Aidan Turner as Philip Lombard in And Then There Were None (2015)

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Aidan Turner as Philip Lombard, adventurer and ex-mercenary

Devon, England, August 1939

Series Title: And Then There Were None
Air Date: December 26-28, 2015
Director: Craig Viveiros
Costume Designer: Lindsay Pugh

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As we get closer to St. Patrick’s Day, BAMF Style is focusing on another Irishman, Aidan Turner, the Dublin-born actor who many are suggesting as a possibility for taking over the James Bond mantle as the prospects of Daniel Craig’s return seem dwindling.

Of course, an important aspect of the 007 role is how well an actor sports a dinner suit, so we’re checking out the period black tie ensemble that Turner wore as Philip Lombard in the BBC’s 2015 miniseries And Then There Were None.

Published in 1939, And Then There Were None is widely considered to be Agatha Christie’s masterpiece and, with more than 100 million copies sold around the world, tops the charts as the world’s best-selling mystery novel and the sixth best-selling book of all time. It had been adapted for the screen several times, most faithfully in 1945 (albeit with a more positive ending), until the three-part miniseries that aired after Christmas 2015 set the gold standard for adapting Christie’s work.

Turner joined an all-star cast including Charles Dance, Sam Neill, Maeve Dermody, Miranda Richardson, and Toby Stephens in the classic story of ten strangers summoned to an island mansion for a summer weekend retreat. They range from a retired judge and a judgmental spinster to an alcoholic doctor and a rakish socialite, Anthony Marston (Douglas Booth), the only one that calls out the peculiarity of their situation:

I had a letter inviting me to a house party. Pretty young things, you know? Champagne, music… and apart from Lombard, who looks like he could cut up a bit lively, the rest of you don’t really look like fun-loving house party types. No offense.

The first evening, all are dressed for dinner when they discover that none of them have ever met their supposed host, U.N. Owen (Christie’s characters weren’t above puns), and find their deepest secrets revealed as a mysterious recording accuses them each of murder. Every character refutes his or her respective charges…except the cheeky Lombard who sees no reason to deny his past:

Philip Lombard, that you did murder 21 men, members of an East African tribe…

Lombard isn’t alone in his non-denial. The reckless Marston recollects “those two kids” that he killed in a drunk driving incident that led to the “terrific nuisance” of a six-month suspended license. The guests are disgusted by Marston, but their revulsion soon turns to horror as the swaggering young socialite chokes to death before their eyes. Something is amiss…

What’d He Wear?

The seven English gentlemen invited to dinner on Soldier Island all dress for dinner the first night, sporting black tie that would have been appropriate and fashionable for a summer evening in 1939. Philip Lombard’s classic single-breasted dinner jacket with its sweeping peak lapels and his wing collar shirt would have been the epitome of fashionable English formalwear in the immediately pre-war era. Double-breasted dinner jackets had been catching on throughout the decade as a fashionable but ultimately less formal – and thus, more American – alternative.

It’s worth noting that, in the 1945 film, Louis Hayward’s Lombard wears a double-breasted dinner jacket with a turndown collar, perhaps a reflection of the character’s casual nature and the more staid context during the latter years of World War II.

Dueling Lombards: Louis Hayward (in 1945) and Aidan Turner (in 2015) attempt to out-debonair each other as Philip Lombard.

Surprisingly, given the character’s general irreverence, Aidan Turner wears a very formal dinner suit in the 2015 adaptation. His black wool single-breasted dinner jacket has full-bellied peak lapels, faced in black grosgrain. The wide lapels have long gorges with edges that even rise above the concave shoulder line, and the width is so exaggerated that the lapels even roll over the single link-button closure in the front, which he wears open anyway.

“Strong shoulders and wide lapels,” defined men’s jackets in the 1930s, according to costume designer Lindsay Pugh in a 2013 Q&A with WWD.com.

The concave shoulders with roped sleeveheads and the width of the lapels at the peaks work with the ventless back and suppressed waist to deliver an hourglass silhouette that emphasizes Lombard’s sleek, athletic physique, no doubt contributing to Marston’s conclusion that he “could cut up a bit lively.” The dinner jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and three black plastic buttons on the end of each cuff.

A traditionally British element of Lombard’s black tie ensemble is the wing collar on his starched white formal shirt. By the late 1930s, the turndown collar had usurped the classic wing collar in popularity – particularly in the United States – but the wing collar remained the most formal option. Lombard wears his on a starched white boiled shirt with two studs visible on the front bib. The shirt’s single cuffs are worn with a set of silver-trimmed black square cuff links, essentially larger versions of the shirt studs.

Lombard wears a black grosgrain silk self-tied bow tie in a large butterfly/thistle shape.

Lombard’s black wool formal waistcoat has luxurious shawl lapels and a low, V-shaped opening. It is single-breasted with four black plastic sew-through buttons all worn fastened and a notched bottom.

Auditioning for 007?

Lombard’s black high-rise trousers have period-correct pleats and the standard silk side stripe – grosgrain here to match the lapel facings and bow tie. The bottoms are finished with plain hems, as they should be on a dinner suit.

Lombard wears black patent leather oxford shoes and black dress socks.

Lombard kicks back with a pre-dinner whiskey.

Barely seen under Lombard’s shirt sleeve is his tank watch, a simple square-cased wristwatch on a russet brown leather strap. A pocket watch would have been the most traditional option, particularly with a classic formal look like Lombard’s, but a sportsman like him would probably prefer to keep his daily timepiece without sacrificing function for form.

Aidan Turner and his co-stars joke around on set.

How to Get the Look

Despite his irreverent nature and bold suits and casual attire, Philip Lombard sports very traditional and classically British evening wear when dressing for dinner with the other doomed guests on Soldier Island.

• Black wool single-breasted 1-button dinner jacket with wide grosgrain-faced lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Black wool single-breasted 4-button formal waistcoat with shawl lapels and notched bottom
• Black wool single-pleated high-rise formal trousers with satin side stripe, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White formal shirt with starched front bib and single cuffs
  • Detachable wing collar
  • Silver-trimmed black square studs
  • Silver-trimmed black square cufflinks
• Black grosgrain butterfly-shaped self-tied bow tie
• Black patent leather oxfords/balmorals
• Black dress socks
• Steel tank watch with square tan dial on russet brown leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series and Agatha Christie’s 1939 novel, one of my favorites and certainly deserving of its best-selling status.

The Quote

It’s amazing how people get an attack of conscience when they’re safely tucked away in their beds.

Footnote

Turner is effective in the role, but it’s hard to imagine his Lombard – or any Lombard played by a modern actor – deliver the restrained insult “my good blockhead” that always stood out to me from Christie’s novel.

Michael Caine as Alfie Elkins in Alfie (1966)

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Michael Caine as Alfie Elkins, charming part-time car service driver and full-time cad

London, Summer 1965

Film: Alfie
Release Date: March 24, 1966
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Wardrobe Supervisor: Jean Fairlie
Tailor: Douglas Hayward

Background

Make a married woman laugh and you’re halfway there with her.

Right off the bat, we learn that the titular Alfie Elkins is no gentleman.

Although he had already featured in several major British films through the ’60s, it was his Academy Award-nominated breakthrough role in Alfie that led Michael Caine to global stardom.

The actor, who is celebrating his 84th birthday today, was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite on March 14, 1933 in London. He took up acting at the age of 20, initially performing under the name Michael Scott(!) before he was inspired to take his better-known stage name from a marquee promoting The Caine Mutiny at the Odeon Cinema.

A decade later, Michael Caine had completed work as Len Deighton’s anti-Bond spy in The Ipcress File when he took over the role of Alfie from his friend and roommate Terence Stamp, who had originated the role on Broadway but declined to reprise it on screen.

The film was written by Bill Naughton, adapting his screenplay from his own 1963 play, and directed by Lewis Glibert, who also celebrated his birthday recently (March 6, 1920 – happy belated 97th, Lewis!) Gilbert would go on to direct his first of three Bond films, You Only Live Twice, the following year.

What’d He Wear?

In ABC of Men’s Fashion, published in 1964, Hardy Amies advises that “the navy blue [blazer] without club badge on pocket and very often double-breasted is now very popular for wearing in circumstances where a sports jacket in tweed or jersey would be too informal and an ordinary dark suit too formal.”

Two years after Amies’ seminal work was published, Michael Caine’s Alfie began and ended his lonely story in the same outfit: a navy serge double-breasted blazer, surprisingly emblazoned with RAF detailing and a RAF striped tie. The surprisingly traditional elements in this hip, caddish character are offset by the contemporary styling of Caine’s personal tailor, Douglas Hayward.

Ah, the old take-a-baby-to-the-park trick. Alfie, you card, you…

The worsted serge blazer has four chrome shank buttons with one to button (4×1), a double-breasted style that would later briefly enjoy popularity in the late 1980s, with a single shank button on the end of each cuff as well.

Based on Alfie’s badge and tie, I would imagine that these are the silver-finished chrome buttons engraved with the symbol of the Royal Air Force (RAF), available from Benson & Cregg, which confirms the diameter of his four large front buttons at 2.4cm with the smaller cuff buttons sized at 1.5cm.

Caine’s blazer incorporates elements of traditional British tailoring, including the well-padded shoulders and double vents, although the close, short fit and higher gorges also wink at Italian-influenced mod style.

Alfie’s last date with Ruby (Shelley Winters) doesn’t quite go as planned…

Alfie’s blazer has patch pockets – one on each hip and one on the left breast, emblazoned with the badge of the Royal Air Force, a bit of stolen valor on Alfie’s part… not surprising, given his tendency for stealing virtue as well.

The RAF’s motto “Per ardua ad astra” (“Through adversity to the stars”) dates back to 1912 when it was used by the newly formed Royal Flying Corps, six years before it was merged with the Royal Naval Air Service to create the RAF. The badge consists of the motto inscribed in gold on a navy circle, itself bordered by gold with an Imperial crown on top. A gold volant eagle flies out of the light blue center of the circle.

I’ve never served in the RAF – partially due to my American citizenship and also my total inability to fly a plane – but I would feel very distinguished in a blazer sporting its attractive badge on the breast. Benson & Clegg offers the hand-stitched badge for £30.

From his blazer badge and buttons to the stripes of his tie, Alfie has totally appropriated the Royal Air Force for his about-town attire.

Alfie wears a pale cream poplin shirt with a plain front and squared double (French) cuffs that Alfie wears with etched gold oval links. The shirt’s narrow English spread collar is rounded on the corners, similar to the classic club collar.

The etching on Alfie’s gold-toned cuff links is difficult to ascertain in the finished film, but a set of gilt RAF-engraved cuff links – like this pair currently available on Benson & Clegg – would certainly follow the theme of his attire.

Alfie’s striped silk repp tie is fittingly slim to coordinate with his narrow shirt collar. Naturally, he wears an RAF-striped tie, consisting of three repeating stripes in thick navy, thick burgundy, and thin pale blue, all crossing from the right shoulder down to the left hip.

Benson & Clegg offers a variety of RAF ties, but none at the super-slim width of Alfie’s tie; the standard silk RAF tie available from their site is described as 9.5cm wide (available here for £55.)

Alfie’s tie remains firmly in place, even after an assignation with Millicent, but he lets it hang free after arriving in the relative comfort of Gilda’s flat.

Alfie’s gray flannel trousers have a contemporary low rise, but the tapered leg works with Michael Caine’s tall, 6’0″ frame to make his legs look long and lithe… at least until he takes off his blazer and tie for a night of slumming at Gilda’s flat. The trousers have straight side pockets, jetted back pockets, and cuffed bottoms.

The trousers also have belt loops, through which Alfie wears a slim black leather belt that is nearly concealed by his billowing shirt after he gets to Gilda’s. The belt has a gold-tone single-prong square buckle.

ALFIE

In the aforementioned ABC of Men’s Fashion, Hardy Amies observed that “when Chelsea boots first appeared in the late 1950s it quickly became certain that they were the most appropriate form of footwear to wear with narrow trousers,” illustrated by Michael Caine in Alfie as he wears his black leather ankle boots with black elastic side gussets and pull tabs.

Alfie could’ve gone full RAF with this natty pair of regimental striped socks available from Benson & Clegg, but he went with plain black socks instead. Pity.

Esquire’s The Handbook of Style describes Chelsea boots as “a Mod staple in 1960s London,” making them the perfect choice for our caddish mod anti-hero.

“Watch your ring with my stockings!” warns Alfie’s first on-screen paramour, Siddie (Millicent Martin), referring to the gold ring he wears on his left pinky, set with a brown oval stone. It’s surprising that Alfie wears something that could get in the way of his favorite activity.

Alfie also wears an elegant stainless watch, possibly an Omega, with a black dial and a steel bracelet with a deployable clasp.

Alfie Elkins, the self-described master of seduction.

Benson & Clegg, the London menswear house mentioned throughout this post, was granted a Royal Warrant from The Prince of Wales in 1992 to supply official buttons, badges, and military neckwear. It is for this reason that I so frequently hyperlinked to the Benson & Clegg site.

How to Get the Look

Alfie appropriates the Royal Air Force for his snappy but Mod-influenced navy blazer ensemble worn for the film’s prologue and conclusion, delivering a very British look for a character who indeed became emblematic of swinging ’60s London.

• Navy worsted serge double-breasted blazer with peak lapels, 4×1 chrome RAF shank buttons, patch breast pocket with RAF badge, patch hip pockets, 1-button cuffs, and double vents
• Pale cream poplin dress shirt with narrow spread club collar, plain front, and squared double/French cuffs
• Slim silk RAF-striped repp tie in navy, burgundy, and pale blue
• Gray flannel low-rise trousers with belt loops, extended front waist tab, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, tapered leg, turn-ups/cuffs
• Slim black leather belt with small gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather Chelsea boots with black elastic side gussets and pull tabs
• Black dress socks
• Stainless wristwatch with a black dial on steel deployable-clasp bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with a brown oval setting

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

You know what? When I look back on my little life and the birds I’ve known, and think of all the things they’ve done for me and the little I’ve done for them, you’d think I’ve had the best of it along the line. But what have I got out of it? I’ve got a bob or two, some decent clothes, a car, I’ve got me health back and I ain’t attached. But I ain’t got me peace of mind, and if you ain’t got that, you ain’t got nothing. I dunno. It seems to me if they ain’t got you one way they’ve got you another. So what’s the answer? That’s what I keep asking myself: what’s it all about? Know what I mean?

Footnote

Michael Caine shares more than just his original stage name with Steve Carell’s character from The Office; Carell’s Michael Scott mentions that his birthday is March 15th, the day after Michael Caine. Weird!

Robert Redford as Harry “the Sundance Kid” Longbaugh in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Vitals

Robert Redford as Harry Longbaugh, aka “The Sundance Kid”, American outlaw

New York City to Bolivia, Spring 1901

Film: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Release Date: October 24, 1969
Director: George Roy Hill
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

For Western Wednesday, BAMF Style is taking a look at one of the most classic and unique films in the genre, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The film is loosely based on the true story of the turn-of-the-century outlaws who fled to South America after their gang, the Wild Bunch, was broken up by the long arm of the law. William Goldman’s witty, engaging screenplay became a hot commodity in Hollywood once studio execs warmed up to the idea of its Old West heroes fleeing. A veritable “who’s who” of the era’s most popular actors were considered for the titular leading roles before Paul Newman and Robert Redford were cast, cementing their place in film history as one of the most dynamic buddy duos to hit the screen.

Redford’s Sundance Kid provides a steady presence that balances the idealistic Butch as played by Newman. Like many traditional cinematic gunslingers, Sundance is laconic and suspicious with a laidback sense of humor as opposed to the charming and clever Butch who is always looking for the next laugh. Each brings a sense of balance to their bickering partnership that strengthens it as a brotherhood rather than a friendship or professional association. Tension rises and falls throughout Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but at no point is there even any threat that one will turn on the other, even as both seem to share the affections of Sundance’s romantic partner, Etta Place (Katharine Ross).

William Goldman said he was drawn to the story of Butch and Sundance as it countered F. Scott Fitzgerald’s theory of “no second acts in American lives,” with the duo faced with determining their second act in the face of the changing state of the American frontier. Given the choice of adapt or die, they choose a third option: fleeing to Bolivia, by way of New York City.

The changing state of the American frontier catches up to horseback bandits Butch and Sundance, and the duo is given the choice: adapt or die. Instead, they choose a third option: fleeing to Bolivia, by way of New York City.

What’d He Wear?

Sundance’s “day dress” outfit of charcoal jacket and waistcoat with striped trousers is his most formal look in the film. When situations call for a suit, he typically sports a gray tweed three-piece suit more fitting his usual image of an outdoorsy gunslinger, but he rises to the occasion for a formal portrait in New York with this turn-of-the-century take on a Masonic suit that was also preferred by some real-life Wild Bunch bandits at the time…but more on that later.

Although its purpose is mostly ceremonial in New York for a day of portraits and jewelry shopping, Sundance’s formal day dress serves a greater purpose when it lulls a Bolivian bank president into a false sense of security; the president willingly leads this prosperous prospect through his bank, grinning ear-to-ear until Etta hands Sundance his .45 and the ruse is up.

(Left) Butch didn’t realize we weren’t smiling for that one.
(Right) A Bolivian bank president, distracted by Sundance’s fine formal attire, mindlessly leads him down into the vault.

Sundance would have been the height of 1901 fashion in his sack jacket, with Brooks Brothers introducing its iconic “Number One Sack” that year and redefining American menswear for the better part of the 20th century.

Redford’s screen-worn jacket, auctioned in 2011. The piping along the edge seems to have been added after the production.

Redford’s charcoal worsted wool jacket in the film was custom made for him by Western Costume with his usual padded shoulders and heavily roped sleeveheads, although the wide shoulders are not as noticeable given the cut’s traditional shapelessness. It follows the sack cut, unshaped by darts and short-fitting with a rounded cutaway bottom, although the four black plastic buttons are one more than Brooks Brothers’ seminal sack coat’s 3-roll-2 stance.

The ventless jacket has notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, and straight flapped hip pockets that line up directly with the lowest buton. There are two decorative buttons at the end of each sleeve.

