Tom Selleck as Nick Lassiter in Lassiter (1984)

Vitals

Tom Selleck as Nick Lassiter, debonair jewel thief

London, June 1939

Film: Lassiter
Release Date: February 17, 1984
Director: Roger Young
Costume Designer: Barbara Lane

Background

Happy birthday, Tom Selleck!

On the actor’s 74th birthday, I’m responding to a frequent request from a fellow Tom who kindly brought my attention to Selleck’s pre-World War II style in the little-known 1984 caper film Lassiter, made during the actor’s Magnum P.I. heyday. Selleck starred as the title character, Nick Lassiter, a daring and debonair jewel thief in the tradition of David Niven’s “Phantom” from the Pink Panther series with a twist of Indiana Jones… perhaps to make up for the fact that Selleck had turned down Raiders of the Lost Ark before Harrison Ford made the iconic role his own.

We meet the charming Lassiter in the summer of 1939 as he’s stealing his way through London and living the high life with his English girlfriend Sara (Jane Seymour), an accessory if not all-out accomplice to his stylish crimes. Scotland Yard’s onto him, however, and entraps him into breaking into the German embassy and stealing millions of dollars worth of diamonds that would finance Nazi spy operations in South America.

After some initial resistance, Lassiter begrudgingly agrees to help the government and begins planning his heist. Part of his plans include a trip to stake out the German embassy grounds, despite the anti-fascist protests outside. We know he’s stressed because he earlier admitted that he quit smoking, but now he’s flicking his Zippo to light his Luckies as he wanders into the embassy itself. Given that his options are spending 20 years in an English prison, successfully stealing jewels from the Nazi government, or to die trying… it’s reasonable that he would be stressed!

What’d He Wear?

Tweed—the rough and rugged woolen fabric often associated with country suits and traditional sportswear—can be nicely adapted for the city, particularly in traditionally businesslike colors like blue or gray. Lassiter opts here for the latter, a light gray barleycorn tweed two-piece suit with a timeless cut.

Three-button jackets are most flattering on taller gents, so the 6’4″ Tom Selleck in this three-button single-breasted suit coat. The ventless jacket has notch lapels, patch pockets, and three buttons on the end of each sleeve.

Casing the joint.

Anyone making the argument that argyle can’t be badass need look no further than Tom Selleck in Lassiter. The bona fide badass of the ’80s not only sported argyle knitwear, but a sweater vest at that.

The argyle pattern of solid-colored diamond-shaped lozenges, often with an overlaying grid of diagonal inter-crossing lines, originated in Scotland around the 17th century but grew fashionable in the years following World War I, first in England before crossing the pond to the United States. As an American living in London, Nick Lassiter would be very familiar with the natty benefits of the pattern and his argyle sweater vest nicely supplements his suit for an interesting layered look.

Lassiter’s gray knit wool V-neck sweater vest has a cream argyle pattern on the front with thin cream lines inter-crossing across it. The V-shaped neckline, armholes, and waist hem are all ribbed in the same gray fabric as the rest of the vest.

Lassiter finds a surprising ally in the form of FBI Special Agent Peter Breeze (Joe Regalbuto, perhaps best known for his role as investigative reporter Frank Fontana on Murphy Brown.)

Lassiter wears the same shirt and tie that he wore with his gray box-checked sport jacket when he confronted Inspector Becker (Bob Hoskins) at his family’s home. The faintly light gray-and-white candy-striped shirt has a slim spread collar, front placket, and rounded single-button cuffs, and the bold burgundy silk tie jumps out against the muted shirt.

Selleck’s trademark mustache gets plenty of glorious screen time in Lassiter.

The suit’s matching trousers have double reverse pleats, side pockets positioned straight along each side seam, and jetted back pockets, and the bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

Though Lassiter’s sweater vest covers his waist, we can assume he’s wearing his usual brown leather belt as it would coordinate with his dark brown suede oxfords. Lassiter’s light taupe socks don’t necessarily match his gray trousers or brown shoes but provide an otherwise neutral transition between the two.

Lassiter wears his trusty tan felt fedora with a brown ribbed grosgrain silk band.

His timepiece is a subtle but elegant tank-style dress watch that was most common for men during these early decades of wristwatch popularity. The gold rectangular-cased watch has a light rectangular dial and is worn on a dark brown leather strap, though Lassiter also wears a watch with a similar-looking case on a gold expanding bracelet similar to those offered by Elgin during the era.

Lassiter’s dangerous assignment reawakens his dangerous smoking habit.

How to Get the Look

Tom Selleck with his co-stars Lauren Hutton and Jane Seymour in Lassiter (1984)

Though he’s an American, Selleck’s Nick Lassiter looks every bit the finely tailored English gentleman as he cases the German embassy in his tweed suit and argyle sweater vest.

• Gray barleycorn tweed suit
  • Single-breasted 3-button suit jacket with notch lapels, patch breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double forward-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets
• Light gray-and-white striped shirt with slim spread collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Burgundy silk tie
• Gray-and-cream argyle knit sweater vest
• Tan felt fedora with brown ribbed grosgrain band
• Dark brown suede oxford shoes
• Taupe socks
• White cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Gold tank watch on dark leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Max Hofer: Are you an admirer of German culture, Mr. Lassiter?
Lassiter: Well, where I come from, Max, we like things a little lighter, if you know what I mean.

James Garner as Flight Lieutenant Hendley in The Great Escape (1963)

Vitals

James Garner as Robert Hendley, American-born RAF Flight Lieutenant and “scrounger”

Sagan-Silesia (Zagan, Poland), Spring 1944

Film: The Great Escape
Release Date: July 4, 1963
Director: John Sturges
Wardrobe Credit: Bert Henrikson

Background

Steve McQueen’s daring Captain Hilts may get all the glory of The Great Escape‘s legacy, but James Garner’s affable and resourceful “scrounger” Hendley remains one of my favorite characters from any war movie.

Fans of The Great Escape are no doubt aware of the filmmakers’ attempt to help the movie sell in the United States by emphasizing the roles played by Americans, despite the fact that none of the actual escapees from Stalag Luft III in March 1944 were American (though American POWs did help with the digging before they were transferred to another camp.) McQueen’s motorcycle-riding, moonshine-swilling Hilts is obvious, while Garner’s presence as Flight Lieutenant Hendley illustrates another type of American that saw action in the air in World War II’s European Theater: the pilots who volunteered to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) before the U.S. entered the war. These 244 pilots formed the three Eagle Squadrons, created in the tradition of the Lafayette Escadrille that fought for France during World War I.

Though activated on September 19, 1940, it was 78 years ago today—February 5, 1941—that the first Eagle Squadron (No. 71 Squadron) became operational for defensive duties, taking to the air in Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft. After the U.S. entered the war that December, the need for Eagle Squadrons was eliminated and all three squadrons were officially transferred from the RAF to the Eighth Air Force of the U.S. Army Air Forces on September 29, 1942, just over two years after their original activation. All American pilots serving in the Eagle Squadrons were thus commissioned as USAAF officers, typically as their equivalent rank (i.e. an RAF Flight Lieutenant was now a USAAF Captain.)

The fact that Hendley is still dressed in the rank and uniform of an RAF pilot adds additional unspoken details about his history. Decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) per the ribbon on his left breast, Hendley must have been shot down sometime before September 1942 when he became a prisoner of war.

What’d He Wear?

RAF Service Uniform

Despite the nature of our familiarity with Flight Lieutenant Hendley—he is a prisoner of war, after all—the aviator always looks dashing in his full Royal Air Force service uniform, complete with a cream jumper with a neatly rolled turtleneck and his peaked officer’s cap, rakishly tilted in a manner consistent with his easygoing demeanor.

In his heroic blue-gray service uniform and cap, Hendley stands out against some of the other downed airmen in their old 1937 pattern brown woolen battle dress garments.

Flight Lieutenant Hendley spends his day-to-day life in Stalag Luft III attired in his No. 1 Service Dress uniform consisting of the matching blue-gray worsted wool serge tunic and trousers that has been virtually unchanged since the dress code was first adopted by the Brits in the early 1920s. TV Tropes notes with amusement that, despite being an American officer, Hendley’s particular talent as a scrounger finds his RAF uniform in better condition than the actual British characters.

Production photo of James Garner wearing Flight Lieutenant Hendley’s RAF uniform tunic and turtleneck, though his trousers are the striped trousers that match his “escape suit”.

The service dress uniform tunic is cut like a single-breasted suit jacket, providing a much easier sample for the camp’s confidential cutters to tailor the garment into civilian wear for the escapees to wear once outside the gates. The waist is wrapped in a self-belt that fastens with a tall, gold-toned double-prong buckle in addition to a four-button front.

Hendley wears the top of the tunic’s four gold crested shank buttons undone, providing less tightness on his chest with while also adding a touch of American nonchalance in a setting where uniform regulations would be less regarded. (Of note, the very correct “SBO” Ramsey often follows the same practice, despite being the ranking British officer in camp and always sporting his service uniform with his shirt and tie.)

The tunic has four flapped external pockets, and it may also be cut with the small jetted ticket pocket on the right side, under the belt. The two chest pockets are box-pleated with scalloped flaps that each close with a single gold crested shank button and small snaps at each corner to fasten the flap into place and prevent the pointed ends from curling or folding. The two larger bellows pockets below the belt each close with a plain rectangular flap also with a single centered button. A long single vent extends up the center of Hendley’s back to the belt.

Given that this is his service uniform as an RAF flier, the tunic is bedecked with the various insignia, decorations, and badges befitting an accomplished military pilot.

Irvin flight jacket in hand, Hendley scopes out the guard towers upon his arrival at Stalag Luft III.

On his left breast, Hendley wears the signature aircrew brevet issued to qualified RAF pilots. The patch consists of the letters “RAF” embroidered in white inside a brown wreath with a white King’s crown embroidered atop it, all flanked by white embroidered swift’s wings on each side.

Also on his left breast, positioned under his wings brevet but directly above his pocket flap, is the white-and-purple striped ribbon representative of the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), an operational gallantry award given to all ranks of British service “in recognition of exemplary gallantry during active operation against the enemy in the air.” Hendley and his fellow Stalag Luft III inmates like Roger “Big X” Bartlett and Danny Velinski all proudly wearing their DFC medal ribbons would number them among the 20,354 real-life recipients of the DFC during World War II.

On each upper sleeve, Hendley wears a gently curved navy blue patch with “U.S.A.” embroidered in white, signifying his service as an American officer in the RAF. The more commonly seen Eagle Squadron patch, however, is larger with the letters “E.S.” in white above a white eagle with a black embroidered eye.

Unlike the United States, which echoes the Army rank system for Air Force officers, the British War Office deemed that the RAF should develop its own unique ranks for officers. Like his fellow officers Blythe, Macdonald, and Velinski, Hendley carries the rank Flight Lieutenant, equivalent to the army rank of Captain in the U.K. and the U.S. The Flight Lieutenant rank is denoted on the ends of his sleeves with two narrow sky blue rings each placed on a slightly wider black band.

In their boundless sartorial wisdom, the British military has authorized for years an elegant ivory rollneck jumper. Colloquially termed the “submarine sweater”, this garment soon found favor not only by the Royal Navy crews in the depths of the sea but also the Royal Air Force officers flying far above them.

While the Royal Air Force did offer its own garment to battle the cold weather of an open cockpit—issued as “22G/63 Frock, White, Aircrew”—this is a long and loose knit sweater that has a wide, 2”-tall standing collar rather than the classic rollneck associated with the Royal Navy’s pattern. (Learn more from the intrepid investigators at The Fedora Lounge.) Thus, the garment many associate with the RAF fliers is actually a Royal Navy deck sweater, made for World War II officers by the Leicester knitwear manufacturer J. Pick & Sons.

The sweater is a soft ivory 12-ply wool with ribbed rollneck, cuffs, and hem, deeply funneled enough that the neck and cuffs can be comfortably rolled back once and the hem can be comfortably tucked into uniform trousers. Unlike the baggy RAF frock meant to be worn over a uniform, the Royal Navy sweater was designed with slimmer sleeves that could be easily worn under most uniforms from battle dress to an Irvin flight jacket without adding bulk to the arms.

Modern shoppers interested in their own off-white submarine sweaters can check out the offerings from Outdoor Knitwear, which has reportedly manufactured the Royal Navy’s wool submariners’ sweaters “for many years”. Given its popularity, many other versions are also available from Amazon, MilitaryClothing.com, Silvermans, Soldier of Fortune, and What Price Glory.

Hendley is one of the few in camp who sports a jumper rather than a collared shirt on a day-by-day basis. While the appearance of a submarine sweater with RAF service dress is historically appropriate, there’s also some narrative value to Hendley’s look as the turtleneck adds a touch of relatable rebellion—without going the full McQueen—against the buttoned-up shirts and ties of his more correct colleagues like Bartlett, Ashley-Pitt, and Ramsey. When worn with the tilted cap and the unbuttoned top button of his tunic, Hendley’s look threatens to establish a unique brand of militaresque sprezzatura.

Hendley’s double forward-pleated uniform trousers are made from the same blue-gray worsted serge as his tunic. The waistband closes with a hidden hook-and-eye on an extended tab, and there are no belt loops, adjuster tabs, or outside brace buttons for holding up his trousers. They have straight pockets placed vertically along each side seam, a jetted button-through pocket on the back right, and plain-hemmed bottoms.

British military knitwear on display. While Hendley sports the ivory Royal Navy sweater tucked into his RAF serivce uniform trousers, “Diversions” expert Haynes (Lawrence Montaigne) next to him seems to be wearing a blue-gray version of the RAF “frock” with its wide standing collar and with the long hem partially torn away for greater mobility and comfort.

Since Hendley was sent to Stalag Luft III after being shot down in mid-mission, he is still wearing his flying boots, specifically the 1936 pattern flying boots in black leather. These boots have a smooth plain toe and a strap around the top that fastens through a silver-toned single-prong buckle.

He wears them with the heavy white wool knee-high socks that were authorized by the Royal Navy at sea and by the RAF with flight boots.

Hendley keeps his boots on even when kicking back in his bunk, as can be seen behind Roger and Colin as they determine the latter’s fitness for escape.

Hendley completes his uniform with the RAF’s peaked officers’ cap with a blue-gray barathea wool cloth cover and brim. Emblazoned on the front is the gold RAF officers’ badge consisting of crown, eagle, and oak leaf embroidery.

On his right wrist, Hendley wears a gold bracelet with a long, flat disc that may have been privately acquired as an identity bracelet to supplement his standard issue iD tags. (See an example of a Royal Flying Corps identity bracelet from World War I here.)

On the opposing wrist, Hendley wears his wristwatch, a simple steel number with a black dial and plain white hour markers, worn on a drab pigskin strap. It’s likely one of the “W.W.W.” (Wrist. Watch. Waterproof.) watches contracted from the “dirty dozen” Swiss watch companies—Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger Le-Coultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor, and Vertex—who each delivered their own variations of a military watch with a black dial, white Arabic numerals, and a sub-dial.

You can read more about military wristwatches of World War II here or specifically about the 12 variations of the British W.W.W. here.

Hendley arrives at Stalag Luft III with his brown sheepskin flight jacket nonchalantly thrown over his shoulder. This iconic coat was developed by Leslie Irvin, the American aviation pioneer who had invented the parachute rip-cord system in 1919 and is credited as the first man to make a premeditated free-fall jump from an airplane. As aviation technologies allowed planes to rise higher and higher over the course of the 20th century, Irvin noted that a better solution was needed to keep pilots warm and comfortable in the sub-zero temperatures of poorly insulated cockpits.

In 1931, Irvin began producing the flight jackets that would bear his name. “Made from heavyweight sheepskin, its thick natural wool provided incredible insulation,” describes the official Irvin flying jackets site. “And, while the sheepskin was considered heavyweight the jacket itself was comparatively light and remarkably comfortable. Irvin insisted on the most supple sheepskin: in a cramped cockpit movement was already restricted and no pilot or crew would want to be constrained further still. The Irvin jacket was a masterpiece of design, maximum warmth and comfort combined with maximum mobility.”

The zip-up jackets also have long zippers on the ends of each sleeve and a single-prong self-belt that fastens around the waist. There are no pockets, as the coat was originally meant solely to be worn in-flight over an aviator’s uniform when there would be no need to access one’s personal effects. The RAF’s Irvin flying jackets made quite an impression on the aerial fighting forces of the world, and the U.S. would soon develop its own B-3 sheepskin jacket for its Army Air Forces.

The closest Hendley comes to actually wearing his Irvin is slinging it over his shoulder as he scopes out the tools he can steal from a German truck.

It’s unfortunate that we never get to see the dashing Flight Lieutenant Hendley actually wearing his Irvin jacket, but Group Captain Ramsey (James Donald), the “SBO”, arrives at camp with his Irvin worn over his service uniform.

If you’re in the market for your own Irvin flying jacket, you can check out the selections from Aviation Leathercraft which promotes its wares as the genuine articles as well as the offerings from Aero Leather and What Price Glory.

These elements of the classic RAF uniform are undoubtedly familiar to fans of World War II movies like Battle of Britain (1969), where Michael Caine and Robert Shaw take to the skies in their service dress, Irvins, and sub jumpers to defend their homeland against the Luftwaffe. Even as recently as Dunkirk (2017), Tom Hardy’s RAF officer Farrier spent the duration of his screentime in the cockpit of a Spitfire, appropriately attired in an Irvin flight jacket over his service dress and ivory Royal Navy sweater.

Camp-made Civvies

For the titular escape from Stalag Luft III, Hendley is issued a gray striped civilian suit, gray tie, and a “homemade” gray felt fedora by Griffith, the de facto tailor among the imprisoned airmen.

The double-breasted suit jacket has broad peak lapels that sweep down to a six-button front, with two to close, and three smaller buttons on each cuff. The ventless jacket has a welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets as well. Like his uniform trousers, the suit trouser waistband has no belt loops, adjusters, or brace buttons, though the bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs).

Tally ho.

Hendley’s sky blue end-on-end cotton shirt has a spread collar, front placket, no pocket, and button cuffs, similar to the RAF service uniform shirts worn by many of his brothers-in-arms. It’s also likely the same shirt that he wore during the 4th of July celebration.

Hendley greets Group Captain Ramsey upon his return to camp with the few surviving escapees.

Hendley wears his same boots, socks, and watch while making his escape, although both his bracelet and watch are gone by the time he arrives back in camp with the rest of the recaptured airmen.

Go Big or Go Home

Bartlett: Where in God’s name did you get these?
Griffith: Hendley.
Bartlett: Well, where did he get them?
Griffith: Well, I asked him that.
Bartlett: What did he say?
Griffith: “Don’t ask.”

It’s one thing to be resourceful—scrounging everything from potatoes and a camera to an actual airplane taken during the escape—but Hendley doubles down by using his own natural charm as an asset, earning the fragile friendship and even trust of some German guards by sharing his contraband Lucky Strikes and Dutch chocolates with the young “ferret” Werner. Of course, it’s all an elaborate ruse staged for Hendley to try to force the chocolates on Werner to give him an opportunity to the lift the careless young German’s wallet for a look at the latest ID papers and travel permits that the team forger needs to copy.

Hendley isn’t above resorting to pickpocketing to get his hands on resources needed for the escape.

