Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972).

Vitals

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, Mafia son and World War II hero

New York City, January 1946

Film: The Godfather
Release Date: March 15, 1972
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Anna Hill Johnstone

Background

Happy birthday to Al Pacino, born this day in 1940. It was The Godfather that arguably catapulted Pacino into public consciousness as one of the greatest actors of his generation, an impressive feat for an actor with only two preceding film credits. Although Paramount production chief Robert Evans had more box office-oriented names in mind for its central role ranging from Jack Nicholson to Robert Redford, Francis Ford Coppola insisted on Pacino who delivered in spades and received both an Academy Award nomination as well as a massive salary increase (from $35,000 to $600,000) to return as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II only two years later.

Although all of The Godfather is an acting tour de force for Pacino, there is one monumental scene often cited as the moment that truly established him as one of the most talented stars in the industry. An outsider to his family’s illegitimate business, Michael Corleone surprised everyone by offering to retaliate for the attempt on his father’s life by personally gunning down both the drug-peddling gangster and the corrupt police captain. Armed with the family’s blessing, an escape route, and a .38 taped behind an old toilet, Michael finds himself sitting across from these two criminals for – ostensibly – a peace meeting.

Michael, the decorated war hero and dedicated family man, finds himself wrestling with his conscience in the final moments before deciding to take two lives which – though not innocent lives – are still unlawful and immoral to end. The growing sound of an elevated train mimics Michael’s heart as it continues to pound, driving home the effects of what he’s about to do. As the train reaches a stop, so does his turmoil. He rises, gun in hand, and kills the two men.

What’d He Wear?

Bada-bing! – you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit.

Sonny mocks Michael’s plan for gunning down the parties responsible for the attack on Vito, even citing Michael’s outfit as a factor making him unfit to be a Mafia killer. Granted, Michael is wearing a slightly preppier corduroy jacket when having this conversation but the eventual suit he dons for the occasion – while dark – is still a far cry from the flashy silks and patterns associated with gangsters.

Michael’s charcoal gray flannel three-piece suit and striped button-down shirt still reflects the more conservative and understated “Ivy League look” of the era rather than drawing forth any gangland associations. The look more describes the crossroads of rough fabrics and casual clothes – appropriate for both town and country – than any specific tailoring points, although there was undoubtedly a Brooks Brothers influence on what came to be known as the Ivy League look by mid-century.

This scene could also play out as a revenge fantasy for anyone who’s ever had to eat with people that chew with their mouths open.

The single-breasted jacket has large notch lapels that roll to the top of a two-button front. The shoulders are padded with roped sleeveheads and the back is split with a single rear vent, a conservative concession to the fashionably ventless mid-’40s. There is a welted breast pocket and straight, flapped hip pockets.

The suit has a high-fastening vest or waistcoat, a simple single-breasted garment with six buttons up the front; the lowest button is left undone over the notched bottom.

Production photo from Michael’s life-altering moment.

Little is seen of the matching suit trousers, but they appear to have reverse pleats and plain-hemmed bottoms. Michael also appears to be wearing black leather oxfords and black dress socks, although his feet are never clearly seen on screen.

Michael’s button-down shirt continues to mark his look as more Ivy League than gangster. In addition to the large button-down collar, the shirt has a front placket and rounded cuffs that close with a single button. The shirt’s thin dress stripes alternate between white and dark navy. (Some angles in the restaurant make the shirt stripes appear red, but I believe this is just a reflection of the red neon sign in the window.)

A tense car ride…

Michael wears the same maroon silk striped tie that he wore for his Christmas shopping expedition and movie outing with Kay, bridging one of the happiest times in his life with one of the most seriously life-changing. The thin white diagonal stripes on the maroon red ground cross down from the right shoulder toward the left hip, originally designed by Brooks Brothers to be a distinctively American differentiation from the British regimental tie.

After a monumental internal struggle, Michael follows in his family’s footsteps.

The maroon shades of red in the tie stand out from the conservative charcoal suit, evoking the blood spelled that evening as well as the men’s dining options ranging from the burgundy “Italian Table Wine” being served to the red sauce on the “best in the city” veal.

Now that he’s officially joining the family business, Michael wears a hat on screen for the first time as a civilian. His dark brown felt fedora has a wide grosgrain ribbed band. According to the very knowledgeable Harris Reiss, who commented on this post, it very closely resembles a classic post-war Stetson with its welt edge, non-pinched crown, and 2.5″ brim.

Michael dutifully waits for his ride outside of Jack Dempsey’s place on Broadway.

He also wears the same brown wool single-breasted overcoat that he wore when out with Kay. It’s significant that he leaves these brown, earthy reminders of his law-abiding past behind when he is forced to escape his crime.

Michael’s sole accessory is his wristwatch, a simple steel watch with a round black dial on a black leather strap. This watch shares more similarities with the military watch that Michael wore with his USMC uniform than with the gold watch sported when he takes over as the family don.

Michael lights a Camel to ease his tension (and his T-zone!)

Luckily for Michael, Sonny’s prophecy is not fulfilled and Michael’s suit remains relatively devoid of brains.

Go Big or Go Home

This iconic scene is fondly recalled by audiences and critics as one of the greatest in the movie, if not in all of cinema. The scene, which Shortlist accurately describes as “literally mindblowing”, was even mentioned on The Sopranos as Tony Soprano’s favorite moment (although Vito returning to Italy to kill Don Francesco is often cited as his favorite in the overall series.)

When Tessio says “it’s perfect,” he may as well be talking about the restaurant as a setting for Michael Corleone’s dramatic transformation in addition to the mob hit. Before and after The Godfather, Mafia drama always seemed to happen in those little family restaurants, the type that Tessio lauds as “a small family place, good food… everyone minds his business.”

The killing is reminiscent of Joe Masseria’s 1931 demise in a small Italian-American-owned bistro in Coney Island, engineered by “Lucky” Luciano to both end the bloody Castellamarese War and to ensure Luciano’s own quick rise to power. Dutch Schultz and his cronies were gunned down in a Newark chophouse four years later.

Interestingly, the shot of Sollozzo and McCluskey dead at the table brings to mind both the now-famous image of Schultz collapsed on his table, mortally wounded, as well as almost eerily foreshadowing the real-life slaying of mob boss Carmine Galante seven years later… also at an Italian restaurant.

Sollozzo still sitting at the table recalls Dutch Schultz, while McCluskey – collapsed at the foot of it – would strangely be reflected by the killing of Carmine Galante in 1979.

The restaurant in the film is the fictional “Louis’ Italian-American Restaurant”, which Sollozzo likes for its veal but Tessio likes for its old-fashioned toilet’s ability to hide a gun. Sollozzo might have a better point from a Yelp reviewer’s perspective, but at least Tessio is thinking like a gangster?

Originally, Coppola wanted to film at Mario’s Restaurant on Arthur Avenue which had been mentioned in Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel. Mario Migliucci refused, not wanting to stigmatize the now nearly 100-year-old restaurant as the site of a fictional mob hit and instead focusing on the food. Thus, Coppola moved the scene at “Louis’ Italian-American Restaurant” to the Old Luna Restaurant in The Bronx, which closed down shortly after The Godfather was released.

Michael is picked up in front of Jack Dempsey’s Broadway Restaurant on Broadway between 49th and 50th in Manhattan. Considering that Jack Dempsey’s also closed down shortly after the movie’s release, perhaps it was a wise move on Mr. Migliucci’s part to distance himself from the scene… albeit such an iconic one.

Joe Lombardi works with Al Lettieri (Sollozzo) and Al Pacino to guarantee that the scene – and the gun – goes off without a hitch.

The shooting itself is a tension-breaking moment that had to be filmed perfectly to have the desired effect. Special effects team members, including Joe Lombardi and makeup artist Dick Smith, worked together to ensure that the timing worked perfectly. Both Sterling Hayden and Al Lettieri (McCluskey and Sollozzo) were fitted with explosive squib contraptions on their heads, synchronized to detonate as Al Pacino fired a specially-rigged revolver at them. As Smith described to Cinefex magazine in the early 1990s:

There was a metal plate on [Sterling Hayden’s] forehead and the squib on top of that — and [we] covered the whole forehead with foam latex skin, but left an area around the squib unglued so that I could take a hypodermic needle, prick it sideways through the skin, and squirt in a certain amount of blood to fill that shallow cavity — not so much that it would bulge. Then when the squib blew, it would blow a hole in the skin so the blood would pour out. The great trouble with that is it takes a lot of time to put it on, and when you finish, you have to take it all off, clean him up, and prepare him for another shot. It’s very time-consuming and of course you could not only have something go wrong in the filming of the scene, you could have a squib be a dud or something.

A nice dab of realism comes from the crescendo of the scene, as Michael completes his task and tosses the gun, flubbing the directive from Clemenza to “just let your hand drop to your side, and let the gun slip out… everybody’ll still think you got it.”

Michael’s vengeful initiation into his family’s dark side is nicely introduced by the somber and moody “This Loneliness” piano solo performed by Coppola’s own father Carmine.

The hauntingly beautiful piece wasn’t included on the official soundtrack release, but a version did appear as the fifth track on the rare The Godfather’s Family Wedding Album, also released in 1972.

How to Get the Look

For his last moments as a civilian, Michael’s take on the Ivy League look signifies his acceptance of darkness overwhelming his previously law-abiding life.

• Charcoal flannel three-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with large notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets, and single rear vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with notched bottom
  • Reverse-pleated trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
• Thin white & navy dress-striped shirt with button-down collar and rounded 1-button cuffs
• Maroon red silk necktie with thin white R-down-L stripes
• Black leather oxfords
• Black dress socks
• Brown wool single-breasted 3-button overcoat with notch lapels, flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, belted rear with single vent
• Dark brown felt 2.5″-brimmed fedora with dark brown grosgrain ribbed band
• Steel wristwatch with black dial on black leather strap

The Gun

It’s as cold as they come, impossible to trace.

Clemenza knows that absolutely nothing is allowed to go wrong as soon as Michael draws a gun on a vicious mobster and a New York City police captain, so plenty of consideration is put into the firearm that Michael will use for the shooting. The gun in question is a Smith & Wesson Model 36 “Chiefs Special” revolver with a 2″ “snubnose” barrel.

Clemenza hands Michael his killing tool.

“I left it noisy. That way it scares any pain-in-the-ass innocent bystanders away,” explains Clemenza after Michael’s ears continue ringing after test-firing the .38 Special round in Clemenza’s basement. “So you don’t have to worry about prints, Mike, I put a special tape on the trigger and the butt.” The family has a brief, contentious argument about how the gun will end up in Michael’s hands as he would surely be frisked on the way to the meeting. Once the restaurant’s location is revealed, Tessio gleefully recalls the “old-fashioned” toilet at Louie’s that would be perfect for hiding the weapon, ensuring that Michael wouldn’t walk out with anything more, um, compromising in his hands. (In the awesome The Godfather video game released in 2005, your character gets to be the one who plants the gun!)

While the Chiefs Special looks like any standard snubnose revolver favored by gangsters of the era, it is actually slightly anachronistic for Michael’s 1946 shooting of Sollozzo and McCluskey as it hadn’t been developed until four years later. Smith & Wesson was hoping to fill the gap between the large-framed six-shot .38 Special revolvers like the Model 10 and the smaller-framed and less powerful weapons like the I-framed .32 Hand Ejector revolvers. In 1950, Smith & Wesson rolled out this J-frame five-shot revolver – named the Model 36 when S&W introduced its numbering system a few years later – to offer the powerful .38 Special in a smaller, more concealable package.

Michael lets ‘er rip in the basement.

It quickly became popular on both sides of the law, with the moniker “Chiefs Special” winning a vote after the design was well-received at the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention in 1950. It also gained a lasting reputation for reliability and durability which was even reflected by the shady gun dealer in Taxi Driver who told Travis Bickle: “That .38… you go out and hammer nails with it all day, come back and it will cut dead center on target every time. It’s got a really nice action to it and a heck of a wallop.”

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the series.

The Quote

What I want… what’s most important to me is that I have a guarantee: no more attempts on my father’s life.

Footnotes

(Interestingly, Pacino shares his birthday with co-star and cinematic sister Talia Shire, born six years later and thus celebrating her 70th birthday this year.)

As Michael makes his escape from Louie’s Restaurant and leaps onto the running board of his getaway car… or so he tried. Supposedly, Pacino misjudged the leap timing and twisted his ankle, requiring the use of a cane for the next two weeks.

Cillian Murphy as Tommy Shelby on the third episode of Peaky Blinders.

Vitals

Cillian Murphy as Thomas “Tommy” Shelby, cunning Peaky Blinders gang leader and jaded WWI veteran

Gloucestershire, England, Fall 1919

Series: Peaky Blinders
Episodes: Episodes 1.03 – 1.05
Air Dates: September 26, 2013 – October 10, 2013
Directors: Otto Bathurst (Episode 1.03) & Tom Harper (Episode 1.04 & 1.05)
Creator: Steven Knight
Costume Designer: Stephanie Collie
Tailor: Keith Watson

Background

While many will be celebrating their Irish heritage this week (whether it exists or not), fans of Peaky Blinders may be interested to know that tomorrow marks the beginning of the Cheltenham Festival, the prestigious annual four-day meeting in the National Hunt racing calendar that finds many of the best British and Irish-trained horses racing against the backdrop of the excited crowd’s “Cheltenham roar”.

The 1919 Cheltenham Festival was the setting of Tommy Shelby’s decidedly unromantic “first date” with Grace when he pimps her out to ruthless gangster Billy Kimber after a display of his own gang’s power. Luckily for Grace (or perhaps for Kimber, as Grace had just gotten her hand on her revolver), Tommy grows a conscience at the last second and bursts in with the charming words that every lady likes to hear on a date: “She may look good on the outside, but she’s a whore.”

During their ride back to Birmingham, a revolted Grace tosses the day’s events around while trying to make sense of it: “Start of the day, I was Lady Sarah of Connemara. By the end, I was a whore with the clap. You’re a fucking bastard offering me like that, but then you change your mind. Why did you change your mind, Thomas?”

What’d He Wear?

For his day at the races, Tommy Shelby wears a gray shadow-striped lightweight flannel three-piece suit. The shadow stripes appear to be a muted burgundy stripe and a thinner gray stripe a shade lighter than the rest of the suit. Also from venerable Savile Row tailor Keith Watson, this suit is tailored and styled exactly like his darker herringbone striped suit, right down to the cloth-covered buttons on the suit jacket and waistcoat.

Although he acts disinterested, Tommy wearing a new suit for his “date” with Grace should’ve signaled something.

This suit is clearly a big deal for Tommy, as we get a concentrated scene that focuses on each aspect of his outfit as we see him putting it on for the first time in the series. Interestingly, the two major times he wears it are for major business events superficially disguised as romantic occasions; he wears it for his Cheltenham “date” in the third episode that is actually just a power move against Billy Kimber, and he wears it in the next episode for John’s wedding that had been arranged specifically to bring peace between the Shelby and Lee clans.

Like the herringbone suit I mentioned earlier, this gray striped suit has a single-breasted jacket with notch lapels that roll over the top of the three cloth-covered buttons. Tommy pins his boutonnière for John’s wedding through the buttonhole stitched through his left lapel. Although the boutonnière is a rare bit of flash for that occasion, Tommy always keeps a white linen pocket square neatly folded into his jacket’s welted breast pocket. The jacket also has straight flapped hip pockets.

A promotional still of Cillian Murphy on Peaky Blinders.

Tommy’s suit jacket has straight and padded shoulders, a shallow chest, and a pulled-in waist. The back is ventless and the sleeves extend down from roped heads on the shoulders to the two widely spaced cuff buttons, also covered in the same gray shadow-striped flannel cloth. It is, indeed, styled exactly like the herringbone suit (to the point where I borrowed much of my description from that post!), indicating that Tommy still feels comfortable in some variant of a uniform even after his traumatic war service in France.

The aftermath of a Peaky Blinders wedding.

The suit has a matching waistcoat (which we Americans just call a “vest”) with six cloth-covered buttons down the single-breasted front, leaving the lowest button undone over the notched bottom. Like his other suit, it has shawl lapels and two lower welt pockets.

Closing time…

Tommy’s pocketwatch – at least during the first season – is a gold Waltham open-faced railroad watch with Arabic numerals and a sub-dial at 6:00. He wears it in the left pocket of his waistcoat, attached on a gold link chain through the third buttonhole to a gold fob.

Tommy checks the time while waiting in his Ford with Mrs. Kimber.

The suit trousers ditch the bell bottoms that the real Peaky Blinders were known to wear in real life, with costume designer Stephanie Collie instead opting for trousers with a straight leg and short break that almost certainly look better than the real gang’s trousers would have looked anyway. The flat front trousers rise high on the waist – another preference of Collie’s, but a historically accurate one! – with frogmouth front pockets and no back pockets. Although they can’t be seen in any of these scenes, Tommy almost definitely wears suspenders (braces) to hold up his trousers.

Tommy and Grace arrive at Cheltenham.

The trousers’ short break means getting a better look at Tommy’s black leather combat boots. The cap-toe half boots have nine eyelets for front lacing and resemble the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ “boondockers” issued during World War II. Tommy wears his boots with gray socks that rise high on his calf and continue the leg line of his gray striped trousers.

Tommy wears this suit in three different episodes, wearing a different shirt each time. All of the shirts are striped cotton dress shirts that are worn with attachable white club collars that come to a sharp point in the front; the collar is attached with a gold stud through the front and back of the shirt’s collar band.

