Colin Firth as Harry Hart, aka “Galahad”, in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Vitals

Colin Firth as Harry Hart, aka “Galahad”, sophisticated secret agent

London, Spring 2014

Film: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Release Date: January 29, 2015
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Costume Designer: Arianne Phillips
Tailor: Martin Nicholls

Background

Today marks the U.K. release of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the long awaited follow-up to the criminally entertaining 2014 spy film Kingsman: The Secret Service. Featuring a group of quintessentially British spies operating out of a London tailor shop (of all places!), the stylish Kingsman franchise was basically built for BAMF Style readers… and I apologize that it’s taken this long to get a post together about it!

Colin Firth plays Kingsman agent Harry Hart, a dapper and witty spy well equipped for his “Galahad” codename. The early scenes of the film follow Harry as he recruits and trains Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), a fallen Kingsman agent’s son who – despite his brilliance – has followed a desultory path as a London chav. Luckily for Eggsy, Harry has a different plan.

What’d He Wear?

The suit is the modern gentleman’s armor.

…Harry explains, summing up the film’s ethos while also providing a very literal description of Kingsman agents’ ostensibly bulletproof suits.

With suits and luxury menswear so integral to the film’s plot, director Matthew Vaughn and costume designer Arianne Phillips worked with a number of British heritage brands to develop the film’s signature look.

“Men’s tailoring is at the center of the story,” explained Phillips in a 2015 interview with W magazine. “Proper tailoring makes up for so many flaws in a man’s body.” Bespoke firm Martin Nicholls London of Savile Row cut and made the suits that appeared on screen.

Formerly the creative force behind Alfred Dunhill’s international bespoke program, Martin Nicholls has dressed many celebrities including 007 himself when Daniel Craig sported dinner suits tailored by Nicholls to the premieres of both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Phillips had first collaborated with Nicholls on the 2011 film W.E. where he tailored suits for James D’Arcy to wear as the Duke of Windsor.

The Kingsman shop featured on screen was the real life shop of H. Huntsman & Sons on Savile Row, the legendary tailor whose clients have run the gamut from royalty to celebrities in its nearly 170-year existence. In fact, it was while he was having a suit fitted at the Huntsman shop that Vaughn’s idea came to him. “When I wrote the script, I was actually having a suit made,” Vaughn told the New York Times in 2015. “You feel a bit weird looking at yourself in the mirror when they’re working. My imagination kicked in.”

Though they didn’t provide any clothing for the films, Huntsman proudly lent its distinctive shop front and fitting room to the production of both Kingsman films as described on its site.

Colin Firth, as Kingsman agent Harry Hart, stands in front of the H. Huntsman & Sons tailor shop on Savile Row, “redecorated” to suit the needs for filming Kingsman: The Secret Service in October 2013.

As the popularity of sites like Clothes on Film, Iconic Alternatives, James Bond Lifestyle, Magnoli Clothiers, The Suits of James Bond, The Take, and – if you’ll forgive my immodesty – my own blog attest, people are often inspired to dress like their favorite characters in movies and TV shows. Thus, the filmmakers wisely decided to do a great service to Kingsman fans by anticipating the demand to learn about (and acquire) the on-screen clothing via a collaboration with MR PORTER, introducing a collection of 60+ pieces from suits and shirts to pocket squares and umbrellas to totally outfit an aspiring Kingsman.

The anticipation proved to be prescient, with Kingsman fans not only embracing the availability of screen-inspired menswear in the MR PORTER collection but also the return of classic double-breasted suits.

The Suit

Following the film’s shift in setting to the present day, we catch up with Harry Hart on his way to work in a very office-friendly charcoal chalkstripe double-breasted suit in made from a heavy worsted Dormeuil wool. A closer look at the suiting itself reveals a heavy rust red chalkstripe shadowed on its left by a thinner pale gray stripe.

Harry’s suit jacket is double-breasted like his others, with a six-on-two horn button closure that he always wears the bottom button undone. The peak lapels are proportionately wide with gently slanted gorges and a buttonhole through each lapel. The straight shoulders are lightly padded with roped sleeveheads.

Ever the gentleman, Harry wears a white linen pocket square folded in the welted breast pocket of all of his suit jackets. The MR PORTER collection includes a white silk pocket square from Drake’s with navy hand-rolled edges, available for $65, though Harry appears to sport a plain white linen pocket square like this $80 model from Drake’s.

Harry appears to have left the lowest of his four cuff buttons undone, a subtle but rakish nod to his suit’s bespoke nature.

Each sleeve is finished with four functional buttons. Cuffs with functioning buttons like Harry’s are often referred to as a “surgeon’s cuff” given the wearer’s ability to unbutton his or her cuffs, roll them up, and perform surgery without getting a patient’s blood on their jacket. (Were I the patient, I would likely just request that my doctor remove their jacket before the procedure.)

The jacket evokes classic menswear of the 1930s through the ’50s, though the long double vents in the back are a more modern concession that certainly aids Harry’s movement when the need to clobber a barroom full of hoodlums arises.

Harry showcases the wisdom of carrying an umbrella even when the forecast calls for clear weather.

Harry’s flat front suit trousers have a clean waistband with an extended squared front that closes with a hidden hook-and-eye tab. There are no belt loops; instead, the trouser fit can be adjusted around the waist with slide buckle tabs on the right and left sides toward the back. The trousers have straight side pockets and button-through back pockets. The trousers are cut straight through the leg down to plain-hemmed bottoms.

As a double-breasted suit jacket is meant to be worn buttoned at all times, the only way to get extra looks at the trouser details are when its wearer is engaged in an activity similar to wiping the floor with unmannered hoodlums.

MR PORTER currently offers an identical suit, though marketed as the slightly trimmer version worn by Eggsy. The jacket and trousers can be purchased separately; the jacket is currently selling for $1,595 and the trousers for $595.

The Rest

Like that most classic of British secret agents, Harry wears dress shirts from Turnbull & Asser. His white cotton shirts have a semi-spread collar, front placket, and shoulder pleats and darts to shape the fit around his back and waist. The shirt’s squared double (French) cuffs are worn with rose gold-plated cuff links ostensibly embossed with the Kingsman crest with both oval sides connected through each cuff with a short hook.

MR PORTER’s Kingsman collection includes a white cotton twill Turnbull & Asser shirt for $350. Unfortunately for aspiring Kingsmen, the Deakin & Francis cuff links are no longer available nor are there plans to reintroduce them as of September 2017.

Harry explains the headlines of The Sun littering the walls of his office: “Front page news and all these occasions are celebrity nonsense. Because it’s the nature of Kingsman that our achievements remain secret. A gentleman’s name should appear in the newspaper only three times: When he’s born, when he marries, and when he dies. And we are, first and foremost, gentlemen.”

The Kingsman club tie, made by Drake’s, consists of the bureau’s signature pattern of two thin pale pink stripes bisected by a thin burgundy red stripe over a twill ribbed navy blue ground. (Naturally, the stripes follow the classic British “uphill” direction of left hip-to-right shoulder.) In addition to Harry, who wears his in both traditional Windsor and half-Windsor knots, the Kingsman tie appears to be worn by most Kingsman agents in Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

A half-silk, half-cotton version of the tie is available from the MR PORTER collection for $140. Magnoli Clothiers also offers an accurate replica in 100% silk for only $51.

Harry appropriately wears the Kingsman club tie during a meeting with fellow agents in the agency’s headquarters.

Harry’s less frequently seen second tie is black silk, covered by a field of white dots. It is also made by Drake’s and is tied in the full- and half-Windsor knots that would have had Ian Fleming’s James Bond reeling in horror. To the best of my knowledge, this black silk dotted tie has never been part of the MR PORTER Kingsman collection though Drake’s currently offers a dark navy dot print tie in 50 oz. royal twill silk for $185.

Harry Hart wears more suits than ties, wearing only his striped Kingsman tie and this polka-dot tie throughout the film.

Harry carries his Kingsman-issued sidearm, a Cohort Film Services-customized variant of the Russian TT-30 service pistol, in a brown leather shoulder holster that straps around each shoulder like a pair of braces, suspending the pistol under Harry’s left arm near the waist for a right-handed draw.

“Oxfords, not brogues,” carries a significant meaning in the Kingsman universe, referring both to the agents’ clever passcode and their Cleverley shoes. Harry and his fellow agents all wear black leather five-eyelet cap-toe oxford shoes from George Cleverley, the exclusive London bespoke shoemaker whose wares have been touted as “the most beautiful shoes in the world” by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter.

“We went with the shoes, first of all, with our Cleverley toe shape and just a straight cap so that was really set in stone which probably wardrobe people that that was the classic shoe that you’d ever get,” explained George Glasgow, chairman and managing director of G.J. Cleverley in a video on the Cleverley site celebrating the brand’s association with Kingsman. The Cleverley Kingsman oxfords are still available in the MR PORTER collection for $950, and – as any Cleverley shoe wearer would tell you – you may be paying a high price but it’s for high quality.

Harry’s own shoes, with their custom extending poison blade, are best seen when he wears his Glen Urquhart check suit during Eggsy’s outfitting.

Harry appears to be wearing black socks with his Cleverley oxfords, making the surprising decision to match his hosiery to his shoes rather than his charcoal suit trousers.

While I think brogues are more than appropriate with businesswear, Harry Hart evidently disagrees and encourages Eggsy to follow his anti-brogue passcode as “words to live by”. However, Eggsy has evidently discarded Harry’s advice in the new film, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, as MR PORTER includes a new pair of black Cleverley oxford brogues in its “Golden Circle”-marketed collection.

As autumn hits the Northern Hemisphere and we approach overcoat season, it’s also worth mentioning that Harry is briefly seen wearing a black wool double-breasted overcoat that echoes his suit jacket with peak lapels, roped sleeveheads, and a six-on-two button front. The coat also has side pockets and a long back vent.

Harry dons the archetypal “badass long coat” when needing to infused some intimidation into Eggsy’s training.

Kingsman Accessories

Every Kingsman agent is issued a pair of tortoiseshell acetate square-framed glasses, which naturally serve a greater purpose than meets the eye (if you’ll forgive the pun). Cutler and Gross, the luxury eyewear company founded in London in 1969 that prides itself on combining “the finest Italian craftsmanship with irrefutably cool style”, developed the specs for the on-screen agents as well as the model designed exclusively for sale in the MR PORTER collection for $450. (Like the Kingsman club tie, Magnoli also offers their own accurate replica for only $75.)

Who needs 20/20 vision when you’ve got Cutler and Gross making your specs?

The Kingsman glasses also have the ability to transition into sunglasses when worn outside on a sunny day, tinting the lenses a sun-resistant shade of brown.

Didn’t think transition lenses were badass before Kingsman: The Secret Service? Harry Hart would ask you to rethink that.

Another standard Kingsman accessory is a gold signet ring worn on the right pinky and embossed with the Kingsman crest. I don’t believe that this item was ever included in the MR PORTER collection but some gold-plated steel replicas have popped up on Amazon should one be so inclined.

Like any good secret agent, Kingsman operatives are all issued a luxury wristwatch. The Kingsman: The Secret Service team worked with Bremont, the British watch manufacturer established in 2002 by brothers Giles and Nick English, the latter of whom even briefly appeared in the film making a cameo as a Kingsman agent.

Bremont created the “Kingsman” range of three luxury watches that would be worn by characters in the film, including the Bremont Kingsman Special Edition Rose Gold, a modified version of “the wonderfully over-engineered” Bremont World Timer (ALT1-WT) chronograph worn on an embossed brown calfskin leather strap with a rose gold single-pin buckle.

The modified caliber 13 ¼” BE-54AE automatic chronometer has an 18-karat rose gold 43mm case with an internally rotating bi-directional bezel with global time zones to keep Kingsman agents on schedule for missions around the world. The white metal finished dial has three sub-dials at 6:00, 9:00, and 12:00 with the “Kingsman” emblem proudly emblazoned on the latter. The dial also has a date window at 3:00 and Bremont’s signature SuperLumiNova® coated hands.

…thus leaving no doubt as to the maker of Kingsman agents’ beautiful timepieces.

You can learn more about the Bremont Kingsman Special Edition Rose Gold from the Bremont site. I understand that Kingsman: The Golden Circle will feature agents wearing TAG Heuer timepieces, deviating from the first film’s all-British branded lineup.

Go Big or Go Home

Um, listen, boys. I’ve had a rather emotional day, so whatever your beef with Eggsy is – and I’m sure it’s well-founded – I’d appreciate it enormously if you could just leave us in peace until I can finish this lovely pint of Guinness.

When his conversation with Eggsy about his potential as a Kingsman agent is rudely interrupted by Eggsy’s “associates”, the unflappable Harry displays several gentlemanly traits with his response: emotional maturity, strategic conflict avoidance, and – of course – manners.

Never anything less than dignified, Harry prepares to make his point quite clear to Eggsy’s antagonists.

Of course, hooligans have no time for talk so – despite his best efforts – Harry is forced to show off his considerable hand-to-hand and umbrella-to-face combat skills, making the most of his Kingsman-issued Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrella. (Yes, 007 fans, that is indeed the same brand of attaché case carried by James Bond in the From Russia With Love film and book.)

What to Imbibe

“How to make a proper martini,” is understandably the second lesson on Harry’s “being a gentleman” rubric, though he also shows a respectable appreciation for Guinness when in the more relaxed setting of a London pub.

How to Get the Look

Colin Firth as Harry Hart, aka “Galahad”, sans glasses on the set of Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Harry Hart exudes dignity, masculinity, and timeless elegance with his Kingsman-issued suit and accessories, all from British luxury brands.

• Charcoal rust/gray-chalkstriped heavy worsted bespoke suit:
  • Double-breasted 6-on-2-button suit jacket with peak lapels (with buttonhole through each), welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, functional 4-button “surgeon’s cuffs), and long double vents
  • Flat front suit trousers with extended hidden hook-and-eye closure squared waist tab, buckle-strap side adjuster tabs, straight/on-seam side pockets, button-through back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton twill Turnbull & Asser shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, back shoulder pleats and side darts, and double/French cuffs
• Navy blue silk twill Drake’s tie with thin pink/burgundy/pink left-down-to-right Kingsman “club stripe”
• White linen Drake’s pocket square
• Brown leather shoulder holster
• Black leather five-eyelet cap-toe oxford shoes from George Cleverley
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Cutler and Gross tortoise acetate square-framed eyeglasses with transition lenses
• Gold signet pinky ring
• Bremont Kingsman Special Edition Rose Gold automatic chronometer with 18-karat rose gold 43mm case, white dial (with 3 sub-dials and 3:00 date window), and brown embossed calfskin leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie and catch Kingsman: The Golden Circle in theaters this week!

The Quote

“Manners maketh man.” Do you know what that means? Then let me teach you a lesson.

Footnote

I welcome any firsthand accounts of BAMF Style readers who have purchased and/or worn items from MR PORTER’s Kingsman collection! (As I, unfortunately, have none.) Sound off in the comments below.

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr on The Last Tycoon (Episode 9: “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar.”)

Vitals

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr, charming studio wunderkind

Hollywood, August 1936 through February 1937

Series: The Last Tycoon
Episodes:
– “Pilot” (Episode 1, dir. Billy Ray)
– “Eine Kleine Reichmusik” (Episode 5, dir. Gwyneth Horder-Payton)
– “A Brady-American Christmas” (Episode 6, dir. Stacie Passon)
– “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” (Episode 9, dir. Billy Ray)
Streaming Date: July 28, 2017
Developed By: Billy Ray
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Amazon recently announced the disappointing news that they are discontinuing production of The Last Tycoon, the second of its F. Scott Fitzgerald-inspired series to meet that fate following the cancellation of Z: The Beginning of Everything days earlier.

In its brief, nine-episode life, The Last Tycoon was true to its “golden age of Hollywood” roots with an emphasis on style rather than substance… but oh what style it was, and with strong performances to booth with Matt Bomer, Kelsey Grammer, Lily Collins, Rosemarie Dewitt, and others rounding out the talented cast of characters.

The series also made the most of its dazzling period costumes, the creation of master costume designer Janie Bryant of Mad Men fame; an entire blog alone could be dedicated to the snappy menswear worn by Bomer, Grammer, and Enzo Cilenti.

Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel about wunderkind studio executive Monroe Stahr’s affairs and ambitions in 1930s Hollywood formed the basis for the series, but developer Billy Ray was clearly building a more elaborate world for his complex characters when the series was axed.

In addition to revisiting the novel, series star Matt Bomer told Vanity Fair in a June 2016 interview that he spent time researching Irving Thalberg, the MGM producer whose youth, ability, and congenital heart disease inspired Fitzgerald’s character. “The character was largely based on Mr. Thalberg, because Mr. Fitzgerald used to work for him,” explained Bomer. “He wrote underneath him at the studio system for a brief period and was really inspired by this man who had a complete understanding of the system and how that operated, and the fact that he was this young wunderkind, this genius at what he did.”

What’d He Wear?

The Last Tycoon‘s dashing titular lead, Monroe Stahr, trots out a debonair black tie ensemble in four of the series’ nine episodes, worn to a number of Hollywood parties whether to celebrate a professional achievement, the holiday season, or his own marriage engagement.

The elegant executive at his own engagement party in “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” (episode 9).

Monroe Stahr’s classic evening kit leaves nary a detail ignored, reflecting the growing popularity of double-breasted dinner jackets during the 1930s especially among the young and stylish like Monroe and his Hollywood set.

“It’s so fun to make suits during this period, I love it,” explained Janie Bryant to Fashionista during a July 2017 interview. “It’s all about those wide shoulder, nipped waist, double-breasted jackets. Wide leg trousers. It’s about everything being wide and big. It’s very different from Mad Men minimalist and everything skinny.”

Bomer was more than enthusiastic to wear the period-perfect clothes designed by Bryant. “Oh, I think Janie Bryant is a genius. I mean, I think she changed menswear almost single-handedly with what she did on Mad Men. Everything she chose, I just trust her implicity,” he told Vanity Fair. “I liked getting to do the double-breasted… the very specific tailoring done at that time was different for me and unique and definitely informs the way you move as a character in a way that I found really helpful.”

It was the Duke of Windsor – then the Prince of Wales – who brought double-breasted dinner jackets into fashion during the 1930s. As Black Tie Guide reports, the jacket had been “previously considered too informal for evening wear due to its lack of an accompanying waistcoat,” but this soon-to-be-called “semi-formal” approach caught on with wearers who followed the Prince’s example of wearing it with “a soft-front pleated evening shirt featuring attached turndown collar and French cuffs rather than the traditional starched front shirt with detachable wing collar and single cuffs.” Monroe Stahr follows the Prince’s template to a T, though his addition of a waistcoat would have satiated the critics that remained concerned with the lack of such a garment.

Monroe Stahr’s black wool double-breasted dinner jacket has the classic six-on-two button front with the six front buttons and the three buttons on each cuff all covered in black silk. The jacket’s wide peak lapels have straight gorges and black grosgrain silk facings rather than the shinier satin lapels that “were increasingly associated with ready-to-wear apparel.” (Source: Black Tie Guide).

Left: A party in “Eine Kleine Reichmusik” (episode 5) calls for a white boutonnière.
Right: Monroe cuts a dashing figure on the evening of his engagement party in “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” (episode 9).

For extra special occasions, Monroe wears the traditional white carnation pinned to his left lapel as a festive boutonnière, but he always wears a white pocket square – usually linen – in the jacket’s welted breast pocket. The straight hip pockets have a flap, a holdout from earlier decades that would be phased out on the best quality dinner jackets by the end of the 1930s.

The ventless jacket is tailored for a close, flattering fit with padded shoulders and roped sleeveheads.

An exhausted Monroe Stahr stands in his black tie kit, sans the actual tie, among hospital holiday decorations in “A Brady-American Christmas” (episode 6).

Even during the more formal pre-WWII era, waist coverings – especially waistcoats – were considered unnecessary with a double-breasted dinner jacket given that garment’s full wrap around the wearer’s torso. For Monroe Stahr, however, dressing to the nines means leaving no stone unturned and that means wearing a black wool single-breasted waistcoat to match his dinner jacket and formal trousers. The waistcoat (or vest, if you must) has three buttons on the front, covered in black silk, with a notched bottom and two welted pockets.

Monroe’s era-correct waistcoat gets some welcome exposure after rising from a nap in “A Brady American Christmas” (episode 6)… while his white ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt gets some indecorous exposure.

The full back is also covered in black satin with a strap to adjust the fit. Traditional full-backed waistcoats were still the norm in 1936 America, though Esquire noted that the backless design sported by the Prince of Wales was now the preferred style in London and was gaining popularity in the U.S. (Source: Black Tie Guide)

Matt Bomer and co-star Dominique McElligott on set of The Last Tycoon. (Source: Janie Bryant’s Instagram)

Though Paul Muni wore a traditional white waistcoat under his black double-breasted dinner jacket in 1932’s Scarface, Esquire was reporting in its inaugural issue the following autumn that “the white waistcoat has at last been allowed to rejoin its lawful but long estranged mate, the tailcoat, and the new dinner jackets are matched with a waistcoat of the jacket material, with dull grosgrain lapel facing.” (Source: Black Tie Guide)

As Esquire‘s inaugural issue hit newsstands in the autumn of 1933, the concept of a formal waistcoat matching the color and cloth of a gentleman’s tuxedo would have been de rigeur three years later as the fictional Monroe Stahr makes the Hollywood rounds in an all-black three-piece dinner suit.

The distinctive “drooping” shawl collar of Monroe’s waistcoat would have also been quite fashionable. Introduced in 1921 according to Black Tie Guide, this unique wide-based lapel was a common sight during the ’30s. BTG also posted a portion of this Heller catalog from 1936 that includes several examples of dress waistcoats with lapels not unlike Monroe’s. Surviving vintage models also abound today such as this four-button waistcoat dated to 1938.

The black grosgrain silk facing of Monroe’s distinctive waistcoat lapel appropriately matches his dinner jacket lapel facings, his bow tie, court shoe bows, and the grosgrain side braid of his trousers for a cleanly coordinated and consistent look.

The black wool trousers rise high enough for the waistband to be correctly concealed under Monroe’s waistcoat. The full cut trousers have forward pleats, slightly slanted “quarter top” side pockets that follow the line of the grosgrain-braided side seam as it curves gently forward at the waist, and plain-hemmed bottoms (as cuffs are a no-no for formal trousers bottoms.)

Even workaholic film producers deserve some rest. No need to look so guilty, Monroe!

Monroe wears black suspenders (or braces), the most traditional option for holding up trousers when wearing black tie. The suspenders’ gold adjusters are seen poking out the sides of his waistcoat armholes at the shoulders.

When dressed in black tie, Monroe exclusively wears white cotton “semi-formal” shirts with soft-pleated fronts and double (French) cuffs, following the most fashionable trends of the mid 1930s. As the series is set over the fall of 1936 and into the spring of 1937, it’s appropriate to note that Esquire reported in November 1937 that the once traditional wing collar had been virtually replaced by the turndown collar as the “standard for informal wear.” (Source: Black Tie Guide)

For the most part, Monroe’s white dinner shirts echo the styling of his business dress shirts with a fashionably long point collar. The 1/2″-pleated front of the shirt is elegantly accented with round gold-rimmed diamond studs. His sleeves are shirred at the wrist with four closely-spaced pleats, and the squared double cuffs are fastened with plain gold cuff links.

