeves”)

When this episode came out, the Skyfall countryside look was clearly still on everyone’s mind, which just goes to show that Bond is massively influential, even to other on-screen badasses.

• Olive waxed cotton Barbour “Beacon Heritage” single-breasted 3-button sport jacket with button-flapped breast pocket, button-flapped bellowed hip pockets, rear vertical-zip “poacher pockets”, and leather accents on patches and cuffs
• Light-taupe and light-brown tartan plaid flannel shirt with a small brown overcheck, cut with a French placket, and likely two patch pockets on the chest that close with pointed button-down flaps
• Brown (or burgundy) crew-neck t-shirt
• Mid-blue denim Lucky Brand “361 Vintage” straight-leg jeans
• Brown 8-inch Chippewa rubber-soled steel-toe logger boots
• Black ribbed cotton socks
• Luminox “Navy Seal” ANU 45mm Quartz, ref. XS.4221.NV.F, on a black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series.

The Quote

I’m serious, Izod. Put a pin in it. Or we’ll come back for your preppy ass.

The post Supernatural: Dean Winchester’s Barbour Jacket in Connecticut appeared first on BAMF Style.

George Segal as Andy Kelp in The Hot Rock (1972)

Vitals

George Segal as Andy Kelp, jewel thief and locksmith

New York City, Summer 1971

Film: The Hot Rock
Release Date: January 26, 1972
Director: Peter Yates
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The start of spring this week means warmer weather ahead, with linen and seersucker replacing tweed and flannel at the front of my closet. One of my favorite cinematic seersucker suits is the colorfully appointed two-piece suit worn in The Hot Rock by George Segal, the prolific and versatile actor who died two years ago today on March 23, 2021.

The Hot Rock begins with jewel thief John Dortmunder (Robert Redford) paroled from prison, greeted by his larcenous brother-in-law Andy Kelp (Segal) at the wheel of a stolen black Cadillac. Kelp immediately recruits Dortmunder into their next heist, stealing the prized Sahara Stone from the Brooklyn Museum with the backing of Dr. Amusa (Moses Gunn), a diplomat from the fictional African nation of Central Fatawi.

Now, listen, I didn’t tell the doctor about you being in prison. I figure, why undermine his confidence? He wants the best for his money. Not that you’re not the best, but a layman might wonder why you’re all the time in jail.

What’d He Wear?

As The Hot Rock is set through the sweltering summer of 1971, Kelp dresses appropriately for the season in a stylish and well-cut seersucker suit, its lightweight and light-wearing puckered cotton fabric patterned in the classic blue-and-white “railroad stripe” traditionally associated with seersucker tailoring.

The single-breasted suit jacket is sportily detailed with swelled edges along the notch lapels and a flap covering the set-in breast pocket. The inverted box-pleated patch pockets over the hips are also each covered with a flap. The jacket features natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads, a then-fashionably long single vent, and front darts that shape the jacket to flatter Segal’s lean silhouette. The three buttons on each cuff are a flat mixed blue plastic that matches the two positioned on the front of the jacket.

For Kelp’s first appearance, greeting Dortmunder outside of prison and taking him to meet Dr. Amusa, he’s brightly dressed in a rose-pink shirt with a long point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and two-button rounded cuffs. His tie is tonally coordinated in a paisley silk in tones of pink, purple, lilac, and lavender.

Kelp pulls on a more somber shirt and tie when uniting their four-man group to talk through the plan, now dressed in a tan shirt with a long semi-spread collar. Like the pink shirt, this tan shirt has a front placket, breast pocket, and two-button barrel cuffs, though these cuffs are squared rather than rounded. His tie is dark navy with low-contrast, “downhill”-directional dark brown stripes—each bordered in a narrow gray stripe.

Finally, Kelp wears a navy short-sleeved polo shirt with a structured collar, a very long four-button placket, and a flapped breast pocket that echoes the suit jacket he wears over it. He wears the polo with both the complete two-piece suit and with the jacket orphaned over a pair of white flat-front slacks, detailed with frogmouth-style front pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms.

