Sean Connery as James Bond in From Russia With Love (1963).
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Sean Connery as James Bond, British government agent and legendary lothario
London, Spring 1963
Film:From Russia With Love Release Date: October 10, 1963 Director: Terence Young Costume Designer: Jocelyn Rickards Tailor: Anthony Sinclair
Background
Bond: Suppose when she meets me in the flesh, I don’t come up to expectations? M: Just see that you do.
Most office meetings don’t involve a boss slyly encouraging an employee to have sex at all costs (at least, nowhere that I’ve worked), but that’s the world of James Bond for you. Bond attends this somewhat salacious briefing while wearing an intersection of Ian Fleming’s vision for James Bond and the classic image established by Terence Young, Anthony Sinclair, and Sean Connery for the early films in the series.
What’d He Wear?
In honor of Ian Fleming’s birthday this coming Saturday, BAMF Style is breaking down the first blue suit worn by Sean Connery’s 007 as Fleming himself typically dressed James Bond in a navy worsted wool suit. The dark navy suit in From Russia With Love also appears to be worsted, possibly in a softer and warmer flannel than the tropical-weight wool often specified for the literary Bond.
Bond accepts his latest mission with considerable enthusiasm.
Anthony Sinclair tailored this “Conduit cut” suit in the same manner of Connery’s other suits for From Russia With Love, which all featured the same tailoring and style points save for differing back vents on the jackets. This film’s elegant and timeless suits are some of my favorites both from the Bond franchise and from movies in general… it’s no wonder that M has little doubt that Bond will be able to complete his, er, mission with Tatiana Romanova.
The single-breasted jacket has a low two-button stance that Sinclair incorporated into his From Russia With Love suits. The lower stance still emphasizes Connery’s tall, lean figure while his athleticism is reflected in the slightly suppressed waist and by Connery’s own naturally broad shoulders as Sinclair depised padding his suit shoulders. Each sleeve ends with 4-button cuffs.
Moneypenny takes Bond to task after M cock-blocks him via intercom.
The front of the jacket is styled with fashionably slim lapels, flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket accented by his usual folded white linen pocket square. The wild card of Sinclair’s From Russia With Love suits is the vent situation; this navy suit has a single vent in the back.
Connery’s trousers have the usual double forward pleats and three-button tab “Daks top” side adjusters found on all of his early Sinclair-tailored pants. The waistband closes with an extended square tab in the front and the legs taper down to the cuffed bottoms. When Bond enters the office, he has his left hand tucked into the trousers’ side pocket.
Bond follows M into his inner office.
The jacket and trousers of this suit also make a brief appearance in the preceding scene, slumped over the seats in Bond’s Bentley when he’s forced to cut short his morning of punting with Sylvia Trench.
While Fleming would have dressed his Bond in a white shirt and black knit tie, Connery wears the “uniform” of early Bond – a pale blue Turnbull & Asser poplin shirt and navy grenadine tie. The shirt has a spread collar, front placket, and two-button turnback “cocktail” cuffs. This was clearly a decision influenced more by director Terence Young than Ian Fleming, who preferred the less fashionable short-sleeve shirts with his suits.
Moneypenny sizes up her competition.
The woven grenadine silk tie is tied into a small and tight four-in-hand knot. The navy tie is just a shade lighter than the suit; this would be reversed in You Only Live Twice when Connery’s Bond wears a navy suit and slightly darker navy tie to Osato’s office.
Note the lighter shade of navy in Bond’s tie compared to the rest of his suit.
Bond’s shoes are the same black leather plain-toe bluchers that Connery wears throughout From Russia With Love. The dark dress socks are likely a dark navy to continue the leg line from the trousers.
He doesn’t appear to be wearing a watch in this scene. Instead, his sole accessory is the dark olive Lock & Co. short-brimmed felt trilby that he tosses onto Moneypenny’s hat stand.
“For my next miracle…”
Matt Spaiser also wrote a post about this suit on his excellent blog The Suits of James Bond.
Go Big or Go Home
This scene finds James Bond receiving his first actual Q branch-issued gadget, and it’s one of the more accessible and practical ones of the series. As was the case for early Bond, the filmmakers took their cue right from Fleming’s text, which called for a “smart-looking bag” from “the careful handiwork for Swaine and Adeney”. As James Bond Lifestyle investigated, From Russia With Love indeed uses a Swaine Adeney attaché case on screen in the form of a black leather briefcase with red skiver lining, measuring 18″ x 13″ x 4.5″.
Bond is quite intrigued by the wonders of his new attaché case.
As Q describes:
An ordinary black leather case with rounds of ammunition, here and here. If you take the top off, you’ll find the ammunition inside. In the side here, flat throwing knife. Press that button there, and out she comes. Inside the case, you’ll find an AR folding sniper’s rifle, .25 caliber, with an infrared telescopic sight. If you pull out these straps, inside are fifty gold sovereigns in either side. Now, watch very carefully. An ordinary tin of talcum powder. Inside, a tear-gas cartridge. That goes in the case against the side here, like that. It’s magnetized, so it won’t fall. Shut the case. Normally, to open a case like that, you move the catches to the side. If you do, the cartridge will explode… in your face. To stop the cartridge exploding, turn the catches horizontally… then open normally.
If you’ve got £1995 (or about $3500) handy, you can go big or go home with James Bond’s briefcase in your hand; Swaine Adeney Brigg still offers the ARE18DP case on their site. Bond himself is quite impressed:
That’s a nasty little Christmas present.
How to Get the Look
Bond’s all blue outfit in the office blends the visions of both Ian Fleming and Terence Young to give our super spy a sharp and refreshing look.
Dark navy blue worsted wool “Conduit Cut” suit tailored by Anthony Sinclair, consisting of:
Single-breasted suit jacket with a low 2-button stance, slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and a long single rear vent
Double forward-pleated trousers with 3-button tab “Daks top” side adjusters, straight on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted right back pocket, and turn-ups/cuffed bottoms
Pale blue poplin long-sleeve Turnbull & Asser dress shirt with spread collar, front placket, and 2-button turnback/“cocktail” cuffs
Navy blue grenadine woven silk necktie, worn with a four-in-hand knot
Black leather 3-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes/bluchers
Dark navy dress socks
Olive brown felt Lock & Co. Hatters short-brimmed trilby with a narrow dark brown grosgrain band
Geoffrey Rush as Harry Pendel in The Tailor of Panama (2001).
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Geoffrey Rush as Harry Pendel, tailor to Panama’s finest and ex-con
Panama City, Fall 1999
Film:The Tailor of Panama Release Date: March 30, 2001 Director: John Boorman Costume Designer: Maeve Paterson
Background
I tend to get grumpy about sartorial “rules”, including the snobbish American insistence that white can only be worn between Memorial Day and Labor Day. While I wouldn’t see much of a need to wear white (or that of its ilk) on a chilly winter day in Pittsburgh, it’s still frustrating to be informed what I can and can’t wear. For all of his faults, Boss Hogg deserves some credit for refusing to yield to arbitrary rules of dress and proudly wearing his white busting-at-the-seams three-piece suit all year round.
Luckily for Harry Pendel, this rule doesn’t apply in the tropical locale of Panama where the British expat (and ex-con) has set up his tailor shop. Harry is one of the few characters from his novels that John le Carré felt he could relate to, stating that “I was exploring the relationship between myself and my own fabricator. Anybody in the creative business, as you might call it, has some sense of guilt about fooling around with fact, that you’re committing larceny, that all of life is material for your fabulations.”
Director John Boorman said he always imagined Geoffrey Rush for the role. “You never lose sympathy for Geoffrey on screen, even when he does dreadful things,” explained Boorman. “There’s something worn yet innocent about him.”
It makes sense that a “fabricator” like Harry Pendel would invent a life for himself revolving around literal fabrication – in this case, tailoring clothing for Panama’s elite.
What’d He Wear?
Harry Pendel’s first appearance leaves no doubt that he would be the go-to guy for any Panamanian’s sartorial needs. He strides out of his shop resplendent in a tailored three-piece suit constructed from a cream linen or linen blend as the title – THE TAILOR OF PANAMA – crosses the screen to both introduce the film and Harry himself.
Though set in the modern day, Harry’s eye-catching elegance is a throwback to the more glamorous earlier decades of men’s fashion. This look – from his Panama hat through his peak-lapel three-piece suit down to his two-tone spectator shoes – evokes the late ’30s. The tailoring and style details appear to be exactly the same as the two pinstripe suits that Harry also wears during The Tailor of Panama.
This particular suit was sold on ScreenUsed.com and the still-active sale page has great close-up photos of the actual suit that Rush wore on screen: “The cream colored suit consists of pants, vest and jacket and each piece has an ‘Angels’ costume label attached inside with ‘G. Rush, Feb 2000’ written in ink.” The costume label indicates that the suit was likely provided by the venerable Angels costume house in London.
Harry’s 1930s-inspired suit jacket is single-breasted with three white buttons. The wide shoulders are heavily padded with subtly roped sleeveheads, and four smaller white plastic buttons fasten on each cuff. There is a single vent in the back.
Harry’s suit in various states of cleanliness.
Harry’s suit jacket has four external pockets – two straight flapped side pockets, a flapped ticket pocket above the right hip pocket, and a welted breast pocket where Harry displays a beige silk kerchief with dark polka dots. According to the ScreenUsed.com images, there appears to only be one inside pocket – a jetted pocket on the inside right. The peak lapels have a long horizontal gorge and a buttonhole through the left lapel.
Harry’s classic-inspired detailing and lapels are seen as he talks to Marta.
Harry’s matching waistcoat – as an English tailor, he wouldn’t call it a vest – has a five-button single-breasted front with the lowest button left unfastened over the wide cutaway notched bottom. There are two welt pockets.
Although Harry told the president that he tries “to dispense with the rear buckle as a rule with your handmade waistcoat”, this waistcoat does have the adjustable buckle-strap across the cream silk back lining unlike on his light gray suit.
In addition to being a masterful tailor, Harry can also whip up a mean breakfast.
Harry’s trousers have single forward pleats and a high rise that remains appropriately covered by the waistcoat, although it can be assumed that a bastion of fashion like Harry would wear braces with this three-piece suit rather than a belt. (There’s also the option of side adjusters or a fitted waistband, but Harry just seems like more of a suspenders – ahem, braces – kinda guy.)
The pleats and full fit are seen as Harry paces around his back room.
The trousers have straight on-seam side pockets and a jetted back pocket on the right side with no pocket on the left. The full break bottoms are finished with plain hems. They are appropriately full-fitting for linen.
Harry’s two-tone leather bluchers are tan on the toe and vamps with a darker brown throat and laces. His beige socks are a shade darker than the rest of the suit.
Poor Harry spends most of the film on the run from one entity or another.
Harry wears it with a light cream cotton dress shirt that is just a shade off of white with a moderately-spread collar and a front placket. Although Harry has a preference for double cuffs with his suits, this shirt has button cuffs likely to reflect the relaxed look of the less formal linen suit.
During most of the suit’s early screen time, Harry’s silk tie has thick beige and light gray that cross diagonally left-down-to-right with thin red and charcoal stripes separating the thicker striping.
Later in the film, Harry again wears the suit with a gold silk tie that features hairline gray stripes in the right-down-to-left diagonal direction. Things have gotten serious by this point, so Harry doesn’t even bother with a pocket square or display kerchief.
It’s been a rough night for Harry Pendel.
Appropriately for the setting, Harry wears a cream Panama hat atop his head with a dark taupe grosgrain band.
These kids know that when you see a guy dressed like this, there’s a good chance that he’s loaded.
Harry lets his tailored clothing do his expressing for him, so he keeps his accessories minimal and practical. On his left hand, he wears his plain gold wedding band and a yellow gold watch on a brown leather strap.
When something requires extra visual attention from Harry – like tailoring – he dons a pair of silver-framed glasses with ovular lenses and slim tortoiseshell arms.
Harry is understandably nervous as the last time he was in this situation, he was subjected to hearing about Andy Osnard’s “windsock”.
How to Get the Look
When it comes to dressing comfortably and fashionably for a hot summer day, who would you trust more than the Tailor of Panama? (Especially since it’s the only real topic where he can be trusted…)
Yukking it up with co-stars Pierce Brosnan, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Geoffrey Rush.
Single-breasted 3-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped ticket pocket, flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, padded shoulders, and single rear vent
Single-breasted 5-button vest with notched bottom, two welt pockets, and adjustable back strap
Single forward-pleated trousers with high rise, straight on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted rear right pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
Light cream cotton dress shirt with moderately-spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
Beige and light gray widely-striped silk necktie with thin charcoal and red accent stripes
Tan and brown spectator bluchers
Beige dress socks
Gold-cased wristwatch with white dial on brown leather strap
Plain gold wedding band
Silver-framed ovular-lensed eyeglasses with slim tortoiseshell arms
Cream Panama hat with pinched crown and dark taupe grosgrain band
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Buy the movie and be sure to read le Carré’s book.
Sharon Stone and Robert De Niro as Ginger and Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Casino (1995).
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, Vegas casino executive and mob associate
Los Angeles, Summer 1974
Film:Casino Release Date: November 22, 1995 Director: Martin Scorsese Costume Design: John A. Dunn & Rita Ryack
Background
As the weather is warming up here in the Northern Hemisphere, folks are swapping out the heavy flannel in their closets for linen and planning their trips to sunny locales.
Sam “Ace” Rothstein and his new wife Ginger touched down in L.A. after their ill-advised wedding in Casino although it was technically more of a business trip than a vacation. This outfit, one of Ace’s loudest in the movie (and that’s saying something), is shocking in that it’s what he wears for banking… of course, when you show up with a few million dollars in cash and jewels to deposit, I would imagine no banker would judge.
What’d He Wear?
In Rear Window, Thelma Ritter’s character unflatteringly describes a murderer’s expression as one that wouldn’t “get him a quick loan at the bank,” and one can only wonder what Stella would’ve thought when seeing Ace and Ginger striding into a conservative Los Angeles bank while wearing a bright yellow jacket and blue leather miniskirt, respectively. Luckily for the Rothsteins, they’re packing a solid briefcase full of “shakedown and kidnapping money” that any banker worth his or her salt would be wise to accept.
The banker even goes so far as to show some concern for Ace’s welfare when he gives full access of his funds to his wife… although this may just be fueled by the banker’s sexism rather than actual knowledge of Ginger’s devious character.
Ace’s yellow sport coat is likely a linen and wool blend as it’s more structured and differently textured than pure linen. The single-breasted jacket is styled almost identically to the burnt orange polyester jacket he wears later in the film with its distinctive fishmouth (or cran necker) lapels, long double vents, and three large squared patch pockets on the breast and hips.
The padded shoulders with roped sleeveheads add bulk to De Niro’s frame, making Ace look more imposing. The two buttons on the front and the single button on each cuff are large white plastic.
The pastel-clad couple turns some heads at this banking institution.
This isn’t the last that we see Ace wearing yellow as he would wear a golden suit as part of an all-yellow outfit when ejecting an insolent cowboy from the Tangiers a few scenes later.
Ace contrasts the bright yellow of his jacket with a deep dark blue shirt. The shirt has a large point collar and dark blue buttons down the plain front. Although only the squared edges of the barrel cuffs are seen, they’re likely the same distinctive “Lapidus” single button-tab cuffs on many of his shirts.
Ace’s subtly-checked buttercream trousers keep the outfit light and summery while providing just enough of a contrast with the solid yellow jacket. The fine check consists of a rust brown grid with a smaller-scale light blue check that calls out the blue of the shirt.
Left: When the cameras aren’t rolling, Sharon and Bob exchange some words with Marty Scorsese on the tarmac. Right: Ace and Ginger are at their closest when packing the lid on their hard-earned funds.
The flat front trousers have a squared-end tab that extends over the right side of the waistband for a hidden closure. The legs flare out at the plain-hemmed bottoms… this was the height of the bell bottom era, after all. Both the era and a closer look at the trouser material seem to indicate polyester or at least a polyester blend. They likely have the same frogmouth front pockets of many of his similar trousers.
Sartorial rules – which I tend to dislike and Ace Rothstein tends to eschew – dictate matching socks to trousers to continue the leg line, but Ace takes it a step further by also matching his shoes, sporting a pair of cream leathermoc-toe loafers with beige socks.
Ginger and Ace compete to see who has the more noticeable footwear when making their sizable deposit.
When alighting from his private jet on the L.A. airstrip, he wears a pair of brown plastic-framed aviator-shaped Carrera 5425 “sport” sunglasses with a white stripe down each arm. Once he’s inside the bank, he folds his sunglasses and places them in his jacket’s outside breast pocket. (These sunglasses are the same ones he wore when talking to Andy Stone poolside in an earlier scene.)
Aware of the earth tones in his outfit, Ace keeps his accessories yellow gold. His all-gold wristwatch has a square dial and a gold link bracelet. On his right pinky, he wears a gold ring with a flush blue sapphire. The ring may be another Bvlgari piece since Bvlgari was credited with the film’s jewelry.
Usually, De Niro making that face means someone’s about to get their face kicked in. That safety deposit box better start getting its affairs in order…
This outfit was especially well-represented on the now-famous poster that Ibraheem Youssef created that breaks down all of Ace’s suits, accurately showing off the differing tones of each garment including the fine check of his polyester trousers.
Go Big or Go Home
If you’re gonna be shady, at least be witty about it. Ace appropriates the name of a venerated cocktail as his sobriquet:
I put two million in cash in a Los Angeles bank under the name of Mr and Mrs Tom Collins. This was strictly my shakedown and kidnapping money. And, since I’d either be in jail or locked in a closet when I needed the money the most, I gave Ginger the only key to the cash that could get me back alive.
How to Get the Look
Ace takes an unorthodox approach to casual dressing for warm weather, but it’s just as colorful and distinctive as one would expect from him.
Yellow linen single-breasted 2-button sport coat with fishmouth lapels, patch breast pocket, patch hip pocket, 1-button cuffs, and long double side vents
Cream subtly-checked polyester flat front trousers with extended squared waistband tab, frogmouth front pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
Dark blue shirt with large point collar, plain front, and “Lapidus” single button-tab cuffs
Cream leather moc-toe loafers
Beige dress socks
Gold wristwatch with rectangular case, light gold square dial, and gold link bracelet
Gold pinky ring with flush sapphire stone
Carrera 5425 brown plastic “sport” aviator sunglasses
As this jacket was almost certainly made specifically for De Niro to wear in Casino, it would be damn near impossible to find out in the wild. The best bet would be to narrow your search to yellow linen blazers and sport coats with similar – if not exact – styling. Alan Flusser currently offers a lighter weight linen jacket through SteinMart for only $69.99 that has Ace-approved white buttons, patch pockets, and long double vents. It’s a less pastel shade of yellow and lacks the distinctive Parisian lapels of Ace’s jacket, but it’s a fine, affordable option.
Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in Die Another Day (2002).
Vitals
Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, suave semi-rogue British government agent and “ornithologist”
Havana, Fall 2002
Film:Die Another Day Release Date: November 20, 2002 Director: Lee Tamahori Costume Designer: Lindy Hemming
Background
For this 00-7th of June, BAMF Style is honoring a request from Troy Swezey to analyze how the world’s least secret secret agent dresses casually for a warm afternoon under the Cuban sun.
After his release from North Korean captivity and subsequent escape from British medical captivity, James Bond follows a lead to Havana to get some answers. While there, he meets fellow badass Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson (Halle Berry), an American NSA agent who is able to meets him toe-to-toe when it comes to trading liquor shots, gunshots, or innuendo-laced wit.
Since this was filmed much prior to the U.S. restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba in July 2015, the ancient Spanish port city of Cádiz actually doubled for Cuba. It was on a chilly day in Cádiz that the shot of Halle Berry emerging from the waves in her orange Eres bikini – remniscent of Ursula Andress doing the same in Dr. No forty years earlier – was filmed.
What’d He Wear?
After forty years of globehopping in exotic, tropical locales, it isn’t until James Bond’s rogue visit to Cuba in Die Another Day that we see 007 sporting that stalwart of men’s leisurewear, the Hawaiian shirt. It’s fitting that Pierce Brosnan, one of the cheekier Bonds of the series, would be the first seen on screen in this island staple.