The jacket was auctioned in June 2011, fetching $8,500, although some modifications had evidently been made since Redford wore it as the Sundance Kid. His name and measurements (40 chest and 17½ sleeve) are still printed on the tag, but dark taping has been added to the edges.

Sundance wears a charcoal waistcoat that matches his jacket. It fastens high on the chest with short notch lapels that roll to the top of the six-button front.

The waistcoat has four thinly-welted pockets, and Sundance keeps his unseen gold pocket watch in the lower left pocket, allowing easy access for the left-handed gunslinger. The watch has a thick gold “single Albert” chain through the fourth buttonhole with a dropped fob that hangs down to just above the vest’s straight-cut bottom.

Dammit, Butch! Get it together.

Sundance wears cashmere stripe trousers, another fashion from the era typically associated with morning dress. “Cashmere stripe” refers to the stripe itself rather than the material, which was traditionally worsted, and has been used to describe a variety of similar patterns of black stripes on a gray ground. In Sundance’s case, the stripes appear to alternate in thickness between hairline and a slightly thicker stripe.

True cashmere striped trousers would have more likely followed the baggier “sponge bag” style, but this adherence to the era’s fashion wouldn’t translate as well in 1969. In fact, Redford’s flat front trousers are very much a product of 1969 with the slim, tapered leg and low rise that reveals the bottom of the trousers’ belt loops peeking out from his waistcoat.

Redford’s trousers also have a straight fly with no extended waist tabs and frogmouth front pockets; he slips his left hand into this pocket during the many takes of the trio’s photo session.

Cashmere striped trousers have essentially gone the way of morning dress with your best bet being buying a costume or going vintage if you want a pair of your own, such as these pleated trousers with side adjusters available at Savvy Row.

Butch opts for a more “city dude”-friendly pair of Chelsea boots for their photo session, but Sundance evidently wears the same tall black leather plain-toe riding boots that he wore with his gray tweed suit, a surprising yield given the rest of the outfit’s formality.

Redford on set in Mexico with his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen.

Sundance wears a white cotton dress shirt with a front placket and single-button rounded barrel cuffs. Detachable collars were de rigeur for even semi-formal attire at the time, so he wears a stiff rounded club collar.

For the New York photo session, Sundance’s silk tie is multi-striped in gradient shades of blue and gray. For one of the gang’s bank robberies and celebratory post-heist dinner in Bolivia, he wears a dark navy silk tie with a foulard pattern of lavender squares, each with a small purple dot in the center.

Redford gets a head start on Operation Dinner Out.

Three years earlier, Robert Redford had received a silver ring as a gift from a Hopi tribe that he began wearing on the third finger of his right hand in nearly all of his films to follow.

The gang toasts after their latest criminal venture.

Like the rest of his outfit, Sundance’s homburg was the cutting edge of turn-of-the-century fashion, having been popularized in the English-speaking world in the 1890s after Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, returned from Germany wearing one. Sundance sports a gray felt homburg with a wide black grosgrain band and gray grosgrain trim along the edge of the hat’s signature stiff, kettle-curled brim.

Although he wisely doesn’t wear it during the actual photo session shown in the film, promotional images of the trio’s New York photo shoot feature Sundance’s wide black leather gun belt with a large steel single-claw Ranger-style buckle and a holster for his Single Action Army revolver hanging down against his left thigh.

It would be highly irregular that Sundance, traveling incognito, would draw such attention to himself by posing with his holster revolver for a New York City photographer. (He doesn’t wear his gun rig in the actual film.)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid‘s formal portrait session of Butch, Sundance, and Etta pays homage to two famous photos of Sundance, taken months apart and more indicative of successful businessmen of the era than the rugged bandits who persistently raided the express trains of Mr. E.H. Harriman.

Okay…What Did He Really Wear?

(Left) Redford as Sundance.
(Center and right) Sundance himself, as seen around the time the film was set.

In The Last Outlaws: The Lives and Legends of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Thom Hatch describes the gang’s infamous photo session in Fort Worth in the fall of 1900, coming off of a successful bank robbery months earlier in Winnemucca, Nevada:

A few blocks from the Maddox Hotel, at 705 Main Street, stood the Swartz View Company, the studio of photographer John Swartz. Inside the second-floor studio was taken the most notable and ill-conceived photograph of the Old West era. On November 21, Butch Cassidy, Harry Alonzo Longbaugh, Harvey Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, and Will Carver – dressed in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothing – sat together for a portrait.

Butch’s derby was tilted jauntily to the left, Carver’s to the right. Logan pushed his hat back to expose his forehead and wore a nosegay in his buttonhole. Ben Kilpatrick’s lanky frame dominated the center of the photo. Sundance appeared uncomfortable, uncertain about whether or not to smile. All the men wore white shirts with crisp, stiff collars and long ties, and exhibited shiny watch fobs. The well-dressed gentlemen in the photo might have been mistaken for a group of bankers or merchants.

The notion to record their visit to Fort Wroth with a lasting souvenir such as a group photograph has been credited over time to both Butch and Sundance. It would be in keeping with Butch’s personality to find amusement in joking around, perhaps even mocking – in a cowboy way – the well-to-do folks who wore such dude clothing every day. On the other hand, Sundance was known to have a propensity for dressing up in nice clothing and showing off whenever the occasion arose. Whatever the reason, the photograph would prove to be a foolhardy idea.

The Wild Bunch in Fort Worth, November 1900.
Top row (left to right): Will Carver and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan.
Bottom row (left to right): Harry “the Sundance Kid” Longbaugh, Ben “the Tall Texan” Kilpatrick, and Butch Cassidy.

The outfit sported by Redford as Sundance looks like an amalgamation of looks from across the gang. Redford borrows the club collar shirt and dark sack jacket and waistcoat from Ben Kilpatrick (front and center) while also jauntily wearing his hat back on his head like the bushy-mustached Harvey Logan (top right) did for the real life photo. The collared waistcoat and single Albert watch chain with a dropped fob look most like the ones sported by the real life Butch Cassidy… while the real life Sundance Kid with his dark patterned three-piece suit and wide-knotted tie looks most like Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy!

The newly married (perhaps) Harry Longbaugh and Etta Place in New York City, February 1901, en route South America.

Months later, Butch and Sundance were on the run, determining to leave the dangers of the United States behind them to bask in the warm freedom that South America has to offer. As portrayed in the film, the duo decided to live it up before leaving for good with a jaunt through the Big Apple before sailing for Buenos Aires, their first port of call.

Sundance preceded Butch to New York City, arriving with his fiancee, the mysterious and alluring Etta Place, on February 1, 1901. They immediately took residence in a second-floor luxury suite at a West 12th Street boarding house, living as Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place. They would be shortly joined by “James Ryan,” Etta’s brother, portrayed by Butch Cassidy.

Two days after their arrival in the city, Sundance and Etta had their formal portrait taken at the DeYoung Photography Studio on Broadway. You’d never guess that Sundance was a train-hopping, fast-shooting bandit to see how at home he looks in his staid formal attire of a high-fastening double-breasted frock coat, silk top hat, bow tie, and well-shined cap-toe oxfords.

“…from New York City, with a picture of him and his wife, saying he had married a Texas lady he had known previously,” read the notation made by David Gillepsie after Sundance personally mailed him a print. Before they reached New York City, Sundance took Etta to meet his family, where he had introduced her as his wife despite no actual evidence that the two had gotten married.

Butch, Sundance, and Etta boarded the freighter SS Herminius on February 20 after nearly three weeks and a spectacular blizzard that had sent massive ice floes down the East River.

Go Big or Go Home

Thom Hatch describes the enthusiasm that must have flowed through Butch, Sundance, and Etta as they toured New York for three weeks before their eventual departure to South America:

They were flush with money and the prospects of adventure and a new life. But first they were anxious to see all the wondrous sights this vibrant city of nearly three and a half million people had to offer.

Indeed, the lively ragtime-influenced track that plays over the montage of the trio’s adventure in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid even captures the spirit with its title: “The Old Fun City”.

“Accustomed to saloons, snow-capped mountains, and desolate open places,” Hatch continued, “the three Westerners must have marveled at the skyscrapers, automobiles, and bright streetlights that welcomed them.”

Hatch describes a trip to the famous Tiffany & Co. store, located in 1901 at the corner of 15th Street at Union Square, where Butch purchased a $40 gold watch for himself while Sundance picked up a diamond stickpin for himself and spent $150 on a gold lapel watch for Etta.

How to Get the Look

Sundance dudes up for the gang’s tour of New York, presenting himself as a fashionable, dapper gentleman of means.

• Charcoal worsted wool single-breasted 4-button sack coat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, decorative 2-button cuffs, ventless back
• Charcoal worsted wool single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with short notch lapels, slim-welted pockets, and straight-cut bottom
• Gray-and-black “cashmere stripe” wool flat front trousers with belt loops, straight fly, frogmouth front pocekts, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton dress shirt with white detachable club collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Blue patterned silk tie
• Black leather calf-high riding boots with raised heels
• Gray felt homburg with black grosgrain band
• Black leather gun belt with steel Ranger-style single-prong buckle and left-hand-draw thigh holster
• Gold pocket watch on gold “single Albert” chain with dropped fob, worn in left vest pocket
• Silver Hopi ring with black imprint, worn on right ring finger

Elements of Sundance’s take on formal day dress are more 1969 than 1901, but perhaps Sundance has adopted some of Butch’s forward-thinking attitude: “I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals.”

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

To learn more about the real Butch and Sundance, check out Thom Hatch’s The Last Outlaws: The Lives and Legends of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a terrifically entertaining and informative read that I quoted liberally in this post. You can find the book on Amazon.

Footnote

What was initially planned to be a movie montage of Butch, Sundance, and Etta enjoying the sights and amusements of New York City became a challenge when director George Roy Hill was refused permission to film on the period set of Hello, Dolly! in the neighboring soundstage. To work around this, Hill reformatted the sequence as an energetic series of still photographs, taken of Newman, Redford, and Ross on the Hello, Dolly! set then sliced and merged into a series of hundreds of actual period photos.

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Quantum of Solace (2008)

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Daniel Craig as James Bond, rogue British government agent

La Paz, Bolivia, August 2008

Film: Quantum of Solace
Release Date: October 31, 2008
Director: Marc Forster
Costume Designer: Louise Frogley

Background

The last post found us sailing down to Bolivia with the Sundance Kid, so let’s hang around and see what kind of trouble James Bond gets into in the same country for the 00-7th of April.

Exactly 100 years after Butch and Sundance met their fate in San Vicente, Daniel Craig’s rogue James Bond arrived in the country with his former MI6 handler Mathis (Giancarlo Giannini), where they are immediately interrupted by the efficient Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton, who recently expressed that she wouldn’t take the role if offered it today).

What’d He Wear?

Bond evidently picked up some fresh Tom Ford suits after his visit to Mathis’ Italian villa, sporting the first as his traveling suit as they fly across the Atlantic. 007 looks sharp as he alights in the La Paz airport, wearing his new Tom Ford suit in cool dark brown mohair tonic.

Distinctive for its shiny iridescence created by its two-colored warp and weft, mohair tonic enjoyed the greatest popularity during the 1960s mod scene, making it an appropriate suiting for Daniel Craig’s heritage-focused interpretation of James Bond.

Teachers on sabbatical, eh?

The details of the suit jacket are consistent with the other Tom Ford “Regency” cut jackets that Craig wears in Quantum of Solace; the front is single-breasted with medium-width notch lapels that roll over the top of the jacket’s three-button front. This 3-roll-2 button stance is perfectly situated with the middle button over the waist, but the lower trouser rise and the long tie create the undesired effect of the tie substantially poking out under the buttoned jacket.

Somehow, Bond looks better after a transatlantic six-martini flight than most people do after leaving their house for work in the morning. (Mathis, on the other hand, looks much more relatable.)

Bond’s pick-stitched jacket has a chest chest and suppressed waist with a trim cut that flatters better Craig than the much slimmer fit of his later Tom Ford suits in Skyfall. The natural “pagoda” shoulders with roped sleeveheads emphasize Craig’s concave shoulder lines. He wears a white linen pocket square neatly folded in the jacket’s curved “barchetta” breast pocket, and the hip pockets are straight and flapped with a ticket pocket on the right side adding an extra dash of British detail. The double back vents rise high, approximately 10″.

All of Bond’s Tom Ford suits in Quantum of Solace have functioning 5-button cuffs with the buttonhole closest to the wrist cut longer and always left undone, a rakish way for Bond to signal his bespoke tailoring to those who would notice.

The flat front trousers have a fashionably low rise with side adjusters revived from the era of Sean Connery and early Roger Moore, although Craig’s adjusters are slide-buckle tabs rather than buttoned “Daks top” adjusters. The waistband is extended across the front with a concealed hook closure on a squared tab.

The side pockets follow the slightly curved side seams, and the jetted back pockets close with a button. The straight-leg trousers fit closely to Craig and are finished at the bottom with cuffs (turn-ups).

Images grabbed of Daniel Craig on set show more details of his trousers and highlight the shiny aspects of the mohair fabric. This film also marked the return of side adjusters on Bond’s trousers, a Connery-era detail that had been replaced by belts during Roger Moore’s tenure.

Other than his first appearance in the pinstripe suit (meant to evoke the three-piece suit from the Casino Royale finale), Bond wears exclusively white poplin dress shirts throughout Quantum of Solace, all from Tom Ford, and styled with a large semi-spread collar, front placket, and two back darts. The double (French) cuffs in this scene are worn with gold cluster cuff links that nicely mirror the earth-toned iridescence of both his suit and tie.

Also from Tom Ford, Bond’s silk tie is a micro-grid of dark brown and light tan squares that look solidly taupe from a distance and is tied in a Windsor knot… ostensibly with apologies to Ian Fleming.

Bond knocks back his sixth in-flight martini.

Bargain Bonds may find solace of their own with this “houndstooth” silk tie from Vincenzo Boretti that offers a similar effect for only $17.

Brown shoes are traditionally a safe bet when sporting a brown suit, but Bond eschews this comfortable choice in favor of the same black calf full leather Church’s Philip oxfords that he wears with all of his suits in Quantum of Solace. These six-eyelet oxfords have a perforated cap-toe, comfortable suede lining, and oak bark soles. You can find more information about the Church’s Philip at James Bond Lifestyle.

(Left) Daniel Craig on set.
(Center) Church’s Philip oxfords, as worn by Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace.
(Right) Bond and Fields are escorted to their room.

The sun hits Bond’s face as he emerges from the La Paz airport, but he’s thoughtfully prepared for the situation with a pair of matte rhodium-framed Tom Ford FT108 aviator sunglasses, the same shades he rocked with a dressed-down cardigan and desert boots at Mathis’ villa in the previous scene.

More information about these Italian-made sunglasses can be found at James Bond Lifestyle or on the Christie’s auction page when Craig’s actual screen-worn sunglasses were sold for £23,750 in 2012.

Fields should have rethought her cover story when Bond arrived wearing Tom Ford sunglasses and an Omega watch…not to mention the suit itself.

Bond’s wristwatch is the same Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m Co-Axial Chronometer 2201.50.00 that he wears throughout Quantum of Solace with a stainless steel 42mm case and deployment-clasp link bracelet. The round dial is black with a 3:00 date window and luminous hour markers and hands. The specific number of Bond’s watch, which was auctioned by Christie’s in 2012 for £34,850, is #81087613. Given that he spends most of his time in Quantum of Solace gone rogue, it makes sense that he would wear this watch exclusively without Q Branch outfitting him with alternatives.

For a great analysis and breakdown of Craig’s suit in this scene, visit Matt Spaiser’s blog The Suits of James Bond.

How to Get the Look

James Bond revives a bold vintage fad with his mohair tonic suit in muted brown, setting the gold standard for travel attire and easing his own path for post-flight stationary-and-Bollinger seductions.

• Dark brown mohair tonic Tom Ford “Regency” suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-roll-2 button jacket with notch lapels, curved “barchetta” breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets with ticket pocket, functional 5-button cuffs, and long double vents
  • Flat front low-rise trousers with buckle side-adjusters, curved-seam side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White poplin Tom Ford dress shirt with large semi-spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold cluster cuff links
• Brown two-tone mini-grid silk Tom Ford tie
• Black calf leather Church’s Philip six-eyelet perforated cap-toe oxfords/balmorals
• Black dress socks
• Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600m Co-Axial Chronometer stainless steel wristwatch with steel bracelet, black face, and black bezel
• Tom Ford FT108 aviator sunglasses with semi matte rhodium frame, black temple tips, and smoke blue 19V lenses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Hello. We’re teachers on sabbatical and we’ve just won the lottery.

Footnote

Mohair tonic is a very difficult suiting to track down these days. This three-ply “Tonic Ginger” suit from Jump the Gun incorporates the color and basic style of Bond’s Bolivia suit in Quantum of Solace with mod-influenced details like covered buttons and a high-buttoning short jacket.

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 3.03: “Bone for Tuna”)

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Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, political boss and bootlegger

Atlantic City, January 1923

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episode: “Bone for Tuna” (Episode 3.03)
Air Date: September 30, 2012
Director: Jeremy Podeswa
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I’m taking the blogger’s imperative and dedicating this whole week to Boardwalk Empire and its celebrated throwback style.

During its five-season run, Boardwalk Empire highlighted the spectrum of Prohibition-era men’s fashion from Jimmy Darmody’s street tweeds (link) and Mickey Doyle’s comic bowler-topped sack suits to Chalky White’s natty plaid suits accented by bold bow ties and Nucky Thompson’s distinctive take on white tie (link).

As a decidedly unconservative dresser, it thus becomes very meaningful when the typically bold-suited Nucky Thompson dons traditional morning dress for a morning in church. After all, this is a man far more comfortable in a smoky, champagne-soaked nightclub behind the bold distractions of a pastel-checked suit.

The dramatic second season ended with Margaret Schroeder saving Nucky from the clutches of the law by marrying him… and immediately regretting it upon deducing Nucky’s role in the death of his former protegé Jimmy Darmody. To punish her newlywed husband, Margaret deeds Nucky’s land to Saint Finbar’s Church.

