Fred Astaire in The Towering Inferno (1974)
Vitals
Fred Astaire as Harlee Claiborne, charming con artist
San Francisco, Summer 1974
Film: The Towering Inferno
Release Date: December 14, 1974
Director: John Guillermin
Costume Designer: Paul Zastupnevich
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
The Towering Inferno was released 50 years ago this week—released in Canada on December 14, 1974, two days before its Los Angeles premiere and wider release across the United States on December 16th.
Despite his prolific career primarily known for singing and dancing in musicals like Top Hat (1935), Holiday Inn (1942), and Funny Face (1957), Fred Astaire received his sole competitive Academy Award nomination for his performance as Harlee Claiborne, an aging con man with a heart of gold. On the day that the titular fire erupts in the new Glass Tower, Harlee has begun a flirtation with one of its residents, Lisolette Mueller (Jennifer Jones), escorting her to the dedication party in its top-floor “Promenade Room”, 135 floors and nearly 1,600 feet above the ground.
Though set on the fourth of July, the red sash that Astaire’s character knots around the waistband of his rented dinner suit adds a dash of festivity also appropriate for yuletide style analysis.
Harlee takes a moment to appreciate his tuxedoed appearance.
What’d He Wear?
Long considered one of Hollywood’s most stylish men, Fred Astaire likely had considerable influence on how his character would be dressed on screen, working with costume designer Paul Zastupnevich to ensure that Harlee Claiborne’s on-screen finery would align with how Astaire would dress off screen. Though Harlee’s tuxedo is canonically a rental from Tuxedo Junction (per the receipt flashed on screen), the screen-worn dinner suit identically matches what Astaire wore the following year during the 1975 Academy Awards, where he was honored with a nomination for his performance in The Towering Inferno.
Anjelica Huston, Jack Nicholson, and Fred Astaire during the 1975 Academy Awards ceremony. Photo by Ron Galella.
Astaire’s black dinner jacket has an elegant sheen, suggestive of a wool-and-mohair blend that would be an elegant cloth for staying cool during an event on the fourth of July. The fashionably wide peak lapels are faced in black silk with the added detail of a black velvet collar. The welting along the top of the breast pocket is also faced in black silk, echoing the lapel facings and covered buttons.
The jacket’s two-button front, hip pocket flaps, and long single vent are unconventional for a traditional dinner jacket, which typically has a single button, jetted hip pockets, and either no vent or a double vent. While rented dinner jackets are often tailored like suit jackets—making this choice plausible within the context—it’s still surprising that a sartorially meticulous dresser like Astaire would approve the choice. The sleeves are finished with three covered buttons on each cuff.
Harlee wears a pale-ecru evening shirt with a crimped front placket that’s flanked by ten narrow pleats on each side. The long point collar and single cuffs are double-ply cloth with a fancy tonal striping. Two gold-framed ruby studs shine from the top two buttonholes of his placket, though he fastens the third visible buttonhole with a traditional mother-of-pearl button. The studs match the gold-framed ruby links securing each single cuff.
While proportional to his long shirt collar and—to a lesser extent—his jacket’s broad peak lapels, Harlee’s large butterfly-shaped black silk bow tie most reflects the exaggerated fashions of the 1970s.
The tuxedo features matching black formal evening trousers detailed with the requisite black silk galon down each side seam to the fashionably flared plain-hemmed bottoms. Apparently styled with single pleats, the trousers rise to Astaire’s natural waistband where an extended tab closes through a hidden hook closure.
Rather than a conventional cummerbund or waistcoat, Harlee wraps a burgundy sash around his waist, knotted on the left side. “With a 31-inch waist and rapidly losing weight during dance rehearsals, this was, Astaire claimed, the most adaptable solution,” Josh Sims writes in Men of Style of Astaire’s decades-long preference for light-wearing waist sashes over more restrictive belts.
The burgundy silk sash around Astaire’s waist matches the lining of his dinner jacket, best seen when he dramatically pulls off the jacket to extinguish the fire that has overtaken one of the guests coming off the express elevator—much to Tuxedo Junction’s chagrin, I’m sure.
Whoever taught Harlee how to dress formally completed the lesson from head to toe, as he furbishes his feet with black patent leather opera pumps. Also known as “court shoes”, these low-vamp wholecut slip-ons with their black grosgrain bows remain among the most formal footwear a man can wear—rarely seen today even with the full white tie dress code. Naturally, Harlee wears black dress socks to maintain formal continuity between his pants and his pumps.
The all-gold watch on Harlee’s left wrist features a champagne dial and a unique gold double chain-link bracelet. Like the gold ring shining from his right pinky, this watch was likely from Astaire’s personal collection.
How to Get the Look
Fred Astaire and Jennifer Jones in The Towering Inferno (1974)
Though portraying a penniless con man, Fred Astaire still can’t help but to wear his “rental” tuxedo with a characteristic panache exemplified by the burgundy silk sash knotted around his waist. Smartly tailored for the slender entertainer, the black tie ensemble features plenty of character from the jacket’s velvet collar and silk-faced breast pocket to the ’70s-flared trouser bottoms over the tops of his patent leather pumps.
- Black wool-and-mohair single-breasted 2-button dinner jacket with black velvet collar, silk-faced peak lapels, silk-welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long single vent
- Black wool-and-mohair single-pleated formal trousers with silk side galon and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
- Ecru evening shirt with fancy-striped long point collar, crimped front placket with narrow pleats, and fancy-striped single cuffs
- Black silk wide butterfly-shaped bow tie
- Burgundy silk waist sash
- Black patent leather opera pumps with black grosgrain bows
- Black dress socks
- Gold pinky ring
- Gold wristwatch with round champagne dial on gold double chain-link bracelet
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
We’ve got a fire. And if it was caused by anything you did, I’m going to hang you out to dry and then I’m going to hang you!
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