The matching suit trousers are flat-front with a beltless waistband that closes with an extended hook-closure tab—there may be tabs on the side to adjust the fit, but we never see Kelp with the jacket removed. The trousers have straight pockets along the side seams and the plain-hemmed bottoms are slightly flared in keeping with trends of the early ’70s.

His shoes are always dark brown, typically wearing classic brown leather lace-ups though the dressed-down look with the orphaned white trousers calls for less-formal brown suede “playboy boots”, as famously worn by Steve McQueen and characterized by their suede uppers and thick charcoal crepe soles.

While at the controls of his stolen black 1970 Cadillac, he wears a pair of brown basket-woven leather driving gloves with exposed backs and a single-snap wrist closure.

Kelp’s steel-cased wristwatch boasts a round white dial and is secured to his left wrist via a black leather strap that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle.

He often wears gold-framed aviator sunglasses, a now-iconic style pioneered forty years earlier for military pilots that was revived through the ’70s.

How to Get the Look

George Segal as Andy Kelp in The Hot Rock (1972)

Jewel thief Andy Kelp dresses colorfully cool for a New York summer, clad in a sporty seersucker suit with colorful shirts and ties.

• Blue-and-white railroad-striped puckered seersucker cotton suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with notch lapels, flapped set-in breast pocket, flapped inverted box-pleated hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long single vent
  • Flat-front trousers with beltless waistband, straight/on-seam side pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Rose-pink shirt with long point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and 2-button rounded cuffs
• Pink-and-purple paisley silk tie
• Brown leather lace-up dress shoes
• Gold-framed aviator sunglasses
• Steel wristwatch with round white case on black leather strap with gold-toned single-prong buckle

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

You take failure too hard. I don’t mind it so much anymore.

The post The Hot Rock: George Segal’s Seersucker Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.

Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on Succession (Episode 3.09: “All the Bells Say”)

Vitals

Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans, obsequious corporate media executive

Val d’Orcia, Tuscany, Italy, Summer 2020

Series: Succession
Episode: “All the Bells Say” (Episode 3.09)
Air Date: December 21, 2021
Director: Mark Mylod
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Succession‘s fourth and most likely final season returns tonight! When we last saw the conniving Roy family, the setting was a Tuscan wedding… though, as usual with the Roys, love was the furthest thing from everyone’s mind.

While the eldest son Connor (Alan Ruck) continued his lifelong search for validation as such, his younger half-siblings Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Siobhan (Sarah Snook) formed a united front that, though borne of tragedy, brought the trio the most truly united we’ve ever seen them as they resolve to block their father’s suspected business deal that would leave them all out in the proverbial cold. Unfortunately for them, the domineering patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) was tipped to suspect their move and severed their ties with one grand “go on… fuck off!”

For Shiv, the knife digs even deeper with the arrival of her husband Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), whose uncharacteristically warm greeting from Logan tells her all she needs to know about the “meat puppet” husband she may have long been underestimating, from her wedding-night request for an open marriage to most recently finally agreeing to try for a child, if only to spite her own mother and—as she made clear during their attempt—not out of any love for Terminal Tom.

Of course, if our latte-sipping Nero with a hundred-dollar haircut was going to betray his own Poppaea, he wasn’t going to do it alone. In one of my favorite scenes from “All the Bells Say”, Tom secures the allegiance of his own Sporus—the Roys’ wily cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun), who castrates his soul to join Tom as they fuck off together into the sinister unknown… or at least the bottom of the top.

Boo, souls!

What’d He Wear?

While the other men in his family are colorfully dressed for Lady Caroline Collingwood’s wedding to a fizzing bottle of cheap prosecco, Tom remains the most neutral in his shades of white and cream… ready to be swayed to whichever side promises him the brightest future. Tom brought at least three different light neutral-toned linen jackets to Italy, beginning with a pure white linen sports coat worn for a reception in the previous episode, a beige linen suit for a game of Monopoly at the start of this one, and finally a handsomely slubbed cream suit for the actual nuptials.