Each of the three shirts have white plastic buttons down a front placket and single cuffs for links. Even though this is Tommy’s closest thing to a “dress suit”, he continues his first season habit of never wearing a necktie.

For the suit’s first appearance at the Cheltenham races in the third episode, Tommy wears a white and light gray striped shirt that he tends to wear through most of the first season. His cuff links are reddish discs with silver trim that connect the single cuffs on a silver chain-link.

Tommy helps Grace out of a jam by calling her a whore. It’s a long story.

In the next episode, at John’s wedding, Tommy wears a white shirt with thin purple pinstripes. The single cuffs are closed by a pair of shiny, all-silver oblong links. This was also the first shirt seen on the series when Tommy rides through Birmingham on his white horse in the first scene of the first episode.

For the suit’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the fifth episode, Tommy wears a white shirt with thin red pinstripes. Like the others, he can also be seen wearing this shirt with his dark gray striped herringbone suit.

Tommy briefly watches Grace singing in the fifth episode.

On each sleeve of his shirt, Tommy wears a steel link-style garter.

Tommy’s watch, pocket square, sleeve garter, and collar are laid out before his big day at the races.

While some men of the era may have opted for more formal headgear for these occasions, it would be foolish for Tommy Shelby to go anywhere without his “peaky blinder” – a brown and gray mixed barleycorn tweed newsboy cap with a razor stitched just above the cap’s peak. When not wearing the hat or using its peak to blind an enemy (that’s where the moniker comes from, folks), Tommy stuffs the cap into the right hip pocket of his suit jacket.

The proud brother watches John get married… and thus end a feud between two of the most violent families in Birmingham.

John’s wedding is set a little later in the series as the weather is growing chillier, so Tommy wears his black herringbone wool single-breasted overcoat. This three-button topcoat has large low-gorge notch lapels, large flapped hip pockets, roped sleeveheads, and a long single vent. Since Tommy almost never buttons his coat, the black silk lining is often seen as his coat flaps around in the wind.

Tommy and Arthur arrive to deliver the big news to John.

Tommy appears to be wearing his same striped cotton henley undershirt, which has long sleeves and a four-button front bib with red stripes on the white ground.

On his left pinky, Tommy – as well as Arthur and John – wears a gold “belt” ring, as identified by a commentor on my first Peaky Blinders post. The belt is a choice motif for the Shelby brothers as it symbolizes “unbreakable strength of upholding loyalty” on its eternal loop, according to ArtOfMourning.com.

Perhaps not a coincidence that Tommy would press his belt ring against John’s neck when reminding him of his duties to the family.

Another reminder of the Shelby brothers’ strength can be found under Tommy’s left armpit in the form of a dark brown leather shoulder holster for his large Webley .455 revolver.

For those days when a razor blade in your hat won’t suffice…

For more about Peaky Blinders style at Clothes on Film, check out this page. As Collie told Clothes on Film: “These men probably only had maybe one or two suits, which is how we worked as well. Cillian has literally only got one or two suits throughout, but hopefully you don’t even notice that because you’re engrossed in the story. The clothes are there to be part of the story, but you don’t want anyone to go ‘oh, wow!’ when they see them. They can never be more important than what’s going on in the scene.”

Go Big or Go Home

With a major Irish celebration coming up this week, embrace Tommy Shelby’s drinking habits (and Cillian Murphy’s nationality) by getting yourself a bottle of Bushmills… known then as “Old Bushmills” as seen on the Shelby brothers’ frequently used bottles. As I noted in a previous post, Tommy also smokes Sweet Afton cigarettes, another Irish brand. Introduced in 1919 by P.J. Carroll & Co. (now a subsidiary of British American Tobacco), Sweet Aftons just made the cut of being correct for the show’s timeline.

Like so many other troubled white male protagonists on modern TV, Tommy often finds himself sitting alone at the bar with a cigarette and a glass of whiskey.

To know me is to know that I have a special affinity for music of the 1920s, so I was delighted to hear three different familiar songs played when Tommy and Grace are dancing at the Cheltenham races in the third episode. Interestingly, a few of the recordings were made during the 1950s using original ’20s-style arrangements. There was a brief trend in the mid-1950s that found many old Tin Pan Alley standards re-recorded for hi-fi players, and many old bandleaders from the era like Paul Whiteman and Jean Goldkette found themselves back in the recording studio to recreate the sounds that had made them famous three decades earlier.

Pro tip: Your date won’t like it if you ditch her in the middle of a song to deliver a sack of stolen money to a gangster.

The first song heard during the Cheltenham party is “Cataract Rag” as performed by Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen (Link). Colyer was a British trumpeter devoted to New Orleans jazz who cut this track for his New Orleans to London and Back to the Delta album. The first lineup of the Jazzmen performing on his album were Chris Barber, Monty Sunshine, Ron Bowden, Lonnie Donegan, and Jim Bray; this lineup was only together in 1953 and 1954 before splitting up. “Cataract Rag” had been written four decades earlier, in 1914, by Robert Hampton.

“Either your left leg is stronger than your right or we’re making a getaway,” Grace notes when Tommy picks up his dancing pace during “Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue”, here performed by Firehouse Five Plus Two (Link). While not published until 1925 and remembered as a standard of the “Roaring Twenties”, the song had actually been written more than a decade earlier, supposedly first penned by Percy Weinrich and Jack Mahoney in 1914. Firehouse Five Plus Two was a Dixieland workhorse throughout the 1950s, putting out album after album celebrating the first years of jazz and clearly having fun while they’re at it. I own several Firehouse Five Plus Two albums on vinyl, including The Firehouse Five Plus Two Story, Vol. 3, the 1955 album that contained this track. (Much to my neighbors’ chagrin, I actually use this recording as my alarm ringtone every morning before work.)

While Tommy’s beloved Grace does indeed have blue eyes, Annabelle Wallis’ statuesque height of 5’7″ prevents her from resembling the subject of the song.

Finally, the pace of the music slows as a recording of “Fascination” by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians underscores Tommy and Kimber’s negotiations (Link). Originally written as “Fascination Waltz” by Fermo Dante Marchetti in 1904 (with words added the following year), the song wasn’t published until 1932 and attained its greatest popularity the next year when it was used in the film The House on 56th Street starring Kay Francis. Guy Lombardo’s version featured on Peaky Blinders was included on his 1959 album Dancing Room Only.

How to Get the Look

Tommy’s lighter gray striped flannel suit is just a variation of his everyday suit, but it’s an example of how a man can determine his own “uniform” of similarly styled and tailored suits to be worn depending on the occasion.

• Gray shadow-striped lightweight flannel three-piece tailored suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted jacket with notch lapels, 3-roll-2 covered-button front, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 2 covered-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted waistcoat with shawl lapels, 6 covered-button front, notched bottom, and welted hip pockets
  • Flat front high-rise trousers with frogmouth front pockets, straight leg, and plain-hemmed short break bottoms
• White-and-gray striped cotton collarless shirt with front placket, white collar band, and single cuffs
• White detachable stiff club collar
• Silver and red disc cuff links
• Silver chain-link arm garters
• Black herringbone wool single-breasted topcoat with large notch lapels, 3-button front, flapped hip pockets, and long single vent
• Black leather 9-eyelet front-laced cap-toe “boondocker” half boots
• Gray tall socks
• Suspenders
• White cotton long-sleeve henley undershirt with red-striped bib and 4-button front
• White cotton boxer shorts
• Gray & brown mixed barleycorn tweed newsboy cap
• Waltham gold railroad pocketwatch, worn on gold chain with fob
• Gold “belt” pinky ring

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the first season or catch the first two seasons on Netflix!

The Quote

Everyone’s a whore… we just sell different parts of ourselves.

Jack Nicholson as private eye J.J. Gittes in Chinatown (1974).

Vitals

Jack Nicholson as J.J. Gittes, private investigator and ex-policeman

Los Angeles, September 1937

Film: Chinatown
Release Date: June 20, 1974
Director: Roman Polanski
Costume Designer: Anthea Sylbert

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Chinatown begins in the spirit of the best of film noir, with a private eye getting a case promised to be filled with sex and violence and fueled with countless cigarettes and potent whiskey. Gittes, resplendent in a creamy white three-piece suit, accepts the case from Mrs. Mulwray to follow her husband Hollis to determine if he is having an affair.

Hollis Mulwray is the head of L.A.’s Department of Water and Power, so Gittes first tracks him down to a public hearing where Mulwray is at the center of the controversial construction of a dam that would supposedly bring more water to L.A. Gittes is able to learn next to nothing about the man’s sexual proclivities from the meeting, but he does seem surprised that his subject is a mousy, conservative public servant and not a swaggering lothario.

After the meeting, Gittes tracks Mulwray to a dry riverbed and observes him talking to a boy on a horse. The boy is clearly not having an affair with Mulwray, so – again – this is of no professional use to our cynical private eye. Following Mulwray to a beach at Point Fermin Park yields no pertinent results either, other than giving Gittes an interesting case of swamp ass due to a strangely-placed stream of water that may or may not be important later. (Spoiler: it will.) Through some P.I. trickery, Gittes learns that Mulwray did indeed spend all night there… but with the water, not a secret girlfriend. The investigation continues.

Days later, Mulwray is dead and Gittes meets his actual wife Evelyn who – being Faye Dunaway – is certainly not the woman he remembers coming into his office at the start of the film. Gittes goes to meet the new head of the department, Russ Yelburton, who took over after Mulwray’s death. Yelburton is cagey, as Gittes expected, but our protagonist learned more about the increasingly complex connection that Evelyn, her father Noah Cross, and Hollis Mulwray all shared with the water controversy that will lead to Gittes getting shot at, sliced open, and beaten with a crutch before the case is solved.

What’d He Wear?

J.J. Gittes’ gabardine Glen plaid three-piece suit – the second of his suits seen in Chinatown – is one of the closest things he has to a business suit, wearing it for more run-of-the-mill aspects of his investigation like attending a town council meeting or checking in with a public official. He has no need to be his usual flashy self; in fact, blending in would serve him better for outings like that.

The suiting is a black and white Glen check with a subtle red windowpane overcheck.

The single-breasted suit jacket’s luxurious long and wide cut reflects the sweeping fashions of the late ’30s. The peak lapels extend across the chest to sharply pointed ends that seem to point up to the heavy sleevehead roping on the shoulders.

“Only when I breathe,” Gittes quips in Yelburton’s office about the new inconvenience of a nasal restriction.

Gittes keeps his two-button front open, as he tends to do with his single-breasted suit jackets. The buttons match the smaller four buttons on each cuff. The jacket also has jetted breast pockets and a welted breast pocket, where Gittes wears a white linen display kerchief. The back is ventless.

Gittes follows his mark.

The suit’s matching vest is single-breasted with six buttons down the high-fastening front to the notched bottom, although the lowest button is high enough that all buttons are worn fastened rather than leaving one undone over the bottom.

The pleats of Gittes’ trousers are also seen below his vest as he follows Mulwray down to the beach.

Not much is seen of Gittes’ trousers due to the long cut of the jacket and the vest over the waistband, but they appear to have reverse pleats and are fully cut down through the cuffed bottoms, which are finished with slim turn-ups.

Gittes wears black leather 4-eyelet oxfords and black ribbed dress socks.

Inset photo is a behind-the-scenes shot of Jack Nicholson while filming these scenes at Point Fermin Park.

When Mulwray begins his surveillance of Mulwray by attending a council meeting, Robert Towne’s screenplay called for him to be “impeccably dressed”. The finished film has him outfitted in this suit, paired with a white tonal-striped dress shirt and dark red patterned silk tie.

The white-on-white striped shirt has a large collar with long points and French cuffs that are fastened by brass oblong links. His dark maroon silk necktie has a multi-square pattern consisting of white squares intersected into nine boxes by a red grid.

Gittes affects a reasonably smug smirk while overseeing government inaction in action during a local council meeting.

A few days later, Gittes shows up at Russ Yelburton’s office looking for answers after Mulwray’s death. Again he wears this suit, offsetting its uncharacteristic professionalism with a pale pink dress shirt and another red patterned silk necktie.

Gittes’ pink shirt has a front placket and contrast collar and double cuffs. The white collar, like the other shirt, is large with long points. The white French cuffs appear to be fastened with the same brass links as the previously seen shirt. The silk tie has a red ground and an ornate motif of multi-colored ovals; each oval has an outer tan-colored ring stripe, followed by navy and mint green stripes of equal widths with a brown center core.

Gittes is no less smug (or nosy) after having his nostril sliced open.

As a 1930s private detective, Gittes’ practice would likely be closed down if he wasn’t constantly wearing a fedora. In this case, his hat is dark gray felt with a wide black grosgrain ribbon, tied in a bow on the left side.

A good private eye never goes anywhere without his binoculars or fedora.

Gittes’ watch is most prominently seen in these scenes when he uses it to synchronize for a P.I. trick (which I’ll get into shortly!) The gold watch has a rectangular case and expanding bracelet with a light Deco-style dial.

The script called for 9:37, but this looks a little more like 8:26 to me!

So You Wanna Be a Private Eye?

As a professional snoop, Gittes is always prepared to do whatever necessary to find out what he needs to know. He relies on his wits and, whenever possible, a few extra watches to investigate the Mulwray case as the complexities continue to unfold.

The Watch Trick

Having followed his mark, Hollis Mulwray, to the beach at Point Fermin Park, Gittes observes Mulwray standing by the edge of the water for an interminable amount of time. But Gittes is a busy man, and even a dedicated P.I. can’t spend all night watching a mark who won’t stop staring into the waves.

Gittes returns to his car after dusk and opens his glove compartment, revealing – as the screenplay describes – ” a small mountain of Ingersoll pocket watches”. He pulls one out, winds it, and checks the time against his own watch before wedging it behind the wheel of Mulwray’s Cadillac.

The script even called for each watch to still have its price tag attached, as seen here.

When Gittes’ associates return (after several attempts) to retrieve the watch, it was broken at the exact time that Mulwray left the park, giving Gittes the information he needed without forcing him to wait for another few hours. According to the screenplay, Gittes set the watch at 9:37; when his associate Walsh returned it, it said 2:47. That’s a lot of waiting.

Annoying the Secretary

After Mulwray’s murder, Gittes goes to find Russ Yelburton, the new head of the water department. Yelburton’s secretary, who remembers Gittes from his last pestering visit, is quick to dismiss any attempt to allow the nosy P.I. in to see her boss. Gittes exudes easy patience, explaining that he’s on his lunch hour when the secretary explains that Yelburton is busy.

“He’s liable to be tied up indefinitely,” she desperately attempts. Gittes charms it off as he settles in opposite her: “I take a long lunch. All day sometimes.” The secretary determines to burrow her head into her work, and the game begins. Who will hold out longer?

Look how peeved she is already! Gittes hasn’t even gotten started…

Gittes offers her a cigarette. She dismissively waves it off, as he taps-taps-taps his Lucky Strike against the gold case before lighting up. Gittes uses the silence of the office in his favor as he saunters around, looking at the numerous photos and humming “The Way You Look Tonight”. He spots Noah Cross, Mulwray’s father-in-law and – apparently – former employer? Gittes could get to the bottom of it, but bothering the secretary will serve a secondary purpose.

Gittes: Noah Cross worked for the water department?
Secretary: Yes. No.
Gittes: (knows he’s getting to her already) He did or he didn’t?
Secretary: He owned it.

Gittes, surprised by this new information, keeps pressing the testy secretary who becomes annoyed with her own contradictory answers and finally after admitting “Yes. Yes! They were partners…”, she gets up and struts into Yelburton’s office. Gittes allows himself a self-satisfied smile as he imagines the conversation on the other side of the door. See what a little persistence will do?

The secretary returns a few moments later, doubtlessly both irritated that her attempts have failed but also relieved to have the inquisitive P.I. out of her hair. She admits Gittes into Yelburton’s office.

How to Get the Look

Although Gittes is never one to shy away from vibrant, flashy colors, his Glen plaid suit is about as conservative as he gets while still retaining his signature flamboyance.

• Black & white Glen Plaid (with red windowpane overcheck) gabardine suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with notched bottom
  • Single reverse-pleated high rise full-cut trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
• White tonal-striped or pale pink dress shirt with large collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
• Dark red silk patterned tie
• Brass oblong cuff links
• Dark gray felt fedora with wide black grosgrain ribbon
• Black leather 4-eyelet oxfords
• Black ribbed dress socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Yelburton: My goodness, what happened to your nose?
Gittes: I cut myself shaving.
Yelburton: You ought to be more careful. That must really smart.
Gittes: Only when I breathe.

Donna Reed and James Stewart dance the Charleston as Mary Hatch and George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Vitals

James Stewart as George Bailey, bank officer and “nice guy”

Bedford Falls, NY, May 1928

Film: It’s a Wonderful Life
Release Date: December 20, 1946
Director: Frank Capra
Costume Designer: Edward Stevenson

Background

Today would’ve been the 108th birthday of James Stewart, and BAMF Style is honoring this screen legend by looking at Stewart’s own favorite character from his filmography: George Bailey.

Rated #9 on AFI’s 100 Heroes list and #8 on Premiere Magazine’s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time, Stewart’s portrayal of the Capra-esque “every man” still resonates with audiences 70 years later, especially around Christmas time (due to an NTA clerical error in 1974). In fact, the local Regent Square Theater near my house in Pittsburgh hosts a free screening of It’s a Wonderful Life every Christmastime, which I’ve been sure to never miss in the last four years.