James Garner on the set of The Great Escape, reading William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It would have been quite a victory for Hendley to scrounge a book that wouldn’t be published until 1960, but I wouldn’t put it past him!

Hendley’s storied resourcefulness is both admirable and helpful, but the character’s greatest trait is arguably his loyalty. When the pragmatic “Big X” Bartlett deems Hendley’s near-blink bunkmate Colin Blythe (Donald Pleasance) to be too much of a liability to participate in the escape, Hendley won’t stand to see the man left behind.

Bartlett: Not Colin. He’d be an appalling hazard to the whole escape. That must be my decision.
Hendley: You want to talk about hazards? Let talk about hazards. Lets talk about you. You’re the biggest hazard we have. The Gestapo has you marked. No one has said you can’t go.

He truly embodies going big or going home, seeing it not as an either/or scenario, choosing to go big—escaping from a Nazi POW camp—in order to go home.

Hendley: Come on, Roger. We all know the score here, at least… most of us do. Your idea of this escape is to start another front, to foul up the Germans behind the lines. All right, that’s fine, that’s fine. But once we get passed that barbed wire, once we have them looking all over Germany for us, that mission is accomplished. Afterwards, we have some ideas of our own.
Bartlett: You mean getting home? Back to your family and children?
Hendley: That’s right.

The Gun

Like his fellow countryman Captain Hilts (Steve McQueen), James Garner’s Flight Lieutenant Hendley manages to briefly get his hands on a German weapon while making his escape. Hendley and Blythe (Donald Pleasance) sneak onto a Wehrmacht airfield, knocking out a German sentry and grabbing the man’s bolt-action Karabiner 98k, the issued rifle for German ground forces during World War II.

Hendley never gets the chance to use his commandeered Karabiner 98k, and it’s likely for the best as engaging in combat with the German soldiers pursuing him would have almost certainly led to his own demise.

Developed in 1935 on orders from the Heereswaffenamt, the Karabiner 98k is considered among the last development of the Mauser rifle series that includes the venerated Gewehr 98 rifle. The K98k retains the sizable 7.92x57mm Mauser cartridge of the older G98, loaded with five-round stripper clips that only carried half the capacity of the then-standard short magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE) rifles issued by the British. The K98k was at an additional disadvantage when compared to the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle fielded by the Americans at the time.

Despite the technical advantages of its enemies’ rifles, Germany’s decision to stick with the Karabiner 98k throughout the duration of the war is considered an extension of their military tactic of investing the majority of its firepower on squad machine guns with riflemen engaged only to support the machine gunner’s efforts.

How to Get the Look

Hendley, the dashing, determined, and devil-may-care American airman, counters the expected appearance of a prisoner of war by keeping his RAF uniform clean and unique to his own personality.

James Garner as Flight Lieutenant Hendley in The Great Escape (1963)

• Blue-gray wool serge RAF service uniform jacket with notch lapels, self-belt with double-prong tall gold buckle, four-button single-breasted front, box-pleated chest pockets with scalloped button-down flaps, bellows hip pockets with rectangular button-down flaps, and single back vent
  • RAF Flight Lieutenant sleeve insignia
  • Royal Air Force (RAF) padded “wings” patch
  • Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) award ribbon
  • “U.S.A.” shoulder patches
• Ivory ribbed-knit wool turtleneck Royal Navy submariner’s sweater with long set-in sleeves
• Blue-gray wool serge RAF uniform trousers with fitted waistband, double forward pleats, straight/on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black RAF 1936 pattern flying boots with plain toe and buckle-tab strap around uppers
• White ribbed-knit wool knee-high socks
• White cotton crew-neck short-sleeve undershirt
• RAF peaked officer’s cap with blue-gray barathea wool cover and peak with gold-embroidered badge and black patent leather strap
• Gold chain-link ID bracelet
• Steel military-style “W.W.W.” watch with round black dial on drab pigskin strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and read Paul Brickhill’s 1950 book that formed the basis for the movie. Brickhill was an Australian prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III whose claustrophobia prevented him from escaping with the others. After the murder of the 50, Brickhill was determined to chronicle the details of the mass escape.

Paul Brickhill begins the fourth chapter of his written account of the real escape with the description of Johnny Travis, a resourceful and dapper Rhodesian in the RAF whose penchant for finding tools and always presenting himself in a full, complete uniform sounds somewhat reminiscent of Garner’s portrayal of Flight Lieutenant Hendley:

In a gaggle of men noted for beard stubble, shaken skulls, and general spectacular scruffiness, Travis stuck out like Beau Brummel. He’d got his RAF uniform through in a Red Cross parcel, and he pressed his pants every night under his bunk and ironed his tunic with a tin of hot water. He polished his boots, wore a silk scarf, brushed his hair and begged, borrowed, or stole enough razor blades to keep his pink face as smooth as a baby’s bottom. He had a theory that if he went around looking immaculate the ferrets would never bale him up in the compound, as they sometimes did to people, to search for things no model prisoner should have, even to the extent of looking into the embarrassing parts of the body.

The idea seemed to work because they never tackled him, which was just as well because he was in the middle of tooling up the engineer’s section and usually was a walking toolshop, with pliers and chisels and hacksaw blades stuffed in his pockets.

The Quote

Colin’s not a blind man as long as he’s with me… and he’s going with me!

Footnote

In addition to Garner’s own experiences as a “scrounger” for his U.S. Army unit during the Korean War, the character of Hendley is believed to be partly based on Charles Albert Cook Jr., an American pilot that had been assigned to No. 133 Squadron during World War II. Flight Lieutenant Cook’s Spitfire was shot down over Brest on September 26, 1942, three days before the Eagle Squadrons were officially transferred, though Cook had technically already been incorporated into the 336th Fighter Squadron of the USAAF. Cook was held at Stalag Luft III at Sagan-Silesia, the same camp portrayed in The Great Escape, though he did not actually participate in the escape.

The only Eagle Squadron pilot to participate in the escape, British-born Flight Lieutenant Gordon Brettell, was recaptured within two days and was one of the 50 that was murdered by the Gestapo in the days to follow.

Joe Pesci as Vinny Gambini in My Cousin Vinny (1992)

Vitals

Joe Pesci as Vincent LaGuardia “Vinny” Gambini, fledgling defense attorney

“Beechum County”, Alabama, January into February 1992

Film: My Cousin Vinny
Release Date: March 13, 1992
Director: Jonathan Lynn
Costume Designer: Carol Wood

Background

Happy birthday to Joe Pesci! Though the 76-year-old actor has been mostly retired from acting over the last two decades, he’s occasionally stepped back into the camera lens for a few sporadic screen appearances, most recently a Google Assistant ad that played during Super Bowl LIII and his latest collaboration with Martin Scorsese, The Irishman, scheduled to be released this fall.

Following his notable Oscar win for Goodfellas—and his short, humble acceptance speech that consisted solely of “It’s my privilege, thank you”—Pesci had some fun parodying his excitable screen persona in comedies like Home Alone, the Lethal Weapon series, and My Cousin Vinny.

The latter stars Pesci as Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, an ambitious and animated amateur attorney from Brooklyn who finds himself taking on his first murder case in Alabama. A real pesce-out-of-water story.

As well as a surprisingly accurate and entertaining portrayal of judicial procedure, My Cousin Vinny also includes one of my all-time favorite movie sight gags as Vinny and his equally Brooklynite querida, Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei, who won an Academy Award for the role), sit down to breakfast at a rural diner. They’re handed a menu and mull over the contents for a while.

“Breakfast?” asks Lisa.

“Ya think?” responds Vinny.

We then see the menu itself and its three rather limited options…

I’d get the breakfast, too.

What’d He Wear?

Judge Haller: What are you wearing?
Vinny: Huh?
Judge Haller: What are you wearing?
Vinny: Um… I’m wearin’ clothes. I…I don’t get the question.
Judge Haller: When you come into my court lookin’ like you do, you not only insult me, but you insult the integrity of this court.
Vinny: I apologize, sir, but this is how I dress.
Judge Haller: Next time you come into my courtroom, you will look lawyerly, and I mean you comb your hair and wear a suit and tie—and that suit better be made out of some kind of cloth. You understand me?

The attire that Judge Haller (Fred Gwynne) takes such passionate offense to is Vinny’s signature item, a well-worn black leather jacket cut like a ventless sport jacket with a full-bellied shawl collar.

There are worse things one could wear in a courtroom…

Despite Judge Haller’s objection to it, this black leather jacket is Vinny’s primary garment for the first half of the movie until he shows up to jury selection, and—eventually—the trial itself in a conservative gray worsted business suit.

The burgeoning online industry of questionable film jacket retailers even includes a few takes on the My Cousin Vinny jacket among its ranks (see here and here), though obviously one on the hunt for a quality leather jacket is always better advised to inquire from a trusted company and, ideally, one where you can try on the garment before purchasing it.

Vinny’s black leather jacket has wide shoulders with roped sleeveheads, a welted breast pocket, and widely jetted hip pockets placed along a horizontal yoke in line with the coat’s sole front button. Each sleeve ends with a short, reinforced vent with two functional buttons.

Vinny manages to look out of place both in a staid courtroom and at a rural rib joint.

“A little informal, aren’t we?” Haller first observed upon meeting Vinny as the latter stands before him in his office wearing a black long-sleeve T-shirt tucked into his black slacks. Indeed, Vinny is even more dressed down than usual for his meeting with Haller, though he could be forgiven as the cotton crew-neck long-sleeve T-shirt was probably more comfortable for his and Lisa’s long car ride into Alabama.

The T-shirt allows Vinny to prominently display his gold pendant, no doubt emblazoned with an embossed saint, worn on a gold rope-twist necklace.

Any idea what’s on Vinny’s pendant?

Vinny shows up in court for the arraignment at least wearing a collared shirt made from a soft, napped black cloth with a purple windowpane grid check. The shirt has a point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs.

At breakfast, Vinny wears the shirt half-open to reveal his black cotton sleeveless undershirt beneath, though he buttons up by the time he has to appear in court.

After Haller’s admonishment during the arraignment, Vinny continues trying to dress up his look by adding a tie, though the novelty black silk tie printed with large alarm clocks on it hardly makes him look like Clarence Darrow. Competing to complete Vinny’s lack of professional attire is his black-on-teal tiger-striped shirt.

Judge Haller: Now didn’t I tell you next time you appear in my courtroom that you’d dress appropriately?
Vinny: You were serious about that?

Haller made the point of expressing that he likes lawyers in his courtroom to be wearing coats and ties. Technically, Vinny gives him no reason to complain.

Vinny has no one to impress when he shows up at the Beechum County lockup, so he wears a plain gray shirt under his leather jacket. The long-sleeve shirt has a casual one-piece collar and the buttons are widely spaced out up the plain front.

Vinny seems to be sticking to this aesthetic for his trials and tribulations outside the courtroom, trading legal histories and cups of coffee in opposing counsel Jim Trotter’s office while wearing a lightweight gray-blue shirt striped in alternating double sets of black and light gray stripes. Like his other button-ups, this shirt has a pronounced point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs.

The chat leads to Vinny agreeing to accompany Trotter on a hunting trip, though the suggestion leaves Vinny somewhat befuddled about what to wear. In fact, Vinny seems more concerned with looking appropriate on the hunt than in the courtroom.

“What about these pants I got on, you think they’re okay?” he calls out to Mona Lisa, who’s shut herself into the bathroom. She takes a few moments before reentering the room: “Imagine you’re a deer. You’re prancing along, you get thirsty, you spot a little brook, you put your little deer lips down to the cool clear water… bam! A fuckin’ bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are layin’ on the ground in little bloody pieces. Now I ax ya, would ya give a fuck the kind of pants the son-of-a-bitch who shot you was wearing?”

Her diatribe aside, Vinny sticks with the same double reverse-pleated chinos that he’s worn throughout the movie—in black, of course. The trousers have straight pockets along each side-seam and jetted back pockets that each close with a single-button.

To be consistent with his cowboy boots, Vinny wears a black leather Western style belt with matched brushed steel hardware consisting of a big curved single-prong square buckle, pointed tip, and two keepers. Decent belts like this can range from $30 to $40 on Amazon while more exotic leathers like lizard and ostrich are available for a few hundred dollars from established bootmakers like Lucchese. Vinny’s belt is so long that he is forced to tie the end around itself, where it hangs down suggestively by his fly.

At least his shirt is tucked in… though maybe that’s not doing him any favors.

The plain hems of Vinny’s trousers bottoms are rolled up once for a self-cuff over the shafts of his boots for, as he did in Goodfellas, Joe Pesci enhances his height with a pair of raised-heel cowboy boots. In fact, these boots are the first we see of Vinny when he steps out of his Cadillac upon peeling into Beechum County.

“I fit in better than you!” he responds to Mona Lisa’s criticism. “At least I’m wearin’ cowboy boots!”

“Oh, yeah, you blend,” she responds with decided sarcasm.

Vinny, blending.

Whether or not the boots help Vinny to “blend” is a matter of debate that we’ll leave to his litigation skills, so we’ll stick to the undeniable facts: the boots are black leather with decorative tonal stitching on the shaft where years of wear are evident. The boots have been further customized with pointed silver tips and heel guards.

Underneath the boots, Vinny diverts from his black clothing to sport a pair of plain white crew socks, the very type that Llewelyn Moss had so clearly specified with his own boots in No Country for Old Men.

Just a cozy night in at a motel, studying Alabama’s rules of criminal procedure.

Although his socks are white, Vinny’s underwear is typically all black, including his loose-fitting sleeveless undershirts and black cotton boxer shorts that he wears when lounging around the motel room.

A little something for the ladies.

Vinny loads up his arms with as much gold jewelry as Tony Soprano from a chain-link bracelet on his right wrist and a watch on his left to a ring on each pinky.

The right hand pinky ring appears to have a small diamond while the signet ring on his left has a flat black surface with what appears to be a gold knight’s head emerging from it.

Vinny’s the kind of guy who not only keeps a deck of cards in his pocket but also uses said cards to convince a guy to risk his life to prove that Vinny’s amateur lawyering can save him.

Following a decade where Tom Cruise famously sported Ray-Bans in three of his biggest movies (Wayfarers in Risky Business, Aviators in Top Gun, and Clubmasters in Rain Man), Joe Pesci gives the brand some extra screen time when Vinny emerges from his Cadillac in a pair of black-framed Ray-Ban sunglasses with large, round brown-tinted lenses.

Vinny sizes up his new home for the next few weeks.

Eyewear expert Preston Fassel gave me a helpful hand by noting the black metal frame that first emerged as a trend in the early ’90s, so his sunglasses were likely relatively new at the time of My Cousin Vinny‘s production. “As a result, Pesci’s frames here are distinct in that they lack a bridge. Aviators are often called ‘double bars’ in the optical world, so it’s noteworthy when metal frames lack them,” Preston informed me.

Preston further deduced that the style itself is likely Ray-Ban’s attempt to mimic the Persol 714 that Steve McQueen had made famous. Both Persol and Ray-Ban were separate entities in the early ’90s but, over the course of the decade, both would be vertically integrated into the Milan-based eyewear behemoth Luxottica Group.

The Vintage Suit

I bought a suit—you seen it—now it’s covered in mud. This town doesn’t have a one hour cleaner so I had to buy a new suit, except the only store you could buy a new suit in has got the flu. You get that? The whole store got the flu. So I had to get this in a second hand store. So it’s either wear the leather jacket, which I know you hate, or this… so, I wore this ridiculous thing for you.

Vinny makes quite an impression on Judge Haller’s courtroom when he shows up at trial wearing a fiery Gilded Age-inspired vintage three-piece suit complete with tailcoat and grosgrain piping. The color of the suit is a rusty red-brown accented with burnt orange grosgrain piping on the coat’s broad peak lapels and down the low V-shaped opening of the matching waistcoat.

The tailcoat has a decorative double-breasted front with three non-functioning buttons on each side before the coat cuts away at the waist on a sharp right angle. The coat has no external pockets and a single decorative button on each cuff.

The backless waistcoat fastens at the back of the neck and has four flat plastic sew-through buttons down the front, though Vinny correctly leaves the lowest button undone at the notched bottom. The flat front trousers have slanted pockets and a tuxedo-style side braid down each leg.

Vinny’s pink cotton shirt has a narrowly pleated bib, front placket, and button cuffs. Though it is likely meant to echo the detachable collars from shirts of yore, the white cutaway spread collar is attached to the shirt. Vinny wears a loosely pre-tied burgundy bow tie with the ensemble.

How to Get the Look

It may not be orthodox for courtroom attire, but Vinny Gambini’s all-black, leather-anchored, cowboy-influenced aesthetic differentiates him as an individualist who takes pride in the fact that he has a defined style if not in the clothes themselves.

Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny (1992)

• Black leather sport jacket with wide shawl collar, welted breast pocket, widely jetted hip pockets, functional 2-button cuff vents, and ventless back
• Black or gray patterned button-up shirt with point collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Black chino double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and self-cuffed plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather Western belt with brushed steel single-prong curved buckle, pointed tip, and two keepers
• Black cowboy boots with decorative shaft stitching
• White crew socks
• Black sleeveless undershirt
• Gold pendant on rope-twist necklace
• Gold chain-link bracelet
• Gold wristwatch with black rectangular dial on flat gold bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with diamond
• Gold pinky ring with knight’s head on black flat surface
• Ray-Ban black metal-framed sunglasses with large brown-tinted lenses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

You like to renegotiate as you go along, don’t you? Well, here’s my counter-offer… do I have to kill you? What if I were just to kick the ever-loving shit out of you?

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

Joey Evans’s first night with the band finds him already complicating his romantic life, balancing his attraction to the demure singer Linda English (Kim Novak) with the vivacious ex-stripper Vera Prentice-Simpson (Rita Hayworth) when the band is hired to play a gig at Vera’s place as a fundraise for the local children’s hospital.

Speaking of which, the children’s hospital in my hometown is currently sponsoring a terrific fundraiser for sports fans. Learn more about how you can enter to win autographed gear from Steelers and Penguins and support the cancer programs at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh here!

But back to Joey, who can’t hold his tongue after sizing up the glamorous Vera…

Joey: Not a bad-looking mouse.
Ned: Yeah. Too bad you can’t afford her brand of cheese.

Sappy romantic that I am, I was inspired to draft this post in the spirit of Valentine’s Day this past week, though my work at the hospital has also informed me that February is Heart Month, an observance to raise awareness of cardiovascular diseases that kicks off with #NationalWearRedDay on the first Friday of the month.

What’d He Wear?

Red is the uniform color for Ned Galvin and his Galvinizers, from the mens’ mess jackets to Linda’s satin dress.

Per Alan Flusser in Dressing the Man: “The white mess jacket represented the first radical change in male evening wear and received such broad national acceptance that it was immediately adopted for the uniforms of bellhops and orchestra members.” The decision to dress the gents of the band in matching mess jackets was a common practice in mid-century America, though it can arguably be linked to the reduced popularity of the mess jacket as an alternative to traditional black tie due to its growing connotation implying that its wearer was among “the help”.

Joey and Linda, two galvanizing Galvinizers in red.

The red wool waist-length mess jackets worn by Joey and the boys are covered with three-color flecking in burgundy, gold, and white. The jackets are double-breasted with flat black plastic two-hole sew-through buttons in the classic six-on-two formation with a seventh button along the edge of the right side; evidently, unlike some mess jackets, this one was built with functioning buttons that could be closed, though Joey wears his open for a slightly more relaxed appearance.

