Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond (2006)
Vitals
Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer, arms dealer and diamond smuggler
Freetown, Sierra Leone to Cape Town, South Africa, January 1999
Film: Blood Diamond
Release Date: December 8, 2006
Director: Edward Zwick
Costume Designer: Ngila Dickson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Blood Diamond has been requested by several BAMF Style readers through the years. The movie is set during the brutal Sierra Leonean Civil War, which began 34 years ago tomorrow on March 23, 1991, when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebelled against Joseph Momoh’s government.
In his third Oscar-nominated performance, Leonardo DiCaprio’s portrayal of Rhodesian gun runner and diamond smuggler Danny Archer has been cited among his appearances in The Aviator (2004) and The Departed (2006) as a breakthrough into more mature roles for the actor.
After he’s released from prison in the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown, Archer begins seeking the release of another prisoner that he met while incarcerated—Mende fisherman Soloman Vandy (Djimon Hounsou)—due to his interest in the large pink diamond that Vandy discovered and hid prior to his capture.
What’d He Wear?
Danny Archer maintains an adventurous warm-weather wardrobe that balances military-informed functionality with a relaxed vibe, rotating through a handful of long-sleeved bush shirts in varying shades of green, blue, and khaki.
After his release, Archer wears the latter—a khaki washed cotton expedition shirt, detailed with sleeve pockets in addition to chest pockets. The two inverted box-pleated chest pockets are bellows pockets, designed to expand when filled, and covered with single-button flaps that have mitred lower corners. The patch pocket on the upper right sleeve closes with another single-button flap, though the patch pocket on the upper left sleeve has a plain open top. The sleeves are finished with button cuffs.
The front placket closes with seven mixed plastic buttons, which he initially leaves fully open over his white jersey-knit cotton sleeveless undershirt. (During the final act as Archer and Vandy narrowly escape the RUF’s violent takeover of Freetown, Archer wears an identically designed shirt, albeit made from a darker olive-brown cloth.)
For Archer’s journey to the South African capital of Cape Town to meet Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), he pulls on the additional layer of an olive-green field jacket that maintains his military-informed functionality with an added layer of warmth when traveling so much farther south than tropical Sierra Leone.
The design of this hip-length coat is reminiscent of the U.S. Army’s Korean War-era M-1951 field jacket, featuring a similar shirt-style collar and a straight-zip front covered by a snap-up fly. The long bellows chest pockets are each covered by a flap that closes with a single cloth-covered snap, mimicked by the larger patch pockets positioned below the drawstring-cinched waist. The set-in sleeves are finished with adjustable cuffs that button closed over self-gussets, and the shoulders are detailed with epaulets.
Archer wears full-fitting blue denim Levi’s jeans with the brand’s classic five-pocket layout. As seen when he tucks his shirt in for the journey to Cape Town, Archer holds the jeans up with a plain brown leather belt that closes through a burnished silver-toned single-prong buckle.
Later more clearly seen when he closes the shafts over the bottoms of his olive cargo pants, Archer’s brown combat boots have been identified as the slightly anachronistic Magnum Desert Operations series, introduced by Hi-Tec in 2003. These boots have brown sueded leather uppers with four sets of derby-laced eyelets, separated with a set of speed hooks from the four sets of D-ring eyelets up the shafts.
Archer wears gold-framed sunglasses in a narrow rectangular aviator-style shape with brown lenses. Some sources have suggested these to be the similarly configured Ray-Ban RB3309, though there appear to be slight differences that prevent my confidence to confirm this identification.
Archer’s watch is more easily identifiable, as we get several clear shots of the heavy-duty Breitling Chrono Avenger E133060 chronograph strapped to his left wrist on an edge-stitched brown calf leather bracelet. The 44mm case is made from a sturdy titanium, with a matching unidirectional bezel encircling the round black dial under sapphire crystal. The dial is configured with sub-registers at the 12, 6, and 9 o’clock positions and a white-wheeled date window at 3 o’clock, with boldly white-printed Arabic numeral hour indices at the remaining positions.
What to Imbibe
At the beachside bar in Freetown, Danny regularly orders bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. The traditional Extra Stout is a more robust and bitter variation of the smoother, nitrogenated Draught, also bottled at a higher alcohol volume (5.6%) than the flavorful 4.2% ABV Draught.
Historically brewed for export to international markets—particularly in warmer climates like Africa and Asia—the fuller-bodied Foreign Extra Stout is more robust version of the traditional Extra Stout, with a higher alcohol content (typically 7.5% ABV) and a richer, more complex flavor profile.
Over bottles of Guinness at a beachside bar, Archer meets the attractive Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) who immediately identifies him as a smuggler. “How about ‘soldier of fortune’? Or is that too much of a cliche?” he responds, before brushing her off upon learning she’s a journalist: “Off the record, I like to get kissed before I get fucked.”
If you’re looking for something harder, Archer takes some hard pulls from a bottle of Smirnoff vodka to brace himself ahead of the painful self-extraction of his false tooth… but beachside beers with Jennifer Connelly sounds much more fun.
How to Get the Look
Leonardo DiCaprio as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond (2006)
The roomy cuts of Danny Archer’s outfit dates it to the late ’90s, though his timeless combination of a field jacket with khaki expedition shirt, blue jeans, and suede boots remains ruggedly presentable a quarter-century after the scene was set.
- Olive cotton field jacket with shirt-style collar, shoulder epaulets, straight-zip/snap-up front, two large bellows chest pockets (with single-snap flaps), two large hip pockets (with single-snap flaps), drawstring-cinched waist, and adjustable button cuffs
- Khaki cotton long-sleeved expedition shirt with point collar, front placket, two inverted box-pleated bellows chest pockets (with single-button flap), right-sleeve patch pocket (with single-button flap), open-top left-sleeve patch pocket, and button cuffs
- Blue denim Levi’s full-fit jeans
- Dark-brown leather belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle
- Dark-brown suede combat boots derby-laced through eyelets and D-rings
- Gold-framed narrow rectangular aviator-style sunglasses
- Breitling Chrono Avenger E133060 chronograph with 44mm titanium case, unidirectional bezel, black dial with 3 black sub-registers and 3 o’clock date window, and brown edge-stitched calf leather strap
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
When was the last time the world wasn’t falling apart?
The post Blood Diamond: Leo’s Khaki Bush Shirt, Breitling, and Field Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.