Originally known as an Aloha shirt, this garment originated in Hawaii as a dress shirt, reflective of both the warm climate and laid-back culture. Locals often wear Aloha shirts for business, replacing the coat and tie with a more climate-friendly alternative. While Aloha shirts have garnered a questionable reputation over the decades – thanks a lot, “ironic” frat guys – a quality shirt still has its deserved place in the closet of a well-dressed man of leisure. (Think Don Draper, Elvis, or Hawkeye Pierce.) In fact, the New York Post just ran a piece yesterday entitled “Hawaiian shirts aren’t tacky anymore.”
Bond naturally wears his Aloha shirt with style, opting to pair it with linen trousers and chukka boots rather than cargo shorts and flip flops. He buttons only the bottom two of the shirt’s white plastic buttons, leaving the top three open to reveal his white ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt. (The Brits call it a “vest”, some Americans call it a “wife beater”… I prefer the term “A-shirt”.)
Bond tends to look bored when there’s no woman around with whom he can trade sexually-laced barbs.
Hawaiian tourists can often be spotted by their louder, brighter Aloha shirts while true dwellers of the state opt for less busy prints. Bond’s shirt is about as subtle as an Aloha shirt can be, with a muted lighter blue floral pattern overlaid on a blue ground.
The stylish subtlety of Bond’s Aloha shirt contrasts against the busier “Drive Like a Turbo” printed shirt worn here by Raoul’s henchman.
Bond’s linen floral shirt is very typical of an Aloha shirt with its short and cuffed half sleeves, camp collar, and straight hem designed to be worn untucked. The rounded patch pocket over the left breast is subtly sewn in to avoid disrupting the pattern of the shirt. Each side seam runs down from under the armpit to a short vent at the bottom. There are two rear side pleats under the shoulder yoke on the back.
I’ll pretend like any of you are actually looking at the shirt here.
Bond also keeps his lower half cool and comfortable in a pair of dark navy linen flat front trousers. When exiting his borrowed Fairlane convertible, he has the lowest button of his shirt undone, revealing a dark brown leather belt with a squared steel buckle.
The cinematographer had probably been watching plenty of The M Squad before this shot was filmed.
Bond matches his belt to his shoes, sporting a pair of dark brown suede chukka boots with dark soles. Church’s provided most of Bond’s footwear during the Brosnan era, so it’s possible that these are a pair like the Church’s Ryder III that Daniel Craig wore in Quantum of Solace, although Brosnan’s appear to have leather soles rather than the distinctive black Dainite® rubber grip soles.
Bond enjoys the sights and sips of Havana. (Or, you know, Cadiz.)
Bond’s only accessory in this sequence are his Persol sunglasses, as he hasn’t yet checked in with Q Branch to receive his watch. Persol designed their PE 2672-S specifically for Pierce Brosnan to wear in Die Another Day, incorporating its classic tortoise plastic frames with dark brown crystal lenses and the signature Persol silver arrows over the Meflecto Flexible temples designed to contour perfectly and comfortably to the wearer’s face. Plenty of info about these sunglasses can be found at James Bond Lifestyle.
Despite Die Another Day’s lackluster reputation in retrospect, Persol didn’t shy away from promoting that the world’s most famous secret agent(!) sports their shades.
For another analysis and breakdown of Bond’s casual outfit in Cuba, check out Matt Spaiser’s related post at The Suits of James Bond.
Go Big or Go Home
After arriving in Cuba, one of Bond’s first stops is to drop in on cigar factory owner/MI6 sleeper agent Raoul (Emilio Echevarría), who hooks him up with the books, binoculars, and car that 007 needs to satisfy his chosen cover of… ornithologist?
I’d never known ornithology to be a particularly dangerous profession, but Bond feels the need to borrow Raoul’s heavy-barreled Smith & Wesson Model 10 anyway.
When Ian Fleming was first developing his character for Casino Royale in the early 1950s, he wanted a simple, plain-sounding name to keep his character neutral in the excitement of the world around him. Fleming was a birdwatcher who spotted the name of author James Bond on the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies and, as Fleming told The New Yorker in 1962:
…I thought by god, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard.
Die Another Day, the 20th film of the franchise released on the 40th anniversary of the first flick, contains many callbacks and references to earlier films throughout its plot. The inclusion of Birds of the West Indies actually appearing on screen is the movie’s way of paying tribute to the character’s origins while also lending him a semi-reasonable cover during his time in Cuba. You can pick up your own copy at Amazon or read a little more about the franchise’s relationship with the field guide at James Bond Lifestyle.
Fascinating beach reading, I’m sure.
“I could use a fast car,” Bond requests of Raoul, although the latter seems to have recognized Bond’s true preference for form over function by providing him with a stylish and pristine 1957 Ford Fairline 500 Skyliner convertible in a two-tone brown and cream.
Nice.
What to Imbibe
Although Bond’s blue Hawaiian shirt brings a different cocktail to mind, 007 pays tribute to his ostensibly Cuban surroundings by sipping a mojito at a beachside bar.
Let the innuendo ensue.
So what is a mojito… other than a bartender’s worst nightmare? The IBA-specified recipe involves white rum, fresh lime juice, sugar, soda water, and mint sprigs – with yerba buena traditionally used in the original Cuban recipe. Muddle six mint leaves with two teaspoons of sugar and three parts lime juice in a Collins glass or highball glass, then splash in some soda water and fill the glass with cracked ice. Pour in four parts white rum then top off with more soda water and another sprig of mint. Some folks will add a slice of lime for taste or a straw for convenience.
The mojito is a definitive cocktail for leisure, with its refreshing sweet mix of mint and citrus balancing the potent rum for a tasty but low-alcohol concoction for a warm summer day. Its origins stretch back potentially to the 1586 raid at Cartagena de Indias when Francis Drake’s raiders found the perfect anti-scurvy ingredients in Cuba.
How to Get the Look
Hawaiian shirts are often too easily dismissed as the domain of outdated dads or corny frat dudes, but Brosnan’s Bond shows how a classy Aloha shirt can really add to one’s vacation.
Halle Berry and Pierce Brosnan while filming Die Another Day in Cadiz.
Blue two-tone floral linen Hawaiian shirt with camp collar, 5 white button plain front, breast pocket, cuffed half sleeves, short side vents, and rear side pleats
White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
Dark navy linen flat front trousers with belt loops and plain-hemmed bottoms
Dark brown leather belt with squared steel single-claw buckle
Dark brown Church’s suede 2-eyelet chukka boots with dark leather soles
Persol PE2672-S tortoise plastic-framed sunglasses with dark brown crystal lenses & silver arrow temple logos
James Gandolfini on set in Bloomfield, NJ as Tony Soprano, filming “Made in America” (Episode 6.21), the series finale of The Sopranos. (Taken by Arnaldo Magnani for Getty Images, March 22, 2007.)
Vitals
James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, New Jersey mob boss
Bloomfield, NJ, Late Fall 2007
Series:The Sopranos Episode: “Made in America” (Episode 6.21) Air Date: June 10, 2007 Director: David Chase Creator: David Chase Costume Designer: Juliet Polcsa
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Nine years ago today, nearly 12 million viewers tuned into HBO to watch “Made in America”, the final installment in the epic and groundbreaking saga of The Sopranos. The episode’s controversial ending polarized some audiences who demanded more closure for the conflicted and complex mob boss and his biological and criminal families after 86 episodes. (For better or worse, the episode also revived Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin'” in the public consciousness.)
Although many disagreed with creator David Chase’s decision to (IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE EPISODE AND DON’T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED EVEN THOUGH IT’S BECOME FAMOUS OVER THE LAST NINE YEARS STOP READING NOW) cut to several seconds of black before resuming the end credits*, “Made in America” as a whole has grown considerably popular after nearly a decade of revisits and analysis with more articles, columns, blog posts, and think pieces about that single episode than most TV shows get in their entirety. Its reputation has grown to the point where the Chase-penned and directed “Made in America” is now considered by many to be one of the best television finales in the medium’s history, and its unforgettable conclusion – and the reaction to it – has become an American pop culture phenomenon.
* Chase didn’t even want to include the end credits, but the Directors Guild of America wouldn’t allow it.
Up to the point where Tony Soprano looked up and our worlds went black, “Made in America” had deftly been wrapping up the show’s loose ends, both on the front of mob war and familial strife. As in real life, there were few ultimate conclusions, and the show’s narrative was winding down by the time Tony arranged to meet his wife and children at Holsten’s Brookdale Confectionary, an old-school ice cream parlor in Bloomfield. Tony is the first to arrive, ordering onion rings for the table. Eventually, the bell on the door rings to herald the entrance of the restaurant’s arrivals, including Tony’s wife Carmela (Edie Falco) and son A.J. (Robert Iler) arrive, as well as a man in a Members Only jacket that has become the object of much of the episode’s speculation. As the man walks past their table to ostensibly use the restroom, Bobby Bacala’s words (“You probably don’t even hear when it happens, right?”) may be echoing in Tony’s head… or he may just be heeding the advice he once gave A.J. to “remember the good times.” Outside, Tony’s daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is running late and struggling to park her car. The door’s bell rings. Tony looks up and-
What’d He Wear?
Nothing – not even the ending – is black and white on the world of The Sopranos, despite what some of its more stubbornly old-fashioned characters may choose to believe. Tony’s shirt acknowledges these “shades of gray” with his tri-colored sport shirt worn for the final scene.
Tony steps into Holsten’s wearing a black lightweight silk short-sleeve bowling shirt with gray and cream front panels. The shirt has seven gray plastic buttons down the plain front, including the top button that he leaves undone under the notched camp collar.
Tony looks up to see who enters. CUT TO BLACK.
Most of the shirt – including the collar, the entire back, and the half sleeves – is black. The front of the shirt – from the shoulder seams down to the straight-cut bottom hem – is a gray silk panel with each side split by a wide cream “stripe” panel.
Many of Tony’s silk sport shirts were from Nat Nast, the luxury shirtmaker who earned a reputation in post-war America as “The King of Bowling Shirts”. The current brand, Nat Nast Luxury Originals, was relaunched by Nat’s daughters Patty and Barbara in 2000 with an aim to “recapture the era” and celebrate the mid-century American experience. While I haven’t seen a confirmed maker of this shirt, it’s certainly possible that it’s another garment from this venerable all-American brand.
The awesome James Gandolfini interacts with fans while filming in Bloomfield in March 2007. Though watermarked for Getty Images, I don’t know the name of this photographer, unless this was also taken by Arnaldo Magnani. (Bobby Bank is credited for a similar photo, so that may also be the photographer who captured this image.)
Tony Soprano wore several black leather jackets over the course of The Sopranos‘ eight year run from blazers to blousons. He wore two different zip-front black leather jackets in the finale episode alone, including one more frequently seen example by Remy that was auctioned by Live Auctioneers with another outfit from the episode.
With this outfit, Tony wears a slightly heavier lambskin black leather jacket, differentiated by a horizontal seam that runs across both chest panels. Like a bomber jacket and several others worn by Tony, it has a shirt-style collar and a zip front with a matching black leather tab on the metal pull. Other than the horizontal seam and the vertical welt hand pocket on each side, it has a very clean look with plain cuffs and no straps, buttons, or snaps on the waistband.
Tony talks with Paulie before the latter gets his triumphant final moment on the show, sunning himself despite the fact that it’s basically a winter day in New Jersey.
A watermarked image of James Gandolfini on set during the filming of “Made in America” (Taken by Arnaldo Magnani for Getty Images, March 22, 2007.)
Tony wears a pair of black wool trousers with double reverse pleats, slanted side pockets, and cuffed bottoms. Many of the trousers worn by James Gandolfini on the show were appropriated sourced from the Italian-tailored brand Zanella, and it’s very possible that these are no exception. His untucked shirt covers the trouser waistband, but he likely wears a black leather belt to match both his footwear and the general color scheme of his outfit.
Since the significant bulk of this scene is set while Tony is sitting at a restaurant table, most of the “below the waist” costuming info comes from Arnaldo Magnani’s on-set photos posted on Getty Images while the scene was being filmed in Bloomfield in late March 2007. In addition to other wardrobe points, the photos confirm that Tony is wearing a pair of black leather split-toe bluchers, likely with black dress socks.
Although most of his clothing is black, Tony’s accessories are always all gold (a winning color combination that appeals to the sports base in my hometown) with two gold pieces on each hand and one around his neck.
As always, he wears a gold open-link chain necklace with a pendant of St. Jerome that buries itself somewhere between his chest hair and his ubiquitous white ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt.
Tony’s left wrist holds his usual yellow gold Rolex President Day-Date, a luxury watch befitting the proud leader of a powerful organization like the DeMeo crime family. Tony honors his other family by proudly wearing a gold wedding band on the ring finger of his left hand.
The mobster’s mobster, Tony would never leave the house without his gold pinky ring, which flashes a ruby and diamond clustered together from his right pinky. On his right wrist, he wears a gold chain-link bracelet.
Tony’s rings and wrist accoutrement are on display as he checks out the jukebox selections.
(Another of Tony’s “Made in America” outfits that includes a black leather jacket sold on Live Auctioneers. Worn during later scenes of talking with Paulie and seeing Uncle Junior, this outfit consisted of a black leather Remy jacket, speckled Castagne dress shirt, and tan pleated Zanella trousers.)
Go Big or Go Home
…and go ahead and order some onion rings for the table*. I can only imagine that onion rings have shot up to a best-selling spot on the menu at Holsten’s Brookdale Confectionary, the eatery in Bloomfield, New Jersey where the Soprano family chose to dine during this iconic final scene. Although advertised as an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and candy store, Holsten’s boasts a wide menu of burgers, sandwiches, and breakfasts in addition to the $4.00 onion rings. The restaurant, which opened in 1939 as Strubbe’s Ice Cream parlor, is reasonably proud of its connection to The Sopranos‘ finale, even including a tab on its site and in-store merchandise that can be purchased. (Initially, the Bloomfield Township Council tried to block the show from filming in town but their authority was overruled.)
* I’ve seen it argued that Tony ordering “some for the table” is also a reference to the direction of his life leading up to his family being forced to witness his gruesome demise at the table. Maybe this is just people trying to add significance to the fact that this is the last line of the show, but…
Perhaps also somewhat significant is the fact that “Don’t Stop Believin'” was released in 1981, the year after Meadow was born and Tony “made his bones” in the mob with his first killing.
Another group that initially wasn’t crazy about giving permission to the show was Journey, whose 1981 single “Don’t Stop Believin'” received an incredible resurgence in popularity after “Made in America,” shooting up nearly 500% in iTunes sales to become the best selling digital song from a non-digital (pre-21st century) era on the site. Steve Perry’s reluctance mostly stemmed from a concern that it would be associated with Tony Soprano’s demise until David Chase was able to provide assurance that this would not [explicitly] be the case.
How to Get the Look
Although a Members Only jacket may be one of the more analyzed pieces of clothing in this scene, Tony dresses true to his Jersey mob boss self right up to the end with a leather jacket, silk sport shirt, and pounds of gold jewelry.
Black silk short-sleeve bowling shirt with camp collar, plain 7-button front, and gray/cream vertical front panels
Black lambskin leather zip-front jacket with shirt-style collar, horizontal chest seam, vertical welt side pockets, and plain cuffs
Black wool double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
Black leather belt
Black leather split-toe bluchers
Black dress socks
White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
Rolex President Day-Date 118238 yellow gold wristwatch
Gold open-link chain bracelet
Gold pinky ring with ruby and diamond stones
Gold wedding band
Gold open-link chain necklace with round St. Jerome pendant
A.J.: Isn’t that what you said one time, “try to remember the times that were good”? Tony: I did? A.J.: Yeah. Tony: Well, it’s true, I guess.
Footnotes and Theories
Although David Chase has famously kept mum about the episode’s meaning – especially in response to the fan favorite question of “Was Tony killed at the end?” – he has admitted that there are many hints throughout the show, particularly the last season, that address his intent with the finale.
In the season premiere “Soprano Home Movies” (Ep. 6.13), Bobby Bacala (Steve Schirripa) and Tony are enjoying a relaxing afternoon on Bobby’s boat and discussing the bloody realities of their world. Bobby theorizes that when a hit comes, “You probably don’t even hear when it happens, right?” The next episode, “Stage 5” (Ep. 6.14) finds Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) out to dinner with Gerry Torciano (John Bianco) when the latter is lit up as part of a New York Mafia power struggle. Sil is shocked to find himself witness to a mob hit as he isn’t even aware of the shooting until he realized that he’s been splashed with Gerry’s blood. This as close as The Sopranos had gotten to being inside the mind of a “victim” of one of the show’s many hits, and it’s worth recalling at Holsten’s.
Tony is granted one more “good time” to remember with his family before the end.
The Master of Sopranos blog has offered its thoughtful and “definitive” explanation of the finale, citing much evidence from throughout the show and cues within the scene that even the most eagle-eyed fan might miss. I always enjoy reading this set of posts, which addresses not only what may have happened in the ending but themes of death on The Sopranos as a whole. The blog theorizes that the scene does indeed signify Tony’s end with its own beautiful conclusion:
Those final 10 seconds of darkness illustrates Tony’s greatest fear: that when we die, it’s all over. We look for meaning in life and we fear an empty existence; this was often illustrated with Tony’s sessions with Dr. Melfi and the entire psychological aspect to the show. Death in popular fiction is usually glorified in some way. It’s usually about courage, sacrifice, and the tragedy of loss. There usually has to be some great “meaning” behind it. But for Chase, any “meaning” vanishes the second the bullet enters Tony’s brain. In the end, Tony (and us) are left with eternal nothingness, all we can really do when we are alive is “remember the good times.”
Master of Sopranos draws on plenty of source material and inter-show evidence to determine that Chase and cinematographer Alik Sakharov masterfully incorporated point-of-view (POV) shots to deliver an experiential ending worthy of the show, its creators, and its audience:
In achieving the ultimate vicarious experience of Tony’s death, Tony himself would never know who killed him or why, so the viewers should not know either.
Mike Cole also makes a careful analysis on his blog, breaking down the final moments of the season in forensic detail to draw his conclusion that Tony meets his death at the hands of a hitman hired by Patsy Parisi.
Vinnie Mancuso also wrote a great column, “Ten Seconds of Black: Revisiting the Life-Affirming Series Finale of ‘The Sopranos’,” published last summer after Game of Thrones was numbing HBO viewers to TV deaths. In it, Mancuso recalls the frustration of he and his father after the finale and how his eventual reflection made him appreciate the show’s life-affirming message:
I always think back to that reaction of my father. It wasn’t frustration at a bad ending — in that moment, he didn’t even know that was the ending. It was frustration that something he genuinely loved, something he had poured not only his time but emotions into, was taken away from him in that one second. But then he moved on.
That’s not TV. That’s life.
Many discussions of the scene also address the paranoia that would continue to define Tony’s mindset and how it may be reflected in this scene and decision. Not only does Tony suffer from depressive disorders, but his way of life means he can’t afford to let his guard down. He’s always on the lookout, surveying threats whether they’re wearing Members Only jackets or not. And if that Members Only man really was going to the bathroom, Tony may have been recalling his self-described favorite scene from the archetypal mob drama The Godfather when Michael Corleone returns from a fateful restroom visit with a gun in his hand to eliminate a target or two of his own.
The show makes a point of calling out the lyrics of “Don’t Stop Believin'” – a song that Chase adamantly pursued for this scene – so the audience is clearly being brought into this experience. We the viewers “should not stop believing,” as Chase often would tell interviewers, and we should continue to interpret Tony’s story for ourselves. The show’s message about life and death is what matters, more than whether or not it managed to up the body count in its final moments. Even Bobby’s words seem to address us: “You probably don’t even hear it when it happens.” If “it” happening is Tony’s death, then he was right on the money; we didn’t hear it or see it and it might even happen decades later, beyond the show’s narrative… we just have to keep believing for ourselves.
Keanu Reeves as John Wick, standing inside the door of his 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 in John Wick (2014).
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Keanu Reeves as John Wick, retired assassin and devoted puppy owner
New Jersey to New York City, Spring 2014
Film:John Wick Release Date: October 24, 2014 Director: Chad Stehelski Costume Designer: Luca Mosca
Background
In honor of tomorrow’s über-American holiday of Flag Day (which also happens to be my mom’s birthday), this installment of Car Week will begin with an examination of John Wick’s casual leather jacketed outfit and – of course – his ’69 Ford Mustang Mach 1, which is mistaken for a Boss 429 during Wick’s fateful gas station fill-up.
What’d He Wear?