One of my favorite scenes – not only in It’s a Wonderful Life but from movie history – is the Charleston contest where George and Mary reconnect and then find themselves drenched when a jealous rival for her affections (played by The Little Rascals‘ Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer) opens the dance floor to send the two flap-happy dancers into the school swimming pool. In fact, this scene was filmed at the Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles which indeed had a gym floor that could be converted into a pool with the press of a button.

The scene sums up the message of It’s a Wonderful Life and much of Capra’s work in total: love and decency can and will triumph over any obstacles.

What’d He Wear?

Being that it was filmed in black & white, there’s no definitive way to know the colors of George Bailey’s clothing unless it’s been documented anywhere. The film has been colorized several times, controversially in 1986 before an authorized colorization was released on DVD in 2007, but that tends to be more of an artistic interpretation.

However, an original poster from the film’s release in 1946 shows George in a navy blue double-breasted suit, holding Mary in the air. This scene never appeared in the film, but it has a dance-like quality that recalls this scene; given that this is the only double-breasted suit that George wears in the film, it’s likely meant to be this one.

If the cyanic tones of the 2007 DVD are correct, then George is wearing a navy blue gabardine three-piece suit, very stylish to the 1920s with its double-breasted jacket worn fastened to cover most of the waistcoat beneath it.

George and Mary really put their backs into the contest.

The double-breasted suit jacket has a 6-on-2 button front although George only keeps the top button done, which lends him greater flexibility criss-crosses his arms and legs to create the “illusion knees” effect when Charleston dancing.

George’s suit jacket has wide peak lapels – with a stitched buttonhole through each – that sweep out toward the padded shoulders. The jacket also has a welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and a ventless back.

The matching single-breasted vest remains covered throughout the scene, but – assuming it is styled like the rest of George’s waistcoats from his suits – it likely has six buttons down the front to the notched bottom and four pockets.

The top of George’s suit vest can be spotted just above the lapels of his jacket.

The closed jacket also covers the top of George’s suit trousers, but they’re likely pleated due to both the style of the era and the double forward pleats on the rest of his pants in It’s a Wonderful Life. The trousers are fully cut down to the bottoms, finished with turn-ups.

George executes the dance’s illusion knees.

George wears a plain white cotton dress shirt with a moderate spread collar and front placket. The shirt’s distinctive two-button cuffs were evidently a favorite of Jimmy Stewart’s, who also wore them in films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The shirt cuff has one button near to the edge and then another placed about 1.5″ further up by the wrist.

George’s silk tie is woven in two colors, colorized to be black and brown, in a Macclesfield-style pattern.

Luckily, George has his tie tucked back in by the time of his “romantic” first dance with Mary.

Both the formality of the suit and the intensity of a heel-kicking Charleston call for a laced shoe, and George appropriately sports a pair of black leather cap-toe oxfords with dark dress socks, likely in dark blue to match the leg line of his trousers.

Wouldn’t they have smelled the chlorine?

Go Big or Go Home

George: I’m not very good at this.
Mary: Neither am I.
George: Okay, what can we lose?

Both George and Mary end up proving themselves wrong; not only do they display relatively good form when dancing but they do end up winning the contest and that coveted “genuine loving cup” that Harry was touting. (The definitive proof is here.)

Donna and Jimmy master their steps while rehearsing in early ’46.

So what does one have to do to win a Charleston contest? There are plenty of online tutorials and videos, but the general consensus seems to be that – like the Black Bottom and the Lindy Hop – there is plenty of heel-kicking, arm-swinging, and knee-crossing whether solo or with a partner. Improvisation is encouraged, but there are basic steps that make a Charleston a Charleston and not just some flailing fool. The Guardian laid out this step-by-step guide:

• Put your arms out to the side, palms facing the floor. Bring your left heel up to touch your left palm.
• Repeat on the other side. Put a bounce into it so your flapper dress waggles. [This would obviously not be applicable for George Bailey.]
• Kick your left leg out with your right arm stretched out in front and your left arm at 90° to the side.
• Swing your arms to the right as you bring your leg down, then back to the left as you swing your right leg behind you.
• Squat forward with your hands on your knees. Waggle your knees in and out, crossing your hands in the middle.

On Wikipedia, the very specific “’20s Partner Charleston” style that George and Mary would have needed to heed is carefully laid out:

In the 20s, Partner Charleston couples stand facing each other in a traditional European partner dancing pose, often referred to as closed position which aids leading and following. The leader’s right hand is placed on the follower’s back between their shoulder blades. The follower’s left hand rests on the leader’s shoulder or biceps. The leader’s left hand and the follower’s right hand are clasped palm to palm, held either at shoulder height or higher. Partners may maintain space between their bodies or dance with their torsos touching.

The basic step is for the leader to touch their left foot behind them, but not to shift their weight, on counts 1 and 2, while the follower mirrors the motion by touching their right foot in front of them without shifting weight. On counts 3 and 4, both partners bring their feet back to a standing position, but shift their weight onto the foot they have just moved. On counts 5 and 6, the leader touches their right foot in front of themselves while the follower touches their left foot back. On 7 and 8, both feet are brought back to the standing position where the necessary weight shift occurs to allow the basic step to repeat.

Of course, the best way to learn is through visual aid. In 1927, dance instructors Santos Casani and Josie Lennard performed The Flat Charleston Made Easy for Pathé News. Given that risky stunts were a major fad of the decade, one sequence finds Casani and Lennard executing the dance steps on top of a moving London taxi.

The accompanying song by James P. Johnson is one of the catchiest standards of the ’20s and one of my favorite rhythms, with at least 70 recordings from different artists and eras on my iTunes. (Cecil Mack added lyrics which pay tribute to city in South Carolina, but I personally hate the lyrics. Sorry, Cecil.) Johnson, a pioneer of stride piano, composed his version for the Broadway show Runnin’ Wild in 1923, and a fad was immediately born as the dance reached its greatest heights through the middle of the decade. Contests were common as were dance-to-exhaustion marathons that could last up to five months… sometimes with fatal consequences.

My personal favorite original ’20s recording of Johnson’s “Charleston” is from Debroy Somers & his Savoy Orpheans, although the versions from Paul Whiteman and Ben Selvin’s dance orchestras are also pretty great.

In the late 1950s, Enoch Light put together his Charleston City All Stars band and issued several albums covering hits of the ’20s to cash in on the brief Roaring Twenties revival at the end of that decade. The leading track on the group’s 1957 album, The Roaring ’20s, is an incredible arrangement of “Charleston” that maintains the 1920s spirit without the overly contemporary update that Light would later add for “Charleston Cha Cha” or Ernie Fields would interpret with his surf-style saxophones in 1961. Woody Allen would later use the Charleston City All Stars’ recording for a brief dance scene in his fun 2011 flick Midnight in Paris.

Other more modern versions of “Charleston” that I tend to enjoy are Fausto Papatti’s trumpet-driven recording on Baby Blue, Vol. 2, the triumphant piano and brass cover from Frank Pourcel’s Flash Back to 1930, and the bouncy sax version that Ian Whitcomb & his Bungalow Boys cut for The Cat’s Meow in 2002. The director of It’s a Wonderful Life‘s musical score was Dimitri Tiomkin, the Ukranian-born composer who is best-known for his terrific Western scores in works like High Noon. I’m not sure if Tiomkin directed the version of “Charleston” used in It’s a Wonderful Life, but it’s a great arrangement of Johnson’s music and I’d love to find an isolated instrumental of it. (Attempts to make my own have not gone so well.)

West One Music, the production music agency, created its own similarly catchy number for the Quirky Vintage series which has found use in productions ranging from Mad Men to the “Oh Hello” sketches of Kroll Show.

Boys and girls and music. Why do they need gin?

You said it, Annie.

How to Get the Look

George shows up to the party as an afterthought, not expecting himself to have fun and dance with “the kids” so his conservative suit differentiates him from the many dinner jackets in the room.

• Navy blue gabardine three-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Double-breasted 6-on-2 button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with notched bottom
  • Pleated trousers with cuffed bottoms
• White cotton dress shirt with moderate spread collar, front placket, and 2-button cuffs
• Black & brown Macclesfield-patterned woven silk tie
• Black leather cap-toe oxfords
• Dark blue dress socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That’s a pretty good idea. I’ll give you the moon, Mary… Well, then you can swallow it, and it’ll all dissolve, see… and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair… am I talking too much?

Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger wielding a BAR and a Tommy gun as Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (2013).

Vitals

Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow, bank robber with “second sight”

Northeast Texas, Spring 1932

Series Title: Bonnie and Clyde
Air Date: December 8, 2013
Director: Bruce Beresford
Costume Designer: Marilyn Vance

Background

As an amateur criminal historian with a special interest in Depression-era desperadoes, I’d be remiss to let a year go by without commemorating the end of Bonnie and Clyde’s crime streak on May 23, 1934 when the now-famous duo was gunned down by a squad of expert lawmen on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

Generations later years later, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker have been romanticized to a level of fame that they never deserved in life. These Texan small-timers who have more confirmed kills than bank robberies made headlines due to the novelty of a woman’s involvement in the crimes, stimulating the boredom of a Depression-tarnished populace. Unlike John Dillinger or “Pretty Boy” Floyd, the two didn’t use their wit and wiles to get out of sticky situations, they relied on Clyde’s quick trigger finger and heavy leadfoot.

When Clyde and Bonnie drove their stolen Ford V-8 down that dusty Louisiana road 82 years ago today, they had no idea that they were driving into a police trap that would immortalize them forever, cementing their names as international symbols of illicit romance – Romeo and Juliet in a getaway car as Chicago crime writer Joseph Geringer dubbed them. Just when their story was finally losing momentum more than 30 years after their deaths, David Newman and Robert Benton were intrigued by their tale in John Toland’s encyclopedic The Dillinger Days and penned the screenplay that would become Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as the outlaw couple. The film’s style – of which I’ve written plenty (1 2 3 4) – and the glamour of its stars revived and revised the tale to even further romanticize the sociopathic lovers as a beautiful, happy-go-lucky couple unfairly hounded by aggressive, fun-hating authoritarians.

In 2013, the legend was given a somewhat fact-based refresh with the two-part miniseries also named Bonnie and Clyde with Holliday Grainger and Emile Hirsch in the titular roles. More attention was paid to aesthetic detail with incidental names and details that had previously been ignored finally incorporated into the story and actual traits – like Clyde’s impulsiveness and Bonnie’s vulnerability – were reflected in the characterizations.

This sequence is set in the spring of 1932, early in Clyde Barrow’s criminal career after he was released from the Texas state prison. He returns to Bonnie, whom he’d met very shortly before his arrest two years earlier and assisted him during his first failed escape, and they kick off their two-year criminal streak. Clyde and Bonnie bring on the scrappy Ralph Fults for a nighttime jewelry store robbery, a reflection of an actual crime that involved Clyde and two other associates in late April 1932. The jeweler, John N. Bucher, obliged with the thieves and was withdrawing the contents from his safe when he was shot. Although Clyde likely wasn’t the triggerman, this was his first involvement in a killing outside of prison and one that he would continue to regret. In reality, Bonnie was not present during this crime.

What’d He Wear?

During both the aborted Hillsboro jewelry heist and a daytime bank robbery in Ponder, Texas, Clyde leads his gang while sporting this oversized navy blue three-piece suit with subtle light blue and tan hairline windowpane grid.

The suit has an almost comically large fit, reducing Clyde’s image to that of a little boy in his dad’s clothes. While also a slight reflection of the era’s style, this helps to make Clyde look smaller – both physically and metaphorically. At this point in his career, he was still a pipsqueak fresh out of jail and looking to get back at the world. He thought of himself as far bigger than he actually was and dressed the part.

Clyde lets his .45 do his talking for him during the Ponder State Bank robbery.

Clyde’s single-breasted 3-button suit coat has large notch lapels with a buttonhole stitched through the left lapel. The shoulders are padded with roped sleeveheads and two buttons at the end of each sleeve cuff. The ventless jacket has a welted breast pocket and jetted hip pockets. The light brown lining can be seen as he raises his .45 when escaping the Ponder bank robbery.

Clyde wears a matching single-breasted 6-button vest. The lowest button is left open over the notched bottom. Like his other vests, it likely has four welt pockets.

Clyde’s vest is best seen a few frames earlier as he leaves the bank with a sack of ill-gotten cash over his shoulder.

The flat front trousers have a low rise, held at the waist with a thick dark brown leather belt with a solid steel rectangular single-claw buckle that looks more modern than a genuine early ’30s belt.

Due to their size, the trousers have a very full, loose fit on Clyde’s lower half and the cuffed bottoms nearly drag on the ground; it’s surprising that Clyde doesn’t trip over them during his getaway! The real Clyde certainly wore fully-cut trousers as photos from the era show, but these look more like they’re a few sizes too large rather than merely being full cut.

Such voluminous trousers would be dangerous for hopping onto a running board for a quick getaway.

On his feet, Clyde wears a pair of black leather 4-eyelet cap-toe oxfords that are nearly engulfed by the trouser cuffs. Due to the full break of the pants, his socks remain unseen throughout this sequence.

During the crimes, Clyde’s dress shirt has thin, alternating stripes in navy and light blue. It has a spread collar and button cuffs. He wears two similar silk ties with a “brushstroke” motif on a dark navy ground. For the nighttime Bucher burglary in Hillsboro, Clyde’s tie has large gray strokes; for the daytime bank robbery, it has shorter, more staccato tan strokes.

Clyde wears one of his “brushstroke” ties during the Hillsboro burglary.

For one of the couple’s famous photo sessions, he wears the earlier-seen light blue and white striped shirt with a white detachable club collar and a bright red silk patterned necktie.

This publicity photo also shows off Clyde’s trousers and shoes.

Clyde’s wide-brimmed fedora is gray felt with a wide black grosgrain ribbon.

This post from the L.A. Daily Mirror uses the production’s released photo of Holliday Grainger holding a shotgun on Emile Hirsch to recreate the famous Bonnie vs. Clyde photo from 1933, comparing the detailed differences between the clothing on screen and the outlaws’ actual attire.

How to Get the Look

Clyde dresses for danger in a large blue suit that nearly engulfs him, signifying that his budding criminal is getting into a lifestyle way over his head (and shoulders!)

• Navy blue blue-and-tan hairline-windowpane suit, including:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with wide notch lapels, padded shoulders, welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted vest with 6-button front, notched bottom, and 4 weltpockets
  • Flat front baggy-fit trousers with low rise, belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Navy and light blue dress-striped shirt with spread collar and button cuffs
• Dark navy silk necktie with light “brushstroke” motif
• Dark brown thick leather belt with a steel rectangular single-claw buckle
• Black leather 4-eyelet cap-toe oxfords
• Dark dress socks
• Light blue cotton undershorts with a 2-button waistband closure
• Gray felt wide-brimmed fedora with wide black grosgrain ribbon

The Guns

Clyde’s preferred sidearm is accurately shown to be a .45-caliber M1911A1 semi-automatic pistol, just as he carried in real life; the miniseries uses the anachronistic and more modern Colt Mk IV Series 70. A number of other popular Barrow Gang firearms are also seen during the photo session.

The famous photo of Bonnie playfully holding a shotgun on Clyde as she reaches for a stag-gripped revolver in his trouser waistband is recreated with surprising detail. (The recreation appears to be a behind-the-scenes one, as the on-screen version shows Clyde wearing his charcoal chalkstripe suit.)

Bonnie Parker turns the tables on her criminal companion.

In real life, the shotgun was one of Bonnie’s “whipit” guns – a Remington Model 11 semi-automatic shotgun in the relatively low 20-gauge. The miniseries uses a sawed-off Stevens Model 620 pump-action 12-gauge shotgun, which Fults is seen using in an earlier scene to kill John Bucher. The revolver doesn’t receive much – if any – screentime in the miniseries, but it’s meant to be the Smith & Wesson .44 Special “Triple Lock” revolver that had been taken in January 1933 from Springfield, Missouri motorcycle policeman Tom Persell.

Of course, Clyde is also photographed holding a Browning Automatic Rifle as the formidable .30-06 BAR was arguably Clyde’s favorite weapon.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the series and visit Frank Ballinger’s Bonnie & Clyde’s Hideout site.

Sean Connery as James Bond in From Russia With Love (1963).

Vitals

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
• White linen folded pocket square

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Once more unto the breach, dear friends.

Footnote

I just realized that this is the third post in a row where I’ve featured a navy blue suit… time to shake things up!

Geoffrey Rush as Harry Pendel in The Tailor of Panama (2001).

Vitals

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.

• Cream linen blend three-piece tailored suit, consisting of:
  • 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.

The Quote

Welcome to Panama, Casablanca without heroes.

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.

Links to the 2014 auction site with photos and the above description can be found at icollector.com, JustCollecting.com, and Live Auctioneers.

How to Get the Look

Michael Corleone breathes modern life into the traditional day cravat look by sporting it with a subtly checked summer suit and knit polo.

• Tan & cream glen check – with teal windowpane grid effect – two-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, ventless back
  • Flat front high-rise trousers with belt loops, straight fly, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White knit cotton short-sleeve polo shirt with 3-button collar and left chest patch pocket
• Earth-tone printed silk day cravat
• Slim dark brown leather belt with silver-toned rounded single-claw buckle
• Brown leather cap-toe loafers
• Light brown ribbed socks
• Gold wristwatch with round light-colored dial on gold expanding bracelet, left wrist
• Gold wedding band, left ring finger

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the series.