The third season begins a year and a half later as Nucky is made Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Pius XI and is invited to accept his commendation at Saint Finbar’s. The episode of Nucky’s acceptance addresses the murkily ungrateful world that women faced in the early 1920s, as Margaret is forced to stand by her murderous husband as he receives an award for her good deed. A nosy neighbor jokes to Margaret that Nucky’s new knighthood means that his armor will need to be polished.

The empowered Margaret uses the knighthood reception to seek an audience with the bishop to open a women’s health clinic in the Catholic-run hospital despite the bishop’s spineless objection that “there are some delicate topics which would have to be avoided.” Nevertheless, Margaret persists.

What’d He Wear?

Receiving his award from the church is the perfect occasion for Nucky to dust off his morning dress in “Bone for Tuna” (Episode 3.03).

Nucky: You have no idea how uncomfortable this is.
Margaret: You’ve made your discontent abundantly clear.
Nucky: I meant the suit. It shrunk or something.
Margaret: You look fine.
Nucky: Do you know the last time I was even in a church? On our wedding day.
Margaret: Nervous?
Nucky: Tired. Barely slept again.
Margaret: Well, what do they say on Broadway? The show must go on.

Nucky’s morning coat is a heavy black wool tailcoat with the elegant touch of 1/4″ black silk ribbon braiding piped along the edges, including the softly notched lapels and the welted breast pocket.

The breast pocket is typically the only external pocket on a morning coat, giving gentlemen a place for their pocket squares without disrupting the coat’s fitted silhouette with additional pockets (and their bulging contents!) Nucky commits the faux pas of neglecting to fold a pocket square into his breast pocket… perhaps he forgot standard conventions in the years since he had last worn it.

The day is permeated by bitterness from all parties.

Morning Dress Guide, the definitive online source for daytime dress, offers a comprehensive history of morning dress and detailed descriptions of every element to offer readers a guiding hand for perfectly executing morning dress. I would recommend reading that for the ultimate expertise when exploring morning dress.

Morning coats widely varied in terms of details and styling, particularly at the height of their popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, but a feature present on nearly all morning coats are the distinctive open cutaway shape of the front skirt. Nucky’s coat, on the other hand, has straight front quarters that only cut away toward the back at the very bottom.

The height of morning coat popularity in the 1900s and 1910s also meant a variety of different styles with button options ranging from the standard one to up to four and a mix of peak, notch, and even shawl lapels. The decline of morning dress in the mid-1930s led to the current standardization of the morning coat to reflect only the most formal details: peak lapels and a single-button closure.

“The morning coat, still a semi-formal garment, was often cut with notched lapels until the 1920s,” explains Morning Dress Guide. “In the early 1900s to the 1920s, morning coat buttons were usually covered in intricately patterned damask silk. With a damask weave, the pattern is created by weaving the warp and weft in a special way rather than printing the pattern on the silk.” Nucky’s jacket appears to have this same damask silk-covered single button closure.

Nucky finds himself quite literally “sweating like a sinner in church,” as the expression goes.

The four-button cuffs are likely also covered in the same damask woven silk as are the two decorative back buttons that preside over the pleated back tails, located where the horizontal dart and the two side darts meet.

Contrasting waistcoats, particularly in dove gray or off-white “buff”, are a popular option for morning dress, but the most classic and formal option is to match the waistcoat to the morning coat. Nucky ups his outfit’s formality quotient by sporting a waistcoat made from the same heavy black wool as his coat.

The waistcoat reflects the styling of the morning coat with the same decorative black silk ribbon braiding along the edges and on each of the vest’s four welted pockets, six buttons all covered in the same damask woven silk, and the soft corners of the gently notched bottom.

Nucky holds court at his Ritz suite after the ceremony.

Nucky wears his gold pocket watch in the lower right pocket of his waistcoat, connected by a yellow gold bar-link chain worn “double Albert” style through the fourth buttonhole to a dropped fob on the left side.

Nucky casually refers to his outfit as a “suit” when complaining to Margaret, but his contrasting trousers more correctly define his attire as “morning dress” than the matching three-piece morning suit. His black-on-gray cashmere stripe trousers in worsted wool are perfectly on point for morning dress. The double reverse-pleated trousers rise high with the waist line properly concealed under the waistcoat.

Nucky tries to make nice in church.

Nucky correctly wears his trousers with suspenders, in this instance a pair of wide light gray paisley-patterned braces that peek out through the armholes of his waistcoat after he removes his jacket.

Nucky wears a white twill dress shirt with a detachable wing collar and double (French) cuffs fastened by dark enamel-filled round links. His neckwear is a gray striped silk tie that consists of light-and-gray horizontal stripes overlaid by thin dark navy stripes, each shadowed by a light gray stripe above it, crossing in the direction of the left shoulder down to the right hip.

The combination of a wing collar and a long tie dates Nucky’s outfit, as the morning dress standard since World War II has been long ties and turndown collars or Ascots with wing collars.

He looks reasonably concerned, but a guy like Nucky should be sweating a lot more inside a church.

Nucky wisely wears black leather oxfords, likely with the traditionally preferred cap-toe, as the ecclesiastical ceremony would call for the most formal footwear. He wears them with gray silk socks visible below the short break of the trousers’ plain-hemmed bottoms.

Nucky steps up to the altar to receive his Order of Knighthood.

Not that he necessarily deserves it, but Nucky is awarded his vestment as a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory, an eight-pointed cross with a representation of St. Gregory on the obverse and, presumably, the “Pro Deo et Principe” (“For God and Ruler”) motto on the reverse, suspended from a gold-red-gold striped ribbon around his neck. As a civilian recipient, Nucky’s cross hangs from a green crown of laurel; military recipients would wear the cross hanging from a trophy of arms.

That’s Sir Nucky to you.

The pontifical order of St. Gregory the great acknowledges not only the material generosity that our honoree exhibits daily, but his generosity of spirit as well… Enoch Malachi Thompson, for having answered the gospel summons to brotherly love and illustrating by your actions the ideals of the church, for having enriched the heritage of humanity and providing an example for others to serve, by order of Pope Pius XI, I now bestow upon you the title of Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory.

The Order of St. Gregory the Great was established on September 1, 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI.

Did You Know? Nucky shares his Order of St. Gregory the Great knighthood with G.K. Chesterton, Bob Hope, Rupert Murdoch, and Ricardo Montalbán.

How to Get the Look

Nucky Thompson seems to take his reluctant knighthood seriously, dressing for the occasion in period-specific morning dress with subtle touches of elegance throughout.

• Black wool single-button morning tailcoat with black silk ribbon edging, notch lapels, welted breast pocket, covered 4-button cuffs, and two decorative back buttons
• White twill dress shirt with detachable wing collar and double/French cuffs
  • Dark enamel-filled round cuff links
• Gray horizontal-striped silk tie with thin dark navy L-down-R overlay stripes
• Black wool single-breasted waistcoat with black silk ribbon edging, six damask silk-covered buttons, and four welted pockets
• Black-on-gray “cashmere stripe” worsted double reverse-pleated trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
• Light gray paisley suspenders/braces
• Black leather cap-toe oxfords/balmorals
• Gray silk socks
• Gold pocket watch, worn on “double Albert” chain through the vest’s 4th buttonhole and kept in the lower right pocket
• Gold wedding band, worn on the 3rd finger of the left hand

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the whole series, but Nucky’s shining moment featured in this post can be found in the third season.

Michael K. Williams as Albert “Chalky” White on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 4.08: “The Old Ship of Zion”)

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Michael Kenneth Williams as Albert “Chalky” White, nightclub owner and bootlegger

Atlantic City, Spring 1924

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
* “New York Sour” (Episode 4.01, aired September 8, 2013, dir. Tim Van Patten)
* “Resignation” (Episode 4.02, aired September 15, 2013, dir. Alik Sakharov)
* “Acres of Diamonds” (Episode 4.03, aired September 22, 2013, dir. Allen Coulter)
* “All In” (Episode 4.04, aired September 29, 2013, dir. Ed Bianchi)
* “The North Star” (Episode 4.06, aired October 13, 2013, dir. Allen Coulter)
* “William Wilson” (Episode 4.07, aired October 20, 2013, dir. Jeremy Podeswa)
* “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08, aired October 27, 2013, dir. Tim Van Patten)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

Background

As BAMF Style’s Boardwalk Empire week continues, the focus shifts to “Chalky” White, the shrewd, pragmatic, and popular bootlegger who rises through the hierarchy of the Atlantic City underworld to finally own his own nightclub at the outset of the fourth season.

Michael K. Williams is arguably one of the best actors of this generation, and his nuanced portrayal of Omar Little on The Wire has cemented that character as one of the greatest TV performances of all time. As a Star Wars fan, I was delighted to hear last month that he’ll be part of the star-studded cast of next year’s Han Solo-focused prequel as reported in Variety.

Boardwalk Empire‘s fourth season is a tour de force for Williams, building up to Chalky’s climactic arc gaining ground in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08) through the season’s tumultuous final episodes.

What’d He Wear?

Chalky presides over The Onyx Club on a nightly basis, always smartly and sharply attired in a striped dark navy tuxedo with a wing collar and fancy waistcoats.

The dinner jacket is duo-toned navy blue wool with tonal satin striping throughout. The wide, sharp peak lapels are faced in black grosgrain silk and roll to the high-stanced single-button closure, positioned a few inches above Williams’ natural waistline. The single front button and the four buttons on each cuff are all covered in the same black grosgrain as the lapel facings.

Chalky’s dinner jacket has a welted breast pocket, which he wears empty, and straight jetted pockets on the hips.

Chalky swaps out his waistcoats but maintains a similar black tie look each night for his hosting duties at The Onyx Club.

Chalky looks strong and imposing in his full cut dinner jacket, shaped by darts to flatter Michael K. Williams’ physique with padded, sloped shoulders and roped sleeveheads. The back is ventless, the most formal vent option for a dinner jacket.

In the left lapel of his jacket, Chalky wears a gold eight-pointed star pin with a large blue square-set stone.

Chalky is appropriately mesmerized by a rendition of “St. Louis Blues” as sung by Daughter Maitland (Margot Bingham) in “The North Star” (Episode 4.06).

The flat front formal trousers match the striped navy dinner jacket for a full dinner suit effect. They have a straight fly, on-seam side pockets, plain-hemmed bottoms, and – most notably – a very wide black grosgrain braid stripe down the outside of each leg.

Chalky relishes the position of power that he has long deserved.

Chalky wears two different fancy silk waistcoats with his tuxedo, each incorporating some degree of blue to call out the navy dinner suit.

His blue jacquard silk waistcoat gets the most screen time, worn in all but two of the episodes that feature him in a tuxedo. The pattern consists of lighter blue and beige abstract flurries printed on a navy silk ground. This single-breasted vest has short lapels, a high-fastening front with six self-covered buttons, and a notched bottom.

In “Resignation” (Episode 4.02), “Acres of Diamonds” (Episode 4.03), and “The North Star” (Episode 4.06), Chalky sports a dashing double-breasted waistcoat with a repeating pattern of blue-trimmed white squares printed on black silk. The squares abstractly alternate between full squares, dotted squares, round dots, and two bars – either horizontal or vertical.

This double-breasted vest has a “keystone”-style 6-on-3 button scheme with a straight-cut bottom and sweeping peak lapels. (“Keystone” means that the button rows taper in their spread from top to bottom…like the lower portion of a keystone.) All six buttons are covered in black grosgrain silk.

Chalky wears a white formal shirt with a narrow-pleated bib front and double (French) cuffs, always sporting cuff links to match his shirt studs whether they’re the silver-trimmed black set or gold mother-of-pearl set seen in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08). The shirt is worn with a detachable wing collar, secured to the front and back of the collar band with a gold stud.

According to a post-show auction that included this outfit, the shirt “by St. Laurie” was custom made for the production by Kozinn + Sons in New York.

Chalky trades a few playful punches in “Resignation” (Episode 4.02).

Chalky invariably wears a black faille diamond-pointed bow tie that coordinates nicely with the similarly textured black grosgrain facings of the jacket lapels.

Chalky wears black calf leather five-eyelet plain-toe oxfords with dark navy dress socks. Plain-toe oxfords (also known as bal-type or balmorals to us Americans) are the most formal practical footwear for black tie, and it makes sense that Chalky, whom Williams himself described as having “a shoe fetish,” wouldn’t sacrifice formality in this department.

Chalky prods a door open with his foot, wearing one of the well-shined black calf oxfords (inset) that were auctioned off after the show’s run.

Chalky wears his usual gold square-cased dress watch on his left wrist. It has a gold square dial and slim black leather strap.

Genevieve Valentine of The A.V. Club summed it up perfectly in her review of “Resignation” (Episode 4.02): “No one on this show, and honestly no one on many other shows, can deliver a death stare like Michael Kenneth Williams.”

Chalky’s black tie ensemble, as auctioned at ScreenBid.com in 2014.

The navy dinner suit, rather than the usual “darker than black” midnight blue is a curious choice that may reflect the retro-styling that Lisa Padovani mentioned in a 2013 article with Entertainment Weekly after the fourth season wrapped: “I’m inspired by contemporary stuff too and I’ll think, ‘That could translate into 1920s…’ We try to incorporate old pieces with new pieces and old trimmings and accessories with the new things we manufacture to give it a seamless quality.” Daniel Craig’s midnight blue dinner suit in Skyfall was color enhanced to a bolder navy on that film’s promotional material, briefly popularizing navy tuxedoes as seen on celebrities like Eddie Redmayne and Ryan Gosling.

After production wrapped on Boardwalk Empire, this entire outfit – including the dinner suit, shirt, bow tie, square-dotted waistcoat, and shoes – were auctioned at ScreenBid.com.

The outfit was described as:

This dark blue and black striped tuxedo has a black lapel and includes a black vest with a blue square pattern.  The tuxedo shirt, as worn by Chalky – as played by Michael Kenneth Williams – is a bib shirt with a detachable collar and white stripe by St. Laurie.  Also included in the lot is a black faille bowtie and silver/black square shirt studs, as well as Chalky’s shoes.

NB: The silver and black studs were not ever featured on the show, to the best of my knowledge.

How to Get the Look

Michael K. Williams as Albert “Chalky” White on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 4.03: “Acres of Diamonds”)

Chalky White incorporates a welcome dose of color into his black tie ensemble, hosting nightly at the Onyx Club in a striped navy tux and rotating cycle of fancy waistcoats.

• Dark navy satin-striped wool single-breasted 1-button dinner jacket with black grosgrain-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, black grosgrain-covered 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Gold eight-pointed star lapel pin with blue stone
• Blue-toned patterned silk 6-button waistcoat with lapels
• Dark navy satin-striped wool flat front formal trousers with black grosgrain side braid, on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White formal shirt with narrow-pleated bib and double/French cuffs
  • Detachable wing collar
  • Gold mother-of-pearl shirt studs
  • Gold cuff links
• Black faille diamond-ended bow tie
• Black calf leather 5-eyelet plain-toe balmorals/oxford shoes
• Dark navy dress socks
• Gold square-cased wristwatch with gold square dial on black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the whole series, but explore the fourth season to find these episodes of Chalky in his prime.

Jack Nicholson as Francis “Frank” Costello in The Departed (2006)

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Jack Nicholson as Francis “Frank” Costello, sadistic Irish-American mob boss

Boston, Summer 2006

Film: The Departed
Release Date: October 6, 2006
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell

Background

To celebrate Jack Nicholson’s 80th birthday today, April 22, BAMF Style is looking at an iconic role from his latter career as crime boss Francis “Frank” Costello in The Departed. Nicholson reportedly wanted “a little something more” for his character*, and elements of real-life Boston mobster Whitey Bulger were incorporated into Jack’s eccentric and erratic character.

This brief but memorable scene, featuring Nicholson in some timely springtime pastels, was filmed June 28, 2005 at the Long Wharf in Boston. Two of Massachusetts’ finest, Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg), are monitoring Costello’s movements and decide to show their face.

What’d He Wear?

This outfit is one of the more conservative of Costello’s increasingly chaotic wardrobe choices, which include a seersucker blazer with a purple polo shirt, a leopard-print tie  with a Glen plaid jacket, and a leopard-print robe (in case he didn’t drive home his animal print fervor strongly enough.)

Nicholson’s desire for his character to jump from the screen extended to his wardrobe as well, as costume designer Sandy Powell explained*: “Basically everybody else is in ordinary street clothes in neutral tones of black, brown, gray, and beige. Originally, we were just going to make Nicholson’s Frank Costello blend in, but after meeting Jack, it was obvious he wanted to take the look a little more to the extreme in terms of color and design. Costello is a guy who has so much power, he can wear whatever he wants and no one would dare question it. So we definitely had more leeway with his character’s wardrobe.”

A hallmark of Costello’s appearance is that his outfit would be congruous if not for one bold item that launches it into chaos; with his Glen plaid jacket, it’s the leopard-print tie, and with his seersucker blazer, it’s the bright fuchsia polo. As he strolls along the Long Wharf, Costello’s relatively traditional outfit of a white shirt, navy striped silk tie, and khakis is thrown off by a lavender jacket. A navy blazer or matching khaki suit jacket would have been the obvious outer layer, but Francis Costello is never one to take the obvious route.

Costello is unnerved – albeit briefly – when confronted by Queenan and Dignam.

Costello’s lavender linen sportcoat is single-breasted with notch lapels that roll down to the two smoked mother-of-pearl front buttons. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, single rear vent, and four buttons on each cuff that match the two on the front.

Beyond the jacket, Costello’s attire consists mostly of conventional menswear staples. His white cotton poplin dress shirt has a semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs with a second button to close the gauntlets.

Costello’s tie consists of a repeating pattern of three thin beige, white, and beige stripes running left-down-to-right over a navy jacquard silk ground.

Costello wears khaki gabardine trousers with a full cut that appear to be aided by darts to comfortably curve over Nicholson’s hips. Nicholson wears the trousers low, below his waist line and stomach. They have curved on-seam side pockets and jetted back pockets. His espresso brown leather belt has a curved gold single-prong buckle.

A production photo of Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Jack Nicholson shooting the shit on set.

Costello’s dark brown cow leather moc-toe penny loafers coordinate with his belt, worn with dark taupe dress socks.