Monroe’s white “semi-formal” shirt in various states of dress in “A Brady-American Christmas” (Episode 6).

Monroe deviates from his usual semi-formal shirts in the fifth episode only. In “Eine Kleine Reichmusik”, he again wears a white cotton dinner shirt with a turndown collar and pleated front, but both the semi-spread collar (not a point collar) and the pleats on this shirt are considerably narrower.

Left: Monroe’s standard point collar and wide-pleated dress shirt, seen here in episode 6: “A Brady-American Christmas.”
Right: A formal shirt with a semi-spread collar and narrow pleats, worn only in episode 5: “Eine Kleine Reichmusik.”

Monroe’s standard semi-formal neckwear is a black silk butterfly-shaped (or thistle-shaped) bow tie made from the same duller grosgrain silk as his lapel facings, reflecting a level of coordination that was becoming increasingly accepted and expected by the mid-1930s.

Monroe’s piercing glare is as sharp as his collar point in “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” (episode 9).

Butterfly and semi-butterfly bow ties were most common for men during this era, but the diamond-pointed bow tie that Monroe wears in the first episode would have also been acceptable.

Monroe Stahr wears a less common, but still acceptable, pointed-end bow tie in the first episode of The Last Tycoon.

Despite the lessened formality of his double-breasted dinner jacket and soft-fronted, turndown collar shirt, Monroe Stahr appears to be wearing the most formal footwear option: black patent leather pumps.

The men’s dress pump traces its origins back to the Regency period when gentlemen would swap out their daytime boots for buckle-fastened pumps. It was naturally the influence of Beau Brummell that led to the silver steel buckle being replaced by the more genteel square grosgrain bow has distinguished the opera pump in essentially the same form for nearly 200 years.

Monroe’s pumps appear to have a slightly higher vamp, pushing them closer to the look of a wholecut oxford with flat silk ribbon laces, a mid-1930s fad that bridged the formality gap between the ceremonious dress pump and the more functional oxford. (You can read more about this short-lived shoe at Black Tie Guide.)

Monroe also sports his opera pumps when wearing his formal dress white tie and tails in the first and last episodes of the season, a context where opera pumps are more frequently seen than with the less formal black tie.

No matter what the context, Monroe always wears a gold signet ring on his right pinky. Though the etched “S.” most assuredly stands for his professional surname of Stahr, it could also designate his birth surname of Sternberg.

Monroe begins the series wearing a yellow gold wristwatch with a tonneau-shaped white dial and gold bracelet, a standard men’s dress watch of the era. By the end of the fourth episode, he’s received two brand new wristwatches as birthday gifts*; the first is a gold tank watch from Louis B. Mayer (Saul Rubinek) followed by a steel round-cased watch, a gift from Monroe’s own boss Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer) in his attempt to “one-up” the legendary Mayer. It is this steel watch with its minimalist white dial and black leather strap that Monroe wears for the duration of the season.

* The episodes featuring Monroe’s birthday are set in early-to-mid September, making him the second consecutive Virgo character to be featured on BAMF Style after Monday’s post about Tony Soprano.

How to Get the Look

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr on The Last Tycoon (Episode 5: “Eine Kleine Reichmusik”).
Note the shirt’s semi-spread collar and narrow pleats as opposed to the point-collared shirt with wider pleats that he wore in other episodes.

Monroe Stahr exemplifies the perfect balance of fashion-forward formalwear and honoring black tie tradition with his tailored three-piece double-breasted dinner suit.

• Black wool double-breasted dinner jacket with grosgrain-faced peak lapels, 6-on-2 silk-covered buttons, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, silk-covered 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Black wool formal waistcoat with wide “drooped” grosgrain-faced shawl collar, three black silk-covered buttons, notched bottom, two welted pockets, and black satin-covered full back with adjustable strap
• Black wool formal pleated trousers with grosgrain side braid, “quarter top” on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton dress shirt with long point collar, wide pleated bib, front placket, and squared double/French cuffs
  • Gold-trimmed round diamond studs
  • Gold cuff links
• Black grosgrain silk thistle-shaped bow tie
• Black suspenders with gold adjusters
• Black patent leather opera pumps/court shoes with square black grosgrain bows
• Black dress socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt/A-shirt
• Gold monogrammed signet ring, right pinky
• Steel wristwatch with round case and white dial on black leather strap

Monroe always wears a white linen display kerchief in his jacket’s breast pocket and, for extra special events, a white boutonnière in his left lapel.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check it out on Amazon Video.

Footnotes

Series star Matt Bomer is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, located just two miles from my home in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania!

If you’re interested in the history of formalwear, check out Black Tie Guide’s comprehensive history of vintage black tie. To learn more specifically about the pre-WWII Depression era depicted in The Last Tycoon, Black Tie Guide’s also got you covered.

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Public Enemies (2009)

Vitals

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, maverick Depression-era bank robber

Chicago, Spring 1934

Film: Public Enemies
Release Date: July 1, 2009
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

It’s been quite some time since I’ve visited Public Enemies, the Michael Mann-directed action thriller depicting the life and crimes of Depression-era desperado John Dillinger. The film received mixed to positive reviews upon its release with much of the praise going to Michael Mann’s usual attention to detail as well as Johnny Depp’s performance as the Indiana-born outlaw.

Colleen Atwood’s period costumes are also worthy of attention and praise. High fashion was the signifier of success for Depression-era gangsters, and Dillinger rarely led his gun-toting cronies into a bank without being dressed to the nines.

Even when on the run, such as this scene set not long after Dillinger’s narrow escape from an FBI ambush at the Little Bohemia lodge in Wisconsin, John Dillinger made a consistent effort to dress well. (The film plays with historical accuracy to present its own narrative, pushing Billie Frechette’s arrest to after the Little Bohemia raid; in real life, Billie was arrested on April 9, 1934, two weeks before Melvin Purvis’ federal agents attempted to trap the Dillinger gang at Little Bohemia.)

Without the support of his criminal network – most of whom are now dead, arrested, or have alienated him – Dillinger turns to his sole remaining ally, his girlfriend Billie Frechette (Marion Cotillard). The two abscond to the Indiana dunes on the southern shore of Lake Michigan for a late night rendezvous where Dillinger makes grand promises of an idyllic island life after the proverbial “one last job”.

The next day, the two drive into Chicago to meet an underworld contact when Billie is immediately apprehended by federal agents. All that Dillinger can do is watch in desperation as his “blackbird” is brutishly manhandled and forced into custody. The scene may sound dramatic, but – in fact – little was punched up for this cinematic portrayal.

The real John Dillinger, posing at his family’s home in Mooresville, armed with a wooden gun and a more lethal Thompson submachine gun. The date is Sunday, April 8, 1934.

In reality, Dillinger and Billie had just spent a relatively blissful weekend with Dillinger’s family in Mooresville, Indiana. After a Sunday afternoon full of coconut cream pies (Dillinger’s favorite) and now-iconic photographs of the outlaw posing with Billie and with the wooden gun he used during his infamous escape from the Crown Point jail, the two were headed back toward Chicago for a meeting with Art O’Leary, a private investigator employed by Dillinger’s attorney Louis Piquett.

According to G. Russell Girardin’s definitive Dillinger: The Untold Story:

After leaving O’Leary, Dillinger telephoned Larry Strong, supposedly a friend, and spoke to him about arranging a hideout for a few days. An appointment was made to meet Strong at his tavern, the State-Austin Inn, 416 North State Street, at eight o’clock that evening. Unknown to Dillinger, “friend” Larry had recently turned informer, and he immediately did what informers do. John Dillinger was at heart a country boy and, despite his prison experience, still somewhat naive in the ways of the underworld. He was still learning that while this society may possess a few characters endowed with redeeming qualities, on the whole it consists of conniving outcasts who mock the very notion that there is honor among thieves.

At the appointed time, John Dillinger drove to the restaurant and parked around the corner while Billie Frechette went in. Before she could walk back out and mistakenly signal Dillinger that it was safe, five or six federal agents surrounded her with pistols and machine guns.

Dillinger, watching intently, saw the commotion and drove away unnoticed. Billie would irritate her captors greatly by insisting that Dillinger had been elsewhere in the room when the agents pounced and had simply strolled past them out the door.

Dillinger, considerably irritated himself, immediately phoned O’Leary at his apartment hotel on Pine Grove to let him know “the Gs just picked up Billie in a restaurant at State and Austin… I was sitting in my car around the corner. There were too many of them for me to take her away.”

What’d He Wear?

For his meeting with Billie and her subsequent arrest, Depp’s Dillinger wears a navy worsted three-piece suit with a rust-colored chalkstripe. The stripe’s gentle contrast against the navy suiting provides a touch of subtle complexity and sophistication.

A horrified Dillinger watches as his girlfriend Billie is roughly taken into federal custody.

Three-piece suits with double-breasted jackets enjoyed the height of their popularity in the 1930s. Dillinger’s suit in this sequence incorporates many details distinctive to ’30s tailoring that aimed for the “hourglass” silhouette with widely structured shoulders with roped sleeveheads, fully cut trousers, and a high, suppressed waist line.

The double-breasted jacket’s peak lapels sweep across the front with a six-on-two button formation that Dillinger wears open throughout the scene; combined with his loosened shirt collar and tie, unkempt hair, and manic expression, the unbuttoned suit jacket adds a sense of desperation to Dillinger’s look that echoes his panicked emotions during the scene.

The jacket’s sleeves are a bit too long, totally covering his shirt cuffs when his arms are at his side (best seen in the close-up of Dillinger gripping the 1911 pistol in his right hand; see “The Gun” section below.) The jacket also has a half-belted back, an era-evoking detail that also adds a desired degree of waist suppression.

Note the half-belted back, a unique aspect of ’30s suit that pulled in the waist to emphasize the wearer’s shoulders.

Johnny Depp stands on set next to an extra decked out like a 1930s Chicago policeman. “Why the mahoska?” this officer should be asking.

The unbuttoned jacket shows off Dillinger’s vest, which also received plenty of exposure in behind-the-scenes set photos of Depp sans jacket (such as the one at right.) The single-breasted waistcoat is consistent with era styling with both a high-fastening five-button front and a high notched bottom, placed to accommodate the long rise of his trousers. The vest has four welted pockets.

The flat front trousers have an appropriately high rise to Depp’s natural waist line. They have a full, roomy cut over the hips and through the legs down to the cuffed bottoms. There is a straight pocket on each side and likely two button-through pockets in the back.

The trousers have belt loops for Dillinger’s black leather belt with its closed silver-toned rectangular buckle, a belt style known to have been worn by the outlaw both at the time of his arrest in January 1934 and when he was killed seven months later.

Though decorum says to avoid wearing belts with three-piece suits (to avoid the “bunching” effect of the buckle under the waistcoat), Dillinger needs his belt to hook onto his mahogany leather double shoulder holster for his 1911 pistols, wearing one under each arm. This double shoulder rig was custom made for Johnny Depp to wear on screen by Don Brown, owner of Ted Blocker Holsters. You can read more about Ted Blocker Holsters’ connection to Public Enemies and other major productions on their site.

Dillinger wears one of his usual white cotton dress shirts with a plain front, double (French) cuffs, and possibly a breast pocket. The spread collar is sloppily unbuttoned at the neck, leaving the collar points to lay flat over his vest and his suit lapels.

Dillinger steps out of his car, a slightly anachronistic 1935 Buick Series 40 coupe, just in time to see Billie arrested by federal agents.

Dillinger’s tie is block-striped from left-down-to-right in dark blue and brick red with squiggly thin beige stripes running over each stripe in the same “uphill” direction. The loosely worn tie is knotted so that the four-in-hand knot is only the dark blue section.

The Ted Block Holsters link above explains that they dyed the holster leather “reddish to match Depp’s shoes,” an interesting case of someone matching his shoes to his gun holster rather than to his trouser belt… although I suppose that’s more of a priority for a natty outlaw. Dillinger’s “reddish” shoes are a pair of mahogany five-eyelet cap-toe oxfords.

When the real John Dillinger was killed on July 22, 1934, Special Agent Daniel Sullivan and Inspector Samuel P. Cowley of the Bureau of Investigation (later known as the FBI) recorded a “gold ring with ruby set” when tracking Dillinger’s inventory. The ring was inscribed “With all my love, Polly” on the inside. Though “Polly” would be Polly Hamilton, Dillinger’s final girlfriend that he met shortly before his demise, Public Enemies depicts Depp’s Dillinger wearing a similar ring throughout the film on the third finger of his right hand.

Dillinger cradles Billie on the Indiana dunes as Diana Krall’s “Bye, Bye Blackbird” in the background foreshadows their imminent separation.

Visible under Dillinger’s left shirt cuff is a yellow gold dress watch with a white dial on a dark leather strap.

An intense-looking Dillinger weighs his options behind the wheel of his Buick.

The real John Dillinger resorted to back-alley plastic surgery in the final months of his life, but Public Enemies‘ Dillinger does little to hide his appearance beside donning a pair of tortoise acetate-framed sunglasses with round green-tinted lenses. An iCollector listing for these glasses claims that there was only set used during the production as they were a true vintage item dating to the 1930s.

Even Public Enemy Number 1 sees no need to adopt a stronger disguise than a pair of sunglasses.

Though I have no firsthand experience with it, Magnoli Clothiers’ “Dillinger Suit” is worth mentioning for taking inspiration from Johnny Depp’s Public Enemies wardrobe and seemingly this suit in particular. The suit is available starting at $735 and several positive reviews for it are listed on the site.

How to Get the Look

Most photos I’ve seen of the real John Dillinger show a preference for single-breasted suits (rather than double-breasted), but Johnny Depp’s costumes in Public Enemies are an elegant representation of one of the most common styles during the outlaw’s heyday in the mid-1930s.

• Navy rust-chalkstripe worsted three-piece suit:
  • Double-breasted 6×2-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and belted back
  • Single-breasted 5-button vest with four welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Flat front full-cut trousers with long rise, belt loops, straight side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton dress shirt with spread collar, plain front, breast pocket, and double/French cuffs
• Dark blue and brick red block-striped tie with thin beige squiggly overstripe
• Black leather belt with silver-toned rectangular closed buckle
• Mahogany brown leather double shoulder holster (for two full-size 1911 pistols)
• Mahogany brown leather five-eyelet cap-toe oxfords
• Navy dress socks
• White sleeveless undershirt
• Thick gold ring with dark ruby flat stone, worn on right ring finger
• Yellow gold dress watch with white dial on dark leather strap
• Tortoise acetate round-framed vintage sunglasses

The Gun

Public Enemies accurately depicts the classic John Browning-designed 1911 and 1911A1 series of pistols as the weapon of choice for the Dillinger gang, who obtained most of their heavy arsenals in real life by raiding military and police armories.

The model most frequently seen used by Johnny Depp as John Dillinger is a blued pre-war Colt 1911A1 Government Model, marketed for the civilian market and chambered in the venerable .45 ACP.

Note the “diamond” walnut grips on Dillinger’s 1911A1 (as well as the excessively long sleeves of his suit jacket.)

Depp’s Dillinger carries his two 1911s in a leather shoulder rig custom designed for the film by Ted Blocker Holsters as explored above. While the concept of wielding two pistols akimbo has been popularized thanks to John Woo’s films, the real Dillinger had been reported to carry two pistols on occasion, specifically in G. Russell Girardin’s Dillinger: The Untold Story when recounting a November 1933 bank robbery in Racine, Wisconsin. This robbery was depicted early in Public Enemies and indeed found Depp brandishing a .45 in each hand (which certainly made for a #CrowningMomentOfBadass in the film’s theatrical trailer.)

By the spring of 1934, the Dillinger gang’s deepening underworld connections meant an influx of heavy firepower unavailable even to most law enforcement agencies of the era. One particularly lethal weapon in the gang’s arsenal was a Colt Super 38 modified into a fully automatic “machine pistol” by gunsmith Hyman S. Lebman of San Antonio. (The Colt Super 38 was a 1911-style pistol introduced in 1929 to fire the new, powerful .38 Super ammunition. Dillinger also used standard semi-automatic models.) Public Enemies became the first “Dillinger movie” to depict this distinctive weapon with its Thompson-style foregrip and extended 25-round magazine, using a standard 1911A1 converted to 9mm and altered to fire in automatic bursts. The weapon is most prominently used by “Baby Face” Nelson (Stephen Graham) during the Little Bohemia scenes.

You can read more about the weaponry of Public Enemies at IMFDB. If you’re interested in learning more about Dillinger and Nelson’s dealings with the shady Lebman, check out the original FBI files at Faded Glory: Dusty Roads of an FBI Era, a fantastic resource for folks interested in this period in American criminal history.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie and Bryan Burrough’s book used as source material, though the film excises much of Burrough’s well-researched material about fellow outlaws “Pretty Boy” Floyd, Alvis Karpis and the Barker gang, and Bonnie and Clyde.

I also highly recommend Dillinger: The Untold Story, an unpublished manuscript by G. Russell Girardin that was rediscovered by William J. Helmer, as a definitive source for all Dillinger-related material.

The Quote

Want to take that ride with me?

Roger Moore as James Bond with Barbara Bach in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

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Roger Moore as James Bond, suave and sophisticated British MI6 agent

Cairo, Egypt, August 1977

Film: The Spy Who Loved Me
Release Date: July 7, 1977
Director: Lewis Gilbert
Wardrobe Supervisor: Rosemary Burrows
Tailor: Angelo Vitucci

Background

A man in a sharply tailored tuxedo meets a beautiful woman over martinis in an exotic cocktail lounge. Hours later, he finds himself – Walther PPK in hand – stalking a seemingly unstoppable metal-mouthed killer through the Egyptian pyramids. This quintessential James Bond moment is one of many iconic scenes in Roger Moore’s third 007 outing, The Spy Who Loved Me, and it’s how I remember him on his first birthday since his passing last May at the age of 89.

Born October 14, 1927 in south London, Roger Moore brought charismatic warmth, self-deprecating charm, and a killer eyebrow muscle to his seven-film stint as James Bond from 1973 to 1985.

In Bond on Bond: Reflections on 50 years of James Bond Movies, Sir Roger himself recalls that his favorite of his own 007 films, The Spy Who Loved Me, was released on “Jim’s lucky number” – July 7, 1977. The film underwent a necessary plot reinvention on the instruction of the late Ian Fleming who, so uninspired by his own novel, forbade the Bond filmmakers to use any part of it but the title for their own adaptation. Given this blank slate, writers Christopher Wood and Richard Maibaum outdid themselves with a spectacular Bond adventure now considered to be among the best – if not the best – of Moore’s tenure.

Moore’s more autobiographical volume, My Word is My Bond, recounts a spaghetti dinner cooked personally by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, the legendary producer at the helm of EON Productions and one of the men responsible for bringing Bond to the big screen in the first place. Reportedly, someone forgot to refrigerate the food that would be served to the crew one afternoon for lunch. Moore, never one to throw someone under the bus, recalled that “there was one day when something went wrong in Egypt and word reached us mid-morning that there wouldn’t be any lunch. Cubby knew he’d have a revolt on his hands, and so – somehow – gathered together huge great cooking pots, bundles of pasta and meat, and made a wonderful pasta with meatballs and sauce.”

“He served it up to the boys and girls himself too,” wrote Moore, modestly neglecting to mention that he also ladled out spaghetti for the hungry crew members even in full black tie costume as 007.

Roger Moore ditched Bond’s dinner jacket and grabbed a ladle when it came time to serve dinner for the crew.

À bientôt, Sir Roger.

What’d He Wear?

James Bond is known for his dinner jackets even by those who aren’t fans of the series, so I wanted to highlight my favorite of Roger Moore’s black tie ensembles in the series: the double-breasted dinner suit in The Spy Who Loved Me.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a double-breasted dinner jacket in Amazon’s The Last Tycoon, set in 1936 Hollywood. Men’s fashions of the 1930s underwent a revival during the ’70s so it makes sense that Moore’s fashionable take on Bond would find the agent in his signature tuxedo with a double-breasted dinner jacket in the classic pre-war style of a high-buttoning six-on-two front. Moore’s 007 would wear double-breasted dinner jacket in three consecutive Bond films throughout the ’70s – The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and Moonraker (1979) – as well as a much more ’80s-styled jacket in A View to a Kill (1985).

Roger Moore’s exquisite double-breasted dinner jacket has been exquisitely written about by Matt Spaiser on The Suits of James Bond with an in-depth exploration into the fit, the tailoring, and the tailor himself – Angelo Vitucci of Angelo Roma – who added a distinctively Roman touch to Moore’s black tie kit.

Moore’s Bond was ably accompanied by rival KGB agent Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach), a skilled and confident woman of action more removed from some of the franchise’s earlier “damsels in distress”.

Moore’s midnight blue dinner suit shines under the morning sun, implying a possible wool-mohair blend that would breathe well in the hot Egyptian desert. The ventless jacket’s peak lapels are faced in black satin silk, matching the bow tie and the trouser side striping. The six buttons (with two to fasten) on the front and the three buttons on each cuff are also covered in black satin.

Per traditional black tie conventions, the side pockets are appropriately jetted rather than flapped, and Moore wears no pocket square in his welted breast pocket.

Before Jaws and after Jaws… surprisingly not much worse for wear!

Moore wears a white dress shirt from his usual shirtmaker Frank Foster, with a very large point collar typical of the ’70s. Double cuffs are standard for black tie shirts, but Moore’s shirt has the distinctive pointed-tab single-button cuff invented by Ted Lapidus, the influential French fashion designer who also popularized the safari suit during the ’60s and ’70s.

The popularity of the tab cuff during the decade also extended to the fringes of organized crime as an element of the shirts created by Anto Beverly Hills for Robert De Niro to wear as Sam “Ace” Rothstein to wear in the 1970s-set scenes of Martin Scorsese’s Casino (1995).

Matt Spaiser explores the shirt further at The Suits of James Bond, suggesting cotton voile as a possible fabric based on the sheer shirting and investigating the distinctive dark shiny buttons sewn through with white thread for a distinctive pop on the shirt’s front placket and cuffs.

Bond watches Q’s presentation with interest.

Bond wears a standard black satin silk bow tie in a large butterfly (thistle) shape, coordinating with his larger shirt collar and wide peak lapels without approaching the excessively large bow ties seen in embarrassing prom photos from the ’70s.

Bond, dubious of the abilities of Egyptian builders.

In My Word is My Bond, Moore recalled a cheeky story when he and Barbara Bach were filming outside Cairo. “As wewalked across the frame in a David Leanesque shot, I’m afraid I let my trousers drop down. I had hoped they might leave it in, but it was vetoed.”

Moore’s trousers match his dinner jacket in the same shiny midnight blue wool/mohair suiting with a black satin stripe down the sides and a strip of black satin around his waistband in lieu of a cummerbund. The trousers emit minimalist elegance with their lack of pleats, pockets, waist adjusters, or cuffs.

In the last 24 hours, Bond’s been knocked around, drugged, and robbed, all under the blaring Egyptian sun. Yet, Roger Moore still exudes insouciant elegance and sophistication with his untied bow tie and dinner jacket removed and so rakishly flung over his left shoulder.