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.

• Gray & black plain weave glen check lightweight flannel suit, consisting of:
  • 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.

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.

Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas in American Gangster (2007).

Vitals

Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas, heroin kingpin

Harlem, January 1973

Film: American Gangster
Release Date: November 2, 2007
Director: Ridley Scott
Costume Designer: Janty Yates
Tailor: Leonard Logsdail

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Frank Lucas takes pride in not looking too flashy like some of his contemporary gangster pals, but this suit is a considerable – though not unattractive – exception to his rule. However, it’s telling that this is one of the last outfits that Frank wears before his eventual arrest.

Frank’s tan striped three-piece suit recalls an admittedly gaudier look sported by NYPD Detective Trupo earlier in the film when local detective Richie Roberts encounters a white-suited Trupo and his corrupt cronies in Newark. Now, Trupo has broken into Frank’s home, stolen his cash, and – most unforgivably – kills his dog. In a rage, Frank arms himself and prepares to go after the crooked cop… but his mother stops him, threatening that both she and Frank’s wife Eva will leave him if he takes this drastic step.

Faced with these unintended consequences of his pursuits and the possibility that he is becoming the sort of criminal he hates, Frank takes a step back.

What’d He Wear?

Frank Lucas’s tan striped three-piece suit is one of the louder costume pieces that Leonard Logsdail tailored for Denzel Washington to wear in American Gangster. The tonal pinstripe reflects its surrounding light, appearing white in bright or natural lighting and brown under dark lighting. All of the buttons are tan and brown urea buttons.

The single-breasted suit jacket is tailored similarly to Frank’s other jackets with shoulders well-padded to create a strong look that slopes down from the neck to the roped sleeveheads.

Although it’s too late to suggest a change of occupation, Frank’s mother is able to lend him some sage wisdom that likely saves a few lives.

Many styling details are straight from the ’70s. The peak lapels are wide and sharp with a buttonhole through the left lapel. The front is darted, and the back is split by a very long single vent that extends more than a foot, up to just above the waistline. The rear-slanting hip pockets, including the ticket pocket, are widely flapped.

The jacket closes with two buttons in the front and 4-button “kissing” cuffs on the end of each sleeve.

My, how times have changed at the airport!

Frank wears a brown silk pocket square in his breast pocket that matches his tie. The outline of the entire kerchief in his pocket can be seen in some shots.

Note Frank’s brown silk pocket square.

The matching suit vest has six buttons down the front to the notched bottom. There are four welt pockets – two upper and two lower. The back of the vest is iridescent silk that reflects blue in certain light. A back strap fastens through a silver-toned buckle to adjust the fit.

A furious Frank moves through his house without his jacket on.

The flat front suit trousers have a straight fly and on-seam side pockets. His dark leather belt appears to be a dark brown, matching the rest of the outfit’s earth tones, with a squared steel single-claw buckle.

Frank Lucas with two different lethal weapons: a 9mm Browning Hi-Power and his own mother. (Hey now!)

We never see below Frank’s shins on screen, but the trousers bottoms are likely plain-hemmed like his others. He may be wearing the same brown medallion-toe balmorals as he did with his light brown suit earlier in the film.

In fact, this could be called a slightly flashier variation of that earlier outfit, as he also wears a yellow shirt and brown silk tie with this earth-toned suit. This yellow shirt is much more elaborate with white striping throughout and a white contrast collar and cuffs. It has a front placket and a very large collar as collar points had grown much longer by 1973. The squared double cuffs are fastened by a pair of gold rectangle links, which seem to be a Frank Lucas favorite.

Frank puts his jacket on to get ready for a confrontation and ends up in a much more dangerous one than he expected.

Frank wears the same gold wristwatch that he wears throughout the rest of American Gangster with a square white dial on a gold bracelet. He wears a gold wedding band on the symbolic third finger of his left hand.

How to Get the Look

Frank Lucas’s loudest outfit is one of the last ones he is seen wearing before his arrest, a none-too-insignificant observation.

• Tan tonal-striped three-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped slanted hip pockets with right-side ticket pocket, 4-button “kissing” cuffs, padded sloping shoulders, and long single vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with four welt pockets, notched bottom, and blue iridescent back with adjustable buckle strap
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops, straight on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Yellow white-striped dress shirt with front placket and white contrast long-pointed collar and double/French cuffs
• Brown silk tie
• Gold rectangular cuff links
• Dark brown leather belt with steel square single-claw buckle
• Brown medallion-toe balmorals
• Dark brown dress socks
• Gold wristwatch with a white square dial on gold bracelet
• Gold wedding band
• Brown silk display kerchief

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Footnote

On the total opposite end of the badassery spectrum, Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) also tried to pull off a tan striped suit in a second season episode of Friends, “The One Where Heckles Dies” (Episode 2.03).

This is likely the only appearance that David Schwimmer will ever make on this blog.

Kirk Douglas as John “Doc” Holliday in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957).

Vitals

Kirk Douglas as John “Doc” Holliday, hot-tempered gambler, gunslinger, and ex-dentist

Tombstone, AZ, October 1881

Film: Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Release Date: May 30, 1957
Director: John Sturges
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

Today would have been the 165th birthday of Doc Holliday, the erstwhile dentist who shot to Old West superstardom after his involvement with the Earp brothers during the infamous 1881 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, immortalized on film in the appropriately-named Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Tombstone (1993).

Although Val Kilmer’s portrayal in Tombstone is often called the definitive Doc Holliday, today’s post will focus on Kirk Douglas’ performance which is arguably the first time that the troubled, tubercular gunfighter was accurately portrayed on screen. Douglas brought an emotional depth to a character that had been relatively mistreated and relegated to a stock character in the preceding four decades of Westerns. Although Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was still an uncomplicated film that relied more on folklore than facts, Douglas’ performance helped develop public consciousness of the bitter gunfighter whose best days were behind him and was well aware that he was living on borrowed time.

What’d He Wear?

Kirk Douglas’ Doc Holliday wears a charcoal dress suit and red brocade vest for many important scenes in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral: his on-screen introduction, his knife fight with Ed Bailey, and the titular gunfight itself. The rest of the time, he wears a slightly less formal gray lounge suit – a 1950s costume variation of what a businessman might have worn in the early 1880s. Still, flamboyant Old West gambler that he is, Doc pairs the gray business suit with a similarly-styled brocade vest in green silk.

This gray semi-solid wool suit is styled similarly to his other suit. The single-breasted jacket has slim peak lapels and a high 2-button stance. The lower button is on the natural waistline, which extends around the sides of the jacket (along the top of each wide hip pocket flap) to the decorative two buttons on the back. Each of the two decorative back buttons is fastened at the top of a vent. The jacket also has straight shoulders and spaced 2-button cuffs.

Doc in repose and in action.

The suit’s matching trousers are cut straight from the long rise to Kirk Douglas’ natural waist down to the plain-hemmed bottoms. They are flat in the front with frogmouth pockets that slant down and out from the belt line. There are no back pockets.

The trouser belt loops are somewhat anachronistic for a business suit, as these weren’t popular on men’s trousers until the 1920s; Doc wears a black leather belt with a squared steel single-claw buckle.

Doc really takes advantage of the local barber shop.

Rather than the dramatic red waistcoat worn with his charcoal suit, Doc always wears a rich green silk brocade vest with this gray suit. It is similarly styled to the earlier vest, with slim shawl lapels and four covered buttons tightly placed below a low-fastening V-shaped opening. The back is lined in black silk with an adjustable strap that closes through a buckle.

Doc wears his gold pocket watch in a welted pocket on the right side. As identified in the previous post (which also provides a great look at the watch itself), Doc wears a yellow gold full hunter Waltham railroad watch on a gold chain.

Other than the differently colored and styled suit and vest, Doc appears to wear everything else exactly the same between the two outfits: the same gray ruffled-front shirt, black string tie, black leather boots, and black gambler’s hat. (When he isn’t wearing the light gray shirt, he sometimes wears a non-ruffled but similarly-styled ecru shirt.)

The light gray shirt has an attached soft turndown spread collar with long points. The ruffled front bib is pleated with mother-of-pearl buttons down the placket. Each squared cuff closes with a single button as well as a button on each gauntlet, which Doc appears to leave unfastened.

TB can be a real pain in the ass… (and throat.)

The outfit is also dated by its simple black satin string tie, an icon of the Old West that is best known to today’s KFC patrons as Colonel Sanders’ preferred neckwear. As I wrote in an earlier post, Cattle Kate offers these ties for sale for only $14 with the accurate description of “one long piece of silk to tie into a floppy bow… a favorite of gamblers and gentlemen callers everywhere.” Pre-tied examples are available from Gentleman’s Emporium for $22 as the “Western Bow Tie” and, of course, Amazon for a cool $5.50.

The 1880s may have been the last time a man in a string tie was truly taken seriously.

Doc’s plain black leather boots have tall riding heels and appear to be worn with a pair of thick light gray ribbed socks.

Am I right about his socks in the photo on the right?

Doc appropriately wears an all-black “gambler hat”, a more urban evolution of the low-crowned telescope hat worn by Mexican cowboys in the southwest. The low, round crown prevented hot air from accumulating inside the hat. The telescope hat also featured a wide brim to protect its wearers from the piercing sun; since gamblers spent most of their time inside, the gambler hat featured a smaller, upturned brim like Doc’s.

Two brooding heroes in black hats.

More comfortable as a “city dude” than many of his contemporaries, Doc channels more modern gun owners by concealing his Remington Model 1875 revolver in a low-slung brown leather shoulder holster under his left armpit, allowing for an easy draw with his right hand. The holster rig appears to be secured to his torso with a thin strap that enters through his left vest pocket and may fasten to his trouser belt.

Wyatt Earp (Burt Lancaster) eyes Doc’s shoulder rig.

As a flashy gentleman who takes pride in his somewhat ill-gotten material wealth, Doc wears a gold ring on the third finger of his left hand. The ring has a large oval red coral setting.

How to Get the Look

Though hardly a businessman in the traditional sense, Doc Holliday maintains a look in town that infuses elements of his flamboyant personality with conservative business dress.

• Gray semi-solid wool lounge suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with slim peak lapels, straight widely-flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and decorative 2-button back with double vents
  • Flat front high-rise trousers with belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Green silk brocade vest with low V-shaped opening, single-breasted 4-button front, welted hip pockets, and adjustable back strap
• Light gray dress shirt with turndown collar, ruffled front placket, pleated bib, and squared button cuffs
• Black satin string bow tie
• Black leather belt with square steel single-claw buckle
• Black calf leather plain-toe boots with tall riding heels
• Light gray ribbed socks
• Black gambler hat with round crown and black ribbon
• Brown leather custom shoulder holster, worn under left arm
• Yellow gold Waltham full hunter pocket watch with dust cover, white dial (with Roman numerals and 6:00 sub-dial), and gold chain
• Gold ring with large oval red coral setting

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

I don’t lose because I have nothing to lose, including my life.

Robert De Niro as Carl Van Loon in Limitless (2011).

Vitals

Robert De Niro as Carl Van Loon, intimidating and volatile finance tycoon

New York City, Spring 2010

Film: Limitless
Release Date: March 18, 2011
Director: Neil Burger
Costume Designer: Jenny Gering

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Robert De Niro has been making the news lately, whether for his political takes or even a fan having calculated the exact year that the actor “gave up” in his career. (2002, if you’re curious.) Let’s shove all that aside and just wish a happy birthday to this legendary actor, born 73 years ago today in Greenwich Village.

Limitless is one of the few post-2002 movies in his career with a pretty positive Rotten Tomatoes ranking (70%, last I checked) with De Niro sliding back into the role of a force to be reckoned with. A powerful, no-nonsense corporate raider with a keen eye for bullshit, De Niro’s Carl Van Loon is the type that anyone in the finance business would kill to work with. When Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) get his chance, the two sit down for a Gordon Gekko-style lunch meeting that leads to an impromptu assignment that could make or break Eddie’s future in the finance world.

What’d He Wear?

A strong navy suit, crisp white shirt, and red silk tie is considered a classic business outfit. Sticking within the confines of these few colors, Carl Van Loon allows his expression to come out through sartorial details that one can only see when he allows them close enough to see.

For his first meeting with Eddie, Van Loon wears a dark navy blue lightweight wool suit with tonal herringbone stripes. The single-breasted, 2-button suit jacket has wide and sharp peak lapels with a buttonhole through the left lapel. The shoulders are padded and – in tandem with the sharp lapel peaks and roped sleeveheads – create a strong silhouette to provide an atmosphere of intimidation that Van Loon likes for his lunch meetings… or anyone he meets, for that matter.

Van Loon shoots Eddie a true De Niro Death Glare.

The jacket has functioning 4-button cuffs, flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket, which catches Eddie’s eye for the subtly luxurious red silk display kerchief carefully folded to poke out.

It’s the little things… like a red silk pocket square that symbolizes the blood you’ll spill if you cross its owner in a business deal.

The low rise suit trousers have a flat front, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. Van Loon wears them with a black coated leather belt that has a gold single-claw buckle.

Van Loon matches his belt to his shoes with a pair of black leather balmorals with long, pointed toes. His dark socks are probably blue to continue the trouser leg line.

Van Loon’s first appearance as he makes his way into the restaurant for his lunch meeting with Eddie.

For his lunch meeting with Eddie, Van Loon wears a solid white cotton dress shirt with a point collar and French cuffs, fastened with gold cluster links. While super-slim cutaway spread collars have been very trendy on men’s shirts for the last few years, Van Loon knows what works best for him and eschews the fads in favor of something more personally flattering.

Van Loon’s first tie appears to be solidly dark red with light specks from a distance, but a closer examination (both from Eddie and the audience) when he sits down reveals a very complex pattern of navy, maroon, and white. This woven silk tie has a series of differing and ornate red shapes that encapsulate a white four-dot series or a four-pointed white “floral” burst, all connected by a loose navy grid. There may be a better description for this pattern, but – if there is – I don’t know it.

Couldn’t ask for a better shot of the tie. You could probably get a better description than the one I provide, though.

Later, during a meeting at his firm, Van Loon wears the same suit (right down to the pocket square) but with a two-tone light blue butcher’s stripe dress shirt. This shirt has a tab collar with a gold collar pin. Over the pin, he wears a silk tie with a similar color scheme to the first; this tie has a repeating pattern of light blue and tan broken squares, each with a dot in the center that exposes the dark red ground of the tie. The tan squares also have an “X” in the same shade of blue as the alternating squares on the tie.

A production still of Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper in Limitless.

While sizing up Van Loon’s attire, Eddie’s eye lingers on the stunning 18-carat white gold Breguet Classique 5197 self-winding watch on Van Loon’s left wrist. Like the rest of his wardrobe, the watch looks elegant in its simplicity but a closer look reveals a complex silvered gold dial layout with staggered Roman numeral markings and a 6:00 date window.

Eddie picks up on the details of Carl Van Loon’s wardrobe and is immediately able to size up his new prospective employer.

One strong aspect of Carl Van Loon’s wardrobe is his brand of individualized fashionability. Single-breasted jackets with peak lapels have been enjoying a resurgence lately, so it’s not surprising to see a slick businessman like Van Loon sporting one tailored for him. Although he doesn’t always defer to trends, he is certainly aware of them. He dresses appropriately for his body type, conforming the trends to suit him as one would expect for a man who can masterfully manipulate most of those around him.

Go Big or Go Home

…and go home in a sleek black Maybach. While more old-school money types may be chauffeured around town in a Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Cadillac, or Mercedes-Benz, Van Loon is seen around the city in a rare Maybach 62, a full-size luxury sedan that was one of the first models rolled out under the Maybach marque after the century-old brand was revived by Daimler.

Van Loon’s Maybach glides toward Chinatown to drop off Eddie.

The ultra-premium Maybach would be short-lived, unable to totally recover from the 2008 financial crisis despite (or perhaps due to) it receiving first place in that year’s Luxury Brand Status Index. This provides an interesting parallel to Van Loon’s career, rendered essentially obsolete by the end of the film in the wake of Eddie Morra’s unstoppable success. (Maybach hadn’t even announced that 2013 would be the last year of production until more than six months after Limitless was released, making this an even more intuitive decision than the filmmakers may have even realized!)

How to Get the Look

Carl Van Loon’s suit paints him as a fashionable, confident, and patriotic businessman.

• Navy blue herringbone tonal-striped lightweight wool suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and 4-button cuffs
  • Flat front low rise trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton dress shirt with point collar and double/French cuffs
• Red, blue, and white complex-patterened silk tie
• Round gold cluster cuff links
• Black coated leather belt with gold single-claw buckle
• Black leather pointed-toe balmorals
• Dark blue dress socks
• Breguet Classique 5197 wristwatch with white gold round 35.5mm case, silvered gold dial with 6:00 date window, and black alligator leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie and, if you see Robert De Niro, wish him a happy birthday from BAMF Style.

Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1946).

Vitals

Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe, archetypal hard-boiled private detective

Los Angeles, Fall 1945

Film: The Big Sleep
Release Date: August 23, 1946
Director: Howard Hawks
Wardrobe Credit: Leah Rhodes

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today is a pretty special day for me, and I’d like to celebrate the woman who is the Bacall to my Bogie by reflecting on The Big Sleep, which was originally released in theaters 70 years ago tomorrow, eight days after its premiere on August 23, 1946.