(Left) Costello makes his date with the angels.
(Right) A contemplative Nicholson sits on location at the Long Wharf.

Costello’s all-brown sunglasses appear to be the Revo “Transport” model with brown alloy frames and “terra” brown polarized lenses. They’ve been discontinued in the years since The Departed but can still be found from online retailers like Amazon or Sierra Trading Post.

Throughout The Departed, Frank Costello wears two distinctive rings on his left hand, a white gold twist ring on the third finger and a yellow gold twisted knot ring on his pinky.

Sunnies and cell phone in hand, Costello shares some insight for Colin about the future prospects of “Little Miss Freud’s ass.”

Costello also wears a distinctive digital watch that has been identified by Glenn Moller* as a Nike Big Al “D-Line” WC0001-001. The digital display is flush with the aluminum links, looking more like a bracelet than a traditional wristwatch. The expanding aluminum links are elasticized on a black urethane band. Costello wears the digital model, but an analog version is currently still available on Amazon (as of April 2017) for $150. You might also have some luck on eBay.

How to Get the Look

Jack being Jack. On set in Boston, 2005.
Note that the photographed jacket looks pinker than the lavender garment of the finished film.

In The Departed, Jack Nicholson’s clothing illustrates how just one item – say, a bold pastel sport coat – can totally change the look of an otherwise traditional and conservative outfit into something much bolder.

• Lavender linen single-breasted 2-button sportcoat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, long single vent, and smoked mother-of-pearl buttons
• White cotton poplin dress shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, button cuffs
• Navy jacquard silk over-striped tie
• Khaki gabardine flat front trousers with belt loops, curved on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark brown leather belt with curved gold single-prong buckle
• Dark brown cow leather moc-toe penny loafers
• Taupe dress socks
• Revo “Transport” brown alloy-framed sunglasses with terra brown polarized lenses
• White gold twist ring
• Yellow gold twisted knot ring
• Nike Big Al “D-Line” WC0001-001 aluminum digital sport watch on expanding link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Excuse me, I’ve got a date with some angels.

Footnote

This outfit, and Nicholson’s unapologetic on-set presence, were beautifully chronicled by James Devaney for Getty Images. These images can be found in the below gallery and also offer some additional insight and details into this idiosyncratic outfit.

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas (1990)

Vitals

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito, volatile and violent Mafia associate

New York, Spring 1979

Film: Goodfellas
Release Date: September 19, 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

We always called each other “good fellas.” Like you said to somebody, “You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.” You understand? We were good fellas. Wiseguys.

The line may have been an afterthought to explain the new Goodfellas title after Scorsese was unable to use the book’s original Wiseguy title, but it provides the perfect context and framework for Tommy DeVito prepping for his “made man” ceremony, especially against the optimistic driving piano exit of Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla”.

Of course, little does Tommy know that he’s in for the ultimate case of the [Mafia] Mondays…

What’d He Wear?

This isn’t the first Mafia “made man” ceremony covered in BAMF Style, so we know from Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos that this is a time for an ambitious mafioso to look his best…and shoot his cuffs.

Tommy DeVito has a closet full of sharp silk suits and jackets that we’ve seen throughout Goodfellas, but this is the most prominent appearance of this sportcoat in black and white Glen Urquhart plaid silk with a blue overcheck.

The details of the jacket are proportional for Joe Pesci’s 5’4″ height such as the single-button closure and the short double vents, a more flattering style for a shorter guy than the exaggeratedly long vents that were characteristic of late ’70s jackets. Esquire’s The Handbook of Style suggests single-button jackets for “the short guy” as it lengthens the silhouette and “the deep V will give length to your torso,” although Pesci doesn’t take full advantage of that since he wears his jacket open.

The single-breasted jacket has wide-notched lapels and a single blue-gray button that fastens at his waist line, but Tommy wears his jacket unbuttoned and open. The jacket has sporty slanted flap pockets over the hips and a welted breast pocket for his black satin display kerchief. At the end of each sleeve is the same distinctive 1″ turnback cuff that differentiates most, if not all, of Tommy’s jackets in the film, accented by two non-functioning buttons.

Tommy preps for his big day.

Tommy’s white shirt has thin white satin stripes for a touch of contrast. It has a front placket, a box-pleated breast pocket with Tommy’s monogram, and double (French) cuffs that he fastens with a set of gold ball cuff links.

This shirt features the same long point collar distinctive to Mafioso in Scorsese’s films. This collar, marketed alternatively as a “Goodfella collar” or “Tony collar” by some retailers, has an almost non-existent spread with a consistently narrow tie space between the long collar leaves. His wide black silk tie thus appears to explode out from the collar as the knot is almost completely hidden by the collar.

Speaking of exploding… the black and white tones of his outfit make Tommy’s blood all the more jarring as the stark red splashes all over his clothing.

Tommy wears black silk flat front trousers with a high rise that perfectly meets his jacket’s fastening button and his tie blade at his waist. The trousers have a fitted waistband, worn sans belt. The trousers’ plain-hemmed bottoms are worn over the decoratively stitched shafts of his black leather cowboy boots, a fitting choice for Tommy in terms of both form (evocative of his wild “cowboy” reputation) and function (adding an inch or two of height).

Crime doesn’t pay!

Tommy wears all of his gold jewelry on his left hand, a square-cased wristwatch and a diamond pinky ring.

The Dressed-Down Polo

This jacket makes a brief appearance earlier in the film when Tommy meets Henry and Jimmy at the Department of Probation to discuss their burgeoning cocaine business. (Odd choice of venue, no?)

Tommy dresses down his jacket, wearing a black knit long-sleeve polo shirt with a large collar. All other elements, including his black trousers and cowboy boots, remain the same.

Henry got pretty dolled up for his probation officer, didn’t he?

How to Get the Look

The Goodfellas gangsters are frequently colorful dressers, but Tommy dresses for the solemnity of the occasion in subdued but stylish black and white… unknowingly giving his murderers a stark visual palate for his violent murder.

• Black-and-white Glen Urquhart check silk single-breasted single-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 2-button “turnback” cuffs, and short double vents
• White-on-white satin-striped dress shirt with long “Goodfella” point collar, front placket, monogrammed box-pleated breast pocket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold ball cuff links
• Black silk tie
• Black silk flat front high-rise trousers with fitted waistband and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather cowboy boots
• Gold square-cased wristwatch
• Gold diamond pinky ring

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Footnote

Fans of Goodfellas know that Joe Pesci’s character, Tommy DeVito, was primarily based on real life mobster Thomas “Two-Gun Tommy” DeSimone, a burly associate of the Lucchese crew who shared Pesci’s on-screen temperament if not his physical characteristics.

The real DeSimone was killed in the months following the December 1978 Lufthansa heist in relatively similar circumstances as his on-screen death in Goodfellas. “It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things,” explains Henry’s on-screen narration, although Hill himself didn’t explain the “lot of other things” until his 1994 book Gangsters and Goodfellas.

Already unpopular among mob leadership for his violent volatility, DeSimone sealed his fate by attempting to rape Karen Hill, not only the wife of then-imprisoned associate Henry Hill but also the mistress of capo Paul Vario. Vario went to the Gambino crew, explaining that Tommy had killed two of its members without permission and developing the plan to lure DeSimone to his death under the pretense that he will be formally inducted as a “made man”.

Hill accompanied Jimmy Burke to Florida in the last week of 1978 with DeSimone remaining in New York for his supposed ceremony. Burke called from Florida to ask about the ceremony and, as seen in Goodfellas, reacted to the news of Tommy’s murder with overwhelming sadness, slamming the phone down and crying. Hill posits that the notorious John Gotti, who had been a personal friend to one of Tommy’s victims, was the actual triggerman.

Henry’s narration in Goodfellas explains that “they even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn’t give him an open coffin at the funeral,” but the actual corpse was never discovered. Tommy’s wife Cookie reported him missing on January 14, 1979, a few weeks after the last time she had seen him. By that time, Burke had already started his wave of post-Lufthansa killings that would lead to a dozen violent deaths of mob associates and their girlfriends, including DeSimone’s mistress Theresa Ferrara, a former fashion model found dismembered in Barnegat Inlet the following month.

The Quote

Oh, n-

Jean Dujardin as Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006)

Vitals

Jean Dujardin as Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, suave French agent OSS 117

Cairo, Spring 1955

Film: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
(French title: OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d’espions)
Release Date: April 19, 2006
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Costume Designer: Charlotte David
Tailor: Joseph Kergoat

Background

After exploring the handsome blue suit worn by Sean Connery in that most parodied of 007 flicks, You Only Live Twice, BAMF Style is continuing its theme of debonair international spies in blue suits with a look at Jean Dujardin’s tailored suit in OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.

Michel Hazanavicius’ comic reboot of the OSS 117 character also meant a re-identification. In both Jean Bruce’s original novels and its subsequent “serious” cinematic adaptations, Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath was an American agent who graduated from the wartime OSS to the CIA and NSC. The OSS 117 of Hazanavicius’ films retains his character’s name and codename but reimagines him as a quintessentially French secret agent in service of the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage (SDECE).

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies is probably the most fun I’ve ever had in another language. The film parodies both the original OSS 117 series of the ’50s and ’60s as well as Sean Connery’s James Bond and the multitude of Eurospy flicks inspired by the 007 phenomenon although its style and tone are more like a live-action (and French!) Archer than traditional Bond. As far as spy comedies go, OSS 117 is wisely more along the comedic lines of the witty and smart Kingsman: The Secret Service than the flat and family-friendly Get Smart adaptation.

What’d He Wear?

For much of his action in Cairo, Hubert wears a rich marine blue suit in a lightweight wool or a wool-mohair blend, suggested by the suiting’s distinct sheen under certain light. Jean Dujardin’s wardrobe in the film was made by Joseph Kergoat, a Paris tailor who coincidentally began his career around the time of the film’s setting in 1955.

OSS 117 hams it up in a suit beautifully tailored for the occasion.

The suit is styled to reflect the fashions of the late 1950s with a single-breasted jacket cut with a lean chest but a relatively boxy fit through the waist. The notch lapels roll to the top of the three-button front, allowing Hubert to maintain an elegant appearance when wearing the top two buttons fastened. (“Sometimes, always, never” is an easy rule to remember when deciding which buttons to fasten on a three-button jacket.)

The three buttons on the front and the three buttons on each cuff are navy plastic to coordinate with the cyanic suit. The soft shoulders, single vent, and less shaped structure of the jacket is more evocative of the American sack cut than a European suit. The straight hip pockets have flaps, and Hubert wears a neatly folded white linen pocket square in the jacket’s welted breast pocket.

The boxy fit and Hubert’s decision to wear the top two of his three buttons fastened lends him the square appearance of a “super G-man” of the 1950s.

The flat front trousers have a lower rise than one would have found on a genuine 1950s suit. In addition to the straight side pockets along the side seams, there is a jetted pocket on the back right. The legs gently taper down to plain-hemmed bottoms. Hubert wears a black leather belt with a steel single-prong square buckle.

OSS 117 hangs out in Cairo.

Beneath his suit, Hubert wears a Bond-style shoulder holster with a light brown suede harness under his left armpit and a black leather strap that crosses over his right shoulder.

Hubert’s white cotton shirt has a spread collar with a front placket and double (French) cuffs, in which our hero wears a set of gold keystone-shaped cuff links. Each link consists of four gold bars that slightly taper in length to form a keystone shape, bisected by a single gold bar.

A shaken and stirred OSS 117 recovers after his latest misadventure.

Hubert wears two slim silk neckties, both with subtle patterns that prominently incorporate navy to coordinate with his rich blue suit. His first tie is solid navy with muted gray pin dots.

Hubert confers with Larima (Bérénice Bejo).

Later in the film, Hubert wears the same outfit with a blue-on-black jacquard silk tie.

OSS 117 is confronted by a revolver-wielding Raymond Pelletier.

Hubert wears a pair of black calf leather semi-brogue oxfords with a medallion-punched cap toe, bal-type closed lacing with tive eyelets, and black leather soles. His socks are also black.

Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath manages to step in and out of trouble with ease.

The watch that Jean Dujardin wears on screen has been identified as a Tissot Heritage 150 Chronograph, one of a limited run manufactured to celebrate Tissot’s 150th anniversary in 2003.

Inspired by a 1946 Tissot design, this stunning and classic chronograph has a light silver dial with three sub-dials at 9:00, 3:00, and 6:00 with a date window between the latter two. With its gleaming 39.5mm stainless steel case and dark brown alligator leather band, Dujardin is almost certainly wearing the T66.1.712.31 model.

This Tissot Heritage 150 would have originally sold for $3,300; the T66.1.712.31 is currently available from official retailers like Times Circle for just shy of $3,000. The total run of the Tissot Heritage 150 was 10,891: 8,888 stainless, 1,853 gold, and 150 platinum.

How to Get the Look

French promotional art for OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies that features Hubert’s blue suit.

OSS 117 is dressed to the nines during his mission in Cairo, sporting a sharp blue lightweight suit that would have been fashionable at the time that Ian Fleming was dressing his literary James Bond in the 1950s…

• Marine blue lightweight wool/mohair tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Flat front medium-rise trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back right pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton shirt with spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold bisected keystone cuff links
• Narrow navy patterned silk tie
• Black leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Black calf leather 5-eyelet punched cap-toe semi-brogue oxfords/balmorals
• Black dress socks
• Brown suede shoulder holster (RHD) with black leather strap
• Tissot Heritage 150 Chronograph with stainless 39.5mm case, silver dial (with three sub-dials), and dark brown alligator leather strap

The Gun

OSS 117 carries a Walther PP, the original and slightly larger pistol that would be developed into the PPK and  famously carried by James Bond.

Like all the best bumbling spies, OSS 117 finds himself at the point of his own gun by the end of the story.

Like its more famous variant, the Walther PP is a blowback semi-automatic pistol primarily chambered to fire .32 ACP (7.65x17mm) or .380 ACP (9x17mm) ammunition, carrying an extra round of each over the PPK. It was introduced in 1929 as the Polizeipistole (get it?) and quickly grew in popularity among European police forces, including France.

The German disarmament after World War II meant that Walther had to look beyond its German borders. In 1952, Walther licensed production of the PP series of pistols to Manufacture de Machines du Haut-Rhin (Manurhin) in 1952, and all European-made PP series pistols manufactured between that time and 1986 were made at the Manurhin factory in Alsace.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

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The Quote

To think I almost let you make love to me! What a fine mess!

Daniel Craig as James Bond in Spectre (2015).

Vitals

Daniel Craig as James Bond, British government agent

Morocco, November 2015

Film: Spectre
Release Date: October 25, 2015
Director: Sam Mendes
Costume Designer: Jany Temime

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

For Ian Fleming’s upcoming birthday on May 28, BAMF Style is taking a look at a navy suit worn by Daniel Craig in Spectre… the closest approach to Fleming’s outlined sartorial vision for James Bond’s business dress since Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice (link).

Through the course of his Bond books, Fleming had often stipulated a dark blue suit of tropical weight worsted or serge, worn with a white short-sleeved shirt, black knit tie, and black moccasin slip-ons. The filmmakers discarded the exact details (like Fleming’s preferred short-sleeve shirts) but adapted the outfit’s simplicity into the agent’s on-screen style.

More than 60 years after Fleming drafted his first manuscript for Casino Royale on a typewriter in Jamaica, Daniel Craig’s James Bond allows himself to be lured into a trap set by his oldest enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Christoph Waltz), who reveals himself to be “the author of all your pain.”

What’d He Wear?

In the grand tradition of Bond villains dating back to Dr. No, Blofeld lays out a luxurious tailored suit for 007 to wear while in captivity. Much has been written about this navy sharkskin wool suit, which was also featured on much of the film’s promotional artwork, including an excellent post at The Suits of James Bond where Matt Spaiser digitally “corrects” the tight fit.

Blofeld shows quite the depth of his knowledge of Bond by providing for him the same “O’Connor” model as several other Tom Ford suits that Bond wears in Spectre. The simple and elegant combination of a solid navy suit, white shirt, and dark tie is likely Fleming-inspired… but the ill-fitting tightness is straight out of Jany Temime’s tenure as the franchise costume director.

The “back-to-the-roots” sartorial approach is augmented by the sharkskin suiting, a lighter weight wool softly woven in two tones of blue yarn to deliver a vivid shine accentuated by an action-packed afternoon under the Moroccan sun. (It’s a much different look than the admittedly more desert-suitable brown linen jacket and odd trousers he wore for his arrival.)

The single-breasted navy sharkskin suit jacket has a 3-roll-2 button front as the notch lapels roll over the top button, presenting like a two-button jacket. The lapels themselves are narrow with high gorges and a long, double-stitched buttonhole on the left lapel. The shoulders are narrow with roped sleeveheads.

The “Blofeld intentionally gave Bond a shrunken suit” theory would hold more water if this suit didn’t share its fit issues with Bond’s own suits in Spectre.

Craig on set, with small trousers and a large weapon.

Bond wears a white pocket square (Blofeld thinks of everything!) in the jacket’s curved “barchetta” breast pocket. The jacket also has straight flapped hip pockets, a single back vent, and functioning four-button cuffs that Bond wears with the lowest button undone.

Oy vey, these trousers!

The low rise and high break work together to create a shrunken pant that looks rather ridiculous both with and without the jacket. When the jacket is buttoned, the waistband’s positioning a few inches below the jacket’s buttoning point reveals an unsightly white “triangle” of shirt fabric. The cuffed bottoms break high over the tops of his shoes.

Fit aside, the trousers are detailed elegantly with buckle-tab side adjusters in lieu of a belt or braces. The squared waistband extends across the fly for a hidden hook closure, disrupting the gig line.

Each side pocket is placed along its respective side seam as it gently curves toward the front of the trousers, and both jetted back pockets close with a button.

It’s always nice for a gentleman to remove his jacket when on a date with a lady… however, it’s preferred that he lend said jacket to said lady rather than to ditch it for an assault rifle and use it to shoot up a desert terrorist compound. To each their own, I suppose.