John Wick’s brown leather jacket is one of the most frequently replicated cinematic garments I’ve seen available online, all to varying degrees of accuracy and dubious reliability given most of their sub-$200 prices. There’s the American Leather Jacket version, the Film Jackets/fjacket.com replica, the offering from Film Star Look, and a version by New American Jackets that appears to be the least accurate of the bunch.
It’s impressive that Wick’s minimalist outfit has garnered so much attention from aspiring sartorial lookalikes and certainly a testament to the timeless “tough guy” look of a dark leather jacket, t-shirt, and jeans.
Any “tough guy” look is improved by driving a muscle car.
The brown lambskin leather jacket is waist-length with a shirt-style collar. The zip front has a silver-toned pull tab and has a 1″-wide stitched placket on each side of the zipper.
Wick’s hinted military background is channeled by the decorative epaulettes sewn onto the shoulders of his jacket.
The jacket’s stitching adds plenty to its rugged appearance and structure. Faux-epaulettes that point toward the neck are stitched on each shoulder. A single vertical stitch seam splits each of the two front panels just in front of the welted hand pocket. A single horizontal seam cuts across the front of the waist to just below the center of each pocket. On the back, a horizontal yoke stretches across the shoulders.
A horizontal rear yoke stretches across the upper back and shoulders. The waistband and plain cuffs are each finished with a “dotted line” broken stitch about 1.5″ up from their respective edges.
John Wick tosses one back with Aurelio (John Leguizamo). Leguizamo stated in interviews that Aurelio’s wardrobe helped him get into the “slick” character’s mindset.
Our all-American hero also wears the quintessential American casual pants: a pair of bootcut denim jeans with a standard five-pocket layout, colored in a rich dark blue wash.
When going out and about – either to visit his wife or gas up his car – Wick wears a gray crew neck short-sleeve T-shirt.
Wick tests the limits of his Mustang.
After the bad guys awaken him in the middle of the night, Wick goes to confront them while wearing his white cotton v-neck undershirt, which he then wears with his leather jacket and jeans when he stops into Aurelio’s chop shop.
The stark effect would have been much lessened if Wick had been wearing a red undershirt.
Wick’s boots are charcoal suede desert boots with tan crepe soles. They remind me of the Johnston & Murphy “Copeland Chukka” with natural latex crepe soles and uppers finished in a dark gray suede that almost looks brown.
Wick wears some nice shoes for a pretty dirty situation.
Other than the silver indented wedding band on the third finger of his left hand, John Wick’s only jewelry or accessory is his stainless Carl F. Bucherer Manero AutoDate wristwatch on a black alligator strap. The watch’s white dial (with its 3:00 date window) and silver-toned luminescent hands are protected under a scratch resistant, anti-reflective sapphire crystal… as well as Wick’s military-esque habit of wearing it on the inside of his left wrist.
Wick wears his wedding ring and wristwatch while plotting his revenge.
How to Get the Look
Although his sharp dark suit from Luca Mosca received plenty of deserved attention, John Wick also shows a stylishly minimalist casual side when not in Badass Hitman mode.
Brown lambskin leather waistlength jacket with shirt-style collar, zip front, vertical welted hand pockets, and decorative stitching throughout
Gray crew neck short-sleeve T-shirt
Dark blue denim bootcut jeans
Charcoal suede 2-eyelet desert/chukka boots with tan crepe soles
Light blue cotton boxer undershorts with elastic waistband
Silver indented wedding band, worn on left ring finger
Carl F. Bucherer Manero AutoDate with stainless 42mm case, white dial (with date), and black alligator leather strap, worn on inside of left wrist
A white v-neck t-shirt would also be very John Wick-ian to wear with the brown leather jacket and dark jeans, although for hygienic purposes and a generally wise sartorial rule of thumb, it’s best to wear one devoid of blood – whether it’s yours or some thug’s.
The Car
Mustang. Boss 429.
… an impressed Iosef notes as John Wick finishes gassing up his ride. “’69,” Wick corrects after Iosef guesses 1970. Although Iosef is correct that it is indeed “a beautiful car,” his Boss 429 guess has been taken apart by several astute viewers who believe John Wick’s car to actually be a 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1. Though it may have been equipped with a similar 7.0L Ford V8 engine, Wick’s car lacks the accurate hood scoop and markings that would be found on a true Boss 429. (It also lacks the side decals that would denote it as either a Boss or a Mach 1, so that adds some fuel to the fire.)
There’s still some debate though, and I’m not expert enough to weigh in more than some of the others have. All I truly feel comfortable pointing out is that both John Wick and Iosef are pumping their own petrol in a New Jersey gas station… a state that bans self-serve stations. Wick and especially Iosef aren’t men who particularly care about obeying the law at all times, but this would be a silly crime for at least Wick to break while he’s laying low in his post-assassin life.
John Wick proudly shows off his ’69 Mustang at the gas station, a decision that would come back to haunt both him and his puppy.
After four years as an all-star on American roadways, the Ford Mustang finally upped the ante for its hard-driving motorists with the introduction of its Boss 302, Boss 429, and Mach 1 performance packages for the 1969 model year in addition to the currently available GT options offered by Ford and Shelby. The Mach 1, available only in the new “SportsRoof” fastback body style, immediately eclipsed GT sales to the point where Ford discontinued the GT badge until the early ’80s Fox platform Mustangs.
A stock Mach 1 consisted of a V8-powered “SportsRoof” model with performance-oriented cosmetic enhancements from the front-pinned matte black hood and “SportSlats” rear window louvres to chrome-tipped exhaust and gas cap. Mach 1 wheels were fitted to Goodyear Polyglas tires and some owners opted for the “Shaker” hood scoop (which collected fresh air and was named for the way it would shake over the engine) or chin spoiler, although a rear deck spoiler was standard.
The standard option for 1969 was a 351 cubic inch Windsor “H-Code” V8, offering 250 bhp, with a 2-barrel carburetor and a 3-speed manual transmission. A 4-barrel carb “M-Code” 351 was also optional, upping the power to 290 bhp. True gearheads could also get their ’69 Mach 1 with a 390 S-code or the 428 Cobra Jet or Super Cobra Jet high performance engine with a rated output of 335 bhp.
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 (misidentified as Boss 429)
Body Style: 2-door fastback “SportsRoof” coupe
Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)
Engine: 428 ci (7.0 L) Ford “Cobra Jet” V8 with 4-barrel Holley carburetor
Power: 335 bhp (250 kW; 340 PS) @ 5200 rpm
Torque: 440 lb·ft (597 N·m) @ 3400 rpm
Transmission: 3-speed automatic
Wheelbase: 108 inches (2743 mm)
Length: 187.5 inches (4762 mm)
Width: 71.7 inches (1821 mm)
Height: 50.5 inches (1283 mm)
Wick’s Mustang has New Jersey license plates #XAB-235. In addition to the cosmetic changes that seem to indicate that Wick drives a Mach 1 rather than the much more powerful (but also much rarer) Boss 429, the Boss 429 was only offered with a 4-speed manual while Wick’s car appears to have an automatic transmission.
A commentor on IMCDB stated that a Top Gear episode description called this “a ‘rare’ Boss 429 7.0 V8,” but I took the safer route of describing the stock 428 Cobra Jet engine that would still be found in some 1969 Mach 1 models. Although one may see a 428 Mach 1 and a Boss 429 and assume that only one cubic inch of displacement isn’t much of a difference, the Mach 1 was powered by variants in the Ford FE engine family while the Boss 429 used the big block Ford 385 series, developed the year before for the Ford Thunderbird and Lincoln Continental.
(I’m definitely willing to hear some discussion about whether or not Wick is driving a Mach 1, a Boss 429, or a Mustang that was never originally badged as either. Just because dialogue alludes to it possibly being a “Boss 429” certainly doesn’t mean it really is!)
Roger Moore as James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
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Roger Moore as James Bond, suave British MI6 agent
Sardinia, Italy, Summer 1977
Film:The Spy Who Loved Me Release Date: July 7, 1977 Director: Lewis Gilbert Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows
Background
This installment of BAMF Style’s Car Week takes us underwater as James Bond heads off to Atlantis to meet his new nemesis, Karl Stromberg, in The Spy Who Loved Me… although our lothario seems more concerned about which of the two exotic women on his boat ride is more interested in him.
Stromberg discloses to Bond that he’s investing in an underwater society so it’s fitting that Bond drives a car with aquatic abilities in this flick. Bond’s “submarine” Lotus Esprit has joined the Aston Martin DB5 as one of the most popular 007 vehicles of all time. Even within the Bond universe, the KGB seems to have taken a special interest in the car when Major Anya Amasova discloses that she’s not unfamiliar with MI6’s secret plans for the Lotus.
This sequence includes many of the elements that make a Bond adventure so unique: exciting danger, beautiful women, a megalomaniac villain, an exotic location (in this case, the Cala Di Volpe in Porto Cervo), and – of course – beautifully tailored attire.
What’d He Wear?
Bond arrives for his boat ride with Anya and Naomi in a lightweight worsted wool blazer colored a very dark shade of navy that almost appears black in some light. The single-breasted blazer has notch lapels with just enough extra width to be stylish in the late ’70s without surpassing the bounds of timeless style.
Bond turns on the charm. No doubt there’s a beautiful woman around.
The features of Bond’s blazer keep it very distinctive. There is a welted breast pocket as well as flapped hip pockets that slant back, but there is also a flapped ticket pocket – also with a rear slant – above the right hip pocket. All of the blazer’s silver-toned buttons – the two on the front and the four on each cuff – are metal as one often finds on a blazer, but they are sewn-through unlike the usual shank buttons. The shoulders are roped, and the sides are split with two 12″ long double vents.
Bond dresses to impress both friends and foes.
According to Matt Spaiser at The Suits of James Bond, this blazer was made by Angelo Roma. Matt’s post also has great insight into the fit and tailoring of this garment.
Bond’s boldly-striped cotton shirt with it’s single-button tab “Lapidus cuffs” was likely made by Moore’s usual shirtmaker Frank Foster. The shirt is white with alternately spaced blue candy stripes. The large collar has long points and the white buttons fasten down a front placket.
Turnbull & Asser offers its own white-and-blue men’s “candy stripe” shirt that, while different, should be worthy of consideration given the brand’s reputation for quality and storied relationship with the 007 franchise.
This Roger Moore sandwich reinforces the idea that playing James Bond may be one of the luckiest jobs an actor can get.
Bond’s blue silk tie reflects the boldness of the shirt while also providing a contrast to the dark, muted blazer. It’s made from shantung silk, a more comfortable alternative for warm climates.
The blue also nicely evokes Stromberg’s whole underwater theme. Too bad Stromberg didn’t like him.
Bond’s white flat front trousers, likely also by Angelo Roma, are one of his few true concessions to the era with their widely-flared bell bottoms. Ignoring this disco-friendly feature, Bond’s trousers are an appropriately naval choice given that we’re seeing Bond at sea and this is Moore’s “Commander Bond” flick (as You Only Live Twice was for Connery and Tomorrow Never Dies would be for Brosnan). They appear to be a lightweight wool gabardine. Moore keeps the blazer buttoned through most of the sequence, but behind-the-scenes photos indicate that the only closure for the trousers is a concealed hook under the extended waistband; there are no belt loops or adjustor tabs.
Bond’s bell bottoms provide both luxury during leisure and a dramatic, sweeping exit from a villain’s lair.
Moore wears his usual black horsebit leather moccasins with gold horsebit details and tall-heeled leather soles. They may be Ferragamo, an appropriate choice given the Italian setting. He also wears black socks, a surprising choice given the white trousers and the heat of a summer day in the Mediterranean but at least it works with the black shoes and dark blazer.
The Spy Who Loved Me marked the first film in Seiko’s product placement deal with the Bond franchise, which lasted through Roger Moore’s last appearance in A View to a Kill. In this outing, he wears a steel Seiko LC Quartz DK001 digital wristwatch, identified as model 0674-5009 by Dell Deaton on his blog, James Bond Watches. More information about this comparatively rare watch can also be found at James Bond Lifestyle.
Had digital watches existed in the 1950s, do you think Ian Fleming would have outfitted his hero with one? They do seem to serve the literary character’s practical sensibilities.
Moore would again sport a navy blazer and light slacks in his next Bond outing, Moonraker, when first meeting Hugo Drax at his California estate.
Caroline Munro, Roger Moore, and Barbara Bach relax between takes.
How to Get the Look
James Bond’s fashionable seaside blazer and slacks comfortably blends both military-inspired aesthetics and classic resort wear.
Dark navy lightweight worsted single-breasted 2-button blazer with notch lapels, welted breast pockets, slanted flapped hip pockets, ticket pocket, sewn-through silved-toned metal buttons, 4-button cuffs, and long double vents
White lightweight wool gabardine flat front trousers with fitted waistband and plain-hemmed “bell bottoms”
White-and-blue “candy stripe” cotton dress shirt with large long-pointed collar, front placket, and 1-button tab “Lapidus cuffs”
Blue shantung silk tie
Black leather slip-on moccasins with gold horsebit detail and tall-heeled leather soles
Black socks
Seiko LC 0674-5009 Quartz DK001 digital wristwatch
The Car
What’s the perfect car for a British secret agent in Italy? The Italian-designed and British-made Lotus, of course! Q personally arrives in Sardinia to greet 007 and equip him with his latest piece of technology, a white 1976 Lotus Esprit.
The custom-built car/submarine was nicknamed “Wet Nellie” to pay homage to “Little Nellie”, the yellow autogyro flown by Sean Connery ten years earlier in You Only Live Twice. In total, six different Esprits were featured during the filming of The Spy Who Loved Me but only one – piloted by ex-U.S. Navy SEAL Don Griffin – was modified as a wet sub. “Wet Nellie” was built by Perry Oceanographic, Inc. for about $100,000 and featured four electric motors, all propelling the sub’s forward motion only. In September 2013, Elon Musk bought the submarine at auction for £650,000 and has since stated that he hopes to convert it to reflect the functionality as seen on screen.
This was not a stock option on any series of Lotus Esprits… at least not until Elon Musk has his way.
The Esprit first went into production in June 1976, eight months after it was launched at the Paris Auto Show, and the first model years – 1976 through 1978 – are now known as Series 1 (S1) Esprits. The longitudinal Lotus 907 engine returned from the Jensen Healey, powering European models with 160 bhp and American models with 140 bhp, down-rated in the states for emissions purposes. The first Esprits were designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro with redesigns in the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s by Peter Stevens and Julian Thomson but it was Giugiaro’s original polygonal vision that gave the Esprit its distinctive look.
The handling of the lightweight car impressed Lotus test driver Roger Becker while filming The Spy Who Loved Me, and the S1 generation of Esprits is said to have had the best steering of any of the car’s three decades of production. The last Esprit was produced in 2004, bringing the total production amount to 10,675 cars.
1976 Lotus Esprit
Body Style: 2-door sports coupe
Layout: rear mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RMR)
Engine: 2.0 L (1973 cc) Lotus 907 I4 with dual side-draft Dell’Orto carburetors
Power: 160 bhp (119 kW; 162 PS) @ 6500 rpm
Torque: 140 lb·ft (190 N·m) @ 4900 rpm
Transmission: 5-speed manual
Wheelbase: 96 inches (2438.4 mm)
Length: 165 inches (4191 mm)
Width: 73 inches (1854.2 mm)
Height: 44 inches (1117.6 mm)
Main unit production on The Spy Who Loved Me began in August 1976, two months after the first Esprit was produced, with Lotus test driver Roger Becker serving as the stunt driver while filming on Sardinia. Bond would again be seen behind the wheel of a Lotus Esprit four years later in For Your Eyes Only when he drives a white 1980 Turbo model and, after that car explodes, a red 1981 Turbo model.
Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra, behind the wheel of a Maserati GranTurismo while filming Limitless (2011).
Vitals
Bradley Cooper as Eddie Morra, performance-enhanced investor and former struggling author
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Spring 2010
Film:Limitless Release Date: March 18, 2011 Director: Neil Burger Costume Designer: Jenny Gering
Background
This final installment for this Car Week aims to get everyone geared up for any upcoming beach vacations and possible drug-induced professional success.
A brief sequence in Limitless portrays NZT’s effects as glamorous, and few things would be more glamorous than speeding around a tropical coast behind in a new Maserati. Eddie Morra, in addition to the unexplained circumstances that lead to his taking the wheel of this Italian sports car, finds himself hobnobbing with fellow bon vivants at Casa China Blanca, a stunning villa in Puerto Vallarta.
Eddie and his new pals seemingly tire of their wine-fueled brunches and approach the edge of a cliff, where our brightly-clad and seemingly bright-futured protagonists quickly calculates the odds of survival vs. badassery and takes a leap into Banderas Bay… a heavy contrast to the much darker circumstances that find him contemplating a similar leap from the balcony of his penthouse apartment later on.
What’d He Wear?
This may be the simplest BAMF Style breakdown yet as Eddie’s beachgoing outfit in Mexico consists of no more than a white shirt and black swimming trunks.
Eddie’s white linen shirt has a slim collar, long sleeves that Eddie rolled up to his elbows, and seven white plastic buttons up the front placket, although he only buttons a few in the middle for more of a casual, devil-may-care look. TheTake identified this shirt as a J. Crew linen shirt.
Eddie makes a calculated risk.
The shirt has two large patch pockets on the chest. Each pocket closes with a single button on a slim, slightly pointed flap. There are two slim loops on each shoulder as though for epaulettes although the loops seem to add no functional purpose other than adding a somewhat military-inspired look.
That feeling when taking NZT tells you that jumping off that cliff isn’t such a bad idea…
Eddie is the only one of his crew that appears to be sartorially prepared for swimming, possibly since he’s the only one who would consider jumping off a cliff into the Pacific. His black polyester swim shorts have a white drawstring and very short vents on the sides. TheTake has identified these as Parke & Ronen Swimming Shorts.
Eddie and his thrillseeking pals.
Since style has changed in the last few years since Limitless was released, all swimming shorts and trunks in the current Parke & Ronen lineup are much shorter than they would’ve been when the scene was filmed in June 2010.
How to Get the Look
Eddie’s simple beach attire keeps him feeling and looking cool whether around a brunch table, behind the wheel, or in the waves.
White linen J. Crew long-sleeve shirt with slim collar, front placket, two button-flapped chest patch pockets, and 2 slim shoulder loops
Black polyester Parke & Ronen swimming trunks with white drawstring
The Car
The filmmakers wanted to showcase Eddie’s new glamorous lifestyle by placing him in a luxury car that would be racing around the roads of his exotic vacation spot. While filming in June 2010 – still titled The Dark Fields – the production received two new dark gray Maserati GranTurismo coupes for free as part of Maserati North America’s “guerilla product placement” approach.
In a March 2011 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Scott Kroopf recalls “They jumped right in and did it, and they creatively fit the bill.” The same article includes details of the placement:
To pull it off, Maserati sourced a dark-gray GranTurismo Coupe from its official importer in Mexico and shipped a matching four-seater from the U.S. to Puerto Vallarta in time for filming in June. No money changed hands in the deal; in the end, Maserati spent less than $10,000 on the project – with most of that going toward shipping costs and payment for a company technician who was on location for the one-day shoot.
Maserati’s low-budget/high-exposure strategy paid off as the car was featured prominently in two Super Bowl ads and a memorable scene in the film. Though less than a minute long, the scene stuck in audience’s minds as Eddie and his date bump along to “La Boquilla (DixOne Remix)” by Bomba Estéreo, a Colombian band whose name translates loosely to “a badass party”… appropriately enough as Eddie’s life at that moment is seemingly an endless parade of badass partying.
A shot from the Limitless trailer of Eddie’s Maserati barreling through the streets of Puerto Vallarta.
Maserati rolled out its new GranTurismo model at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show as the successor to the Maserati Coupé model with the Coupé’s F136 V8 engine expanded from 4.2 to 4.3 liters and now tuned to output 405 hp. (The earlier Coupé had been designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the famous Italian designer who also developed the Lotus Esprit as featured in my last post.)
The four-seat GranTurismo shares the four-door Maserati Quattroporte V’s M139 platform with a slightly shortened wheelbase. After the base model’s introduction in 2007, Maserati developed several other variants of the GranTurismo: the S, the S Automatic, the MC, the MC Sport Line, and the Sport. The Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale is one of the best performing models with a top speed of just under 190 mph, compared to the base GranTurismo’s still impressive 177 mph.
2011 Maserati GranTurismo
Body Style: 2-door sport coupe
Layout: front mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive (FMR)
Engine: 4.2 L (4244 cc) Ferrari/Maserati F136 UE V8
David Niven as Colonel Race in Death on the Nile (1978).