A reassuring wink. Joey shows us one major benefit of mess jackets: a wearer can stick his hands in his trouser pockets without bunching up the jacket.

“While it resembled a tailcoat cut off at the waistline, the mess jacket was not flattering to many figures, particularly those that didn’t happen to resemble that of Adonis,” comments Flusser. Like the traditional mess jacket, Joey’s band uniform coat ends at the waist, gently coming to a point in the center of his back.

Befitting the semi-formal nature of mess jackets, Joey wears his with a plain white cotton shirt without the frilly lace trim or fancier pleats of the dress shirts he would later wear with more formal dinner jackets. Instead, the shirt has a plain front with mother-of-pearl sew-through buttons and double (French) cuffs fastened in place with his usual large silver-toned ridged round silver cuff links. The shirt has a large point collar where he has knotted a long, straight black silk bow tie.

Though Joey’s mess jacket was made with functional buttons to allow the wearer to close the front, he wears it open, revealing the wide black pleated silk cummerbund that elongates his waist for a considerably high rise. The cummerbund conceals the top of his black wool formal trousers, which have double reverse pleats flanking the fly, side pockets, and the usual black grosgrain silk braid down each side to the plain-hemmed bottoms.

Joey, front and center.

Joey’s shoes are black patent leather oxfords, worn with black socks.

Joey willingly withdraws to the side of the stage to spectate as Vera reverts to her days as Vera with the Vanishing Veils to perform “Zip”.

Though Joey would later wear a gold tank watch not dissimilar to Sinatra’s own, he doesn’t appear to have a visible timepiece in this sequence.

Frank Sinatra as Joey Evans in Pal Joey (1957)

How to Get the Look

By the time of Pal Joey‘s production in the mid-1950s, the role of the mess jacket had been mostly subjugated to slick bands and the service industry, with Joey and his fellow Galvinizers falling under the former category.

Yet, it’s hard to beat Frank Sinatra in formal attire and Joey still dresses to impress in the band’s issued duds.

• Red flecked wool waist-length mess jacket with shawl collar, six-button double-breasted front, and plain cuffs
• White cotton dress shirt with long point collar, plain front, and double/French cuffs
  • Round silver ridged cuff links
• Black straight bow tie
• Black pleated silk cummerbund
• Black double reverse-pleated formal trousers with satin side stripes, straight/on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black patent leather oxfords
• Black silk socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie!

James Coburn as Tex Panthollow in Charade (1963)

Vitals

James Coburn as Tex Panthollow, larcenous former OSS commando

Paris, April 1963

Film: Charade
Release Date: December 5, 1963
Director: Stanley Donen

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

As portrayed by the brilliant and versatile James Coburn, Tex Panthollow makes his dramatic introduction in the beginning of Charade as the second of three mysterious men who show up to “pay respects” at the funeral of their one-time brother-in-arms Charles Lampert, each one increasingly perplexing his widow Reggie (Audrey Hepburn) with their behavior. Par examplum: Tex draws a hand-sized mirror from his inside breast pocket and holds it directly under the deceased’s nose to ensure that he’s really passed from this world before sneering: “Arrive-derci, Charlie.”

The trio begin terrorizing Reggie in their campaign to recover $250,000 in gold that they and Charlie “liberated” from the Germans during World War II. Reggie’s companion, played by Cary Grant, manages to arouse suspicion among the three men by suggesting that one of them already has the money, though Tex finds the idea “distasteful… us bein’ veterans of the same war and all.”

What’d He Wear?

When he closes the door we can see "TEX" PENTHOLLOW, a slim, rangy man with sandy-colored hair, a weatherbeaten face, washed-out blue-eyes -- also in his forties. He wears a velvet-corduroy suit, string tie and a bright yellow flower in his lapel.  A bulldurham tag hangs from his outside breast pocket, dangling from its string.

Screenwriter Peter Stone had always envisioned the corduroy suit—complete with tobacco tag hanging from his pocket—as part of Tex’s image, though the “string tie” was lost in the adaptation in favor of a more timeless and traditional straight tie.

Tex makes his dramatic introduction at Charlie Lampert’s funeral, wearing a yellow flower in his lapel.

“A tall man in a corduroy suit,” is how Reggie remembers Tex when describing him to CIA administrator Hamilton Bartholomew, leaving out the unnecessary detail of the yellow flower in his lapel as he had left that with Charlie in the casket.

The corduroy of the suit itself has a wale so thin—often referred to as “needlecord” or “pinwale”—that it can barely be discerned, even in close-ups. The color is similar to the elusive shade of puce, a light taupe-brown with a pinkish cast.

Note the fine wale of Tex’s suiting.

Tex’s single-breasted 3/2-roll needlecord suit jacket could easily be orphaned and repurposed by a more casual modern wearer as an odd jacket with chinos or even jeans. The jacket has a single vent, three-button cuffs, and patch pockets with straight flaps. From the welted breast pocket dangles the tag of his tobacco pouch, suspended from a yellow string.

The three un-wise men: Herman Scobie (George Kennedy), Tex Panthollow, and Leopold W. Gideon (Ned Glass).

The flat front trousers sit low on Coburn’s waist, especially for 1963, but there are no suspenders, belt, or side-adjusters to hold them up; the only suspension is an extended waistband tab with a hidden hook closure. The trousers have frogmouth front pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Despite his cowboy reputation, Tex foregoes the classic riding boot in favor of the more mod Chelsea boot, defined by Hardy Amies only a year later in 1964 as “the plain-fronted, elastic-sided short boot (covering the ankle) [that] is the basis of the whole boot trend in footwear today.” The Chelsea boot phenomenon is often traced back to the Beatles, who would hit their first #1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, just shy of two months after Charade was released.

With his black calf leather Chelsea boots, Tex wears a pair of black cotton lisle socks.

While the venerated gingham check had long been associated with rural style and characters like Judy Garland’s Kansas farm girl in The Wizard of Oz, the pattern was emerging as a favorite among mods in the mid-’60s when James Coburn wore this navy-and-white gingham shirt in Charade. Tex’s shirt has a button-down collar, plain front, and button cuffs.

Tex confronts Reggie Lampert at her husband’s funeral.

Tex completes his look with a slim and straight dark navy knit tie, likely no wider than two inches and flat across the bottom.

The Gun

Jean-Louis: Are you a real cowboy?
Tex: Yeah, sure I am, kid.
Jean-Louis: So where’s your gun?

Tex rises to Jean-Louis’ bait, drawing a massive Colt New Service revolver from his trouser waistband, though you can tell Tex is the type just itching for people to ask to see his sidearm.

With his finger on the trigger of his Colt New Service, Tex doesn’t show much regard for gun safety. Scobie better watch out.

The Colt New Service dates back to the time of the final years of the 19th century that found the United States at war with Cuba and the Philippines. During the latter conflict in particular, American troops were finding themselves woefully undergunned with their sidearms, the Colt Model 1892 revolver chambered in .38 Long Colt and outfitted with the revolutionary swing-out cylinder that has all but replaced the previous loading gate and top-break mechanisms of earlier revolvers. The U.S. military was able to reach into its existing stores to reissue the slower-loading but powerful Colt Single Action Army revolver chambered in .45 Long Colt, but it was clear that new sidearms would be needed that combined the innovation of the new revolvers with the man-stopping ability of the old. Enter the Colt New Service.

Though Colt first introduced the large-framed New Service in 1898, it wasn’t until 1909 that the Army officially replaced the M1892 with the 5½”-barreled New Service chambered in .45 Colt, adopting it across the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. In the decades to follow, the Colt New Service would be available in most popular larger-caliber cartridges from .357 Magnum, .38 Special, and .38-40 Winchester up to .44-40 Winchester, .44 Russian, .44 Special, and .455 Webley as well as standard American military rounds .45 Colt and, in 1917, the rimless .45 ACP semi-automatic pistol cartridge with half-moon clips to hold them in position.

How to Get the Look

James Coburn as Tex Panthollow in Charade (1963)

An American in Paris, Tex Panthollow doesn’t leave his all-American sense of style—an Ivy-inspired aesthetic with a cowboy attitude—at home.

• Taupe-puce needlecord cotton suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/2-roll jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped patch pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Flat front trousers with extended waistband tab, frogmouth front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Navy-and-white gingham check cotton shirt with button-down collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Dark navy knit straight tie
• Black calf leather Chelsea boots with elastic side gussets
• Black cotton lisle socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, and be sure to find one of the high-quality versions like the recent Criterion Collection release. The film’s decades under public domain meant an abundance of lower-quality versions opportunistically released on home video to take advantage of the film’s high profile and cast recognition.

The Quote

Oh, poor old Herman. It seems like him and good luck always was strangers. Well, maybe now he’ll meet up with his other hand some place.

Ken Takakura as Ken Tanaka in The Yakuza (1974)

Vitals

Ken Takakura as Ken Tanaka, disciplined ex-Yakuza

Tokyo, Spring 1974

Film: The Yakuza
Release Date: December 28, 1974
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Designer: Dorothy Jeakins

Background

The Yakuza was the first screenplay credited to either Paul Schrader or Leonard Schrader, whose experiences in Japan inspired his brother to write the story. Leonard returned to the United States, where he spend the holiday season in Venice co-writing the screenplay’s first draft with Paul, who would later famously collaborate with Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver and Raging Bull among others. While the brothers watched many yakuza films for inspiration, what impressed them the most was the stoic screen presence of Ken Takakura, the Nakama-born actor who’d made his screen debut two decades earlier.

The Yakuza starred Robert Mitchum opposite Takakura, who played a former yakuza gangster now teaching kendo that finds himself called back into service to repay a decades-old debt to Mitchum’s character, Harry Kilmer.

An action-packed night begins in a dark nightclub as a band sings about the honor of a yakuza, serenading a crowd that includes Harry and Ken. Harry’s exit prompts Ken to head to the bathroom, where a handful of opportunistic “free agent” assassins attempt to corner him. Ken being Ken, he anticipated their arrival and catches them off guard when they ask him to hand Harry over to them. Even after dismissing Harry as “not family” to his face, Ken refuses to give up the American to the killers on the grounds that he’s “family”.

What’d He Wear?

The Yakuza is a splendid showcase for turtlenecks, with all three of its male leads getting plenty of mileage from a rotating selection of roll-neck sweaters.

While the Americans opt for bulkier turtlenecks, Ken Tanaka prefers lighter-weight, slimmer-fitting knitwear that flatters his lean frame. We are introduced to Ken at his kendo school in Kyoto where he wears an ivory roll-neck sweater under his Levi’s trucker jacket to meet Harry, but—once he has taken up the sword again—he almost exclusively wears a black ribbed-knit roll-neck that signifies his return to darkness.

Kings of the rollneck: Ken Tanaka and Robert Mitchum in The Yakuza.

As opposed to Harry’s warm, earthy tones of olive, tan, and taupe, Ken prefers cooler shades like this grayscale-friendly outfit anchored by a gray-and-black herringbone tweed sport jacket over his black rollneck.

Ken’s single-breasted sports coat has wide notch lapels that roll to a two-button front as well as two vestigal buttons spaced apart on each cuff. In addition to the welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets, there is a flapped ticket pocket on the right side. The jacket has natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads and a single vent in the back.

Ken stays true to his monochromatic template with a pair of charcoal flat front trousers that complement the jacket’s wide lapels with its wide plain-hemmed bottoms. The lightweight turtleneck is tucked into the trousers, revealing the large curved silver-toned buckle of his wide black leather belt.

Ken’s black leather “Beatle boots” rise high over his ankles with raised heels and zippers along the inside of each boot.

Ken Tanaka takes a smoke break on the set of The Yakuza.

Ken’s stone-colored gabardine raincoat is his only divergence from his grayscale outfit, though it would hardly be called colorful. The raglan-sleeve coat has five buttons up from the waist to neck with a concealed fly. There are slanted side pockets on the front, a single vent in the back, and pointed half-tab cuffs on the sleeve ends that each fasten with a single button.

Ken is decidedly unimpressed with the three henchmen who corner him in a public bathroom.

Hardly seen under Ken’s left cuff is his steel-cased wristwatch. Its brief screen time all but obliterates any chance for identification, as opposed to the steel Rolex Datejust that Robert Mitchum wore in this movie as well as in real life.

How to Get the Look

Ken Takakura with Robert Mitchum in The Yakuza (1974)

The black turtleneck that Ken Takakura wears in The Yakuza communicates his return to the violent side of his personality, as evident with his choice to wear it here with his gray tweed jacket and later with his navy Harrington jacket during his and Harry’s assault on Yakuza boss Tono.

• Gray-and-black herringbone tweed single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets with flapped ticket pocket, spaced 2-button cuffs, and single vent
• Black ribbed-knit turtleneck/rollneck sweater
• Charcoal flat front trousers with belt loops and wide plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather belt with large curved silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather inside-zip “Beatle boots”
• Stone gabardine 5-button raglan-sleeve raincoat with slanted side pockets and single vent
• Steel wristwatch

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

If nothing else, this sorrow has brought us together again. I’m thankful for that.

Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural (1984)

Vitals

Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs, eager baseball prodigy

Chicago, Spring 1923

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

Background

Tomorrow is MLB Opening Day, meaning baseball season is back and in full swing (forgive the pun), so let’s take a look at a look from one of the most classic of baseball movies, The Natural.

“I guess some mistakes you never stop paying for,” are the words that must echo through Roy Hobbs’ brain every day for the 16 years after he was shot by a self-destructive—or just generally destructive—baseball groupie, Harriet Bird (Barbara Hershey).

When Bernard Malamud was working on his debut novel, The Natural, he took inspiration from the story of Eddie Waitkus, the former first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies who was shot and nearly killed by an obsessive female stalker who, as she later told an assistant state attorney, wanted “to do something exciting in my life.”

The multi-talented Waitkus had been deemed a “natural” during his rookie years before he joined the U.S. Army and received four Bronze Stars for his service in the Philippines. He returned from the war and became a rising star for the Chicago Cubs, and it was at Wrigley Field on April 27, 1947 that 17-year-old Ruth Ann Steinhagen (born Ruth Catherine Steinhagen before she changed her middle name) first laid eyes on him.

For more than two years, Steinhagen’s infatuation with Waitkus grew, including after his trade to the Phillies after the 1948 season. On June 14, 1949, the Phillies returned to Chicago for the first of a four-game series against the Cubs, winning 9-2. Now 19 and working as a typist, Steinhagen attended the game and followed Waitkus back to the Edgewater Beach Hotel that evening, where she sent him a note using the alias of “Ruth Anne Burns”, a woman he was acquainted with, insisting that he come to her room to discuss “something of importance.” When Steinhagen refused to explain any further over the phone, Waitkus went up the three floors to her 12th floor room. “I have a surprise for you,” Steinhagen greeted him, supposedly introducing herself as Mary Brown, a friend of Ruth Anne Burns.

The consequences of lust, per Malamud; Roy Hobbs ended up with a belly full of lead while Harriet discovered she was a Bird that couldn’t fly.

Steinhagen’s plan to stab Waitkus then shoot herself was muddled when the first baseman took a seat. Nevertheless, she pulled a .22-caliber rifle from her closet and shot Waitkus as he stood back up. The bullet just missing his heart and lodged in his lung. She knelt beside the wounded Waitkus, placing her hand on his as he asked: “Oh, baby, what did you do that for?” Unable to find a second bullet to shoot herself, she called the front desk of the hotel to announce “I just shot a man…” and waited for the medical attention that would save Waitkus’ life.

Unlike Roy Hobbs, Waitkus did not need to wait 16 years to return to baseball and donned his uniform again just two months later on August 19 for “Eddie Waitkus Night” at Shibe Park. Despite his 1950 season that led the “Whiz Kids” in scoring and recognition as the Associated Press “Comeback Player of the Year”, the incident haunted Waitkus for the rest of his life as he developed a drinking problem and was always concerned that people questioned his motives for going to Steinhagen’s hotel room in the first place.

While Waitkus may have had some valid reasons to visit Steinhagen’s room based on the note to him sent using an actual acquaintance’s name, the moment was transformed by Malamud into a morality lesson as it was more lurid impulses that guided Roy Hobbs to Harriet Bird’s room and the business end of her .38.

What’d He Wear?

After a brief prologue set during his formative years, we officially meet Roy Hobbs, the picture of all-American innocence: a seemingly incorruptible blond-haired, bright-eyed teenager (played by a 47-year-old Robert Redford!) in a tweed cap and cardigan, going off to play baseball for the big leagues!

Roy, age 19, spends one final night with Iris (Glenn Close) before heading off to try out for the Cubs.

One of two “hero” sweaters worn by Robert Redford in The Natural, courtesy of The Golden Closet.

According to its listing at The Golden Closet, Roy’s long beige cardigan was one of two knitted for the production by Broadway Knitting Mills, which had modified a loom to match a period-correct knit pattern. The sweater has a rounder knit up the wide placket and around the neck, which folds over into a shawl collar when Roy wears it. It has five mixed brown plastic sew-through buttons and welted pockets on the hips.

It may be significant that the next time we see the cardigan after the Nebraska-set opening, Roy is in Chicago after a train ride that led to his acquaintance with the dark, mysterious, and alluring Harriet Bird. After she calls his room, Roy throws the cardigan over his shirt and tie and eagerly strolls off to his fate.

Roy’s shirt is light blue with subdued brown stripes. It has a front placket and single-button rounded cuffs. Per the predominant style for dress shirts in the early 1920s, the shirt does not have an attached collar and is instead worn with a white rounded club collar that can be removed, cleaned, and starched on its own. As laundry capabilities increased and formality decreased over the course of the decade, the detachable collar became an old-fashioned relic reserved solely for formal wear, and even then it was soon eclipsed by attached-collar shirts by mid-century.

Roy Hobbs takes a phone call that he should have avoided.

Roy wears a brown tie with a tan vine-like pattern in the Deco tradition, tied in a tight four-in-hand knot that barely fills the space between the leaves of his detachable club collar.

Roy’s light brown striped flat front trousers have belt loops, though he neglects these in favor of wearing suspenders (braces) instead, fastened to buttons on the inside of his trouser waistband. The trousers also have straight pockets along the side seams, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms.

Connected to the inside of the trousers via tan leather hooks, the suspenders have thick burgundy stripes on the outer sides with thin light blue stripes more concentrated in the center for a gradient effect.

In the days before free HBO in hotel rooms, guests like Roy had few sources of amusement beyond staring out the window…

The lack of formality and general palette of the outfit call for brown footwear, and Roy meets this calling with a pair of light brown calf lace-ups and darker brown socks.

…and getting shot in the belly.

Redford again proudly wears the silver ring on his third finger, which he received as a gift in 1966 from the Hopi tribe and has worn in almost all of his movies since. The ring is more an affectation of the actor than anything connected to Roy Hobbs.

Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs in The Natural (1984)

How to Get the Look

Though arguably dressed in the fashion of the early ’20s, Roy Hobbs looks every bit the innocent, All-American baseball hero when he stands in Harriet’s doorway with his shawl-collar cardigan, starched white collar, and suspenders. The latter two may be less fashionable for casual wear, but there’s no reason not to have a thick cardigan like Roy’s in your wardrobe.