It’s a shame that the suit fits so poorly, as I rather enjoy the shirt and tie worn beneath it. The shirt is one of the standard Tom Ford dress shirts in white cotton poplin that Craig wears throughout Spectre, furnished with a point collar, front placket, and double side darts on the back.

The double (French) cuffs are worn with cuff links, also from Tom Ford, that coordinate with the outfit’s simplicity. They are silver discs with blue enamel-filled centers that call out the navy tones of the suit and tie.

Bond must be yearning for the good old days where villains at least had the decency to serve him a martini before subjecting him to torture.

The dark navy silk tie, also from Tom Ford, is a few shades darker than the solid navy tie Craig wore with his blue Prince of Wales check suit in the opening scene. At 3″ wide, the tie is a slight wider than the narrow lapels of his suit.

The Bond franchise’s newfound association with Crockett & Jones, which began in the previous film with Skyfall, paid off during this scene in Spectre when Craig’s black calf Norwich model derbies get plenty of screen time once he’s hooked up to Blofeld’s torture device. The angle showcases not only the straight toe cap and the five-eyelet open lacing, but also the Dainite studded rubber soles. They are the same type of shoes that he wore with the blue Prince of Wales check suit, and he again wears them with solid black socks.

More information about Bond’s Crockett & Jones Norwich derby shoes can be found at James Bond Lifestyle.

Blofeld springs for the best when outfitting his prisoners, unlike Le Chiffre.

At the outset of the scene, Bond shows up wearing a pair of Tom Ford Henry Vintage Wayfarer FT0248 sunglasses with “Havana” tortoise and dark metal browline-style frames and gray lenses (color code 52A). As of May 2017, you could still pick up a similar pair for less than $200 on Amazon. You can also always read more at James Bond Lifestyle.

Thankfully, these are the same pair that he wore when he was picked up by Blofeld’s henchmen, as it would be simply too much to believe that Blofeld sprung to outfit Bond with designer sunglasses in addition to a pair of £390 shoes.

Bond and Dr. Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) are greeted by a Kingsman-wannabe and two glasses of champagne.

One of the most heralded product tie-ins with Spectre was Bond’s watch, a steel Omega Seamaster 300 chronometer on a true NATO strap designed to be reminiscent of the striped strap that Sean Connery wore with his Rolex Submariner in Goldfinger and Thunderball. The watch, powered by Omega’s Master Co-Axial calibre 8400 movement, has a 41mm brushed and polished stainless steel case. The bi-directional black ceramic bezel is marked at each hour from 1 to 0 (0 instead of 12) and coordinates with the black dial housed under the sapphire crystal.

The five-striped nylon strap alternates in black and gray like a true NATO strap and can be purchased separately from Omega in two different widths. Of course, that could be costly, so retailers like CheapestNatoStraps put their money where their mouth is with a wide variety of straps available for around $7.95, including the classic black-and-gray Spectre stripe model (link). You can also find affordable strap alternatives on Amazon.

Now why would Blofeld let him keep his watch?

In addition to the standard 233.32.41.21.01.001 Seamaster (link), Omega’s site has a page dedicated to the SPECTRE Limited Edition model (link).

The Omega Seamaster 300 SPECTRE Limited Edition was sold in a limited number of 7,007 pieces (of course) and is still marketed for $7,500 on Omega’s site. You can read more about it at James Bond Lifestyle.

Theatrical poster for Spectre (2015) featuring Daniel Craig (in this navy sharkskin suit) and Léa Seydoux

How to Get the Look

Fit issues aside, Daniel Craig’s Bond sports an elegant two-color ensemble that recalls elements of Ian Fleming’s sartorial formula for his face-off against a classic enemy.

• Navy blue “sharkskin” woven pick wool Tom Ford “O’Connor” tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-roll-2 button suit jacket with narrow notch lapels, curved “barchetta” breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 4-button functional cuffs, and single vent
  • Flat front medium-low rise trousers with extended front waist tab, slide-buckle side adjusters, curved on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs with short break
• White cotton poplin Tom Ford dress shirt with point collar, front placket, back side darts, and double/French cuffs
  • Blue-filled silver disc Tom Ford cuff links
• Dark navy silk Tom Ford tie
• Black calf Crockett & Jones “Norwich” 5-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes with Dainite studded rubber soles
• Black dress socks
• Omega Seamaster 300 SPECTRE Limited Edition (233.32.41.21.01.001) stainless steel wristwatch with black dial (and “lollipop” seconds hand) on black-and-gray striped NATO strap

The Gun

Despite traditional elements like the navy suit a la Fleming and the return of Blofeld, Bond isn’t fighting off baddies with his usual Walther PPK as his weapon of choice. Instead, he manages to get his hands on a SA vz. 58 Compact assault carbine, made by Czech Small Arms.

Given the situation, this is an upgrade from the seven-shot PPK.

This isn’t the first time James Bond has wielded a member of the SA vz.5 8 weapons family. In Octopussy, the late Roger Moore scored some extra cool points for his Bond when he too disarmed a guard of his rifle – that time, a full-size SA vz. 58 V – and fired at Kamal Khan’s henchmen while sliding down a banister (check it out!).

The SA vz. 58 was designed in 1956 and entered service by the end of the decade, produced by Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod. Though it shares the 7.62x39mm cartridge and some cosmetic similarities with the AK-47 and its variants, it’s a much different weapon that shares no interchangeable parts with the Kalashnikov series. The fixed stock (SA vz. 58 P) and folding stock (SA vz. 58 V) full-length models both weigh in around 6.4 pounds with 15.4″ barrels.

The SA vz. 58 Carbine and SA vz. 58 Compact are shorter-barreled variants made by Czech Small Arms (rather than Česká zbrojovka) that shorten the barrel down to 11.8″ on the Carbine model and 7.5″ on the Compact model. Both still use 30-round magazines like the full-size SA vz. 58 rifles, but can also be chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge in addition to the 7.62mm. In Spectre, Bond appears to wield a 7.5″-barreled Compact model chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

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The Quote

Tempus fugit.

Footnote

This appears to be the same suit that Daniel Craig wears for the “gunbarrel sequence” at the beginning of Spectre.

Bang!

Dean Martin on the set of The Dean Martin Show, circa 1965

Vitals

Dean Martin, smooth and multi-talented entertainer

Burbank, California, 1965 to 1974

Series: The Dean Martin Show
Air Dates: September 16, 1965 – April 5, 1974
Director: Greg Garrison
Tailor: Sy Devore

Background

On June 7, 1917, Dino Paul Crocetti was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to Angela and Gaetano Crocetti, the latter a barber from the Abruzzo region in Italy where much of my own family hails. One hundred years later, the world remembers him as Dean Martin, the charming crooner whose legendary career spanned half a century as a major headliner from nightclubs and casinos to movies and TV shows.

Effortlessly charismatic and unflappable, Dino brought his smooth star power to his popular comedy act with Jerry Lewis and later as a leader of the Rat Pack alongside Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.

CNN contributor Bob Greene wrote in 2012: “His friend Frank Sinatra may have liked the image of being Chairman of the Board, but the core of Martin’s enduring allure is that not only did he not want to be chairman, he didn’t even want to serve on the board: It would mean that he would be cooped up in some boardroom for meetings when he’d rather be out playing golf. The sight of him in a tuxedo – he wore it as comfortably as most men wear a pair of pajamas – says to people who weren’t even born when he was at the height of his fame: Take a deep breath and let yourself grin. Your problems can wait until tomorrow.”

While the boozy, womanizing antics of the Rat Pack may have alienated younger audiences during the radical ’60s, Dean Martin’s solo star never stopped shining. In 1964, Dean’s recording of “Everybody Loves Somebody” knocked the seemingly invincible Beatles off of the number one spot on the Billboard charts. Not only was it his first hit to crack the Top 40 in six years, but it almost immediately shot to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 list. Later to be his signature tune, “Everybody Loves Somebody” retained its top position on the “Pop-Standard Singles” chart for eight weeks.

As Dean Martin demonstrated his staying power even in the age of the British Invasion, he was approached to headline a variety show on NBC. Reluctant to scale back his bread-and-butter work in movies and nightclubs and unwilling to commit to the pressures of a weekly show, Martin laid down admittedly and deliberately outrageous terms for his acceptance: a staggering salary of $40,000 and a commitment to show up only to the show’s taping without rehearsals. Of course, NBC was delighted for any response at all and accepted, and Dean announced to his family: “They went for it, so now I have to do it.”

The Dean Martin Show debuted on NBC on September 16, 1965 and became an NBC staple, running at 10 p.m. on Thursdays (Thirsty Thursday, of course) and, later, Fridays for 264 episodes until its final show on April 5, 1974. The show was exactly what one would expect of Dean Martin, a casual, genuine, and unpretentious hour of entertainment that benefited from the natural spontaneity of Dean’s unrehearsed performances and willingness to put himself out there. My grandma still laughs when remembering Dean’s genuine shock at the celebrity guests who would knock on a closet door on the set, surprising him as the producers almost always kept guest identities from Dean in order to provoke the best response.

While his fellow Rat Packers and stars of the era were often plagued with addictions and scandal, Dean Martin was seemingly most addicted to fake-drinking rather than actually imbibing as heavily as his image demanded, often filling his on-stage rocks glass with apple juice rather than his preferred J&B scotch whisky. Dean was a dedicated father to his seven children and was forever heartbroken when his son Dean Paul Martin was killed in a crash while flying with the California Air National Guard in March 1987.

A lifelong smoker of Kent cigarettes, Dean Martin was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1993. Despondent over the loss of his son six years earlier and tired after his long, successful career, Dean refused the surgery that may have prolonged his life and died in his Beverly Hills home on December 25, 1995 at the age of 78. The lights of the Las Vegas Strip where he had entertained so many were dimmed in his honor, and Ohio Route 7 through his hometown of Steubenville was renamed Dean Martin Boulevard.

The epitaph on his crypt in Westwood Village Memorial Park reads “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime,” both the name of his signature song and the personal credo that defined his beloved persona.

What’d He Wear?

“In regular clothes, I’m a nobody,” Dean once reflected. “In a tuxedo, I’m a star.”

Thus, for his most starring role as the host of a long-running variety show, Dean dressed to the nines every night in a tailored dinner suit perfectly suited for his debonair playboy image.

Per his standards, Dean Martin was a star every week from the fall of 1965 through the spring of 1974.

The Dinner Jacket

The luxurious dupioni silk was Dino’s suiting of choice when it came to his trademark dinner jackets.

Over the course of his variety show from 1965 to 1974, Dean Martin wore at least four different styles of dinner jacket that reflected the fashions of the times. A few aspects remained consistent on each: all were black dupioni silk with a single-breasted, single-button closure and a welted breast pocket for his trademark red silk display kerchief.

Dino’s dinner suits are all made from that shiny, slubby pain weave silk fabric known as dupioni. Slightly heavier than other silks like shantung, dupioni silk may have worn warm for our hero during unrehearsed nights of singing, dancing, and prancing under the hot lights of a TV studio, but the fabric’s wrinkle-resistant properties lend well to the lounge lizard aspects of Dean’s persona, allowing him to luxuriate around the set week after week without his trademark tux looking rumpled.

His two dinner jackets with peak lapels were the most formally detailed with jetted side pockets and ventless back while his notch lapel dinner jackets incorporated other less formal details borrowed from business suits such as ticket pockets and side vents.

When Dean’s show debuted in September 1965, he appeared in a sleek ventless dinner jacket with slim peak lapels that roll to a single silk-covered button at his waist. The red silk display kerchief favored by several Rat Packers puffs out from his welted breast pocket while his straight hip pockets are jetted for clean lines through the torso. The sleeves end with three silk-covered buttons on each cuff.

Dino welcomes the audience with “Everybody Loves Somebody” during one of the first episodes in fall 1965.

As the show went on into the late ’60s, Dean’s tuxedo retained its closer cut but loosened up on its formality; by 1968, Dino was rocking slim notch lapels, flapped pockets, and long double vents on his dinner jacket… less formal elements but certainly appropriate given the “living room” nature of the production. The flapped hip pockets slant slightly backward and, like the flapped ticket pocket on the right, are positioned just below the buttoning point. He still has three cuff buttons, albeit black plastic sew-through buttons rather than the more elegant silk-covered buttons of his earlier jacket.

Dino sings “That Old Feeling” and “I Take a Lot of Pride in What I Am” with guest Ann-Margret during her fifth season appearance, February 1970. (Link)

When the sixth season began in September 1970, Dean was back to a ventless dinner jacket with peak lapels, albeit wider lapels more fitting the fashions of the era. The hip pockets slant backward, and Dean’s ever-present red pocket square again puffs out from his welted breast pocket, echoing the jacket’s red faille lining. For the ’70s, Dean also started wearing jackets with single-button cuffs.

Dean Martin with guest Frank Sinatra during one of his many appearances. This particular episode is from New Year’s Eve 1970. (Link)

Finally, by the end of the show’s run in the spring of 1974, Dean’s dinner suit fell victim to some of the excess of ’70s fashion with long double vents and extremely wide satin-faced notch lapels that extend to nearly an inch away from his armpits. The ticket pocket and straight hip pockets have wide flaps. This jacket, too, has a single black plastic button on each cuff.

Gene Kelly performs with Dean Martin, circa 1973. (Link)

At least some of his dinner jackets, most probably the earliest ones, were likely tailored by the Rat Pack’s unofficial tailor, Sy Devore. By the 1970s, Dean was known to wear dinner jackets tailored by Carmen Lamola of Beverly Hills, such as this black wool tuxedo that was auctioned in June 2008 as part of Julien’s Summer Entertainment Sale.

Like his fellow Rat Pack comrade Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin was a major proponent of the red silk pocket square, albeit worn more rakishly unstructured than the Chairman’s preferred TV fold… a difference that reflects both men’s styles, sartorial and otherwise.

Dino in particular seemed to favor bright red satin kerchiefs, providing a vibrant splash of color against the duo-toned black dinner suit and white shirt.

To add the Dean Martin touch to your formal attire, a crimson red silk pocket square like this.

Everything Else

Dean’s formal trousers naturally matched his dinner jackets, suited in black dupioni silk with a shiny satin stripe down the side of each leg. He often placed his hands in his side pockets, positioned just behind the satin braid.

The flat front trousers typically rose low on his waist, coordinating well with the low button stance of his dinner jackets. The bottoms are plain-hemmed, per standard practice for formal trousers.

Befitting his casual nature and a wise concession under the hot studio lights, Dean would forego wearing a waist covering such as a cummerbund or waistcoat, instead keeping his jacket buttoned and relying on the finely tailored coordination to keep him looking cool and composed.

Dino in repose.

Dean Martin seemed to abhor traditional dress shirts, fully embracing a button-down collar to wear with every outfit from sport coats and  business suits to dinner suits. Unacceptable to menswear purists, a button-down shirt with black tie is indicative of Dino’s unpretentious attitudes that lent him a unique degree of sartorial freedom. (Sinatra, an impeccable dresser whose precision bordered on obsessive compulsion, probably took issue with some of his friend’s fashion choices.)

Dino takes his unorthodox shirt a step further by often sporting the seemingly incongruous combination of a button-down collar and double (French) cuffs on the same shirt, a unique combination that was also worn – albeit less formally – by his friends Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant. Through the nine seasons of The Dean Martin Show‘s run, Dean wore a variety of cuff links, including sets in mother-of-pearl, diamond, or plain metal.

Dean Martin chats with guest Goldie Hawn in the fifth season premiere on September 18, 1969, discussing the virtues of dumb pride. (Link)

Interestingly, the most nontraditional element of Dean’s shirt was also the most consistent as he never appeared in anything but a white button-down shirt on his show… however, the details beyond that would often vary. A plain front was usual, but Dean would also wear shirts ranging from a front placket with mother-of-pearl buttons to diamond studs (as seen in the New Year’s Eve 1970 episode with Sinatra). Dean’s non-double cuff shirts were usually of the multiple-button barrel cuff variety, as seen in Ocean’s Eleven and in the famous photo from backstage at Carnegie Hall in 1961.

Dean shares a good-hearted laugh at the expense of Melissa Stafford, one of his “Golddiggers”, who flubbed a line during a musical performance. (Link)

Like the lapels of his dinner jacket, Dean’s black satin silk bow tie would grow in size over the course of the show to reflect the trends of each show’s particular season.

Dino’s bow tie grew from a timeless butterfly-style in 1965 to a then-fashionable jumbo butterfly by the mid-’70s.

Dean’s on-air footwear with his dinner suits was always a pair of black velvet Prince Albert evening slippers, both with and without gold embroidery.

While less formal than oxfords, the elegant Prince Albert slipper has long been an acceptable black tie footwear alternative in settings like the home, club, or other intimate gatherings. Dino also correctly wears his evening slippers with black dress socks, avoiding some men’s misconceptions that evening slippers should be worn sockless like bedroom slippers!

By wearing the less formal Prince Albert slippers, Dean essentially invited himself and his viewers into guests’ living rooms every Thursday night.

Dean Martin typically wore his jewelry on his left hand. A silver (or white gold) diamond ring was a mainstay on his left pinky, dating back to his early career in the Martin and Lewis days. He would also usually wear a silver chain-link bracelet around his left wrist, a common affectation among Italian-American men.

Dino flashes his accessories and cuffs during an early episode of The Dean Martin Show.

In some early episodes, Dean could be spotted wearing a gold dress watch rather than his bracelet. This watch has a square silver dial and is worn on a gold bracelet.

Dean Martin wears a gold watch while enjoying a duet with Louis Armstrong, circa 1965 (link).

For more information about Dean Martin in a dinner jacket, check out this early BAMF Style post about his black mohair tuxedo in Ocean’s Eleven (1960).

Go Big or Go Home

Dean Martin and his daughter Claudia singing alongside Frank Sinatra and his daughter Nancy on The Dean Martin Show‘s 1967 Christmas special.

At the height of The Dean Martin Show‘s popularity, Dean hosted one of the most highly rated episodes at Christmas 1967 featuring regular guest Frank Sinatra and members of both of their families, including Martin’s wife Jeanne and all seven of his children (Craig, Claudia, Gail, Deana, Dean Paul, Ricci, and Gina) in addition to Sinatra’s three children (Tina, Nancy, and Frank Jr.)