The excellent Instagram account @successionfashion identified Tom’s suit as the all-too-appropriately named “Gregory” slim-fit suit from Ralph Lauren Purple Label, the brand’s exclusive line of made-to-measure tailoring and benchmade shoes. Tom’s slubby herringbone cloth is a cream-colored blend of linen and silk, both luxurious and light-wearing for an outdoor wedding under the Tuscan sun.

Ralph Lauren touts that each Gregory suit takes 25 handcrafted hours to complete, from its “durable, lightweight four-layer blend” of horsehair, wool, and cotton full canvassing and a “softer take on a strong shoulder, with a lighter construction and a classic English roll” on the jacket. The single-breasted jacket has narrower notch lapels—designed for consistency with the suit’s slimmer silhouette—that roll to two beige horn buttons that match the four decorative buttons on each cuff. The jacket has double vents, straight flapped hip pockets with an additional ticket pocket on the right, and a welted breast pocket that Tom dresses with a pin-dotted taupe silk pocket square, folded to a tall, flat-topped peak.

The flat-front trousers feature buckle-tab adjusters on each side of the waistband, tailored to fit Tom’s waist without requiring a belt or braces. The waistband has an extended squared tab in the front that closes through a hidden hook. The trousers have quarter-top side pockets and (as informed by listings like this) two button-through back pockets, and the bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

The @successionfashion post informs us that this now-discontinued cream linen-silk suit originally retailed for a total of $3,690: $2,995 for the jacket and $695 for the matching trousers.

The Wizard of Fuck can’t offer very comforting prospects to Shiv and Tom.

Tom’s shirt is made from a white linen so sheer that it shows Macfadyen’s skin under the fabric, no doubt making it a comfortably elegant shirt on such a hot day. The shirt has a spread collar, button cuffs, and a plain button-up front also known as a “French placket” that consists of merely the cloth folded behind the row of buttonholes, particularly visible on this sheer linen shirt that Tom wears sans undershirt.

Perhaps it’s just coincidence, but the two season-ending situations that found Tom uncharacteristically asserting himself—first by eating Logan’s chicken at the end of the second season, and then this fateful tip at the end of the third season—found Tom dressed in white linen shirts.

Hijinks behind the scenes of Succession‘s third season finale, with a jacket-less Matthew Macfadyen joined by Nicholas Braun, Justine Lupe, Dasha Nekrasova, and Ella Rumpf.

Tom’s shoes are never clearly seen in the episode itself, but—thankfully (for so many reasons)—we have Nicholas Braun’s Instagram. A brief iPhone shot between takes shows Macfadyen in respite, kicking up a set of chocolate-brown suede loafers and matching socks.

Given his early endorsement for how Greg should dress his feet in the first season, we know Tom is a Crockett & Jones enthusiast, and my friend Caroline Reilly suggested that the screen-worn slip-ons may be the storied English shoemaker’s “Harvard 2” model, an unlined adaptation of their classic “Boston” penny loafer built on the same no. 376 last that boasts a high-walled round toe and lower back. The Scotch-guarded dark brown suede uppers feature an apron toe and distinctively notched strap, Goodyear-welted to dark brown rubber soles made in England by Harboro Rubber Company.

(Source: @nicholasbraun on Instagram)

The sunny weather and stylish setting calls for spectacular sunglasses, so Tom wears the MOSCOT LEMTOSH SUN model with handcrafted gray-tinted translucent acetate frames, detailed with diamond rivets and G-15 glass lenses. MOSCOT, a New York luxury eyewear brand that has been family-owned for five generations since it was founded in 1915 on the Lower East Side, proudly touts its Succession connection on its website.

Tom also wears his wedding ring, a simple silver-toned band of metal that may be white-gold or platinum.

Shiv’s public toast, wishing her mother “a marriage that’s as rich and happy, rewarding, and fulfilling as mine,” isn’t as reassuring for Tom as it could be… especially given how he knows his wife feels about her mother.