• Beige vintage-knit wool shawl-collar cardigan with five-button front and welted hip pockets
• Light blue (with subtle brown stripes) cotton dress shirt with front placket and single-button cuffs
  • White detachable club collar
• Brown tie with abstract tan vine-like pattern
• Light brown striped wool flat front trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Burgundy-trimmed suspenders with thin light blue gradient center-striping and tan leather hooks
• Light brown calf leather lace-up shoes
• Dark brown socks
• Taupe tweed cap
• Silver Hopi Indian ring with black imprint, worn on right ring finger

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.

You can also read more about the actual Eddie Waitkus shooting in this compelling excerpt by Rich Cohen for Sports Illustrated.

Robert Mitchum as Harry Kilmer in The Yakuza (1974)

Vitals

Robert Mitchum as Harry Kilmer, tough former detective

Tokyo, Spring 1974

Film: The Yakuza
Release Date: December 28, 1974
Director: Sydney Pollack
Costume Designer: Dorothy Jeakins

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The unique neo-noir Japanese gangster movie The Yakuza was conceptualized by brothers Paul and Leonard Schrader based on Leonard’s letters to Paul while living in Japan, particularly about the yakuza and the screen presence of Ken Takakura. While Takakura was almost always guaranteed to play a role, the crucial positions of the director and the lead actor—who would portray an aging former detective sent to Japan in service to an old friend—were still in transition.

Early in the pre-production stages, it looked like Robert Aldrich would direct with Lee Marvin in the lead role, until Marvin’s clash with Warner Brothers led to Robert Mitchum taking the role. To the director’s unwelcome surprise, Mitchum did not want to work with Aldrich, so Sydney Pollack was brought in to replace him. Pollack’s attachment meant interest from Robert Redford—who had already worked with Pollack in Jeremiah Johnson and The Way We Were—in the lead role, though Redford deemed himself too young and Mitchum remained.

What’d He Wear?

After they’ve been condemned to death by the yakuza and already lost two people close to them, Harry and Ken team up for a revenge assault, first against Harry’s old friend George Tanner (Brian Keith) and finally against the yakuza boss Tono (Eiji Okada).

Harry dresses for the assault in a tan parka, hip-length and fur-lined through the body and hood. The parka has a covered front fly that buttons left-over-right with additional buttonholes on the right side that ostensibly connect to buttons along the inside of the left.

The calm before the storm.

The parka is pulled in at the elasticized waist, where it has a belt stitched into place on the sides with two loops on the back. The belt is meant to close in the front with a single-prong buckle, though Harry wears it open and occasionally tucks at least one end of the belt into the pocket. There are two bellows pockets on the hips, each closing with a button-down flap.

Harry takes—and returns—heavy fire.

The sleeves have tan leather trim on the edges and can be tightened with a half-belted buckle on the inside of each cuff.

Note the details of the parka: adjustable half-belt under the cuff, bellows pocket with button, removable fur lining, and the adjacent button and buttonhole on the right side.

The parka’s removable fur lining is the same shade of tan as the shell, buttoned into place and insulating the torso area of the parka as well as the hood. There are three buttons along the edge of the hood.

Ken and Harry face one final adversary.

The Yakuza is one of the best movies for fans of the turtleneck, as both Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura cycle through plenty of rollnecks worn with suits, sport jackets, and casual wear. For this revenge mission, Harry wears a heavy ribbed-knit turtleneck in black wool, perhaps too bulky to qualify as one of Sterling Archer’s beloved “tactile-necks” but employed more or less for the same purpose here.

Harry tucks the turtleneck into a pair of taupe brown corduroy trousers with frogmouth front pockets and flared plain-hemmed bottoms.

Production photo of Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura.

The trousers are worn with a dark brown leather belt with a large single-prong buckle, rounded on one side and in a polished gold-toned metal. The belt coordinates with his brown ankle boots.

Harry metes out revenge with his .45.

Mitchum wore his own Rolex through much of his ’70s oeuvre, though his stainless Rolex DateJust with its silver dial and steel “Jubilee” bracelet can only briefly be glimpsed under his left sleeve.

The Guns

The perfect choice for a former U.S. serviceman, Harry Kilmer arms himself with a .45-caliber M1911A1 pistol with a scratched-off serial number from his friend Oliver’s collection, using it to great effect throughout The Yakuza.

During this era, the .45 ACP blank round was unreliable so many productions—The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, and Three Days of the Condor to name a few—replaced .45-caliber 1911 pistols with cosmetically similar Star Model B pistols that fired the more universal and blank-reliable 9×19 mm Parabellum round. The Yakuza appears to be an exception as Mitchum seems to be fielding and firing a genuine M1911A1 throughout the movie.

Note the large muzzle bore, indicating that Harry is likely armed with a genuine blank-firing .45 than a 9mm substitute.

Harry also uses the snub-nosed .38 Special revolver that Ollie had given to Dusty (Richard Jordan), which appears to be an early model Smith & Wesson Model 10 with a 2″ barrel.

Two-gun Harry crashes into Tanner’s office.

Harry’s heavy artillery is a hammerless boxlock double-barreled shotgun, lent to him by Goro. Not only does Harry field this massive weapon with just one hand, but it’s his non-dominant left hand and it’s while alternating his use of a heavy .45 or .38 in his right hand.

Harry upgrades his backup weapon into something a bit heavier.

As the user who created The Yakuza‘s IMFDB page observes, “only an old time tough guy movie star like Robert Mitchum could carry off using a full size double barreled shotgun and a Colt .45 automatic convincingly.”

How to Get the Look

Robert Mitchum as Harry Kilmer in The Yakuza (1974)

Robert Mitchum dresses for action and comfort when taking on a dangerous yakuza faction, though his style could just as easily be channeled for a walk outside on a chilly spring weekend.

• Tan gabardine hooded parka with belt, two flapped bellows pockets, belted cuffs with leather edge trim, and removable fur lining
• Black ribbed-knit turtleneck sweater
• Brown corduroy flat front trousers with belt loops, frogmouth front pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark brown leather belt with polished gold-toned rounded single-prong buckle
• Brown leather ankle boots with raised heels
• Rolex DateJust steel-cased wristwatch with silver dial and steel “Jubilee” bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Well, it may be futile, but it’s not a gesture.

Clifton Webb as Richard Ward Sturges in Titanic (1953)

Vitals

Clifton Webb as Richard Ward Sturges, millionaire, estranged family man, and fastidious dresser

RMS Titanic, April 1912

Film: Titanic
Release Date: April 16, 1953
Director: Jean Negulesco
Costume Designer: Dorothy Jeakins

Background

Julia: You’re up early.
Richard: I had to scratch around for something to wear. Not a bad shop, they have everything.
Julia: Dinner jackets, I trust.
Richard: Naturally. It will be ready tonight. So… life can go on.

This exchange summarizes the 1953 melodrama Titanic, one of the first attempts to tell the now-infamous story of the real-life sinking of the White Star Line’s premiere ocean liner during its maiden voyage in April 1912, sending more than 1,500 passengers and crew to their deaths as a few more than 700 spend a chilly night in uncovered lifeboats, waiting for help to arrive.

Released 66 years ago tomorrow, 20th Century Fox’s Titanic focuses more on the personal drama of the fictional Sturges family: pretentious and aloof patriarch Richard (Clifton Webb) and his strong-willed, responsible wife Julia (Barbara Stanwyck) who tries to protect their children from taking after their profligate father. Cut from the same cloth as his wickedly snobbish Waldo Lydecker character in Laura, Richard Ward Sturges delights in his children’s obvious preference for him as he showers them with a decadent lifestyle that would no doubt spoil them as adults if not for their more practical mother’s interventions.

Though a hardly technically accurate depiction of the ship or its sinking, the filmmakers still put admirable effort in to bringing the Titanic to life for its audiences as the backdrop for the Sturges family drama, re-stirring public interest in the disaster that would aid the decade’s release of A Night to Remember (1958), the exceptional cinematic adaptation of Walter Lord’s well-researched account of the sinking.

What’d He Wear?

Thanks to the ship’s tailor shop (an invention of the filmmakers), Richard Ward Sturges can walk the decks of the Titanic with dignity without having to wear the same three-piece business suit he boarded in. For the evening, he naturally has an immaculately tailored black tie kit, but the afternoons call for a more leisurely ensemble of a timeless navy blazer with tie and gray flannel trousers.

After the blazer originated in the 1880s as a regatta jacket with bold, colorful stripes, its nautical associations evolved the garment into a simpler garment more familiar to today’s gentlemen: the navy blazer. “Solid serge or striped blazers with flannel trousers and straw boaters became a familiar Edwardian sight,” writes Alan Flusser in Dressing the Man. “They were subsequently joined by versions of the English navy’s reefer jacket in double- and single-breasted models with gilt buttons and club badge on the breast pocket.”

“With blue and white as the imperatives of nautical dress, navy blazers and white trousers made a dashing sports outfit for the American man of the 1920s. Being class conscious, he adopted it as another means of distinguishing himself from the masses. Whether in a solid color and piped at the edges or in bold regatta stripes, the lightweight blazer became a summer sensation.”

Classic though the look may be, it may still have been too informal for a man of Richard’s standing in the late Edwardian era though far more acceptable in the decades to come.

The family Sturges, sans youngest child Norman.

Richard’s dark navy wool blazer appears to be doeskin, a medium-weight woolen flannel with a tight weave that adds extra warmth while walking the breezy decks of a ship and keeps the garment surprisingly durable despite the cloth’s soft nap. His ventless blazer closes in the front with two of four mother-of-pearl sew-through buttons in a square, double-breasted formation, a nautically appropriate look that nods to the traditional reefer jackets worn by naval officers. The three buttons on each cuff are downsized versions of those on the front of the blazer. There are flapped patch pockets on the hips and a welted breast pocket, where Richard wears a neatly presented white linen pocket square.

This particular double-breasted blazer has notch lapels, an unorthodox but not uncommon combination that indeed dates back to the earliest days of the contemporary lounge suit, though it enjoyed its greatest mainstream acceptance during the “power suit” era of the 1980s. He dresses his left lapel with a fresh white carnation.

No love lost between Richard and Julia, who attempts to insult him with: “Oh, yes, I forgot. ‘The best dressed man of his day.’ That’s what they’re going to write on your tombstone.”

Richard’s white shirt includes the most period-specific detail of the entire outfit, a stiff, detachable rounded club collar with narrow tie space. He wears a dark polka-dot tie with a four-in-hand knot.

Richard stiffly smirks with pride as his children mimic his own snobbish behavior.

Richard’s practice of keeping his blazer fully buttoned prevents us from seeing more of the outfit, though he wears gray flannel trousers with turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottom that break cleanly over his black patent leather oxfords, worn with black socks.

A peaked cap adds nautical panache with its dark navy cloth cover and black patent leather visor. Like a true gentleman, Richard only wears his hat while outdoors.

Production photo of Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck in Titanic.

Per Clifton Webb’s real-life practice, Richard wears a pinky ring on the little finger of his right hand.

How to Get the Look

Clifton Webb as Richard Ward Sturges in Titanic (1953)

A man who prides himself on his dignity like Richard Ward Sturges would naturally be perfectly dressed for any situation, be it a tweed hacking jacket in the country, a traditional dinner jacket for the evenings, or a nautically inspired navy blazer for an afternoon at sea.

• Navy doeskin flannel wool double-breasted blazer with notch lapels, 4×2 mother-of-pearl button front, welted breast pocket, flapped patch pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • White silk pocket square
  • White carnation boutonnière
• White dress shirt with double/French cuffs
  • Detachable club collar
  • Cuff links
• Dark polka dot tie
• Gray flannel trousers with turn-ups (cuffs)
• Black patent leather oxford shoes
• Black dress socks
• Dark navy peaked cap with black patent leather visor
• Pinky ring

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

May I bone your kipper, mademoiselle?

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt in The Sandpiper (1965)

Vitals

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt, self-righteous Episcopal boarding school headmaster

Big Sur, California, Spring 1965

Film: The Sandpiper
Release Date: June 23, 1965
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Costume Designer: Irene Sharaff

Background

Seventy years ago today, more than 500 gathered on a picturesque terrace overlooking the Pacific Ocean for the grand opening of Nepenthe, a restaurant named for the medicine of ancient Greek mythology that helped one forget their sorrows.

Development on the land began in 1925 with the construction of a log cabin. Two decades later, Hollywood royalty Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth purchased the cabin on a whim but never did anything further, selling it in 1947 to Bill and Madelaine “Lolly” Fassett. The Fassetts hired Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Rowan Maiden to expand the area into a large terrace with room for dancing, dining, built-in bleachers, and a fire pit.

After the restaurant opened on April 24, 1949, Nepenthe became renowned for its stunning panoramic views of 50 miles of Big Sur’s south coast as well as Graves Canyon and the Santa Lucia Mountains.

Artists, writers, and celebrities flocked to the iconic restaurant in the decades to follow, with newlyweds Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton a frequent presence during the production of their Big Sur-set melodrama, The Sandpiper. (Read more about their time at the restaurant here.)

“And there is no other Nepenthe, where those who made The Sandpiper came and relaxed and found the spirit of the endless day even as night came to the noblest thing I have ever seen,” narrated Burton in a documentary about Big Sur produced during the film’s production. Nepenthe was so ingrained into regional culture that the famous terrace was reconstructed on a sound stage for a scene where Burton’s and Taylor’s characters verbally spar with one of her friends, played by Charles Bronson.

The lovestruck Dr. Edward Hewitt traveled an hour south from Monterey in search of Laura Reynolds, the free-spirited mother of one of his students, with the excuse that he needed her to sign papers to keep her son at his school though he eventually admits that he “cannot dispel [her] from [his] thoughts,” and the couple’s inevitable affair begins… or, as she puts it, he did what he’s wanted to do ever since he first saw her.

After a little bit of guilt and a lot more lying later, Edward arrives on Laura’s beach for a weekend together, having told his wife that he “was going to San Francisco for three days on a fundraising drive” for the school.

Edward at the film’s finale, leaving Laura—and Big Sur—behind him.

“It must be wonderful to live in such a place forever,” narrated Burton in the same documentary. “But think twice before you try it, for it is a land not always quiet and serene but often dramatic, violent, awesome. This is Big Sur… even today.”

What’d He Wear?

Though we first meet him in his Episcopal vestments, Dr. Edward Hewitt has a fine wardrobe of tailored suits, comfortable casual wear, and everything in between, including a plaid three-button blazer and a number of timeless tweed sport jackets.

One of the latter is a fine black-and-gray mixed tweed sports coat with a traditional American undarted sack cut, not unlike the one that Louis Jourdan wore as Burton’s romantic rival two years earlier in The V.I.P.s.

Edward and Laura at Nepenthe.

The single-breasted sport jacket has three black buttons on the front that match the three buttons on each cuff. It has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and single back vent.

Edward wears a white self-striped shirt made from such a thin, lightweight cotton that the reinforced crew-neck band of his short-sleeved undershirt can be easily seen through the fabric. His shirt has a spread collar, plain front, and double (French) cuffs fastened with squared gold cuff links.

A guilt-ridden Edward reacts coldly after his first night with Laura.

Edward’s repp tie maintains his outfit’s monochromatic mien, block-striped in black and dark gray in the traditionally American “downhill” right shoulder-to-left hip direction. The tie is consistent with the super slim trends of the mid-1960s, primarily straight from knot to blade and no wider than 2.5 inches.

Dictating in his office, Edward determines that he needs a break. Off to Nepenthe it is!

The Tie Bar currently offers a similar product, the 2.5″-wide Black College Stripe Wool Tie in a blend of 70% wool and 30% silk.

Edward’s attire below the waist is simple and uncomplicated, coordinating with his grayscale upper half. He wears charcoal flat front trousers with belt loops—but no belt—and black leather lace-up shoes with dark socks.

While his monochromatic jacket and tie may have been a bit conservative for Nepenthe, Edward eventually lets down his sartorial guard when he arrives at Laura’s for a romantic beach weekend together, wearing his same gray tweed jacket and charcoal slacks but with a polo as a dressed-down alternative to the white shirt and tie.

Edward “loosens up” for a beach weekend, foregoing his usual shirt and tie in favor of a polo buttoned to the neck.

This long-sleeve polo shirt is a light blue cotton knit with a three-button top that he wears fully fastened when he arrives on the beach but unbuttons as he loosens up with Laura by the fire.

Considerably more casual for some snuggle time with Laura by the fire.

After his weekend in the sun with Laura, the gray tweed jacket is exclusively worn with a white shirt and solid charcoal skinny tie rather than the striped tie seen earlier. At the film’s finale, as he’s planning to embark on his summer trip and his separation from his wife, Claire (Eva Marie Saint), he carries a khaki raincoat with a beige windowpane-checked lining.

An icy parting between Edward and Claire.

On his left wrist, Burton wears a gold wristwatch, likely one of the actor’s own timepieces. Based on the timing of the production and the glimpses we get of the watch, it may be the yellow gold Patek Philippe that Taylor had gifted him during the production of Cleopatra a few years earlier. This automatic watch has a champagne gold dial and a woven gold bracelet. Admittedly, a Patek Philippe would be quite a showy piece for a school headmaster to wear.

How to Get the Look

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt in The Sandpiper (1965)

A gray tweed sport jacket should be a staple of every gentleman’s wardrobe, a versatile piece that can be dressed up with a shirt and tie or dressed down with a polo and slacks… or even jeans, not that you’d see the dignified Dr. Hewitt sporting denim. The neutral palette also allows its wearer to add color or remain understated, as we see with Edward’s white shirts and dark ties.

• Gray mixed tweed single-breasted 3-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
• White self-striped thin cotton shirt with spread collar, plain front, and double/French cuffs
• Black-and-gray “downhill”-striped skinny silk repp tie
• Charcoal flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather lace-up shoes
• Black socks
• White cotton crew-neck short-sleeve undershirt
• Khaki raincoat
• Patek Philippe yellow gold automatic wristwatch with champagne-colored dial and woven bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie or see a variety of movies that Liz and Dick made together with the Taylor and Burton Film Collection.

The Quote

Well, I served in the Medical Corps during the war, and I can’t tell you how many dying and wounded men found something of god’s mercy at the end of just such a needle as you described.

Gig Young as Roger in That Touch of Mink (1962)

Vitals

Gig Young as Roger, neurotic financial advisor

New York City, Spring 1962

Film: That Touch of Mink
Release Date: June 14, 1962
Director: Delbert Mann

Background

Though not regarded among the best of either Cary Grant or Doris Day’s filmographies, That Touch of Mink will always have a special place for me as one of the movies I used to watch with my grandma, who introduced me to many classic stars from the era through her collection of VHS tapes that we watched nearly to oblivion.

In this romantic comedy, it’s the leads’ best friends who are the most fun to watch, both Audrey Meadows (who Grant—a fan of her work on The Honeymooners—campaigned to have added to the cast) and Gig Young as Grant’s right-hand man.

“Whenever you play a second lead and lose the girl, you have to make your part interesting yet not compete with the leading man,” Young explained in a 1966 interview. “There are few great second leads in this business. It’s easier to play a lead; you can do whatever you want. If I’m good, it always means the leading man has been generous.”