Vitals
David Niven as Colonel Johnny Race, dignified lawyer and war veteran
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 we in the Northern Hemisphere enjoy the first full day of summer, BAMF Style is focusing on a classic warm weather look from the quintessential gentleman, David Niven. Niven’s character, Colonel Johnny Race, was written as an MI5 agent in Christie’s novels but appears here to be more of a lawyer who is tasked with a murder investigation due to his long friendship with Poirot and his dignified upper class standing.
David Niven was one of many stars featured in the trio of lavish Agatha Christie murder mystery adaptations in the ’70s and ’80s that were often studded with a cavalcade of international acting talent. 1978’s Death on the Nile alone featured Niven, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, and Maggie Smith plus the decade’s Shakespearean newcomers Jon Finch and Olivia Hussey as well as Jack “that’s what I call fuckin'” Warden. Peter Ustinov took over the role of the eccentric, brilliant, and pompous Hercule Poirot – a role he would play five more times – in a perfect example of marketing a famously mustached character without overdoing it.
Although the “series” was sumptuously costumed with period attire for all, Anthony Powell’s costume design talent won him both the Academy Award and the BAFTA for Death on the Nile. (It’s worth mentioning that Tony Walton’s costume design for Murder on the Orient Express had been nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA, and Powell’s work on Evil Under the Sun has been thrice featured on BAMF Style already.)
What’d He Wear?
Colonel Race exudes British military elegance in his double-breasted navy blazer, white trousers and shoes, and regimental striped tie.
When Colonel Race checks in on the convalescent and grieving Simon Doyle (Simon MacCorkindale), his look and manner evokes that of a concerned commanding officer more than a tourist.
The navy wool serge double-breasted blazer is cut befitting an English military gentleman with its structured and tailored fit, darted front, roped sleeveheads, and double side vents. The double-breasted front is very evocative of a naval uniform and the six-on-two button layout consists of silver-toned metal shank buttons with a naval motif. The 2-button cuffs are scaled down reflections of the buttons on the front.
The sweeping, convex peak lapels are one of the few concessions to the era, somewhat on the wider side of classic with slanted gorges and a buttonhole stitched through the left lapel. The natural-looking shoulders also indicate civilian garb more than a heavy-padded, straight-shoulder jacket would.
No one on the ship is exempt from Colonel Race’s investigation.
Race’s blazer has straight jetted hip pockets and a welted breast pocket where he keeps a white linen handkerchief, a handy accessory to wipe off sweat under the hot Egyptian sun.
Race finds himself momentarily baffled by Poirot’s dinner request.
With his blazer, Colonel Race wears a pair of light cream gabardine trousers cut with a wide straight leg for a comfortably and fashionably large fit. The cream shade softens the costume-like properties that would burden the wearer of a navy blazer and white ducks. They have double forward pleats and the cuffed bottoms are finished with turn-ups. The trousers have straight side pockets and jetted back pockets.
Colonel Race hears Poirot’s S.O.S. and snaps into action!
Race’s trousers were meant to be worn with braces; there are four white buttons – two sets of two – in the front and two centered buttons in the back with no fishmouth break. The extended waistband closes with a squared tab that conceals the hook closure.
Race sports a pair of two-tone suspenders woven in a pattern with a brown broken-check stripe over a tan ground. They have gold-colored adjusters and connect to the waistband with brown loop straps.
Race sports his finest cobra-killin’ suspenders when called into battle.
With temperatures reaching 130 °F around noon during filming of Death on the Nile, it makes sense that Race would retire to his cabin at mid-day to change shirts. His first shirt is white poplin with a moderately spread collar, front placket, and French cuffs for gold cuff links.
Race begins his interrogations.
For the bulk of his and Poirot’s investigation, Race wears the sky blue poplin shirt that he changes into. Like the earlier shirt, it has a moderately spread collar, front placket, and double cuffs for gold links.
Race and Poirot exhibit very contrasting looks while traveling together up the Nile.
Other than the black bow tie he wears with his tuxedo, the only necktie worn by Colonel Race throughout Death on the Nile is a Royal Green Jackets regimental striped tie. The Royal Green Jackets were formed in 1966 – nearly three decades after Death on the Nile is set – as the descendent regiment of the Rifle Brigade, the light infantry regiment with which David Niven had served during World War II.
Race and Poirot are left to consider the effect of the triple murder they’ve just solved together.
The tie consists of thin red and black stripes on a forest green ground; the earlier Rifle Brigade’s regimental stripe had been a much simpler pattern of alternating green and black stripes. Colonel Race’s tie is worn in a four-in-hand knot. An example of the tie can be found at the RGJ museum site.
The same pattern can be found on the ribbon of the straw boater that Colonel Race wears when boarding the Karnak, wearing the same off-white trousers but with his double-breasted light taupe suit jacket. He never wears that hat with this blazer; instead, the only headgear present is a white peaked cap with a black peak and gold crest that he is seen carrying during the final scene and wearing in some promotional photos.
David Niven wears Race’s peaked cap in this promotional cast photo.
Colonel Race’s white leather bluchers complement his off-white trousers and maintain a level of formality that would be lost with slip-ons. They are laced through five eyelets and have perforated cap toes and black leather soles. He wears them with light tan ribbed cotton dress socks.
Another promotional photo, this time featuring Niven with Peter Ustinov and Bette Davis.
Colonel Race’s few accessories are both gold and both worn on his left hand. He wears an all-gold watch with a gold bracelet. The watchmaker is unidentified at this point, but it’s worth pointing out that in The Sea Wolves, filmed two years later and set during World War II, Niven’s character Colonel Bill Brice wore a stainless Omega Seamaster on a dark leather strap.
Race’s pinky ring is best seen when he correctly identifies the caliber of Jackie’s .22 Sharps pistol.
Colonel Race wears a gold signet ring on his left pinky.
Go Big or Go Home
“It’s a bad knock,” is how the dignified Colonel Race reassures Simon Doyle as the latter grieves after his wife’s death. The dignified Race lacks just enough of Poirot’s pompous continental sophistication to keep the two men’s friendship both interesting and mutually respectable.
Poor Race is baffled by Poirot’s desire to consume “les morilles” for dinner and orders the detective some moray eel rather than mushrooms. Race thinks he is doing his pal a favor by sending back a bottle of “moldy” Château Pétrus before being lambasted by the eccentric Belgian for his ignorance, as Colonel Race prefers to stick to his whiskey with dinner rather than wine.
The three characters are easily characterized by their drinks of choice: The solidly British Colonel Race always sticks to his whiskey, the slightly snobbish Poirot is very particular about his wines and apertifs, and the flamboyant alcoholic erotic novelist Salome Otterbourne enjoys one of many Golden Sobeks… which evidently involve some crocodile-derived ingredient.
And, while on the subject of Salome Otterbourne, the steadfast Colonel Race is hopelessly adrift when forced to dance a tango with the woman while Poirot artfully tangoes across the dance floor with her comely and sober daughter.
Though squarer than some of his traveling companions, Race is a stalwart and solid investigator with both a talent for understanding human behavior and ability as a man of action who doesn’t hesitate when he needs to draw his sword in the name of protecting a friend from a deadly cobra.
How to Get the Look
Although his Colonel rank and regimental stripes indicate prior service with the British Army, Colonel Race looks every bit the seafaring gentleman as he conducts a murder investigation on the Nile.
Navy blue wool serge double-breasted blazer with sweeping peak lapels, 6-on-2 silver-toned metal button front, welted breast pocket, jetted straight hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and double side vents
Sky blue cotton poplin dress shirt with moderately spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
Royal Green Jackets regimental striped necktie
Light cream gabardine double forward-pleated trousers with suspender-button waistband, straight side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
Brown two-tone woven suspenders with gold adjusters and brown button-loop straps
White leather 5-eyelet perforated cap-toe bluchers with black leather soles
Light tan ribbed cotton socks
White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
Gold wristwatch on gold bracelet, left wrist
Gold signet ring, left pinky
Golf cuff links
With his earlier suit, Colonel Race wore a straw boater with a ribbon of the RGJ stripe but the only headgear featured with this outfit is a white naval peaked cap that he carries while disembarking in the finale.
The Gun
During the investigation, Colonel Race joins Poirot in a search of the Karnak to try and find the misplaced murder weapon. Inside the cabin of Andrew Pennington (George Kennedy), the victim’s manipulative and shrewd attorney, they discover a heavy Colt Official Police revolver which they immediately dismiss as the possible murder weapon due to the size of Linnet’s fatal wound.
The discovery of Chekhov’s – er, Pennington’s gun.
Of course, the rule of Chekhov’s Gun comes into effect in an unfortunate twist that would disappoint many fans of Murder, She Wrote.
Race is shown to be quite an expert in firearms, recognizing Linnet’s wound instantly as the work of a .22; in fact, it was a four-barreled Sharps pistol in .22 Short that is shown to be the murder weapon. The Colt Official Police is chambered in .38 Special with its large bore most evident later in the film.
Ray Milland as Stanford White in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955).
Vitals
Ray Milland as Stanford White, debonair playboy architect
New York City, June 1906
Film:The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing Release Date: October 1, 1955 Director: Richard Fleischer Wardrobe Director: Charles Le Maire
Background
Tomorrow is the 110th anniversary of the famous Madison Square Garden shooting of architect Stanford White by the deranged Harry Kendall Thaw, one of the first of many incidents dubbed as “The Trial of the Century” by contemporary reporters due to the juicy scandal embellished by manipulative millionaires and illicit sex.
On June 25, 1906, the psychotic Thaw was escorting his wife, actress and artists’ model Evelyn Nesbit, to the premiere performance of Mam’zelle Champagne at Madison Square Garden’s rooftop theater. Nesbit, renowned for her beauty as the archetypical “Gibson Girl”, had married Thaw the previous year despite his violent and manipulative desire to control her. One of Thaw’s most tenacious provocations was the subject of Stanford White, Nesbit’s former lover and the man who had – in Thaw’s eyes – robbed her of her virtue.
The real Stanford White, in fact a heavily mustached man, sometime in the early 1900s.
Thaw, born in Pittsburgh to a coal and rail baron family, knew nothing but privilege throughout his life. This distorted and spoiled existence – combined with his obvious mental instability – led to his development into a reckless and selfish profligate who could be triggered by the most petty of slights. He began a manipulative campaign to meet and seduce Evelyn Nesbit after spying her in a show, at the time unaware of her previous liaison with his imagined rival Stanford White. Learning that the object of his latest affection had once been involved with White enraged Thaw, who responded violently and would frequently force both himself and Nesbit to recount the events of her initial seduction. His obsession built up for years until all three found themselves taking in the same summer show on the rooftop of the White-designed Madison Square Garden.
Thaw, armed with a revolver and a perverted sense of justice, approached White and fatally shot him three times before pronouncing, “You’ve ruined my wife!”
Despite the obvious selfishness of this violent act, Thaw’s lawyer is shown in the film summing up their defense tactic of “Those twelve men in the jury must be convinced that Harry K. Thaw was the defender of American womanhood,” an argument that may have led to Thaw being found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Fifty years later, Nesbit herself served as the technical adviser for a somewhat sanitized adaptation of this early chapter in her life, the 1955 film The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, borrowing the moniker that stuck to Nesbit after her and White’s activities in his apartment were made public. After Marilyn Monroe turned down the role, Joan Collins was cast as Evelyn Nesbit with Ray Milland and Farley Granger portraying White and Thaw, respectively.
The film mostly delivers a straightforward retelling of the facts, including the unfair vilification of Evelyn Nesbit in favor of examining the actions and motivations of the two possessive, hopelessly privileged, and ultimately careless men in her life. Ray Milland portrays a correctly debonair (though not-quite-caddish-enough) Stanford White who assumes control over Nesbit’s life after feeling the guilt of his manipulative seduction of her.
White expects us to respect him for resisting the advances of a 16-year-old woman three decades his junior, which he does by reciting pretentious poetry about their age difference and using it to claim superiority when making decisions about their “romance”:
That’s all I need, having you cry now. You’re going to get some food and conversation from a Dutch uncle.
Although White’s control is less violent than Thaw’s, it’s no less manipulative and perfectly illustrated by the pleasure he exudes from pushing her around in the titular swing, a reflection of both his desire to control her and his sexualization of the age difference from which he also derives so much obvious guilt.
What’d He Wear?
We first meet Stanford White in the summer of 1901, wearing a shining example of gentlemanly white tie and black tailcoat while bickering with Harry Thaw over a table at an exclusive Manhattan restaurant. Five years later, and five years deeper into the Edwardian era, White is shown returning to the restaurant wearing the increasingly popular black tie and tuxedo.
Stanford White moves through the tailcoat-clad restaurant in his slightly less formal dinner jacket.
At the beginning of Edward’s reign evening etiquette was the same two-tier system introduced in his mother’s era. The formal tailcoat ensemble remained de rigueur for an evening out in public alongside ladies’ elaborate evening gowns while the “dinner coat” or “Tuxedo coat” was largely confined to a man’s home, club or stag parties. Warm weather also exempted men from the full-dress rule, making the alternative jacket ever more popular at upscale holiday getaways on both sides of the Atlantic.
This being a warm summer night in 1906, White’s “alternative” dinner jacket would have been more acceptable in this context than it would have at the beginning of the decade, although the presence of women both at dinner and the show would have likely meant that white tie would still be expected from a gentleman of Stanford White’s social standing.
Stanford White wears a classic midnight blue single-breasted dinner jacket with shawl lapels faced in a smooth satin silk. The shoulders are padded with roped sleeveheads, and the back is ventless.
White surveys the scene over at Madison Square Garden.
White’s dinner jacket has a welted breast pocket, where he carries a white silk handkerchief, and jetted pockets that sit straight on his hips. Both the single button in the front and the 3-button cuffs are covered in the same shiny satin as the lapel facings. His midnight blue wool formal trousers matches the dinner jacket with satin side stripes that reflect the lapel facings.
Throughout the first decade of the 20th century, the tuxedo was still finding its awkward place among the rules of a stricter society. By the end of the decade (and the Edwardian era), the black bow tie and waistcoat were standardized and would become enduring rules for the basics of men’s formal dress. White wears a single-breasted waistcoat in midnight blue satin that rises to mid-chest with a soft V-shaped opening, self-covered buttons, and no lapels.
Two diamond studs are visible above the waistcoat opening, prominently fastened to the starched plain bib of White’s formal shirt. The shirt likely has single cuffs with matching diamond links. The shirt has a stiff standing imperial (or “poke”) collar, a style that would be gradually supplanted by the detached wing collar as the era progressed. White’s black satin silk bow tie has a slim butterfly shape.
Only the somewhat outdated poke collar dates this outfit to the early 1900s. Otherwise, it would look just as fashionable and stylish today.
Although only briefly seen, White appears to be wearing a pair of black patent leather balmorals with black dress socks, certainly a fitting choice of footwear although both dress boots and pumps were still popular alternatives for both white and black tie at the turn of the century.
Black silk top hats were still the expected headgear for formally-dressed men of the Edwardian era, but White opts for the more summer-friendly straw boater with a black ribbon and a brown leather band along the inside.
White coolly sits with his hat on his table when Harry Thaw approaches him with his gold revolver drawn.
A brief earlier scene that finds White speaking to both Evelyn Nesbit and her mother features the same outfit under a black single-breasted Chesterfield coat made from milled melton cloth with three hidden buttons under a fly front, straight flapped hip pockets, and Tautz-style straight-gorge peak lapels.
White mansplains a few things about courtship to Mrs. Nesbit (Glenda Farrell).
He also briefly wears this coat when wearing white tie and escorting Evelyn up to his apartment for the titular “red velvet swing” incident.
How to Get the Look
Joan Collins and Ray Milland in a promotional photo for The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955).
As a cosmopolitan socialite, Stanford White would be knowledgable about cutting-edge fashion, just as comfortable breaking the rules of sartorial decorum as he is comfortable with breaking the rules of courtship.
Midnight blue wool single-breasted 1-button dinner jacket with satin-faced shawl lapels, welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
White formal shirt with standing imperial/poke collar, 2 diamond studs on plain front bib, and single cuffs
Black satin slim butterfly-style bow tie
Midnight blue single-breasted formal waistcoat
Midnight blue wool formal trousers with satin side striping
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974).
Vitals
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, cold and calculating Mafia boss
Havana, December 1958
Film:The Godfather Part II Release Date: December 12, 1974 Director: Francis Ford Coppola Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
Background
Get into a smooth, summer relaxation mood for this Mafia Monday post that takes a look at Michael Corleone’s style for Hyman Roth’s birthday party in Havana… an appropriately timed post as my dad just returned from a trip to Cuba. (Yes, he brought back some Cohibas!)
What’d He Wear?
For all of his power and prestige, Michael Corleone has a very minimalist wardrobe, designed by the legendary Theadora Van Runkle (Bonnie and Clyde, Bullitt, and The Thomas Crown Affair are all among her repertoire.)
Michael makes good use of his four unique suits in The Godfather Part II, sometimes wearing a three-piece suit without a vest or, as we see in this case, adopting a more luxuriously casual look by swapping out the shirt and tie for a soft polo and a day cravat.
Although it appears a flat tan at the outset, this fully cut two-piece suit consists of a fine tan and cream plain weave glen check with teal blue on the outer check to create a teal windowpane effect throughout.
A close-up of Michael’s suit from an auction site draws out the detail of the glen check pattern.
The single-breasted jacket has a 2-button front that he typically wears open, even when opting for a more formal look with a tie as he does when initially visiting Roth in Miami. The fully-cut suit coat’s padded shoulders with roped sleeveheads and ventless back is typical of the 1950s.
Michael’s suit jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and purely decorative 3-button cuffs. The notch lapels have no buttonholes.
Michael wheels and deals in Hyman Roth’s hotel room.
The flat front trousers have a fashionably high rise and, like the coat, are fully cut down to the cuffed bottoms. Although Michael wears a slim brown leather belt through the trousers’ outer belt loops, the auction photos also reveal that it was fitted with white buttons sewn around the inside waistband to be used for potential suspenders. The trousers close with a concealed hook at the top of a straight zip fly.
The auction close-up reveals the inside of the trousers with the suspender buttons and hook closure.
He may not be the most cosmopolitan fashion plate, but Michael Corleone knows to match his shoes to his belt. He always wears a pair of brown leather cap-toe loafers and warm light brown ribbed socks with this suit.
“I want all of you to enjoy your cake… so, enjoy. “
Both in Havana and Lake Tahoe, Michael makes extensive use of a day cravat worn under a polo shirt’s open collar. As sported by James Bond, Cary Grant, Sidney Reilly, and countless other men on holiday, the day cravat sends a clear signal that the wearer is a fashionable, confident man who is able to afford luxurious leisure. The look was also popular with nattier gangsters like “Bugsy” Siegel.
In Havana, Michael wears a vibrantly printed silk day cravat in abstractly patterned earth tones like gold, bronze, and brown.
A few days shy of Castro taking power, Michael finds himself in the back seat of a car riding through the wild streets of Havana (next to a very loudly-jacketed Johnny Ola.)
Michael wears a white knit cotton short-sleeve polo shirt with a patch pocket over the left breast. The top of the three buttons is worn open to display the day cravat underneath.
Michael breaks up Hyman Roth’s birthday party with the very unfortunate news that his fellow partygoers could all be making a very bad investment.
Outside of his plain gold wedding ring, Michael’s only visible accessory is the gold wristwatch on his left wrist.
Hyman Roth: “We’re bigger than U.S. Steel.”
Here’s something cool! Apparently, this suit has been auctioned at least twice in the last two decades. It was first included as Lot 173 in Christie’s “A Century of Hollywood” auction on May 24, 2000 and described in that auction as “A two-piece checkered suit worn by Al Pacino in the film, Godfather Part II. The suit was worn prominently in the movie. Inside the pants is a Western Costume Company tag with Al Pacino’s name typed on it.”
Michael Corleone’s suit, as auctioned in 2014.