On his left wrist, Tom wears the stainless steel Cartier Santos de Cartier that was established as his wristwatch of choice for the third season after sporting a Panerai Luminor Marina for the first two seasons, perhaps seeking unify with his wife Shiv, who has worn a gold Cartier since the start of the series. Given its proportions on Macfadyen’s wrist, Tom’s all-stainless Santos appears to be the 39.8mm “Large” case (which currently retails for £7,000) as opposed to the 35.1mm “Medium” case.

The automatic Santos de Cartier is powered by Cartier’s calibre 1847 MC mechanical movement, water-resistant to approximately 100 meters. The steel case features a 7-sided crown set with a faceted synthetic spinel, and the silvered opaline dial is detailed with steel sword-shaped hands, black Roman numerals at each hour index, and a 6:00 date window, all protected by sapphire crystal. The Santos de Cartier comes with two bands, though Tom evidently prefers the steel link bracelet with a “SmartLink” system that can be adjusted by hand, without requiring tools.

A GQ article published last July has already identified that Tom swapped out the Cartier for an Audemars Piguet for the fourth season, as will surely be confirmed tonight. However, I can’t help but also love writers Mike Christensen and Olivia Pym for pointing out the significance of Tom’s Cartier, contextualizing that “the Cartier Santos is widely renowned for being the first-ever tool watch, apt, considering Tom is taken for being a bit of a tool himself.”

How to Get the Look

Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on Succession (Episode 3.09: “All the Bells Say”)

Though dressed for luxury in Ralph Lauren tailoring and a Cartier watch, Tom’s climatically appropriate creamy shades of linen may look comfortably neutral, but he’s finally making some assertively Machiavellian moves to position himself for unprecedented success among the fear and loathing at a Tuscan wedding.

• Cream herringbone linen-and-silk Ralph Lauren Purple Label “Gregory” made-to-measure suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets with right-side ticket pocket, 4-button cuffs, and double vents
  • Flat-front trousers with buckle-tab side adjusters, extended waistband with hidden hook closure, quarter-top side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White linen shirt with spread collar, plain front, and button cuffs
• Dark brown suede unlined penny loafers
• Dark brown socks
• MOSCOT LEMTOSH SUN light-gray acetate sunglasses with G-15 lenses
• White-gold or platinum wedding ring
• Cartier Santos de Cartier stainless steel automatic watch with 39.55 “Large” case, silvered opaline dial with Roman numerals and 6:00 date window, and steel “SmartLink” bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series. The fourth and final season premieres tonight on HBO Max.

The Quote

Do you want a deal with the devil?

The post Succession: Tom’s Cream Suit in Tuscany appeared first on BAMF Style.

Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren filming The Birds (1963)

Vitals

Rod Taylor as Mitch Brenner, defense lawyer

Bodega Bay, California, Summer 1962

Film: The Birds
Release Date: March 28, 1963
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rita Riggs

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today is the 60th anniversary of the release of The Birds, Alfred Hitchcock’s avian horror yarn adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s 1952 novella and a real-life incident in August 1961 as scores of birds crashed into the streets and rooftops of the central California town of Capitola.

The Birds centers around Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), an attractive travelers’ aid secretary from San Francisco whose flirtatious pranks with the charming attorney Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor) lead about an hour north to the idyllic seaside village of Bodega Bay. Melanie’s surprise visit isn’t ultimately unwelcome, and Mitch invites her to join his little sister Cathy’s 11th birthday parry the following day.

After a few suspicious incidents including a bird flying directly into Melanie’s head upon her arrival, the birds launch their opening salvo in their eponymous assault during Cathy’s party as groups of seagulls attack the children… followed by swarms of sparrows flying through the Brenner home that evening. Things are getting strange, but the worst is yet to come.

What’d He Wear?

Mitch Brenner cycles through one of my favorite wardrobes among Hitchock’s heroes, wearing interesting and well-tailored clothing that’s contextually and climatically appropriate. When he’s introduced in San Francisco, Mitch wears a handsome gray worsted business suit appropriate for the City.