Indeed, Young did credit Grant’s generosity with him in That Touch of Mink, encouraging and urging Young to make more of his role as the cheerfully neurotic Roger. The psychiatry-obsessed Roger resents himself for giving up an honorable career as a Princeton economics professor (“the Ivy League Socrates,” Grant’s character mocks) in favor of earning $50,000 a year (this was 1962, after all) as financial advisor to the “cold, ruthless, predatory” business tycoon Philip Shayne. Of course, Philip is played by Cary Grant so he’s rarely less than the perfect gentleman… and all the moments where Philip’s chivalry shines, Roger grows openly furious at Philip for poking holes in the toxic image he had created of his boss.

Roger: To my everlasting shame, I sold out. That wasn’t enough for you! Every year, you further humiliate me by raising my salary!
Philip: Aw, it’s inexcusable. It’s like rubbing salt in the wound.
Roger: Yes, and at Christmas, you gave me stock in the company. Why are you trying to destroy me?

Before Philip is even thinking about his morning coffee, Roger is pouring himself a dram of whiskey and crediting his oft-mentioned analyst, Dr. Gruber (Alan Hewitt), with why’s he’s started drinking first thing in the morning. (Interestingly, Elizabeth Montgomery would request a divorce from Young the following year, citing his alcoholism as grounds.) If that isn’t enough of a red flag regarding the exalted Dr. Gruber’s questionable talents, we see him taking advantage of Roger’s honesty during their sessions for stock tips.

Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Gig Young had an impressive film career that lasted nearly 40 years and included an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969) as well as two nominations for Come Fill the Cup (1951) and Teacher’s Pit (1958). So why is this talented performer so little remembered today? The mysterious circumstances of his end seem to have something to do with it. On October 19, 1978, Young and his fifth wife, Kim Schmidt, were found dead in their Manhattan apartment of an apparent murder-suicide just three weeks after they were married. It has been hypothesized that Young first shot Schmidt before killing himself.

Like his character in That Touch of Mink, Young was known to be a patient of another questionable therapist, Eugene Landy, whose unconventional and unethical treatment of clients like Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson led to his medical license being revoked.

What’d He Wear?

Sartorially speaking, it must have been hard for male actors to be noticed when sharing the screen with Cary Grant, particularly when the debonair actor played a a rich and sophisticated character like Philip Shayne who can afford to dress like, well, Cary Grant. However, Gig Young’s natty duds prove to be a worthy screen partner for Grant’s tailored suits, providing an interesting yin to Grant’s elegantly simple yang with his series of business-friendly gray suits worn with a cycle of skinny knit ties and odd waistcoats.

Day 1: We meet Roger as he idles in Philip’s office, enjoying some of his boss’ whiskey as a morning libation and extolling the virtues of his analyst, Dr. Gruber. After his requisite complaining about selling out to work on Wall Street, Roger is issued a demeaning task by his otherwise benevolent boss: take $100 across the street to apologize on his behalf to a young blonde who was splashed that morning when his black limousine drove through a puddle.

Roger finds himself inspired by the woman, Cathy Timberlake (Doris Day), who offers to accompany Roger up to Philip’s office to throw the money in his face… until she sees that Philip is actually Cary Grant and finds herself instantly charmed by his disarmingly suave demeanor.

Roger’s daily style template is established in this sequence with a sleek, fashionable two-piece business suit, odd waistcoat, light shirt, and skinny knit tie. He wears his most frequently seen suit, in gray-blue pick wool. The single-breasted suit jacket has narrow notch lapels that roll to a two-button front, and it has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, short double vents, and two-button cuffs. The flat front trousers have buckle-tab side adjusters, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Roger wears a plain white poplin shirt with a spread collar, front placket, and single-button cuffs. His slim knit tie is dark navy blue, and he wears his favorite waistcoat, a gray jersey-knit cotton single-breasted vest with two pockets, and a straight bottom with a notch under the four-button front.

Roger is delighted to hear that Cathy Timberlake isn’t going to accept his boss’ apology.

Day 2: Roger walks into his boss’ office, happier than Philip is used to seeing him. Of course, Roger has an explanation for his cheer:

I had a wonderful night’s rest. You know the trouble I have sleeping? Well, I’ve solved it. Just before you go to bed, you put three tranquilizers in a jigger of brandy and you drink it. You still can’t sleep but you’re so relaxed that you don’t worry about it. It was exhilarating.

Philip takes the wind out of Roger’s sails by explaining his current conundrum with Cathy, the woman that Roger had hoped would put Philip in his place. “Roger, I’ve been wrestling with my conscience all morning. And I lost,” declares Philip. “That’s an upset,” quips Roger. Philip elaborates by explaining his decision to revoke his offer to take Cathy to Bermuda, given his perception of her naïveté. “What a terrible thing to do to me,” Roger moans. “To you?!” responds Philip. “I built this image of a man—cold, ruthless, predatory—then you go do a decent thing like this and destroy that image,” says Roger, disgusted by his boss’ decency. “You’ll set me back years in my analysis!”

During this conversation, Roger wears another blue-gray semi-solid wool suit, albeit a slightly darker one than from the previous day. His gray vest is the same, and he wears another white shirt, but his forest green knit tie is his only sartorial divergence from anything on a cool blue-to-gray scale during the whole movie.

Roger gets earthy with his dark green knit tie.

Day 3: The darker blue-gray suit falls victim to an egg salad assault at the automat, courtesy of Connie, so Roger is back in his original medium gray-blue suit and navy knit tie when he and Leonard (William Lanteau), the Bergdorf Goodman coordinator, watch Cathy board her Pan Am flight to Bermuda with Philip the following day.

“Look at her. It’s like watching Joan of Arc on her way to the fire.”

Day 4: The next morning, Roger finds less-than-desirable results when testing the “hair down, glasses off” trope with his secretary, Miss Jones (Jan Burrell), when he sees that Philip is prematurely back from Bermuda after a disappointing trip with Cathy.

“Miss Jones, do you see what I see?”
“Where?”
“It’s a miracle. Joan of Arc put out the fire.”

After Roger takes the opportunity to revel in the schadenfreude (“Things went pretty badly, didn’t they? It was a disaster, wasn’t it?”), we finally get to meet the much-discussed Dr. Gruber. “It’s good to be home,” Roger giddily remarks as he settles onto Dr. Gruber’s couch and loosens his tie, now a royal blue knit tie worn with a pale blue poplin shirt. The suit and vest are the same gray-blue wool suit and mid-gray knit waistcoat as he wore for his first appearance.

Roger settles in for another long session with his analyst.

A few hours later, Roger ends up on his own couch when calling Dr. Gruber from his office. This shot gives the viewers our best look at the black calf leather derby shoes with their two- or three-eyelet open lacing and long, sleek vamps that he wears with black socks for all of his on-screen outfits.

A therapy junkie like Roger probably should have his own couch like this in his office.

Day 5: The next morning, another failed trip for Philip in Bermuda finds an overjoyed Roger actually buying flowers for Cathy… but Connie and Cathy’s neighbors mistake him for Philip, subjecting him to being knocked down the stairs, beaten with a broom, and chased by a dog.

The abuse ruins Roger’s newly seen blue suit, but it gives us a pretty good look at the buckle-tab side adjusters on his trousers as he tumbles down the steps in her apartment building.

Roger takes a tumble.

Philip: What happened?
Roger: I was knocked down two flights of stairs and then viciously attacked by a dog in a taxi. This has been the most satisfying day of my life!

“When the cab hit a hydrant and the women started beating me with brooms, I found out… they had nothing against me, they thought they were hitting Philip Shayne! Before I go to the hospital, I just wanted you to see what people think of you. And you deserved everything I got!”

Before the carnage, Roger was dressed quite nicely in a blue suit, styled like the previous suits. The scene also introduced us to a new waistcoat for Roger, this one in a dark navy but cut and styled exactly the same as his gray one with its stretchy jersey-knit cotton and four-button front with welt pockets. He wears this with a white shirt and skinny navy knit tie.

Day 6: Roger has evidently cleaned himself up when he returns to the office in time to observe Philip reading his good-bye letter and promissory note from Cathy. A frustrated Philip tasks Roger with finding a potential “simple, dull, unimaginative” husband for Cathy.

While the gray knit vest, pale blue shirt, and dark navy knit tie have all been seen before, this is the first and only appearance of Roger’s gray suit with its narrow pinstripe. The single-breasted suit with its two-button jacket is otherwise similar to his others, aside from the three-button cuffs on the end of each jacket sleeve.

Day 7: Roger begins conspiring with Connie—and a reluctant Cathy—to get Philip interested in marrying Cathy. (Keep in mind that it’s been less than a week since the two met, but that’s early ’60s romantic comedy for you!)

Cathy: Look, he doesn’t love me. He just feels sorry for me.
Roger: Doesn’t love you? He’s compared you to the plague!

Roger points out that Philip completely nixed the list of potential husbands that he drews up, a list that included Rock Hudson as an in-joke both to Day’s frequent collaborations with him as well as the fact that the Philip Shayne role was developed with Hudson in mind before Grant was cast. These scenes illustrate how the interactions between Roger and Connie are a highlight of the movie.

Roger and Philip are nearly matching in their gray-blue semi-solid suits, though this one differs from Roger’s first gray-blue suit with its tonal plaid pattern and three-button cuffs. He wears otherwise familiar-to-the-viewer clothing like his pale blue poplin shirt, dark navy knit tie, and dark navy knit waistcoat which, evidently, wasn’t too damaged in the dog attack two days earlier.

Employee and employer: unified in gray-blue suits and dark ties. Note that Gig Young wears a shirt with a spread collar to complement his longer-shaped head while Cary Grant’s point collar complements his wider head.

A madcap chase leads to the film’s humorous climax at Al’s Motel in Asbury Park, where both Roger and Philip mistake the mild-mannered Mr. Smith (John Fielder) for Cathy’s smarmy date, Everett Beasley (John Astin).

Denouement: The film ends with a vignette the following spring that finds Roger walking through Central Park with Philip, Cathy, and their new baby. When the happy couple steps away to take a photo, Roger runs into Dr. Gruber and shows him the baby that was the product of his obsessive diatribes in therapy.

Perhaps as an indicator of his more carefree state of mind, Roger breaks his sartorial pattern by sporting a hairline-striped seersucker sport jacket with classic blue and white stripes, worn with dark gray trousers.. He curiously wears the three-button jacket with just the lowest button fastened, much like Cary Grant himself wore tailored jackets during these latter years of his career.

Free from the stresses of working for the unmarried Philip Shayne, Roger lets loose in a comfortable seersucker sport jacket with no waistcoat.

Roger wears a white shirt with a rolling spread collar and button cuffs. His slate-colored satin silk tie has a single black stripe “uphill” in the center.

How to Get the Look

Gig Young as Roger in That Touch of Mink (1962)

Befitting his dependability as Philip Shayne’s right-hand man, Gig Young’s Roger follows a reliable template of gray-blue business suits, odd waistcoats, and knit ties as he carries out his boss’s bidding… and then sits on his psychiatrist’s couch to complain about it.

• Gray-blue semi-solid pick wool business suit
  • Single-breasted two-button suit jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, two-button cuffs, and short double vents
  • Flat front suit trousers with buckle-tab side adjusters, straight/on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Medium gray jersey-knit cotton single-breasted four-button waistcoat with two pockets and notched bottom
• White or pale blue poplin shirt with spread collar, front placket, and single-button cuffs
• Navy blue skinny knit tie
• Black calf leather long-vamp derby shoes
• Black dress socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

It upsets you, doesn’t it? The puppet master ran across a puppet who won’t perform and then cuts all his strings. She’s become a symbol of hope to all of us who sold out for that touch of mink. You give us good salaries, paid vacations, insurance. You take away our problems and act like you’ve done us a favor. Well, you haven’t, and some day there’ll be an uprising, and the masses will regain the misery they’re entitled to!

Footnote

I noted that fans of Arrested Development may have noted some similarities to Roger asking his homely secretary to remove her glasses and let her hair down to see if it makes her more attractive to GOB asking the Bluth Company secretary (and his father’s mistress) Kitty Sanchez to do the same, both men thinking that it should work based on “the movies”.

This isn’t the only moment that would be parroted 40 years later on Arrested Development as Philip Shayne’s ride in the back of a poultry van finds his curiosity getting the best of him as he opens a basket only to reel in disgust at finding “a plucked chicken”. Dead dove, do not eat, anyone?

Richard Gere as Julian Kaye in American Gigolo (1980)

Vitals

Richard Gere as Julian Kaye, high-price L.A. escort

Los Angeles, Spring 1980

Film: American Gigolo
Release Date: February 8, 1980
Director: Paul Schrader
Costumer: Bernadene C. Mann
Costume Coordinator: Alice Rush
Richard Gere’s Costumes: Giorgio Armani

Background

Strut into spring like Richard Gere’s confident Julian Kaye, the titular American gigolo of Paul Schrader’s 1980 thriller.

We follow Julian through the streets of Beverly Hills as he’s being followed by Michelle Stratton (Lauren Hutton), a state senator’s wife who has grown considerably interested in him. Aware—and amused—that Michelle is tailing him, Julian strides into Tower Records where he allows her to bump into him, sparking a flirtatious conversation to the tune of John Hiatt’s “Take Off Your Uniform”.

The song was no doubt chosen to score the scene with something trendy and new, but it’s a significant choice as we hear it while watching Julian “out of uniform”, not wearing his usual sport jacket, slim tie, and slacks as he isn’t professionally on the make, instead pursuing a more serious personal relationship as he charms Michelle while “slumming it” in casual open-neck shirt and jeans.

What’d He Wear?

Julian Kaye spends his working days and nights decked out in a Giorgio Armani wardrobe of luxurious linen, silk, and wool crepe sport jackets, suits, and ties. He’s rarely off the clock, but his leisure hours are typically devoid of elegance with ill-advised pieces like a long-sleeve polo with slim shawl collar or Daisy Duke-style denim shorts.

The most significant occasion where Julian manages to dress down without losing the dapper panache of his Armani pieces is his confident stride down the sidewalks of Westwood, comfortably outfitted for the warm afternoon in a pale blue cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled past the elbows, tight jeans, and a stone-colored sport jacket tossed over his shoulder.

Despite the many pieces in his sartorial collection, many of Julian’s sports coats are indistinguishable in color, all falling somewhere on Armani’s signature “greige” spectrum in gray, taupe, tan, and beige. This double-breasted jacket is no exception, colored in a tan-leaning shade of stone gray lightweight wool crepe. The ventless jacket is styled with the unique combination of a double-breasted front with notch lapels, a formation that has remained primarily a relic of 1980s trends though it remains somewhat more common on women’s suit jackets and blazers. The notch lapels roll above the single-button closure of the four-button front.

The jacket has a welted breast pocket, patch hip pockets, and three-button cuffs. Though structured at the shoulders with its roped sleeveheads, the looser fit of the jacket connects the Armani “second skin” profile to the boxy power suits that would become a hallmark of men’s fashion in the ’80s.

Richard Gere struts his Armani stuff as Julian Kaye in American Gigolo.

For the more iconic portions of the sequence, notably Julian’s sidewalk strut that leads him into the record store, he keeps the jacket slung over his shoulder, showing off his physique through his lightweight cotton shirt.

The pale blue hairline-striped shirt has a point collar that is noticeably larger than the collars on shirts he wears with ties. The shirt has a plain front, two set-in chest pockets with non-buttoning flaps, and rounded single-button cuffs that, when he’s out and about, Julian unbuttons and rolls up neatly past his elbows.

More strutting.

Julian’s striped waxed cotton web belt is similar to a surcingle belt, though it lacks the leather pieces in favor of a single lightweight band that connects in the front with a gold-toned squared single-prong buckle. The belt itself is tan with a dark navy center stripe.

It’s difficult to find belts like this that lack the signature leather of the surcingle belt, though this belt from Amazon keeps the leather piece considerably small.

And strutting into the famous Tower Records.

Julian’s light blue high-rise jeans differentiate this outfit the most from his earlier sport jacket-and-slacks ensembles. With their tight fit through the hips and lack of front pockets, these high-rise jeans are clearly “fashion” jeans rather than the traditional offerings of workwear brands like Lee, Levi’s or Wrangler, indicating of an era when jeans were evolving from utilitarian to a symbol of trendy informality.

Almost certainly made by Giorgio Armani, Julian’s jeans have patch back pockets and slightly flared legs to accommodate the shafts of his light brown leather boots with raised heels. Roots has been credited with Gere’s footwear and belts in the movie, though the brand seems to have evolved away from the dressier offerings showcased in American Gigolo.

Julian accessorizes with his go-to set of oversized Armani sunglasses with large round gradient lenses. The tortoise frames are closer to a golden orange than the traditional brown.

Amazon offers a few similar inexpensive frames for shoppers looking to channel the Julian Kaye look, such as this pair from Union Accessories or this more wayfarer-inspired pair by SOJOS and currently enjoying its position as the #1 new release in men’s sunglasses as of May 2019. Either way, don’t be afraid to hunt for unisex pairs as this type of frame has also been popular for women.

For those with a substantially higher budget, you could always see what Armani has in its current men’s sunglasses lineup, including these Pilot sunglasses in black on yellow Havana acetate that, save for the double bridge, could be a spiritual successor to Julian’s distinctive frames.

Julian covertly checks his six to see who’s following him.

Julian wears a luxurious yellow gold tank watch, fastened to his left wrist with the rectangular blank dial facing inward. Cartier and Omega have been suggested as likely brands for the sleek watch as some eagle-eyed viewers reportedly sighted the latter’s distinctive Greek letter logo on the watch’s gold single-prong buckle.

Julian and Michelle bond over shelves of records.

Dressing It Up…

The stone-colored crepe double-breasted jacket makes another reappearance later when Julian is pulled in for a police interrogation. When not in the denim duds issued to him for the lineup, he wears the jacket more dressed up than before with a light blue shirt, striped tie, and pleated slacks.

Julian should have heeded the message stamped on his garage wall.

Though it’s a light blue long-sleeve shirt with two flapped pockets, this deeper sky blue shirt has a narrow spread collar and bellows pockets—rather than set-in pockets—with button-down flaps that close through white buttons matching those down the plain front and on each cuff.

Julian wears a navy-on-blue “uphill” pencil-striped knit tie by Basile, the same boutique designer that provided most of Lauren Hutton’s fashionable costumes.

Julian wears his usual taupe leather belt with a rounded gold single-prong buckle through the slim belt loops of his pleated khakis, which have side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. He also wears his gray leather cap-toe oxfords with dark navy socks.

Julian tears his Mercedes apart.

After Julian returns to his apartment to discover that Leon’s “boy” has been there, likely framing him for the murder, he ditches the jacket and tie in favor of a beige windbreaker that he dons to search his car for Judy Rheiman’s missing jewels before he goes on the run.

Paranoia.

The blouson-style windbreaker has a long point collar, patch pockets with slanted openings, and knit cuffs and hem.

How to Get the Look

Richard Gere as Julian Kaye in American Gigolo (1980)

Julian Kaye looks cool, casual, and comfortable as he dressed down pieces of his fashionable Giorgio Armani wardrobe with jeans and sleek accessories.

• Stone-colored lightweight wool crepe double-breasted 4×1-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, patch hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Pale blue self-striped lightweight cotton long-sleeve shirt with point collar, plain front, two set-in chest pockets with flaps, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• High-rise blue denim jeans with belt loops and back pockets
• Tan-and-dark navy striped waxed cotton web belt with squared gold single-prong buckle
• Light brown leather boots with raised heels
• Gray jersey-knit cotton short-inseam underwear
• Gold tank watch with a black dial on smooth black leather strap
• Light tortoiseshell large-framed Giorgio Armani sunglasses with brown gradient lenses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Anything for a friend.

