Larry David on Curb Your Enthusiasm (Episode 10.04: “You’re Not Going to Get Me to Say Anything Bad About Mickey”)
Vitals
Larry David as himself, a neurotic comedy writer
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Summer 2019
Series: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Episode: “You’re Not Going to Get Me to Say Anything Bad About Mickey” (Episode 10.04)
Air Date: February 9, 2020
Director: Jeff Schaffer
Creator: Larry David
Costume Designer: Leslie Schilling
Background
Happy birthday to Larry David! Born 76 years ago today on July 2, 1947, LD grew successful as a co-creator of Seinfeld in the 1990s before becoming more visibly famous as an exaggeratedly neurotic version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is currently producing its twelfth (and possibly final) season.
The tenth-season episode “You’re Not Going to Get Me to Say Anything Bad About Mickey” begins with Larry consulting with the ubiquitous Leon (J.B. Smoove) amidst construction of Latte Larry’s, the “spite store” he’s building to steal business from his rival Mocha Joe (Saverio Guerra), who stops in to remind him that “good coffee is all about the beans.”
At the same time, Larry’s coterie is planning a plane trip to Cabo San Lucas for their friend Mickey’s wedding, despite Larry grumbling about having to travel two hours for a wedding, prompting his manager Jeff (Jeff Garlin) to utter the episode’s title in the unseen Mickey’s defense… and who could portray such a widely revered friend but the absurdly charismatic Timothy Olyphant?
This being LD’s world, the trip is fraught with low-stakes drama, including the “combustible situation” of his ex-wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) attending, Ted Danson’s unexpected arrival during an oral hygiene emergency, and Larry being twice asked to provide the pilot captain with each passenger’s weight ahead of the journey. As no one is willing to volunteer the information—with Jeff’s wife Susie (Susie Essman) going so far as to scream “I’d rather be dead in the Sea of Cortez than have you know what I weigh!”—the 163-pound Larry must resort to guessing, and his under-estimation results in he and his date Donna (Megyn Price) needing to jettison their luggage en route.
What’d He Wear?
It’s always fun for Curb fans when LD dresses beyond his usual sartorial formula of soft layers in typically neutral colors. Forced to abandon his luggage due to their private plane’s weight restrictions, Larry embraces the opportunity to dazzle his pals with a summery ensemble appropriate for a resort wedding.
Susie earnestly—if a bit passive-aggressively—compliments “I like the color, I like you in color,” while her husband Jeff is more candid about Larry’s new look: “What’s going on here? Are you Our Man in Havana? Are you undercover for the CIA?”
Donna may not love her borrowed dress from Susie, but Larry seems pretty pleased with himself in his new white suit.
The color in question comes from a floral shirt that Larry wears under the suit, patterned with a large-scale print of pale-yellow flowers and dark-green leaves against a light sky-blue ground. The pattern encourages the idea of a “Hawaiian shirt”, though the shirt design differs—specifically with its point collar rather than the flat camp collar of conventional aloha shirts. A column of white stitching down the front creates a placket-like effect aside the seven buttons.
Larry layers the floral shirt over one of his characteristic white cotton undershirts. Series costumer Leslie Schilling explained to Caroline Reilly for a 2020 Vulture interview that all of Larry’s white Supima cotton crew-neck undershirts are made by the Los Angeles-based Cotton Citizen, founded in 2012. The shirt’s recognizable banded crew neck is visible under the floral shirt’s open collar, and the visible sleeve-ends under Larry’s jacket suggests a long-sleeved T-shirt.
For better or worse, Leon’s fashion sensibilities may be rubbing off on Larry as he picked out his new clothes for Mickey’s wedding.
Larry dresses appropriately for the warm Cabo weather in a bleached summer-weight suit, made of white cotton. The single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels, double vents, a welted breast pocket, and patch pockets on the hips that are consistent with the suit’s sporty nature. The two mixed light brown buttons on the front match the four “kissing” buttons on each cuff.