The Big Sleep was the second of four films starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The had originally met while filming her cinematic debut, To Have and Have Not, which was released on October 11, 1944, the very day after production began on The Big Sleep. (To Have and Have Not is also the first movie that my girlfriend and I watched together!)

At the time, Bogie was still married to his third wife, Mayo Methot, although their union was a disastrous one that was already on the brink by the time the 44-year-old actor met the 19-year-old Lauren Bacall. Director Howard Hawks disapproved of the Bacall-Bogart affair from the start, and he even tried to set her up with Clark Gable to try to dissuade her from pursuing an affair with Bogart. True love prevailed, however, and one of the most famous marriages in Hollywood history officially kicked off on May 21, 1945, four months after production ended on The Big Sleep and three months after Bogart filed for divorce from Methot.

The Bacall-Bogart romance instantly became a cultural phenomenon. Her agent, Charles K. Feldman, conspired with legendary producer Jack L. Warner to use The Big Sleep as an opportunity to cash in on the newlyweds, so several scenes were re-shot to emphasize the romance between Philip Marlowe and Vivian Rutledge, further complicating the plot but cementing their red-hot chemistry on screen under the re-direction of a begrudging Howard Hawks, who made them promise not to get “mushy all the time”.

A scene between Bogie and Bacall was originally set in Marlowe’s office with Vivian wearing a somber black veil (top, 1945 version).
After the couple became red-hot in Hollywood, the scene was re-shot as a much more flirtatious and glamorous encounter in a café. (bottom, 1946 version)

Production on the original version of The Big Sleep wrapped on January 12, 1945, but the Bacall-Bogart marriage and the end of World War II meant the innuendo-laden re-shoots didn’t begin until January 2, 1946. (For an in-depth comparison of the original version and the theatrical release, check out this page.)

One example of a prominently changed scene finds Vivian meeting Marlowe to tell him that her father, General Sternwood, wants to officially end the case for which he hired the P.I. The original version has a black veiled Vivian visiting Marlowe in his office, followed by some straightforward and only slightly flirtatious dialogue and Marlowe calling up Eddie Mars for a meeting that evening. In the theatrical version re-shot a year later, Marlowe meets a now glamorously-dressed Vivian in a café, where they each enjoy a Scotch (“mixed” for her, served with plain water for him) and quickly get the same expository dialogue out of the way before laying on the risqué talk about playing horses and who’s in who’s saddle.

Despite Hawks’ reluctance to direct the happy couple, the mood on set was markedly more positive by the time of the 1946 re-shoots. During the original production, Bogart’s inner conflict between his marriage to Methot and his love for Bacall led to Bacall’s hands shaking whenever her character was lighting a cigarette or pouring a drink. The re-shoots were supposedly so much fun that Bacall recalled a memo from Jack L. Warner that said: “Word has reached me that you are having fun on the set. This must stop.”

And fun it must have been, as Bogie and Bacall went on to co-star in two more classics – Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948) – and establishing their place in Hollywood history as one of the greatest couples of all time.

What’d He Wear?

One of the three suits that Humphrey Bogart wears in his lone but iconic outing as Philip Marlowe is a dark chalkstripe woolen flannel two-piece suit with a double-breasted jacket. Marlowe wears this suit for many of his “romantic” moments with Vivian, including the re-shot café scene and the sequence at Eddie Mars’ gambling den.

The dark chalkstripe flannel double-breasted suit appears to have been a real-life preference for Humphrey Bogart during this period, who also sported similar suits in The Roaring Twenties and The Maltese Falcon, among other films. This may even be the exact same suit that he wore in Conflict, filmed and released in 1945 between re-shoots of The Big Sleep. (Both this suit and the Conflict suit have four-on-two button fronts and 3-button cuffs.)

Marlowe questions the Sternwood family’s intentions when Vivian visits his office in the original 1945 release.

Since The Big Sleep was filmed and released in black and white, there’s no way of knowing the original color of the suit unless an official record exists from the production. Contemporary promotional art from the film’s release has colorized the suit to be both navy blue and charcoal gray, both fine options for a soft flannel chalkstripe suit.

Double-breasted jackets were very stylish during the 1940s, although the extra fabric required often meant sales were restricted during the war years. Marlowe wears a four-button suit jacket with two to close. The sharp peak lapels have straight gorges and a buttonhole through the left lapel. The padded shoulders with roped sleeveheads, suppressed waist, and ventless back all follow the era’s fashion while strengthening Bogart’s slight frame to create a strong and suave appearance.

Who exactly was Vivian mourning in this scene? Her father’s blackmailer? The pornographer who had corrupted her sister? The murderous family chauffeur?

The straight hip pockets are jetted without flaps, typical for a double-breasted jacket, and Marlowe wears a white linen display kerchief in his welted breast pocket. This handkerchief has a white silk overcheck for a subtle contrast that adds a touch of luxury.

Clearly, Vivian was no longer mourning during the 1946 re-shoots when her black veil was replaced by a bold lamé jacket.

Since Marlowe keeps his jacket buttoned throughout the theatrical version released in 1946, the trousers are best seen in the original 1945 version when Marlowe is surprised by Vivian at his office. The long rise of his trousers means that Marlowe has to unbutton the jacket to comfortably access the keys that he keeps in his right-hand pocket, attached by a chain to a belt loop on the right side of his fly. This reveals that the trousers have double forward pleats, unlike his other suit pants which have double reverse pleats.

Supposedly, Bogart’s ear-tugging was a real-life nervous tic that he worked into the Marlowe character.

This scene also reveals that Marlowe is wearing the same slim decorative-tooled leather belt with Western style points like the metal tip and the ranger-shaped single-claw buckle. These thin Western-influenced belts were popular among men in the 1940s according to VintageDancer.com; Marlowe’s belt is likely brown leather with a silver-toned buckle like all of the examples shown on VintageDancer.com’s page.

Marlowe also appears to be wearing the same light-colored shirt. Too dark on screen to be pure white, it’s likely ecru, light gray, or possibly even a pale blue to match the suggested color of the suit. It has a long-pointed spread collar and front placket. If styled like his other shirts, the squared cuffs close with a single button as well as a smaller button on the gauntlets.

The light shirt, dark short tie, and Western-style slim leather belt appear to have been preferred by Bogart in real life as well.

The tie may also be the same with its dark color and short length with the wide blade pointing to just above the waistband of the high-rise trousers. Contemporary colorization of this outfit almost always reddens the tie to a maroon or dark brick shade.

Marlowe’s shoes are dark cap-toe oxfords, likely the same black calf leather shoes he wears throughout.

Marlowe meets one of many admirers at Eddie Mars’ Cypress Club.

What would a private eye be without his snap-brim fedora? Marlowe’s Royal Stetson fedora is dark felt, probably gray, with a wide black grosgrain ribbon.

Marlowe picked one hell of an interrogation room.

When he ventures out to Eddie Mars’ Cypress Club, Marlowe sports the same glen-check wool knee-length topcoat that he also wore with his dark birdseye suit.

A promotional photo of the same scene above shows off the fine glen check of the topcoat as well as some details of Marlowe’s wristwatch.

This single-breasted coat has a four-button front, a large collar, and a uniquely ventless back. The cuffs are plain with no buttons or straps, keeping the arms from jamming up when he stuffs his hands into the coat’s straight welt side pockets.

Marlowe in total P.I. mode at the Cypress Club.

Bogie’s real-life preference for a Longines Evidenza wristwatch is well-known in addition to being well-displayed in Casablanca. I don’t believe he was wearing this watch elsewhere in The Big Sleep, although the square-cased watch secured to his left wrist by a brown leather strap in these scenes may indeed be his Longines.

Marlowe flashes his accessories while flirting with Vivian. (Inset: a replica of his famous ring.)

Although there’s still some debate about the watch, Bogart is definitely wearing his own yellow gold ring that has become iconic in its own right. Most likely inherited from his father, Bogart’s ring with its ruby-diamond-ruby setting was almost always spotted on the third finger of his right hand both on and off screen over the last two decades of his life. Replicas are available at The Hollywood Collection, The Hollywood Originals, and Amazon.

What to Imbibe

I could see Vivian Regan’s black head close to it, from across the room where I was leaning against the bar and turning a small glass of bacardi around on the mahogany.

– The Big Sleep, Chapter 22

In Chandler’s novel, Philip Marlowe is enjoying a Bacardi cocktail at Eddie Mars’ Cypress Club in the fictional L.A. suburb of Las Olindas when he spots Vivian Regan across the room. About fifty years after the Bacardi family opened its distillery in 1862, recipes for a pre-dinner cocktail featuring Bacardi rum began appearing across the United States. The concoction of rum, grenadine, and lime spread from New York to California in the years leading up to World War I and, by 1917, publications like Hugo Ensslin’s Recipes for Mixed Drinks were officially naming it the “Bacardi cocktail”.

Essentially a Daiquiri with grenadine instead of simple syrup, the American recipe for a Bacardi hasn’t changed much over the last century. The IBA specifies 4.5 centiliters of white rum, two centiliters of lime juice, and one centiliter of grenadine, all shaken together over ice. The drink is then strained into a cocktail glass, garnished with a lime slice, and served. Given the name, it would make the most sense to use Bacardi brand rum as the main ingredient, and it’s worth noting that Bacardi was the first clear rum introduced to the world.

And, of course, what better than a deck of Chesterfield cigarettes to accompany Marlowe and Vivian’s cocktails?

Marlowe seems to enjoy his cocktail, at least more than the Cypress Club bartender who mixed it:

“I’ll take her home,” I said.

“The hell you will. Well, I wish you luck anyways. Should I gentle up that bacardi or do you like it the way it is?”

“I like it the way it is as well as I like it at all,” I said.

“Me, I’d just as leave drink croup medicine,” he said.

How to Get the Look

With its bold chalkstripes and sweeping double-breasted front, this suit is clearly the one Marlowe wears when he wants to make a more romantic impression than his more run-of-the-mill single-breasted business suits would provide.

• Dark chalkstripe woolen flannel two-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Double-breasted 4-on-2-button jacket with sharp peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffed bottoms
• Light cotton dress shirt with long point collar, front placket, and squared 1-button cuffs
• Dark short necktie with wide bottom
• Brown decorative-tooled slim leather belt with small single-claw buckle and metal tip
• Black calf leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Black wool dress socks
• Dark gray felt snap-brim Royal Stetson fedora with wide black grosgrain ribbon
• Glen check wool single-breasted 4-button topcoat with large collar, straight welted hand pockets, plain cuffs, and ventless back
• Square-cased wristwatch on brown leather strap
• Gold ring with two rubies and diamond

The Gun

Being a detective, it makes sense that Philip Marlowe’s go-to piece would be a Colt Detective Special, which he keeps in a concealed under-dash compartment in his Plymouth alongside a longer-barreled Colt revolver.

Take the Detective Special, leave the Official Police.

Although he uses a piece of pipe held like a gun in Chandler’s book, the cinematic Marlowe packs a Detective Special when defending Vivian from a paid Mars thug outside the Cypress Club. Easily concealable with its 2″ “snubnose” barrel and packing a powerful punch with six rounds of .38 Special ammunition, the Colt Detective Special was a favorite of both cops and crooks from its introduction in 1927 through today.

A theatrical poster from the time of the film’s release, coloring Bogie’s chalkstripe suit dark blue with a brick red tie.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie as well as Raymond Chandler’s 1939 book.

The Quote

Never mind talking, let me do it.

Footnote

If you’re looking for Las Olindas to visit Eddie Mars’ Cypress Club, good luck. Raymond Chandler invented the place, likely basing it on El Segundo or Manhattan Beach as ScoutingLA.com discovered.

Sean Connery as James Bond in From Russia With Love (1963).

Vitals

Sean Connery as James Bond, British government agent and legendary super spy

Orient Express from Istanbul to Italy, Spring 1963

Film: From Russia With Love
Release Date: October 10, 1963
Director: Terence Young
Costume Designer: Jocelyn Rickards
Tailor: Anthony Sinclair

Background

For the 00-7th of October, I want to focus on a nice fall suit while also marking a milestone for this blog; this post marks the first 007 film where each of James Bond’s on screen outfits has been exhaustively analyzed by BAMF Style! Very appropriate too, given that From Russia With Love is my favorite Bond flick and – perhaps coincidence, perhaps not – also features some of my favorite movie suits. (I’m in good company; Sean Connery has also stated that From Russia With Love is his personal favorite 007 adventure.)

The consulate escape. A thrilling train ride on the Orient Express where ordering red wine with fish leads to a gripping fight to the death in a small compartment. An explosive boat chase. From Russia With Love is by far the most realistic and grounded spy story of the franchise, but it still packs plenty of iconic thrills into its final act.

James Bond escapes onto the Orient Express with Soviet consulate clerk Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) after stealing the film’s MacGuffin from her place of employment. They travel as honeymooning couple David and Caroline Somerset, but the subterfuge is short-lived and little needed as 007 confides in MI6 agent “Captain Nash”… in reality a cold-blooded SPECTRE assassin named Donald “Red” Grant (Robert Shaw).

Bond is never totally trusting of “Nash”, but it is Grant’s dinner wine pairing that truly raises Bond’s suspicions and leads to a fight to the death in 007’s cramped train compartment while a drugged Tatiana snoozes next door. Supposedly, this brutal brawl took three weeks to film with both Connery and Shaw performing without the use of stunt doubles. Even this intense action is grounded in reality as Ian Fleming had incorporated his experience at an Interpol Conference in Istanbul with the true story of an American naval attaché that was assassinated by a Communist agent and thrown from the Orient Express in 1950.

Bond is hardly out of the water once he and Tatiana escape from the train… there’s still two more deadly chases to go! The film pays homage to North by Northwest as 007 is forced into a cat-and-mouse game with terrorists piloting a helicopter. Bond wasn’t the only one who nearly lost his life, as the helicopter pilot flew far too close to Sean Connery during the scene and director Terence Young was actually trapped when his helicopter crashed over the water. Despite injuries that left Young’s arm in a sling, the director went right back behind the camera to keep on filming.

After escaping fatal forces from land and air, Bond and Tatiana take to the sea where they are again pursued by SPECTRE’s murderous agents. Again, it’s Bond’s quick wits and accurate trigger finger that save him… no gadgets needed.

What’d He Wear?

When Sean Connery took on the role of James Bond for Dr. No, director Terence Young modeled the character’s look after himself and ordered specially tailored Savile Row suits for Connery, supposedly even asking the actor to sleep in one to develop his comfort level in them. Young and Connery developed a de facto uniform for Bond that differed from the blue suits, white shirts, and black knit ties of Ian Fleming’s novels.

By From Russia With Love, Young doubled down on his investment and ordered eight tailored suits (including a dinner suit) to be tailored for Connery by Anthony Sinclair, each for around $2,000. For this climactic sequence in From Russia With Love, Connery is outfitted in his archetypal 007 look of a gray “Conduit Cut” suit with a distinctive pale blue turnback cuff shirt and dark navy grenadine tie from Turnbull & Asser.

Bond settles in for a cordial chat with “Captain Nash”.

Connery wears a dark gray semi-solid pick wool suit, tailored by the legendary Anthony Sinclair. The lightweight suit makes it an ideal stunt suit for the variety of obstacles that Bond faces from the train fight to his various chases over air and water. In addition, the vision of a man running from reckless aircraft while wearing a dirty gray semi-solid suit with a ventless jacket may take the North by Northwest homage another step further.

Whether it’s a cropduster in Indiana or a helicopter on the Scottish cliffs, you always want to be wearing the right gray suit to outrun the aircraft that’s chasing you.

The single-breasted suit jacket features all characteristics of Sinclair’s “Conduit Cut” with its darted, fitted front, natural shoulders, roped sleeveheads, and a low 2-button stance that works in tandem with the slightly suppressed waist to draw attention to Connery’s athletic build. The full chest with its slight drape also allows for Bond to wear his Walther PPK in a shoulder holster without the obvious bulge of a slimmer fitting suit with a cleaner chest.

Bond bids farewell to a new friend.

Bond wears a white linen pocket square neatly folded into the suit jacket’s welted breast pocket. The straight hip pockets are jetted with no flaps for a cleaner look that also channels Cary Grant’s North by Northwest suit. Each sleeve has 4-button cuffs. The notch lapels are fashionably narrow for the era while still retaining a timeless width.

Bond bargains for his life with gold sovereigns. Just another day in the life.

Bond’s high rise trousers feature all the elements seen on his other suits. The waistband is beltless with a squared extended waistband in the front that closes through a hidden hook closure, and it is fastened on each side with a 3-button tab “Daks top” side adjuster. There is a slanted pocket on each side and a jetted back pocket on the right where Bond slips his PPK when he doesn’t have time to don his holster. They have double forward pleats with a full fit over the thighs and a tapered leg down to the cuffed bottoms.

Note the usual double forward pleats and beltless waistband of Bond’s Sinclair-tailored trousers.

With almost every suit in From Russia With Love, Bond wears a pale blue poplin dress shirt from Turnbull & Asser with a spread collar, front placket, and distinctive 2-button turnback or “cocktail” cuffs. This shirt appears to be a slightly lighter shade of blue than seen elsewhere in the film.

Tatiana must have been very surprised to open Bond’s suitcase and find a week’s worth of identical shirts. (At least she didn’t try to open his attaché case!)