Pedro Armendáriz as Kerim Bey in From Russia With Love (1963)

Vitals

Pedro Armendáriz as Ali Kerim Bey, gregarious MI6 station chief

Istanbul, Turkey, Spring 1963

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Kerim Bey, the gregarious head of MI6’s Station T (T for Turkey), is one of the more memorable characters from the early films of the James Bond franchise. A proudly streetwise counter to the taciturn and sophisticated agent 007, the two got on like gangbusters. It’s tragic that Kerim was designated by Ian Fleming as the story’s “sacrificial lamb” as it would have been satisfying to follow his interactions with Bond across multiple adventures à la Felix Leiter or even René Mathis, who actually returned in Fleming’s novel version of From Russia With Love, though Armendáriz’s death would have prevented this anyway. Today’s 00-7th of May post is a tribute to this charismatic character.

From Russia With Love was the final film for Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz, who was born 107 years ago this week on May 9, 1912. Though he was only 50 years old during the film’s production, the actor was terminally ill and grew weaker over the shoot, at times to the point that director Terence Young would step in as Armendáriz’s double. Soon after production wrapped, Armendáriz smuggled a handgun into his Los Angeles hospital and committed suicide on June 18, 1963, the day before the release of his penultimate film, Captain Sindbad, in which he played a character named El Kerim.

Armendáriz was only 51 when he died, leaving two children, a daughter—Carmen—who became a TV producer, and a son—Pedro Jr.—who would follow his father’s footsteps as an actor and even appeared in the Timothy Dalton-starring 007 adventure Licence to Kill (1989).

What’d He Wear?

Not only was the role of Kerim Bey seemingly tailor-made for the charismatic Pedro Armendáriz, but the character is finely tailored in his suits, continuing the tradition from Dr. No of establishing an ally that dresses appropriately for accompanying the Savile Row-tailored James Bond on his adventures. While he doesn’t wear as many suits as Bond, Kerim arguably exhibits a more colorfully diverse wardrobe with his warm weather-friendly lounge suits in light gray sharkskin, gray pinstripe, and beige gabardine—all in the same style and cut—with a rotation of striped ties.

“Ah, my friend. Come in. Come in.” A very large man in a beautifully cut cream tussore suit got up from a mahogany desk and came to meet him, holding out his hand. A hint of authority behind the loud friendly voice reminded Bond that this was the Head of Station T, and that Bond was in another man’s territory and juridically under his command.

— From Russia With Love (1957), Chapter 14: Darko Kerim

The “cream tussore suit” is the only one of Kerim’s outfits that is well-described in Ian Fleming’s novel, and it may have inspired the filmmakers to dress Pedro Armendáriz in this beige gabardine suit with a sheen that suggests a silky material, evocative of the novel’s coarse tussar silk suit.

Kerim Bey wears his trademarks of a simple and stylish suit, striped tie, and an easy smile.

Kerim’s suit jacket has narrow lapels, each with a gently rounded notch similar to the “clover”-style lapel, which roll to the three-button front, which he almost always wears with the top two buttons fastened across all of his suit jackets. The ventless suit jacket has three-button cuffs, straight flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket that he wears without his usual neatly folded white pocket square.

Good times at the gypsy camp…

Kerim wears a cream poplin shirt that harmonizes with the beige suit for a softer contrast than if he had worn a plain white shirt. The light cream shirt has a spread collar, front placket, and double (French) cuffs that are worn with flat gold rectangular cuff links.

…and less-than-good times at the gypsy camp.

Kerim’s tie is multi-striped in the “uphill” right hip-to-left shoulder direction, a repeating pattern of a medium-width black stripe flanked by thin stripe sets in silver, rust, and silver. Each of those stripe sets are separated by fourteen thin stripes alternating in silver and black. He wore the same tie earlier in teh day with his gray pinstripe suit when his office was bombed and he and Bond staked out the Russian consulate.

It’s tied in a Windsor knot, so obviously the cinematic Bond doesn’t share the literary Bond’s untrustworthy connotation of the knot as Kerim Bey provides to be one of 007’s most trustworthy and reliable allies across the series. The tie is held in place with a gold tie bar at mid-torso, just visible above the jacket’s buttoning point.

Kerim stoically watches two women fighting over a man at the gypsy camp, arguably one of the stranger sequences in Bond movies.

Kerim’s habit of wearing his suit jacket buttoned at all times, even when sitting, prevents the viewer from observing the details of his suit trousers, particularly around the waist and hips. Below the jacket, the legs taper down to the turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms.

Bond runs to Kerim’s aid… or is he just running to the bottle of rakı?

Kerim appears to be wearing the more casual and country-friendly dark brown suede derby shoes, possibly even ankle boots, as opposed to the black lace-ups he wears with his business suits.

Kerim sets up a protective barrier with the dinner table, no doubt spilling some rakı in the process.

Had Bond known that his mission to Istanbul would have included dinner at a gypsy camp, he may have packed something other than his businesslike black derbies as well—perhaps the similar brown suede derby-laced low boots that he sports with his tweed jacket in Goldfinger—but, alas, our protagonist wears the most countrified of his multiple gray business suits, a charcoal flannel two-piece, for his evening with Kerim and Vavra.

Kerim also sports his standard headgear, a natural-colored straw hat with pinched crown. The narrow black band is all but hidden by the upturned brim when Kerim wears the hat.

Less prominent than Bond’s Rolex is Kerim’s yellow gold wristwatch, which shines from his wrist with its round case, silver dial, and flat gold bracelet.

Suit ruined.

What to Imbibe

When in Istanbul… do as the Istanbulites do. For James Bond, that’s accepting Kerim Bey’s gracious offer of rakı, the national drink of Turkey despite Kerim disregarding it as “filthy stuff”. An anise-flavored apéritif similar to ouzo, rakı is different from raki (with a dotted “i”), a grape-based pomace brandy similar to grappa.

Fleming’s novel also features rakı during Bond and Kerim’s interlude at the gypsy camp as well as during an earlier lunch, where Bond offers that his first taste of rakı was “identical with ouzo.”

“It will be disgusting but I have sent for rakı,” Kerim assures Bond as they make their way to the table, where in front of each of them was a large plate of some sort of ragout smelling strongly of garlic, a bottle of rakı, a pitcher of water and a cheap tumbler. More bottles of rakı, untouched, were on the table. When Kerim reached for his and poured himself a tumblerful, everyone followed suit. Kerim added some water and raised his glass. Bond did the same. Kerim made a short and vehement speech and all raised their glasses and drank.

Kerim pours Bond a glass.

Similar to absinthe, adding chilled water to rakı turns the drink into a milky concoction. The white color resulted in the rakı-and-water combination known colloquially as aslan sütü, or “lion’s milk”.

The Gun

Like Bond and his fellow MI6 agents, Kerim Bey carries a Walther PPK that he draws and fires during the gypsy camp gunfight, though it spends the bulk of the battle out of battery after a jam. The jam is actually depicted in one shot, but it hasn’t been cleared when Kerim is shown firing back at the Bulgar assassins.

Kerim fires his own Walther PPK during the Bulgar assassins’ ambush of the gypsy camp.

Kerim’s PPK is likely chambered for .32 ACP (7.65mm Browning) like Bond’s sidearm, though the pistol is typically offered in both .32 ACP and .380 ACP with the latter caliber more popular for its relatively higher stopping power. Even 007 was issued a .380-caliber Walther PPK/S as recently as Skyfall (2012), albeit with the addition of a palm-reading safety mechanism.

How to Get the Look

Pedro Armendáriz as Kerim Bey in From Russia With Love (1963)

Like his London-sent colleague, Kerim Bey displays a keen sense of style, and he appropriately wears his gray lounge suits for business (and business-related travel) while reserving this beige suit for more recreational pursuits, such as his dinner with 007 at Vavra’s gypsy camp.

• Beige gabardine suit
  • Single-breasted 3-button suit jacket with “clover” notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
• Light cream poplin shirt with spread collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
• Black, silver, and rust multi-striped tie
  • Gold tie bar
• Natural-colored straw hat with narrow black band, pinched crown, and upturned brim
• Dark brown suede derby-laced ankle boots
• Charcoal socks
• Yellow gold wristwatch with silver dial on flat gold bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

It seems we’ve come on the wrong night. Two girls in love with the same man threaten to kill each other. It must be settled the gypsy way.

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 4.08: “The Old Ship of Zion”)

Vitals

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, corrupt Atlantic City politician and bootlegger

Atlantic City, Summer 1924

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
– “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired 10/27/2013)
– “White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10, dir. Jake Paltrow, aired 11/10/2013)
– “Farewell Daddy Blues” (Episode 4.12, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired 11/24/2013)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn
Tailor: Martin Greenfield

Background

This #MafiaMonday, turn back the calendar almost a century to some spring-friendly fashions courtesy of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson, the delightfully corrupt bootlegger who ruled Prohibition-era Atlantic City on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Steve Buscemi’s character was based on the gregarious Enoch “Nucky” Johnson who indeed used his political position to rule the New Jersey resort city’s underworld during the roaring ’20s and beyond until he was convicted for tax evasion in 1941 and spent the following four years in federal prison.

Toward the end of Boardwalk Empire‘s fourth season, we find the fictional Nucky overseeing a shipment of booze from Florida while trying to manage his beleaguered older brother Eli (Shea Whigham), Eli’s ambitious college-aged son Will (Ben Rosenfield), and his latest paramour/business partner Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette).

What’d He Wear?

The Suit

Several episodes toward the end of Boardwalk Empire‘s fourth season feature Nucky Thompson in this spring-friendly blue glen plaid three-piece suit, almost assuredly one of the legions of dapper suits made for Steve Buscemi to wear on the series by venerated Brooklyn tailor Martin Greenfield. With a navy, black, and rust plaid check on a teal-blue ground, the suiting balances his penchant for bold patterns and colors with traditional businesswear.

“White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10)

The single-breasted suit jacket has Nucky’s signature high three-button front with notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, and slanted flapped hip pockets. Each sleeve is roped at the shoulder head and ends with four buttons and the Edwardian detail of a narrow gauntlet cuff.

Closer looks at Nucky’s suit jacket and waistcoat details in “White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10).

Nucky always wears this suit jacket open to show off the matching single-breasted waistcoat (vest) which has notch lapels like the jacket. The six-button waistcoat has four welted pockets, keeping his gold pocket watch in one pocket with the chain looped “double Albert” style below the middle button across the waist.

Steve Buscemi and Patricia Arquette in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08).

The inside of the suit jacket and the back of the waistcoat are lined in matching gold spotted brocade silk lining. There is also an adjustable strap across the lower back of the waistcoat.

The flat front trousers rise just high enough that the waistband remains unseen under the waistcoat. However, shots of Nucky preparing for the day in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08) show that the trousers are fitted with belt loops though he avoids those in favor of wearing suspenders (braces), sporting a set in blue-gray silk suspenders with russet brown leather hooks that connect to buttons along the inside of the waistband.

The trousers have side pockets, jetted back pockets that close through a single button each, and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Nucky dresses for the day in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08).

Brown shoes are Nucky’s choice with this suit, sporting a pair of walnut brown leather oxfords in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08) and a darker pair of burgundy oxfords in “White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10).

Shirts and Ties

Nucky Thompson’s style evolves as the Prohibition era progresses over the show’s timeline, particularly notable with his shirts. At the start of the series, set at the dawn of the decade in early 1920, Nucky wears a distinctive, old-fashioned “keyhole-cut” stiff white detached collar on all of his colorfully patterned shirts. Dress shirts with attached collars had only recently been patented after World War I by the Phillips-Jones Corporation (now Phillips-Van Heusen), though fussier and more sophisticated dressers like Nucky would have continued wearing their detached collar shirts.

By mid-decade, even traditional dressers like Nucky were taking their fashion cues from youth. Nucky still wore shirts with detached white collars during the show’s fourth season, set in 1924, but the collar shape more closely resembled an attached turndown collar, albeit still a clean contrast against his striped shirts.

“The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08)

“Well, you found the coffee,” a half-dressed Nucky comments as he walks out in the morning to find his nephew Will (Ben Rosenfield) poring over the newspaper with a cup of joe.

Nucky’s half-dressed state shows off his collarless striped dress shirt with a plain white neckband where he will later fasten the collar with a single brass stud in the front and back. The ecru shirt is covered in alternating triple stripe sets in periwinkle and tan. It buttons up a plain front and has self-double (French) cuffs with links that snap together.

Nucky snaps his cuff links together while talking with his nephew in “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08).

Once Will declines his offer to join him on “some business” as his father Eli would be present, Nucky arrives at one of his liquor warehouses where a babbling Mickey Doyle is already driving both Thompson brothers crazy with an anecdote about accidentally dating his girlfriend’s sister.

After giving the lucky first bottle of a new shipment from Florida to Eli as an olive branch, Nucky is intrigued to see that the brassy barmaid Sally Wheet (Patricia Arquette) joined the booze on its way up from the Sunshine State.

By that time, Nucky has fully dressed for his day at work, having attached a white point collar with a hairline-width self-striping to the neckband of his shirt. The collar is pinned with a gold safety-style pin under the knot of his periwinkle silk tie, which is ornately patterned in large magenta-and-tan and orange-and-tan bursts.

Nucky greets an unexpected visitor.

Nucky wears a camel felt homburg with a dark brown ribbed grosgrain silk ribbon and camel grosgrain trim along the edge of the brim. As the weather is approaching a warm Atlantic City summer, he needs no overcoat.

Following an engage of bon mots with Sally, Nucky returns to his hotel home to find Mayor Ed Bader (Kevin O’Rourke) “havin’ a little chin wag” with Will.

“White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10)

After discovering that drug dealer Vincenzo Petrucelli (Vincenzo Amato) is in league with New York gangsters Joe Masseria (Ivo Nandi), “Lucky” Luciano (Vincent Piazza), and Meyer Lansky (Anatol Yusef) to import heroin to the northeast via rum shipments to Nucky, Nucky once again has Lansky on his knees and at gunpoint.

Lansky: He would’ve killed us if we didn’t go along.
Nucky: You think I fucking won’t?

Even though Eli draws his .45 at that moment and holds it to Lansky’s head, history tells us that the man who famously once said the mob was “bigger than U.S. Steel” wouldn’t be killed in a New Jersey ditch in 1924, instead becoming one of the few mobsters to enjoy old age and relative retirement when he passed away in Miami Beach in January 1983 at the age of 80.

The rest of Nucky’s day includes meetings into the evening with friends like Chalky White (Michael K. Williams) and foe like Masseria and Dr. Valentin Narcisse (Jeffrey Wright), eventually preparing for battle by episode’s end as he racks his pistol and slips it into his inside jacket pocket.

Nucky once again wears a striped dress shirt with a detachable white point collar, though this shirt is striped in slate blue and lavender and has contrasting white double cuffs.

A tense phone call in “White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10).

Nucky’s light pink silk tie is covered in a neat alternating sequence of burgundy octagons enclosing a tan square that itself encloses a gold circle and a larger, more complex design in gray, burgundy, navy blue, tan, and gold.

Nucky barks at Meyer Lansky, who once again finds himself on his knees and at gunpoint.

Nucky now wears a dove gray felt homburg with a black grosgrain ribbon.

“Farewell Daddy Blues” (Episode 4.12)

After the action-packed drama of the season, Will is back at his parents’ home, taking his father’s luggage out to Nucky’s waiting car, where he confronts his uncle after he saw him holding a gun to Eli’s head. “He’s your father, my brother, and I’m not the person you think I am,” responds Nucky.

Nucky wears a serene pale blue shirt devoid of stripes or any other patterns with self-double cuffs, though this shirt is also worn with his contrasting white collar. He wears a gold silk tie with small sets of four navy squares that all connect on a low-contrast yellow grid.

Nucky, more subdued than we’re used to seeing him, in “Farewell Daddy Blues” (Episode 4.12).

The gray homburg from “White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10) reappears as Nucky smokes and chats with Will from the back of his car.

What to Imbibe

In “The Old Ship of Zion” (Episode 4.08), the brothers Thompson are overseeing a shipment of rum from Florida, transported in boxes of “Alligator Supreme Oranges”. The growing rift between Nucky and Eli isn’t enough to stop the former from cracking open a box and gifting a bottle to Eli, assuring him that “it’s good luck.”

“The first bottle. It’s good luck,” Nucky assures Eli as he hands him a bottle from their latest illegal shipment.

The brotherly love is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Sally Wheet. After rebuffing Nucky’s dinner invitation, Sally grabs one of the discarded oranges sent with the liquor shipment and tosses it at Nucky as she walks away: “Here! Mix yourself a rum swizzle.”

While it hardly sounds like something that a dedicated whiskey drinker like Nucky Thompson would order, let’s take a look at the Rum Swizzle to see how much more than an errant orange it would take!

He’s got rum and oranges… realistically, can Nucky carry out Sally’s suggestion?

The Rum Swizzle emerged in the Caribbean during the 19th century, though many contemporary accounts describe a simple drink of local rum diluted with water and mixed with a forked root that would become known as “swizzle sticks” once they entered mass production in the years following Prohibition. When Alec Waugh held what he boasts as the world’s first cocktail party in April 1924, the same year that these episodes of Boardwalk Emprie are set, rum swizzles were on the esteemed novelist’s menu for his guests.

“Jamaican rum had been blended with Rose’s lime juice and sharpened with Angostura,” wrote Waugh for Esquire half a century later. “Large nuggets of ice kept the mixture cool. It was very potent. The first sip made me shiver, in the way that a dry martini does. It also sent a glow along my veins. ‘This,’ I said, ‘is going to be a party.'”

Sinclair Lewis was also a fan of the drink, including them in his 1925 novel Arrowsmith and his ex-wife, Vogue editor Grace Hegger, included them in her 1931 autobiography Half a Loaf about her time with him.

By Prohibition’s end, the concoction was firmly established as the national drink of Bermuda, where it was a house favorite at the Swizzle Inn in Bailey’s Bay on the north end of Hamilton Parish.

Nucky’s got the rum and the orange…does he really need anything else? (Image sourced from goslingsrum.com)

To make a Bermuda Rum Swizzle, pour the following into a pitcher with crushed ice:

• 4 ounces of black rum
• 4 ounces of gold rum
• 5 ounces of pineapple juice
• 5 ounces of orange juice
• juice of two lemons (optional)
• 3/4 ounces of grenadine syrup (or 2 ounces of Bermuda falernum)
• 6 dashes of Angostura bitters

Shake the pitcher ingredients with crushed ice until the mixture is frothing at the head, then strain into six chilled martini glasses or rocks glasses filled with ice and garnish each one with an orange slice, a cherry, and a pineapple wedge! In the spirit of Bermuda, Gosling’s rum is often recommended.

There are several other variants on the Rum Swizzle, including tiki guru Don the Beachcomber’s more potent version that swaps out the rums for 151-proof rum and adds a few drops of absinthe.

The Gun

Nucky Thompson prefers to conduct business as cleanly as possible without getting his hands dirtier than they would touching a bribe. When the times get tough, though, Nucky isn’t afraid to pack some heat.

After carrying smaller caliber Colt revolvers during the first three seasons of Boardwalk Empire, Nucky begins carrying a semi-automatic pistol with the blued Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless that he chambers and pockets in “White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10).