Once the action travels to the quieter seaside environs of Bodega Bay, Mitch’s wardrobe transitions to more countrified garb, anchored by an eye-catching Donegal tweed suit that he wears as a complete two-piece suit for Cathy’s birthday party, then dressing down by orphaning the tweed suit jacket with his surplus Army HBT combat pants while fighting the birds the following day.

Characterized by its imperfect multi-colored slubs, Donegal tweed was defined by Sir Hardy Amies in his volume ABC of Men’s Fashion—published just months after The Birds was released—as “a most attractive Irish tweed originally hand-spun and woven in Donegal, with a rough, ‘knobbly’ surface,” adding:

It is often woven with dark and light flecks of the same color, or with specks of different bright colors, making what is generally called a “pepper-and-salt” pattern. In the combing of the yarn, small flecks of colored yarn are literally dropped in at random. When the yarn is finished, it is given a slight twist to hold these flecks of color in place.

Mitch’s Donegal tweed suit is woven in the characteristic black-and-white “pepper-and-salt” woolen tweed that presents as a rugged light gray, with predominantly brick-red and tan flecks of yarn added to the mix.

Mitch’s single-breasted suit jacket has fashionably narrow lapels that elegantly roll to the closely spaced three-button front, which looks balanced on Rod Taylor’s athletic 5’11” frame. A sleek rebuttal to the high, squared shoulders fashionable through the ’50s, the jacket follows the naturally concave shape of Taylor’s shoulder line, described at Bond Suits as the “pagoda shoulder”.

The jacket has a welted breast pocket and flapped hip pockets and right-side ticket pocket with an appropriately sporty slant toward the back. Slightly roped at the top to punctuate the concave shoulders, the sleeves are finished with three buttons at the cuff and there are two side vents.

One constant among nearly all of Mitch’s outfits is the presence of a white cotton shirt, detailed with a wide spread collar, front placket, and single-button rounded cuffs.

With this tweed two-piece suit, he wears a slim and simple black tie that complements the narrow width of his lapels, knotted with a half-Windsor to fill the tie space of his shirt’s spread collar and held in place under the jacket’s buttoning point with a short gold-finished tie bar.

Melanie and Mitch take stock of the bird situation. Note that his dishevelment from battling the birds and current stance has slightly dislodged his tie clip, also pushing out the back tail of his black tie.

Mitch’s suit trousers are neatly tailored to rise to Taylor’s natural waist line, correctly meeting the buttoning point of his jacket so that—when the jacket is buttoned—only the shirt and tie show above while only the trousers show below it.

The trousers have only side pockets (no back pockets) and are held up with a narrow black leather belt that closes through a rounded gold-toned single-prong buckle.

Another avian attack, this time conducted by a band of sparrows flying into the Brenner home through the fireplace, leaves Mitch even more sartorially disheveled.

Double reverse-facing pleats keep the trouser fit comfortably full through the thighs, elegantly tapering to the plain-hemmed bottoms that break high over his shoes, allowing him to comfortably walk through the beach without getting his trousers too sandy… and without turn-ups (cuffs) that could potentially collect any sand as an inconvenient beach souvenir.

Mitch’s sporty plain-toe oxford shoes have dark chocolate brown suede uppers, a fine textural complement to his tweed suit but perhaps unwise for a stroll on the beach as the napped finish would collect more sand than a smoother leather. The shoes have hard black leather soles, and he appears to wear dark taupe socks that tonally coordinate with the mixed tweed suit trousers and his shoes.

Mitch wears an elegant gold dress watch with a large round silver minimalist dial and dark brown alligator leather strap.

What to Imbibe

Understandably unsatisfied with the refreshments at Cathy’s 11th birthday party, Mitch leads Melanie up onto a sandy hill overlooking the sea, where they each enjoy a cocktail poured from a carafe. Based on the clear liquid and the shape of the glasses, these are certainly meant to be Martinis, though the slapdash situation means they’ll have neither the traditional garnishment of lemon peel nor olives. (Not that it stopped Trapper John!)