Promotional photo of Barbara Bach and Roger Moore (in double-breasted tux and loafers) leaning against that Lotus Esprit.

Moore further dresses down his black tie ensemble with squared moc-toe slip-on shoes rather than the more traditional oxfords, though his loafers are the most formal variant in glossy black patent leather that nicely coordinates with the shine of his mohair-blend dinner suit.

Each loafer has a strap across the vamp with a squared gold-toned buckle on the outside, sometimes referred to as “sidebit” detailing as opposed to the full-width “horsebit” on the more casual slip-ons that Moore wears with his suits and odd jackets.

The maker of Moore’s loafers is unconfirmed, though I speculate they’re Ferragamo. Reportedly, Moore’s neighbor – the spouse of Salvatore Ferragamo’s eldest son – was horrified to see her friend sporting the rival wares of Gucci in his first two appearances as James Bond, and Moore was subsequently converted to Ferragamo leather goods.

His black dress socks are probably silk.

Bond eulogizes the late Max Kalba.

The “quartz revolution” was in full swing by 1977, and even James Bond had turned in his trademark Swiss dive watch for a Japanese quartz-powered digital watch. Roger Moore had been the first Bond to wear a digital wristwatch on screen with his Hamilton Pulsar in Live and Let Die, but the novelty of digital timekeeping in 1973 was mainstream just a few years later when Moore strapped on the first of his many Seiko timepieces for The Spy Who Loved Me.

Throughout The Spy Who Loved Me, whether dressed in business suit, dinner suit, naval uniform, or casual attire, Moore’s 007 wears a Seiko LC Quartz DK001 digital display wristwatch, model 0674-5009, in a stainless steel case on a stainless expanding bracelet. More information about this comparatively rare watch can also be found at James Bond Lifestyle as well as Dell Deaton’s blog James Bond Watches.

Some may criticize the digital watch with a dinner jacket as a major faux pas, but I’m sure the filmmakers were more satisfied by a hefty product placement commission from Seiko rather than the approval of a blogger writing about the film four decades later. You do you, Mr. Bond.

This dinner suit was also worn by Roger Moore for the film’s opening gunbarrel sequence, the first formal wear to be featured as all previous gunbarrels – including Moore’s for Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun – featured the Bond actors (and stunt coordinator Bob Simmons* doubling for Connery) in a dark business suit.

Roger Moore’s tuxedo-clad gunbarrel sequence set a new standard for the series that would last a quarter of a century.

The Spy Who Loved Me began a tradition of a black tie gunbarrel sequence that would last through Pierce Brosnan’s final Bond film, Die Another Day (2002).

* Bob Simmons was the James Bond franchise’s legendary long-time stunt coordinator and, in fact, appeared in the Alpine-set pre-credits sequence of The Spy Who Loved Me as one of the gun-toting KGB assassins on skiis.

What to Imbibe

Buy you a drink, Major Amasaova… or may I call you XXX?

After their first encounter at the p-p-pyramids, Bond and Anya Amasaova catch up at the Mojave Club for a meeting with the club’s owner, the doomed Max Kalba (Vernon Dobtcheff), whose black market greed would eventually seal his hate.

Bond: The lady will have a Bacardi on the rocks.
Anya: For the gentleman, a vodka martini. Shaken, not stirred.
Bond: Touché.

Bond catches up with the disreputable Kalba to get his hands on the film’s MacGuffin microfilm, but Anya isn’t far behind.

Anya: Just a moment. I would like to bid for it too. You forgot your drink, Mr. Bond.
Bond: Thank you. Na zdorovje.
Kalba: It seems you have competition, Mr. Bond. And from where I sit, I fancy you will find the lady’s figure… hard to match.

Kalba himself displays some interesting eveningwear tendencies with a wide bowtie and large-collared shirt apropos to 1977 contrasting with his stark white dinner jacket with its slim shawl collar. Consistent with villainy in the Bond series, a lack of sartorial taste tends to align with a lack of moral authority. We can feel the judgment in Bond’s eye as he laconically sips his martini.

If you plan on toasting to Sir Roger’s birthday with a Saturday evening martini, keep in mind that the actor preferred gin to vodka. As he wrote in Bond on Bond:

I myself prefer a gin martini and, in all my years of traveling, believe the best is served in the bar of Maison Pic, in Valence, France. How do they prepare it?

First, the ingredients. My gin of choice is Tanqueray and vermouth has to be Noilly Prat.

Take the glass or cocktail shaker you are using and, for two sensible-sized martinis, fill 1/4 of each glass with Noilly Prat. Swill it around and then discard it. Next, top the glasses up with gin, drop in a zest of lemon, and place the glasses in a freezer or ice-cold fridge until you are – or should I say she is – ready.

Roger Moore on location in Egypt during the filming of The Spy Who Loved Me, October 1976.

How to Get the Look

Roger Moore blends a classic aesthetic with a casual approach for his elegant double-breasted black tie ensemble in The Spy Who Loved Me.

• Midnight blue wool/mohair double-breasted dinner jacket with black satin-faced peak lapels, satin-covered six-on-two button front, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, satin-covered three-button cuffs, and ventless back
• White cotton voile shirt with large point collar, front placket with smoke faux-stud buttons, and “Lapidus” pointed-tab single-button cuffs
• Black satin butterfly/thistle-shaped bow tie
• Midnight blue wool/mohair flat front formal trousers with black satin side stripe, black satin fitted waistband, no pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black patent leather sidebit moc-toe loafers
• Black silk dress socks
• Seiko LC 0674-5009 Quartz DK001 stainless steel digital wristwatch

The Gun

The Spy Who Loved Me features some firearm fluctuation as James Bond’s signature Walther PPK is swapped out in some scenes – such as the earlier Cairo rooftop fight – with a Beretta Model 70 pistol.

This sequence at the Egyptian pyramids finds 007 with his trusty Walther PPK back in his hands. Bond isn’t wearing his usual shoulder holster when he removes his dinner jacket for his long walk to Cairo, so he’s likely carrying the pistol loosely in his pocket.

Bond’s PPK vs. Major Amasova’s bracelet-laden wrist. Who would win?

A chuckling Roger Moore twirls Bond’s trademark PPK on set. Don’t try this at home!

A prop Walther PPK pistol carried by Roger Moore for non-firing scenes in The Spy Who Loved Me can be viewed at YourProps. A closer look at the markings of this PPK indicates that it’s actually a replica produced by the Spanish manufacturer Denix.

Denix still markets its replica PPK, described as “Semiautomatic pistol, Germany 1919” on its site, for 94.62€. Blued and nickel finishes are available, and the serial number – #382480 – is consistent with the one printed on the YourProps PPK listed to have been used by Moore.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

If you’re interested in hearing firsthand tales of the production from 007 himself, the two Roger Moore-penned books that I sourced in this post are:

• My Word is My Bond (2008)
• Bond on Bond: Reflections on 50 Years of James Bond Movies (2012)

Sir Roger’s final book, À Bientôt, was released in the UK in September 2017 and will hit American bookshelves in a few weeks on November 1.

Paul Newman as Professor Michael Armstrong in Torn Curtain (1966)

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Paul Newman as Michael Armstrong, American physicist and amateur spy

East Berlin, September 1965

Film: Torn Curtain
Release Date: July 14, 1966
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Costume Supervisor: Grady Hunt

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Alfred Hitchcock’s 50th film, Torn Curtain, marked his one and only collaboration with Paul Newman. Production on the Cold War spy thriller was plagued by the veteran director clashing with his leads, unused to method actor Paul Newman’s constant questioning of his character’s motivation. “Your motivation is your salary,” Hitch reportedly replied.

The famously easygoing Newman was a little more enthusiastic, later recalling, “I think Hitch and I could have really hit it off, but the script kept getting in the way.”

Indeed, the serious political thriller was a departure from Hitchcock’s usual scripts, developed in response to the growing popularity of the James Bond franchise through the ’60s. Hitch had already been a presence in the genre with the now iconic North by Northwest in 1959, an instant success for the suspense, style, and wit for which the director was known.

Hitchcock had hoped to replicate his success from North by Northwest by casting Cary Grant as the lead in Torn Curtain, but the actor was making good on his recent retirement, and so Universal Pictures executive Lew Wasserman cast Paul Newman and Julie Andrews – highly bankable as two of the most popular rising stars of the decade.

Newman and Andrews played American physicist Michael Armstrong and his assistant and fiancée Sarah Sherman, respectively, traveling through Europe on what turns out to be Armstrong’s defection to the East German government. Of course, Armstrong is actually an amateur double agent whose “defection” is only a ruse to steal secrets from the Soviets.

Armstrong’s plans to return to his American spymasters via the secret π escape network are uncovered by East German security officer Hermann Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling), who follows Armstrong to the farm where Armstrong is meeting with the masters of his spy ring. What follows is a sloppy, brutal fight that Hitchcock told François Truffaut he deliberately included as a contrast to the era’s popular spy thrillers that made killing look easy.

What’d He Wear?

“It used to be said that no gentleman should wear brown in London. The increasing popularity of the color over the past years has been, presumably, proportionate to the increase in the disappearance of the gentleman,” wrote Hardy Amies in 1964, reflecting the traditional “no brown in town” attitudes that continue to influence menswear to this day.

Brown suits had long been restricted to “country wear” rather than proper business attire. By the late 1930s, men’s clothiers had developed a happy compromise for men seeking the flattering benefits of brown suiting without drawing the ire of those who stand on ceremony in the enforcement of traditional dress codes. Charcoal brown incorporates black or charcoal threads that mute the suiting into a shade of brown more acceptable to conservative dressers. (You can read more about charcoal brown at Gentleman’s Gazette.)

“A brown suit in the city? Surely you jest,” the man in gray seems to be saying to our protagonist.

A charcoal brown flannel suit à la Paul Newman’s Michael Armstrong in Torn Curtain is the perfect business suit as the October weather gets cooler here in the Northern Hemisphere, keeping you warm while offering just enough gray to satisfy the sartorial traditionalists in your office.

Professor Armstrong’s suit follows the classic American cut with its full “sack jacket” with natural shoulders and a single back vent. The notch lapels are fashionably slim for the mid-1960s, ending high to accommodate the jacket’s three-button front. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and two non-functioning cuff buttons spaced about a half-inch on the end of each sleeve.

Armstrong recovers after an unexpected bout of fisticuffs.

Armstrong’s flat front trousers with their medium rise are also consistent with American suits of the era, a contrast to the higher pleated trousers worn by his British contemporary, James Bond. Armstrong’s trousers are straight through the legs down to the bottoms finished with turn-ups (cuffs). They have straight pockets along each side seam but appear to have no back pockets.

Michael Armstrong turns on the charm for Dr. Koska (Gisele Fischer).

The trousers are worn with a black leather belt with a gold-toned single-prong buckle in a semi-rounded reverse “D” shape.

Paul Newman was a master of the all-American Ivy League staple, the oxford cloth button-down shirt. His white cotton OCBD shirt in Torn Curtain has a button-down collar with moderate spread, front placket, rounded button cuffs, and a single inverted box pleat in the center of the back.

Armstrong re-dresses after a visit to the helpful Dr. Koska.

Per this post on the company Instagram page, Newman’s shirt was likely made by Frank Foster, the London shirtmaker who has created countless bespoke shirts for royalty and stars including at least three James Bond actors.

Armstrong’s woven grenadine silk tie is a slightly bolder shade of brown. The mid ’60s were the era of the “skinny tie”, and Armstrong’s neckwear appears to be no wider than 2.5″ and tied in a half-Windsor knot to fill the tie space of his button-down collar.

Professor Armstrong appears to only wear this brown tie when wearing his charcoal brown suit (and vice versa), cycling through navy and red-toned ties when wearing his blue-gray suit or his herringbone jacket.

Not held in place by a bar, clip, or pin, Armstrong’s tie flops around freely and one shot through the bus window while he makes his way to the farm reveals the manufacturer’s tie tag on the back that may clue in a more eagle-eyed viewer into who made Newman’s tie.

The tie maker’s tag is visible just above the bottom of the frame.

Armstrong wears a pair of well-traveled brown leather plain-toe derby shoes with round laces through four eyelets. The footwear is an interesting choice as it doesn’t coordinate with his black belt – an incongruity often considered a no-no – and black shoes are considered to be acceptable with brown suits, particularly charcoal brown suits that have black thread.

His dark ribbed socks appear black but may be a very dark brown to coordinate with his trousers and shoes.

The earthy tones of his suit contrast with his city-friendly topcoat, a knee-length car coat in black and white houndstooth check.

The single-breasted car coat has a flat Ulster collar with four black buttons down the plain front from the neck to just below his waist. There is a flapped pocket on each hip, and a pointed half-tab on each cuff that closes with a single button. The back has a single vent.

Armstrong vs. Gromek.

Having lost his houndstooth car coat at the “farm” when it was stained with the deceased Gromek’s blood, Armstrong goes coat-less until the final act of the film when he is escaping East Berlin with Sarah.

Armstrong is given a heavy black wool topcoat on the π network decoy bus. This second coat has a tall Ulster collar, horizontal front yokes, and brown buttons down the single-breasted plain front. Each sleeve is finished with a distinctive flared half-tab that closes on two black buttons on the outside of each cuff.

Armstrong in disguise as he makes his escape.

Michael Armstrong wears a dress watch typical of the 1960s with a round stainless steel case, silver dial, and flat black leather strap.

Armstrong flips through a pamphlet welcoming him to Berlin.

Paul Newman wouldn’t receive the first of his famous Rolex Cosmograph Daytona watches until a few years later when he received one as a gift from his wife Joanne Woodward. Newman would continue to wear these watches – with the very specific “Paul Newman” dial that horologists can easily spot – every day from 1972 through his death in 2008. One of these Rolex watches, which he gifted to his daughter Nell’s then-boyfriend James Cox in the summer of 1984, will be auctioned next Thursday, October 26, at Phillips in New York and is expected to yield several million dollars.

How to Get the Look

Paul Newman taps into his own Ivy League-inspired sense of classic style to present an undeniably fashionable way of sporting a brown suit appropriate for both town and country.

• Charcoal brown flannel “sack suit”:
  • Single-breasted 3-button suit jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and single back vent
  • Flat front medium-rise trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White oxford cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Brown woven grenadine silk tie
• Black leather belt with gold-toned rounded single-prong buckle
• Brown leather plain-toe 4-eyelet derby shoes
• Black ribbed socks
• Steel round-cased wristwatch with plain silver dial on black leather strap
• Black-and-white houndstooth wool single-breasted 4-button car coat with Ulster collar, hand pockets, 1-button half-tab cuffs, and single vent

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

George Lazenby as James Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

Vitals

George Lazenby as James Bond, smooth British secret agent

Estoril, Portugal, September 1969

Film: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
Release Date: December 18, 1969
Director: Peter R. Hunt
Tailor: Dimi Major
Costume Designer: Marjory Cornelius

Background

On the 00-7th of December, this Car Week post is focused on James Bond’s sole Christmastime adventure, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service starring George Lazenby as the suave secret agent.

The film opens with a scene straight out of the source novel as a competitive Bond engages in a playful “race” against a beautiful young woman speeding toward the beach in her convertible. From the iconic theme song to Lazenby’s clenched lips holding a cigarette as his lighter illuminates a fashionable black tie kit, the moment is classic 007 and it sets the scene for a powerful film that remains faithful to Ian Fleming’s original vision for this significant story and its place in the Bond canon while also establishing the action-oriented direction of George Lazenby’s character.

The young woman, of course, turns out to be the reckless Teresa “Tracy” di Vincenzo (Diana Rigg), the daughter of an influential organized crime figure who has been cornered into a cynical outlook on life. Bond dashes into the waves to save the woman from a suicide attempt, but ends up brawling with the two men who had been following her and looks up only to see that Tracy absconding in her Mercury Cougar. He takes in his situation and verbally winks to the camera:

This never happened to the other fella…

What’d He Wear?

You can learn much about George Lazenby’s midnight blue dinner suit from Matt Spaiser’s comprehensive post at The Suits of James Bond, the definitive source for the clothing of 007’s world. I strongly urge all readers to visit The Suits of James Bond!

The only time that James Bond had previously worn a dinner jacket with peak lapels was Sean Connery’s ivory dinner jacket in Goldfinger. Lazenby’s peak lapels are of a timeless, moderate width rather than excessively slim as was fashionable earlier in the ’60s or too wide as the following decade’s trends would dictate. The lapels have a straight gorge and are faced in midnight satin silk with a buttonhole through the left lapel.

The opulent settings of the Hotel Palácio’s dining room frame Bond’s “date” with Tracy.

The most formal option for a dinner jacket is no vents, but double vents like the long side vents on Lazenby’s jacket are a fashionably acceptable alternative. Both the single button on the front and the three buttons on each cuff are covered in midnight satin silk as well. The single-button jacket has jetted hip pockets and a welted breast pocket, though Lazenby wears no pocket square.

The Suits of James Bond astutely calls out the closely but comfortably fitted dinner suit’s tasteful concessions to late 1960s fashion trends from the short fit of the jacket to the “lower-than-traditional” rise of his darted-front formal trousers.

Like Connery before him, Lazenby wears trousers with three-button tab side adjusters and no waist covering. The trousers have straight pockets along the side seams and two jetted pockets on the back. The legs are trimmed with midnight satin stripes from the waistband down to the bottoms, which are plain-hemmed with a medium break at the top of his shoes.

Fleming’s Bond would have little regard for Lazenby’s reckless behavior upon his return to his hotel room, exercising none of the ritual precautions outlined in the first chapter of Casino Royale… and nearly to his own peril!

Bond wears two white dinner shirts from Frank Foster, the legendary London shirt-maker who also made shirts for Sean Connery and Roger Moore. Both shirts have a subtantial point collar and are made of cotton voile, a nice lightweight fabric for the summer resort-like setting.

Bond’s first dinner shirt, worn during the beach scenes, has a narrowly ruffle-pleated front and squared double (French) cuffs worn with slim gold bar cuff links.

Lazenby’s first shirt in action. What would “the other fella” have thought?

At the casino, Bond wears his second and certainly flashier dinner shirt with two large ruffle strips on each side of the front placket, which buttons up with mother-of-pearl buttons.

Lazenby lets the ruffles on his second shirt fly free after an evening of resting them unobtrusively beneath his dinner jacket where their true splendor could only be hinted at.

This shirt also has squared double cuffs, this time secured with a set of small gold recessed circle links.

Shades of Dr. No.

Bond’s traditional butterfly-shaped bow tie echoes his lapel facings in dark midnight blue satin silk.

Had Lazenby mastered his own take on the Bond smirk? You be the judge.

Bond’s black leather cap-toe oxfords are appropriate as the most traditional and formal lace-up shoes to be worn with black tie.

Silk socks are frequently chosen with formal and semi-formal wear, and Bond appears to be wearing black silk dress socks in the casino, but his shoeless scenes on the beach seem to show our hero sporting a thicker pair of hosiery, likely to protect Lazenby’s feet against the elements when filming.

Aftermath of a failed assignation.

George Lazenby had reportedly tracked down a Rolex when auditioning for the role of James Bond, and the actor fittingly wears two during his sole cinematic outing as 007. Lazenby’s first on-screen Rolex is a classic ref. 5513 Submariner with a stainless steel case, black bezel and dial, and stainless Oyster bracelet.

“Paid in full.”

Lazenby on location in Portugal, still wearing Bond’s trilby, bow tie, and shoulder holster.

Lazenby’s Bond would later wear another Rolex, a ref. 6238 pre-Daytona chronograph, when disguised as Sir Hilary Bray at Piz Gloria. After Roger Moore took over the role of James Bond, he too would wear a Submariner 5513 in his first two Bond films – Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun – before strapping on a Seiko during the quartz revolution of the late ’70s.

Lazenby’s Bond seems hardly the type to wear a traditional hat, though his first appearance of Bond features him motoring along the coast in a black short-brimmed trilby to top off his black tie ensemble. He soon ditches the hat (as well as his jacket) when he leaps off to rescue Tracy from the waves.

The shoulder holster is another traditional accessory of Bond lore dating back to Sean Connery in Dr. No, although Lazenby wears a sleeker, updated version. Lazenby’s rig consists of a wide strap over his left shoulder connected to a thinner black strap that loops around his right shoulder. The holster itself carries his trademark Walther PPK under his left armpit for a smooth right-handed draw.

Under the holster section hangs a short strap that is evidently meant to be worn fastened to Bond’s side adjuster tabs (as Sean Connery wore his), but Lazenby already has the holster unbuttoned when he easily slips it off upon returning to his hotel room.

A behind-the-scenes shot from Becoming Bond of Lazenby being fitted into his shoulder holster on set. The older little man helping him seems to be the same from the beach photo above.

Bond’s heavy black-framed sunglasses with their amber lenses are seen only in silhouette before they are discarded onto the passenger seat and never worn again. To me, they evoke the look of Michael Caine’s bespectacled spy Harry Palmer.

Lazenby may have made some poor choices in his life, but he still was wise enough to know that James Bond wouldn’t wear sunglasses at night.

Lazenby makes a brief appearance as a tuxedoed Bond later in the film during the “We Have All the Time in the World” montage of his various dates with Tracy.

Photographs and footage that has surfaced of George Lazenby screen-testing with various actresses and posing for publicity photos shows him in a more traditional, minimalist ensemble of a Connery-style shawl-collar dinner jacket and plain-fronted shirt with a herringbone woven bib and covered fly placket… with nary a ruffle or pleat to be found.

Lazenby during the audition process, twirling Bond’s trademark PPK. French actress (and author) Marie-France Boyer turns away from the gunplay.

By the time Lazenby’s Bond had made it to the big screen, he would be appropriately ruffled, courtesy of master shirt-maker Frank Foster.

Go Big or Go Home

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service reclaimed Ian Fleming’s “down-to-earth” James Bond after the cinematic spectacle of You Only Live Twice. Right from the opening scene, Bond is motoring along a beach-side road in his Aston Martin when reaches for his cigarette case and lighter, echoing the wide gunmetal case and Ronson lighter that got plenty of ink in Fleming’s novels, and lights up.

No tricks or rockets from this cigarette… just Bond enjoying a smoke from a simple unfiltered cigarette that even has the three gold rings of the Morlands that had been commissioned by Ian Fleming in real life to denote his Commander rank in the British Royal Navy. Fleming would later pass his exact smoking habits, right down to the triple-ringed cigarettes in the same Balkan and Turkish tobacco blend, on to his most famous fictional creation.

Can anyone better versed in tobacco lore than I identify the brand of cigarette Lazenby actually lights up as Bond? The blue printing at the midway point is certainly brand-suggestive.

Lazenby may have been the last cinematic Bond to make use of a cigarette case, but he was only one in a long line of Bond interpretations to show an appreciation for fine champagne. In this case, it’s a bottle of Dom Pérignon of 1957 vintage that he orders to share with Tracy.

A champagne aficionado would have known Bond’s champagne order to be the sign of someone trying to look more sophisticated than they were, as there was no 1957 vintage produced of Dom Pérignon; Bond should have instead ordered a 1955 or a 1959, particularly as the latter would have fit the literary Bond’s stated preference for ten-year-old champagne.