Two years ago, it popped up again during the Premiere Props Hollywood auction extravaganza on September 27, 2014 and was expected to fetch $12,000-$14,000:
This is Al Pacino’s actual hero screen worn suit from this amazing Miami sequence. It includes both his jacket and matching pants. Both the pants and the jacket have numerous official “WCC” (Western Costume Company) stamps inside (including the period marking of “1950” on both the coat and pants), as well as the original sewn-in Western Costume Co. Hollywood wardrobe label which has the production number #2703-1, Name: Al Pacino and Waist and Inseam measurements (Waist 32/ Inseam 29) type printed on them. The iconic outfit is in excellent condition. The official labels are sewn into the inside belt seam of the pants, and inside the wallet pocket of the jacket. They were original purchased from Christie’s Auction House, and include both the original Christie tags, plus a Certificate of Authenticity signed by Breanna S. Livie, Vice President of Eastern Costume Company, as well as a Letter of Provenience handwritten by the consigner.
Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 2.09: “Battle of the Century”).
Vitals
Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody, troubled Atlantic City bootlegger
Atlantic City, July 1921
Series:Boardwalk Empire Episodes:
– “Battle of the Century” (Episode 2.09, Director: Brad Anderson, Air Date: November 20, 2011)
– “Under God’s Power She Flourishes” (Episode 2.11, Director: Allen Coulter, Air Date: December 4, 2011) Creator: Terence Winter Costume Designer: John A. Dunn
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Although Game of Thrones currently enjoys its reputation as HBO’s “kill your darlings” archetype (and how!), Boardwalk Empire shocked and saddened many viewers with the murder of fan favorite Jimmy Darmody at the conclusion of the show’s second season.
Jimmy had a long, fascinating journey since the first minutes of the show with new layers of complexity added with each episode to prove that he was far more than just an overly ambitious lackey. The only ray of hope for Jimmy Darmody was his family, and even his steady rise through the ranks of gangsterdom in the show’s second season never brought him as much peace as a smile from his son Tommy or an embrace with his wife Angela (Aleksa Palladino).
Unfortunately, the latter is taken away from him in “Georgia Peaches” (Episode 2.10) thanks to the ineptitude of Mickey Doyle (Paul Sparks), and Jimmy is left in a state of anguish. “Under God’s Power She Flourishes” (Episode 2.11) gave viewers the Jimmy Darmody origin story flashback that was so desperately wanted, and Jimmy’s darkness is finally explained. We knew his service in the war was hell for him, but it was hardly the most traumatic event of his life as we finally learn just how deep his connection with his mother runs.
Tortured by the loss of his wife and the memories of his mother’s seduction, Jimmy is in a pretty dark place when his parents – Gillian (Gretchen Mol) and the Commodore (Dabney Coleman) – are calmly planning Angela’s funeral and their future as a family. He becomes furious at Gillian’s suggestion that Tommy is young enough that he’ll forget Angela, shouting “I’ll remember!” as he attacks her, referring both to his wife and the unspoken memories of their night together at Princeton five years earlier. The Commodore tries to step in with an antique spear, but Jimmy gains the upper hand and overpowers the Commodore. At his mother’s urging, Jimmy fatally stabs the Commodore and then collapses in the next room. (The fight is scored by Henry Burr and Albert Campbell’s “Feather Your Nest”, an appropriate song that juxtaposes the disturbing family “nest” on screen.)
The next morning, Jimmy wakes to find his loyal friend and comrade Richard Harrow (Jack Huston) cleaning up the evidence of the murder. Harrow himself had been enamored with Angela but conflicted by his loyalty to Jimmy, especially in the wake of Jimmy’s show of support while listening to the public radio broadcast of the Dempsey vs. Carpentier boxing match together with their dates earlier that month in “Battle of the Century” (Episode 2.09).
What’d He Wear?
Unlike his former mentor who seemed to have a bold suit for every occasion, Jimmy Darmody’s outfits are relatively conservative and functional. This suit, one of only about seven that he goes through during the series, is only seen in the few episodes of the second season that take place during July 1921, making it a “summer suit” by default if not by design.
Jimmy’s suiting appears to be a gray and black glen check flannel, likely in a lightweight plain weave with such a fine scale that it appears semi-solid from a distance. All of the suit’s edges – such as lapels and pockets – are slightly swelled about a millimeter or two from the edge. All visible buttons are a multi-tone tortoiseshell.
The fine glen check of Jimmy’s suits is most visible when he’s listening to the Dempsey match broadcast in “Battle of the Century” (Episode 2.09).
Though structurally and somewhat cosmetically similar to the “everyday” gray suit that he begins wearing at the time of his return to Atlantic City in late season 1, this is the only suit in Jimmy’s on-screen collection that has peak lapels on the jacket. These peak lapels have sharp points and a buttonhole through the left lapel. They break high on the chest for the high-fastening three-button front.
Jimmy and Richard enjoy the company of a few flappers during the Dempsey vs. Carpentier match.
This single-breasted suit jacket has a welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets. The shoulders are lightly padded with roped sleeveheads and 4-button kissing cuffs. The back is split with a single vent.
Jimmy wears (and ruins) the vest and trousers without the jacket during his fight with the Commodore. The single-breasted waistcoat has notch lapels above the high-fastening 6-button front, which Jimmy wears totally fastened down to the notched bottom. The vest has four welt pockets – two upper, two lower – and an adjustable strap on the silky gray back.
A pensive Jimmy strips down to his waistcoat and trousers on a somber summer night in “Under God’s Power She Flourishes” (Episode 2.11).
The flat front suit trousers are styled the same as most of Jimmy’s suits with a high rise, straight fly, on-seam side pockets, and jetted back pockets that each close through a button. The bottoms are plain-hemmed without cuffs.
The bitch of it is that the whole suit is ruined after Jimmy gets his waistcoat bloody during a fight with his old man.
Jimmy’s trousers are meant to be worn with suspenders that attach to buttons on the inside of the waistband and onto a short rear strap on the outside of the back waistband. The suspenders are best seen in “Georgia Peaches” (Episode 2.10) when he relaxes shirtless in his beach house; they are navy with a tan and brown broken center stripe. They have gold adjusters and light brown leather tabs and ears.
For the suit’s first appearance in “Battle of the Century” (Episode 2.09) as Jimmy and Richard Harrow take their dates to the radio broadcast of the titular Dempsey vs. Carpentier boxing match, Jimmy wears a blue multi- and micro-striped shirt with single-button cuffs and a tab collar fastened by a gold bar.
Jimmy’s “Battle of the Century” silk tie is appropriately loud like his surroundings with a rich paisley teardrop motif in gold, maroon, and blue on a light gray ground.
Jimmy incorporates red, white, and blue into his tie, perhaps aware that the Dempsey vs. Carpentier fight is only two days before July 4th and wishing to subtly celebrate the country he served.
After he is devastated by Angela’s murder in “Georgia Peaches” (Episode 2.10) and “Under God’s Power She Flourishes” (Episode 2.11), Jimmy opts for a more monochromatic look with a two-tone gray-on-gray striped shirt that reflects his gray mood due to his sorrow and grief-induced heroin addiction. He wears the large collar unbuttoned. The shirt also has button cuffs and a front placket.
With this shirt, Jimmy wears a dark brown and navy woven silk tie that breaks up the monotony of the gray but is much more somber than the bolder tie he wore for the earlier fight broadcast.
Jimmy’s more solemn look in “Under God’s Power She Flourishes” reflects his attitude and mental state.
The eternal soldier Jimmy still wears the black leather combat boots he was issued in the army, laced up the throat. An ankle holster over his left boot houses the Mk I Trench Knife that he draws when he is attacked by the Commodore, a symbolic product of the military service that he felt compelled to enter after he was seduced by his mother, an act indicative of the disturbing sexual history of the Kaestner/Darmody clan.
Some intra-family fisticuffs in “Under God’s Power She Flourishes” (Episode 2.11) lead to Jimmy drawing that knife he so handily keeps strapped to his ankle.
Jimmy also wears his service wristwatch, comprised of a steel tonneau-shaped case, an off-white dial with round gold number indicators, and a brown leather strap. In the early 1920s, wristwatches were still primarily the domain of former servicemen who had adopted this more convenient timekeeping method during the war as opposed to the civilians who still preferred pocket watches.
Although the boots and watch may indicate military service, Jimmy still wears his steel dog tags around his neck on a brown cord as a direct remnant of his World War I service. His tags are typically tucked into his white ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt.
Jimmy in happier times (“Georgia Peaches”, Episode 2.10) and not-so-happy times (“Under God’s Power She Flourishes”, Episode 2.11).
A minimalist, especially when compared to Nucky Thompson, Jimmy’s only piece of jewelry is his plain gold wedding ring on the third finger of his left hand.
Despite the fact that “Battle of the Century” (Episode 2.09) is set in early July when Atlantic City temperatures tend to be in the mid-70s °F, Jimmy still wears his heavy coat and hat for a meeting. His double-breasted knee-length overcoat is gray herringbone tweed with a subtle blue overcheck. He leaves the 6-on-2 button front open. The coat has wide peak lapels with stitched buttonholes, flapped box-pleated chest pockets and patch hip pockets, and an “action-back” center in the back above the half-belt and long single vent.
Jimmy’s hat is the same black beaver felt fedora that he began wearing at the start of the season. According to the Screenbid.com auction from last year, this short-brimmed fedora was sourced from The Custom Hatter, possibly their “The Untouchable” model.
Jimmy’s hat, auctioned by Screenbid.com and manufactured by The Custom Hatter.
How to Get the Look
Jimmy is a much more practical and less showy dresser than many of the gangsters in his world, proving that one doesn’t always need bold checks and bright colors to look sharp in the Atlantic City of the Roaring Twenties.
Jimmy is slightly overdressed in his July outerwear of heavy coat and beaver hat.
Single-breasted 3-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and single rear vent
Single-breasted 6-button vest with notch lapels, 4 welted pockets, and adjustable rear strap on gray silk lining
Flat front high-rise trousers with straight on-seam side pockets, jetted button-through rear pockets, rear suspender strap, and turn-ups/cuffs
Blue multi-striped dress shirt with tab collar, front placket, and 1-button cuffs
Light gray silk necktie with maroon red, navy blue, and tan paisley teardrop motif
Gold collar pin
Black leather combat boots with black laces
Black dress socks
Black leather ankle holster for 1918 Mk I trench knife
Navy striped suspenders with broken two-tone brown stripe and gold hardware
Black beaver felt fedora with a thin black grosgrain band
Gray herringbone tweed double-breasted “action-back” overcoat with peak lapels, 6×2 button front, 2 flapped box-pleated chest patch pockets, 2 flapped patch hip pockets, cuffed sleeves, half-belted back, and long single vent
White cotton sleeveless undershirt
Off-white cotton boxer shorts
Steel tonneau-shaped wristwatch on a brown leather strap
Plain gold wedding band, worn on left ring finger
For more serious occasions like a physical brawl with your cantankerous bigoted father, drop the outerwear and swap in a more monochromatic gray shirt with a solid dark tie.
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Watch the entire series, although Jimmy Darmody’s story is mostly confined to the first and second seasons. This suit in particular is only featured in three episodes toward the end of season 2.
The Quote
Manny Horvitz: We got a deal, but just so we’re clear, my ice box is filled with pieces of fellas who tried to fuck me over. Jimmy Darmody: (nonplussed) I just got creamsicles in mine.
To celebrate America’s 240th birthday, BAMF Style is showing off a great, well-researched infographic from the folks at SunglassWarehouse.com that breaks down the suit worn at the first inauguration of every American president from George Washington’s brown broadcloth suit in 1789 right up to Barack Obama’s dark, bullet-resistant suit in 2009.
I was especially interested to see what was worn by William Henry Harrison, the ninth President of the United States and the deliverer of the longest inaugural speech at 8,495 words… far longer than George Washington’s shortest address which came in at only 135 words. Harrison’s speech was the longest thing about his presidency, which lasted hardly a month before he succumbed to the fatal pneumonia that he had likely contracted by delivering such lengthy remarks without any outerwear on that cold wet morning in March. In fact, the greatest product of William Henry Harrison’s presidency may be the Parks and Recreation episode that lampooned it.
For a BAMF Style breakdown of suits worn by presidents both real and fictional, check out these posts:
Burt Reynolds as “Gator” McKlusky in Gator (1976).
Vitals
Burt Reynolds as Bobby “Gator” McKlusky, paroled moonshine runner
Dunston County, Georgia, Summer 1975
Film:Gator Release Date: August 25, 1976 Director: Burt Reynolds Costume Designer: Norman Salling
Background
To celebrate yesterday being the Fourth of July here in the United States, BAMF Style is breaking down a red, white, and blue look from that most American movie star… Burt Reynolds.
Sterling Archer and I disagree on which of Burt Reynolds’ two cinematic outings as Gator McKlusky is superior… or at least “less bad”. I prefer the darker White Lightning that cast a grittier line on Arkansas moonshiners, while Archer claims that the Reynolds-directed sequel Gator is the stronger choice. While I could make the argument that White Lightning has an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while Gator currently enjoys a 0%, it’s also worth pointing out that Archer falsely attributes many scenes from White Lightning to Gator. (It’s also likely that Archer just appreciates Gator more because Burt had grown his now-iconic mustache for the role; his upper lip had been tragically bare in White Lightning.)
Anyway… this second installment in the Gator McKlusky series was Burt Reynolds’ directorial debut, and his face certainly gets plenty of time both behind and in front of the camera. Though set in the fictional “Dunston County” in Georgia, it was actually filmed in the beautiful and historic city of Savannah – one of my favorite U.S. cities to visit – and the nearby Tybee Island.
What’d He Wear?
Gator’s base look as he heads to Dunston County on his mission for the government is a variation of the same semi-sanitized outfit that would appear in every ’70s and ’80s “hick flick” from Burt Reynolds’ own Smokey and the Bandit through Bo and Luke in The Dukes of Hazzard: large-collared check shirt, tight jeans, boots, and a big ol’ belt buckle.
Reynolds cycles through five different shirts over the course of Gator – significantly for this American hero, all in shades of red, white, and blue. After meeting back up with his old friend “Bama” McCall, Gator wears a white and red gingham check shirt. Gingham is typically constructed of a light- or medium-weight balanced plain-woven cotton, and this shirt appears to be no exception.
If you can take your eyes off the mustache…
Gator’s gingham check shirt has long sleeves that he rolls halfway up his forearms. The large collar has very long points, a not-so-subtle reminder to audiences that this was filmed in the mid-’70s when even the deep south couldn’t avoid the influences of the disco era. Reynolds keeps the shirt halfway buttoned down the plain front, showing off his voluminous chest hair to audiences who weren’t satisfied by just his mustache.
Although he wore a more traditional pair of denim jeans in White Lightning, Gator returned for this outing sporting a pair of much tighter and trendier “fashion jeans” in light blue denim. These high rise jeans have wide belt loops and flared bottoms that narrowly avoid bell bottom territory. They have frogmouth front pockets and jetted back pockets, both just below the belt line. A riding seam curves up and around the back of the seat, similar to cavalry trousers (as worn by Harrison Ford as Han Solo.)
Gator and Bama strut down the side streets of Durston County with Bama’s lupara keeping them safe.
Gator wears a thick plain black belt through the jeans’ wide loops. While it may be impossible to get an exact replica of the big brass oval “Gator” belt buckle worn by Reynolds, some similar buckles created for the film’s crew after the production were gifted by Reynolds and are now available on web auction sites, including this item – sculpted by “Cowboy Artist to the Stars” Al Shelton – that was sold on eBay.
I wonder just what one would have to do in their life to get a belt buckle with their nickname on it.
To match his belt, Gator also wears a pair of plain black leather boots with raised heels.
Gator wears a rugged-looking wristwatch on a dark brown leather cuff. The watch consists of an off-white round dial in a gold-colored case. The cuff strap fastens through a large gold-toned buckle.
Chilled champagne and patio umbrellas… this ain’t the Gator McKlusky we knew in White Lightning.
Although Burt Reynolds’ long-collared shirt and tight fashion jeans scream 1970s, this is an outfit that can be very easily and comfortably adapted as a more timeless guideline for classic American fashion. Gingham shirts – like this modern example from Saks Fifth Avenue – remain a staple of men’s summer attire, and would look great with a pair of classic Levi’s 501 jeans.
A Getty Images photo credited to Brian Hamill of Burt Reynolds on the set of Gator in 1975.
How to Get the Look
Gator dresses to rub elbows with crime bosses and intrepid reporters alike when carrying out his mission in a corrupt county in Georgia.
White and red gingham check plain-woven cotton long-sleeve shirt with long-pointed collar, plain front, and rolled-up button cuffs
Light blue denim jeans with wide belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, jetted back pockets, rounded back seam, and flared bottoms
Thick black plain belt
Brass oval custom-made “GATOR”-embossed belt buckle with alligator motif
Black leather boots with raised heels
Gold round-cased wristwatch with off-white dial on dark brown leather cuff
Daniel Craig as James Bond in Casino Royale (2006).
Vitals
Daniel Craig as James Bond, British government agent and card sharp
Bahamas, July 9, 2006
Film:Casino Royale Release Date: November 14, 2006 Director: Martin Campbell Costume Designer: Lindy Hemming
Background
For the 00-7th of July, BAMF Style is traveling back ten years (or at least two days shy of ten years) to Daniel Craig’s first outing as James Bond in Casino Royale. The agent finds himself supposedly “on holiday” at One&Only Ocean Club in the Bahamas, secretly following up on a lead for his investigation.
Bond’s Caribbean getaway appropriately leads to cocktails, beautiful women, and a game of high-stakes – or “Aston Martin stakes” poker – in an exotic locale.
What’d He Wear?
Unlike earlier Bond films that found 007 waltzing into a casino wearing a tuxedo regardless of the actual formality, Craig’s Bond dresses comfortably and practically while still looking fashionable for an evening round of poker at One&Only Ocean Club.
Bond appears to be wearing a basic black button-up shirt untucked with a pair of taupe linen trousers when he strolls into the gambling area. However, information from the Absolutely James Bond forums (1234) reveal that plenty of work from the wardrobe team went into modifying the shirt to look just right for this scene.
The black soft polyester long-sleeve shirt worn by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale was from Alfani, a Macy’s house brand. People with costume cards or who have seen the shirt firsthand describe its woven “microfiber” texture that feels almost like suede or velvet. Costume designer Lindy Hemming even reveals the shirt’s “heavy navy blue” color, although there is still some forum discussion. Since the shirt looks black on screen, it will be treated as a black shirt in this post.
Bond eyes his prey for the evening.
After the shirt was obtained, it still had plenty of customization ahead of it for the production. The shirt originally had a concealed button-down collar with hidden tabs beneath the collar that fixed it to the shirt; both the collar buttons and the hidden tabs were removed. The shirt’s uneven hem, originally meant to be worn tucked in, was tailored to be cut straight square around the bottom with a short notched vent on each side. (This trend led to Chris Riccobono founding the New York clothing company UNTUCKit to specifically cater to men wishing to look fashionable while wearing an untucked shirt. Had UNTUCKit existed when Casino Royale was filmed, we might have seen Bond wearing the “Aubon” cotton oxford shirt or “Valpolicella” soft poplin shirt.)
The final result, as customized for the on-screen shirt, reminds me of a black microfiber Bruno shirt I had also purchased from Macy’s around 2001… more on that below! Like the Casino Royale shirt, it had a non-buttoning soft collar, plain front, breast pocket, and straight hem. (If only the team had reached out to me in 2006, as I would have been more than happy to source my shirt for 007!)
Bond wears Ted Baker “Larked” linen flat front trousers in mink brown. These trousers have slanted side pockets and a patch pocket on the back right. Bond wears them without a belt while casually gambling at the Ocean Club, but he slips on a belt with the brown Armani leather jacket and gray t-shirt when he follows a lead to Miami later that night. The trousers have a straight cut and plain-hemmed bottoms.
Bond makes the most of his brief time with Solange (Caterina Murino).
Although the “Larked” model has been discontinued, 007 wannabes jonesing for a pair of Bond-style linen trousers can try Ted Baker “Linchi”, available in a gray linen-cotton blend for $89 as of June 2016. If you want a summer trouser more along the lines of the mink pants sported by Daniel Craig, Ted Baker also offers the “Tegatin” mini-design cotton trousers for $71.
Bond wears black leather cap-toe oxfords at the poker game and throughout his floor session with Solange that he appears to continue wearing when he heads up to Miami, despite the surprising formality of the shoe with this outfit. They do not appear to be the John Lobb “Luffield” 2-eyelet derby shoes that he later wears with his dinner suit at Casino Royale.
Bond makes a subtle but grand entrance into the gaming area.
