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Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love (2000)
Vitals
Tony Leung as Chow Mo-wan, sensitive journalist
Hong Kong, Spring 1962
Film: In the Mood for Love
(Chinese title: 花樣年華)
Release Date: September 29, 2000
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Costume Designer: William Chang
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Valentine’s Day feels like the appropriate time to discuss In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai’s lush and compelling exploration of loneliness, loss, and love set in Hong Kong’s Shanghainese community in 1962. Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung), live with their respective spouses in neighboring apartments but each often find themselves alone in their rooms, venturing out only for noodles from a street stall where they occasionally make contact. As the two connect over their oft-absent spouses, Chow and Su slowly come to the realization that his wife and her husband are engaged in an affair.
Hoping to maintain the moral high ground over their spouses, Chow and Su optimistically explore a platonic friendship centered around her assisting him with a martial arts serial he hopes to publish, but the nature of their association in the conservative social atmosphere still pressures the two to meet in secret, whether in a hotel room he rents for the occasion or covertly in his room while the neighbors compete in a boisterous all-night round of mahjong. As Chow and Su grow closer, they find it increasingly difficult to avoid the reality of their feelings toward each other.
In the Mood for Love debuted 25 years ago in May 2000 during the 53rd Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or and won a Technical Grand Prize as well as Best Actor for Tony Leung as the conflicted Chow. A wider release the following September gave way to wider international accolades, including a total of 12 Hong Kong Film Award nominations with five wins; Leung and Cheung received due recognition as well as three for William Chang in the categories of art direction, costumes and makeup, and film editing.
What’d He Wear?
“The costumes are an outward manifestation of characters’ internalization of the gaze of others – of social responsibility and convention,” writes Ian Bryce Jones for Intermittent Mechanism. “From Su Li-zhen’s cheongsams to Chow Mo-wan’s suits, characters wear a uniform that projects how they wish to be seen by others. But we see that costumes also betray the secrets people keep.”
Costume designer William Chang dressed Tony Leung as a suitably stylish counterpart to Maggie Cheung in her eye-catching qipaos and cheongsams. Chow rotates through a handful of handsome suits, never dressed in anything less; even when in repose in his apartment, office, or hotel room, he may have taken off his jacket or tie, but he still wears a deconstructed version of his daily “uniform”, ready to put it all back together should his sense of decorum require it. Two of Chow’s suits are businesslike shades of gray: a dark charcoal suit and a mid-gray silk suit that appears to be his most frequently worn.
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All of Chow’s suits have single-breasted jackets, though the charcoal and subtly striped olive suit jackets have three-button fronts while the brown silk and this gray silk suit each have two-button jackets. The narrow notch lapels and short side vents follow menswear trends of the early 1960s, with soft padded shoulders building his profile. The sleeves are finished with three-button cuffs. In addition to the straight flapped hip pockets, the jacket has a welted breast pocket that Chow dresses with a plain white linen kerchief.
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The single reverse-pleated trousers have turn-ups (cuffs), side pockets, and narrowly welted back pockets, with the loop over the back-left pocket that closes through a single button. The waist is rigged with belt loops, through which Chow wears a slim belt of worn black leather that closes through a small, curved silver-toned single-prong buckle. He keeps his key on a chain connected to a ring that loops over the foremost belt loop on the right side.
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Chow typically—but not always—wears this suit with white cotton shirts, styled with a point collar, breast pocket, front placket, back side pleats, and single cuffs. Typically reserved for evening shirts required with only the most formal evening dress, single cuffs are exactly what they sound like—a single layer of fabric designed to be worn with cuff links, like double (French) cuffs but without the extra fold of fabric. Chow’s cuff links typically consist of pearl-like rectangular stones mounted on gold-framed links.
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Chow wears at least seven different ties with his white shirt and gray silk suit, all typically held in place with a gold tie clip that has a tall pointed shape rising from the straight bar—resembling the silhouette of a skyscraper rising from a city skyline.
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A selection of Chow’s ties, typically slim in accordance with prevailing trends of the early ’60s as well as to harmonize with his suit jacket’s narrow lapels and features.
Chow supplements his solid white shirts with a pair of blue-and-white striped shirts. When he firsts asks Su to dinner, his white shirt is patterned with fancy sets of blue duotone narrow stripes—two periwinkle stripes framing a darker blue stripe, all bordered by hairline stripes in the same darker blue shade. This shirt also has a point collar and breast pocket, though the cuffs are simpler button-fastened barrel cuffs.
After Su comments that her husband has the same tie, Chow explains that his wife buys all of his ties for him… and the two come closer to realizing that Chow’s wife likely bought Su’s husband the tie during their affair. Indeed, it’s a very distinctive tie with a wild abstract coral-and-cream pattern printed against the silk—a surprisingly inconspicuous choice for Mrs. Chow to buy for both her husband and her lover.
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The last time Chow wears this gray silk suit on screen is through the sequence when Su gets trapped with him in his room, unable to leave after the neighbors returned early. He wears another blue-and-white striped shirt, though the stripes are much narrower and closely spaced so that the shirting presents as a solid light-blue from a distance. Like Chow’s other shirts, it has a point collar and breast pocket, though he always keeps the sleeves rolled up so the cuff situation remains unclear.
Chow wears one of my favorites of his ties through these scenes, also featured several times with his white shirt. This retro-looking silk tie has a slightly wider blade than his slimmer ties, recalling the fashions of the ’50s. The blade is split into quadrants that alternate between cream and russet, with a sailboat motif printed in the cream sections.
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I had wrestled with identifying Chow’s black leather shoes, but they ultimately appear to be cap-toe loafers with high vamps. The side quarters recall open-laced derby shoes, though the shoes themselves appear to lack laces. Under the full break of his cuffed trouser bottoms, Chow’s socks typically appear to be burgundy with white stripes.
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Chow’s gold watch features a squared case with softly rounded edges and a shining gold minimalist dial, detailed with no more than the manufacturer’s name printed in black across the top. The watch is fitted to an otherwise plain black leather strap. He wears the watch on his right wrist, opposite the plain gold wedding band shining from his left ring finger even when the marriage is no longer shining itself.
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Chow’s undershirts—rarely seen, given what I said about how he is almost always dressed in at least his shirts and suit trousers—are white cotton sleeveless A-shirts.
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How to Get the Look
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Tony Leung in In the Mood for Love (2000)
- Gray silk suit:
- Single-breasted 2-button jacket with narrow notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and short double vents
- Single reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets (with back-left button-loop closure), and turn-ups/cuffs
- White cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and single cuffs
- Gold-framed cuff links with rectangular pearl settings
- Retro ties, worn with gold skyline-like tie clip
- Black worn leather belt with curved silver-toned single-prong buckle
- Black leather cap-toe loafers
- Burgundy and white-striped dress socks
- White cotton sleeveless undershirt
- Gold wedding ring
- Gold square-cased dress watch with gold squared dial on black leather strap
- White linen pocketsquare
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
I can’t waste time wondering if I made mistakes. Life’s too short for that.
The post In the Mood for Love: Tony Leung’s Gray Silk Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.