This German lobby card for Im Geheimdienst Ihrer Majestät features a full shot of Tracy and Bond in the dining room of the Hotel Palácio.

However, even the impressive champagne isn’t enough to hold Tracy’s interest and she cuts to the chase, sending the champagne to her room and handing Bond a key so that he may join later and see where the night takes them. (As far as background music goes, I always enjoyed “Try”, the moody and atmospheric instrumental piece composed for the film by John Barry that plays during Bond and Tracy’s brief “date” in the casino dining room.)

Mr. Bond, no stranger to this type of suggestion, takes Tracy up on her offer. Again eschewing caution, 007 strides into her hotel room and immediately finds himself engaged in fisticuffs with Che Che (Irvin Allen), one of Marc-Ange Draco’s more robust henchmen. Bond knocks the man cold after a closely choreographed fight… then feels the need to show off even more by sampling some caviar on his way out the door and noting to no one in particular: “Royal Beluga… north of the Caspian.” He then sets off to his own room for a fateful and inevitable assignation with Tracy.

As for the hotel itself? Bond himself stated earlier in the lobby that “everything seems up to the Palácio’s usual high standards,” establishing the setting as the Hotel Palácio in Estoril, Portugal. James Bond Lifestyle‘s excellent research into this storied hotel describes that Ian Fleming himself had stayed there in May 1941, likely while shadowing rival spy Dusko Popov. Built in 1930, the Palácio Estoril continues to thrive to this day, offering “hotel, golf, and wellness” in an exclusive atmosphere that retains its classic pre-WWII elegance.

How to Get the Look

George Lazenby in costume and on location as James Bond beside his Aston Martin DBS in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)

George Lazenby may not have thought much of James Bond’s preference for traditional menswear, but he certainly looks the part in this well-tailored black tie kit that blends classic elegance with then-modern fashion.

• Midnight blue single-breasted 1-button dinner jacket with satin-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, covered 3-button cuffs, and long double vents
• Midnight blue darted-front formal trousers with midnight satin side braiding, 3-button side-adjuster tabs, straight side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton voile ruffled-front formal shirt with front placket, double/French cuffs, and open gauntlets
  • Gold cuff links
• Midnight blue satin silk butterfly-shaped bow tie
• Black leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Black silk dress socks
• Rolex Submariner 5513 stainless steel dive watch with black bezel, black dial, and stainless Oyster link bracelet
• Black leather shoulder holster
• Black short-brimmed trilby with narrow grosgrain band

The Car

Goldfinger and Thunderball had established the on-screen relationship between James Bond and Aston Martin, placing the quintessential British secret agent in a quintessentially British sports car.

In its quest to establish continuity with the earlier films of the series, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service gives George Lazenby’s 007 his own Aston Martin, albeit an updated 1968 Aston Martin DBS Vantage.

Bond parks his DBS at the top of the beach when observing Tracy’s erratic movements.

Aston Martin introduced the DBS in 1967 as an intended replacement for the smaller DB6, itself a successor to the DB5 that had been popularized as 007’s gadget-laden sports car. The DBS incorporated a sleek, modernized look that was William Towns’ first design for Aston Martin.

The base model of the DBS was powered by a naturally aspirated inline-six cylinder engine that produced 282 horsepower, though a Vantage performance option increased the output to 325 horsepower with Italian-made Weber carburetors. The DBS Vantage could reportedly reach a top speed of around 150 mph (241 km/h), a limit that Bond certainly would have been eager to test when racing Tracy.

1968 Aston Martin DBS Vantage

Body Style: 2-door coupe (2+2 seater)

Layout: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive (RWD)

Engine: 3995 cc (4.0 L) Aston Martin DOHC I6 with Weber carburetors

Power: 325 bhp (242 kW; 330 PS) @ 5750 rpm

Torque: 290 lb·ft (393 N·m) @ 4500 rpm

Transmission: 5-speed manual

Wheelbase: 102.8 inches (2611 mm)

Length: 180.5 inches (4585 mm)

Width: 72 inches (1829 mm)

Height: 52.3 inches (1328 mm)

(Above stats from Carfolio.com)

In 1969, Aston Martin introduced a V8 engine option for the DBS, and this 5340cc coupe was briefly the fastest four-seater production car in the world. The success of the V8 model signaled the end of the DBS, which ceased production after the 1972 model year, and the design was incorporated into the renamed “Aston Martin V8”.

George Lazenby wasn’t the only James Bond actor to prominently drive an Aston Martin DBS. As debonair dandy Lord Brett Sinclair on The Persuaders!, Roger Moore had a “Bahama Yellow” six-cylinder, five-speed 1970 DBS that was re-badged and re-wheeled to resemble the V8 model. Sinclair was Moore’s final major role before he took over as James Bond in Live and Let Die in 1973.

The Guns

The first of James Bond’s armament that we see in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service isn’t his iconic Walther but rather a disassembled Armalite AR-7 rifle in the glove compartment of his Aston Martin. 007 fans would recall this being the “sniper rifle” issued to Bond by Q in From Russia With Love and used to great effect when eliminating Krilencu the Bulgar terrorist.

In one of many instances of establishing continuity with the earlier films, the AR-7 appears here in Bond’s DBS. Bond even uses the rifle’s scope to observe Tracy before establishing that she’s in danger and heading into the ocean after her.

The parts of Bond’s AR-7 survival rifle in a concealed compartment in his DBS. Not the last prop that would return from From Russia With Love…

When Bond’s trademark Walther PPK does finally show up, it’s not in his hands but those of Tracy di Vicenzo, who has removed it from his discarded holster and cornered him in his hotel room.

Gunplay is evidently Tracy’s idea of foreplay.

007 disarms her with one swift movement of his arm, and the two find a more agreeable manner for getting acquainted.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

Curious to learn more about George Lazenby himself? The 2017 documentary Becoming Bond is certainly worth your time!

The Quote

Please stay alive… at least for tonight.

Gallery

Frank Sinatra as Joey Evans in Pal Joey (1957)

Vitals

Frank Sinatra as Joey Evans, womanizing nightclub singer

San Francisco, Spring 1957

Film: Pal Joey
Release Date: October 25, 1957
Director: George Sidney
Costume Designer: Jean Louis

Background

Today marks the birth of Frank Sinatra, the Chairman of the Board himself, born on December 12, 1915, in Hoboken. This son of tenement-dwelling Italian immigrants grew to be one of the most influential, best-selling music artists in history.

Sixty years ago, Sinatra was rising as one of the biggest stars in the world when he starred as the titular Pal Joey, a performance that earned him a Golden Globe award. Originally a stage musical starring Gene Kelly as the singing and dancing anti-hero, Pal Joey was reconfigured for the screen with the character more reflective of Sinatra’s own charming yet mischievous “nice guy” persona.

Though he played the title character, Frank Sinatra reportedly insisted upon co-star Rita Hayworth receiving top billing because “For years, she was Columbia Pictures,” although he’s also credited with the more laconic explanation of simply saying, “Ladies first.”

The film also starred Kim Novak as ingenue chorus girl Linda English, and Sinatra remarked of being billed between the two of them that, “That’s a sandwich I don’t mind being stuck in the middle of.”

Frank Sinatra and Kim Novak in Pal Joey.

Despite actually being three years younger than Sinatra, Rita Hayworth plays the cougar-ish Vera Prentice-Simpson, a former burlesque performer who takes on the younger Joey Evans  as her “boy toy” in return for financing his dreams of owning a nightclub. In his 2008 book Sinatra in Hollywood, author Tom Santopietro declared the scene in which Sinatra sings his own classic standard “The Lady is a Tramp” to Hayworth as the finest moment of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ film career.

I received a request from BAMF Style reader Mark earlier this year to showcase Frank Sinatra’s style in Pal Joey, so it seemed apt to start by featuring this scene on the chairman’s actual birthday. Happy birthday, Frank!

What’d He Wear?

As a professional entertainer, Frank Sinatra’s titular Joey spends much of the film in variations of formal attire from sharp dinner suits in midnight blue and black mohair (at the beginning and end, respectively) as well as a red flecked jacket when on the bandstand and a white tie and tails ensemble during a fantasy sequence in the musical finale.

After the club where Joey is performing receives a surprise visit from the glamorous and powerful ex-burlesque performer Vera Prentice-Simpson, Joey emerges from the back room to serenade her in an equally impromptu rendition of “The Lady is a Tramp,” dressed in a non-traditional black tie kit consisting of a dove gray shawl-collar dinner jacket with a lace-trim pleated front shirt and midnight formal trousers.

Joey closes out a show-stopping number for Vera’s benefit.

The gray dinner jacket has self-faced shawl lapels of a classic width that neatly roll to a single button positioned perfectly at the waist line for harmonious lines with only the shirt visible above the buttoning point and only the trousers below it.

Jetted, rather than flapped, pockets on the hips continue the clean lines of the ensemble and are considered more appropriate for formal wear and dinner jackets. Joey wears a white linen pocket square neatly folded into the welted breast pocket. There are three buttons on each cuff and, per dinner jacket tradition, there are no vents.

Joey wears a white pleated-front dinner shirt in cotton voile with a black silk butterfly-shaped bow tie. The shirt’s squared double (French) cuffs are held together with the same large silver-toned ridged disc links as he wears elsewhere.

Joey and his canine pal prepare for his evening’s performance in his dressing room.

The Rat Pack had many of their shirts made from Nat Wise of Beverly Hills, which was adapted into Anto Shirt in 1987, and this unique shirt is likely no exception, though it predates Frank’s association with Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

The subtle lace trim on the shirt’s pleated front looks like it was constructed from ripped strips of paper, delivering just the needed level of insouciant imperfection befitting the character’s swagger. The pleats are a bit affected but hardly as flashy as the ruffled front of James Bond’s tuxedo shirt in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The shirt has a standard placket with mother-of-pearl buttons.

Sinatra doing what he does best.

In accordance with this less formal ensemble, Joey doesn’t wear the traditional waist covering (cummerbund or waistcoat) that often accompanies black tie. He wears white fabric suspenders (braces) with gold adjusters with white leather hooks that connect to two double sets of buttons along in the inside of the front trouser waistband and a single set of two buttons on the outside of the back trouser waistband, split by a narrow “fishmouth” notch that adds flexibility as Joey moves or sits.

Joey catches Linda’s eye through the barred window of his dressing room.

Joey’s formal trousers are midnight blue, possibly the trousers from his dinner suit at the beginning of the movie, with double reverse pleats and a satin side stripe that extends from the plain-hemmed bottoms up to the top of the waistband. They have no back pockets but straight pockets along the side seams, behind the satin braids, where Sinatra often places his hands.

Production photo of Frank Sinatra with Barbara Nichols, yet another of the beautiful women with whom he co-starred in Pal Joey (1957). Nichols was a mainstay of late 1950s productions that called for brassy blonde bombshells from Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and Where the Boys Are (1960) to the first episode of The Untouchables in 1959.

Black oxfords are considered the most formal lace-up shoe that one can wear with black tie, although Sinatra was certainly known to wear the uber-formal opera pumps with some of his tuxedos… such as this pair of John Lobbs worn with this custom Cyril Castle dinner suit in the 1970s.

But back to Pal Joey, where Sinatra wears a more practical and accessible pair of black patent leather cap-toe oxfords with black silk dress socks.

“A hat’s not a hat till it’s tilted,” sang Sinatra with Dean Martin and Bing Crosby in “Style” for Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), and Sinatra’s ability to effectively wear a hat has become part of his lore.

Naturally, Joey thus tops of his look with his black corded-band trilby when heading out of the club with Vera on his arm.

The hat is less formal than the homburgs suggested as appropriate headgear with black tie, but his less-than-formal dinner jacket excuses it. The black felt hat has a pinched crown with a band consisting of four thin tan cords joined together on the left side.

This Pal Joey hat was undoubtedly made by Cavanagh, whose hats Sinatra wore exclusively in real life, though I can’t find more information about this hat specifically.

Joey takes in his surroundings.

Joey wears a watch on his left wrist that isn’t clearly seen anywhere on screen, though it appears to be a gold tank watch on a black leather strap, an elegantly simple style appropriate for black tie and befitting Sinatra’s own image.

Joey shares drinks and dreams with Vera while tending bar on her yacht.

One of Pal Joey‘s four nominations at that year’s Academy Awards was for Best Costume Design, appropriately recognizing the achievements of Paris-born designer Jean Louis.

How to Get the Look

Frank Sinatra’s signature look on stage was a dark tuxedo with a red silk pocket square, so it’s a treat to see the Chairman take on this non-traditional yet beautifully tailored dinner jacket in Pal Joey.

• Dove gray shawl-collar single-button dinner jacket with welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • White linen pocket square, folded in breast pocket
• White cotton voile dinner shirt with point collar, lace-trimmed pleated front, and squared double/French cuffs
  • Round silver ridged cuff links
• Black satin silk butterfly-shaped bow tie
• Midnight blue double reverse-pleated formal trousers with satin side stripes, straight/on-seam side pockets, fishmouth-notched back waistband with two suspender buttons, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White suspenders/braces with gold adjusters and white hooks
• Black patent leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Black silk socks
• Black felt short-brimmed fedora with tan quadruple-corded band
• Gold tank watch on black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, and read up on your Sinatra style. Several years ago, I was honored to receive the gift of Bill Zehme’s The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin’, a definitive bible of Ol’ Blue Eyes’ approach to sartorialism and life, from BAMF Style reader Teeritz.

I have also heard good things about a newly released book, Eliot Weisman’s The Way It Was: My Life with Frank Sinatra, which explores the last two decades of Sinatra’s life.

The Quote

I got it figured out. You treat a dame like a lady, and you treat a lady like a dame.

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr on The Last Tycoon (Episode 6: “A Brady-American Christmas”)

Vitals

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr, charming studio wunderkind

Hollywood, Christmas Eve 1936

Series: The Last Tycoon
Episode: “A Brady-American Christmas” (Episode 6)
Streaming Date: July 28, 2017
Director: Stacie Passon
Developed By: Billy Ray
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant

Background

The sixth episode of Amazon Video’s first and only season of The Last Tycoon, adapted from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel The Love of the Last Tycoon, kicks off the holiday season at Brady-American Studios where studio chief Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer) and his one-time protégé, ambitious visionary producer Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer), hoping for a Christmas miracle on their upcoming film, Angels on the Avenue.

Pat Brady: Well, if it isn’t the Jew who invented Christmas.
Monroe Stahr: I think another Jew gets credit for that one.

What’d He Wear?

Double-breasted three-piece suits have sadly fallen by the wayside after their glorious heyday in the 1930s, and costume designer Janie Bryant made the most of their elegant drape with a number of double-breasted business suits that serve as the de facto uniforms for series leads Matt Bomer and Kelsey Grammer.

“I am totally obsessed with this period of menswear,” said Bryant in an interview quoted in Fashionista. “It is such a stunning period for men… it’s completely opposite from Mad Men minimalist and everything skinny. It’s all about the broad shoulders, the nipped waist, the wide lapel, the wide trouser leg. It’s all about being wide and creating those masculine shoulders.”

While Grammer’s older-but-not-quite-wiser Pat Brady often swathes himself in more colorful suitings, Bomer’s Monroe Stahr prefers more conservative cloths in shades of navy and gray. All of Monroe’s suiting was custom made for the production, and Bomer told Vanity Fair in June 2016 that “everything [Janie Bryant] put on, I loved and felt was right for the character and was chosen specifically for different scenes. I liked getting to do the double-breasted… The very specific tailoring done at that time was different for me, and unique, and definitely informs the way you move as a character in a way that I found really helpful.”

In “A Brady-American Christmas”, Monroe dresses for his office Christmas party in a navy striped wool three-piece suit that had made its first appearance in the series’ third episode “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven” with the same striped tie.

The double-breasted suit jacket has broad peak lapels with straight gorges and sharp points. It’s a festive occasion, so Monroe wears a red carnation in his left lapel to celebrate, also calling out the maroon stripes of the tie.

A confrontation with Santa Claus is a surefire way to end up with coal in your stocking. Tread lightly, Monroe.

Monroe champions the wearing of simple white pocket squares with all of his tailored suits, and this is no exception with a two-point folded white linen kerchief stretching out of his welted breast pocket.

The six-on-two button suit jacket also has flapped pockets on the hips, in line with the lowest row of buttons; the two lower rows of buttons are placed closer together than the center row is with the vestigal upper buttons.

Monroe Stahr shows how a conservative dresser can still look interesting, even in a sea of festive holiday revelers in vivid shades of red and green.

One argument against double-breasted three-piece suits is that it renders the waistcoat totally unseen beneath the jacket’s full wrap. In the 1930s, this was less of an issue as it provided warmth in a less air conditioned world, and it allowed a gentleman to still look “dressed” when he needs to remove his jacket.

Monroe settles in for what he believes will be a productive Christmas Eve of poring over movie scripts, removing his jacket and revealing the single-breasted matching waistcoat (or vest). Per era trends, the waistcoat has a high-fastening front, though it still remains all but hidden under the closed jacket, with six buttons down the front; Monroe correctly and comfortably leaves the lowest button undone over the notched bottom. The lining and back are finished in navy satin, and there are four welted pockets on the front.

Peering out from the armholes of the waistcoat are Monroe’s suspenders (braces) that he wears to hold up his trousers. Although barely seen, these red-and-navy striped suspenders also coordinate with the color palette of his suit and tie.

Many of Monroe’s trousers are made with belt loops as well as inner-waistband buttons to accommodate suspenders, although he correctly opts for the latter here; suspenders are preferable to belts when wearing a three-piece suit to avoid the unsightly bulge of a belt buckle beneath the waistcoat.

The double reverse-pleated trousers have side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) that break over what appear to be black leather cap-toe oxfords. Monroe tends to wear socks that coordinate with his trousers, so he likely wears dark navy socks with this outfit.

Monroe’s productive night in is interrupted by a party invitation from Clint Frost (Eion Bailey), an amiable if overly sensitive actor in the Brady-American studio system.

Monroe wears one of his usual white cotton shirts with its well-starched and perfectly shaped long point collar, designed to perfectly follow the lines of his waistcoat’s chest opening.

The shirt buttons up a wide front placket and has double (French) cuffs with buttoned gauntlets. The French cuffs are fastened with a set of small gold-toned cuff links.

Hard at work but still smiling: the Monroe Stahr work ethic in action.

A follow-up feature in Fashionista in July 2017 stated that the production team “kept Monroe in consistent, masculine colors like deep maroons and blue ties that complement Bomer’s piercing eyes.”

This striped silk tie is no exception, not only complementing Bomer’s blue eyes but echoing the colors of the holiday season with maroon striping. All stripes are in the European “uphill” direction, crossing from the right hip up to the left shoulder. The striping pattern consists of wide stripes in burgundy, a navy-to-light blue gradient, and solid navy, all separated by thin white shadow stripes.

Monroe wears a gold signet ring on his left pinky, a common affectation of the era. The ring is etched with the initial “S.” to stand for both his professional surname of Stahr as well as his birth surname, Sternberg.

“S” for Stahr and for Sternberg.

After receiving two new wristwatches for his birthday earlier in the season, Monroe takes to wearing the steel round-cased watch he received from Pat Brady in Pat’s attempt to one-up the gold dress watch Monroe was given by Louis B. Mayer. Not clearly seen in these episodes, Monroe’s watch from Pat has a minimalist white dial and a black leather strap.

In the spirit of gift giving, check out the watch Monroe receives from Pat Brady in the finale of “Burying the Boy Genius” (episode 1.04). Monroe is wearing a different striped navy suit, with a widely spaced white chalkstripe, when he receives the watch.

The Music

It’s hard to imagine a holiday party without Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Perry Como, or Bing Crosby on the soundtrack. In December 1936, the first three were just getting their starts locally that would propel them to stardom within the next decade, and Bing – though a bona fide star since leaving Paul Whiteman’s popular orchestra in 1930 – had yet to record a Christmas record, let alone anything as iconic as “White Christmas”.

Thus, The Last Tycoon turns to even older recordings of our holiday favorites, including the original recording of “Winter Wonderland” that would play during several of the episode’s later seasons and over the end credits. Written by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith in 1934, “Winter Wonderland” was first recorded that October in New York City by Richard Himber and his Hotel Ritz-Carlton Orchestra, featuring vocals by Joey Nash, for Bluebird Records (a division of RCA Victor).

The record, named “Winter Wonderland – Fox Trot” to follow conventions of the era, was quickly noticed and re-recorded by other outfits, with the more popular Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians cutting their own version only six days later for Decca Records that would crack the top 10.

Though it lacks any references to the holiday itself, “Winter Wonderland” has come to be regarded as a popular Christmas song and a mainstay of holiday albums from major artists including Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Dolly Parton, and Eurythmics… in addition to Frank, Ella, Perry, and Bing, of course.

How to Get the Look

Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) and Kathleen Moore (Dominique McElligott), surely to be added to the naughty list after being caught in Monroe’s office.

The dapper Monroe Stahr dresses to impress for his office holiday party, nodding to the festivities with a tasteful red carnation in his lapel rather than the now-ubiquitous ugly Christmas sweater.

• Navy striped wool three-piece suit:
  • Double-breasted 6×2-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with four welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton dress shirt with long point collar, wide front placket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold cuff links
• Maroon and navy gradient striped silk tie
• Red and navy-trimmed suspenders
• Black cap-toe oxford shoes
• Dark navy dress socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt/A-shirt
• Gold monogrammed signet ring, right pinky
• Steel wristwatch with round case and white dial on black leather strap

Of course, this is only Monroe’s office suit for the daytime corporate party. After accepting Clint’s invitation to an evening soiree, he changes into a debonair black three-piece dinner suit.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check it out on Amazon Video.

Gallery

As mentioned above, Monroe seems to be wearing the same suit in the third episode, “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven” for a meeting in Pat Brady’s office and an evening rendezvous with Kathleen at his beach house.

Bing Crosby as Bob Wallace in White Christmas (1954)

Vitals

Bing Crosby as Bob Wallace, Broadway crooner, World War II veteran, and “a lonely and miserable man”

Florida, December 1954

Film: White Christmas
Release Date: October 14, 1954
Director: Michael Curtiz
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

Happy holidays! This Christmas Eve felt like an appropriate time to focus on White Christmas, the most successful film of 1954 and one of the most beloved holiday classics.

Every year around the holidays, my mom and I set aside an evening for “Bing and Booze”, mixing cocktails and watching White Christmas while wrapping presents for friends and family.

Ten years after Private Phil Davis (Danny Kaye) saved Captain Bob Wallace (Bing Crosby) from a falling wall at the German front during World War II, Wallace and Davis have risen to the top of the entertainment world. Following the final performance of their latest hit “Playing Around” before Christmas break, the partners find themselves spending their last two hours in Florida checking out the Haynes sisters’ double musical act as a favor “for a pal in the army.”

Luckily for Bob and Phil, “Freckle-Face Haynes, the dog-faced boy” had two sisters that fared considerably better than he in the looks department. Phil and Judy (Vera-Ellen) are immediately taken with each other, but Bob and Betty (Rosemary Clooney) are a touch more combative and cynical. Ever the schemer, Phil ropes Bob into performing the Haynes sisters’ signature act, “Sisters”, to allow the two women enough time to escape their irked landlord and the local sheriff.