Before the chaos, Mitch and Melanie toast their martinis during a flirtatious walk through the sands.

For decades, martinis had been made with gin and vermouth (with most proponents advocating for very little of the latter!), though vodka was gaining an increasing foothold as the martini’s base spirit by the early 1960s, as illustrated by James Bond’s signature “vodka martini… shaken not stirred”, who was already swilling Smirnoff as early as the first 007 movie, Dr. No, released in October 1962 just under six months before The Birds.

How to Get the Look

Rod Taylor and Tippi Hedren in The Birds (1963)

Mitch Brenner’s Donegal tweed suit is appropriately sporty yet dignified for a country weekend, visually communicating his sense of taste while also suggesting that he may be dressing to impress his comely guest as his go-to green combat pants would likely be the more comfortable apparel for a child’s birthday party.

• Gray Donegal tweed suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button suit jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, flapped ticket pocket, 3-button cuffs, and double side vents
  • Double-reverse pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and tapered plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton shirt with large spread collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Black tie
  • Gold-finished tie bar
• Dark brown suede plain-toe oxford shoes
• Dark-taupe socks
• Gold wristwatch with silver dial on dark brown alligator leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post The Birds: Mitch’s Donegal Tweed Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.

Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession, Episode 4.01 (“The Munsters”)

Vitals

Brian Cox as Logan Roy, media mogul and domineering patriarch

New York City, Fall 2020

Series: Succession
Episode: “The Munsters” (Episode 4.01)
Air Date: March 26, 2023
Director: Mark Mylod
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland

Background

Succession fans welcomed the premiere of the fourth and final season on Sunday night, setting up the pieces for our final chapter with the profane and power-hungry Roy family.

As in the first episode, this installment centered around a birthday party in honor of Logan Roy (Brian Cox), the misanthropic head of the Waystar RoyCo media conglomerate. However, unlike that first episode, Logan is now alienated from all but one of his children—the eldest son, Connor (Alan Ruck), who has progressed from gifting his father a container of goo to now depending on his father’s goodwill to back his bid for the presidency… for which he’s polling at a tenuous 1% with less than two weeks to Election Day, despite the fact that Connor Roy was interested in politics at a very young age.

Surrounded by revelers of differing degrees of sycophancy, Logan grumbles to his friend-assistant-and-advisor Kerry (Zoe Winters) about the “little piggies stuffin’ their mouths… why is everybody so fuckin’ happy?” before fucking out for a lonely bite at a diner with his stoic bodyguard Colin (Scott Nicholson). Colin may have effectively hidden his surprise at Logan declaring him to be his “best pal”, but he’s understandably unprepared to meaningfully contribute to Logan’s existential explorations asking “what are people?”

Logan returns home and demands that everyone fuck off aside from his closest team of advisors: his tactful general counsel Gerri Kellman (J. Smith-Cameron), pragmatic chief operating officer Frank Vernon (Peter Friedman), affably blockheaded chief financial officer Karl Muller (David Rasche), and his obsequious son-in-law Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen)… and thus by extension, the Roys’ cousin Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun).

After willingly making his deal with the devil at the end of the previous season, Greg has willingly embraced being Disgusting Brothers with a less-willing Tom, whose separation from Logan’s ambitious daughter Shiv (Sarah Snook) has clearly taken its toll on the man who once told Greg he’d castrate and marry him in a heartbeat. Luckily, the terms of our 21st century Sporus’ deal didn’t include that castration, allowing him and his disliked date to rummage each other to fruition in Logan’s hallowed halls.

“Who wants to smell Greg’s finger, eh? Guess the scent… win a buck!” Logan gruffly teases while trying to turn the group’s anxious waiting during a business bidding war into a roast. Whether he’s being horrible or merely being “fun” the fun stops after Logan suffers the rare professional defeat at the hands of his now-allied trio of youngest children, retreating into a darkened corner of his apartment to spend the waning hours of his 82nd birthday grumbling at the TV.