Bond wears two Omega wristwatches in Casino Royale; this scene features the sportier Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean “Big Size” 2900.50.91 on a large black rubber strap. The “Big Size” moniker is no misnomer due to the watch’s 45.5mm stainless steel case. The bezel and the dial, covered by a scratch-resistant domed sapphire crystal, are both black.
Bond doesn’t seem too concerned about timekeeping at a moment like this…
James Bond sidles up to the hotel bar as gamblers around him play round after round of high stakes poker. This is the first we’ve seen the agent ordering a drink on-screen. Will it be a vodka martini, shaken not stirred…?
Large Mount Gay with soda, please.
Even the two buffoonish German tourists are shocked by Bond’s supposedly “uncharacteristic” drink of choice!
Much like his untucked black shirt in a casual resort casino, Bond’s choice makes sense given his surroundings. Why expect to always be seeing him in a tuxedo drinking a martini – just because he’s James Bond in a casino? Of course our ruggedly sophisticated hero would order a drink appropriate to the context of the scene, and for a calm summer evening of gambling in the Caribbean, Bond chooses wisely with a Rum and Soda.
The first distinction to make is that this is not a “Rum and Coke,” the highball of choice for college students and obsessive Dr Pepper drinkers. While that ubiquitous campus concoction uses cola, Bond orders his with plain soda water to both neutralize the potency of the rum (keeping his mind sharp while gambling) and to offer refreshing coolness on a warm night.
Mount Gay has been distilled in Barbados for centuries, with the oldest surviving company deed from 1703 dating it as the longest existing rum brand in the world. It has a strong association with sailors, particularly English sailors due to the British influence in Barbados, making it an especially savvy choice for Commander Bond of the Royal Navy Reserve.
I tend to shy away from rum after too many nights serving under Admiral Nelson and Captain Morgan in college, but Mount Gay offers a full flavor without the sweetness or spice that drove me away from rum and into the welcoming arms of whiskey. It was a bottle of Mount Gay Eclipse that reintroduced rum to my palette.
(It’s also worth mentioning that Bond also enjoys some chilled Bollinger Grand Année champagne with Solange back in his room.)
How to Get the Look
Casino Royale proves that James Bond doesn’t need to sport his finest dinner suit every time he walks into a casino; in fact, he need go no further than the Macy’s men’s casual department!
Black soft polyester Alfani button-up shirt with soft collar, plain front, breast pocket, squared button cuffs, and customized straight hem
Mink brown linen flat front Ted Baker “Larked” trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, right rear patch pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
Dark brown leather belt with squared steel single-claw buckle
Black leather cap-toe bluchers
Light gray cotton socks
Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean “Big Size” 2900.50.91 on a large black rubber strap
According to an Absolutely James Bond forum post, the Alfani shirt’s tag read “Made in Vietnam/ WPL 8046” which may help some potential wearers track down the original shirt, although the “WPL 8046” code seems to have been reused on other items for both men and women.
The shirt I purchased around 2001 from Macy’s shares some similarities with the end result of the on-screen shirt worn by Daniel Craig. This Bruno “Sueded Microfiber” shirt is 75% rayon and 25% polyester… not the most luxurious blend, but the microfiber texture keeps it comfortable fifteen years after I first picked it up.
Sadly, only a drop remains of my Mount Gay Eclipse, but I plan on rectifying that with a new bottle soon.
Although it’s a lightweight material, I typically don’t wear it in the summer because the polyester blend doesn’t breathe nearly as well as any of my cotton or linen alternatives. Still, it’s a worthwhile shirt that I didn’t expect to last this long and it comes in handy when channeling Daniel Craig’s James Bond dressing down (or David Duchovny’s Hank Moody dressing up!)
Brad Pitt as “Rusty” Ryan in Ocean’s Twelve (2004).
Vitals
Brad Pitt as Robert “Rusty” Ryan, hotel owner and international thief
Los Angeles and Rome, November 2004
Film:Ocean’s Twelve Release Date: December 10, 2004 Director: Steven Soderbergh Costume Designer: Milena Canonero Pitt’s Costumer: Bruno de Santa
Background
Today’s installment of “Hey, I actually kinda enjoyed that movie!” features the Euro-flavored meat in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy sandwich, Ocean’s Twelve. This blockbuster brought the whole gang back together again, adding nemeses on both sides of the law in the form of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vincent Cassel.
After the theft of more than $160 million from his Vegas casino years earlier, ruthless mogul Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia) has spent plenty of time tracking down each team member of “Ocean’s Eleven”… a moniker that several of the team dispute. The last to be tracked down is Rusty Ryan, Danny Ocean’s smooth right hand whom we learn was actually considered the de facto leader by many of the group itself. Three and a half years after abandoning his girlfriend (CZJ) in Rome, Rusty is managing his own L.A. hotel and babysitting the washed-up Hollywood stars who bed down in it: “Jeez, Topher, you didn’t have to go all Frankie Muniz on me.”
Rusty is in the middle of the hedonistic Topher Grace situation when he gets that call from Benedict: “The last time we talked, you hung up on me.” Immediately realizing the significance of this greeting, Rusty gets into Neil McCauley mode as soon as he feels the heat. “You used nasty words,” Rusty responds, reverting to his cool persona and feeling comfort in the knowledge that Benedict isn’t able to see him desperately scrambling out of the building to his car(s). Of course, Rusty starts feeling the literal heat once Benedict triggers a bomb that detonates his favorite car, a ’63 Ford Falcon Futura convertible. Point taken.
What’d He Wear?
Ocean’s Twelve received plenty of criticism after its release, but there’s no denying that the music and suits are just cool, particularly the vestments sported by Brad Pitt’s Rusty Ryan. Milena Canonero was the costume designer on Ocean’s Twelve, and Bruno de Santa is credited as being Pitt’s specific costumer.
Canonero stated in an interview that “Rusty is more vain and more into his clothes. I used lots of satins and shiny material to give a shimmer and slickness to his look, just like lightning,” and explained that all of the characters would dress apropos their personalities three years after obtaining their millions in the first movie.
Even in a jail cell, Rusty shines like a million bucks. (Although that could just be the effect of wearing an Italian suit in an Italian jail…)
For his first scene on screen as well as several scenes later on when the gang is in Rome, Rusty wears a fashionable light gray two-piece suit that appears to be a lightweight silk and wool blend based on the way the suit shines in certain light.
The single-breasted suit jacket has edge-stitched notch lapels with a buttonhole through the left lapel. Both the two buttons on the front and the four buttons on each cuff are light gray plastic. The shoulders are straight with roped sleeveheads, and the long double vents rise to just above the hip pocket line.
Rusty faces off against a litany of villains in Ocean’s Twelve, from the Italian authorities to Topher Grace himself.
Interestingly, the hip pockets are welted rather than jetted or flapped. The breast pocket is also welted. As Rusty makes his desperate exit from the Standard Hotel, we also get a look inside the jacket and see that there are three inside pockets on the left – an upper pocket, a pen pocket, and a lower pocket. There is one inner breast pocket on the right just above the black logo patch.
Rusty’s aborted great escape.
The low rise trousers have single reverse pleats, straight on-seam side pockets, jetted button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms with a full break. Rusty wears a distinctive tan belt with dark brown accents and a gunmetal rectangular buckle.
Even in one of the most fashionable cities in the world, Rusty manages to stand out.
We get a glimpse of Rusty’s workday attire when we first see him, wearing this suit with a silver silk shirt and tie. The dark silver shirt is one of the satin items that Canonero mentioned. It has a large point collar, breast pocket, and button cuffs.
Rusty’s tie is a much lighter shade of gray with thin diagonal tonal stripes running right-down-to-left. He wears it in a loose four-in-hand-knot that hangs down below the unfastened top button of the shirt.
Nonplussed.
Rusty dresses down the same suit several scenes later when the gang is in Rome, planning their Fabergé egg heist. Rather than a dress shirt and tie, he wears an ivory gray short-sleeve polo shirt constructed from soft, luxurious knit silk. This fashion-forward shirt has a shallow v-neck rather than buttons. There is a patch pocket on the left breast.
The light silver satin shirt that Rusty wears for “day of” in Rome is similar to the L.A. dress shirt with its satin silk finish, large point collar and front placket. He leaves both the top two white buttons and the buttons on the rounded cuffs undone, although he keeps the gauntlet buttons fastened so the sleeves don’t flop around when he has his jacket off. This shirt has no pocket.
Rusty allows himself a satisfied smirk after pulling off the heist and riding off in a private jet with Catherine Zeta-Jones.
With a suit like this, you wouldn’t expect Rusty to wear a regular old pair of brown oxfords, would you? Instead, he wears a pair of very distinctive tan alligator full strap penny loafers with a pointed square bicycle toe. The soles are dark brown hard leather.
Although the full break of the trouser bottoms often conceals them, Rusty’s dress socks are appropriately light gray to continue the leg line into his shoes.
Rusty’s distinctive loafers are seen while enjoying various degrees of freedom in Rome.
Rusty isn’t one to shy away from accessories, one of the few non-mobsters on BAMF Style that can rock a necklace, ring (or multiple rings!), sunglasses, and watch. Of course, it helps that they’re all boutique items.
Brad Pitt is a well-known Oliver Peoples ambassador, but his eyewear of choice in Ocean’s Twelve has been identified as a pair of Diesel Cobretti sunglasses with “shiny light gold” (oM12) metal frames and brown gradient lenses (DD). The two-tone brown arms are tan in the front and brown for the back portion that rest behind his ears. Although discontinued, Diesel Cobretti sunglasses can still be found at some online retailer sites.
Cool under fire… and under arrest.
Rusty’s watch is clearly a silver-colored Rolex on a President link bracelet, and some discussion at the Rolex forums evidently deduced that his exact model was a platinum Rolex Day-Date 118366 with a “glacier” ice blue dial, 36mm case, and 24 baguette diamonds on the bezel. If you want your own, you can find one online for about, oh, $58,000.
On Rusty’s right pinky, he wears a silver ring with a flush square diamond.
Rusty enjoys a well-deserved martini on the rocks.
Although their union wasn’t long for this world at the time of Ocean’s Twelve‘s release, Brad Pitt wears a thin silver necklace with a down-scaled replica of his wedding ring from his marriage to Jennifer Aniston. The necklace perfectly follows the shallow V-neck line of the polo shirt that he wears in Rome.
How to Get the Look
Although some of the rest of Ocean’s crew are flamboyant dressers, especially after obtaining their newfound wealth from the first movie, only Rusty manages to consistently balance flashiness with a fashion sense.
Light gray silk two-piece suit, consisting of:
Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, welted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, double vents
Single reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
Silver satin silk dress shirt with large collar, front placket, and rounded button cuffs
Light silver diagonal tonal-striped silk necktie
Tan alligator bicycle toe full strap penny loafers
Light gray dress socks
Diesel Cobretti sunglasses with gold metal frames, brown gradient lenses, and two-tone brown arms
Silver thin-chain necklace with wedding ring replica pendant
Rolex Day-Date 118366 platinum wristwatch with 36mm case, ice blue dial, diamond-studded bezel, and President link bracelet
White gold or platinum Rolex Day-Date wristwatch on link bracelet
Silver pinky ring with flush square diamond
For more of a cool, casual take, lose the tie or even swap out the whole shirt for a casual ivory short-sleeve polo.
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Buy the movie. If you can’t bring yourself to just get the least beloved of the pack, check out the whole trilogy.
The Quote
I thought I’d be dead before I heard the sound that killed me.
Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Vitals
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, adventurer and archaeology professor
Around the world, late 1930s
Film:Raiders of the Lost Ark Release Date: June 12, 1981 Director: Steven Spielberg Costume Designer: Deborah Nadoolman
Film:Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Release Date: May 23, 1984 Director: Steven Spielberg Costume Designer: Anthony Powell
Film:Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Release Date: May 24, 1989 Director: Steven Spielberg Costume Design: Joanna Johnston & Anthony Powell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today is the 74th birthday of Harrison Ford, one of the highest-grossing and most popular actors of all time who seems to have a knack for establishing an iconic role in major trilogy franchises… and then one follow-up film for each franchise a few decades later.
Created by George Lucas and brought to life by Harrison Ford under the direction of Steven Spielberg, it’s no wonder that Indiana Jones became such a success despite Spielberg’s insistence that “I made [Raiders of the Lost Ark] as a B-movie… [nothing] more than a better made version of the Republic serials.”
Although Indy may have been inspired by the steely, expressionless, generic treasure hunters of the cheaply-made adventure serials of the 1930s and 1940s, Harrison Ford’s characterization as the resourceful, cunning, and brave yet vulnerable archaeologist has led to Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones Jr. often ranked being among the greatest and coolest heroes in cinematic history. Indy came in 2nd on AFI’s 2003 list of the greatest film heroes of all time, 2nd on Entertainment Weekly’s list of The All-Time Coolest Heroes of Pop Culture, and 6th and 7th as the greatest movie characters of all time by Empire and Premiere magazines, respectively.
After the success of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981, Ford enthusiastically went on to play the character in a prequel (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom), a sequel (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), and a follow-up several decades later (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).
What’d He Wear?
For true in-depth research into the iconic costume of Indiana Jones, the experts at IndyGear.com have got you covered with the definitive breakdown for everything from his fedora and leather jacket to his boots and bull whip.
Indiana Jones’s trademark outfit is one of the most memorable, beloved, and iconic costumes in movie history. The hat and jacket are currently on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and his kangaroo-hide bull whip sold at Christie’s auction house for $43,000 in December 1999.
For Raiders of the Lost Ark, costume designer Deborah Nadoolman noted the original serials to which Spielberg and team were paying homage. She based the flying jacket and fedora on something similar worn by Charlton Heston’s treasure-hunting adventurer in Secret of the Incas (1954). Nadoolman’s concept of “ten military-style plain cuffed and plain hemmed leather jackets” resulted in an order from Wilson’s Leather in Los Angeles that was basically a modified Type A-2 flight jacket.
Indy’s jacket has been on his back for plenty of years, but it’s “mileage” like this that adds the distress.
The A-2 jacket, originally designated as “Jacket, Pilot’s (summer)” for the U.S. military, had details that varied based on the manufacturer but all featured a snap-down collar, epaulettes, patch pockets on each hip that close with a snap-down flap, and jersey-knit cuffs and hem. The Wilson’s jackets were essentially A-2 jackets altered without the knit cuffs and waistband. After various testings that are best described at IndyGear.com, the final film-used jackets were eventually made by Peter Botwright and sourced from Leather Concessionaires.
The definitive Indiana Jones flight jacket is made from brown lambskin with a shirt-style collar that varies in size from film to film. The original shiny aluminum zippers were reportedly painted over in brass to dull their distracting presence on screen. The shoulders are left plain with no epaulettes or straps.
Although the jackets used in the production were new, the leather was always artificially aged by the costume team as seen here in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
The set-in sleeves maintained the original alteration from the A-2 jacket omitting the knitting on the cuffs, instead ending in plain leather. The cuffs have no buttons or zippers as found on the naval Type 440 jacket as these would certainly get in the way as Indy is required to perform his various stunts.
Similar to the original A-2, Indy’s flight jacket has large bellows pockets on the hips. These patch pockets close with concealed snaps on slightly pointed flaps. There are no handwarmers behind the bellows pockets, as hands in pockets were considered “un-military” at the time of the A-2’s development.
The large bellows pockets on Indy’s flight jacket, seen here in Raiders of the Lost Ark, served a functional purpose for transporting and protecting rare but large ancient artifacts while fighting impossibly large henchmen.
One very distinctive difference from original A-2 jackets were the “action-back” side pleats and the short leather adjustable straps that tightened the waistband through small brass buckles. These straps were likely inspired by the design of the 1930s Type 440 flight jackets sported by U.S. Navy fighter pilots. The jacket also has a yoke across the back shoulders with seams that extend slightly diagonally from the neck to the top of the shoulders and a seam across the upper back.
Indy’s side pleats give him a greater range of movement for hanging from various ledges and fighting off angry tribes while also adding a distinctive vintage look… although the adjustable straps are one more thing that could become an impediment if caught on something.
Certain aspects of the jacket were enlarged or modified for the jacket in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which also saw the return of original jacket maker Botwright. In addition to a heavier weight leather, the jacket also features a larger collar with a snap closure at the top and a wide storm flap over the zipper.
Note the larger collar, heavier construction, and wide storm flap over the zipper on the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade jacket. (More on this scene below… tee hee…)
IndyGear.com provides a great analysis and history of Indiana Jones’ brown leather flight jacket in all of the films.
All of Dr. Jones’s adventure attire is military-inspired in one way or another, and his khaki cotton safari shirt is no exception. Field shirts have been popular from outdoorsy clothing brands like L.L. Bean for decades, but Indy’s shirt is differentiated by the single vertical self-strip that runs down each front panel of the shirt from under the shoulder straps to the bottom hem, running over the center of each breast pocket.
The shirt has a spread collar and seven buttons down the front placket that get progressively darker in each movie. The two patch pockets on the chest close with a single button on a pointed flap. The epaulettes are sewn at the shoulders and button down on the pointed end at the neck. The sleeves have a single-button squared cuff, although Indy often rolls up his sleeves… or just rips them off, as seen in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. According to IndyGear.com, the shirt was originally designed by Andreas Dometakis.
Indy’s safari shirt sees its fair share of wear and tear in Raiders of the Lost Ark… although not nearly as much as in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when he loses his sleeves!
Although Indiana Jones always wears a tie – be it a necktie or a bow tie – with his suits, it is only in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade that he dresses up his adventurer outfit by donning what IndyGear.com describes as “a black Irish poplin tie” with a pointed blade and a four-in-hand knot.
Sean Connery wears a tweed three-piece suit, checked trilby, bow tie, and glasses that all contribute to subliminally aging the 59-year-old actor to have the appearance of an older man. However, it is worth noting that Indy seems to have taken some style cues from dear old dad with the tweedy suits and bow ties that he wears while teaching at Marshall College.
Indy appears to be wearing a variation of “pinks”, the light military shade of brown khaki twill wool trousers worn by U.S. Army and Army Air Corps officers during the World War II era. These trousers have single reverse pleats, seven belt loops, and a 4″ military style plain hem to give his bottoms enough of a break over his boots while scampering all over the world’s ancient obstacles. More information can be found at IndyGear.com, which determined that they were likely subcontracted by Angels Costumes in London to be tailored for Ford. He appears to be wearing a lighter pair, closer to tan, in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Indy’s military-style trousers as seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark (left) and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (right).
The trousers have slanted side pockets and scalloped flap pockets in the back that each close with a single button. Appropriate for the era, the trousers also have a four-button fly. Zippers had only first appeared on clothing about a decade earlier when Schott incorporated them onto jackets in 1925. In fact, the A-2 jacket was one of the first articles of clothing expressly designed to use a zipper. The “Battle of the Fly” in 1937 marked the beginning of zipper supremacy on men’s trouser flies, but it’s safe to say that Indiana Jones would be somewhat unconcerned with the findings of Esquire magazine and French fashion houses. (In fact, Indy was so unconcerned with his pants that both Harrison Ford and Sean Connery shed their trousers while filming the zeppelin scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; supposedly, the intense heat of the set was too much for the two actors who were also performing the scene in heavy leather and tweed jackets, respectively.)
Indy faces his greatest fear during the pre-credits sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Luckily, snakes don’t have the dexterity to open a button fly or he’d be in real trouble.
Indy wears a WWII-era brown U.S. Army officer’s style cotton web belt with a brass slider buckle. Although dark brown in the first two films, Indy seems to switch to a lighter colored belt that more closely matches his brown twill trousers in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
And there’s Short Round.
Though they share some cosmetic similarities with military boots, Indy’s footwear was actually informed by Harrison Ford. Ford was reportedly a fan of the Middleborough, Massachusetts-based Alden Shoe Company‘s boots and sported the stock model 405 Truebalance in each of the Indiana Jones adventures… establishing their enduring popularity as “the Indy boot”. More information can be found at IndyGear.com, of course, and interested buyers can still buy the “405 Original Brown” work boots.
Indy has a rough day in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Indy’s leather Alden 405 ankle boots are brown waxhide with matching round brown laces through five eyelets and four hooks. The boots have an apron toe, rubber heels, and leather-faced cotton duck lining. He wears them with dark brown socks, likely cotton as they look lighter than wool, which would be oppressive in the action-packed heat that seems to follow Dr. Jones around the globe.
Indy’s flying (or, at least, landing) skills may not be up to par, but at least he knows how to double-clutch a truck.