According to Clooney, the sequence of Bob and Phil performing “Sisters” was not in the original script but emerged when director Michael Curtiz was amused by the actors clowning around on set and decided to film it. The final take used in the film shows Bing Crosby unable to control his laughter while performing the duet with Danny Kaye.

Finally, Bob and Phil find themselves on their train to New York… though Phil has “misplaced” their tickets and urges a befuddled and beleaguered Bob to continue on to Vermont. Bob quickly learns that the mischievous Phil gifted the tickets to the Haynes sisters, who are indeed traveling to the “very Vermonty” destination of Pine Tree, Vermont, which “should be beautiful this time of year, all that snow.”

And, speaking of…

Bob: Miss Haynes, if you’re ever under a falling building and somebody runs up and offers to pick you up and carry you to safety, don’t think, don’t pause, don’t hesitate for a moment, just spit in his eye.
Betty: What did that mean?
Bob: It means we’re going to Vermont.

What’d He Wear?

White Christmas wasn’t Bing’s first time in costumes designed by the legendary Edith Head. “Having done costuming for a number of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope’s Road pictures prior to White Christmas, [Head] knew exactly how to make Crosby’s character shine,” notes Jeff Saporito for ScreenPrism.

Indeed, Crosby’s character shines off the screen from the start with a powder blue jacket that vividly echoes Bing’s eyes. The suiting consists of a subtle mini-check with thin blue widely-spaced over-stripes on a powder blue ground.

The powder blue jacket calls out Bing’s vibrant blue eyes.

Bing Crosby’s odd jackets (i.e. non-suit jackets) in White Christmas all have a 3/2-roll front as the wide notch lapels roll over the top button, leaving two exposed, of which Bing correctly fastens only the top-showing center button. All buttons, including the three buttons on each cuff, are a mixed light blue.

Phil sells Bob on yet another scheme.

A common characteristic of all of Bing’s White Christmas jackets (including his suit coats) is the presence of a narrowly flapped ticket pocket positioned just above the right-side hip pocket. Both hip pockets are flapped, and the jacket also has a  breast pocket where Bob/Bing wears a white pocket square folded to show a single point above the welted opening. The jacket also has double vents.

A conflicted Bob has to quickly balance his annoyance with Phil with his quiet delight that the Haynes sisters are indeed on the same train.

In real life, Bing Crosby was a client of H. Huntsman, the legendary Savile Row tailor that has cut for celebrities from entertainers to royalty over its 170+ years in existence. I’m not sure if this or any of his White Christmas costumes were tailored by Huntsman, however.

Following the last Wallace and Davis show of the year, Bob Wallace removes his costume in their dressing room and buttons up a white shirt with an era-appropriate large semi-spread collar, plain front, and double (French) cuffs already fastened with a set of blue glass cuff links.

Note the reflection of the blue glass cuff links on the varnished table of the train’s “drafty old” club car.

Aside from a brown pinstripe suit, almost all of Bing’s wardrobe in White Christmas incorporates some element of red, whether it’s a red shirt, red socks, or – as we see here – a predominantly red tie.

This ketchup-and-mustard, er, crimson-and-gold tie consists of sets of crimson red and mustard gold stripes, each set bordered by a black stripe, running “downhill” from right-down-to-left on a crimson red ground. Bing holds this tastefully wide tie in place with a slim gold tie bar.

Bob is reasonably frustrated by Phil’s blatant matchmaking efforts.

Bob dresses in a pair of dark chocolate brown wool trousers with triple reverse pleats, providing an extremely full fit that was not uncommon during the pleat-happy postwar years. The trousers have cuffed bottoms, straight pockets along the sides, and no back pockets. The trouser fit adjusts around the waistband with a half-belt in the front that adjusts through a gold-toned buckle.

Bob dresses for an evening out with Phil and the mysterious Haynes sisters.

When Wallace and Davis take to the Novello’s stage for an encore performance of “Sisters”, Bob has his trouser legs rolled up to show off his gams, although he appears to be wearing a different pair of dark gray trousers with one or two less pleats to them.

The “Sisters” sequence also gives us a better look at Bob’s shoes, a pair of black leather cap-toe oxfords worn with gray cotton lisle socks held up with brown garters.

“After you dressed me up like a dame…”

Bing Crosby bestows White Christmas audiences with a look at his white underwear, a cotton undershirt with a wide crew neck and reinforced short sleeve hems and a pair of white cotton briefs briefly glimpsed while changing his trousers after the show.

Fans curious to see Bing’s tighty-whiteys will just have to watch the movie.

Bing Crosby wears his own wristwatch in White Christmas, a plain gold-toned watch on a tooled brown leather curved strap with a gold single-prong buckle. The watch appears in several other Crosby flicks of the ’50s such as High Society, where he also wears it with the timepiece on the inside of his wrist; though this could be explained as a holdout from Captain Wallace’s service in the U.S. Army, it’s one of the many real-life Bing Crosby traits that the actor brought to his performance.

Bing’s wristwatch can be glimpsed on his left wrist as he raises his glass for a much-needed sip of water.

When boarding the train to New York Vermont, Bob wears a short-brimmed gray felt fedora with a wide black grosgrain band.

As Phil evidently left his cash in his “snood”, Bob is forced to dish out the $97.24 for train tickets.

The fellas hardly had time to pack with the sheriff banging on the sisters’ dressing room door, but Bob’s got a pile of coats and jackets under his arm, some of which eventually appear during the duo’s duration in Vermont.

How to Get the Look

The real Bing Crosby was a natty dresser throughout his half-century career, and he brings his gift for sartorial flair to the Edith Head-designed costumes of White Christmas, particularly this colorful ensemble for a holiday evening out in Florida.

• Powder blue subtly checked single-breasted 3-roll-2-button jacket with welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets with ticket pocket, 3-button cuffs, and double vents
  • White linen pocket square
• White shirt with large semi-spread collar, plain front, and double/French cuffs
  • Blue glass cuff links in gold settings
• Crimson red tie with mustard gold R-down-L stripe series
  • Slim gold tie bar
• Dark chocolate brown wool triple reverse-pleated trousers with self-belt, straight/on-seam side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Gray cotton lisle socks
• Brown sock garters
• White cotton boat-neck undershirt with hemmed short sleeves
• White cotton briefs
• Gold wristwatch on tooled brown leather curved strap
• Gray felt short-brimmed fedora with black grosgrain band

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, and have a very happy holiday season!

WHITE CHRISTMAS

The Quote

You wouldn’t do this to me… after you dressed me up like a dame.

William Powell and Myrna Loy in After the Thin Man (1936)… with Skippy as Asta

Vitals

William Powell as Nick Charles, retired private detective

San Francisco, New Year’s Eve 1936

Film: After the Thin Man
Release Date: December 25, 1936
Director: W.S. Van Dyke
Wardrobe Credit: Dolly Tree

Background

After the Thin Man was released on Christmas 1936 as a continuation of The Thin Man, as its title implies. The all-original story was drafted by Dashiell Hammett himself immediately after the success of the first film, although Hammett had first envisioned circumstances that would send his witty detective duo back to New York City. Eventually, the decision was made to have the Charles couple solving a crime in their hometown of San Francisco.

The last we saw Nick was lounging in his silk dressing gown and pajamas while riding the train from New York with Nora. After what must have been a three-year-long train ride, they finally arrive in San Francisco just in time for New Year’s Eve… and a dreaded invitation to the snobby abode of Nora’s elderly aunt Katherine (Jessie Ralph) and her lovelorn cousin Selma (Elissa Landi). The visit quickly turns into an investigation as Nick and Nora are set on the case of finding Selma’s absent husband Robert.

Nora: Aunt Katherine wants to speak to you.
Nick: What have I done now?
Nora: Do you know why Robert wasn’t here tonight?
Nick: Sure, because he’s smart.
Nora: I’m not fooling, darling, he’s disappeared.
Nick: That’s swell. Now if we could just get Aunt Katherine to disappear…

What’d He Wear?

Aunt Katherine is a traditionalist, so a visit to her stuffy Frisco mansion naturally calls for full evening dress, a step above the formality of Nick’s black tie dinner ensemble in The Thin Man. Nick Charles shows up to the Forrest residence in elegant and contemporary “white tie” evening dress, tailored exquisitely to flatter William Powell’s lean figure.

The black wool evening tailcoat has wide peak lapels faced in black satin silk and a pink carnation attached to the left lapel. The tailcoat’s only outer pocket is a welted pocket on the left breast, where Nick wears a white linen display kerchief.

For more than a century, this type of dress coat (also known as a “claw-hammer coat” or “swallow-tail coat”) had been designed to not fasten in the front, so the six-button double-breasted front with its three satin-covered buttons on each side are purely vestigal. The three buttons on each cuff and two ornamental buttons on the back waist – above the tails – all covered in the same black satin silk.

The dress coat is cutaway from the back tails to a square-cut, waist-length front, just long enough to correctly cover the white waistcoat and prevent a disruption in the elegant lines of the outfit. The long sweep of the tailcoat’s wide lapels and the V-shaped button formation work together with the high waisted trousers to enhance the appearance.

Nick begrudgingly makes the acquaintance of Nora’s well-to-do relations.

Nick wears the traditional white evening shirt with a detachable white wing collar and a stiff marcella bib with a single small, round, pearl-like stud at mid-chest. The stiff single cuffs are each linked with a set of plain white semi-sphere links.

Nick takes solace in a highball while gangsters and police battle it out in the Lichee’s back office.

The white tie that gives the dress code its name is a traditional thistle-shaped cotton marcella bow tie that Nick wears in front of the wing collar tabs.

The white waistcoat had been standardized for full evening dress since the early 20th century when the black waistcoat was relegated to the less formal black tie code. Nick wears a textured white cotton marcella single-breasted low-cut waistcoat with square-cut shawl lapels, three self-covered buttons, two jetted pockets, and a notched bottom.

Bottoms up!

Nick’s formal trousers are black wool to match the waistcoat with double-braided stripes down the side of each leg in black satin silk to match the tailcoat lapels and button coverings. Double braiding has always been traditional for full-dress trousers, although the single side stripe of black-tie formal trousers is also an acceptable alternative. The straight side pockets of Nick’s trousers are cut along the side seams just behind the braiding.

Concealing the trouser waistband is a must with full evening dress, and the ideal high-waisted look (which was also quite fashionable during the film’s 1930s production) ensures that the top of Nick’s trousers are well-hidden above the bottom of his cutaway tailcoat front and waistcoat.

Flat front trousers had been the standard leading up to World War I, but postwar fashions of the 1920s and ’30s popularized pleats. Thus, our fashionplate detective sports double forward pleats on his full-dress trousers.

Nick is helped out of his overcoat at the Lichee, briefly flashing his coat maker’s label – are any eagle-eyed vintage clothing enthusiasts able to identify it?

The full break of Nick’s plain-hemmed trouser bottoms covers the top of his black leather cap-toe oxfords, the most acceptable footwear alternative to the traditional patent leather opera pumps. Nick wears black ribbed dress socks.

Promotional photo of Myrna Loy and William Powell for After the Thin Man (1936).

The homburg was an acceptable headgear alternative for white tie, but Nick spares no formality and opts for the classic black silk top hat with a duller black silk grosgrain band.

Nick wears a black wool knee-length Chestefield coat. The peak lapels have a classic formal velvet collar and satin facings to coordinate with the formal evening tailcoat worn under it; this is clearly not a coat to be worn with a business suit. The single-breasted coat fastens with a single cloth-covered button at the waist under a fly front. The cuffs have a short vent but no buttons, and there is a a single welted breast pocket and a widely flapped pocket on each hip.

Nick, in full white tie kit with proper outerwear (sans gloves), waits for Nora to enter the Lichee.

Nick’s white evening scarf is likely silk with frayed edges.

Nick makes the most of the aged Henry’s services.

By the 1930s, wristwatches had eclipsed pocket watches as the timepiece of choice for most gentlemen, so the subtle tank watch that Nick wears on his left wrist would not have been a violation of etiquette, especially as it remains relatively unseen.

Go Big or Go Home

Nick and Nora arrive at the Lichee just as Polly Byrnes (Penny Singleton, later famous for her titular role in the Blondie series) is entertaining a New Year’s Eve crowd with the boisterous “Blow That Horn”. The tempo later slows down for her performance of “Smoke Dreams”, a more romantic ballad written by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed that makes several appearances throughout After the Thin Man.

Although, in the words of the immortal Mama Cass, you can always feel free to “make your own kind of music.”

Of course, when the clock strikes midnight, the band jumps into a jazzy rendition of the traditional “Auld Lang Syne” as couples greet 1937 with kisses and resolutions.

Nick: Have you made any New Year’s resolutions?
Nora: Not yet. Any complaints or suggestions?
Nick: A few.
Nora: Which?
Nick: Complaints.
Nora: All right shoot.
Nick: Well, you don’t scold, you don’t nag, and you look far too pretty in the mornings.
Nora: All right, I’ll remember: must scold, must nag, mustn’t be too pretty in the mornings.

What to Imbibe

After drowning his sorrows with plenty of brandy at Aunt Katherine’s “soiree”, Nick Charles is more than happy to enjoy the free champagne offered by Dancer (Joseph Calleia) at the Lichee… though Dancer is less than happy when Nick’s party ends up including a number of ex-cons with names like “Willie the Weeper”.

Joe: Champagne, boys.
Joe’s pal: Me too.
Nick: Sure, Champagne! Willie?
Willie the Weeper: Scotch… with a Champagne chaser.
Nora: Likewise.

One hand affixed to the brandy decanter, Nick finds ways of entertaining himself in the company of Aunt Katherine’s senile dinner guests before absconding with Nora to the livelier environs of the Lichee.

But why do we drink champagne on New Year’s Eve? And how do even troglodytes like Joe know to order it at midnight?

Check out this mashed.com article about the history of champagne on New Year’s Eve… and the “villainous compound” of arrack punch that toasted many a new year in the early 1800s.

How to Get the Look

Though full evening dress may be less-than-practical attire for ringing in 2018, the white tie and tails ensemble that Nick Charles (William Powell) wears for New Year’s Eve 1936 in After the Thin Man remains a standard for timeless formalwear should you ever find yourself in a situation calling for the finest of finery.

• Black wool evening tailcoat with wide satin-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, satin-covered 6-button double-breasted front, 4-button cuffs, and tails with 2 ornamental buttons
  • Pink carnation, worn on left lapel
  • White linen display kerchief, worn in breast pocket
• White formal shirt with detachable wing collar, stiff marcella bib, and single cuffs
  • White small round studs
  • White semi-sphere cuff links
• White cotton marcella thistle-shaped self-tied bow tie
• White cotton marcella single-breasted 3-button waistcoat with square-cut shawl lapels, notched bottom, and jetted pockets
• Black wool double forward-pleated formal trousers with double satin side braiding, straight/on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Black ribbed dress socks
• Black wool single-breasted Chesterfield coat with satin-faced peak lapels, velvet collar, fly front, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, vented plain cuffs, and single back vent
• Black silk top hat
• White silk evening scarf with frayed bottom
• Gold tank watch on dark leather strap

I speculate that Nick wears a black wool tailcoat and trousers, although midnight blue had been a fashionable alternative for more than a decade after the trailblazing Prince of Wales introduced a midnight evening suit that would allow his intricate tailoring to be better noticed in photographs.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the entire film series and Dashiell Hammett’s original treatments outlining After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man in the single volume released as Return of the Thin Man… significant for being the last fiction that Hammett composed during his life.

The Quote

We want to go someplace and get the taste of respectability out of our mouths.

Footnote

After taking his guest’s hat, coat, and scarf, the elderly Henry the butler directs Nick to follow him, saying “Walk this way, sir,” as he stumbles toward the drawing room. The cheeky Nick, never the sort to miss an opportunity for wit, replies, “Well, I’ll try,” and affects a stagger to his walk as he follows him.

More modern viewers may recognize the joke from Young Frankenstein, featuring Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman as the hunchback Igor. Feldman later told Robert Ross of The Bookseller that Mel Brooks kept the joke in over the initial objections of Feldman and Wilder:

It’s a terribly old music hall joke. I did that to make the crew laugh and Mel Brooks said, “Let’s shoot it.”

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

Vitals

Cary Grant as Nicolò “Nickie” Ferrante, playboy socialite

Onboard the SS Constitution in the North Atlantic, December 1956

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

Background

Happy birthday to Cary Grant, the charming maverick who personifies the intersection of style and screen during the golden age of both. The erstwhile Archie Leach defined men’s style for the better part of the 20th century and his timeless sartorial sensibilities live on through his charismatic performances on screen and, most specifically, via the advice he outlined for This Week magazine (and reprinted in GQ) in the 1960s.

Simplicity, to me, has always been the essence of good taste.

– Cary Grant on style, 1962

One of Cary Grant’s most stylish, romantic, and iconic roles was artistic playboy Nickie Ferrante in An Affair to Remember.

What’d He Wear?

What should one buy? Well, if a man’s budget restricts him to only one suit, then I would choose something unobtrusive. A dark blue, almost black, of lightweight cloth, serviceable for both day and evening wear.

Cary Grant exemplifies his own sartorial advice in An Affair to Remember, dressing for the final night of his romantic crossing on the SS Constitution in a dark navy worsted suit that he effectively wears from the afternoon into the evening for the ship’s New Year’s Eve dance. Common shipboard practices of the era deformalized the evening dress code on the final night of the voyage, operating under the assumption that most gentlemen and ladies would have had their fine evening attire already packed for the following day’s disembarking.

The single-breasted ventless suit jacket has notch lapels with an elegant roll over the top button, fastening on the second button to coordinate perfectly with his trouser waistline for an ideal balanced appearance.

Real talks on deck with Nickie and Terry.

“Learn to dispense with accessories that don’t perform a necessary function,” outlined Grant in This Week. I use belts, for example, only with blue jeans, which I wear when riding, and content myself with side loops, that can be tightened at the waistband, on business suits.”

Nickie’s double forward-pleated trousers here are thus likely fitted with his usual buckle-tab side adjusters, and the bottoms are finished with narrow turn-ups (cuffs).

Two’s company, but three’s a crowd. Get out of there, unwelcome guy.

Shirts should usually be white for the evening, but, in the city’s grime, it’s practical and permissible to wear a light blue or conservatively striped shirt during the day. The type of collar should suit the contours of the neck and face.

Nickie indeed wears a white shirt for this evening occasion with the universally flattering semi-spread collar that accommodates Grant’s wide neck and double (French) cuffs that he fastens with the same set of blue enamel-on-silver oval links that he also wears the following day with his charcoal flannel suit when the ship docks in New York City.

“Button-cuffed shirts are simplest to manage, but if you wear cuff links, as I do, don’t, I beg you, wear those huge examples of badly designed, cheap modern jewelry. They, too, are not only ostentatious, but heavy and a menace to the enamel on your car and your girl friend’s eye,” advised Grant for This Week.

Nickie wears a navy silk tie with a field of micro white pindots, barely discernible on screen but most visible in production photos. The navy tie contrasts little against the suit, providing a sharp look that effectively channels the monochromatic elegance of black tie for an evening soiree where he would otherwise indeed be attired in his dinner jacket.

Shoes? I’ve already mentioned that good shoes look better and last longer. If a man must limit himself to only one pair of shoes for city wear, then they should be black.

– Cary Grant on style, 1962

Grant again adheres to his own advice with this suit, sporting a wear a pair of black cap-toe lace-up shoes, likely oxfords, on screen with dark socks.

Briefly seen on Nickie’s left wrist is a squared gold watch case on a dark leather strap, likely the Cartier Tank wristwatch that Grant was known to wear in real life.

Cary Grant’s watch, likely the timeless Cartier Tank, is visible on his left wrist.

Aside from a brief foray into an “impoverished artiste” phase, Nickie Ferrante maintains a mostly traditional wardrobe of lounge suits in conservative shades of gray and navy blue. This particular outfit would be paralleled decades later by Daniel Craig’s James Bond in Quantum of Solace when 007 attends an evening soiree in a midnight blue lounge suit with a 3/2-roll jacket and cuffed-bottom trousers, a white French cuff shirt, a subtly patterned tonal silk tie, and black oxfords.

How to Get the Look

Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember (1957)

When classic black tie isn’t feasible for an evening occasion, a dark navy suit with a white shirt and subdued tie a la Cary Grant in An Affair to Remember is a practical and elegant alternative.

• Navy worsted tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/roll/2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double forward-pleated high-rise trousers with buckle-tab side adjusters, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton dress shirt with point collar and double/French cuffs
  • Blue enamel-on-silver cuff links
• Navy satin silk tie
• Black leather oxfords
• Dark dress socks
• Cartier Tank yellow gold wristwatch with square white dial and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I want to be worthy of asking you to marry me.

Frank Sinatra in Tony Rome (1967)

Vitals

Frank Sinatra as Tony Rome, private investigator and compulsive gambler

Miami Beach, Spring 1967

Film: Tony Rome
Release Date: November 10, 1967
Director: Gordon Douglas
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry

Background

Over on my Instagram feed, I like to commemorate #SinatraSaturday each weekend, but today I felt Ol’ Blue Eyes deserved a dedicated post. Frank Sinatra starred as the titular character in Tony Rome, a 1967 adaptation of Marvin H. Albert’s novel Miami Mayhem. Tony Rome was Sinatra’s first cop role, playing a laidback private eye in the tradition of Humphrey Bogart who seems more interested in gambling, drinking, and skirt-chasing than actually solving a case.

What’d He Wear?

One of the three gray wool suits that Frank Sinatra wears as quintessential American cop Tony Rome is a charcoal flannel sack suit, consistent with the shapeless design that defined American tailoring for most of the 20th century. Sinatra was a client of the Rat Pack’s preferred tailor Sy Devore, though I’m not sure if this suit was made for Sinatra before Devore’s death in 1966. Sinatra would go on to wear many of the same suits and clothing from Tony Rome in his subsequent cop roles the following year, as NYPD sergeant Joe Leland in the neo-noir The Detective and reprising his Tony Rome role in Lady in Cement, though I believe this particular charcoal suit only re-appears in the former.

While a charcoal flannel sack suit may not seem to be the most exciting choice, Tony’s has a pop of distinction with its patterned burgundy satin lining.

Buttoned up for a hospital visit and dressed down for an outdoor investigation. Note the lining of Tony’s suit jacket.

The single-breasted suit jacket has narrow notch lapels that roll to a two-button front. There are swelled seams down the back of each sleeve and down the center of the back to a ventless bottom. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, flapped patch pockets on the hips, and the spaced two-button cuffs that were typical of American suit jackets in the 1960s.

Tony Rome channels Fred Mertz.

Tony’s flat front trousers are self-belted, and he wears his stiff black leather holster on the left front side of his belt for a smooth right-handed cross-draw. Like the suits, this holster would return on Sinatra’s self-belted trousers in The Detective and Lady in Cement. The trousers have side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs).

Tony Rome, living the good life.

With his classic American suit, Tony Rome also wears a classic American shirt with a large button-down collar. This white cotton shirt has a front placket, box-pleated back, and single-button rounded cuffs. Sinatra was known to be a client of Nat Wise (now Anto) in real life, so it’s possible that they made this unique shirt for his role in Tony Rome.