The untucked shirt covers the tops of his trousers, but we see enough to know that they have side pockets and button-through back pockets. The plain-hemmed bottoms bunch up a bit at Larry’s feet, but they otherwise fit generally well for an off-the-rack suit purchased in a pinch.
Larry wisely leaves his usual ECCO sneakers in his “little box” of a hotel room, having smartly purchased a set of brown leather apron-toe penny loafers to compliment his suit. Schilling’s insights in her Vulture interview with Caroline Reilly suggest that LD likes to wear ECCO shoes in any situation, raising the possibility that these slip-ons were also made by the Danish footwear brand. His light taupe cotton lisle dress socks neatly balance the contrast between his white suit and his brown shoes.
Larry makes a stylish impression on his friends who are used to his neutral sport jackets, sweaters, and corduroys.
Larry has a tradition of wearing hats to beachside weddings, as established in “The Korean Wedding” (Episode 5.09) when he wore a ridiculous straw hat to their friends Mark and Marla’s wedding. “I’m married, I can wear whatever I want,” Larry told Jeff at the time.
Five seasons and a divorce later, Larry doesn’t have the same excuse to back his sartorial decisions, so he has to up his headgear game while protecting his famously bald scalp from the Mexican sun. His ivory woven linen short-brimmed trilby with its narrow brown edge-stitched leather band may contribute to the “man of mystery” pastiche that Jeff chides (evidently, Jeff making fun of Larry is part of the tradition), but it certainly harmonizes with the colors and spirit of the rest of his suit.
The Danson beef heats up.
Larry continues wearing his favorite Oliver Peoples glasses, specifically the round gold-framed MP-3 model that he had been wearing since the ’90s. “He does have a pair that are transition lenses,” Schilling confirmed to Reilly for Vulture, and these are almost certainly the glasses he wore for Mickey’s wedding.
After having worn a rectangular-cased watch with a pink dial for many of the show’s early seasons, Larry introduces a new round-cased watch during the tenth season, secured to his left wrist on an edge-stitched taupe napped leather band. The stainless steel watch has an elegantly simple design, with a large white matte dial detailed only with non-numeric hour indices and a sub-dial at 6 o’clock.
Larry grabs a sack of the Hacienda Hidalgo coffee beans that he hopes will launch Latte Larry’s over Mocha Joe’s.
Larry’s watch isn’t seen clearly enough to confirm the maker, but I suspect it could be an automatic Longines, though I can’t align as specific model with the details on the screen-worn timepiece. (The closest current approximation I’ve seen is the 39mm L4.812.4.11.2 model from Longines’ “Elegant Collection”, though this has Roman numeral indices rather than simple bars.)
How to Get the Look
Larry David and Megyn Price on Curb Your Enthusiasm (Episode 10.04: “You’re Not Going to Get Me to Say Anything Bad About Mickey”)
When Larry David steps out of his sartorial comfort zone, he does so with pizzazz, having some fun for a beachside Cabo wedding in an off-white summer suit, floral-printed shirt, and coordinated trilby.
- White cotton suit:
- Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 4-button “kissing” cuffs, and double vents
- Flat-front trousers with side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Sky-blue floral-printed short-sleeved shirt with point collar
- White Supima cotton crew-neck long-sleeve T-shirt
- Brown leather apron-toe penny loafers
- Light taupe cotton lisle dress socks
- Ivory linen short-brimmed trilby with narrow edge-stitched brown leather band
- Gold round-framed Oliver Peoples MP-3 transition-lens glasses
- Stainless steel automatic dress watch with white dial (with non-numeric hour indices and 6 o’clock sub-dial) on edge-stitched taupe napped leather band
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the series, including the tenth season—available on DVD and streaming on Max.
The Quote
This is why you don’t invite divorced couples to a wedding, Mickey!
The post Curb Your Enthusiasm: Larry’s White Wedding Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.