Celebrity Christmas specials were a dime a dozen in the late ’60s, seemingly the backbone of Andy Williams’ career, but Dean’s show highlighted the warmth that set him apart as an entertainer. Dean may have loved opening his door to the surprise appearances of stars like John Wayne and Ann-Margret, but it was his family that truly gave him the most happiness.

Frank Sinatra essentially became a member of Dean’s family. As one of his first guests, Frank was often to return to The Dean Martin Show for incredible music duets and skits. It was only around the easygoing Dino that Frank could loosen up.

A loyal and unflappable friend, Dean would always step in to help Frank and it was often Dean’s cooler head that would prevail when the short-fused Frank was provoked by seemingly harmless triggers like an undercooked egg or a loud bar patron.

For all of his own faults, Frank could always depend on Dean.

How to Get the Look

Dean Martin will be forever linked to the image of a charming figure comfortably clad in a black tailored tuxedo, looking forever at ease.

• Black dupioni silk single-breasted 1-button dinner jacket with satin-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• White cotton shirt with button-down collar, plain front, and double/French cuffs
• Black satin silk bow tie
• Black dupioni silk flat front formal trousers with satin side stripe, straight side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black velvet Prince Albert slippers
• Black dress socks
• Silver chain-link ID bracelet
• Silver diamond pinky ring

Toss a red silk kerchief in your breast pocket and a glass of scotch in your hand, and that’s amore!

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the show! In addition to a number of YouTube clips, compilation DVDs are also available on Amazon.

Of course, you should also be listening to the music. This 30-song collection is branded as his “essential” volume and with classics like “Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”, “Volare”, and “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You”, it’s a fine place to start.

I also like the mellow collection on Late at Night with Dean Martin, featuring an understated version of his signature hit “Everybody Loves Somebody” in addition to classics like “Baby Won’t You Please Come Home”, “Dream”, and “Mean to Me”.

The Quote

If you drink, don’t drive. Don’t even putt.

Footnote

There seems to be some confusion about whether or not Dean Martin’s birth date is June 7 or June 17. The earlier date seems to be the more widely accepted date. Either way, he’s a Gemini.

Somehow, his birth time has been confirmed as 11:55 p.m… which makes perfect sense.

Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp in The Rum Diary (2011)

Vitals

Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp, expatriate American journalist

San Juan, Puerto Rico, Summer 1960

Film: The Rum Diary
Release Date: October 28, 2011
Director: Bruce Robinson
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood

Background

“In summary, this airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy,” heralded Hunter S. Thompson’s honorable discharge from the U.S. Air Force in November 1957, a considerable understatement given the iconic writer’s eventual symbolic anti-authoritarian status.

Following his discharge, Thompson tried a few journalistic stints in New York but was fired by Time (for insubordination) and the Middletown Daily Record (for damaging a candy machine) and moved to Puerto Rico in 1960.

Having failed to procure a position with the San Juan Star, Thompson wrote for the El Sportivo sporting magazine… though it folded quickly after his arrival. His experiences in San Juan formed the basis of The Rum Diary, a novel that he penned shortly after his return to the U.S. the following year, although it wasn’t published for more than three decades.

While it would be inaccurate to describe The Rum Diary as a strict roman à clef, its morose, restless narrator Paul Kemp is clearly modeled on Thompson himself, and Thompson’s friend Johnny Depp was naturally tapped to play the role in the film adaptation.

What’d He Wear?

In an interview with Lucky around the time of the film’s release, costume designer Colleen Atwood explained that “[Depp’s] character has a slightly Midwestern meets southern style that is very American and not at all European. His clothes are fairly stiff, but they kind of wilt in the heat, so it feels more relaxed. His stuff was all made out of this ’60s cotton.”

Paul Kemp dresses for his some dangerous escapades in Puerto Rico with the summer friendly layers of a light windbreaker, lightweight short-sleeve polo shirt, chinos, and desert boots. They are essentially the same elements that he wore earlier with the jacket of his blue gabardine suit, but dressed down with a windbreaker instead.

The modern idea of a windbreaker evokes an unlined rain jacket made from a paper-thin synthetic polyester or nylon, often brightly colored and fitted with a hood. In fact, windbreakers have a far more elegant pedigree, dating back to the 1940s as the trademarked name for a line of casual gabardine zip-up jackets made by John Rissman & Son in Chicago (like this one).

In The Rum Diary, Johnny Depp wears a stone-colored cotton gabardine blouson that shares much more in common with the original Rissman windbreaker than its modern descendent.

Maniacal night in an unfamiliar place or not, this seems like an impractical way for such a practical dresser to be wearing his hair.

The point collar has a wide extended throat latch tab on the left side that, when closed, would fasten to a button under the right side of the collar, creating a quasi-Harrington “funnel neck” to protect a wearer’s throat from the elements.

With its flat collar and set-in sleeves that end with adjustable rather than elasticized cuffs, Kemp’s windbreaker shares little in common with the classic Harrington jacket, which was just emerging as a menswear staple at the time that the film is set.

The jacket’s two outer patch pockets are so large that they take up the entire lower half of each front panel. Each pocket has a slanted hand opening.

The waistband is elasticized and the zip pull is shaped like an arrowhead. The cuffs at the end of each set-in sleeve have two buttons to adjust the fit on an arrow-pointed tab, although Kemp typically leaves his cuffs undone.

As he did with the blue suit jacket, Kemp cycles between two light-colored and lightweight cotton polos.

The pale blue cotton polo is the only real shakeup to Kemp’s otherwise monochromatic off-white palette in these scenes. The short but full set-in sleeves fall to his elbows, and he leaves the top two buttons of the shirt’s long three-button placket undone. The shirt has a rounded breast pocket.

Cigarettes, rum, and a typewriter… removing any doubts that Paul Kemp is the story’s Hunter S. Thompson surrogate.

Later, Kemp dons a similarly styled white short-sleeve polo shirt that shares the voluminous fit, three-button placket, breast pocket, and short set-in sleeves of the previous shirt.

One of these things is not like the other… Kemp always looks hopelessly out of place when next to Bob Sala (Michael Rispoli).

Kemp wears beige cotton gabardine chino trousers with a waistband tab that extends over the straight fly, slanted side pockets, and jetted back pockets with no buttons. The flat front chinos have short belt loops, through which Kemp wears a slim light brown center-stitched leather belt with its squared brass single-prong buckle off on the left side rather than over the center. The trouser bottoms are finished with short cuffs (turn-ups).

Kemp sails off into the sunset.

Kemp’s casual footwear of choice in Puerto Rico is a pair of tan suede chukka boots. He wears the chukkas with cream socks that nicely continue the leg line into his favorite pairs of beige chinos.

The hard brown leather soles differentiate Kemp’s boots from desert boots, which would have crepe soles and would be an equally appropriate choice for this dressed-down outfit.

Kemp adds a vintage touch to his otherwise timeless outfit by donning a pair of Sol Amor wraparound sunglasses with a curved gold semi-frame across the front and brown-tinted bubble lenses.

The plain military-style wristwatch that Kemp wears on his left wrist suits his character, modeled after Hunter S. Thompson who had just come off of a two-year stint in the U.S. Air Force before he took his job in San Juan. The plain steel case, black dial, and tan strap is indicative of watches like the Hamilton Khaki that were provided to the American military during the era.

The three stooges roll through the streets of San Juan.

Johnny Depp filming The Rum Diary, in character and on location in Puerto Rico, 2009.

How to Get the Look

Paul Kemp sticks to classic menswear staples in light colors and lightweight fabrics when comfortably layering for casual adventures around San Juan.

• Stone-colored cotton gabardine zip-up windbreaker with flat point collar (with wide single-button throat latch tab), large patch pockets (with slanted openings), and set-in sleeves (with adjustable button cuffs)
• White or pale blue lightweight cotton short-sleeve polo shirt with 3-button placket and breast pocket
• Beige cotton gabardine flat front chino trousers with belt loops, extended waistband tab, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Light brown center-stitched leather belt with a squared brass single-prong buckle
• Tan suede two-eyelet chukka boots
• Cream socks
• Sol Amor gold-framed wraparound sunglasses with brown bubble lenses
• Hamilton Khaki automatic wristwatch with steel case, round black dial, and tan strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

You might be wise to read the book first to really get into the Hunter S. Thompson state of mind.

Warren Beatty as Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel in Bugsy (1991). Photo sourced from Getty Images.

Vitals

Warren Beatty as Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, “celebrity” gangster and casino builder

New York, Summer 1945, and
Beverly Hills, December 1946

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Film: Bugsy
Release Date: December 13, 1991
Director: Barry Levinson
Costume Designer: Albert Wolsky

Background

Bugsy is an entertaining and stylish drama penned by James Toback, transforming the violent mobster in a suave and romantic visionary much as the real life gangster himself tried to reinvent his persona after moving out to the West Coast, choosing to rub elbows with the likes of George Raft, Gary Cooper, and Cary Grant rather than his old associates like Dutch Schultz, Lucky Luciano, and Joe Adonis.

One of the film’s many departures from the truth kills off its title character a good six months before his actual death, setting his mysterious assassination shortly after Christmas 1946. In truth, Benjamin Siegel was killed exactly 70 years ago today, June 20, 1947.

Otherwise, Bugsy keeps the general circumstances, setting, and suggested motives of Siegel’s death relatively intact. Like his cinematic counterpart, Siegel was killed in the Beverly Hills home of his mistress, Virginia Hill, portrayed in Bugsy by Annette Bening and later immortalized as “queen of the gangsters’ molls” after her profane testimony during the 1951 Kefauver hearings.

What’d He Wear?

Bugsy‘s costume team nicely recreated a 1940s-styled plain weave glen check worsted suit that Siegel was known to have owned, as he was wearing it when was killed. The film places Bugsy in this suit not only for his death but also for an off-shore “going away” party for Lucky Luciano prior to his deportation.

Would You Buy A Used Casino From This Man?

The six-button (6×2) formation of Bugsy Siegel’s suit jacket is the most classic double-breasted style, and Bugsy keeps at least the top button fastened at all times, allowing the wide peak lapels to luxurious sweep across his torso. The sharp-pointed lapels have straight gorges and a buttonhole through each side.

For added touches of ’40s authenticity, the jacket is ventless with padded shoulders and roped sleeveheads.

Getting blood on his suit is a typical hazard in Bugsy’s line of work… of course, he would likely prefer that it wasn’t his own blood.

Bugsy could hardly call himself debonair without a pocket square, and he dresses for Luciano’s going away party with a white linen kerchief poking rakishly out of the jacket’s welted breast pocket. The hip pockets have slim flaps.

One small detail differentiating Beatty’s suit from the real Bugsy? Beatty wears a suit jacket with three-button cuffs; the real Bugsy had four-button cuffs on his suit when he was killed.

Bugsy, likely ordering a hit on a detail-obsessed blogger for calling out his suit’s cuff buttons.

Trouser pleats were de rigeur in the postwar 1940s, and Bugsy’s suit trousers have reverse pleats on each side of the zippered fly, in addition to a fashionably full ’40s cut and equally era-appropriate cuffs (turn-ups) on the bottoms. His black leather belt has a squared gold single-prong buckle.

And how do we know Bugsy’s fly has a zipper? He takes the time to exhibit this detail to Joe Adonis shortly before kicking his ass.

Warren Beatty wears a number of colorful silk sport shirts throughout Bugsy, but anytime he is wearing a jacket and tie, he always wears a white dress shirt with a long point collar and double (French) cuffs. This shirt may possibly be one of the monogrammed dress shirts from Sulka that he mentions with such pride during the opening sequence. His cuff links are a set of flat gold bars.

Since this suit’s first appearance is during a party, Bugsy sports a lively Deco-influenced silk tie with an amoebic beige and black pattern over a burgundy ground.

Big, bold ties were quite fashionable in the postwar era, and a clothes horse like Bugsy would have certainly sported one like this to a party.

A year and a half later, Bugsy is in a much more somber place. After sinking millions of the mob’s money into his dream of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, the casino seems doomed for failure and Bugsy receives the inevitable call summoning him home. This is no time for frivolity, so Bugsy wears a simple and solemn dark woven silk tie, possibly a navy grenadine weave.

Oxfords are the most formal shoe for business wear, and Bugsy appears to be wearing a cap-toe pair in black leather. We don’t see much of Beatty’s footwear in this sequence at all, but the real Bugsy Siegel appears to have opted for dark gray socks with this outfit in reality… not that this sartorial wisdom was enough to save his life.

Bugsy settles in for a lonely night of reading the newspaper, watching his own failed screen test, and getting shot.

Beatty loads his left hand up with Bugsy’s “status jewelry”, including a gold pinky ring with a small, dark round stone. He also wears a yellow gold tank watch on a black leather strap with a light-colored square dial with a darker inset square.

Dinner with the guys. Bugsy annoys George Raft (Joe Mantegna) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) by not shutting up about his girlfriend the whole time.

The real Bugsy Siegel wore a similarly shaped watch, a gold-filled Bulova with a square case and 6:00 sub-dial on a rice grain bracelet, as seen here.

Go Big or Go Home

…but don’t go to Virginia Hill’s home!

It was at Hill’s house at 810 N. Linden Drive in Beverly Hills that Bugsy met his end. He was sitting with Allen Smiley, his friend with whom he’d dined earlier that evening at Jack’s-at-the-Beach in Ocean Park when nine .30-caliber rounds from an M1 Carbine interrupted his reading of the Los Angeles Times, peppering Siegel with four shots, including one that sent his eye flying across the room after hitting the right bridge of his nose.

Much to the dismay of some viewers, I’m sure, Bugsy did not ignore the fact that Siegel’s eye was shot out during his assassination.

I haven’t yet watched the 1940s-set Mob City on TNT, but the final episode depicted Bugsy Siegel’s assassination in a manner slightly closer to what reportedly happened in real life. The scene, featuring Edward Burns as Siegel, can be found on YouTube. (Beware of spoilers, of course.) Like Bugsy, Mob City features the correct weapon and even places Siegel in a Glen Urquhart plaid double-breasted suit.

More About That…

Okay, so since you’re all very patient and nice to me, please allow some indulgence here. When I was in – holy shit – ninth grade in 2004, one of the many short (and usually mob-centered) films I made with my friends was called The Flamingo and focused on the last days of Ben Siegel… with yours truly in the lead role as Bugsy himself.

Little did I know that I was so into menswear at the time, as I tracked down a glen plaid double-breasted 6×2 jacket and floral-printed tie to wear for the eye-popping final scene. Since I was wearing one of my #Good dress shirts, I wore an old white undershirt over the shirt (with the tie and shirt collar over it) for the sequence when I would needed to get bloodied – or, uh, ketchupped. Check it out below

Marlon Brando I was not. Evidently I had never learned the classic rule of movie deaths: don’t look directly at the camera with one eye while your other eye is supposedly being shot out of its socket.

How to Get the Look

Bugsy Siegel had to be fashionable to make it in the ultra stylish world of 1940s Hollywood, and no one could have been better than Warren Beatty to turn this sociopath into a social butterfly.

• Black-and-white plain weave glen check worsted suit:
  • Double-breasted 6×2-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, slim-flapped straight hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Reverse-pleated full cut trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White dress shirt with long point collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold bar cuff links
• Dark silk tie (with a Deco-inspired style if you’re feeling jaunty)
• Black leather belt with gold squared single-prong buckle
• Black leather cap-toe balmorals/oxford shoes
• Dark gray socks
• Yellow gold tank watch on black leather strap
• Gold pinky ring with dark stone, worn on left pinky

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Joey, can ya hear me? You’re lucky I didn’t have a lot to drink tonight. Your apology is accepted.

Jack Nicholson on set as 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

Now that summer is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s high time to make sure that you’ve got some duds in your closet that are as appropriate for a day at the office as they are for the sunniest season.

A self-employed gumshoe like J.J. Gittes calls his own shots. As Chinatown is set in 1937, suits were de rigeur for men, but Gittes is hardly the type to rely on the gray flannel suit trope, especially in the sunny southern California locales.

Investigating the Mulwray case leads Gittes to some surprising settings, but such is the adventurous life of a private eye. Luckily for Gittes, his staff – the studious Walsh (Joe Mantell) and the simpler-minded Duffy (Bruce Glover) – are always on hand.

What’d He Wear?

Leave it to J.J. Gittes to drape himself in gray without looking even remotely boring. His light gray gabardine three-piece suit is a luxurious summertime look that defies the conventional gray business suit.

Promotional photo of Jack Nicholson as J.J. Gittes in Chinatown, following a particularly nosy night of investigations.

With its padded and roped shoulders, ventless back, and wide, sweeping peak lapels, the double-breasted suit jacket is cut in the tradition of typical ’30s fashions. Gittes wears the suit’s 6-on-2 button jacket open when sitting, standing, crouching, and reclining (his day of investigation indeed calls for a variety of postures!)

There are four buttons on the end of each jacket sleeve. The hip pockets are jetted, and Gittes wears a dark red silk kerchief in the welted breast pocket, coordinating with the pink in his shirt and tie.

Does the bespectacled, bow-tied, and buttoned-up Walsh envy or execrate Gittes’ flashy sartorial savvy?

A sample of the stunning designs of costume designer Anthea Sylbert, who received her first Academy Award for her work on Chinatown, can be found online here.

Anthea Sylbert’s original concept sketches of Gittes’ suit, revealing the details of the vest and trousers as they would be incorporated into the final product.

Sylbert’s designs reveal an outfit clearly intended to be this one with a single-breasted, six-button waistcoat (or vest, as we Americans have dubbed it) with a notched bottom. Even though it’s worn open, the jacket’s full cut conceals much of the vest below it when on screen. Consulting Sylbert’s designs informs us that the vest likely has four welted pockets, a common aspect of 1930s suit waistcoats.

All of Gittes’ trousers have single reverse pleats, rising high to Jack Nicholson’s natural waist line with the waistline hidden under the vest of his three-piece suits. The trousers are generously cut through the legs, with 1″-high turn-ups (cuffs) at the bottoms.