One of the best-known aspects of the Indiana Jones costume is his loyal, well-traveled hat, which always seems to find a way back to his head despite the improbability of its return. While functional from a filmmaking perspective for both continuity and stunt double ease, it’s also a callback to the original serials of the ’30s and ’40s where our hat-wearing hero was never without his headgear despite his situation. This trope would get another wink at the end of the decade in the Coen brothers’ noir-ish masterpiece Miller’s Crossing.
Indy’s hat was sourced from Herbert Johnson Hatters in Savile Row, where Nadoolman had grabbed and twisted one of the shop’s Australian model fedoras then joined Harrison Ford in sitting on it to create “a very lived-in and well-loved” hat. The original material for Raiders of the Lost Ark was a very vintage-like lightweight rabbit felt that was replaced by a slightly heavier Borsalino felt for the next installment.
Indy’s hat proves its usefulness when taking a snooze in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
IndyGear.com did the research to determine the original specifications of Indy’s brown fedora: size 7¼ with a tall 5.5″ pinched crown, a 1.5″ darker brown grosgrain ribbon, and a wide brim that extended 2 ⅝” on each side and 2¾ in the front and back; the front of the brim was shaped down to cover his eyes and further facilitate the ease of swapping in a stunt double for Ford without the double’s face being too obvious to audiences.
As Indiana Jones gets himself into some tough spots, he is prepared to protect his hands when needed with a pair of tan leather plain work gloves, which are debossed with the word “LARGE” on the inside of the wrist as seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
One of many tough spots in which Indy finds himself in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
For less tense moments that require careful examination rather than quick action, Indy wears his 14kt gold-framed Savile Row “Beaufort Panto” glasses “Chestnut” tortoise rims and half-covered cable, as identified by SunglassesID.com.
To the best of my recollection, Indy only wears his glasses with his adventurer outfit in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Otherwise, they are relegated only to be worn with his professorial suits.
Sometimes, big bellows pockets on your jacket just ain’t enough for transporting ancient artifacts around the globe… thus, Indy carries a drab-colored modified British Mark VII gas mask bag as a satchel. This bag, definitively identified by IndyGear.com, had been issued to British military and police during World War II as a precaution against the sad realities of the war. The bag’s original cotton web strap (similar to Indy’s belt) was replaced on screen with leather straps – with buckle adjusters – in various shades of brown, beginning with a lighter brown in Raiders of the Lost Ark and darker brown straps in the subsequent movies.
In Raiders of the Lost Ark, a weary Indy eyes his latest threat, a sword-wielding assassin…
As a definitively American hero, Indiana Jones is always packing heat for his dangerous travels. His sidearm of choice varied from movie to movie, always carried in a brown leather military-style flap holster on the right side of a brown leather gun belt. IndyGear.com put plenty of research into analyzing the subtle differences between each gun belt and holster, including a design for the lighter brown holster that was custom-made for Indy’s Smith & Wesson revolver in Raiders of the Lost Ark before he switched to a much darker 1917-manufactured holster specifically designed for the Webley .455 revolver in his subsequent adventures.
…and he quickly and efficiently dispatches of the swordsman with a single shot before going about his business.
David Morgan crafted many of Indy’s iconic kangaroo-hide bullwhips for the first three movies in the series, averaging 10 feet long but all within a range of 6 to 16 feet as reported by IndyGear.com and IMDB.
Indy’s bullwhip secured to his gun belt, as seen in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
No matter how long it is, a bullwhip can be a cumbersome thing to carry around. Luckily, Indy has a handy brown leather strip attached to his gun belt, through which he can loop his distinctive tool. The tan leather loop in Raiders of the Lost Ark was riveted to the low-hanging gun belt on his left hip, the darker model in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was slid over the belt, and the whip holder in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was slid over both the gun belt and his trouser belt, providing the most secure fastening for all of Indy’s various tools.
Go Big or Go Home
As with Han Solo, much of what audiences loved about Indiana Jones came from Harrison Ford’s decisions and characterization. In fact, Ford much preferred playing Dr. Jones… despite not sharing the character’s fear or hatred of snakes.
It was Ford who quipped the now-famous line “It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage,” when explaining himself to Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it was also Ford who informed the now-famous scene against the flamboyant Arab swordsman on the streets of Cairo.
The scene originally called for the swordsman to proudly exhibit his abilities with the blade, and Indy would respond in-turn by using his bullwhip to disarm his opponent in what would be an impressively choreographed fight. Unfortunately, Ford was one of the many cast and crew members who was overcome by food poisoning and dysentery (yes, there was violent diarrhea) and left him struggling to perform the stunt as scripted. As Ford told an audience that included director Steven Spielberg at L.A. Live in 2011:
I had chosen to eat native food, unlike Steven who went to Tunisia with a steamer trunk full of Spaghetti-Os, and I had suffered mightily for that. I was no longer capable of staying out of my trailer for more than it took to expose a role of film, which was 10 minutes, and then I would have to flee back there for sanitary facilities.
Thus, Ford suggested just drawing his revolver and shooting his attacker. While the actor, Terry Richards, was disappointed that he didn’t get to show off his impressive abilities after much training, Spielberg immediately loved the idea and ran with it.
Indiana Jones proves that the gun is mightier than the sword.
(This scene was called back in the prequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, when Indy goes to shoot two Thuggee swordsmen but is dismayed to find that his revolver is missing from his holster… thus, he is finally able to use the whip stunt that would’ve found its place in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Some call this an error since Indy wouldn’t have remembered the 1936 Raiders event in 1935 during Temple of Doom, but it’s possible that drawing his gun is Indy’s usual MO when facing off against more outmoded combatants and their antiquated tools of war.)
What to Imbibe
Indiana Jones clearly has a hankering for Jack Daniel’s whiskey, drinking the classic No. 7 Black Label when visiting Marion Ravenwood’s saloon in Nepal and later mourning her “death” in Cairo with a bottle of Belle of Lincoln.
Shades of Casablanca as Indy “mourns” a lost love.
“‘Belle of Lincoln?’ HREY! I thought you said Indy liked Jack Daniel‘s!”
While it may not be recognizable to Frank Sinatra (who hardly went a day without his square bottled and black labelled Tennessee nectar), the bottle of Belle of Lincoln whiskey that Indy turns to after the truck explosion in Cairo shows just how much the filmmakers had done their work. Belle of Lincoln was the name applied to a new brand of whiskey from the Jack Daniel’s distillery in the early 1890s, supposedly given its vague name to pay tribute to the lifelong bachelor Mr. Daniel’s many female paramours at the time who each believed the moniker was for her. Jack Daniel died in October 1911, and the Belle of Lincoln brand name shortly followed but was revived in 1979 in the form of a collectible decanter.
Indiana Jones’s military-inspired adventure outfit is one of the most iconic movie costumes of all time, and the experts at IndyGear.com are the definitive source for learning more about every piece of his attire from his brown fedora to his leather flight jacket to his well-worn Alden boots.
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
Brown lambskin leather flight jacket with shirt-style collar, brass-painted front zipper, snap-flapped bellows patch pockets on hips, set-in sleeves with plain cuffs, and “action-back” side pleats with adjustable buckle straps
Khaki cotton long-sleeve safari shirt with spread collar, pointed-flap button-down chest pockets, button-down shoulder epaulettes, vertical front strips, and squared 1-button cuffs
Light brown twill wool single reverse-pleated officer’s trousers with 7 belt loops, slanted front pockets, button-down scalloped flap back pockets, and 4″ military-hemmed plain bottoms
Brown cotton officer’s webbed belt with brass slider buckle
Brown waxhide leather Alden 405 apron-toe 5-eyelet/4-hook ankle boots with leather-faced cotton duck lining and rubber heels
Dark brown cotton socks
Brown leather gun belt with steel single-claw buckle
Brown leather flapped military-style holster, worn on right side for 4″ revolver
Brown felt fedora with dark brown 1.5″ grosgrain ribbon, tall pinched crown, and wide brim
Meeting up with dad or flying in style on a German zeppelin? Dress up your adventurous attire with a black poplin tie!
The Guns
As a self-proclaimed “cautious fellow”, Indiana Jones has a preference for early 20th century military revolvers chambered for powerful .45-caliber cartridges.
When we first meet Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it is 1936 and he is in search of a golden idol in Peru. Unfortunately, he is waylaid by natives led by his rival, the Nazi sympathizer Dr. René Belloq (Paul Freeman), who relieves Indy of his sidearm, a Smith & Wesson M1917 which had its original 6″ barrel custom modified down to 4″.
Interestingly, the same Smith & Wesson M1917 is clearly seen to be the same revolver that Indy packs when heading to Nepal… but it is a Smith & Wesson Mk II Hand Ejector that he actually carries and uses for the remainder of his adventures in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
When the bulk of Indy’s adventures start in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he is now carrying a Smith & Wesson Mk II Hand Ejector, chambered in the British .455 Webley round as it was sourced from a British armorer, Bapty & Co. This revolver is most easily differentiated by its ramp front sight as opposed to the bladed front sight on the M1917.
Indy disables a truck driver in Cairo with a single shot from his Smith & Wesson Mk II Hand Ejector.
According to IndyGear.com and IMFDb, both of these 4″-barreled Smith & Wesson revolvers were provided by Stembridge Gun Rentals in California, with the blank-firing Mk II Hand Ejector obtained from Bapty in the U.K. Thus, the M1917 would have been used for all U.S. studio filming while the Mk II Hand Ejector was utilized for location filming in the U.K. and Middle East. IMDB states that sound designer Ben Burtt used the sound of a .30-30 Winchester rifle for Indy’s revolver.
For his secondary firearm, Indy carries a Browning Hi-Power, a curious but impressive choice for a “backup” weapon that was likely chosen due to its cosmetic similarities to the American M1911A1 service pistol. As the .45-caliber rounds of the 1911 series were notably unreliable with semi-automatic pistols in the movie industry at this time, the 9mm Hi-Power would have been an adequate – if slightly anachronistic – choice. (The Hi-Power was first produced by the Belgian manufacturer Fabrique Nationale in 1935, a year before Raiders of the Lost Ark was set. However, Indy’s model on the Bantu Wind is a variant by Inglis of Canada, which did not begin production of its Hi-Powers until 1944.)
Indy draws his Inglis Hi-Power aboard the Bantu Wind. He had previously used a Browning Hi-Power in Nepal and may have lost it, replacing it with this Inglis model… or it’s simply an anachronistic continuity error.
Indy spends the bulk of his adventurer scenes in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom without a sidearm after Willie Scott had notably dropped his Colt Official Police revolver out the window of their getaway car in Shanghai while he was clad in his white dinner jacket. It has been confirmed that this revolver was indeed a Colt Official Police – with a Smith & Wesson Model 10 swapped in for the actual fall – and not either of the revolvers used in production of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Indiana Jones once again finds himself armed in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, this time with a Webley “WG” Army Model revolver, chambered again for the .455 Webley military cartridge. Unlike the previous films where Indy opted for an American revolver with a swing-out cylinder and a 4″ barrel, this is a British break-top revolver with a 6″ barrel. Originally manufactured in the late 1890s, the Webley “WG” Army Model was actually a commercial variant of the British Army’s service revolver for private purchased by officers; the “WG” stands for “Webley Government” rather than the often incorrectly referenced “Webley-Green”.
Dr. Elsa Schneider (Alison Doody) stands behind Indy as he draws his Webley “WG” Army revolver in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Interestingly, Indy’s holster in both Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was an original WWI item meant for a 6″-barreled Webley. He again carries a Webley “WG” Army Model in 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Buy the trilogy. If you also enjoy having the latest installment, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in your collection, “The Complete Adventure Collection” now includes all four movies.
I still haven’t seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and I’m also aware that the costume – while cosmetically similar to his previous attire – was much differently sourced than in the original series… hence the focus on the first three movies in this post.
The Quote
It’s not the years, honey, it’s the mileage.
Footnote
One can only wonder how much different the franchise would’ve been if the role of Indiana Smith (as he was originally named) had gone to Tom Selleck, who only turned down the role as he was already committed to Magnum, P.I. Interestingly, Thomas Magnum would eventually parody the character in the eighth season episode “Legend of the Lost Art” that found Magnum wearing a brown fedora and leather jacket, carrying a whip, and evading booby traps. Selleck would also play an Indy-like aviator in the 1984 adventure High Road to China.
Danny Huston as Ben Diamond in “Feeding Frenzy”, episode 1.02 of Magic City (2012-2013).
Vitals
Danny Huston as Ben “the Butcher” Diamond, sadistic and volatile Miami gangster
Miami Beach, spring 1959
Series:Magic City Episodes:
– “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02, dir: Ed Bianchi, aired April 13, 2012)
– “Who’s the Horse and Who’s the Rider?” (Episode 1.07, dir: Nick Gomez, aired May 18, 2012)
– “Adapt or Die” (Episode 2.03, dir: Ed Bianchi, aired June 28, 2013) Creator: Mitch Glazer Costume Designer: Carol Ramsey
Background
If Ike Evans is the conflicted but ultimately virtuous protagonist of Magic City, then Ben Diamond is the show’s unapologetically evil antagonist. Described in an early New York Timesreview as a “suntanned sociopath”, Ben the Butcher rules the beach with coldblooded brutality.
As Huston himself told Rolling Stone in an excellent June 2013 interview:
I’m just going to play him for the badass that he is, because it makes him so unapologetic and somehow honest, amongst all these other characters that are morally compromised.
This week’s Mafia Monday installment will examine the seemingly tranquil beach-dwelling style of Ben Diamond as seen in three of the show’s sixteen episodes. Eric Tidd, operator of the virtual Miramar Playa, owns many items from the show including this outfit and accessories worn by Danny Huston.
What’d He Wear?
For his relaxing days spent playing poker either poolside or in his private cabana, Ben Diamond often wears a baby blue lightweight long-sleeve shirt decorated with vertical pleat strips down the front and back, making the shirt best described as a “pocketless guayabera”.
A true guayabera, a traditional Caribbean-originated dress shirt with a straight bottom hem meant to be worn untucked, has patch pockets and two vertical rows of alforzas along the front and back. Ben’s shirt, which has French cuffs and lacks pockets, shares some similarities with Mexican variants of the guayabera.
Ben presides over one of his many poker games in “Who’s the Horse and Who’s the Rider?” (Episode 1.07).
The alforzas on Ben’s shirt consist of four thin reverse pleats in a vertical strip down each front panel of the shirt. The alforzas run from the top shoulder yoke down to the bottom yoke that runs along the straight-hemmed bottom of the shirt. Both yokes are pointed where they meet the alforzas, with a decorative button on the bottom and a smaller decorative button at the top.
No matter what episode or context, Ben is rarely found without a cigar, a poker table, and his dear friend Bel Jaffe nearby.
Ben’s shirt has a cutaway spread collar, always worn wide open, with clear plastic buttons down the covered front fly. The back, as confirmed by current owner Eric Tidd’s photos, has a wide single strip of pleats down the center of the back, connecting two pointed yokes that are each festooned with a decorative button. Like a guayabera, there is a split vent on the right and left sides of the shirt; each vent is fastened with three buttons.
The sleeves have open gauntlets with no buttons above the double cuffs. In the first season, the French cuffs of Ben’s shirt are fastened by a pair of silver square-framed cuff links with a large diamond (hey, that’s his name!) in the center.
In “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02), Ben makes it quite clear who’s in charge when talking to Stevie Evans.
For the second season appearance of this shirt, Ben wears a pair of gold oval cuff links with dark blue settings.
Exclusive information and images from the outfit’s current owner Eric confirms that this shirt is either all-linen or a linen/cotton blend and was made by Renato, size large.
Photos of Danny Huston’s screen-worn Renato shirt courtesy of Eric J. Tidd.
Some similar shirts worn by Ben can be found in an eBay auction, all from the second season episode “World in Changes”. This auction includes a dark cotton shirt and a purple linen shirt similar to this one, both by Anto, and a lighter pink genuine linen guayabera from Ramon Puig.
Ben tends to wear either cream or black trousers with his guayaberas and casual shirts; in this case, it is the former. Ben’s cream flat front trousers are 100% Irish linen with plain-hemmed bottoms. Eric has confirmed that these Brooks Brothers trousers – with a size 36 waist and 32 length – have burn holes on the back left pocket. Both back pockets are jetted and each close with a single button.
Ben’s trousers and shoes are best seen in this promotional image from “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02). Of course, Jessica Marais as Lily tends to take most of the attention away from anyone or anything else in the scene.
The trousers break high over his shoes, a pair of black leather bicycle-toe loafers that he wears without socks. Though not seen very clearly on screen (and the distraction of a bikini-clad Lily admittedly doesn’t make it easy to focus on a pair of shoes), some very helpful info and images from Eric confirmed that these Aldo loafers are a size 44 and have a black leather strap (not a monk strap) across the vamp with a silver-toned buckle on the outside of each shoe. Now discontinued by Aldo, these appear to be a pair of their M-19261 model, still available from Amazon as of July 2016.
Photo of Danny Huston’s screen-worn Aldo loafers courtesy of Eric J. Tidd.
Ben Diamond wears a pair of black-framed wayfarer-style sunglasses, the Victory Suntimer “Palm Beach” with dark gray lenses. The exact model number is VCS 752 in size 52/20/140, still available from the Victory Optical Collection site for $210.
The gold watch that Ben Diamond wears in the first season has a small round case on a black leather strap. The black dial has twelve plain gold non-numeric markers and three gold hands.
Ben’s equally adept at poker in the light (as seen in “Feeding Frenzy”) or in the dark (as seen in “Who’s the Horse and Who’s the Rider?”).
Ben’s watch in the second season appears to be the somewhat larger gold Hamilton Electric watch with a silver dial, gold numeric markers, and a dark brown alligator strap.
Ben’s second season accessories, here consisting of a different watch and cuff links, are seen in “Adapt or Die” (Episode 2.03).
On his right pinky, Ben wears a gold ring with a large set-in diamond. In addition to the parallels to his name, Ben’s ring has some historical significance as Danny Huston told Rolling Stone in June 2013:
I wear a ring which is not dissimilar to Bugsy Siegel’s ring. I try to bring a certain bit of a show-off, proud – somewhat creating an empire, in that sense. There’s a sort of regal quality to him.
Eric, the current owner of a set of Ben’s rings, have confirmed that extended wear has led to some of the “gold” rubbing off to reveal copper underneath. As Eric notes, this is a small price to pay for owning such incredible TV memorabilia.
Go Big or Go Home
When not violently earning his “Butcher” moniker, Ben Diamond’s life is one of gangland luxury and leisure. “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02) finds Ben and his mob cronies playing a few hands of poolside poker while the laidback vocals of Bobby Darin crooning “Beyond the Sea” in the background recall the iconic Goodfellas scene of imprisoned mafiosi cooking veal behind bars.
During that one poker game alone, Ben is seen drinking a bottle of Ballantine Ale and a few neat pours of J&B Rare blended Scotch. His daily smokes are L&M Filter cigarettes with a gold lighter, but – like his nemesis Ike Evans – he also enjoys his Habana Partagas cigars.
Ben, Bel, and pals enjoy some poolside poker and whiskey in “Feeding Frenzy” (Episode 1.02).
How to Get the Look
Danny Huston as Ben Diamond in “Adapt or Die”, episode 2.03 of Magic City (2012-2013).
Ben the Butcher’s mix of summer-weight fabrics and name-appropriate diamonds keep him feeling comfortable but looking powerful for a warm spring day of leisure in Miami Beach.
Baby blue lightweight linen/cotton “pocketless guayabera” shirt with spread collar, covered front fly placket, 3-button side vents, double/French cuffs, and quadruple-pleat alforza strips down each front panel with decorative buttons
Cream linen flat front trousers with belt loops, jetted button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
Black leather bicycle-toe loafers with silver-toned buckle straps
Silver square cuff links with a center diamond
Gold pinky ring with set-in diamond
Gold wristwatch with a black dial and black leather strap
Victory Optical Collection Suntimer “Palm Beach” VCS 752 black-framed wayfarer-style sunglasses with dark gray lenses
A major debt of gratitude is owed to Eric Tidd, the current owner of this outfit, who provided many one-of-a-kind images to help guide me as I put this post together. Eric also owns Ike’s cream dinner jacket, which had been featured in an earlier BAMF Style post.
Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris (2011).