Rather than the traditional full-size pocket, Tony Rome’s shirts all have a single slim pocket over the left breast effective for carrying a pen (or possibly a cigar), though we never see Tony actually keep anything in this pocket so the reason for this departure from the norm is unknown.

With this charcoal suit, Tony keeps his outfit tonal in a light gray satin silk tie worn in a Windsor knot.

Left: A uniquely sized breast pocket adorns all of Tony Rome’s white shirts.
Right: The breeze picks up Tony’s tie at the construction site, giving eagle-eyed viewers a glimpse at the manufacturer’s white label. Any ideas?

Tony sports a pair of black calf leather wingtip oxfords with four lace eyelets and full broguing, worn with black socks.

Tony kicks back with a Bud, showing pal Dave Santini (Richard Conte) the business end of his black oxford brogues.

Even as men’s everyday headgear was falling out of vogue in the post-JFK ’60s, Sinatra wouldn’t be Sinatra without one of his signature Cavanagh hats. Tony Rome wears a short-brimmed fedora in charcoal felt that neatly matches his charcoal suit.

Another of Sinatra’s real-life affectations that shows up in Tony Rome is the choice to wear a pinky ring, though Tony’s ring appears to have a small diamond as opposed to the ring Frank wore in real life that bore the Sinatra family crest.

Tony’s other accessories include a yellow gold wristwatch worn on a black leather strap and a pair of dark sunglasses that are pocketed not long after their brief and distant appearance when showing up to lunch with Ann.

What to Imbibe

Although Tony Rome was created in Frank Sinatra’s own image, nary a glimpse of Jack Daniel’s is seen guzzled by Ol’ Blue Eyes’ character. Instead, we see plenty of Budweiser cans, evidently his brew of choice that gets some prominent placement during the opening credits as well as during his conversation with Miami police lieutenant Dave Santini (Richard Conte).

Best buds drink Buds.

Of course, Tony Rome has his portrayer’s comfort for harder booze as well. During a meal with Ann, he orders “two martinis – one gin, one vodka,” to which Ann adds: “Doubles.”

Gin for Tony, vodka for Ann.

How to Get the Look

Tony Rome wears monochromatic menswear designed in traditional American styles for a day on the job… even if a charcoal flannel suit is rather incongruous for his bright Miami locale.

• Charcoal flannel sack suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with welted breast pocket, flapped patch hip pockets, spaced 2-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front self-belted trousers with side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White poplin shirt with large button-down collar, front placket, pen pocket, 1-button rounded cuffs, and box-pleated back
• Silver satin silk tie
• Black leather wingtip 4-eyelet oxford brogues
• Black socks
• Black stiff leather cross-draw belt holster, for 2″-barreled revolver
• Charcoal felt short-brimmed fedora with wide charcoal grosgrain band
• Yellow gold wristwatch with round gold dial on black leather strap (with gold buckle)
• Gold diamond pinky ring

The Gun

Apropos his profession, Tony Rome’s blued snubnose revolver appears to be a first- or second-generation Colt Detective Special, carried in a stiff black leather cross-draw holster on the left-front side of his trouser belt.

Can’t miss at that range.

This classic cop sidearm, favored by movie lawmen and lawbreakers alike, carried six rounds of the venerable .38 Special ammunition. The first-generation Detective Special was introduced in 1927 and differentiates itself from other “belly guns” with its exposed ejector rod and Colt’s spherical cylinder latch.

A lighter-weight aluminum variant, the Colt Cobra, was introduced in 1950 and gained an infamous place in firearms history as the weapon used by Jack Ruby to kill Lee Harvey Oswald in November 1963.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Would ya stop worryin’? I’d never leave you holdin’ the greasy end of the stick, now would I?

Footnote

“What’s the matter, couldn’t you afford a whole dress?” cracks Tony upon greeting Ann Archer (Jill St. John) at her door. This unsolicited opinion is similar to what Jill St. John’s character would hear four years later in Diamonds are Forever from Sean Connery’s James Bond… yet another connection between Tony Rome and the world of 007 as explored in a previous post.

From Ocean’s Eleven to double-00 seven.

To read more about Tony Rome, check out this deservedly but entertainingly critical post from a Sinatra superfan who noticed just how much of Frank’s acting in the film consisted of swilling Buds and pointing his index finger. And speaking of product placement…

This Blog Post Brought to You By…

Lucky Strike, the cigarette of choice for maverick private investigators.

“It’s toasted.”

Despite being a devotee of Camel cigarettes to the point that a pack of unfiltered Camels was buried with him in his coffin, Sinatra smoked through a few decks of Lucky Strikes as Tony Rome.

Gene Hackman as “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection (1971). Over his right shoulder is Eddie Egan, the real-life inspiration for the character.

Vitals

Gene Hackman as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, gruff NYPD narcotics detective

New York City, December 1970

Film: The French Connection
Release Date: October 9, 1971
Director: William Friedkin
Costume Designer: Joseph Fretwell III

Background

Happy birthday to Gene Hackman, born this day in 1930! This year’s Academy Award nominations were announced last week, so today’s post explores the birthday boy’s first Oscar-winning performance as NYPD narc “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection.

Eddie Egan was a real detective with the NYPD who, with his partner Sonny Grosso, was instrumental in a 1961 investigation that dissolved a massive heroin ring. The case would form the basis of a 1969 non-fiction book by Robin Moore that was swiftly adapted into the fictionalized film The French Connection. Gene Hackman, who by now had two Oscar nominations to his credit, was tapped for the role of “Popeye” Doyle, the profane detective modeled after Egan, while Egan himself would serve as technical advisor and play the smaller role of Walt Simonson, Doyle’s supervisor.

The movie culminates as Doyle, Simonson, and their fellow NYPD detectives finally catch up with the French kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) on the Triborough Bridge connecting Randalls Island and Wards Island, the latter of which would be the setting of

What’d He Wear?

The conclusion of The French Connection features Popeye Doyle in one of his rumpled business suits worn with a warm overcoat, scarf, and gloves to keep the determined detective comfortable in the chilly stakeout weather of a New York City winter.

Popeye’s dark navy wool topcoat has a knee-length fit that serves him better than a full-length overcoat when dashing in and out of cars in pursuit of his suspects. When the time comes to make a bust, he pins his NYPD badge #373 to the left of the coat’s narrow notch lapels.

The single-breasted coat has three buttons to close in the front and a single non-functioning button on each of the half-tab cuffs. The lapels, cuffs, and hip pocket flaps all have swelled edges.

Production photo of a bundled-up “Popeye” Doyle.

Popeye wears the same navy herringbone scarf and dark brown cotton knit gloves that he wore with his brown suit and coat earlier in the movie.

A signature element of the Popeye Doyle aesthetic is his iconic porkpie hat, the preferred headgear of the real-life Eddie Egan though the detective refused to lend one of his own hats to the production. The wardrobe team thus obtained a different dark brown porkpie hat for Gene Hackman to wear in The French Connection.

Hat, gloves, and scarf. Popeye’s grandmother would be proud.

As the decidedly less-than-fashionable porkpie may imply, Popeye Doyle isn’t the sort to keep up with the latest style trends. He wears a gray worsted two-piece suit that appears to be a holdout from the ’60s. Little is seen of the suit under his overcoat, but it appears to have a single-breasted jacket with slim notch lapels that roll to a low two-button stance and flat front trousers with turn-ups (cuffs) that are worn with a dark brown leather belt.  (It may possibly be the same suit that Hackman would wear four years later in the sequel, French Connection II.)

Popeye runs ahead to “greet” Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey).

For a long night spent taking apart a luxury Lincoln belonging to French television personality Henri Devereaux (Frédéric de Pasquale), Popeye removes his outer layers and tucks his loosened tie between the buttons of his shirt, which looks even sloppier than if he had removed it altogether!

Popeye’s white shirt has a narrow spread collar, a plain front with plastic buttons, a breast pocket, and button cuffs that he unfastens and rolls up for his long night under the Lincoln.

A rumpled Popeye after a night of Lincoln-stripping.

Popeye wears a gray twill tie with double blue stripe sets in the American “downhill” direction, perpendicular to the left-down-to-right twill.

Popeye sports his well-worn pair of dark brown leather plain-toe derby shoes with two lace eyelets on cutaway eyelet tabs.

“…and I’m gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie!”

Although Popeye is typically seen wearing black cotton lisle socks with this outfit, there is a brief continuity error seen when the detectives are impounding Devereaux’s car and Hackman’s trousers ride up to reveal a pair of mustard gold socks!

A bust gives us a glimpse of Popeye’s socks, which appear to be mustard yellow rather than their usual black.

Watches in Movies identified Popeye Doyle’s watch as a Timex Marlin with a plain silver dial on a gold expanding bracelet. As this watch was marketed as a no-frills, low-cost timepiece, it’s likely that the gold finish is a gold-toned stainless steel.

Timex has since reissued the Marlin, marketing it as “the gentleman’s standard” with a starting price of $199.

How to Get the Look

Porkpie aside, Popeye Doyle’s gray suit and outerwear form the basis for a timeless business outfit that translates just as well nearly 50 years later.

• Gray worsted wool suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with slim notch lapels, welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Flat front low-rise trousers with belt loops and turn-ups/cuffed bottoms
• White shirt with narrow spread collar, plain front, breast pocket, and squared button cuffs
• Gray twill tie with double sets of blue diagonal “downhill” stripes
• Dark brown leather belt with brass single-prong buckle
• Dark brown leather 2-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Dark brown felt porkpie hat with wide ribbon and white lining
• Dark navy wool knee-length single-breasted 3-button overcoat with slim notch lapels, flapped hip pockets, half-cuffed 1-button sleeves, and single vent
• Navy herringbone wool scarf with frayed edges
• Dark brown cotton knit gloves
• Timex Marlin analog wristwatch with white dial on expanding gold bracelet

The Gun

Art imitates life as the Colt Detective Special is abundant in the hands of lawmen and lawbreakers alike in The French Connection. “Popeye” Doyle, his supervisor Walt Simonson, and federal agent Mulderig (Bill Hickman) all carry blued first-generation Detective Specials as do many of the Boca crime family mobsters that the NYPD engages during the Wells Island gunfight.

A tense Doyle with his Detective Special drawn on Wells Island.

The aptly named Detective Special was introduced by Colt in 1927 in tandem with the larger-framed Official Police, both chambered in .38 Special and aimed for usage among American police departments. Two years after The French Connection was released, Colt introduced an updated third generation of the Detective Special with the most notable cosmetic change being an extended barrel shroud to enclose Colt’s once-signature exposed ejector rod.

For some reason, Doyle’s revolver switches between a Colt Detective Special and the Smith & Wesson Model 36 “Chiefs Special”, both in the Wells Island warehouse scene and during the film’s iconic car chase. While both are blued .38 Special revolvers with wooden grips and 2-inch “snubnose” barrels, the Smith & Wesson can be differentiated with its ejector rod socket, ramp-style front sight, and five-round cylinder as opposed to the six rounds of the Colt Detective Special.

Both the Colt Detective Special and the Smith & Wesson Model 36 had been authorized for NYPD use during the ’60s and ’70s, according to Range365, and the short-barreled Model 36 was even the issued sidearm of choice for female officers.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

That son of a bitch is here. I saw him. I’m gonna get him.

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)

Vitals

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, cold and calculating Mafia boss

Long Island, Las Vegas, and Lake Tahoe, Winter 1959

Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle

Background

For #MafiaMonday, I’m exploring Michael Corleone at his most iconic, coldly receiving his siblings and family while holding court at his mother’s funeral.

What’d He Wear?

A solid black suit, eh? While typically not advised for most business, black suits tend to come in handy when trying to evoke serious power in a less-than-legitimate business, thus making it quite suitable for Michael Corleone as he continues to grow his status in The Godfather Part II. Michael also wears his black three-piece suit to a funeral, arguably the most appropriate place for the otherwise polarizing black suit. (A black pinstripe suit, as Michael later wears when testifying in front of a Senate sub-committee, is more acceptable for business, though it still can carry sinister connotations… thanks to guys like Michael.)

Michael Corleone wears this black three-piece suit custom-made for the production by Western Costume Co. for much of The Godfather Part II. Based on the suiting’s distinctive sheen and its varying degrees of reflecting different light, the material is likely a mohair and wool blend. Mohair was a common element of 1950s and 1960s suits, popular for its lustrous properties and practical comfort in warm weather, and it adds more depth to Michael’s suit than a standard black wool suit.

Al Pacino’s screen-worn black mohair suit jacket. (Source: GoLive.au.)

Michael’s black mohair suit jacket is single-breasted with notch lapels that roll to the top of a three-button front. The jacket is shaped by darts and gently suppressed through the waist. The shoulders are padded and the sleeveheads are strongly roped, adding structure and strength to Michael’s silhouette.

The jacket also has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets on the same axis as the lowest button, and three-button cuffs. It has been auctioned several times throughout the decades, and this online listing from Nate D. Sanders’s 2012 auction offers a description as well as an additional photo.

The waistcoat (or vest) is high-fastening with a single-breasted, six-button front that Michael typically wears with all buttons fastened. There are four welt pockets and the back is finished in black satin to match the suit jacket lining.

Michael wears this same suit, sans waistcoat, for a New Year’s Eve celebration in Havana. (More about the suit worn in that context to come in a later post.)

The trousers have double forward pleats on each side of the fly with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottom. The trouser rise is a little too low, allowing the black leather belt and sometimes even a triangle of Michael’s white shirt and tie to peek through under the waistcoat. This is one of the reasons men tend to wear suspenders with a three-piece suit as they keep the trousers from riding down at the waist, simultaneously covering the shirt and tie and maintaining clean lines.

Promotional photo of Al Pacino and Talia Shire as Michael and Connie Corleone, respectively. Note Michael’s deck of unfiltered Camels on the right arm of his chair.

Michael’s white cotton poplin shirt provides a stark contrast to the black suit. His shirt has a long point collar, consistent both with late 1950s fashion and the sharp collars often associated with gangsters, as well as a front placket and single-button rounded cuffs.

The only color Michael injects into this outfit comes from his crimson red textured silk tie, worn when Michael confronts Frankie Pentangeli at his family’s estate and upon returning to Las Vegas in January 1959 after his disastrous New Year’s Eve in Havana.

Michael loosens up when he returns to his Las Vegas headquarters at the Desert Inn.

For his mother’s funeral later in 1959, Michael wears the same solid black tie that he wore in Havana for New Year’s Eve. The monochromatic look of Michael draped in all black with just a hint of frosty white from his shirt communicates the character’s increasingly cold heart. His decision to embrace his brother Fredo is warmly welcomed by the family, but our black-suited protagonist’s frosty glare and the obvious pragmatism that went into his decision tells the audience that this isn’t personal, it’s business.

Michael appears to have at least two wristwatches in The Godfather Part II, a yellow gold watch and a silver-toned watch with a plain white dial that he appears to be wearing here, based on the steel bracelet. His only other piece of jewelry is the plain gold wedding ring on his left hand.

These scenes are generally set during the winter, so Michael’s return to Long Island finds him wearing several topcoats to add a layer of warmth when trudging through the New York snow. He is all power and intimidation when he meets with Frankie Pentangeli wearing a black wool greatcoat, draped over his black suit like a surcote, with its 8×4-button double-breasted front, wide Ulster collar, and button-tab cuffs.

“You heard what happened in my home? IN MY HOME! IN MY BEDROOM, WHERE MY WIFE SLEEPS! Where my children come and play with their toys… in my home. I want you to help me take my revenge.”

Michael sees less need to look powerful for his quiet return home to Lake Tahoe later in the movie, wearing a taupe gabardine raincoat with raglan sleeves, a long single vent, and a four-button covered-fly front.

An understated ritornare a casa.

Michael’s black fedora is the obvious headgear for our gangster with a short brim keeping in fashion with the late 1950s trends.

A wintry walk through Lake Tahoe.

Black footwear is the only way to go with a solid black suit. Michael wears black calf derby shoes with black socks.

How to Get the Look

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)

Michael Corleone may look cool in a black suit, but keep in mind that a) he’s a mob boss, and b) half of the time he spends wearing it is appropriately at a funeral (with a black tie, rather than red). Check out this handy flowchart from Primer before determining if you really need to add a black suit to your closet.

• Black mohair/wool-blend suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with four welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton poplin shirt with point collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Crimson red textured silk tie
• Black leather belt with rounded gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Black calf leather derby shoes
• Black silk socks
• Steel wristwatch with round white dial on steel link bracelet
• Gold wedding band, left ring finger

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series.

The Quote

My father taught me many things here; he taught me in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.

Bing Crosby as C.K. Dexter Haven in High Society (1956)

Vitals

Bing Crosby as C.K. Dexter Haven, jazz musician

Newport, Rhode Island, Summer 1956

Film: High Society
Release Date: July 17, 1956
Director: Charles Walters
Costume Designer: Helen Rose

Background

Happy St. Valentine’s Day! This year’s theme for the #WeekOfWeddings seems to be impromptu nuptials that find our cheeky protagonists thrust into taking the vows without a chance to don traditional wedding attire. Today, we’re following a mischievous summer weekend among the socialites of Newport, Rhode Island, in High Society, the musical remake of The Philadelphia Story.

High Society recasts The Philadelphia Story‘s leading gents Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart with the more musically inclined Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, respectively, though it’s interesting to note that Crosby is actually a few months older than Grant, making this surely one of the few times in movie history that a remake actually featured a performer older than his or her predecessor!

Katharine Hepburn’s role was recast with Grace Kelly, establishing High Society as the actress’ final film role before her retirement at the age of 26 upon marriage to Prince Rainier III of Monaco. In the spirit of marriage, Kelly wore her actual Cartier engagement ring from Rainier on screen.

What’d He Wear?

Other than his tuxedo, Bing Crosby’s primary wardrobe as C.K. Dexter Haven in High Society consists solely of blazers and spectator shoes, a signature look for the moneyed man of leisure in the 1950s.

Dexter’s first blazer is a navy hopsack wool (or wool-and-mohair blend) single-breasted jacket with notch lapels that roll to a two-button stance, with the buttoning point placed perfectly at the natural waist to meet the top of the trousers. Both the front buttons and the three smaller buttons on the cuffs of each sleeve are smooth gold-toned shank buttons.

The blazer has a single back vent, jetted hip pockets, and a squared patch breast pocket adorned with a shield-shaped stitched crest. The crest appears to be illustrated with a black-and-white horse on a light blue ground with a blue trim that just slightly contrasts against the darker navy of the blazer’s wool jacketing.

Does anyone know the provenance of the crest of Bing’s summer blazer?

Like many other actors of the era, Bing Crosby was known to have worn his own clothing in his films, so it’s possible that this blazer carries the crest of one of the at least 75 golf clubs to which he was a member, although the appearance of a horse (or a horse-like shape) may signify the possibility of a riding club.

Dexter’s first appearance finds him totally in leisure, smoking his pipe while enjoying the sounds of Louis Armstrong’s band. He wears a cotton open-neck shirt in a light blue and white mini-gingham check with a long point collar and button cuffs.

As in White Christmas two years earlier, Bing sports what is likely his personal timepiece, a gold wristwatch on a curved brown tooled leather strap… worn with the face on the inside of his wrist.

The next time we see Bing in this blazer, he’s wearing it with a plain white shirt, similarly styled with a long-pointed semi-spread collar, single-button rounded cuffs, and a plain front. He has also added a white pocket square, neatly folded into the breast pocket of his blazer for an added touch of formality that will come in handy for his impromptu wedding.

The happy couple?

Luckily for Dexter, this white shirt and pocket square adds a higher touch of formality to the outfit than his gingham shirt the previous day, making it far more easy for him to don Mike Connor’s repp tie and look decent enough to impulsively marry his ex-wife Tracy (Grace Kelly).

As the exuberant Spy Magazine reporter Mike Connor, Frank Sinatra wore a sharp dark navy suit with a blue-on-navy striped tie that he was all too happy to lend to Dexter. The tie’s blue “downhill” diagonal stripes are spaced about an inch apart, alternating in width over the navy ground.

Between his hastily borrowed tie and wedding to Tracy, C.K. Dexter Haven was tying more than a few knots.

Perhaps I’m partial to this outfit because Bing pairs his blazer with gray trousers, my personal preference, rather than khakis. The blazer’s first appearance, with the open-neck gingham shirt, finds it paired with light blue-gray pleated trousers. Later, when wearing a white shirt and striped tie for his re-marriage to Tracy, he sports a pair of darker gray flannel trousers.

Both pairs of gray trousers are pleated with turn-ups (cuffs). He always wears his blazer buttoned, concealing the trouser waistband.

Bing in mid-croon, sporting his navy blazer, open-neck gingham shirt, and light blue-gray trousers.

Dexter wears brown-and-white spectator oxfords, and his caddish personality corresponds to this footwear’s original “correspondent shoe” connotations as they were evidently favored by men described as “correspondents” in British divorce cases.

These particular shoes have dark chestnut brown leather medallion toe cap, heel cap, and lace panels with a white leather vamp. They appear to be full brogues but with straight toe caps rather than the wingtips commonly associated with full brouging. He wears them with charcoal gray cotton lisle socks.

Despite his snappy shoes, Dexter’s charm initially fails to recapture Tracy’s attention.

To see how Cary Grant’s C.K. Dexter Haven dressed for a day of leisure that turned into his wedding day, check out his collarless jacket in The Philadelphia Story.

What to Imbibe

After a particularly rough pre-wedding night, Tracy Samantha Lord (Grace Kelly) is prescribed a hair of the dog recovery by her ex, C.K. Dexter Haven (Bing Crosby):

…the juice of a few fresh flowers called a Stinger. Removes the sting.

The 1950s may have been the high point of the Stinger’s popularity, appearing not only in High Society (1956) but also In a Lonely Place (1951), Patricia Highsmith’s romance novel The Price of Salt (1952), Ian Fleming’s 007 novel Diamonds are Forever (1956), and Cary Grant’s beleaguered character in Kiss Them for Me (1957)… to name a few.

The Stinger is one of many classic cocktails that all but disappeared from the American mixology scene around the 1970s. It traces its origins to, appropriately enough, the “high society” elite of Edwardian era New York City when it was considered a post-prandial digestif rather than a cocktail.

A century later, the Stinger seems to have eluded the renewed interest in classic cocktails that revived the Manhattan and Old Fashioned on the menus of hip watering holes, though it was a staple of mid-century pop culture with references to the drink appearing in novels like Diamonds are Forever, The Price of Salt, and The Spy Who Came in From the Cold as well as films including The Bishop’s Wife, In a Lonely Place, The Apartment, and the original cinematic version of this tale, The Philadelphia Story. A mention in Mad Men‘s first season failed to revive the drink to the same extent as Don Draper’s preferred Old Fashioned, and your best bet for a Stinger these days would be to make your own… so let’s explore that!