Nucky prepares for a confrontation in “White Horse Pike” (Episode 4.10).

The Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless, available in both .32 ACP and .380 ACP (the latter marketed as the “Model 1908 Pocket Hammerless”), was one of the most popular American handguns during the earlier half of the 20th century among both civilians and criminals. I can speak from experience when I say that, more than 100 years after my particular model was produced, a well-maintained Colt Model 1903 still operates with relative smoothness, reliability, and accuracy.

Nucky’s Colt pistol gets more prominent screen time in “Farewell Daddy Blues” (Episode 4.12) and he also carries it during the duration of the fifth season, albeit in a shoulder holster.

How to Get the Look

Steve Buscemi as Enoch “Nucky” Thompson on Boardwalk Empire (Episode 4.08: “The Old Ship of Zion”)

As his criminality deepens and Nucky Thompson drifts further away from his garrulous political position into a hardboiled gangster, his once-colorful wardrobe affects a more businesslike aesthetic in conservative shades of blue and gray while still incorporating the character’s signature sartorial affectations and tailoring details.

• Blue glen plaid suit with navy, black, and rust check:
  • Single-breasted 3-button long jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 4-button gauntlet cuffs, and long single vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat/vest with notch lapels, four welted pockets, notched bottom, and adjustable back strap
  • Flat front high-rise trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Light blue striped dress shirt with collarless neckband, plain front, and double/French cuffs
  • White hairline-striped detachable point collar
  • Gold collar pin
  • Snap-function cuff links
• Light pastel-colored and neatly patterned silk tie
• Blue-gray silk suspenders
• Brown leather oxford shoes
• Camel or gray felt homburg with ribbed grosgrain silk ribbon
• Gold-filled Elgin open-face pocket watch with white dial (with Arabic numerals and 6:00 sub-dial) and 18″ gold “double Albert” chain with ruby-studded triple-cube fob

This suit inspired one of my own recent custom purchases, a three-piece suit tailored by Surmesur though I opted for wide peak lapels on a 3/2-roll jacket and a double-breasted waistcoat with sweeping peak lapels.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the whole series.

The Quote

Someone once told me all of man’s problems come from his inability to just sit in a room.

Gary Cooper as Cadet White in Wings (1927)

Vitals

Gary Cooper as Cadet White, U.S. Army Aviation Section, Signal Corps aviator

Camp Kelly (San Antonio, Texas), Spring 1917

Film: Wings
Release Date: August 12, 1927
Director: William A. Wellman
Costume Design: Travis Banton & Edith Head (uncredited)

Background

Ninety years ago today, Wings won the first Academy Award for Best Picture—more accurately, the award read “Academy Award for Outstanding Picture.” Though silent movies were still the norm at the time of Wings’ release in August 1927, The Jazz Singer introduced recorded sound to film upon its release two months later, and Wings remains the only true silent film (unless you include The Artist) to take home the Best Picture prize.

While elements of that first award ceremony at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on May 16, 1929, are still traditions today—namely celebrities arriving in luxury cars to cheering fans—the ceremony itself, hosted by Douglas Fairbanks, lasted no longer than 15 minutes and was not broadcast on radio or television, nor was there any suspense for award nominees during the event as the winners in each of the twelve categories had been made public three months earlier.

Not only was the groundbreaking World War I aviation epic the first Oscar winner, it also launched the career of Hollywood legend Gary Cooper.

The 25-year-old Cooper was one of 35 actors who William A. Wellman looked at for the brief but important role of Cadet White, the confident aviator assigned to share a tent with the film’s two leads until he dies in an aviation crash (“a flock of figure eights before chow”) the same day. Though only on screen for two silent minutes a half hour into the movie, the actor’s easygoing yet electrifying charisma radiated off the screen and assured him a lifetime of leading roles for more than three decades to follow.

What’d He Wear?

Wings was the second film that legendary costume designer Edith Head worked on, following The Golden Bed (1925), though it was most assuredly Travis Banton who took the lead on the film as he was the de facto costume designer for star Clara Bow… despite Bow irritating him by making her own alterations to her costumes, such as cutting off the sleeves and—according to Bow’s biographer David Stenn—campaigning for a tight belt to be added to her military uniform to flatter her figure.

As opposed to Bow, with whom he had began a tumultuous affair despite her recent engagement to Victor Fleming, Gary Cooper was more assuredly an easier subject for the costume designers to work with as he was outfitted in the dapper leather greatcoat and uniform of an American aviator.

While he’s referred to as “Cadet” White, Cooper’s character isn’t commissioned with the full rank of Flying Cadet as that was not formally created until an act of Congress on July 9, 1918. He is, however, a student in the U.S. Army Signal Corps’ Aviation Cadet Training Program and thus attired in uniform pieces of the U.S. Army, albeit with additional garments specifically designated for the corps’ newly formed Aviation Section.

Per the U.S. Army uniform regulations issued in 1917 (Special Regulations No. 41):

Special articles of clothing for aviation purposes are provided and authorized as indicated hereafter. They are in addition to the usual articles of clothing for garrison and field service. All officers and enlisted men on duty in the Aviation Section will obtain them on memorandum receipt from the Quartermaster. They will be hold in addition to all the other clothing as required by these regulations.

Cadet White wears a long brown leather flying coat that extends to just above his knees, a dashing piece of outerwear that marked the early direction of aviation style before waist-length flight jackets became the standard with pieces like the leather A-2 and the nylon MA-1 later in the 20th century. The coat has broad lapels and a tightly spaced 6×3-button double-breasted front with an additional button under each side of the collar to close the coat at the neck.

Cadet White dresses for duty.

In addition to the two parallel columns of three buttons down the front, White’s coat has a leather self-belt that closes through a double-ring metal buckle. The coat also has slanted set-in hand pockets at the waist level and half-tabs on each cuff to adjust the tightness around White’s wrists.

In the early days of U.S. military aviation, coats like these were typically not standard issue, especially to cadets. According to paragraph 75(b) of the 1917 regulations:

Leather aviator coats (or, in case of water squadron, antisinking coats).—Will be worn while engaged in flying, except in the tropics, where the leather coat may be dispensed with.

Many military pilots obtained leather flying coats through private purchases, like this similar tanned leather coat once owned and worn by Lieutenant John M. Schaupp, Jr., according to the U.S. Militaria Forum. Note the differences between this coat and Cooper’s coat, particularly the additional row of buttons on the front, the bellows pockets on the hips, and the additional vertical-opening pocket over the left breast.

Off to perform “a flock of figure eights before chow!”

Rather than the standing-collar tunic worn by both enlisted men and officers during World War I, the trio of cadets all wear the standard M1916 pullover shirt in olive drab woolen flannel with point collar and single-button cuffs. The long front placket extends about halfway down the shirt with three widely spaced buttons. The rectangular button-down flaps on the two set-in chest pockets were added for the M1916 pattern shirt, which the U.S. Army would continue to wear through 1937. Non-regulation M1916 shirts in a lighter weight cotton poplin with four-button plackets were also available for private purchase.

Affixed to each leaf of White’s collar are the bronze Type I collar discs with a “U.S.” disc on the right collar leaf and the regimental crossed flags signifying his service in the Signal Corps on the left.

Per paragraph 76(c), “when off duty, in permanent and maneuver camp and out of camp, officers and enlisted men will wear a plain black cravat tied as a four-in-hand. No other style or color of cravat will be so worn.” Cadet White wears a black tie that, unlike the straight ties of Jack and David, flares out to a wide blade on the bottom. All three cadets’ ties are short enough to reveal that the pullover shirt’s placket does not extend to the trouser waist line.

White’s flat front trousers are likely the same olive drab wool as his shirt, with thin belt loops, frogmouth-style slanted front pockets, and jetted back pockets. The bottoms of his trousers are tucked into the leggings worn over the top of his boots. He wears a khaki web belt that closes through a brass box-style buckle.

It looks like Cadet White missed a belt loop on the back right side.

When the U.S. Army adopted its new uniform regulations in 1902, it also changed the color of its standard issue field boot leather from black to a russet brown. Cadet White wears these cap-toe field boots, derby-laced through eight eyelets and a set of speed hooks with a pair of light khaki canvas M1910 leggings covering the uppers and the bottoms of his trousers.

They can be differentiated as the M1910 leggings by their triple sets of eyelets: one pair at the top, one pair at the bottom, and one pair in the center. The later M1917 pattern leggings would be laced with eight eyelets coordinating with seven speed hooks opposite.

Both white and black socks were authorized for U.S. Army wear during World War I, though—other than the white ribbed crew socks on his cot—Cadet White’s socks are never seen as he keeps his boots and leggings on while taking his nap.

The 1917 uniform regulations illustrate the consistent overlap between gear specifically worn by aviators and motorcycle messengers, including the brown leather flying helmet and goggles:

Aviators and motorcycle messengers will wear special helmets prescribed. In summer they shall be of pliable russet leather, lined with felt; in cold weather, aviators will wear a fur-lined soft russet-leather helmet.

— Paragraph 89, 1917 uniform regulations

These early flying helmets were often constructed of leather for its warmth, waterproof, and windproof qualities as well as its relative flexibility in fitting a wearer’s head without taking up too much space. A wide flap on each side can be fastened with a strap under the chin.

Improved type of triplex goggles will be worn by all aviators and motorcycle messengers in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps while engaged in their respective duties… Clear or amber-colored glass, according to the desire of the person using them.

— Paragraph 86, 1917 uniform regulations

Cadet White appears to be wearing the classic NAK flying goggles that were standard issue for U.S. Army aviators during World War I. The goggles themselves are laminated glass that appear to be amber-tinted, per the regulations above. The frame is a lightweight aluminum that folds in the center, backed by a chenille fur trim and held in place on a plain elastic strap worn over the helmet.

An example of NAK-V flying goggles, made by Resistal with small vents on the side of the frames, can be seen at Historic Flying Clothing. Read more about Triplex-type goggles at Military Sun Helmets.

You can read more about American military uniforms during World War I here. You can also see examples of various countries’ World War I aviator uniforms at The Vintage Aviator, including a photo of a U.S. pilot’s dark brown leather flying jacket, which looks slightly closer to Cooper’s coat than Lieutenant Schaupp’s example.

Go Big or Go Home

Cadet White’s choice of snack is still available today! In what has to be one of the earliest examples of prominent product placement on the big screen, White offers Jack a bite of his Hershey’s Milk Chocolate with Almonds bar, then drops the candy on his cot.

Admittedly, it’s hard to argue that this is positive product placement as it’s a partially eaten candy bar thrown onto a pair of discarded socks.

After White’s death, Jack and David are ordered to pack up the aviator’s belongings. They notice that the Hershey bar is placed atop both of his socks, so Jack gingerly picks up the socks and allows the Hershey’s to tumble back onto the bedding.

How to Get the Look

Gary Cooper as Cadet White in Wings (1927)

As the dashing but ill-fated aviator Cadet White, Gary Cooper supplements his standard U.S. Army uniform with the long leather coat, helmet, and goggles befitting his role.

• Brown leather flying coat with wide lapels, 6×3-button double-breasted front, leather self-belt with double-ring buckle, slanted hand pockets, and single-button pointed-tab cuffs
• Olive drab wool pullover M1916 shirt with point collar, half-length 3-button front placket, two flapped set-in chest pockets, and single-button cuffs
  • “U.S.” bronze Type I right-collar disc
  • Crossed flags Signal Corps insignia bronze Type I left-collar disc
• Black tie
• Olive drab wool flat front trousers with belt loops, slanted front pockets, and jetted back pockets
• Khaki web belt with brass box-style buckle
• Russet brown leather cap-toe field boots with eight derby-laced eyelets and speed hooks
• Off-white ribbed crew socks
• Light khaki M1910 canvas leggings
• Brown russet leather flying helmet with ear flaps
• NAK Triplex-type flying goggles with lightweight folding teardrop-shaped aluminum frame, chenille fur trim, and amber-tinted laminated glass lenses

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. The American military cooperated heavily in the production of Wings, providing plenty of resources from actual soldiers to equipment including nearly the entire existing fleet of U.S. Army pursuit planes.

The Quote

Luck or no luck, when your time comes, you’re going to get it!

Footnote

Gary Cooper followed up his portrayal of a Great War aviator in Wings by playing a Captain in the Royal Flying Corps the following year in Lilac Time (1928).

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano on The Sopranos (Episode 2.08: “Full Leather Jacket”)

Vitals

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, New Jersey mob chief

North Caldwell, New Jersey, Spring 2000

Series: The Sopranos
Episode: “Full Leather Jacket” (Episode 2.08)
Air Date: March 5, 2000
Director: Allen Coulter
Creator: David Chase
Costume Designer: Juliet Polcsa

Background

It’s the jaaacket!

As a series centered around life in the American Mafia, it’s no surprise that the fashions of The Sopranos feature plenty of leather jackets. But there’s only one jaaacket, and it’s this piece of throwback outerwear that gives the eighth episode of the second season its name.

Guest star David Proval (who turns 77 today!) starred as Richie Aprile, the excessively prideful ex-con who believes his “old school” values earn him a top spot in the North Jersey mob pecking order, though he often clashes against the rules established by new boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini).

Amid rising tensions between the two, Richie makes the peace offering of a leather jacket to Tony, excitedly recalling that he had taken the jacket a generation earlier from a famous local tough… but Tony is, at best, bemused by the vintage gift.

“Junior’s aside when Richie gives Rocco’s jacket to Tony—’He later died of Alzheimer’s’—illustrates how meaningless Richie’s petty, long-ago victory was,” notes Sopranos scholars Matt Zoller Seitz and Alan Sepinwall in their essay about the episode in The Sopranos Sessions, released to great acclaim earlier this year. “When Rocco breathed his last, he didn’t remember Richie’s triumph or anything else.”

After granting the jacket a sniff, Tony pays Richie the ultimate insult when—during a visit to Tony’s home—Richie spies the Soprano maid’s husband sledging through the house in his prized coat.

What’d He Wear?

Prior to “Full Leather Jacket”, we never actually see Tony Soprano wearing a leather jacket as all of his casual outerwear to this point had been cotton or gabardine bomber-style jackets. Of course, one minute in the coat received from ultimate trendsetter Richie Aprile, and Tony would soon begin wearing blousons and blazers in black and dark brown leather from the end of the second season through the series finale.

One could hardly call Richie Aprile’s taste in clothing refined, and his outerwear in particular seems to consist of a cycle of ratty Members Only jackets. However…

Tony: What’s dis?
Richie: “What’s dis?” It’s the jaaacket!
Tony: The jacket…
Richie: The jacket I took off Rocco DeMeo.
Tony: Oh yeah… yeah.
Richie: Cocksucker had the toughest reputation in Essex County, but he never came back after I got ‘tru wit’ him.
Uncle Junior: He later died of Alzheimer’s.
Tony: Oh yeah?
Richie: Try it on!
Tony: It’s your fuckin’ jacket.
Richie: You love this jacket! You and my kid brother, you woulda killed for this jacket… silk lining, fine Corinthian leather… nobody believed with my size, I could carry this jacket, but with the belt… it was like Rommel.
Tony: It’s a… nice jacket.

“Ya look like Robert Evans over heah,” says Richie of Tony after the latter reluctantly dons the jacket, recalling the famous movie producer of the ’70s.

The mahogany leather car coat has wide lapels that suggest its 1970s provenance and closes with a closely spaced 4×2-button double-spaced front with a full self-belt that wraps around the waist and closes through a single-prong buckle. The bellows pockets on the hips are box-pleated with quilted single-button flaps that match the quilting on the wide turnback cuffs.

Tony takes a whiff of that fine Corinthian leather.

Richie claims that the coat is made from “fine Corinthian leather,” a marketing shortcut for the Newark-processed leather developed by Chrysler in the mid-’70s. Chrysler’s advertising agency Bozell had first used the term “Corinthian leather” the previous year in advertising materials for the 1974 Imperial LeBaron, though it was popularized by celebrity spokesperson Ricardo Montalban as he described the “rich Corinithan leather” used to make the cushioned seats offered in the 1975 Chrysler Cordoba.

The lining does appear to be silk, per Richie’s dialogue, though the sky blue, old gold, and white paisley pattern covering it is hardly the stuff of opulent luxury.

Check out that lining!

Tony wears a short-sleeve cream-and-black knit pullover, styled like a T-shirt with a raised and ribbed mock-neck in cream. The ends of the elbow-length short sleeves and the hem are also ribbed in cream, except for the right sleeve which is black to match that side of the shirt.

The shirt is mostly cream save for the front right side—including the right sleeve—that is black. The black right side is separated by the cream left side with a tan zig-zag vertical line that begins a series of parallel zig-zag lines in white, brown, tan, white, and brown out to the end of that side of the shirt, all extending down from the shoulder seam to just above the ribbed hem. The only decoration on the black right side of the shirt is a small abstract embroidered pattern in dark brown, beige, and tan that resembles steam rising from a freshly poured cup of coffee.

Tony wears black trousers with either double or triple sets of reverse pleats, side pockets, and jetted back pockets that each close with a button. The untucked shirt covers his waist, though he’s probably wearing a black belt.

Tony checks out the material of Richie’s own jacket.

Contrasting the flashy jacket and loud shirt on his upper half, Tony wears a subdued pair of black calf apron-toe derby shoes and black socks.

Naturally, Tony wears his full complement of gold jewelry and accessories, including his yellow gold Rolex Day-Date ref. 18238 on the “President” link bracelet, gold wedding ring, ruby-and-diamond gold ring on his right pinky, and gold figaro chain-link bracelet on his right wrist. While we don’t see it due to the high neck of his pullover, he likely is wearing his usual gold necklace with the St. Jerome pendant as well.

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano on The Sopranos (Episode 2.08: “Full Leather Jacket”)

How to Get the Look

Whether you’re trying to look like Rocco DeMeo or Robert Evans, Richie Aprile’s got you covered with a super ’70s jacket.

• Mahogany “Corinthian leather” double-breasted car coat with wide lapels, self-belt, box-pleated bellows pockets with quilted flaps, and quilted gauntlet cuffs
• Cream-and-black abstract patterned knit mock-neck
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Black double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted button-through back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black leather belt with single-prong buckle
• Black calf leather apron-toe derby shoes
• Black socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Rolex President Day-Date 18238 yellow gold wristwatch
• Gold open-link chain bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with ruby and diamond stones
• Gold wedding ring
• Gold open-link chain necklace with round St. Jerome pendant

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the entire series, but watch the second season to see the jaaacket!

The Quote

So what brings you to an English-speaking neighborhood?

Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer with a Remington Model 8 rifle in The Highwaymen (2019)

Vitals

Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer, tough Texas special investigator and former Texas Ranger

Texas and Louisiana, Spring 1934

Film: The Highwaymen
Release Date: March 15, 2019 (March 29, 2019, on Netflix)
Director: John Lee Hancock
Costume Designer: Daniel Orlandi

Background

Following a decorated career in law enforcement that found him bravely and successfully leading investigations and captures of violent criminals, Frank Hamer is not the sort of man who should need a cultural reevaluation in his defense. And yet, it was the most celebrated victory of Hamer’s career—bringing an end to Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker’s violent crime spree—that would eventually result in the former Texas Ranger being villianized in the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde that romanticized the titular outlaw couple to carry out its countercultural message.