Bond’s dark navy grenadine tie is another part of his From Russia With Love “uniform” and also from Turnbull & Asser. The slim tie is likely just shy of 3″ wide, narrower than the ties in Dr. No, and is tied in a tight four-in-hand knot.

Bond tries that time-tested technique of bargaining for his life by insulting the man holding him at gunpoint. Ah,

As usual with his gray suits in From Russia With Love, Bond wears a pair of black leather 3-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes – also known as bluchers – with a pair of dark gray socks.

Kicking some Soviet ass.

This scene doesn’t feature a “Clark Gable moment” since 007 keeps his shirt on (at least he does on screen!), but shots of Connery without his suit jacket on reveal the outline of a white sleeveless A-shirt as an undershirt.

Over his shirt, Bond opts for his usual tan chamois leather shoulder holster, fixed under his left armpit with a large blue shoulder strap over his left shoulder (connected to a slimmer blue strap that hooks around his right shoulder), giving his right-hand quick access to his trusty Walther PPK in one smooth move.

Bond fastens his holster to the left “Daks top” side adjuster buttons.

Bond: Excuse me, you did say your clock was correct?
Consulate clerk: Russian clocks are always-

Bond’s charming antagonism of a stuck-up Russian consulate clerk gives the signal to detonate a hidden tear-gas bomb while also providing an opportunity to show off his stainless Rolex Submariner 6538 wristwatch to the audience. Bond’s watch has a black bezel and black dial and is worn on a black leather strap.

I have a feeling that Bond’s Rolex will tend to be more accurate than whatever Commie mass-produced clock that clerk is talking about.

The glimpse at his watch also briefly shows off the details of Bond’s unworn overcoat, a three-quarter length single-breasted topcoat in black and white herringbone with peak lapels, a fly front, a welted breast pocket, straight shoulders with roped sleeveheads, and a single back vent. Although he never wears it on screen and ditches it while making his escape from the consulate, a behind-the-scenes photo of Connery and director Terence Young shows the actor wearing it to keep warm between takes in Istanbul.

Young and Connery on set in Istanbul, 1963.

The piece of outerwear that Bond does wear onscreen is his dark olive brown felt trilby that typically spends most of its time having been rakishly tossed onto Moneypenny’s hat rack. James Bond Lifestyle offers plenty of information about Bond’s Lock & Co. Hatters “Sandown” trilby, which is evidently still available from the St. James Street store in London.

Bond does the unthinkable and downs an entire helicopter with a single .22 round. (Granted, he uses it to hit a man inside the helicopter that was holding a grenade but still…)

When Bond and Tania get to their escape boat, Bond adopts the look of a seaman by donning a heavy wool work jacket and peaked cap. The navy Melton wool single-breasted coat structurally and stylistically resembles a traditional British workman’s donkey jacket without that garment’s trademark leather-reinforced shoulders. Bond’s 4-button coat has hip patch pockets on the bottom of the front, a horizontal yoke across the upper back, and a single vent.  As more of a worker’s jacket, it’s not intended to be worn over a suit and is just an additional layer that Bond wears for practicality to keep him warm while on the chilly sea.

007 isn’t above playing dress up when he takes to the high seas.

Less practical is Bond’s decision to don a black peaked cap with a gold embroidered anchor and shiny black polished leather visor. Although fitting for the maritime setting and Bond’s commission in the British Royal Navy, it’s not really necessary to wear just because he happens to be on the water. It’s fun though, I guess.

Go Big or Go Home

Red wine with fish… well that should have told me something.

James Bond’s snobbery comes in handy when dining with Tatiana and his supposed MI6 contact, Captain Nash. From Russia With Love is one of of the more authentic portrayals of the “trust no one” world of spies, and 007 is never sure who around him can be trusted. The charismatic Kerim Bey, one of the few contacts he feels he can trust, ultimately proved his loyalty in a brutal fight to the death against poorly-tailored enemy agent Benz. By the time he sits down to dinner with Tania and Nash, Bond is able to veil his paranoia as he isn’t sure whether he can trust either of his dining companions.

Bond and Tatiana are content to enjoy their grilled sole with the appropriate wine, thank you very much!

Grant’s performance as Nash is flawless to a point, adopting a convincing accent and even an irritating, Gatsby-esque term of endearment (“old man”) that serves to make Bond more annoyed than suspicious. But it isn’t Grant’s frequent questions, his demeanor, or even his affectations that betray his duplicity… it’s the fact that he orders goddamn Chianti with his grilled sole.

Before Grant clarifies that he desires “the red kind”, the waiter asks if he means “white Chianti”, which doesn’t exist. Either the waiter was uninformed, or he was being a snob in his own way. (I prefer to think the latter.) Either way, this scene has always freaked me out about ordering the “right” wine when I’m trying to impress someone, whether it’s a date, a boss, a foreign spy, etc.

A Taittinger Blanc de Blanc ad celebrating the 1955 vintage, which is quite likely the very champagne that Bond and Tania would have enjoyed during their 1963 train journey.

What to Imbibe

Since he’s not a treacherous troglodyte like some people – looking at you, Red Grant! – James Bond knows to order white wine with his fish dinner. Earlier in the film, he was relaxing with Sylvia Trench while chilling a bottle of Taittinger Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine on his toe. Since the two were so rudely interrupted by Bond having to go to work, it can be assumed that poor 007 didn’t get to enjoy this premium champagne (although he did get laid, so my heart isn’t exactly bleeding for him.)

Taittinger’s association with James Bond goes back to the very first novel, Casino Royale, when Bond orders a 1945 vintage when dining with Vesper Lynd. The waiter instead suggests that “Blanc de Blanc Brut 1943 of the same marque is without equal” so Bond takes him up on his suggestion and uses the opportunity to mansplain to Vesper that Taittinger may not be as well-known as other champagne brands, but he finds it to be the best. A 1953 version of “you’ve probably never heard of it, but…” Bond is pissed that M’s club doesn’t have any in stock in Moonraker, but the agent gets an opportunity to once again enjoy his favorite champagne a few adventures later in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. To my knowledge, From Russia With Love was the only official film in the EON franchise to feature Taittinger champagne as Bollinger and Dom Pérignon replaced it as the cinematic Bond’s preferred bubbly.

How to Get the Look

007’s gray business suit on the Orient Express is quintessential Connery Bond attire: a sharp, simple, and elegant suit appropriate for both loving and fighting.

• Gray semi-solid pick wool “Conduit Cut” suit tailored by Anthony Sinclair, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, andventless back
  • 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/cuffs
• Pale blue poplin long-sleeve Turnbull & Asser dress shirt with spread collar, front placket, and 2-button turnback/”cocktail” cuffs
• Dark navy blue grenadine woven silk necktie, worn with a four-in-hand knot
• Black leather 3-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes/bluchers
• Dark gray dress socks
• Olive brown felt Lock & Co. Hatters short-brimmed trilby with a narrow dark brown grosgrain band
• Rolex Submariner 6538 wristwatch with stainless case, black bezel, and black dial on black leather strap
• Tan chamois leather shoulder holster (RHD) with a blue strap, for the Walther PPK
• White linen folded pocket square

For more information about Sean Connery’s suit in these scenes, check out The Suits of James Bond’s blog post.

The Gun

Bond uses both his trademark Walther PPK and the Q-issued Armalite AR-7 survival rifle in these scenes, but the sequence’s most effective and memorable firearm is the signal pistol, a Webley & Scott No. 1 Mk. III*, that he finds on the captured boat and uses to ignite his discarded fuel drums during the boat chase.

Part of me wishes Bond would have been armed with a blunderbuss here, just to fit the whole theme of him pirating a boat. At least that old WWI-era flare pistol has a few cosmetic similarities.

More information about this single-shot, break open signal pistol can be found at IMFDB.

(If you were hoping to read about Bond’s use of the PPK and AR-7 in From Russia With Love, check out my posts about his charcoal flannel suit and the dark chalkstripe flannel suit he wears for the finale.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie and pick up Ian Fleming’s 1957 novel, which was very faithfully adapted to the screen.

If you like the concept of Sean Connery involved in a killing on the Orient Express, check out 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, based on Agatha Christie’s brilliant mystery novel. You know I love me some Agatha Christie. (And that will certainly be a subject for a later blog post too!)

The Quote

I’d say one of their aircraft is missing.

Footnotes

Sean Connery and Daniela Bianchi on location in Istanbul. Note Connery’s brown loafers and blue socks, evidently the actor’s personal preference when not wearing Bond’s black bluchers.

From Russia With Love made the most of its location budget, featuring Sean Connery in beautiful locales in and around Istanbul. The Russian consulate was a Pinewood Studios soundstage in England decorated right down to a photo of famous Russian astronaut Yuri Gagarin, but Bond, Tatiana, and Kerim make their daring escape through the Basilica Cistern, an ancient cathedral-size cistern under Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul. Although a great location for dramatic purposes, it’s been noted that the Russian consulate was and still is in Beyoğlu, further away from the cistern than the film would have you believe. (Kerim also mistakenly tells Bond that it was constructed by Emperor Constantine… in reality, it had been commissioned by Justinian in 532 AD.)

The trio emerges into daylight and heads to Istanbul’s Sirkeci Station to board the Orient Express, taking them on a route through Zagreb to Trieste that had curiously been discontinued the previous year. (Sirkeci Station was also used as the location for the Belgrade stop.)

The production had meant to film the final helicopter and boat chases on location in Turkey, but logistical difficulties took the cast and crew to Argyll and Bute in the western region of Sean Connery’s home country, Scotland. Bond evaded the helicopter at Lochgoilhead, boarded the boat with Tania at Lunga House, and finally blew up the boat’s fuel barrels (and Morzeny’s SPECTRE henchmen) in Loch Craignish.

Brad Pitt as Robert “Rusty” Ryan in Ocean’s Eleven (2001).

Vitals

Brad Pitt as Robert “Rusty” Ryan, hustler and casino heister

Las Vegas, Spring 2001

Film: Ocean’s Eleven
Release Date: December 7, 2001
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Costume Designer: Jeffrey Kurland

Background

Danny Ocean’s crew had a tough night out before their big heist. In a possible management decision snafu, Danny (George Clooney) left the over-eager Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon) behind with the Malloy twins (Scott Caan and Casey Affleck) while he, Basher (Don Cheadle), and The Amazing Yen (Shaobo Qin) conduct a break-in. Feeling left out and annoyed by the Malloys, Linus takes the initiative and breaks into the facility on his own… just seconds before the other guys come back out.

The less experienced Linus attracts attention from security guards and barely makes his escape in the van with the rest of the guys, but poor Yen gets his thumb – the thumb he so dearly needs for his lucrative acrobatics the next night – as the gang is forced to make a speedier getaway than they intended. If only Rusty – the de facto leader according to most of the group – had been along, this may have never happened… but the problems don’t end there.

After greeting Danny and a tail-between-his-legs Linus back at the Bellagio a few hours before go time, the crew receives word that Danny has been red-flagged for harassing his ex-wife. Now the bitter and much-maligned Linus is called upon to step into Danny’s well-shined shoes, so Rusty gives him a crash course in grifting that even Henry Gondorff wouldn’t have been fast enough to follow.

Rusty: You look down, they know you’re lying. (as Linus looks up) Up, they know you don’t know the truth. Don’t use seven words when four will do. Don’t shift your weight. Look always at your mark but don’t stare. Look always at your mark, but don’t stare. Be specific but not memorable. Be funny, but don’t make him laugh. He’s got to like you then forget you the moment you’ve left his side. And, for god’s sake, whatever you do, don’t, under any circumstances-
Livingston: Rus?
Rusty: Yeah?
Livingston: Come look at this?
Rusty: Sure.

Linus is left with his mouth agape. What the hell should he not do?

Of course, this turns out to mostly be a ruse to encourage Linus to take a bigger role in the heist (and probably also to entertain most of the guys who were in on the joke), but it’s surprising that a group who thinks of everything would leave a chance at $160 million – not to mention their lives – up to the mercurial emotions of an insecure, impulsive pickpocket with something to prove.

What’d He Wear?

Ocean’s Eleven is full of sharp-dressed characters, with Brad Pitt’s Rusty Ryan leading the pack in his distinctive suits and shiny shirts and ties. His outfit on the morning of the heist perfectly exemplifies his sartorial philosophy from the irreplicable lapels of his suit jacket to the iridescent metallic shirt.

This scene is the sole appearance of this dark gray semi-solid suit with a shine that indicates the possibility of a lightweight silk-wool blend suiting. The most distinctive aspect of the suit is the “split-lapel” that resembles a “notchless notch lapel” in structure; the collar has an extended tongue that fills the notch space, giving the overall impression of a split shawl lapel. I had previously only seen this type of lapel on super-trendy double-breasted suits of the early ’70s.

Noir-ish lighting emphasizes Rusty’s unique lapels and highlights his shiny shirt and tie.

Rusty’s single-breasted suit jacket’s unique “split lapels” roll down to a single button closure. The shoulders are wide with subtly roped sleeveheads. The welted breast pocket is visible but other details like the hip pocket and vent situation are not as easily seen; the jacket appears to have straight jetted hip pockets and double vents. The jacket sleeves end with functional 3-button “surgeon’s cuffs” which Rusty wears totally unbuttoned, a rakish decision in concern with his unorthodox open shirt cuffs. Both the single front button and the cuff buttons are all gray plastic.

What this awkward elevator ride really needed was a good loud fart to break the tension. Sadly, even the constantly eating Rusty couldn’t muster anything up.

The suit’s flat front trousers have a fitted waistband with no belt loops that rises low on Pitt’s waist. There is a straight on-seam pocket on each side, two jetted back pockets, and plain hems at the bottom of each comfortably full cut leg.

Remind me to start doing squats

Rusty wears a purple cotton shirt, made for Brad Pitt by Anto Beverly Hills, with an iridescent shine that offers varying cyanic shades in different light. The large point collar rises high and tall on Pitt’s neck with a 1.5″ band and 3.5″-long points and dark green detailing lining the inner collar, most visible when he wears the neck open.

The shirt has a plain front, double side pleats on the back, and distinctive square cuffs worn totally open with no button or links to fasten. These 4¹/8″-wide cuffs offer a cleaner and über-modern version of the look created by some of his other shirts, similar to short French cuffs ironed flat and kept unfastened. Like the collar, the cuffs are lined with dark green detailing. (All fabric and size details were confirmed by Anto.)

Rusty drops some rapid truth bombs on an unprepared Linus.

The gold satin silk tie was likely also made by Anto with a subtle tonal cross-hatch pattern that also adds iridescent qualities to the tie’s silky shine.

And, of course, he’s eating again.

This suit also made a brief appearance earlier in Ocean’s Eleven when Danny and Rusty are in L.A. recruiting the members of their team. In that instance, Rusty paired his gold tie and gray suit with a mustard gold dress shirt with a large point collar.

Rusty shares with Danny that he mourned the loss of a fellow thief by dating his wife “for a while.”

The most conventional aspect of Rusty’s outfit are his shoes, which appear to be a pair of black leather square-toed bluchers (or derby shoes) worn with a pair of black dress socks.

Despite the many issues that seem to be plaguing the gang at the last minute, Rusty looks cool, calm, and casual as he addresses each issue.

Rusty wears two different rings in this scene. A thick silver ring with a blue set-in stone adorns the third finger of his right hand while a simpler small silver ring shines from his left pinky.

Rusty lays down the law.

Rusty wears a silver-colored – likely white gold – wristwatch that appears to have a silver dial and is strapped to his right wrist on a link bracelet.

How to Get the Look

I’d call Rusty Ryan a trendsetter… but he doesn’t seem to want anyone copying his style, tripling down on his unique factor by wearing suits with inimitable lapels and stylishly shiny suits and ties that just couldn’t work for anyone else. (But don’t let that stop you from trying! Rusty’s smooth confidence – not to be confused with arrogance – goes a long way.)

• Gray semi-solid lightweight silk-wool two-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 1-button jacket with distinctive “split lapels”, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, double vents, and functional 3-button cuffs
  • Flat front low-rise trousers with fitted waistband, straight on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Purple iridescent cotton Anto dress shirt with large point collar, plain front, open squared single cuffs, and dark green detailed collar and cuff lining
• Gold cross-hatched satin silk Anto necktie
• Black leather square-toed bluchers/derby shoes
• Black dress socks
• Thick silver ring with blue stone on right ring finger
• Silver pinky ring on left hand
• White gold wristwatch with silver dial on link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Don’t use seven words when four will do.

Screenshots from Red Light District (2005), my 10th grade exploration of the sex-and-drugs culture that permeated the ’70s. I’m the one in the gray striped double-breasted suit with the distinctive “split lapel”.

Footnotes

I tend to plan my posts well in advance (I currently have a loose schedule planned through early spring of 2019!), so it is purely coincidence and not SEO-driven opportunism that the title of this post includes “Brad Pitt” and “split” so soon after his divorce from Angelina Jolie.

Some of you may know about my attempts at amateur filmmaking. In 10th grade, I wrote, directed, and starred in a Blow-meets-Goodfellas mashup (or “ripoff”) titled Red Light District. Red Light District was set mostly in and around Venice Beach stretching from the late ’60s through the mid-’80s. Since I was making it mostly for me and my friends, I was free to use any music that I damn well wanted, so you hear plenty of obnoxious disco grounded by deep cuts from the Stones’ best albums. But I digress…

During one early scene set in 1971, I wore a gray double-breasted suit with a subtle black pinstripe and unique lapels similar to those seen on Brad Pitt’s suit in Ocean’s Eleven. It had been a lucky find from the local Goodwill, tricked out with a high-fastened 6-on-3 double-breasted front, slanted hip pockets, and a loud-as-hell paisley lining of baby blue and old gold printed on an ivory ground. I’ll try to dig this gem up from my closet full of costumes the next time I’m at my parents’ house and get some fresh photos.

Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody on the set of Boardwalk Empire while filming “The Ivory Tower” (Episode 1.02).

Vitals

Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody, ambitious war veteran and “half a gangster”

Atlantic City, January 1920

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
* “Boardwalk Empire” (Episode 1.01, aired September 19, 2010, dir. Martin Scorsese)
* “The Ivory Tower” (Episode 1.02, aired September 26, 2010, dir. Tim Van Patten)
* “Broadway Limited” (Episode 1.03, aired October 3, 2011, dir. Tim Van Patten)
* “Anastasia” (Episode 1.04, aired October 10, 2011, dir. Jeremy Podeswa)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Jimmy Darmody’s death was a shocking loss to fans of Boardwalk Empire, especially in the pre-Game of Thrones “anyone can die” TV landscape.

When I revisited the first episodes to capture screenshots for this post, it was even more heart-wrenching to see the character’s potential and the tortured forces that were effectively dooming Jimmy from the outset… not to mention watching poor little Tommy Darmody, clearly unaware of how the events of the following decade would lead to him firing a bullet into the face of his father’s erstwhile mentor.

The world of Boardwalk Empire rewards ambition among the privileged and ruthless, dooming Jimmy’s scrappy but proud brand of ambition from the outset. Tragedy befalls anyone invested in Jimmy’s success, whether it’s a violent end (Angela, Pearl, and Richard Harrow) or an increasingly sad, unavoidable trajectory (Gillian being institutionalized, Tommy’s determination to kill Nucky, etc.)

On the other hand… Nucky gave up on him early and lived just long enough to retire; Jimmy’s father, the Commodore, dismissed him early and enjoyed a long life of ruthless, irascible corruption before Jimmy ended it; and Al Capone – not unsurprisingly – never stood up for his friend and would outlive the show’s time frame to die at his Florida estate after nearly a decade of retirement.

In the first episode, Jimmy bemoans to Nucky that all he wants is an opportunity. Nucky retorts: “This is America, ain’t it? Who the fuck’s stopping you?” You are, Nucky!

What’d He Wear?

Jimmy’s wardrobe during the early days of Prohibition make sense for his character, a lackey freshly returned from serving three years in the death-ridden trenches of France while his native Atlantic City marches on without him to the beat of hot jazz, uninhibited sex, and boisterous parties… all with no end in sight while Jimmy was seeing men his own age meeting their end face down in the mud.

I wrote in my post about Jimmy’s first “grown-up” outfit, a very popular blue tattersall check suit, that Jimmy’s “muted working class style” in these first episodes reflected a clear contrast against the loud pastels and bold checks of Nucky Thompson’s bespoke wardrobe. Jimmy returned from war more cynical than ever but his ambitions were far from tarnished. He knew the potential that the Volstead Act laid out for guys like him – skilled with a gun with nothing to lose – and was more than eager to make the transition from soldier to gangster. It makes sense that his outfit would reflect the colors and structure of the former occupation.

Two very different men with very different aesthetics.

Jimmy wears two different brown cheviot tweed Norfolk jackets during his duration in Atlantic City over the show’s first three episodes. Originally designed as a loose, belted shooting jacket and named for either the Duke of or county of Norfolk, the Norfolk jacket became a country staple when it was popularized by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in the 1880s. A “Norfolk suit”, which Jimmy Darmody wears, is a moniker for a Norfolk jacket worn with matching tweed trousers.

Atlantic City is about as far as you can get from the English country, further marking Jimmy as an outsider in this new world of flashy printed suits, vibrant silk ties, and two-tone spectator shoes. The significance of Jimmy the soldier wearing a garment originally designed for hunting shouldn’t be overlooked.

Jimmy’s first Norfolk jacket, worn in the pilot episode only, was auctioned by ScreenBid with the matching trousers and vest in January 2015. The brown tweed is mixed with red, orange, tan, and green yarns.

Source: HBO.

This jacket is distinctive for its box pleat strips down the front and back, holding the belt in place. It is single-breasted, as a Norfolk jacket should be, with a high-fastening 4-roll-3 button front. The highest button is covered by the roll of the notch lapels, and the bottom button is on the self-belt located right on Jimmy’s waist. (This may even be a 5-roll-3 button front if there is a top button under the right collar to connect through the left lapel buttonhole!)

Jimmy stakes out the boardwalk in search of Nucky after a daring heist in the first episode.

The box pleats are two strips of tweed fabric that extend down the front from the pointed chest yokes. The back mirrors the front with a double-pointed back yoke featuring box pleat strips that extend down over the belt to the bottom of the jacket. The jacket is entirely detailed with swelled edges, found on the lapels, pockets, yokes, and pleats. The only outer pockets are the traditional bellows pockets on the hips, located just behind the front box pleat strips. The shoulders are padded, the sleeveheads are roped, and each sleeve has 4-button cuffs at the end.

Jimmy cynically inhales an Old Gold cigarette in front of the flag representing the country he fought so bravely for.

In “The Ivory Tower” (1.02) and “Broadway Limited” (1.03), Jimmy wears a more simplified Norfolk jacket in a slightly duller shade of brown with a new vest and trousers to match. Superficially the same with traditional details like a 4-roll-3 single-breasted front, notch lapels, and edge swelling throughout, this jacket’s notable differences are the absence of box pleats, the addition of a breast pocket, and a full belt held in place by waist loops.

This second Norfolk jacket has all of the buttons placed directly on the jacket rather than the belt. This belt hangs freer, held in place only through the three conventional waist loops rather than sewn into place under the box pleat strips. The lack of box pleats also frees up the chest area for a patch pocket over Jimmy’s left breast. The edge swelling appears more pronounced on this jacket as well. One other slight difference: this jacket has 3-button cuffs while the first episode’s jacket had 4-button cuffs.

Jimmy’s second jacket has a non-pleated front with a breast pocket and a simplified belt loop system.

Jimmy’s tweed flat front trousers match his respective jackets and feature era-correct styling from the long rise and button fly to the split “fishmouth” notched back of the waistband with a small button on each of the two notch points for his suspenders. His trousers have on-seam side pockets with swelled edges, button-through jetted back pockets, and straight legs down to the cuffed bottoms.

Home from war, Jimmy is more than happy to shed his jacket and help around the house, whether that means playing with Tommy or showing off the new vacuum cleaner he got as a Christmas gift for Angela.

Though Jimmy abandons most of his old wardrobe after going suit shopping with Al Capone in Chicago, he does keep the snazzy suspenders from his tweed suit, a surprisingly colorful set of braces that may be a nod to the fact that – under the surface – Jimmy has the same criminal aspirations as his flashier mentor. These red argyle suspenders have an alternating pattern of overchecked tan and blue diamonds and hook to the trousers with brown leather fastening straps.

Jimmy lets a hint of color peek out from the drab, mottled tones of his tweed suit and work shirt.

The suit has a matching tweed vest that he wears in the first episode (sans tie) and again in the second, third, and fourth episodes. Since Jimmy wears a different jacket for the following episodes, it’s possible that he was also fitted with a different waistcoat and trousers to match the tweed of this jacket, but all of the styling remains the same: a single-breasted, high-fastening, six-button front with four welt pockets and a notched bottom. The back of the vest is covered in a dark brown lining with an adjustable strap.

Now an associate of the Chicago Outfit, Jimmy joins Al Capone when meeting with Charlie Sheridan and his cohorts for the first time.

When not wearing the suit’s matching waistcoat, Jimmy rocks some sleeveless cardigan sweaters that stand out from the rest of his early wardrobe by incorporating more than one color. His most frequently seen sleeveless cardigan is a high-fastening red knit vest with brown accents on the edges, pocket welts, and entire back in a shade of brown similar to the color of the suit. This cardigan has six buttons up the front with a notched bottom and two low pockets.

Jimmy has an inkling that he’s in the presence of his wife’s lover… little does he know…

Seen only in the first and third episodes, Jimmy wears a similarly styled bulky gray wool knit sleeveless cardigan with taupe trim on the edges, back, and pockets. It has six buttons and a notched bottom similar to the other vest, but this one has four bellows pockets, best seen when Jimmy is making his getaway to Chicago in “Broadway Limited” (1.03).

Although similar in looks to his red cardigan, this gray sweater has four bellows pockets as opposed to the red vest’s simpler two welt pockets.

Jimmy’s drab-colored shirts continue to illustrate the deep divide between he and Nucky. While Nucky prefers boldly patterned and brightly colored well-starched dress shirts with crisp white detachable collars, Jimmy wears plain rough-and-ready work shirts indicative of his lower status in Atlantic City’s hierarchy. His cotton work shirts have a point collar and dark buttons down the front placket. His rounded cuffs close with a single button. Edge stitching is visible throughout.

Jimmy’s primary shirt is a mottled dark blue work shirt, worn in all four of the first episodes and paired with both the red knit cardigan and the suit’s matching tweed vest.

A brooding Jimmy flips through the family photo album.

When sporting his gray knit cardigan vest, Jimmy wears a lighter mottled gray-blue work shirt with white hairline stripes. He wears this in the first episode as well as during his escape to Chicago in “Broadway Limited” (1.03) and “Anastasia” (1.04).

A production photo from “Anastasia” (1.04) showing Al Capone (Stephen Graham) and Jimmy Darmody prepping for their Sheridan meeting.

When he wears a tie, he opts for a dark olive-shaded ties that further nod to his military service, either a plain drab olive green cotton tie or a slightly fancier tie with a Deco-style pattern in olive and black silk.

Although Jimmy eventually swaps in a patterned tie to replace his drab one, the pattern is still subtle enough to not draw too much attention.

Only 22 when he returns to Atlantic City, Jimmy has barely had time to re-establish himself since he was an 18-year-old who ran off from Princeton to join the American Expeditionary Force. Thus, he still wears a flat “newsboy cap” that, as a rabbi would tell Capone, is more indicative of a boy than a man. Jimmy’s cap is brown mixed tweed with the top panels collected with a single covered button on the top and another button attaching the front to the brim.

Sporting his flat cap, Jimmy corners an easily amused Al Capone in the first episode.

One part of Jimmy’s wardrobe that never changes over the show are his black leather ankle-high combat boots with black laces through six eyelets and four upper hooks. We don’t see yet whether or not he keeps his 1918 Mk I trench knife holstered in his left boot.

Jimmy reaches for his discharge papers (and spare cash!) in the middle of the night.

Jimmy’s Norfolk jacket serves a second functional purpose; this warm suit provides enough insulation to prevent him from needing an overcoat. Despite this, he still briefly sports a topcoat while making Greektown collections with Al Capone in Chicago during “Anastasia” (1.04). Jimmy’s black leather raincoat closes with three large plastic buttons widely spaced down the single-breast front. The coat has a half-tab on the cuff of each set-in sleeve that closes with a single button, open slanted handwarmer pockets, and a wide belted back above the long vent.

Jimmy prepares for stormy days ahead after his move to Chicago in “Anastasia” (1.04).

This outfit makes only a brief appearance during Jimmy’s tenure in Chicago, all featured in “Anastasia” (1.04) which includes a few extended scenes of Jimmy in his underwear, finding consolation in the arms of starry-eyed prostitute Pearl (Emily Meade) at the Four Deuces. His undershorts are beige cotton flannel with a notch on each side of the waistband with laces to fasten them around his waist; modern boxer shorts with elasticized waists were still a few years away as they would developed by Everlast founder Jacob Golomb in 1925 to replace the leather-belted trunks worn by pugilists in the ring.

Jimmy and Pearl by day and by night. She rounded out the trio of beautiful and complex women in his orbit whose association with him ultimately led to their tragic ends.

“Anastasia” (1.04) also showcases Jimmy’s undershirt, a short-sleeve henley in a beige cotton flannel to match his undershorts. The henley shirt has three white buttons widely spaced over the placket and white stitching around the shoulder seams where the sleeves are set in. He was earlier seen wearing a similarly-styled but longer-sleeved henley in “Boardwalk Empire” (1.01).

How to Get the Look

Jimmy bridges his transition from military to mob in simple but practical tweed duds that both serve his purposes and reflect his modest position in life. The Norfolk jacket, developed for shooting purposes, is a perfect fit for a man who lives by the gun.

“The Ivory Tower” (1.02), depicting a simpler Norfolk jacket than the box-pleated one worn in the first episode.

• Brown cheviot tweed single-breasted Norfolk jacket with notch lapels, high-fastening 4-roll-3 button front, full belt with box-pleated front and back, 4-button cuffs, and single vent
• Red knit sleeveless cardigan sweater with brown back and trim, brown pocket welt detailing, and single-breasted 6-button front with notched bottom
• Brown cheviot tweed high-rise flat front straight-leg trousers with button fly, 2-button “fishmouth” notched back, straight/on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark blue-gray cotton work shirt with point collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Dark olive and black-patterned necktie
• Red argyle suspenders with brown leather hooks
• Brown mixed tweed flat “newsboy cap”
• Black leather combat boots with 6 black-laced eyelets and 4 upper hooks
• Black ankle holster for trench knife
• Beige cotton flannel henley shirt with 3-button placket and short set-in sleeves (with white-stitched shoulder seams)
• Beige cotton flannel undershorts with side laces
• Black leather knee-length raincoat with single-breasted 3-button front, slanted handwarmer pockets, 1-button half-tab cuffs, and belted back with long single vent

By the time he buys his first “gangster suit” in “Anastasia” (1.04), his choice is made and his life begins following an inevitable path.

The Gun

Although Jimmy would later notably arm himself with the popular .32-caliber Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol, the only sidearm that he has during these early days in Atlantic City is a blued Smith & Wesson “Military & Police” revolver that he retrieves from atop a cabinet in his home before leaving town in “Broadway Limited” (1.03). It may be a memento from the war, as Smith & Wesson “Military & Police” revolvers were indeed fielded in small numbers by U.S. Army troops during World War I.

Jimmy grabs his revolver before heading off to Chicago. The fixed front sight looks like it has a notch rather than the S&W Military & Police’s simpler half-moon sight.

Originally known as the “Smith & Wesson .38 Hand Ejector”, this revolver has been continuously produced by Smith & Wesson since 1899. It received its current designation – the Smith & Wesson Model 10 – when the company began numbering its models in the late 1950s. It is every bit the classic service revolver with its six-shot swing-out cylinder, fixed sights, and venerable .38 Special chambering.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the whole series. This outfit is seen in various incarnations throughout first three first season episodes.

The Quote

Look, you can’t be half a gangster, Nucky. Not anymore.

Christian Bale and Cara Seymour as Patrick Bateman and Christie, respectively, in American Psycho (2000).

Vitals

Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, shallow investment banker and possible serial killer

New York City, Spring 1988

Film: American Psycho
Release Date: April 14, 2000
Director: Mary Harron
Costume Designer: Isis Mussenden

Background

Halloween approaching is a fine time to address a monster in human form like Patrick Bateman who may have been a sharp dresser (for the ’80s) but was undoubtedly a terrible human being (in any era!)

You can tell Bateman is trying his best to be seen as a classy host; he plays Phil Collins, after all! Of course, Bateman is hindered by the fact that no classy evening should ever include the words “don’t just stare at it, eat it!”

What’d He Wear?

In the chapter “Thursday” of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, Patrick Bateman describes his attire:

I’m wearing a six-button double-breasted wool-crepe tuxedo with pleated trousers and a silk grosgrain bow tie, all by Valentino.

A style-hound like Bateman likely picked up his tuxedo after reading about the resurgence of 1930s formalwear, especially the double-breasted dinner jacket, in GQ’s annual formalwear roundup in December 1984. As excerpted by Black Tie Guide: “To be sure, the Thirties remain the inspiration: double-breasted dinner jackets with peaked satin or grosgrain lapels…”

The film American Psycho perfectly brings Bateman’s formalwear to life with a yuppie update of the ’30s double-breasted dinner jacket. The black dinner jacket worn by Christian Bale on screen has a 6-on-2 button double-breasted front and a long, full cut. The full-bellied peak lapels are satin-faced and sweep out wide across his chest, pointing up toward each shoulder. Each lapel has a buttonhole that runs parallel to the slanted gorge.

Bateman methodically frames his evening.

While likely not wool crepe, Bateman’s dinner jacket has a sheen that implies possibly mohair, silk, or a blend. The shoulders are padded and extend very wide. There is a welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, and ventless back. The buttons on the front and the three buttons on each cuff are all covered in black satin silk.

The matching formal trousers are fully cut to match the excess style of the ’80s. They have double reverse pleats, slightly slanted side pockets, and no back pockets. A satin stripe runs down each side of the trousers down to the plain-hemmed bottoms.

The trouser waistband is plain with no belt loops or adjusters. The suspenders fasten to six buttons inside his waistband: two in the back and two sets of two in the front. The braces themselves are white and wide, divided into three equal-width stripes each separated by a hairline black stripe. Two black rectangular tabs in the front separate the braces from the white fabric double runner ends that hook through the inner right and left buttons of the trouser waistband. A black leather patch in the back center meets the two front straps before they converge. The back section of the suspenders connect to his trouser waistband with a black leather double-button ear in the center.

You’ll never think of “Sussudio” the same way again.