“Rust brown suede shoes” with a wingtip toe are stipulated in Sylbert’s concept sketch, and the cognac suede wingtips seen on screen certainly fit the bill. These five-eyelet short-wing oxford brogues appear to be the same ones that Gittes wore with his tan birdseye tweed sport jacket later in the film. He wears them here with dark socks that appear to be black.

Oxford brogues in cognac brown suede are difficult to find these days, so Chinatown sartorialists may need to settle for open-laced derby-styled shoes like these fine Cole Haan “Warren” wingtips (link) or these Frye “James” wingtips (link).

Then again, we know Gittes likes his Florsheim shoes so you could also check out these “Jet” longwing oxfords from Florsheim, available in dark brown or sand tan for less than $100 (link).

Gittes loses his footing while trying to capture a juicy scoop.

The first time this suit makes its appearance, Gittes wears a light pink shirt with a white contrast collar and cuffs. The suit’s high-fastening waistcoat covers most of the shirt, making Gittes’ long collar points and cuffs the only parts of the shirt mostly visible, a look not uncommon in the late 1930s. His cuff links are plain gold oblong links.

Gittes’ black and white glen plaid tie threatens achromatism, but the tie’s pink overcheck coordinates with the shirt for a soft but effective color treatment.

The morning after Gittes’ “nosy fella” incident, he shows up to work in the light gray gabardine suit, but this time in a different shirt and tie. His shirt is striped with double sets of closely-striped thin brown stripes on a white ground and the same long-pointed collar as his light pink shirt. His tie is printed in a Deco-inspired series of brown swirls in three shades: beige, tan, and brown.

Gittes dials down the color for a decidedly less cheery day at work.

No matter what you’re wearing below the neck, no self-respecting ’30s private eye would dare venture out in public without his fedora. Gittes wears his usual dark gray felt fedora with its wide black grosgrain band.

Hat, camera, and pocket square: Gittes packs for the essentials for an afternoon at Echo Park.

Gittes wears a unique vintage wristwatch in Chinatown, a flat gold-toned watch with a square dial on a link bracelet that fastens through a single-prong buckle.

Gittes’ watch bracelet gleams while he looks over his team’s surveillance photos of Noah Cross and Hollis Mulwray.

So You Wanna Be a Private Eye?

They say hiding in plain sight is best. To capture his subject’s suspicious behavior on camera, J.J. Gittes doesn’t always need to take refuge hiding on rooftops (we see what happens when he does!)

Instead, Gittes takes Duffy, the meatier-headed of his two assistants, out for a lovely late summer’s outing on Echo Park Lake.

Gittes finds an uninspiring subject in the form of his assistant Duffy (Bruce Glover). Of far more professional interest is the sight of Hollis Mulwray rowing alongside them with an unidentified young woman…

While Duffy rows and grins, Gittes casually leans back and snaps some photos of the errant Hollis Mulwray enjoying an intimate-looking afternoon with a woman who is certainly not his wife! (Whether that woman is his wife’s sister – or daughter – is another question entirely…)

How to Get the Look

This ain’t your everyday gray business suit.

• Light gray gabardine suit:
  • Double-breasted 6-on-2-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, padded shoulders with roped sleeveheads, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with four welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Single reverse-pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
• Pale pink dress shirt with long white point collar and white double/French cuffs
  • Plain gold oblong cuff links
• Black-and-white glen plaid tie with pink overcheck
• Cognac brown suede 5-eyelet short-wing oxford brogues
• Black socks
• Gold-toned wristwatch with flat square dial on buckle-strap link bracelet
• Dark gray felt fedora with wide black grosgrain band

For an extra pop of color, Gittes wears a red silk display kerchief in his breast pocket.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

How do you like them apples?

John Wayne as Michael “Guns” Donovan in Donovan’s Reef (1963)

Vitals

John Wayne as Michael “Guns” Donovan, island saloon owner and U.S. Navy veteran

French Polynesia, December 1963

Film: Donovan’s Reef
Release Date: June 12, 1963
Director: John Ford
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

Who better than John Wayne to feature on the day before that most American of holidays, the Fourth of July?

Donovan’s Reef takes John Wayne from his familiar settings of the wild west or a world war and places him in French Polynesia (though actually filmed in Hawaii) as the grizzled manager of the titular island tavern.

John Wayne is hardly a name that comes to mind when thinking of classic beachgoers, but photographs like this from Duke’s Acapulco resort in the 1940s taken by Phil Stern prove that Wayne (and fellow macho pal Gary Cooper) could be quite natty when the time came to relaxing under the sun.

What’d He Wear?

Guns Donovan (so nicknamed due to his wartime naval rating as a gunner’s mate), wears a number of military-inspired garments, but his attire for a day of ostensible leisure on the sea finds him in a more civilian friendly white short-sleeve camp shirt.

The shirt has five metal buttons on the plain front, including a button under the right collar leaf that fastens to a short tab on the left to close the shirt over the neck. Guns wears it totally buttoned up on land but fastens only the middle two buttons when out to sea.

John Wayne reminds me a lot of my grandfather in this screenshot, from the facial expression to the stance and even the way he is wearing his shirt.

Guns’ camp shirt has a breast pocket for his unfiltered “Morley” cigarettes and a straight bottom hem like a bowling shirt or a traditional Aloha shirt that would also be worn untucked. The short sleeves would fall naturally to Wayne’s elbows, but he folds each sleeve up about an inch higher. The back is double pleated on each side, allowing the shirt to better fit on Wayne’s broad-shouldered frame.

The sporty one-piece collar has no notch with a continuous line from the front of the collar leaf down the front of the shirt.

Guns lets loose by unfastening the few top buttons of his shirt for a day out on the water.

Before going out on the water, Guns wears a pair of khaki slacks that are likely the same lightweight cotton drill chinos he wears with his khaki military-styled shirts elsewhere in the film. The turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottom are another sign that they’re the same ones, so they likely have frogmouth front pockets and two patch pockets on the back and would be worn with a wide brown leather belt that coordinates with his brown leather chukka boots and beige socks that nicely continue the leg line from the trousers into his shoes.

Guns Donovan’s camp shirt and khaki chinos is a fine afternoon outfit for a no-nonsense war veteran spending his days tending bar on a sleepy Pacific island.

Once water-skiing becomes the order of the day, Guns wisely changes out of his slacks and into a pair of dark navy swimming trunks with a very short inseam.

Elizabeth Allen and John Wayne in a promotional photo from Donovan’s Reef.

He also wears a plain navy blue twill baseball cap, although he removes the “USN” anchor insignia pin that he wears through the center of the crown elsewhere.

Cringeworthy sexism and racism abound in the dialogue of Donovan’s Reef, but Guns’ comment about Amelia’s “Miss Bunker Hill” bathing costume is actually pretty good.

On the water, Guns wears the navy canvas sneakers that he also wears with his khaki shirt and peaked cap and later interestingly wears with his gray sport jacket and tie. The sneakers have dark navy canvas uppers, white rubber outsoles, and three white grommets for the shoes’ thin white laces.

A classic staple of seaside workwear, canvas sneakers are still plentiful today with affordable options from Keds, Sperry, and Airwalk.

As John Wayne was a six-pack-a-day smoker who was diagnosed with lung cancer the year after Donovan’s Reef was released, perhaps his cigarettes getting soaked wasn’t the worst thing to happen in the long run…

Guns wears both of his gold jewelry items – a wristwatch and a ring – on his left hand.

Like many military operators, Guns wears his watch with the round case on the inside of his wrist. It has a white leather strap that closes through a yellow gold buckle.

Guns is decidedly less amused than Lelani by Amelia’s diving antics.

The origins of John Wayne’s ring has been the subject of some online discussion. It resembles a large gold class ring with a red garnet stone, and it is possibly Wayne’s personal class ring from USC, where he played football in the late 1920s but never actually graduated after a broken collarbone left him unable to fulfill the duties of his athletic scholarship.

Despite the fact that it was a bodysurfing accident that had rendered him unable to play, Donovan’s Reef proves that Wayne certainly had no qualms about working so close to the water through the rest of his career.

John Wayne and Jacqueline Malouf in Hawaii during the filming of Donovan’s Reef.

How to Get the Look

John Wayne provides a timeless template for comfortable seaside fashion in Donovan’s Reef.

• White camp shirt with metal buttons, plain front, breast pocket, cuffed short sleeves, and straight bottom hem
• Dark navy short-inseam swimming trunks
• Navy blue cotton twill baseball cap
• Yellow gold class ring with red garnet stone
• Yellow gold wristwatch with round case on white leather strap
• Navy blue canvas sneakers with white laces, three lace grommets, and white rubber outsoles

Landside, he wears more terrain-appropriate attire in place of his shorts and sneakers:

• Khaki lightweight cotton drill flat front chinos with belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, patch back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Brown leather belt with squared brass single-prong buckle
• Brown leather chukka boots
• Beige socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Footnote

Jacqueline Malouf, the L.A.-born actress who played Dr. Dedham’s oldest daughter Lelani, would have celebrated her birthday today as she was born on July 3, 1941. Sadly, Ms. Malouf passed away in 1999.

David Niven as Colonel Race in Death on the Nile (1978)

Vitals

David Niven as Colonel Johnny Race, lawyer and war veteran

Egypt, September 1937

Film: Death on the Nile
Release Date: September 29, 1978
Director: John Guillermin
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Following the grand success of 1974’s Murder on the Orient Express, one of the few adaptations of her work actually endorsed by Agatha Christie herself, producers rushed to find the next of her books to be adapted into a lavish, star-studded affair.

Death on the Nile was published in 1937, three years but ten books after Murder on the Orient Express, and included all of the necessary ingredients for success: the return of eccentric detective Hercule Poirot, an exotic location, and a glamorous victim among an international cast of characters… all of whom had the motive and means to commit the crime.

Poirot’s “boy Friday” to help him solve the case came in the form of Colonel Race, a steadfast Brit who first appeared in Christie’s earlier novel The Man in the Brown Suit. David Niven affably portrays the capable colonel with dignified charm and deadpan wit, often serving as the straightforward foil to Peter Ustinov’s more bombastic Poirot.

What’d He Wear?

The dignified Colonel Race shows an equally dignified approach to his wardrobe, dressing in timeless and well-tailored menswear staples including a classic black tie ensemble and a well-cut navy blazer. When boarding the Karnak for the group’s Nile voyage, Race sports a light taupe gabardine suit, straw boater, and regimental stripes.

Poirot and Colonel Race prepare for their journey.

Colonel Race’s suit jacket is in the traditional double-breasted style of six smoke buttons with two to button, although Niven occasionally wears the jacket à la Kent with just the bottom button fastened, allowing for a longer lapel roll. The peak lapels themselves are quite wide and full-bellied with long gorges and an especially long buttonhole on the left lapel.

The jacket is ventless, per 1930s fashions and the typical double-breasted cut, with padded shoulders and roped sleeveheads. The hip pockets are jetted, and the welted breast pocket contains a white linen pocket square that would serve a useful function for a gentleman sweating it out during a hot Egyptian expedition.

When wearing the full suit with matching trousers, Colonel Race also sports a natty pair of black-and-white leather spectator shoes with black laces and a black toe cap.

When the excursion party goes inland by camel for a day of exploring the wonders of ancient Egypt, Colonel Race dresses down with white ducks and white bucks. The cream gabardine trousers have double forward pleats and a wide straight leg for a comfortably large fit. The bottoms are finished with cuffs (turn-ups). Assuming that they’re the same trousers he later wears with his navy blazer aboard the Karnak, they would have four white buttons – two on the front, two on the back – that connect with his brown woven suspenders.

Colonel Race also leaves his black-and-white spectator shoes in his stateroom, opting for a pair of white leather five-eyelet perforated cap-toe derby shoes that, with his light tan socks, nicely complement his cream trousers.

Luckily, Colonel Race’s hat isn’t enough straw to break this camel’s back.

Colonel Race wears a white poplin shirt with a semi-spread collar, front placket, and double (French) cuffs with gold cufflinks.

As he proudly and correctly uses his rank in civilian life, Colonel Race wears only one long tie throughout Death on the Nile – the Royal Green Jackets’ regimental striped tie of red and black stripes on a forest green ground (like this one), an obvious choice for a proud officer that served in that regiment. Even the wide band on Colonel Race’s stiff straw boater is striped with the distinctive Royal Green Jackets regimental stripe.

There’s only one problem: the Royal Green Jackets weren’t formed until 1966, three decades after Death on the Nile is set.

Though Colonel Race, Andrew Pennington (George Kennedy), and Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) are all adequately dressed for a sightseeing tour in late 1930s Egypt, only Colonel Race’s ensemble – straw boater aside – is truly timeless.
Also note Lois Chiles looking pensive over Peter Ustinov’s left shoulder; the following year, she would star as “Bond girl” Dr. Holly Goodhead in Moonraker.

Niven himself had served with the Rifle Brigade, the light infantry regiment from which the Royal Green Jackets descended. Niven almost certainly wears the Royal Green Jackets’ regimental stripe throughout the film as a tribute to his service in the Rifle Brigade.

Colonel Race wears all of his jewelry on his left hand – a gold signet ring on his left pinky and a gold wristwatch with a gold bracelet.

David Niven, George Kennedy, and Peter Ustinov in Death on the Nile (1978)

How to Get the Look

Colonel Race dresses with the sophisticated dignity that one would expect from David Niven. His timeless outfit pays homage to British military heritage while also exploring the virtues of versatility when dressing for warm weather.

• Light taupe gabardine double-breasted 6×2-button suit jacket with full-bellied peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Cream gabardine double forward-pleated trousers with suspender-button waistband, straight side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton poplin dress shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold cuff links
• Royal Green Jackets regimental striped necktie
• Brown two-tone woven suspenders with gold adjusters and brown button-loop straps
• White leather 5-eyelet perforated cap-toe bluchers with black leather soles
• Light tan ribbed cotton socks
• Stiff straw boater hat with wide Royal Green Jackets regimental striped ribbon
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Gold wristwatch on gold bracelet, left wrist
• Gold signet ring, left pinky

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983)

Vitals

Al Pacino as Tony Montana, impulsive and hotheaded cocaine dealer

Miami, Fall 1981

Film: Scarface
Release Date: December 9, 1983
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
Tailor: Tommy Velasco

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Miami, Florida, was incorporated as a city 121 years ago today – July 28, 1896. Today’s post focuses on one of the city’s most infamous fictional residents.

And, of course, that would be Tony Montana, the Cuban-born drug dealer portrayed by Al Pacino as he works his way to the top of the Miami drug world in the 1983 remake of Howard Hawks’ Prohibition-era pre-Code crime classic, Scarface.

As in the 1932 film, Tony’s swift seduction of the boss’ blonde moll leads to said boss ordering a hit on Tony’s life. Armed with his smooth young protégé and the element of surprise, an injured Tony heads to the oblivious boss’ office to confront him and force him into a confession. The boss desperately begs for Tony not to kill him; Tony agrees… then his protégé swings in and ends the boss’ life with a single shot.

The exact same scene description applies to both the 1983 film and its 1932 predecessor, where Paul Muni played the role of Tony Camonte, a hotheaded Mafia lieutenant rising through the Chicago Outfit à la Al Capone. Osgood Perkins played Camonte’s boss, Johnny Lovo, a thinly disguised version of the real-life Johnny Torrio. As Tony’s protégé Guino Rinaldo, George Raft’s first major cinematic role found him in a part that paralleled Raft’s own scrappy salad days as a crony of Bugsy Siegel and Owney Madden.

In 1983, Steven Bauer played the Raft role of Tony Montana’s protégé Manny Ribera, a fellow Cuban immigrant. Robert Loggia brought both charisma and just the right amount of sleaze to the role of Frank Lopez, Tony’s treacherous boss who meets his fate at the end of Manny’s gun. The ’83 update also adds a few new elements to the scene such as the presence of corrupt Miami detective Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin) and Lopez’s burly bodyguard, Ernie (Arnaldo Santana), who sweats through the scene but lives after Tony presents him with the offer of a lifetime.

What’d He Wear?

They wanted to spoil my $800 suit…

Sitting before Frank Lopez in his bloodied red, white, and blue, Tony Montana personifies the cutthroat nature of the American dream. His sky blue three-piece suit may have been appropriate for the pastel party atmosphere of The Babylon nightclub, but it also provided a stark palette for the bloodshed that would engineer his final pole vault into power.

That’s no way to treat an $800 suit…

This sky blue gabardine suit was made for the production by Paramount tailor Tommy Velasco. Like many of other Tony Montana’s three-piece suits, the single-breasted jacket has peak lapels, perhaps a nod to the fashions of the early ’30s when the original film was made as this style – though briefly revived in the ’70s – was falling out of fashion again by the early 1980s.

The peak lapels have dramatically slanted gorges and roll to the low stance two-button front, which Tony wears open throughout the suit’s time on screen. The shoulders are padded with roped sleeveheads, each sleeve ends with three buttons on the cuff, and the back is split with double vents. The straight hip pockets are jetted, and Tony wears a white silk display kerchief puffed in his welted breast pocket, but the lights of the nightclub reflect on the pocket square’s shiny satin finish and it often appears pink.

Tony’s arm seems to make a full recovery, but his suit will never be the same again.

The suit has a matching single-breasted vest (waistcoat) with lower welt pockets and a notched bottom. Tony wears all six buttons fastened… until the aftermath of his shooting when he wears it totally open under his jacket. The satin-finished back is covered in an indigo blue tonal foulard pattern with an adjustable strap to tighten or loosen the fit.

Another sartorial highlight? Nick the Pig’s bold mustard printed shirt.

Tony wears his white-on-white striped silk shirt as open as he can with at least the top three or four buttons undone and the long-pointed spread collar draped over the collar of his suit jacket. The shirting is all white silk with double satin tonal stripes adding a touch of contrast.

The shirt has a front placket and single-button “Lapidus” pointed-tab cuffs, a popular detail in the era of the late ’70s and early ’80s that can also be found on the shirts of Roger Moore’s James Bond and Robert De Niro in Casino.

Octavio, we hardly knew ye.

The flat front suit trousers have a medium-low rise and straight pockets along the side seams. When Tony opens his vest, we see the light brown leather belt he wears, hooked in the front with a Western-styled gold single-prong buckle.