Vitals
Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway, macho expatriate American novelist
Paris, 1920s
Film:Midnight in Paris Release Date: May 20, 2011 Director: Woody Allen Costume Designer: Sonia Grande
Background
Today is my 27th birthday, a day that I proudly share with brilliant artists like Ernest Hemingway, Robin Williams, Hart Crane, and even a few non-suicidal ones like Don Knotts, Cat Stevens, and Kay Starr.
Hemingway is arguably the most world-famous of my shared birthday buddies, and – at the time that he turned 27 – he was a war-haunted expatriate living the Parisian high life with a promising new novel just months shy of its publication. In fact, Hemingway had begun scribing The Sun Also Rises exactly a year earlier on his 26th birthday, July 21, 1925.
The Sun Also Rises is my favorite of Hemingway’s works and one of my favorites in general, partly due to his colloquial, in-the-moment depiction of American and British expatriates in Europe. Unrequited romance, Parisian café life, and the excitement of the Pamplona bullfights round out Papa’s roman à clef to what has been since deemed “the lost generation,” despite Hemingway’s own optimistic insistence that these characters are merely “battered” but not lost. As a wiser man than I might say, Jake Barnes abides.
Reading The Sun Also Rises always inspires a nostalgic sense for me to join Hemingway and his contemporaries like Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and Ezra Pound hopping from one bistro to the next while discussing each other’s unwritten great American novels. It’s a shared sense of many, and Woody Allen ably tapped into both that romantic concept and the flaws of nostalgia in Midnight in Paris, which starred Owen Wilson as Woody’s surrogate Gil Pender, a disillusioned but optimistic screenwriter who wants nothing more than to be transported back to Paris during the postwar decade… a dream that comes alive as Gil is flown headfirst into the scenes captured in A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s definitive chronicle of the era.
Appropriately enough, it is a tolling bell that signifies Gil’s time travel back into the age of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Stein rubbing elbows with fellow artists Dalí and Picasso… all the perfect people to evaluate Gil’s own artistic endeavors.
Gil: Would you read it? Hemingway: Your novel? Gil: Yeah, it’s about 400 pages long, and I’m just looking for an opinion. Hemingway: My opinion is I hate it. Gil: Well you haven’t even read it yet. Hemingway: If it’s bad, I’ll hate it because I hate bad writing, and if it’s good, I’ll be envious and hate it all the more. You don’t want the opinion of another writer.
Despite this wink at the inherent jealousy between the lost generation’s writers, Hemingway still offers a line of advice to Gil: “No subject is terrible if the story is true, if the prose is clean and honest, and if it affirms courage and grace under pressure.” Gil, in turn, quips to Hemingway that he believes all modern American literature can be traced back to Huck Finn, a declaration that has often been attributed to Hemingway.
What’d He Wear?
Few of the literary set that Gil Pender meets are necessarily adherent to the expected fashions of the era, partly due to the movie’s seemingly fluid timeline and also due to the self-described individualism that found its extremes in absurdists like Dalí. These were the hipsters of yesteryear, but Malcolm Cowley observed in Exile’s Return: A Literary Odyssey of the 1920s that “‘They’ tried to be individual, but there is a moment when individualism becomes a uniform in spite of itself.”
Midnight in Paris chronicles the popular image of Hemingway as a swaggering writer who could be expected to leap into succinct diatribes about manliness and his experiences in the war without a moment’s notice. This Papa rejects the pressed dinner jackets and stylish tailored suits of romantic contemporaries like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Cole Porter, instead embracing a more “alpha male” image in a rugged brown jacket and trousers with no tie.
Hemingway enjoys a glass of wine at Polidor when meeting Gil and the Fitzgeralds.
Hemingway’s brown suede single-breasted sports jacket evokes popular hunting attire of the era, almost certainly a nod to the writer’s reputation as a sportsman. All of the jacket’s many buttons, including the three on the front, are brown woven leather. The front is darted and the back is split with a single vent.
The jacket has notch lapels with a throat latch that closes under the right lapel with a single button through a pointed tab. The sleeves also end with a pointed tab on each cuff that closes with a single button. There are three external patch pockets, all box-pleated with a squared flap closing on a single button: one pocket is over the left chest, and the other two slightly larger pockets are on the jacket hips.
It is a jacket that one at the time would more expect to see out on a hunt rather than in an urban café. In fact, the outfit recalls the popular brown Barbour sport jacket that Daniel Craig wore as James Bond in Skyfall‘s climactic battle scenes in Scotland. While photographs prove that the real Hemingway was certainly not above donning a tie (or even a beret!) for his life with the rest of his “moveable feast”, Stoll’s Hemingway is a reflection of the macho image that the author portrayed to both his readers and his contemporaries.
With each appearance, Hemingway wears a difference light-colored shirt with a large point collar, no pocket, and French cuffs. When he first meets Gil at Polidor (which was known to be one of Hemingway’s haunts), he wears a plain white shirt with the first few buttons undone on the front placket. His round cuff links are gold with a raised black finish.
More wine!
On Gil’s next visit to the ’20s where he meets the alluring Adriana, Hemingway accompanies him to visit Gertrude Stein. This time, he wears a pale blue shirt with a maroon and white overcheck and plain front. Again, he wears no tie.
Hemingway and Adriana (Marion Cotillard) at Gertrude Stein’s.
Finally, Gil runs into Hemingway and the bullfighter Juan Belmonte at a Charleston dance. Papa’s white shirt is styled similar to his first with a front placket and double cuffs, but this one has thin, subtle gray striping.
A production image from Midnight in Paris clearly shows Hemingway’s striped shirt and vintage Moët bottle.
Hemingway sticks to earth tones with the rest of his outfits, typically wearing a pair of dark brown high-rise trousers with double forward pleats and a full cut down to the cuffed bottoms. His slim leather belt is slightly lighter brown with a gunmetal single-claw buckle.
Hemingway knew how to enjoy himself… it just too often meant that those around him wouldn’t enjoy themselves.
During the stop at Gertrude Stein’s apartment, Hemingway wears an olive shade of brown trousers, similarly styled but worn without a belt, revealing the squared extended tab on the waistband. Like the other trousers, these are finished at the bottom with turn-ups.
Hemingway introduces Gil to Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein, and Pablo Picasso all in one evening.
Since Hemingway spends the bulk of his time drunkenly pontificating from behind a café table, his shoes don’t get much exposure. At Stein’s, he appears to be wearing a pair of tan leather apron-toe bluchers.
A plain gold wedding band is seen on the third finger of Hemingway’s left hand, symbolic either of his marriage to Hadley (which lasted until January 1927) or to Pauline (which began in May 1927).
With The Sun Also Rises fresh off the press, Hemingway lays down some sage advice for Gil, the aspiring novelist.
Go Big or Go Home
Midnight in Paris glamorizes the expatriate lifestyle of the 1920s, an era that inspired Hemingway’s first novel The Sun Also Rises as well as A Moveable Feast, recounted decades later from his notebooks recovered from the basement of the Hôtel Ritz Paris.
Keep in mind that Hemingway was the type of guy who would go fishing with a Thompson submachine gun, as seen here in 1935.
In fact, the grand Hôtel Ritz, which reopened last month in the 1st arrondissement after a major three-year renovation, could be considered a first stop on a tour of Hemingway’s Paris. Ground was broken in 1705, appropriately during the reign of Louis XIV, although the palatial hotel itself didn’t open until nearly 200 years later with a “glittering reception” on June 1, 1898. The hotel became an instant legend with a reputation for luxury as everyone from artists and entertainers to politicians and royalty – Edward VII and a lover were once reportedly stuck in one of its bathtubs – over the decades. Hemingway featured the hotel in The Sun Also Rises and lived there for many years, with his tenure now honored by the hotel’s Bar Hemingway where head bartender Colin Field’s concoctions have taken legendary proportions of their own. Indeed, the hotel is one of the few places that would honor a guest who reacted to his wife’s request for a divorce by firing a pistol into a toilet where he had thrown her photo. Perhaps it was Hemingway’s endorsement of “the only reason not to stay at the Ritz [in Paris] is if you can’t afford it” that the hotel appreciates.
Before he could afford the Ritz himself, Hemingway and his first wife Hadley spent their first night in Paris at the Hôtel Jacob – now the Hotel d’Angleterre – in the 6th arrondissement.
Ernest Hemingway’s nightlife behavior had become legendary in his own time. According to Malcolm Cowley in Exile’s Return:
I remember being taken to an unfamiliar saloon – it was in the winter of 1925-26 – and finding that the back room was full of young writers and their wives just home from Paris. They were all telling stories about Hemingway, whose first book had just appeared, and they were talking in what I afterward came to recognize as the Hemingway dialect – tough, matter-of-fact, and confidential. In the middle of the evening one of them rose, took off his jacket, and used it to show how he would dominate a bull.
Midnight in Paris depicts Gil accompanying Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald to Crémerie-Restaurant Polidor on the Left Bank in the 6th arrondissement, where he first meets Hemingway brooding over a glass of burgundy. Polidor, originally founded in 1845, retains the spirit of turn-of-the-century Paris with its style of cooking, its decor, and even its bathrooms. Diners sit at long shared tables with communal saltcellars and pots of mustard. Once popular with Hemingway’s contemporaries and spiritual successors like Jack Kerouac, it remains a favored haunt of local college students. According to Fitzgerald in Midnight in Paris, it also offers a “diamond” whiskey sour, if you’re so inclined.
This was surely a common sight in 1920s Paris.
Channeling the spirit of his idol, Gil (in the present day) visits Shakespeare & Company in the 5th arrondissement, the English-language bookstore opened in 1951 by George Whitman after Sylvia Beach’s original shop in the 6th – a favorite of 1920s ex-pats like Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald, and James Joyce – had closed during the German occupation of Paris in 1940. Whitman’s new shop reflected the spirit of the original as a common meeting place for Bohemian writers, and Sylvia Beach publicly offered him the use of the Shakespeare & Company name while dining with him in 1958. Dwight Garner’s New York Timesarticle in 2010 recalls an incident toward the end of World War II when a uniformed Hemingway, who had admired Beach, “would return to ‘liberate’ the bookstore, but it never reopened.”
As Time Out outlined in a great piece, most of Hemingway’s favorite haunts were on the Left Bank and many still remain almost a century later. His apartments at 39 rue Descartes and 74 rue Cardinal Lemoine are commemorated with plaques, and foodies can still enjoy the offerings of enthusiastic grocers at the Marché Mouffetard, described in A Moveable Feast as a “wonderful, narrow crowded market street”.
It’s very understandable why Gil Pender is so nostalgic about the era and the lifestyle of its expatriates: plenty of coffee, cigarettes, and cocktails with hot jazz and the greatest artistic minds of the generation filling out the background.
Sidney Bechet’s “Si tu vois ma mère” serves as the de facto theme of Midnight in Paris, playing over the beginning and end credits with vignettes of Paris at its most romantic by day and night.
When I want to evoke this romanticized Parisian experience either to accompany some coffee or writing attempts, my go-to is always Django Reinhardt, the Gypsy jazz guitarist who developed his unique solo style after two fingers on his left hand were paralyzed in a fire. Born in 1910, Django was a bit too young to provide the soundtrack for the lost generation of the 1920s, but Woody has used plenty of his music in his films for decades to the point of writing Sweet and Lowdown as an homage.
The movie also includes my favorite “modern” re-interpretation of a ’20s-style arrangement of James P. Johnson’s “Charleston”, performed here by Enoch Light and his Charleston City All-Stars for one of several albums in the late 1950s that celebrated the music of the Roaring Twenties. (I previously celebrated this track when I posted about Jimmy Stewart’s Charleston dance in It’s a Wonderful Life.)
Gil dances the Charleston with Djuna Barnes, the celebrated modernist author who would eventually pen the groundbreaking novel Nightwood.
What to Imbibe
Reading Ernest Hemingway’s novels and memoirs will make your taste buds tingle for anything from a cold beer or neat whiskey to absinthe or – Hemingway’s favorite – a Daiquiri. Midnight in Paris depicts Papa drinking plenty of wine given his surroundings, including Château this-or-that claret and Moët & Chandon champagne.
The Sun Also Rises famously features protagonist Jake Barnes downing a Jack Rose cocktail at the Hôtel de Crillon bar while waiting for Lady Brett Ashley:
Hemingway might have called the drink unmanly if he saw someone drinking one, but he would have to admit that it is tasty if he placed one in his first protagonist’s hand.
At five o’clock I was in the Hotel Crillon, waiting for Brett. She was not there, so I sat down and wrote some letters. They were not very good letters, but I hoped their being on Crillon stationery would help them. Brett did not turn up, so about quarter to six I went down to the bar and had a Jack Rose with George the barman.
While its name may recall James Cameron more than Ernest Hemingway to modern drinkers, the Jack Rose was once so prolific that David Embury included it alongside mainstays like the Daiquiri, Manhattan, Martini, Old Fashioned, and Sidecar in his seminal The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks in 1948. The Jack Rose was likely developed in New Jersey, possibly by restaurateur Joseph P. Rose although the earliest mention of the cocktail appears to be a 1905 article in the National Police Gazette that credits Jersey bartender Frank J. May with its creation.
The Jack Rose consists of three ingredients; applejack brandy is the primary ingredient, and Laird’s has enjoyed increased sales of its applejack due to the resurgence of interest in the Jack Rose and classic cocktails of its ilk. In an ice-filled shaker, two parts of applejack are mixed with one part lemon juice and half a part grenadine syrup. After the fruity red concoction is strained into a chilled martini glass, it is typically garnished with a cherry and a lemon slice and served up. Lime juice and a lime slice may also be substituted for lemon.
How to Get the Look
Hemingway literally takes Juan Belmonte under his wing.
Midnight in Paris depicts a young Ernest Hemingway in his prime, newly published and dressing in the style of a macho adventurer comfortable at a Parisian café, a Spanish bullfight, or an African hunt.
Dark brown suede single-breasted 3-button sport jacket with notch lapels (with pointed-tab buttoning throat latch), box-pleated left chest pocket with button-down flaps, box-pleated hip pockets with button-down flaps, single-button tab cuffs, and single vent
Light-colored subtly-patterned dress shirt with large point collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
Gold round cuff links with black finish
Brown high-rise double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, full cut, and turn-ups/cuffs
Light brown leather belt with gunmetal single-claw buckle
Tan leather apron-toe bluchers
Brown socks
Gold wedding band
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Buy the movie (or borrow it from a friend if you’re not a Woody Allen supporter), but you should certainly read Hemingway.
I also greatly enjoy A Moveable Feast, which likely inspired much of Midnight in Paris and practically serves as a posthumous “Making of” featurette of The Sun Also Rises as it recounts the 1920s expatriate scene and the colorful characters that lived it.
The Quote
If you’re a writer, declare yourself the best writer. But you’re not – as long as I’m around – unless you want to put the gloves on and settle it.
Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1978).
Vitals
Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe, private investigator
England, September 1977
Film:The Big Sleep Release Date: March 13, 1978 Director: Michael Winner Costume Designer: Ron Beck
Background
Following the recent theme of birthdays – particularly authors’ birthdays – today would have been the 128th birthday of Raymond Chandler, the author of popular hardboiled novels like Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Goodbye, and – perhaps his most famous work – The Big Sleep. It’s arguably impossible to discuss American noir or even modern crime fiction without recognizing Chandler’s influence; he redefined the genre with the character of Philip Marlowe, and his contributions to Billy Wilder’s 1944 film Double Indemnity have cemented its place as archetypical film noir.
I recently finished Tom Williams’ A Mysterious Something in the Light, a biography of Chandler, that included insightful commentary on Chandler’s own perception of his writing, resentful of the formula that he felt limited crime writers like himself and perhaps unaware of just how impactful his own work was in reinventing pulp fiction.
Chandler lived to see The Big Sleep first adapted to screen by Howard Hawks. Although it has become iconic film noir, the 1946 film suffered from studio oversight that wished to focus on the romance between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall rather than the hardboiled source material.
Three decades later, director Michael Winner helmed an adaptation that stayed truer to the complex source material… despite updating the setting from 1940s Los Angeles to 1970s England. Still, the modern film meant reintroducing the more explicit elements of Chandler’s book related to sex and drugs, and lord knows the ’70s couldn’t get enough of either. Robert Mitchum reprised the Marlowe role he had played three years earlier in Farewell, My Lovely, making him the only actor – as of 2016 – to play the role more than once.
What’d He Wear?
The 1978 film adapts Raymond Chandler’s original language straight from the first paragraph of The Big Sleep, a style blogger’s dream as Marlowe describes his clothing that day for his visit to General Sternwood’s residence. Mitchum’s Marlowe describes the scene:
It was about eleven o’clock in the morning. I was wearing my dark blue suit, powder blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean-shaven, and sober. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on ten million pounds.
The only way Mitchum’s narration differs in from the literary Marlowe is flipping the shades of blue; Chandler’s written character describes “my powder-blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief.” (Of course, as the book was set in L.A., he is also calling on four million dollars rather than ten million pounds.)
Marlowe on the streets of London.
We know Marlowe’s suit is dark blue because Robert Mitchum tells us so, but it appears to be more of a blue-gray constructed from a wool and mohair blend. In 1946’s The Big Sleep adaptation, Humphrey Bogart wore a heavier cloth, likely a dark brown birdseye wool.
Mitchum’s single-breasted suit jacket has a somewhat unflatteringly low two-button front, although the nipped waist counters that by emphasizing Mitchum’s strong build. The shoulders are padded and roped with 3-button cuffs at the end of each sleeve.
The suit jacket’s wide notch lapels – with a buttonhole through the left lapel – leave no doubt regarding the film’s contemporary setting. Another concession to the ’70s are the long double vents which work in Mitchum’s favor given his tall, 6’1″ stance.
Marlowe goes calling on ten million pounds.
The jacket has straight flapped hip pockets on the waist and a welted breast pocket where Marlowe wears the blue silk display kerchief that matches his tie.
Less is seen of the suit’s matching trousers, which have a flat front with belt loops around the natural waist. It has side pockets where Marlowe frequently places his hands, and the bottoms are plain-hemmed.
Marlowe makes a less-than-admirable first impression on Charlotte Sternwood Regan.
Marlowe’s “powder blue” cotton dress shirt has a long-pointed spread collar that was fashionable during the decade. It buttons down a front placket and with a single button on each rounded cuff.
Despite some of the extra width seen on his lapels and collar, Marlowe’s blue silk necktie is still a relatively classic width, tied in a four-in-hand knot. As stated, it indeed matches his blue silk pocket kerchief.
Marlowe’s feet aren’t given much screen time, but his voiceover description appears to be inaccurate as the shoes look more like plain black leather slip-ons rather than brogues as there are no visible laces. The bicycle-toe shoes have a high vamp that differentiates them from more casual loafers.
Despite the potential inaccuracy of the shoes, Marlowe’s socks appear to nicely match the description in both the book and the film narration. They appear to be a thin black wool with blue side striping that is possibly a series of “dark blue clocks”.
General Sternwood (James Stewart) discusses his preference for champagne and brandy with Philip Marlowe.
Robert Mitchum was a fan of the Rolex – specifically the Rolex DateJust – in real life and often wore them in his movies. As Marlowe in The Big Sleep, he wears a stainless DateJust with a silver dial that gets some prominent screen time when looking over the porn he picked up from Arthur Gwynn Geiger’s shop. The watch is worn on an all-steel “Jubilee” bracelet.
Marlowe leaves no doubt regarding his watch brand of choice.
Marlowe’s only other visible accessory is the pair of large tortoise-framed glasses that he whips out when “disguised” at Geiger’s store.
This thick, oversized frame appeared to be a very popular style in the 1970s with some examples still found on Etsy or Pinterest.
How to Get the Look
It’s nice to see a film adaptation pay tribute to the clothing outlined by an author in the source material, even if there are some departures. Robert Mitchum wears a more subdued version of the suit worn by the literary Philip Marlowe.
Dark blue-gray wool-mohair blend suit, consisting of:
Single-breasted 2-button jacket with wide notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long double vents
Flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
Powder blue cotton dress shirt with long-pointed spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
Blue silk necktie
Black leather high-vamp bicycle-toe loafers
Black thin wool dress socks with dark blue clock motif side striping
Rolex DateJust steel-cased wristwatch with silver dial and steel “Jubilee” bracelet
Marlowe is proud of the blue silk display kerchief he wears in his breast pocket to match his tie. He is slightly less proud of the oversized glasses he wears to disguise his appearance during his investigation.
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and 
seasons. This suit in particular is only featured in three episodes toward the end of season 2.