Bateman wears a white formal shirt with a point collar and narrowly-pleated front bib. The four round yellow gold studs down the placket match the larger yellow gold cuff links that fasten each of the shirt’s double cuffs. His butterfly-shaped bow tie is black satin silk, matching his lapel facings.

A shit-eating grin… the natural result from many years of not just staring at it, ifyouknowwhatImean.

Only briefly seen, Bateman’s footwear is the formality-appropriate black patent leather balmorals with black silk dress socks.

Bateman briefly ignores his bathing “guest” to take a phone call.

When venturing outside, Bateman complements his aspired image as a dashing young chauffeured businessman with a beige cashmere scarf draped around his neck.

Patrick Bateman’s “charm” is lost on Christie, one of the few characters who sees him for who he is.

Don’t touch the watch!

In the book, the line was “Don’t touch the Rolex,” although the brand had obvious misgivings about being so blatantly included in the more accessible cinematic adaptation. Still, the line would have been an accurate one as Bale’s Bateman (not be confused with Bale’s Batman) wears a Rolex DateJust in mixed “Rolesor” yellow and white gold  with a 36mm case and gold dial, closed over his left wrist on a two-tone “Jubilee” bracelet.

How to Get the Look

The definitive Me Decade yuppie, Patrick Bateman’s black tie ensemble is accurate to the ’80s with its oversized homage to the ’30s.

• Black mohair double-breasted dinner jacket with satin-faced wide peak lapels, silk-covered 6-on-2 button front, welted breast pocket, jetted straight hip pockets, silk-covered 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Black mohair reverse-pleated formal trousers with satin side stripes, plain waistband, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White formal dress shirt with point collar, narrow pleated bib (with four gold studs), and double/French cuffs
• Black satin silk butterfly-shaped bow tie
• Gold cuff links
• White triple-striped suspenders with black leather accents
• Black leather cap-toe balmorals
• Black silk dress socks
• Beige cashmere scarf
• Rolex DateJust in stainless 36mm case with two-tone yellow gold and stainless “Jubilee” bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Do you like Phil Collins?

James Mason as Phillip Vandamm in a promotional photo for North by Northwest (1959).

Vitals

James Mason as Phillip Vandamm, urbane spy and secret-trader

Mount Rushmore, Fall 1958

Film: North by Northwest
Release Date: July 28, 1959
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Wardrobe Department: Harry Kress

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

North by Northwest arguably set the tone for spy films in the following decade with its suave and well-suited hero, colorful settings, and elements of dangerous romance. James Mason’s urbane Phillip Vandamm is, in many ways, the archetypal James Bond villain: sinister and deadly but with the ability to be just as charming and debonair as the story’s protagonist.

Vandamm proves to be more sensitive and romantic than one would expect, and James Mason perfectly conveys just how badly Vandamm is stung by Eve’s betrayal. He zips through the Kübler-Ross model in record time, expressing denial (laughing off Leonard’s concerns), anger (punching Leonard), and acceptance (vindictively deciding Eve’s fate “from a great height…over water”) all within seconds of the same scene.

What’d He Wear?

With his dark gray tweed suit, regimental striped tie, and odd waistcoats, Phillip Vandamm looks every bit the dignified English gentleman as he makes his final arrangements to safely leave the country with a Purépecha sculpture full of secret microfilm. In fact, it could be argued that Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) looks more like the traditional “movie spy” in his sleekly tailored gray-blue glen check suit while Vandamm looks more like Q in his comfortable tweeds, regimental tie, and mannered disposition.

With each man decked out in a spiffy gray suit, the Thornhill-Vandamm chess match continues in the Mount Rushmore cafeteria.

The daytime denouement that finds Thornhill taking a blank bullet finds  all three men – Thornhill, Vandamm, and Leonard – outfitted in different variants of the stereotypical “gray flannel suit,” such a trope for businessmen during the era that both a 1955 novel and subsequent 1956 film adaptation called it out. (Interestingly, James Mason’s 8-year-old daughter Portland starred in the film as Gregory Peck’s daughter.) Here, it works as a disguise as the evil Vandamm and Leonard are camouflaged as “the common man” and, thus, an even more dangerous threat. (Leonard often does attempt to echo at least the sartorial sense of his admired boss.)

Hitchcock clearly defines his hero in the nighttime scenes for Thornhill has shed that oh-so-stylish suit that symbolized his less honest ad life, and he is now dressed humbly and casually in off-the-rack duds (Brooks Brothers, but still) that define him as the actual “common man”… a common hero worth rooting for.

Vandamm’s dark gray tweed suit jacket is single-breasted with edge-stitched notch lapels that end high above the three-button front. There is a welted breast pocket and straight hip pockets with slim flaps. Each sleeve ends with spaced two-button non-functioning cuffs.

Any physical attack on Martin Landau should be met with such instant remorse!

A swelled seam down the center of the back ends above the short vent. In addition to the three-button front and the single vent, Vandamm’s suit sack jacket incorporates elements of traditional American tailoring such as the draped, full chest and soft padded shoulders with less structure than the classic English suit shoulder.

The details of Vandamm’s suit jacket are seen inside the Mount Rushmore cafeteria.

The full cut of Vandamm’s suit extends to his flat front trousers. His various waistcoats cover the waistline on screen, but a behind-the-scenes photo reveals belt loops, through which James Mason wears a slim black leather belt. The bottoms are cuffed with a full break.

A production photo of Cary Grant, Eva-Marie Saint, and James Mason on location in South Dakota.

On screen, Vandamm always wears this suit with a contrasting layer between his jacket and shirt, a classic staple in menswear that Gentleman’s Gazette nicely explored in this post about odd vests and waistcoats from December 2013.

For his daytime confrontation with Thornhill in the Mount Rushmore cafeteria, he wears an olive green wool single-breasted waistcoat with notch lapels and flapped hip pockets that slant backward. This vest closes with six silver-toned metal buttons down the front, with the lowest button appropriately left open over the notched bottom.

Vandamm’s green vest complements his tweed suit to provide a down-to-earth appearance of humble sophistication.

At home that evening, Vandamm has swapped out the green waistcoat for an even less threatening look, sporting a beige cardigan vest in a soft wool – possibly cashmere – with five brown-toned urea buttons fastened down to the straight-cut hem. Ribbing is continuous around the collar, down the placket, and around the them. It appears to have no pockets. (I drew the conclusion that it is a vest rather than a long-sleeved cardigan as the sleeves are not seen under the jacket cuffs.)

Vandamm dresses for luxurious comfort before making his final getaway.

Like his adversary, Vandamm wears a white dress shirt with a soft turndown collar, although Vandamm’s collar has a slightly wider spread than Thornhill’s. The shirt has soft double cuffs, through which Vandamm wears ornate gold links.

Vandamm wears a regimental tie of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, noted by its wide dark green and navy blue stripes with a thin yellow stripe separating every other stripe between the bottom of the navy and the top of the green. However, the RHF stripes would follow the British scheme of left shoulder down to right hip; Vandamm’s tie stripes follow the Brooks Brothers-inspired American direction of right-down-to-left.

Leonard takes his duties as a “right-hand man” quite literally.

Although these and other regimental neckties are often showing up on eBay, you can also find them available to purchase at aptly-named sites like Regimental Shop and Scottish Regimental Store. Interestingly, the Royal Highland Fusiliers was only formed on January 20, 1959 (created by the amalgamation of the Royal Scots Fusiliers with the Highland Light Infantry) yet the scenes filmed at Mount Rushmore were shot in mid-September 1958.

Vandamm wears a pair of black leather cap-toe balmoral-type oxford shoes with black socks.

Leonard and Vandamm consider their options.

The tank watch on Vandamm’s left wrist is possibly James Mason’s own timepiece, although I can’t find any conclusive information about the type of watch Mason favored in real life. The North by Northwest watch appears to have a stainless steel squared case, a white square dial, and a black leather strap.

Vandamm holds his MacGuffin.

North by Northwest is set during the fall – specifically late November – when average temperatures in Rapid City, South Dakota fall to an average high of 47 °F and a below-freezing low of 22 °F. The characters still dress a bit warmly for this climate (especially considering Grant’s nighttime scaling of buildings in only his shirt sleeves and trousers!), but Vandamm’s outerwear would certainly be appropriate for a well-layered gentleman making a dignified nighttime getaway.

A dignified getaway, indeed.

Vandamm’s overcoat is black and white herringbone wool with a single-breasted 3-button front. The notch lapels have swelled edges and a buttonhole through the left lapel. The shoulders are well-padded with roping present on the set-in sleeve heads. The three external pockets are a welted breast pocket and a straight flapped pocket on each hip. Each cuff appears to have a very small tab on the edge with an adjuster button.

Vandamm’s last moments of freedom.

The villain’s villain, Vandamm literally tops off his look with a black felt homburg with a black grosgrain ribbon.

Go Big or Go Home

…to a house inspired by the designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. Vandamm’s über modern sense of home decor could be his single redeeming trait… but the house itself didn’t even exist in real life!

Indeed, Hitchcock asked his set designers to create a set resembling Wright’s work. Fallingwater, the modernist cantilevered home that he designed in 1935 for Edgar J. Kaufmann in the Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania comes to mind.

Given Wright’s fee and the firm prohibition on even temporary buildings constructed on top of Mount Rushmore, Hitchcock tasked his design team – Robert Boyle, Henry Grace, William A. Horning, Frank McKelvey, and Merrill Pye – with creating full-scale sets to be used as the interior, all to be filmed in Culver City. Most of the exteriors were matte paintings with certain areas, like the bedroom wing, partially built into the exterior for more realistic shots looking out or in. As Sandy McLendon explained at Hooked on Houses: “The interiors were masterpieces of deception: nearly nothing was what it appeared. The limestone walls were mostly plaster, real limestone was used in a few places where the camera would be very close. The expanses of window were mostly without glass; glass reflects camera crews and lights.”

Constructing the house used nearly half of the mthan $50,000 spent on the Mount Rushmore sets with the other portion going to Gutzon Borglum’s recreation of the famous monument.

How to Get the Look

Phillip Vandamm’s dignified, professorial attire serves him well, creating a non-threatening and warm appearance while also literally keeping him warm during the chilly fall weather on Mount Rushmore.

• Dark gray tweed full-cut sack suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and short single vent
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Olive green wool single-breasted vest with notch lapels, 6 silver-toned metal buttons, slanted flapped hip pockets, and notched bottom
• White poplin dress shirt with soft semi-spread collar and soft double/French cuffs
• Royal Highland Fusiliers regimental striped tie with wide dark green and navy blue stripes and thin yellow stripes
• Black leather cap-toe balmorals/oxford shoes
• Black dress socks
• Black felt homburg with black grosgrain ribbon
• Black-and-white herringbone wool single-breasted 3-button overcoat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 1-button cuffs, and single vent
• Steel tank watch with white square dial on black leather strap

For homier or more intimate settings, a soft beige cardigan sweater vest would also work in place of the green odd vest.

The Gun

“That wasn’t very sporting, using real bullets,” Vandamm demurely says after a deputy ends Leonard’s threat to Roger and Eva with a well-placed rifle shot. Of course, in Vandamm’s world of deception, it’s the smaller, concealable handguns that are most fatal.

Leonard himself tried to melodramatically prove a point to Vandamm by firing a shot at him from Eve’s pistol, a Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket. Of course, the shot was a blank and Vandamm’s shock is transferred to a pained sense of betrayal by Eve.

Introduced in 1908, as its name suggests, the Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket was Colt’s version of the earlier FN Model 1905 (later redesigned as the “Baby Browning”), also based on a John Browning design and arguably the first subcompact semi-automatic pistol. Chambered for the anemic .25 ACP cartridge, the Model 1908 Vest Pocket carried six rounds in a detachable magazine and differed from the FN model by the addition of an external safety latch that would lock the slide on the left side.

Though not a powerful weapon, the Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket enjoyed a 40-year-long production span until it was phased out in 1948. It certainly looked like a spy’s weapon with its streamlined hammerless aesthetic and easy concealability, and Hitchcock armed many of North by Northwest‘s stylish operatives with one. In addition to Eve Kendall, Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket pistols were carried by Vandamm’s henchmen Valerian and Licht.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

This matter is best disposed of from a great height… over water.

George Clooney as Jack/Edward in The American (2010).

Vitals

George Clooney as Jack (aka “Edward”), weary hitman and gunsmith

Castel del Monte, Abruzzo, Italy, May 2010

Film: The American
Release Date: September 1, 2010
Director: Anton Corbijn
Costume Designer: Suttirat Anne Larlarb

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Many eyes around the world are on America right now, so I’m responding to a recent request to see George Clooney’s sharp suit from the ending of The American, the quiet 2010 drama that featured Clooney as a semi-retired assassin and gunsmith in a small Italian town for the proverbial “one last job”.

What’d He Wear?

George Clooney wore plenty of Ermenegildo Zegna in his role as Jack/Edward in The American, from his dressed-down field jacket to a charcoal wool suit for the climactic finale. An interview with costume designer Suttirat Anne Larlarb from the Focus Features archives further explores this association:

We went with timeless classics — nothing branded or slick. The only kind of high design was his final suit at the end of the movie. He has to acquire a suit for a procession, and in all these towns that’s where you wear your Sunday finest. We had a lot of big name designers vying for the opportunity to provide this suit, but the only designer I seriously considered was Zegna. Their suits have an understated quality that doesn’t rely on fashion-forwardness. It’s traditional tailoring but very modern and clean. [Jack’s final suit] is not a “look at me” suit — when you put on that suit, you look at the person. But other than getting the tailoring right, it wasn’t designed for him. And because we needed half a dozen suits, we were able to ask [Zegna] to make repeats for us.

A press announcement from the time of the film’s release further describes the suit as “a classical yet contemporary Ermenegildo Zegna two button suit from the ‘Sartoria’ line, made in the crease-resistant ‘Traveller’ fabric of superfine merino wool.” Zegna still produces suits in its lightweight wool Traveller fabric, described on its site as: “the ‘easy’ fabric par excellence, Traveller is made of very flexible and elastic superfine wool. Yarns are high-twisted to ensure a clean appearance and crisp handle. Garments made of Traveller, in fact, are extremely resistant to creasing, for permanent and impeccable aplomb. Traveller is the ideal fabric for making comfortable and innovative garments for men who are always on the move.”

Jack’s Zegna single-breasted suit jacket has pick-stitched notch lapels with high gorges and a buttonhole through the left lapel. It has a slightly curved “barchetta” breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and long double vents. A seam runs down the center of the back.

Jack, around Abruzzo.

The Zegna suit jacket naturally incorporates elements of classic Italian tailoring and details, creating a V-shape that is emphasized by wide shoulders and a pulled-in waist.

Jack hurries to tend to a pressing issue.

Jack’s trousers have a medium-low rise and a flat front. Only the straight on-seam side pockets are seen as he never removes his jacket to show the back pockets, if there are any. The bottoms are plain-hemmed with a long, full break over his shoes. He matches the black shoes with a black leather belt with a brushed steel single-prong buckle.

A “bloodied” George Clooney cheekily poses on location while filming The American.

Although the initial announcement stated that Clooney would be wearing “classic leather lace-ups” with the suit, Jack clearly wears a pair of black leather plain-toe slip-on loafers with high vamps and short hidden elastic side goring, also in black. He also wears a pair of black socks.

No mistaking what happened to Jack’s duplicitous underworld contact.

Jack wears a pale gray Egyptian cotton dress shirt, also from Ermenegildo Zegna, with a spread collar, plain front, and button cuffs. He wears it with the collar unbuttoned and no tie.

Sprezzatura in action.

In addition to most of his clothing, Zegna also provided a pair of sunglasses to the production. He wore tortoise Persols earlier, but with his field jacket and this suit, Jack wears a pair of Ermenegildo Zegna SZ3174 aviator-style sunglasses with bronze frames and brown polarized lenses.

Pensive as ever!

As an Omega ambassador, George Clooney wears a sharp Omega Speedmaster Professional chronograph in The American with a stainless 42mm case, black calfskin strap, and a black dial accented by three sub-dials at 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00. The model appears to be 3870.50.31, available on Amazon.

Omega: the choice for international assassins. (Also note the slightly curved “barchetta” breast pocket of his suit jacket.)

How to Get the Look

Jack may be the film’s titular American, but he is quite adept at adapting Italian style into his subdued suit.

• Charcoal lightweight “Traveller” wool Ermenegildo Zegna “Sartoria” suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with notch lapels, welted “barchetta” breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, long double vents
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Pale gray Egyptian cotton Ermenegildo Zegna dress shirt with spread collar, plain front, and button cuffs
• Black leather belt with brushed steel single-prong buckle
• Black leather plain-toe high-vamp slip-on loafers with hidden elastic side goring
• Black dress socks
• Ermenegildo Zegna SZ3174 bronze-framed aviator sunglasses with brown polarized lenses
• Omega Speedmaster Professional wristwatch on a black calfskin strap

The Gun

Jack’s handgun is the preferred piece of well-suited movie spies, the venerable Walther PPK in a classic blued metal finish. Jack’s PPK was made during the Cold War, as the West German manufacture seen in a close-up reveals, and is chambered for the same 7.65 mm (.32 ACP) cartridge as James Bond preferred for his PPK.

A sharp, tailored Italian suit, an Omega wristwatch, and now a Walther PPK? I wonder if Jack is a 007 fan…

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Footnote

For more information about The American‘s association with Ermenegildo Zegna, read here.