SCARFACE

Tony’s tan patent leather cap-toe oxfords make another appearance, worn with beige socks that create a boot-like effect. He previously wore these shoes with his gray silk suit and would later wear them with the cream three-piece suit he sports for his wedding.

It’s all fun and games until Octavio the dancing clown gets peppered with rounds from a set of MAC-10s.

Tony Montana festoons himself with gold jewelry to flash his status. He wears two yellow gold necklaces, a larger Cuban-style chain and a slimmer rope necklace on a longer chain, that both get plenty of screen time due to his low-buttoned shirts.

Manny clearly takes after his mentor Tony when it comes to how to best button – or unbutton – your shirt to show off any flashy gold jewelry you’ve got.

Tony also loads up his right hand with gold rings, wearing a diamond ring on his third finger and a ruby stone on his pinky.

Sign of success or excess? Tony flashes his double gold rings while conversing with the corrupt Mel Bernstein at The Babylon club.

A fashion plate like Tony Montana wouldn’t wear just any gold wristwatch. Tony wears a Omega La Magique watch in yellow gold with a small round black dial and a gold bracelet. Introduced in 1981, the La Magique was positioned as one of the thinnest watches on the market. Tony begins wearing it as a symbol of success, flashing it on his wrist at moments like his and Omar’s fateful first meeting with Sosa in Colombia.

Tony Montana would have been an aggressive bathroom monitor.

Tony also wears a gold chain-link ID bracelet on his right wrist.

How to Get the Look

Tony Montana doesn’t plan on this simple visit to a nightclub to result in one of the biggest nights of his life, but he is nonetheless dressed for the occasion in his sky blue three-piece suit. Tailored for today and worn with a tie, this outfit could work just as well 35 years later.

• Sky blue gabardine tailored suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and double vents
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with lower welt pockets, notched bottom, and adjustable back strap
  • Flat front medium-rise trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White satin tonal-striped silk dress shirt with spread collar, front placket, and 1-button “Lapidus” tab cuffs
• Light brown leather belt with gold Western-style single-prong buckle
• Tan patent leather cap-toe oxfords/balmoral shoes
• Beige socks
• Omega La Magique wristwatch on left wrist with gold expanding bracelet, gold rectangular case, and round black dial
• Gold chain-link ID bracelet
• Gold ring with diamond, worn on right ring finger
• Gold ring with square ruby stone, worn on right pinky
• Two yellow gold necklaces

By the time he gets back to Miami and is introducing Sosa’s henchmen to his “little friend”, Tony’s already ditched his tie and overcoat. The white silk pocket square stays in his breast pocket, though it certainly isn’t white by the end of the battle.

The Gun

Tony Montana’s blue steel Beretta Model 81 pistol is as much a loyal companion to him as his pal Manny, carrying it from his first botched drug deal through to the film’s bloody climax.

Introduced in 1976, the Model 81 was the first in Beretta’s “Cheetah” series of compact blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols in low-to-medium calibers. The Beretta Model 81 and Model 82 are both chambered in .32 ACP, but the Model 82 has a slimmer grips to accommodate the single-stack 9-round magazine while the Model 81 has a double-stacked magazine that carries 12 rounds. Tony adds extra bulk to his Model 81 with wraparound Pachmayr grips.

Al Pacino’s screen-used Beretta Cheetah 81, sourced from The Golden Closet.

IMFDB has exclusive photos from The Golden Closet of one of the Beretta Model 81 “Cheetah” pistols used by Al Pacino in Scarface, serial #D87016W.

Tony uses his Beretta to great effect after he finds himself cornered by assassins at The Babylon club.

When a wounded but relatively unfazed Tony shows up at Frank Lopez’s office, he still carries his Beretta but it is now fixed with the suppressor that The Golden Closet noted was custom made for the film. Tony typically carries his Beretta in an IWB holster in the small of his back, but his shoulder sling provides a very convenient makeshift holster for Tony’s weapon after he is injured by Lopez’s hitters.

“He produces his Baretta [sic] from his sling and holds it in his left hand pointed at the big man,” wrote Oliver Stone the screenplay for Scarface, one of many script-to-screen details that was clearly part of Stone’s vision for the way the action would unfold.

Tony’s methods for dealing with cockroaches would not endear him to New York City landlords.

Three Beretta Model 81 pistols were rented to the Scarface production for Al Pacino’s Tony Montana to carry over the course of the film.

It’s a different Beretta, a suppressed Beretta M951, that Manny Ribera uses when he executes Lopez on Tony’s behalf. The M951 ended its nearly three decade production run in 1980, just a few years before Scarface was made, as its popularity was being eclipsed by the more modern Beretta 92 series of pistols.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the deluxe DVD gift set… which also comes with a copy of the original Scarface from 1932!

The Quote

A man who ain’t got his word… is a cockroach.

Cary Grant as Nickie Ferrante in An Affair to Remember (1957)

Vitals

Cary Grant as Nicolò “Nickie” Ferrante, socialite playboy

Onboard the SS Constitution in the Mediterranean, December 1956

Film: An Affair to Remember
Release Date: July 2, 1957
Director: Leo McCarey
Executive Wardrobe Designer: Charles Le Maire

Background

In honor of my parents’ 35th wedding anniversary today, I’m delving into Cary Grant’s well-tailored wardrobe from the romantic classic An Affair to Remember.

What’d He Wear?

For a brief scene aboard the SS Constitution and later when visiting his grandmother’s Italian villa, Nickie Ferrante wears an elegant worsted summer suit in what appears to be a fine black-and-white glen check plain weave for a light gray plaid effect, similar to the legendary blue-on-gray plaid suit that Cary Grant would wear two years later in North by Northwest.

The single-breasted suit jacket in An Affair to Remember has notch lapels which roll over the top of three buttons on the front, a welted breast pocket, and straight hip pockets with flaps. Each cuff is finished with three buttons and there is a single vent in the back.

Nickie relives more pleasant memories when touring his grandmother’s home months after his visit with Terry.

The suit is perfectly tailored for Grant’s lean physique with the drape cut jacket’s buttoning point meeting the trouser waistband, although Grant is briefly seen making the faux pas of fastening both of the lower two buttons of his 3-roll-2 front.

The high-rise trousers have double reverse pleats, side pockets, and narrow turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms.

Elegance at sea.

Grant wears a white cotton dress shirt with a point collar that de-emphasizes his famously thick neck. The shirt has a front placket and double (French) cuffs. He also wears a silver silk tie, worn in a four-in-hand knot with a perfect dimple.

As he would in North by Northwest, Grant wears brown leather shoes with light gray socks that continue the leg line from his trousers into his shoes. These particular oxfords are a lighter shade of mahogany brown than the cordovan derby shoes he wears in North by Northwest, appropriate for the lighter colored suit.

In his hand, Grant carries Nickie’s dark gray felt short-brimmed fedora with its slim gray grosgrain ribbon. He appears to be wearing the same gold Cartier tank watch that Grant wore in real life.

How to Get the Look

Cary Grant’s dashing plaid summer suit in An Affair to Remember appears to be a lighter colored prototype for the famous suit that he would wear in North by Northwest, right down to the monochromatic solid tie and brown shoes.

• Light gray plaid silk tailored summer suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-roll-2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Double reverse-pleated high-rise trousers with side pockets and narrow turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton dress shirt with point collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
• Silver silk tie
• Mahogany brown leather oxfords/balmorals
• Light gray dress socks
• Dark gray felt short-brimmed fedora with slim gray grosgrain ribbon
• Cartier Tank yellow gold wristwatch with square white dial and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Sean Connery as Colonel John Arbuthnot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Vitals

Sean Connery as Colonel John Arbuthnot, British Indian Army commanding officer

Istanbul, December 1935

Film: Murder on the Orient Express
Release Date: November 24, 1974
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Tony Walton

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy birthday, Sean Connery, born August 25, 1930!

After playing James Bond in six films over the course of a decade, Connery was more than tired of the demanding role that had made him a star, and he began seeking work in different projects. One of his first films after putting 007 behind him (for the second time) was as part of the ensemble cast of Murder on the Orient Express, a 1974 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic 1934 mystery novel.

Though the 1974 film has been well regarded by critics, audiences, and – perhaps most importantly – by Christie herself, a fourth adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express was recently announced with Kenneth Branagh in the iconic lead role of detective Hercule Poirot. This latest adaptation, scheduled for release in November 2017, thankfully retains its period setting but re-imagines Connery’s ex-military character as a doctor, played by the talented Leslie Odom Jr. of Hamilton fame.

What’d He Wear?

The “old school” Colonel Arbuthnot looks every bit the traditional British sportsman in the plaid flannel half-Norfolk jacket and tweed “plus fours” that he wears for his introduction in Murder on the Orient Express. Though this outfit may be better suited for the country, it isn’t the first time Sean Connery played a character wearing plaid suiting on the Bosphorus ferry.

The jacket’s brown-and-tan plaid pattern is formed with sets of woven twill stripes alternating between tan and brown over a dark sand birdseye ground, crossing vertically and horizontally to create a large-scaled plaid check. Each set of nine stripes – five tan, four brown – are bordered by a thin light blue stripe on each side. The horizontal stripes are more muted than the vertical stripes.

Colonel Arbuthnot’s plaid on display while embracing Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave).

Colonel Arbuthnot’s full-belted jacket includes many elements of a classic Norfolk jacket, though it lacks the “action back” pleats and the pleated strips on the front and back, thus making the “half-Norfolk” appellation more appropriate in this context. (For an example of a full Norfolk suit with a belt and pleat strips, see Jimmy Darmody’s tweed suit from the first episodes of Boardwalk Empire here.)

Unlike the dark herringbone tweed half-Norfolk jacket that Connery wore in the pre-credits sequence of Diamonds are Forever (featured in last Saturday’s post), this half-Norfolk jacket has two pockets on the chest in lieu of front pleat strips. All four of the jacket’s front pockets are inverted box pleat patch pockets with pointed button-down flaps.

The single-breasted jacket has wide lapels with large notches, a likely indication that this jacket was made for the production rather than a vintage piece from the 1930s. It has four horn buttons on the front with a smaller button on the front of the full belt. The spaced two buttons on each cuff are also made of horn. The jacket has a long single vent in the back that extends up to the belt.

Arbuthnot’s bag identifies him as an officer of the “12th Gurkha Rifles” which, according to my research, never existed.

Colonel Arbuthnot balances his loud jacket with a solid white cotton shirt. Connery presents a dignified image of military correctness in the shirt’s point collar, held with a gold collar bar under his tie knot. The shirt also has double (French) cuffs, likely fastened with gold cuff links as he would later wear with his houndstooth three-piece suit.

Arbuthnot’s striped repp tie is likely the Gurkha Brigade regimental tie, befitting Arbuthnot’s service as an officer with the fictional “12th Gurkha Rifles”. The design consists of three thin black, red, and black stripes crossing from the left shoulder down to the right hip on a forest green ground. Gurkha Brigade ties are available for £55 from Benson & Clegg (link) and Ben Silver for $128.

Colonel Arbuthnot eagerly greets Mary Debenham after boarding the ferry.

Sean Connery and Vanessa Redgrave on set in Istanbul during production of Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

The Norfolk jacket may have a long heritage dating back to at least the 1860s, but it remains a timeless if traditional-leaning piece of men’s countrywear. On the other hand, Colonel Arbuthnot’s brown tweed “plus fours” considerably age the outfit.

“Plus fours” were named for the four additional inches that they extend below the knee, allowing its wearer greater movement for athletic pursuits. Not as old-fashioned (or juvenile) as knickerbockers, the slightly longer plus fours continue to enjoy some popularity by traditionally dressed golfers, bicyclists, and André 3000, though their heyday was arguably the mid-1920s after the Prince of Wales introduced them to the United States.

Ten years before Murder on the Orient Express was made, Connery’s James Bond played a round of golf against the titular plus fours-wearing villain in Goldfinger. As Auric Goldfinger, the large and corpulent Gert Fröbe looked comical in his old fashioned getup of a brown tweed plus fours suit that fit Ian Fleming’s description in the eighth chapter of the source novel: “It was as if Goldfinger had gone to his tailor and said, ‘Dress me for golf – you know, like they wear in Scotland.'”

The defining characteristic of all knickerbockers, including plus fours, are the short bottoms which are worn tightened up the calf to allow the loose trouser fabric to blouse out over the knees. In the case of plus fours, these would be worn four inches below the knee; I’m sure you can deduce on your own where “plus twos” or “plus eights” are worn.

Hosiery can make or break the plus fours effect, but Connery correctly wears a pair of tight dark brown ribbed socks that provide the desired look. Connery also wears the same brown leather five-eyelet wingtip oxford brogues that he wears throughout the film.

Dismissing Poirot as “obviously a frog” (but he’s Belgian!), Colonel Arbuthnot escorts Mary inside.

The obvious headgear for such a country-inspired outfit would be a brown tweed flat cap which Colonel Arbuthnot wears until gallantly removing it when he finds himself in Mary Debenham’s presence.

Boarding the ferry, Arbuthnot also removes the mustard-colored leather work gloves that he had worn when carrying his bags.

Sean Connery on location in Istanbul during filming of Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

How to Get the Look

Colonel Arbuthnot infuses his traditional country outfit with old-fashioned sensibilities for his Bosphorus crossing.

• Brown-and-tan large-scale plaid (with blue overcheck) flannel half-Norfolk jacket with wide notch lapels, four horn buttons, four inverted box-pleat patch pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, full belt with button, and long back vent
• White dress shirt with gold-pinned round collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
• Gurkha Brigade regimental striped tie with black and red stripes on forest green ground
• Brown tweed “plus fours” breeches with side pockets
• Brown leather cap-toe 5-eyelet wingtip oxford brogues
• Brown dress socks
• Brown tweed flat cap
• Mustard leather work gloves

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie and book.

James Stewart as John “Scottie” Ferguson in Vertigo (1958)

Vitals

James Stewart as John “Scottie” Ferguson, former San Francisco detective

San Francisco, Fall 1957

Film: Vertigo
Release Date: May 9, 1958
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Costume Designer: Edith Head

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

San Francisco has always been a popular setting for detective movies. From 1940s film noir like The Maltese Falcon through the gritty ’60s and ’70s era with movies like Bullitt, Dirty Harry, and McQ, Hollywood has made the most of its picturesque neighbor to the distant north.

Though Alfred Hitchcock had filmed in the Bay area before, Vertigo was his first cinematic effort actually set in San Francisco and he makes the most of his setting.

One pivotal scene finds Jimmy Stewart’s ex-cop character Scottie Ferguson on the trail of “Madeleine” (Kim Novak), a mysterious beauty who he was asked to tail by an old college buddy who was concerned about his wife’s activities. Scottie’s surveillance leads him to the San Francisco Bay itself, where he arrives just in time to fish Madeleine out after an apparent suicide attempt.

Today’s post is the first of two this week to feature a San Francisco cop clad in a green V-neck sweater after a pivotal run-in with a blonde femme fatale…

What’d He Wear?

“Scottie, in a pair of grey trousers and an old sweater, is wandering about the room, trying to think things out,” describes Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor in their original screenplay for Vertigo.

Scottie spends most of the film in suits or sport jackets with ties, but he chooses a more dressed down approach after fishing Madeleine out of San Francisco Bay, sporting a V-neck sweater in a peaceful, muted shade of green with a white shirt and dark gray pleated slacks. The sweater has a ribbed hem and long ribbed cuffs.

Scotty exudes earthy comfort in his soft moss-toned sweater.

Scottie’s white poplin shirt appears to be one of his usual dress shirts with a front placket and two-button rounded cuffs. He wears it sans tie and open at the neck here, allowing the long point collar to flap over the neck opening of his sweater.

The v-shaped neckline of Scottie’s sweater revealing just enough of the shirt without showing the second button.

When not wearing a full suit, Scottie’s trousers of choice are a pair of dark gray pleated flannels. In addition to this scene, he also appears to wear them with his brown birdseye tweed sport jacket and the blue ribbed knit cardigan.

The dark gray pleated slacks have a full fit characteristic to the ’50s with double reverse pleats and cuffs (turn-ups) on the bottoms. The high rise keeps the waistband mostly concealed under his sweater, but he bends over to reveal a slim black leather belt around his waist. There is a straight pocket along each side seam and two jetted back pockets; only the left back pocket appears to have a button closure.

For as swanky as his living room is, Scottie’s kitchen could use some work.

Scottie still wears his well-traveled cordovan brown leather oxford brogues with medallion perforated wingtips. His socks appear to be black.

Scottie’s wristwatch is yellow gold with a round case and a black ring on the white dial, worn on a black leather strap.

Scottie’s watch pokes out from under the sleeve of his sweater as he hands Madeleine a much-needed cup of coffee.

Go Big or Go Home

…and Scottie’s home is a swell one!

Scottie’s apartment is located in Russian Hill, one of the original “Seven Hills” of San Francisco. The exterior shots were filmed at 900 Lombard Street, placing his bachelor pad about a block away from the famous steep and winding thoroughfare claimed to be “the crookedest street in the world.”

Inside, Scottie’s abode is decked out to define masculine mid-century modern. The long, low sofa is upholstered in a flecked taupe fabric, there’s a burgundy leather chair and ottoman for reading important books, and the entire back wall is a window shaded with Venetian blinds and peach curtains battling for supremacy at perpendicular angles.

To read more about Scottie’s apartment, check out this well-researched piece from Reel SF.

Scottie lights a thoughtful fire, aware of the fact that the shivering stranger that he fished out of the cold San Francisco Bay and placed naked in his bed might appreciate some warmth.

Interested in putting together your own mid-century aesthetic for your own residence? Check out Primer’s Mid Century Modern on a Dime for tips.

How to Get the Look

Scottie takes a classic and comfortable approach to his casual attire for a night in, pulling together several menswear staples for a timeless ensemble.

• White poplin dress shirt with long point collar, front placket, and 2-button rounded cuffs
• Green wool v-neck sweater with ribbed cuffs and hem
• Dark gray flannel double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Slim black leather belt
• Cordovan leather wingtip oxford brogues
• Black socks
• Gold wristwatch with round case, black-ringed white dial, and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.