What’d He Wear?

“Logan’s clothes are part of his power play,” Brian Cox explained in an InsideHook interview with Caroline Reilly. “He wears his wealth on his back, especially those cardigans. I love Logan’s cardigans. The very fabric of his clothes gives him power.”

Logan pulls one one of these cardigans for his birthday party, but rather than an ordinary sweater, it’s uniquely styled and detailed like a double-breasted blazer, right down to its gold crested buttons. The choice smartly suggests a man knowledgable enough of social mores to know that he should try to match the formality of his guests in their suits and sport jackets, balanced with Logan’s wealth-informed BDE that he’s going to emphasize dressing for comfort, especially in his own home.

Logan’s cardigan is a product of Polo Ralph Lauren, who describes their Cashmere Blazer Cardigan as an effort to “reinterpret the silhouette of our iconic Polo blazer as a knit cardigan.” The cardigan is made of 100% Italian cashmere in a vivid shade of dark blue the brand designated “aviator navy”.

Logan and his assistant-with-benefits Kerry stand united in their shades of blue.

Ralph Lauren describes the cardigan’s Regular Fit as “wider at the chest while still maintaining a modern silhouette,” providing comfortable allowances for Cox, who described his own physique to InsideHook as having become “more physically robust … [with] this tendency to look like a bulldog standing on his hindquarters.”

The blazer-like details include notch lapels and a 4×2-button configuration of the gold-toned crested shank buttons over his midsection. The cardigan also has a patch pocket over the left breast and one positioned on each hip. The rest of the sweater follows the traditional conventions of knitwear, with a straight hem (sans the vents you may see on a blazer) and set-in sleeves that are left plain at the cuffs, without buttons or other adornment.

Shop the sweater:

Polo Ralph Lauren Cashmere Blazer Cardigan in "aviator navy" ($698)

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Price and availability current as of March 28, 2023.

Logan wears a white cotton shirt with a blue graph-check, which @successionfashion reports was made by Paul Smith. The shirt has a semi-spread collar, breast pocket, front placket, and button cuffs.

Logan watches a ballsack in a toupee deliver the news.

Logan’s trousers appear to be dark navy cotton flat-front slacks, detailed with side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs). He holds them up with a black leather belt that closes through a rectangular gold-toned single-prong buckle.

His belt coordinates to the leather of his black calf cap-toe oxford shoes, worn with black socks. Black oxfords are among the most formal shoes a man can wear, complementing the elevated cardigan.

Logan’s impromptu roast doesn’t go as anyone would hope.

When he abandons his party for a quiet dinner with Colin, Logan layers up for a solitary walk through the park in a navy field jacket, also from Ralph Lauren as etched on the large black horn buttons.

The distinctive Ralph Lauren logo on the left sleeve appears to have been replaced for the screen with a silver cross that, to my knowledge, has never represented a Ralph Lauren brand. I can’t tell the specific model either, though it incorporates some of the same design as seen in the Ralph Lauren Hartridge Cotton 4-Pocket Jacket, Ralph Lauren Troops Utility Jacket, Polo Ralph Lauren Nylon Utility Jacket, and the Ralph Lauren Water-Repellent Field Jacket. Apropos Logan’s position, the Hartridge jacket is made from a shade of cotton that Ralph Lauren calls “classic chairman navy.”

Made from a water-resistant navy-blue polyester, the jacket recalls classic American military field jackets like the M-1943 and M-1951, right down to the martial shoulder straps (epaulets), sewn at each set-in shoulder and with a pointed end that buttons down to the coat closer to the neck. The coat has four bellows pockets—two on the chest, two on the hips—with pointed flaps that each close through a single button. An internal drawstring cinches the waist. The thigh-length coat has a double closure system with a straight zip covered by a four-button fly that extends up to the large Prussian collar, supplemented by a throat-latch that extends from under the left side of the collar.

Logan wears the coat’s top button undone to show his black foulard scarf, tied like a day cravat. The scarf is printed with a repeating field of blue-and-slate shadowed squares.