All you need for a Stinger is two central ingredients: brandy and white crème de menthe. (Green crème de menthe works in a pinch for the same taste, but it will look rather muddy… and you don’t want to be the sort of person who would offer a glass of mud to Grace Kelly, do you? Ray Milland, on the other hand…)

Ratios differ by taste palettes, of course, but common practice is a 3-to-1 ratio of cognac to crème de menthe, poured together in a mixing glass filled with ice, stirred, and strained into a chilled cocktail glass or a rocks glass over ice; the latter became a more popular practice following Prohibition when drinkers were approaching the Stinger as a traditional cocktail rather than a strictly after-dinner drink.

Bing Crosby as Grace Kelly tie the knot in High Society (1956)

How to Get the Look

Bing follows a traditional template for classy yet dressed-down leisure attire… as well as proving the outfit’s versatility when he is pulled into a more formal situation with no time or opportunity to change.

• Navy blue hopsack wool/mohair single-breasted 2-button blazer with crest-embellished patch breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single back vent
• White or light blue gingham cotton shirt with long-pointed collar, plain front, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Gray flannel pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
• Dark brown-and-white leather spectator oxford brogues with medallion toe-cap
• Charcoal gray cotton lisle socks
• Gold round-cased wristwatch with white dial on curved brown tooled leather strap (with a gold single-prong buckle)

If there’s no charming Sinatra-type around to lend you his tie in a flash, you can check out the classic repp ties from Brooks Brothers… particularly this BB#3 Rep Slim Tie in navy and light blue. Look familiar?

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

Lee Marvin as Charlie Strom in The Killers (1964)

Vitals

Lee Marvin as Charlie Strom, professional mob hitman

Los Angeles, Fall 1963

Film: The Killers
Release Date: July 7, 1964
Director: Don Siegel
Costume Designer: Helen Colvig

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy first day of March! The observance of St. Patrick’s Day this month means plenty of focus on the “luck o’ the Irish”, so today’s post explores a suit sporting the “clover lapel”, a soft type of notch lapel named for its semblance to two leaves of a clover plant.

One character who took advantage of this unique but subtle type of lapel was Charlie Strom, the paid assassin who subverts “movie hitman” tropes by letting his curiosity get the better of him… why did Johnny North give up so easily? Bothered by this incongruity, Charlie and his partner Lee (Clu Gulager) set out to find the truth.

What’d He Wear?

The clover lapel is essentially a notch lapel with softly rounded corners rather than sharp edges. A “half clover” lapel features a standard corner with sharp edges but the bottom edge of the lapel is rounded. The full clover lapel is rounded on both the top and bottom corners of the notch.

Though incarnations of the lapel can be seen in photos and footage from around the turn of the 20th century, the “clover” term to describe a notch lapel first entered the sartorial lexicon around spring of 1927 when it was noted as the latest trend among collegiate Bostonians.

The Killers features Lee Marvin in two suits with clover-notch lapels. The first, his gray silk suit, has half clover lapels. For the final scenes of the film, Marvin’s Charlie Strom wears a dark but vivid navy blue suit with full clover notch lapels with rounded corners on both the top and bottom of the notch. The notch gorges themselves are very shallow in accordance with mid-’60s fashions taking a turn toward the slim and narrow.

Note the gently rounded notches on Charlie Strom’s lapels. Combined with the shallow gorges, the final effect is almost closer to a shawl collar than a traditional notch lapel.

Charlie’s navy single-breasted suit jacket has a two-button front, a besom breast pocket, and jetted hip pockets that slightly slant toward the back. The sleeveheads are roped, double vents are short, and the sleeves appear to be finished with two-button cuffs like his other suit jackets.

Charlie Strom cuts a killer profile in his well-fitting navy suit.

Charlie’s matching flat front suit trousers have slightly slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets with single-button loops to close, and belt loops through which he wears a black leather belt with a silver-toned single-prong buckle.

A mahogany leather holster is worn on the back right side of his belt and tucked into the same back trouser pocket… armed with one hell of a backup piece, a pearl-handled Colt .45 Single Action Army revolver, also known as the “Peacemaker”. The holster appears to have a brass snap, though it’s worn unfastened to make room for this large weapon.

Charlie’s trousers have a straight leg with turn-ups (cuffs) that have a moderate break, revealing the dark navy cotton lisle socks that nicely continue the trouser line into his shoes.

Charlie and Lee listen to Sheila (Angie Dickinson) sharing the tale of Johnny North.

Charlie’s shoes appear to be the same black calf plain-toe derby shoes with two lace eyelets that he has worn through most of the film.

Charlie spills red paint, er, blood onto his black leather derby shoes.

Charlie’s white cotton dress shirt has a spread collar, plain front, breast pocket, and single-button squared cuffs. He has a habit of matching his ties to his suits, and this slim and straight dark navy silk tie is no exception, knotted in the Windsor style to fill the tie space of his shirt’s spread collar. A white loop tag is briefly seen on the back of the tie as he staggers from Sheila’s house.

A man of his era, Charlie wears his usual dark gray felt short-brimmed fedora with a wide charcoal grosgrain ribbon that matches the piping along the edges of the hat.

Charlie’s stainless dive watch appears to be a classic Rolex Submariner, which had been introduced a decade earlier at the Basel Watch Fair in 1954. Charlie’s watch has a black bezel and a black dial and is worn on a stainless Oyster-style link bracelet.

Based on the watch details including the bezel and the lack of “shoulders” supporting the “small crown”, it appears to be a ref. 5508 model that was introduced concurrent with the ref. 5512 “small crown” chronometer in 1958. The ref. 5508 was considered the standard Submariner model until it was supplanted by the non-chronometer 5513 Submariner introduced in 1962.

Charlie Strom takes aim.

Outside, Charlie briefly wears his super-’60s brown plastic sunglasses with their dark green lenses, though these shades are best seen with his gray silk suit.

Lee Marvin as Charlie Strom with a “suppressed” Smith & Wesson Model 27 revolver in The Killers (1964)

How to Get the Look

Lee Marvin in The Killers shows that there’s no need to sacrifice classic simplicity for the sake of looking distinctive and sleek.

• Navy suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with slim “clover” notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted jetted hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and short double rear vents
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets with button-loops, and turn-ups/cuffed bottoms
• White dress shirt with spread collar, plain front, breast pocket, and 1-button squared cuffs
• Dark navy silk necktie
• Black leather 2-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes
• Dark navy cotton lisle socks
• Gray felt short-brimmed fedora with wide charcoal grosgrain ribbon and edges
• Brown plastic-framed sunglasses with dark green lenses
• Rolex Submariner 5508 stainless dive watch with black dial and black rotating bezel on stainless Oyster-style link bracelet

The Guns

An iconic image from The Killers remains the two photos seen above of a mortally wounded Lee Marvin raising his comically suppressed revolver before firing the fatal shots from his .357 Magnum into the man and woman who had conspired against him.

The weapon itself is a blued Smith & Wesson Model 27 double-action revolver, Charlie Strom’s sidearm of choice throughout The Killers and often featured with its somewhat silly-looking “soup can” suppressor. The idea of a silenced revolver is appealing to the creative teams behind movies and TV shows, though the gas that would escape between the cylinder and barrel as a shot is fired makes the idea of a “silenced revolver” impractical.

Smith & Wesson had introduced the .357 Magnum cartridge in 1935 as American firearms companies were dueling it out to develop the strongest ammunition for law enforcement to use against the growing scourge of desperadoes like John Dillinger, “Pretty Boy” Floyd, and Clyde Barrow who had been wreaking havoc on local police with high-powered weapons stolen from military arsenals and modified to do even greater damage. The .357 Magnum was almost immediately well received for its power, its reliability, and its versatility as many revolvers chambered for .357 Magnum could also fire the venerable .38 Special round. Several Smith & Wesson revolvers were chambered for .357 Magnum by the time the company started numbering its models in the 1950s, with the large carbon-steel N-framed .357 Magnum designated as the “Model 27”.

Charlie Strom checks his “suppressed” Smith & Wesson Model 27 before leaving to confront Jack Browning. Note the Single Action Army holstered in his back trouser pocket.

Charlie’s decision to carry a second sidearm for backup is certainly not unusual, as many real-life policemen (and movie hitmen) have been known to do the same. However, it’s his choice of weapons that sets him apart from the pack as Charlie chooses to carry the large, heavy, and powerful Colt Single Action Army revolver, a single-action six-shooter that recalls the days of cowboys and rogue sheriffs in the latter years of the 18th century when it was known throughout the American West simply as the “Peacemaker”.

We never see Charlie draw his Single Action Army, but the weapon’s distinctive profile would not be lost on firearms experts viewing the film. It’s a surprising choice, given Charlie’s penchant for efficiency. However, he is the sort of hitman who struts onto a crime scene wearing a tailored silk suit, so perhaps he would be the type to carry a pearl-handled single-action .45 Colt revolver as a backup weapon… though, as even General George S. Patton said, “only a pimp in a Louisiana whorehouse carries pearl-handled revolvers.”

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. The Criterion Collection offers a dual-pack with the original 1946 version starring Burt Lancaster as well as this 1964 update… which was also notable for being Ronald Reagan’s final movie before entering politics. As his only truly villainous screen role, Reagan reportedly regretted doing the film, though it was Lee Marvin’s personal favorite at the time of its release.

The Quote

Lady, I don’t have the time!

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr on The Last Tycoon (Episode 9: “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar”)

Vitals

Matt Bomer as Monroe Stahr, charming studio wunderkind

Hollywood, fall 1936 and March 1937

Series: The Last Tycoon
Episodes:
– “Pilot” (Episode 1, dir. Billy Ray)
– “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” (Episode 9, dir. Billy Ray)
Streaming Date: July 28, 2017
Developed By: Billy Ray
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

It’s Oscars night!

The Last Tycoon, Amazon Video’s gone-too-soon stylish ode to Hollywood’s Golden Age, ended its singular season during the 1937 Academy Awards. Interestingly, the 9th Academy Award ceremony was held on March 4, 1937, exactly 81 years ago tonight!

In real life, MGM’s The Great Ziegfield took home the coveted Best Picture prize, but that film was neglected in The Last Tycoon‘s fictional timeline as Brady-American’s tearjerker Angels on the Avenue faces off against real-life nominees Anthony Adverse, Libeled Lady, San Francisco, and Three Smart Girls.

But I’m getting ahead of myself… the first episode of The Last Tycoon finds slick Hollywood producer Monroe Stahr at a jazzy reception. Monroe is considered the best in the biz, but he’s not above sitting among his writers and hearing their thoughts of him firsthand… and dishing it right back. The night is also ripe for romance as a recently widowed Monroe shares his first dance with Kathleen Moore (Dominique McElligott), an alluring waitress from a local diner. Of course, he must also field advances from his boss’ ambitious daughter Celia (Lily Collins), who finds the time to pitch him an intriguing anti-Nazi espionage film in between taking passes at him.

Of course, Monroe’s heart is fragile in more ways than one. Real-life ’30s studio wunderkind Irving Thalberg had provided F. Scott Fitzgerald with literary inspiration for the character of Monroe Stahr, including Thalberg’s reputation as “a boy wonder” and the congenital heart disease that eventually sealed his fate at the age of 37. Thalberg actually appears as a character in The Last Tycoon, meeting his demise shortly after his appearance and reminding Monroe of his own uncertain future.

Eight months later, it’s now Oscars night in Hollywood with George Jessel hosting at downtown L.A.’s Biltmore Hotel. Monroe and Kathleen’s romance blossomed into an engagement… and quickly fizzled as her dishonest nature was violently unmasked while relations between Monroe and his boss Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer) have deteriorated beyond hope. It seems that Monroe’s only ally left in the world is Celia, who has honed her producing skills since the fateful party where she first pitched her espionage concept. The contemptuous gang beats out MGM for the coveted Best Picture award, but the stress is too much for Monroe to bear, and we are left hanging hours later as he clutches his heart, calling out for Celia as he collapses.

In many ways, it’s an appropriate “non-ending”, just enough to possibly conclude the show while also echoing the unfinished state of Fitzgerald’s source novel.

What’d He Wear?

The Last Tycoon‘s dapper protagonist dresses in elegant white tie to bookend the series, sporting full evening dress in both the first and final episodes. It’s a fitting choice, as he finds himself in white tie when first hearing the pitch for An Enemy Among Us and again wearing white tie when he himself is pitching the concept of the same film to Louis B. Mayer eight episodes later. White tie was designed to make a man look his most dashing, thus elevating a guy like Matt Bomer to nearly superhuman levels.

Speaking of superhumans, The Last Tycoon‘s master costume designer Janie Bryant explained the symbolic relationship between Monroe Stahr and his appearance in black-and-white full evening dress to Costume Designers Guild: “Monroe Stahr wears black and white a lot because it’s a reference to the era of black and white movies, but he also sees his world as very black and white. He is all about the integrity of the artistry and the craft of making the movies, so he wears beautifully tailored suits, but he’s not ostentatious.”

By the mid-1930s, black tie had surpassed white tie as the default evening dress code for gents, and Monroe Stahr certainly makes the most of his contemporary-styled double-breasted dinner jacket, saving his full evening dress for only the most formal occasions.

Though higher in the studio hierarchy, Monroe Stahr honors his writing team by donning full evening dress at the screenwriters’ ball in the pilot episode.

Monroe Stahr’s black wool dress coat has the traditional long tails and faux double-breasted front. The look is designed to be timeless, though Monroe’s particular kit nods to the fashions of the era with broader peak lapels (faced in black silk, of course) with long, slanted gorges. The only external pocket is the welted breast pocket, in which Monroe wears a white silk pocket square.

The front is styled like a double-breasted jacket, but meant to be worn open. The six front buttons, three buttons on the sleeve ends, and two vestigal buttons over the back tails are plain black plastic four-hole sew-through buttons with no black silk coverings.

Monroe shares his first dance with Kathleen.

For his evening at the screenwriters’ ball in the first episode, Monroe wears a white evening dress shirt with a plain white front bib that shows two mother-of-pearl studs. The shirt is worn with a detachable wing collar and has squared single cuffs fastened with round mother-of-pearl cuff links that match the front studs. Mother-of-pearl is considered one of the most traditional and tasteful options for appointments on a full dress evening shirt.

After a public dressing down by the widow of his recently deceased brother-in-law/employee, Monroe literally dresses down by removing his tailcoat.

Esquire was reporting in its inaugural issue in autumn of 1933 that “the white waistcoat has at last been allowed to rejoin its lawful but long estranged mate, the tailcoat, and the new dinner jackets are matched with a waistcoat of the jacket material, with dull grosgrain lapel facing.” (Source: Black Tie Guide) In this episode, Monroe wears a butterfly/thistle-shaped self-tying bow tie in white pique to perfectly match his waistcoat.

Monroe gives Celia a moment to remember in the first episode.

The white pique waistcoat in the first episode is double-breasted with a closely spaced, tapered four-on-two button front beneath the low front opening. The waistcoat has welted hip pockets and a slim shawl collar with grosgrain edges. Unlike most modern dress waistcoats (or at least those popularly issued by rental houses), it has a full back like a waistcoat that would accompany a three-piece suit.

Though a fine traditional example of a gentleman’s full dress waistcoat, it is slightly too long and about an inch of white fabric peeks out under each side of the tailcoat’s cutaway front sections.

A confrontation in the first episode leaves Monroe clutching his midsection.

Monroe wears a different white shirt, tie, and waistcoat for the 1937 Academy Awards ceremony. His white marcella formal shirt appears to have an attached wing collar, a surprising deviation at a time when most formal shirts were worn with detachable collars. The shirt also has a wide front placket, worn with diamond studs, and rounded single cuffs fastened with a set of rectangular links.

Monroe pays tribute to his late wife Minna. Next to Minna is his recently acquired Oscar statuette.

Monroe wears a slightly slimmer self-tying bow tie, a light ivory diamond-shaped silk tie with a pointed end.

Monroe finds an interested audience in Louis B. Mayer (Saul Rubinek) when pitching Celia’s movie, An Enemy Among Us, during a break in the 1937 Academy Awards ceremony.

For the Oscars, Monroe again wears a double-breasted, four-on-two button full dress waistcoat with shawl collar, but the similarities end there. Monroe has severely overcompensated for the previous waistcoat’s excessive length, here wearing a straight-bottomed waistcoat in ivory twill that looks fine at the ceremony itself but rides up above his trouser line when in respite at his office.

With his tailcoat removed, his tie undone, and – lest we forget – his boss furious at him, Monroe Stahr has more to worry about than the length of his waistcoat.

This waistcoat also lacks the full back of his other, instead looping around his neck and fastening around the back of his waist, a style that was popularized at the time by the Prince of Wales, of course. The shawl collar is slim around the neck but swells out to a wide “drooping” squared bottom (similar to his black tie waistcoat), and there are no pockets.

Monroe’s waistcoat in “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” (Episode 1.09) also provides a better look at his white silk suspenders (braces) with their gold adjusters, seen just below the back loop of his waistcoat around his neck.

Minna (and Oscar) watch over Monroe.

The only trousers one should really wear with a black full dress tailcoat are the black formal trousers with silk side striping, and Monroe follows that rule to a T with his double reverse-pleated trousers with their single silk side stripe, on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms.

The victorious producers rise to collect their Oscar!

Most men had accepted the more practical and timeless black leather oxford as the de facto dress shoe by the 1930s, but Monroe Stahr sticks with the über-formal black patent leather opera pump as his preferred footwear with both white tie and black tie dress, naturally worn with black dress socks.

Monroe’s choice of outerwear, seen only when outside before and after the Oscar ceremony, is the traditional black wool chesterfield coat with a white silk dress scarf with frayed edges. The double-breasted chesterfield has wide satin-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, a six-on-two button front in the “keystone” arrangement and covered in black satin, and straight flapped hip pockets.

Monroe looks every bit the matinee idol when arriving at – and leaving – the 1937 Oscars with Kathleen.

“If a boutonnière is worn with full dress then it must be white,” declares the experts at Black Tie Guide when exploring full dress traditions. Our protagonist recognizes and adheres to this tradition, wearing two different white carnations on his left lapel that compete for attention with his rakishly worn white pocket squares.

Monroe’s first white tie ensemble, when attending the screenwriters’ ball in the pilot episode, features a white carnation worn with the stem pinned through the lapel. This more modern, less regarded style reminds me more of harried mothers trying to prep their sons for prom pictures than a gentleman dressing for the evening.

Why the discomfort, Monroe? Perhaps it’s that prom-style boutonnière… or perhaps it’s the widow publicly blaming you for her troubled husband’s suicide.

By the titular ceremonies of “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar” (Episode 1.09), Monroe Stahr has graduated his boutonnière game to the more mature, less damaging, and ultimately correct style of wearing it with the stem inserted through the buttonhole of his left lapel, where it is likely secured by an under-lapel loop that keeps it in place without needing to damage the lapel with a pin.

Eight episodes later, Monroe is between a rock and a hard place thanks to his dishonest fiancee and his disloyal boss… but you’d never know it when you see him sporting that expertly worn boutonnière!

On his right pinky, Monroe wears a gold signet ring with an etched “S.” that likely signifies his adopted professional surname of Stahr (though it could also be his birth surname of Sternberg.)

How to Get the Look

Unlike his more old fashioned boss Pat Brady (Kelsey Grammer), Matt Bomer’s Monroe Stahr reserves his full evening dress tailcoat and white tie for only the most formal occasions… instantly multiplying his elegance quotient.

Monroe Stahr (Matt Bomer) dances with Kathleen Moore (Dominique McElligott) in the pilot episode of The Last Tycoon.

• Black wool dress tailcoat with broad silk-faced peak lapels, 6-on-2 button double-breasted front, welted breast pocket, 3-button cuffs, and tails with two vestigal buttons
• White pique double-breasted waistcoat with shawl collar, 4-on-2 button front, and welted hip pockets
• Black wool formal pleated trousers with grosgrain side braid, “quarter top” on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White formal shirt with detachable wing collar, marcella front bib, and single cuffs
  • Mother-of-pearl shirt studs
  • Mother-of-pearl cuff links
• White pique bow tie
• White silk suspenders with gold adjusters
• Black patent leather opera pumps/court shoes with square black grosgrain bows
• Black dress socks
• White cotton short-sleeve undershirt
• Gold monogrammed signet ring, right pinky
• White carnation boutonnière

You can learn more about how to properly wear a boutonnière, using no less than 007 as an example, in a recent post featured on Matt Spaiser’s The Suits of James Bond.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check it out on Amazon Video.

The Quote

I like people and I like them to like me, but I keep my heart where God put it – on the inside.

John Slattery as Roger Sterling on Mad Men. (Episode 7.04: “The Monolith”)

Vitals

John Slattery as Roger Sterling, hedonistic Madison Avenue ad executive

New York City, spring 1969 and spring 1970

Series: Mad Men
Episodes:
– “The Monolith” (Episode 7.04), dir. Scott Hornbacher, aired 5/4/2014
– “Severance” (Episode 7.08), dir.Scott Hornbacher, aired 4/5/2015
– “Person to Person” (Episode 7.14), dir.Matthew Weiner, aired 5/17/2015
Creator: Matthew Weiner
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant

Background

Though we in the Northern Hemisphere welcomed spring yesterday, some cities (I can speak personally for Pittsburgh) were greeted by the new season with a fresh onslaught of snowfall.

Bitterness aside… spring often finds well-dressed gents pushing their heavy flannel suits to the back of the closet and bringing forth items perfect for greeting sunnier days ahead. The double-breasted navy blazer remains a stalwart menswear staple for transitioning into the warm and wonderful days of spring, whether sporting it for an evening in the Riviera, greeting the morning on your yacht… or spending the afternoon in your Midtown Manhattan office, counting down the days to retirement.

Naturally, the latter situation brings to mind one Roger Sterling, the increasingly redundant but effortlessly witty Madison Avenue executive on AMC’s Mad Men. An old-school playboy with a nautical background, Roger is just the type to sport a navy double-breasted blazer. Roger was one of the few original characters from the show’s early days who seemed to have fun with the fashion evolution of the advancing decade, blending his personal preferences with the emerging trends of the late 1960s.

What’d He Wear?

This isn’t the first we see of Roger Sterling in a navy double-breasted blazer. SC&P’s head of accounts had started playing around with the look on screen during the previous season, sporting a four-on-two button blazer at the company’s Christmas party and a six-on-two button blazer with a day cravat for a drug-addled adventure with Don Draper and Harry Crane in California during the season’s tenth episode.

By 1969, the trend in tailored jackets was a clean and close fit. With its close and structured fit and two parallel columns of three buttons each, Roger’s serge blazer echoes the classic naval uniform “reefer jacket”, thus making it an appropriate style for this proud veteran officer of the U.S. Navy.

This particular blazer makes its first appearance in “The Monolith” (Episode 7.04) when the agency announces that it will be installing its titular IBM computer… and Roger finds out that his daughter has been living on a hippie commune.

Joan (Christina Hendricks), Roger (John Slattery), and Bert Cooper (Robert Morse) oversee SC&P’s latest announcement in “The Monolith” (Episode 7.04).

Roger’s navy serge double-breasted blazer, as mentioned, has six flat gold shank buttons that are neatly arranged in two straight columns of three buttons each. He tends to wear only the lowest two buttons fastened, so it is either a six-on-two or he is neglecting to fasten the top button. There are three matching buttons on the end of each sleeve. The blazer also has a welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets, and single vent. Based on other items from Roger’s closet, as well as the show’s stated affiliation with the brand, it may have been made by Brooks Brothers.