For added anonymity and warmth, Logan wears one of the navy cashmere baseball caps that inspired a Wall Street Journal article after viewers took notice of characters on Succession and The Morning Show sporting these plain-looking caps that actually cost around $600. Taking queues from real-life jet-setters, costume designer Michelle Matland explained in the article that “the absence of a logo says there’s ‘no relevant team but…team Me,’ making the hats fitting accessories for the show’s ego-centric characters.”

Production photo of Brian Cox in Succession.

Even in the world of the Roys, with its endless wardrobes and shifting watches and sunglasses, Logan continues wearing what appear to be the same reading glasses as we first saw in the first episode. The frames are a 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 are silver-rimmed. The temples are detailed with squared silver panels on the sides, and there are two vertical rivets on each end of the front. Logan occasionally wears them attached to a black cord around his neck.

Logan enjoys an existential moment with his “best pal” Colin.

“Logan wears a Jaeger-LeCoultre, always,” prop master Monica Jacobs explained in in an interview with Esquire last week. “My understanding of his character is that he is not really a watch guy. There are a few things that he likes. He knows what he likes, and that’s why we’ve kept him in the Jaeger. Every season, he’s been in a very similar Jaeger. He knows that’s his style. He has a Carl F. Bucherer for a couple episodes here and there. But he knows his style. Even with his costume, you don’t see him deviate very much.”

We get only a brief look at the gold wristwatch that Logan wears on his left wrist, having been hidden under his cardigan’s left sleeve until the end of the episode. Likely his latest Jaeger-LeCoultre, the automatic watch has a gold case and a white dial with a blackened 6:00 sub-register, strapped to a black leather band.

How unfortunate for Tom that, even after all he sacrificed for Logan, Logan still won’t wear that Patek Philippe he gave him for his birthday two years earlier.

What to Imbibe

Logan slumps through his party drinking from a rocks glass of presumably some sort of whiskey garnished with an orange peel that suggests a cocktail like an Old Fashioned. However, per his Dundee-born heritage, Logan is said to prefer Scotch, with Tom telling Greg that Logan drinks a dram each night while reviewing that day’s CCTV security footage of his home.

There’s not enough whisky in Scotland to make Logan Roy’s birthday party enjoyable for him.

If you’re looking for something to drink for the next Succession episode, we can compromise with a recipe for a Scotch Old Fashioned that substitutes the venerated cocktail’s usual bourbon or rye with Scotch whisky.

Though there are a few recipes for Scotch Old Fashioneds out there—and I know I’ve seen a few on cocktail menus out in the wild—this one from Kelly Tesoriero and Jordan Hughes for Vine Pair has been BAMF-tested and approved, for whatever my word is worth:

1. Mix two ounces of blended Scotch, a teaspoon of Demerara (or simple syrup, if necessary), two dashes of aromatic bitters, and two dashes of orange bitters in a mixing glass and stir with ice
2. Pour the concoction into a rocks glass over a large ice cube
3. Garnish with a “nicely manicured” orange peel

According to Tesoriero, “the flavors inherent in Scotch give this variation a smokier and oakier flavor than the original, along with a more matured flavor profile.”

How to Get the Look

Brian Cox as Logan Roy on Succession, Episode 4.01 (“The Munsters”)

Rote formality meets comfort as Logan Roy “welcomed” guests into his home for 82nd birthday party, clad in a distinctive Ralph Lauren cardigan that balances knitwear’s comfortable qualities with the handsome gilt-buttoned aesthetics of a classic navy blazer.

• Navy cashmere double-breasted blazer-cardigan with gold 4×2-button front, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, and straight hem
• White (with blue graph check) cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Dark navy cotton flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather belt with rectangular gold single-prong buckle
• Black calf leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Black socks
• Black rectangular browline-framed reading glasses on black neck-cord

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

Nothing tastes like it used to, does it? Nothing’s the same as it was. Do you think there’s anything after all this? Afterwards? I don’t think so, I think this is it, right?

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