In “The Monolith”, Roger follows the then-contemporary trend of balancing an odd jacket with patterned trousers, wearing a pair of Prince of Wales check trousers with a pink overcheck on a black-and-white glen plaid pattern. The trousers are likely flat front and worn with his typical black leather belt with its diamond-studded buckle embellished with a gold “S”… for Sterling, of course. The trousers have a straight fit and plain-hemmed bottoms.

After Lucky Strike’s betrayal, Roger Sterling was never seen without his deck of Camels – unfiltered, of course – near at hand.

As the seasons progressed, Roger evolved from more complicated shirts with collar bars and cuff links to a simple, standard white cotton dress shirt with a semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and rounded single-button cuffs by the seventh season. The only added touch? His “R.H.S.” monogram on the left cuff.

Roger wears a maroon silk tie with dotted beige stripes in the “downhill” direction of right-down-to-left. He completes the look with a tan silk pocket square with orange and navy dots, worn in the blazer’s breast pocket.

The combination of a navy blazer, white shirt, red tie, and gray trousers is a surprisingly trad suggestion for SC&P’s trailblazing fashion plate, but Roger Sterling puts his own stylish spin on it with mod touches from head to toe… and speaking of toes, Roger’s footwear by the final two seasons is almost exclusively a pair of mod black leather boots along the lines of the “Beatle boots” that had swept the nation during the British Invasion.

Roger’s Florsheim Imperial boots are black calf with plain toes and fastened with a zipper along the inside of each boot. He wears them here with black cotton lisle socks, as he does in most scenes regardless of his trousers.

Son-in-law Brooks and ex-wife Mona (in fact, John Slattery’s real-life wife Talia Balsam) implore the ad man to do something about his errant daughter.

The next time we see Roger in his navy double-breasted blazer, he has sprouted a walrus mustache that would distract and entertain viewers for the duration of the final season. “Severance” (episode 7.08) finds Roger seated with Ferg Donnelly (and the less said about Ferg, the better!) for an antagonistic conversation with Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Staton).

Now sporting his walrus-like whiskers that would see him through the end of the season, Roger wears the same shirt with another dot-striped tie and gray checked trousers. The tie consists of alternating stripes of red and pale blue dots in the “downhill” right-down-to-left direction on a navy ground, while the trousers are light gray wool with a faint multi-color check and plain-hemmed bottoms. His blue and red paisley silk pocket square echoes the color scheme of his tie.

1970: The Year of the Mustache

Our last look at Roger Sterling comes in the final moments of the final episode, “Person to Person” (Episode 7.14), with a vignette of the former ad man and former bachelor settling into retired life with Marie, enjoying lobsters, champagne, and lobsters.

Now that he’s out of the office, Roger’s made a total departure from his white button-up shirt and tie aesthetic, sporting a royal blue cotton shirt with a large point collar worn open at the neck to reveal a gold and navy paisley silk day cravat. The shirt has white mother-of-pearl buttons down the front placket and on the single-button rounded cuffs, and he appears to be embracing his new life of leisure by wearing it untucked over the top of his charcoal trousers.

There’s some indication that Roger has made good on his promise to marry Marie, as he now wears a second ring – a gold signet ring – on the third finger of his left hand… though this could just be a nod to the increasingly excess amount of jewelry worn by men in the ’70s.

As a bon vivant retiree enjoying his married life with Marie (Julia Ormond), Roger foregoes formality and wears his jacket open and shirt untucked.

Like many a stylish fellow in the ’60s (think Sinatra), Roger Sterling opts for a ring on his pinky. Though no screen time is dedicated solely to Roger’s left pinky ring, it is possibly the ornate gold high school class ring that was auctioned after the show wrapped production embossed with “PHS” and indicating a graduation year of 1927.

From the fifth season onward, Roger Sterling wore a Tudor Oyster Prince, aptly named for his princely disposition. Roger’s particular Tudor, ref. 7967, has a steel case with an elegant round black-and-white “tuxedo” dial and no crown guards, worn on a plain black leather strap. You can find out more about the process of sourcing watches for Roger, Don, Megan, and Pete from Derek Dier in this 2015 article by Benjamin Clymer for Hodiknee.

With a glass of Smirnoff in his hand, there’s no problem that Roger Sterling (John Slattery) can’t solve.
Mad Men, episode 7.04: “The Monolith”

How to Get the Look

With his military background, it’s natural that Roger would gravitate to the double-breasted blazer as it resembles the “reefer jacket” he would have worn as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II. A quarter-century later, as the business world grows more lax in its workplace wardrobe parameters, Roger is able to revert to a more dressed-down style in line with his glory days as one of the Canoe Club’s finest.

• Navy wool serge double-breasted blazer with peak lapels, 6-on-3 gold shank button layout, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, single back vent, and 3-button cuffs
• White cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Maroon silk tie with beige dot-stripes
• Black-and-white plaid (with pink overcheck) Prince of Wales check flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather belt with diamond-studded “S” belt buckle
• Black leather zip-side plain-toe ankle boots
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Tudor Oyster Prince (ref. 7967) watch with steel case and black-and-white “tuxedo” dial on black leather strap
• Gold class ring with black filling

Can’t get enough of Roger Sterling in a blue blazer? Season 7’s got you covered with a bold blue double-breasted blazer that makes appearances in two pivotal episodes, to be covered by BAMF Style at a later date. Stay tuned!

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the first and second parts of Mad Men‘s seventh and final season if you want to see this blazer in action… or complete your collection with the entire series.

The Quote

Well, we’re getting a computer. It’s gonna do lots of magical things like make Harry Crane seem important.

Gallery

John Slattery can be seen wearing a very similar blazer in flight-themed promotional material for the first half of the seventh season. Though the two blazers may look the same at first glance, it’s worth noting that the blazer worn in the promotional material has mother-of-pearl sew-through buttons (rather than flat gold shank buttons) and swelled edges like the brighter blue blazer that he wears in “Time & Life” (Episode 7.11). The promo blazer’s Tautz-like peak lapels are also slightly different than the more conventional peak lapels in the show version.

The rest of his outfit – at least the shirt, trousers, and boots – remains unchanged for its appearance in that season’s fourth episode as featured in this post. (His tie would also be replaced with a slightly different one that follows the same color scheme and motif.)

Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow in Bonnie & Clyde (2013)

Vitals

Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow, amateur armed robber

Texas, Easter 1934

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

Background

The turning point in Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker’s criminal career came on Easter Sunday, April 1, 1934. The couple was sitting inside their Ford V8 on a dusty road outside Grapevine, Texas, with their latest recruit, a shifty young son of Louisiana named Henry Methvin. Two months earlier, Clyde was in command of the closest thing he’d ever had to a “gang”, though the few criminal members with any experience quickly disassociated from the trigger-happy amateur, leaving only Clyde, Henry, and Bonnie making up the ranks of “The Barrow Gang”.

With at least nine murders to their name by that point, the gang had only Bonnie to credit for any enduring popularity they may have maintained. Contemporaries like John Dillinger and “Pretty Boy” Floyd were regarded, for better or worse, as Robin Hood-like folk heroes during the desperate days of the Great Depression, with reputations for their manners, wit, and successful bank heists. Clyde Barrow, on the other hand, was hardly more than an insecure stickup artists with a lead foot, an eager trigger finger, and a string of excessively good luck to get him out of two years worth of sticky situations. Bonnie Parker’s willingness to remain by his side was Clyde’s greatest stroke of luck, as the mere fact that she was a woman gave the public a reason to root for the Barrow Gang.

Formerly Mrs. Roy Thornton of Dallas, Bonnie Parker was hardly the type that her family or friends would have expected to become forever synonymous with crime. Bonnie was married by the time she was 16, but her good-for-nothing husband was either in jail or away from home for the next three years. For Miss Parker, loneliness was far worse than larceny, and she followed the romantic impulses that led her to devoting her life to the sociopathic Clyde Barrow in the spring of 1930.

Clyde Barrow, Bonnie Parker, and Henry Methvin, likely taken by associate Joe Palmer in late March 1934, just before the Grapevine killings. Note Clyde’s natty summer suit and mustache, clear indications that he is hoping to emulate the style of felonious idols like John Dillinger.

Fast forward four years to that dusty Easter Sunday outside Grapevine. Wanted by the police but esteemed by the general public, Bonnie and Clyde have become legends in their own time, their names synonymous with sex and danger. Waiting for a fourth associate to arrive, the trio idled away the hours of the early afternoon by napping, passing a bottle of Black & White whisky, and playing with Sonny Boy, a rabbit that Bonnie plans on gifting to her mother for Easter.

Farther up State Highway 114, Texas Highway Patrol officers H.D. Murphy, 22, and E.B. Wheeler, 26, have split off from a third patrolman to investigate a black Ford V8 with yellow wheels parked by the side of the road. The occupants were no strangers to the sight of police approaching, and Clyde Barrow – for all of his faults – had tried to make a habit of kidnapping, disarming, and releasing his uniformed enemies rather than murdering them outright. A sawed-off shotgun in his hand, Clyde turned to the youthful Henry and announced their plan: “Let’s take ’em.”

For the sake of the two approaching officers, Clyde should have been more specific. The inebriated and inexperienced Henry turned and raised his Browning Automatic Rifle, firing a fatal .30-06 round into Wheeler’s chest at point-blank range. Murphy, not expecting danger, fumbled for the shells in his pocket to load his shotgun, but Clyde had now joined the fracas and takes down the younger officer with his own shotgun.

It’s over within seconds, with Clyde’s Ford kicking up dust, leaving only the two dying or dead officers near their motorcycles with spent rounds and a discarded – and clearly fingerprinted – bottle of Scotch littering the scene. (To read more about the incident and see the whiskey bottle itself, check out this page from Bonnie & Clyde’s Texas Hideout.)

Thus began the wave of public sentiment finally turning against the Barrow Gang. Bonnie, for all intents and purposes the gang’s PR agent, was powerless against the fact that her boyfriend was part of a double murder on Easter. (It wasn’t the gang’s first killing on a religious holiday; on Christmas 1932, Clyde had killed a civilian named Doyle Johnson while stealing his Ford in Temple, Texas. This was before the gang was famous, so the egregious crime went underreported in the press.) In fact, “eyewitness” reports were even starting to put a gun in Bonnie’s hands, and a story emerged that she clenched a cigar as she fired into a helpless officer before maniacally laughing and crying out: “His head bounced just like a rubber ball!”

Of course, Bonnie was still badly burned from a car accident nine months prior and could barely stand, let alone hold her own in a gunfight, not to mention that this type of sadistic murder would be wholly uncharacteristic for her… despite her loyalty to a man who was more than capable of murder. Nevertheless, she became as hunted as Clyde, violently dying by his side less than two months later on a quiet Louisiana country road on the morning of May 23, 1934.

The 2013 miniseries Bonnie and Clyde, for all of its deviations from historical record, is one of the few pieces of Barrow-related pop culture to depict the double murders at Grapevine. The incident is directly at odds with the more romantic image propagated by the popular 1967 film starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

What’d He Wear?

Emile Hirsch, swimming in his suits like a child who raided his dad’s closet, communicates a great deal about his subtle and swagger-free characterization of Clyde Barrow, giving the audience a better sense of the character’s inadequacies and somewhat justified insecurities than the sight of a strapping 6’2″ Warren Beatty in his handsome, well-cut suits. (Interestingly, both Hirsch and the real Clyde stood at 5’7″ tall.)

It’s perhaps appropriate to feature this oversized suit on April Fools’ Day, as Clyde hardly looks as dapper as he would have liked. Of course, in 1934 – and in 2018 – April Fools’ Day was also Easter Sunday, so Clyde is dressed in his Sunday best for dual family visits with both the Barrow and Parker clans. (Another point in favor of the miniseries’ historical accuracy; unlike the sole visit to “Mother Parker” in the 1967 film, Bonnie and Clyde did manage to sneak back to Texas on several occasions to meet with their families over the course of their two-year spree.)

Clyde’s wool suiting is light brown with tan shadow stripes. The single-breasted, two-button jacket has wide notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, and straight jetted hip pockets. The sleeveheads are roped at the shoulders, the back is ventless, and there are three buttons on the end of each sleeve.

Clyde: “She’s in a lot of pain.”
Cumie: “Pretty sure the two of you [have] given a lot more than you’ve gotten.”
Mothers always know just what to say… though, given what Clyde’s crimes have put his mother Cumie (Dale Dickey) through, I can’t say I blame her for the honesty.

Clyde approaches the body of patrolman Murphy.

Clyde wears a plain white cotton shirt with a point collar, front placket, and single-button rounded cuffs.

Clyde tenses up behind the wheel when the couple is confronted by two Texas Highway Patrol officers.

Clyde’s maroon tie has a motif of pale yellow diamonds, tied in a Windsor knot and flaring out to a period-correct wide blade.

Clyde takes in his mother’s words during a foggy Easter reunion.

Worn open throughout the scene is a darker brown tonal-striped waistcoat (vest) with a single-breasted front with five dark sew-through buttons, four slim-welted pockets, and a light brown corded back lining that cinches with an adjustable strap.

The odd vest (in a sartorial context, “odd” refers only to the fact that it doesn’t match the suit) serves a practical purpose of giving Clyde an unobtrusive layer that can cover his sidearm while he hops in and out of his undeniably hot car in the days before air conditioning.

Note the subtle tonal stripes on the waistcoat and the thicker corded back.

Clyde tops off the look with a tan felt fedora with a pinched crown and tan grosgrain band and edges.

How to Get the Look

Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow in Bonnie & Clyde (2013)

Clyde Barrow may be a remorseless criminal, but even he thinks to dress in his finest for a family visit on Easter Sunday. Emile Hirsch’s Clyde opts for the warmth of an earth tone-centric outfit, though the bagginess could suggest that he’s more appropriately suited for April Fools’ Day… which may or may not be coincidentally concurrent.

• Light brown shadow-striped wool suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with wide notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front trousers with tall belt loops, side pockets, back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Maroon tie with yellow diamond motif
• Dark brown tonal-striped wool single-breasted 5-button waistcoat with four welted pockets and light brown corded back with adjustable strap
• Black leather four-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes
• Pale blue cotton undershorts with a 2-button waistband closure
• Tan felt fedora with tan grosgrain ribbon and edges

The Gun

What’s Easter without a discussion of classic firearms?

It’s generally agreed that Clyde Barrow’s preferred sidearm was the 1911-series semi-automatic pistol that Colt had been producing for the U.S. military for more than two decades. Originally chambered for the powerful .45 ACP round, the .38 Super round was introduced in 1929 as a high-pressure alternative that could penetrate the body armor and bulletproof vests often worn by gangsters. The .38 Super never gained much traction in the law enforcement community, but gangsters like John Dillinger and “Baby Face” Nelson were known to make use of this deadly round.

Bonnie and Clyde miniseries correctly arms Clyde with a 1911-series pistol, though it’s the anachronistic Colt Mk IV Series 70 rather than an original M1911 or M1911A1 that would’ve been available during the Barrow Gang’s stint in the early 1930s.

Clyde takes aim with his .45.

All that aside, it’s also been confirmed that the weapons used during the Grapevine killings were a sawed-off shotgun (in Clyde’s hands) and a Browning Automatic Rifle (used by Henry Methvin).

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series and visit Frank Ballinger’s Bonnie & Clyde’s Hideout site. (It’s on Netflix, too!)

Footnote

William Schieffer, a local farmer, said he witnessed the killings from his land which overlooked the hill where Wheeler and Murphy were killed. He often changed his story from seeing the killings at a distance to up close, but his most famous claim was  that Bonnie turned Murphy over on her foot and shot him again point-blank, saying: “Look-a there, his head bounced just like a rubber ball.” Interestingly, both Schieffer and his erroneous depiction of the murders was adapted for inclusion in the miniseries.

Schieffer’s claim was later proven fraudulent after he identified one-time Barrow accomplice Floyd Hamilton and Billie Parker, Bonnie’s sister, as the killers. He would later admit to having made up the story, seeking publicity and reward money.

Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural (1984)

Vitals

Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, baseball prodigy and “middle-aged rookie”

New York, June 1939

Film: The Natural
Release Date: May 11, 1984
Director: Barry Levinson
Costume Design: Gloria Gresham & Bernie Pollack

Background

Baseball season is back and in full swing (forgive the pun), and I’m feeling much better about it this year after my hometown Pirates won their home opener against the Twins yesterday, making us 4-0 for the season… after last year, I’ll take all the hope I can get! In the spirit of America’s pastime, today’s post explores one of the great baseball movies ever made.

Based on Bernard Malamud’s 1952 debut novel – and considered by many to be an improvement on it – The Natural stars Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, an earnest, homespun, and sincere baseball player whose sole ambition is glory on the diamond. As he himself wonders, “What else is there?”

Of course, when we first meet Roy Hobbs in media res, you’d never know it to look at him that he was about to embark on his last shot at big-league stardom.

It’s 1939, nearly midway through the season, and a full 16 years since Roy was an eager-eyed rookie on his way to try out with the Cubs before he was shot and nearly killed by the dark and deranged Harriet Bird (based on the real-life shootings of Eddie Waitkus and Billy Jurges), seriously waylaying his baseball dreams. Somewhere along the way, a cynical but no less honest Roy decided to get back into the game and finds himself traded up from the semi-pro Hebrew Oilers to the struggling New York Knights.

Roy wanders into the Knights’ stadium during a sparsely attended game where the team is losing dismally to the Pirates (go Bucs!) The Knights’ cantankerous manager Pop Fisher (Wilford Brimley, of course), has just been bristling about his missed opportunities as a farmer and has no time for adding a “middle-aged rookie” to his team.

Roy isn’t deterred by Pop’s discourteous orientation, however. It’s been a hard life for him since taking a .38 in the gut, and nothing will get in the way of him and his goal… especially since he knows it can all be taken away from him in a flash. Roy knows better than to be too trust his chances this time, but you gotta give him credit – he’s still going for it. As he tells the team’s avuncular co-manager:

Red, it took me 16 years to get here. You play me, and you’ll get the best I got.

What’d He Wear?

You can tell that Roy Hobbs has seen things when we first meet him. His well-worn leather jacket and fedora nod to the adventurous spirit of Indiana Jones, and Roy is only barely wearing his tie, loosened around his neck with an unbuttoned shirt collar that tells us he never meant for the look to be complete to begin with.

Our first glimpse of Roy Hobbs… the best there ever could have been.

Roy later graduates to corduroy and eventually tweed jackets when he finds success on the Knights’ roster, but it’s the “skid row” leather jacket that remains a fan favorite to the extent that the demand caused Magnoli Clothiers to develop their own version, currently available for $425.

It shares some stylistic similarities to the U.S. Navy’s then-contemporary G8/Type 440 flight jacket, but Roy Hobbs’ tough brown cowhide jacket stands in a class of its own. The jacket has a zip-up front with a substantial shirt-style collar, horizontal yokes on the front and back, and set-in sleeves with a diamond-ended single-button cuff at the end of each.

Knocking a few back with Red.

Perhaps most similar to the naval flight jackets of the era are the bellows-type patch pockets on the hips, each covered with a flap. Two short oval-shaped tabs on the back – one on the right, one on the left – adjust the fit around the waist.

Roy Hobbs picks out a #9 jersey (left) after leaving a still-fuming Pop in the dugout (right). Spot the adjustable button-tabs on the sides of his jacket.

This “downtrodden” look certainly invites comparison to the tight, buttoned-up look of the eager 19-year-old Roy (who, yes, was still magically played by the 47-year-old Robert Redford). While young Roy wore a boyish tweed cap, stiff club collar and tie, and argyle sweater vest tucked in to his trousers and worn under suspenders, the older, more grizzled Roy opts for a dirty hat, loosened collar and tie, and a sloppy jacket. Fashion – and even fashionable decorum – may have changed in 16 years, but not nearly at the rate at which Roy’s outlook had evolved.

Roy’s spirit has certainly been punctured by the time he arrives in the Knights’ dugout for the first time, but he’s still the all-American boy underneath, with his shirt and tie hinting at his red, white, and blue spirit. The light blue hairline-striped cotton shirt has a point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs. His salmon colored tie has a subtle tan repeating pattern and is tied in a small knot, worn loosely around his neck.

After Roy checks in to the hotel, he changes into a plain white cotton shirt and a maroon tie with a tan leaf-like Deco-styled motif. The shirt is styled the same as his light blue striped shirt, and under both shirts he wears a white ribbed sleeveless undershirt.

Pay no attention to her, Roy. Trust me.

Roy’s double reverse-pleated trousers are a purplish shade of brown, along the elusive “puce” spectrum. The trousers have side pockets, narrow turn-ups (cuffs), and belt loops where Roy wears a substantial brown leather belt with a polished brass single-prong buckle. The belt coordinates with his shoes, a well-worn pair of brown leather cap-toe oxfords worn with dark brown cotton lisle socks.

The end of the line for Roy Hobbs. If this next stop isn’t his big break, nothing will be.

The silver ring on the third finger of Roy’s right hand should be familiar to Robert Redford fans; the actor received it as a gift in 1966 from the Hopi tribe, and he has worn it in most of his films since.

Atop his head, Roy sports that most gentlemanly of ’30s headgear, the classic wide-brimmed fedora. Roy’s brown felt hat has evidently taken a tough path to get here, with a brown grosgrain band that has evidently faded around the top to a reddish tint.

Check out the sparsely populated stands behind him. The Knights could surely use a talented wonderboy on their roster.

Interestingly, Roy’s hat is a dead ringer for the one that his father Ed (Alan Fudge) wears in the flashback to Roy’s childhood, right down to the degree of fading along the top of the grosgrain band.

Roy’s father in 1915, wearing a fedora that wouldn’t emerge as a male fashion standard for another ten years, begging the question… is this an anachronism or a sign that the rural Midwestern Mr. Hobbs was an influential fashion plate? We may never know the truth.

The flashback is set in 1915, nearly a decade before the fedora was popularized as the American man’s hat of choice following a visit from the Prince of Wales. From the 1890s to that point, it had been primarily worn by women and was even adopted as an unofficial symbol of the women’s suffrage movement in the early 20th century.

Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural (1984)

How to Get the Look

All-American baseball hero Roy Hobbs looks like the weary answer to Indiana Jones as he shows up to his first day on the professional diamond in a weather-beaten leather jacket, fedora, and shoes with a tie seemingly worn as an afterthought.

• Brown distressed cowhide leather zip-up jacket with shirt-style collar, front and back horizontal yokes, flapped patch side pockets, adjustable button side-tabs, and single-button pointed cuff tabs
• Light blue hairline-striped cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Salmon printed cotton tie
• Purplish brown wool double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Brown leather belt with polished brass single-prong buckle
• Brown leather 5-eyelet cap-toe oxford shoes
• Dark brown cotton lisle socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Silver Hopi Indian ring with black imprint, worn on right ring finger
• Brown felt fedora with faded brown grosgrain band

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie… and give Bernard Malamud’s 1952 novel a read but be advised that the film took many liberties – often for the better – from its source material.

The Quote

I just got back in the game.