Perhaps unwilling to drag the real Frank Hamer’s name through the mud, Robert Benton and David Newman had actually renamed the gang’s hunter Frank Bryce in their original screenplay, initially distancing the film’s deceitful, mustache-twirling villain from the diligent real-life Hamer… until the legendary Ranger’s surname was restored for the character that would eventually be portrayed by Denver Pyle.

Furious at the unfair portrayal of her husband, Hamer’s widow Gladys successfully sued the producers for defamation of character, receiving an out-of-court settlement in 1971. Unfortunately, the cultural damage to Hamer’s name had already been done and he was firmly entrenched in the minds of Bonnie and Clyde‘s audiences as a bitter, cruel, and petty manipulator rather than the thoughtful and disciplined lawman that capped a celebrated career with a methodical and dedicated three-month pursuit that ended the bloody career of two of America’s most notorious criminals.

The real Frank Hamer in 1934 with the black Ford V8 he drove for thousands of miles that spring in pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde.

Gladys Hamer wasn’t alone in her frustration with the posthumous re-imagining of her brave husband as a villainous figure. Nearly 40 years after Pyle’s Frank Hamer exacted his petty revenge against Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway’s glamorous Bonnie and Clyde, screenwriter John Fusco had successfully pitched his long-time idea of cinematic redemption for Frank Hamer. The original concept was to reunite Paul Newman and Robert Redford to play Hamer and Maney Gault, the fellow former Ranger who eventually joined Hamer’s hunt for the outlaw couple, until Newman’s death in 2008 meant a different direction would be needed. Finally, in February 2018, Netflix announced that the film had entered production as The Highwaymen. with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson starring as Hamer and Gault, respectively, with the title referring to the ex-Rangers’ special commission for the Texas Highway Patrol.

The real Star Service Station owned by Henry Barrow on Eagle Ford Road (above) and The Highwaymen‘s recreation of it (below).

Despite taking some liberties with historical facts, the film goes to considerable lengths to recreate the details of the hunt for the Barrow gang, recalling many of the correct dates, names, and places, such as H.B. Barrow’s Star Service Station on Eagle Ford Road in West Dallas. The Highwaymen also includes details that aren’t as well-known parts of the Barrow gang legend, such as Clyde’s habit of wearing ladies’ wigs to disguise himself, Emma Parker’s “red beans and cabbage” code when her daughter Bonnie would be returning home, and the Barrow and Parker families’ furtive communication with the gang via thrown bottles. Even the actual criminals’ cigarette preferences—unfiltered Camels for Bonnie and hand-rolled Bull Durham for Clyde—are included.

In addition to the ex-Rangers Hamer and Gault, we also meet the officers that assisted Hamer during his pursuit of the killers, including Smoot Schmid, Ted Hinton, and Bob Alcorn from the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Oakley, the Louisiana sheriff and deputy who joined Hamer, Gault, Hinton, and Alcorn for the famous ambush on May 23, 1934. (Read more about the posse and see photos here.)

A month after Netflix announced that production of The Highwaymen was underway, the filmmakers were on location on Louisiana State Highway 154, setting the scene for the final ambush near where the original incident had taken place, a few miles south of Gibsland. They planted trees along the right-of-way and added dirt to cover the blacktop, converting the asphalt two-lane highway into the one-lane dirt road that had been Bonnie and Clyde’s last stop on that quiet spring morning.

The film shows Hamer and his fellow officers reviewing their results on May 23, 1934.

On the 85th anniversary of his permanently closing the case on Bonnie and Clyde, today’s post looks at a more positive look at Frank Hamer via Kevin Costner’s performance as the weathered lawman in The Highwaymen, released onto Netflix less than two months ago.

What’d He Wear?

“Frank did not start fights, he became adept at the ending them,” states John Boessenecker in his biography of Hamer, Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde. This reputation made Hamer the ideal candidate as the man leading the charge to end Clyde Barrow’s violent criminal career.

Following the deadly Eastham Prison Farm jailbreak organized by Bonnie and Clyde, Texas prison chief Lee Simmons (John Carroll Lynch) approaches the grizzled ex-Ranger Frank Hamer at his home and asks him to “put them on the spot”. Hamer takes some time to consider the offer before leaving home to take on his new task of bringing these dangerous fugitives to justice.

Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer in The Highwaymen, armed with a Single Action Army in his belt and a Remington Model 11 shotgun in his hand.

Much dialogue in The Highwaymen concerns whether or not Texas Rangers like Frank were anachronistic in an age of criminals armed with automatic weapons and high-powered cars, though Frank’s fashion sense has kept up with the times with his striped three-piece suit and dark fedora replacing the wide-brimmed Stetson and spurs that he wore a generation earlier while patrolling the Texas border.

According to author John Boessenecker, Hamer had indeed abandoned the cowboy aesthetic as he took on the more visible role of senior captain of the Texas Rangers in the early 1920s, adhering to the new rules and regulations established in 1919 that expressly prohibited “the wearing of boots, spurs, wide belts, etc., or having a pistol exposed while visiting cities of towns.” Thus, Hamer stashed away his cowboy boots, wide-brimmed hat, and western gear when not hunting in favor of business suits and narrow-brimmed Stetsons… though Old Lucky was still tucked in his waistband, out of sight but easily accessible should trouble arise.

Costner’s Hamer spends his entire pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde wearing the various pieces of a dark striped flannel three-piece suit. The charcoal suiting is patterned with double sets of thin burgundy stripes, each shadowed on the outside by a thicker muted gray stripe.

Hamer confronts his old pal Maney Gault on the streets of Lubbock before agreeing to let him join the manhunt.

The single-breasted, two-button suit jacket has notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, three-button cuffs, and a single vent. The details are safe but timeless, allowing Hamer—a man of modest tastes and arguably little interest in fashion—to need no more than this single suit to fit his needs.

Months after beginning their pursuit of Bonnie and Clyde, Hamer and Gault find luck with an informant, Ivy Methvin (W. Earl Brown), whose fugitive son Henry is the latest addition to the Barrow gang.

The suit has a matching waistcoat (vest) that gives Hamer some versatility as he adds and sheds layers during his investigation that extends from February into the warmer late spring months. The single-breasted waistcoat has six buttons that fasten down the front to a notched bottom. There are four welted pockets on the front and an adjustable strap across the lower back.

Dressed down in Dallas.

Hamer’s suit trousers are styled with double reverse pleats, a 1920s trend that would have also comfortably accommodated the aging lawman’s expanding midsection. They have slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets with a button through the left pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Hamer wears a black leather belt with a dulled silver-toned box-style buckle. While some menswear experts would advise against wearing a belt with a three-piece suit, Hamer put practicality before sartorialism and required the stability of a belt for his trousers as he made a practice of tucking “Old Lucky”, his heavy .45-caliber Colt Single Action Army revolver, in his waistband. Also, as Hamer frequently dressed suit sans waistcoat—and jacket, on some occasions—it would make perfect sense to wear a belt… not to mention that Frank Hamer doesn’t give a damn about your sartorial advice.

Gault, Hamer, and Hinton investigate a double murder in Grapevine.

While dressed in the striped three-piece suit, white shirt, necktie, and fedora of any regular businessman of the era, Hamer’s black leather boots with their tall shafts and pointed toe caps subtly nod to his history as a Ranger without overwhelming the rest of the outfit.

The choice is somewhat at odds with Hamer’s onetime remark that “boots were made for riding, and I’ve got no desire to look like a ‘pharmaceutical Ranger’,” but these particular boots are subtle enough that they don’t draw attention like a more colorful or decoratively stitched leather would.

The Grapevine investigation continues.

Hamer wears exclusively white self-striped lightweight cotton shirts. Each shirt has a point collar, front placket, button cuffs, and a breast pocket where he keeps his frequent packs of Lucky Strike cigarettes. The film’s production team correctly used the pre-World War II green packets before the brand switched to its white packs with red “bullseye” centers.

Note the green bulge in his breast pocket where he keeps his packet of Lucky Strike cigarettes.

“Frank, shedding his coat and shoes, collapsed in a chair, removed his necktie, and undid three buttons on his green shirt,” recounts John Boessenecker of hours following Hamer’s ambush of Bonnie and Clyde, providing some colorful context to the black-and-white photos of Hamer and his posse that day.

Costner’s shirts as Hamer are shirred in the back with six narrow pleats gathered at the center under the horizontal yoke.

Hamer cycles through five ties over the course of his investigation, all wide ties with small four-in-hand knots and a short length that come up a few inches short of his trouser waistband.

He begins and ends the manhunt wearing the same tie, a black and charcoal striped tie that appears to be widely striped in the “downhill” (right shoulder down to left hip) direction but in fact consists of blocked sets of hairline-width stripes. Perhaps due to the solemnity of both occasions that he wears it—leaving home and then dressing for the final kill—it is the only tie that Hamer wears tightened rather than loose with an open collar.

The almost-black effect of the tie and the suit are fitting options for Hamer to wear on the first and last days of the manhunt when he knows he will be dealing death to Bonnie and Clyde.

“Happy Easter,” Hamer greets Gault with when they wake up in the front seat of the Ford on the morning of Sunday, April 1. In reality, Hamer spent Easter morning at home with his family in Austin before he received news of the double cop killings in Grapevine that set him back on the trail of Bonnie and Clyde.

Hamer fittingly wears his most festive and colorful neckwear for this typically celebratory spring holiday, a crimson red tie with small white polka dots.

On Easter morning, Hamer performs more troubling duties, investigating the double murder of policemen E.B. Wheeler and H.D. Murphy outside of Grapevine, Texas. The “festive” red tie for Easter coordinates with the blood being spilled by the Barrow gang.

Days later, Hamer and Gault extend their pursuit of the Barrow Gang beyond Texas. “Open range now,” comments Gault as they drive into Oklahoma, where they find uncooperative witnesses from a service station attendant to a migrant camp. During this excursion, Hamer wears a dark navy tie with closely spaced pin-dot stripes alternating in baby blue and tan in the “uphill” direction. Hamer wears the same tie a few weeks later when questioning the recently furloughed Wade McNabb, another reluctant informant.

Hamer and Gault find themselves at a literal crossroads on April 6, 1934, immediately following Barrow’s murder of Constable Cal Campbell outside of Commerce, Oklahoma. The two ex-Rangers drive into Coffeyville, Kansas—famously the town where the Dalton gang was shot to pieces attempting a double bank raid in 1892—for lunch and a discussion of Hamer’s 16 gunshot wounds. The lunch leads to an entertaining (but ultimately fictional) car chase that ends up with Clyde’s Ford leaving Hamer and Gault in the dust.

Hamer wears yet another striped tie with a dark navy ground for this occasion, though the “downhill” stripes alternate in medium and light gray, separated by a thin burgundy stripe. This tie also appears with the full three-piece suit when Hamer and Gault travel to Bienville Parish in search of Henry Methvin’s family.

Gault and Hamer exchange typical casual lunch conversations about how many bullets Hamer is carrying in him. (Sixteen, by the way.)

Fed up with the lack of cooperation and progress of his manhunt, Hamer is depicted as storming into the Star Service Station one mid-April day for a one-to-one chat with Clyde’s father Henry Barrow (William Sadler). This tense conversation marks the sole appearance of Hamer’s navy self-patterned tie.

Two men very disappointed in Clyde Barrow: Frank Hamer, his eventual killer, and Henry Barrow, his relatively honest father.

Hamer looks more businessman than cowboy in his all-black fedora, which looks similar to one that the real-life Ranger was photographed wearing during the Barrow gang manhunt in 1934. The hat has a pinched crown and a black ribbed grosgrain silk band.

In his somber striped business suit, white shirt, necktie, and fedora, Frank Hamer could just be a typical 1930s businessman leaving his home in a Ford sedan on his way to work. The Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle in his hand may give a different impression, however.

Not surprisingly, Hamer wears no jewelry aside from a plain gold wedding band on the third finger of his left hand. The ring symbolizes his marriage to his second wife, Gladys (Kim Dickens), who Hamer married in 1917 while serving as a special bodyguard to Gladys’ father, rancher Billy Johnson.

The circumstances of the early days of the Frank and Gladys Hamer union against the backdrop of the Johnson-Sims Feud make for one of the more thrilling lesser-known passages in Hamer’s history, particularly the couple teaming up for a gunfight in Sweetwater, Texas, that led to the death of Gladys’ deceased husband’s brother-in-law and former Ranger, “Gee” McMeans. This October 1917 shootout—one of 52 that Hamer recalled from his lifetime—is thrillingly recounted in John Boessenecker’s book as well as this 2016 article by Bob Boze Bell for True West magazine.

Hamer decides his next move.

The first few months of Hamer’s manhunt had been primarily an investigation that found the lawman following leads across the South and Midwest. It wasn’t until May 23, 1934, that the veteran gunfighter was expecting combat. Thus, Costner’s Hamer supplements his full three-piece suit with a cartridge belt loaded with rifle rounds—likely .35 Remington—to be fully prepared to take down the Barrow gang.

Gault maintains fire with his Colt Monitor as Hamer tosses aside his Remington Model 8 in favor of Old Lucky.

The Car

“‘spose you’re gonna wanna take my new Ford,” Gladys Hamer observes when she realizes there’s no convincing her husband not to take up the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde.

Gladys’ stunning black 1934 Ford V8 sedan with its red-spoked wheels is the ideal choice for chasing the criminals, not just for the power—”85 horses, ain’t she fun?” suggests Gladys—but also because it was the same car favored by Barrow himself when making his speedy getaways. While police at the time were often equipped with older model Plymouths, Dodges, and Chevrolets with six-cylinder engines, Hamer’s Ford V8 made him Barrow’s automotive equal… and thus a more suitable hunter.

#CarWeek is still more than a month away at BAMF Style, but The Highwaymen features enough glamour shots of Gladys’ “new Henry Ford” that it could practically be a commercial for owning your own ’34 Ford V8… which, to be honest, is a personal goal of mine.

Having changed the automotive industry for a quarter century with the introduction of the Ford Model T in 1908, the company was craving its next major innovation at the start of the Depression era. In 1932, the same year that Clyde Barrow was released from prison, began his crime spree with Bonnie Parker, and committed his first confirmed murders, Ford introduced its legendary “flathead” V8 engine. While cars with eight-cylinder engines were hardly new at the time, they were rarely affordable until Ford introduced its relatively powerful 221 cubic-inch V8, powered by 65 horses, as the standard engine for the 1932 Ford Model 18.

Over the next two years, Ford made incremental improvements to the flathead V8 engine, increasing output to 75 horsepower in 1933 (for the Model 40) and finally 85 horsepower in 1934 (for the Model 40B). By this time, Clyde Barrow’s unparalleled driving skills were legendary among law enforcement and the public, and the gang stole V8-powered Fords almost exclusively to the point that Barrow reportedly penned a now-famous letter to Henry Ford in April 1934, praising and thanking him for the “dandy car” his company produced.

1934 Ford V8 Fordor Deluxe (Model 40B)

Body Style: 4-door sedan

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

Engine: 221 cu. in. (3.6 L) Ford flathead V8

Power: 85 hp (63 kW; 86 PS) @ 3800 RPM

Torque: 150 lb·ft (203 N·m) @ 2200 RPM

Transmission: 3-speed manual

Wheelbase: 112 inches (2845 mm)

Length: 147 inches (3734 mm)

Width: 57 inches (1448 mm)

Height: 63 inches (1600 mm)

After 1934, Ford dropped its lower performance options, leaving only the flathead V8 across its various body styles and models for 1935 and 1936, a decision that would catapult it beyond Chevrolet as sales leader. With the flathead V8 ostensibly perfected in 1934, Ford focused on primarily cosmetic updates to all of its models through the end of the Depression and into the early years of World War II when all American automobile production was temporarily suspended.

Putting the highway in “highwaymen”.

As well as Hamer’s black Ford V8, the Barrow death car was also well-represented, even with the correct Arkansas license plates (#15-368) that were fitted to the car when it rolled to a stop in front of the posse’s rifles and shotguns on May 23, 1934.

Described as “Cordoba gray” though the actual color was closer to a light tan, the 1934 Ford Model 40 (Type 730) DeLuxe Fordor Sedan rolled off the River Rouge assembly plant in February 1934, where it was shipped to the Mosby-Mack Motor Company and purchased by Ruth Warren of Topeka, Kansas, on March 15 for $835. The new Ford had only been in the Warren family for weeks when it was stolen by Bonnie and Clyde on April 29. Having switched Mrs. Warren’s Kansas license plates #3-17832 out for Arkansas plates, the outlaw couple were the de facto owners of the car until they were shot to pieces inside it less than four weeks later.

Armed with Old Lucky, Hamer does his part in shooting the car to pieces.

Henderson Jordan, sheriff of Bienville Parish, Louisiana, where the couple was killed and one of the members of the posse who shot them, initially refused to return Mrs. Warren’s car to her until he was threatened with imprisonment by a federal judge. Read more about the famous “death car” here.

The Guns

The real Maney Gault and Frank Hamer pose with a BAR and Remington Model 11 shotgun found in the Barrow gang’s death car, May 1934.

Frank explained why he had been victorious in so many shootings. After pointing out that his preferred weapon was a rifle, he explained how he used a revolver. “The great thing about shooting with a six-gun is to hold it steady and not to shoot too quick. What I mean is this: a man who is afraid, who is nervous, cannot shoot straight with a six-shooter grasped in his hand. The muzzle of the gun will wobble with every nervous beat in his hand… When you’ve got to fight it out with a six-shooter the only sure way is to make the first shot count… Take it slow and cool. Don’t get excited.”

— John Boessenecker, Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde, Chapter 12 (“Gunfighter”)

While skill with firearms isn’t unexpected for a Texan born and bred in the waning days of the Old West, Frank Hamer was legendarily adept with everything from revolvers to rifles. The legendary Ranger’s particular favorite sidearm was “Old Lucky”, the 4.75″-barreled single-action “Quickdraw Model” Colt .45 he was presented with during his tenure as the popular city marshal of Navasota, Texas, between his appointments as a Texas Ranger. As Boessenecker recounts:

Navasota’s city council was pleased with Hamer’s performance, and that spring they increased his salary to $100 a month. Equally impressed was C.M. Spann, the county attorney. In June 1910 he presented Frank with a fancy, engraved single-action Colt .45 revolver, F.A. HAMER inscribed on the back strap. This was the first time Hamer had ever received such a magnificent gift, and he was deeply touched by the gesture. He would carry this Colt—his favorite—through many trying years in the Texas Rangers and nicknamed it Old Lucky.

Indeed, Hamer would carry Old Lucky throughout his entire life, defending himself during the Sweetwater gunfight in 1917 where he fought side by side with his new wife Gladys, showing off with it during shooting expeditions while cleaning up Texas boom towns in the 1920s, drawing it from his waistband after ambushing Bonnie and Clyde in the 1930s, and even showing it off to “King of the Cowboys” himself Roy Rogers upon meeting the star at his California home in the late 1940s. Old Lucky was eventually auctioned for $165,000.

The Highwaymen reinforces Frank Hamer and Maney Gault’s cowboy natures by arming them with Single Action Army revolvers, as at least Hamer certainly was in real life, with Costner’s Hamer first seen fine-tuning his skills by paying some local kids to toss bottles in the air for him to shoot. Costner also co-opts Hamer’s real-life practice of carrying Old Lucky in his waistband, sans holster.

Frank introduces a stubborn service station attendant to Old Lucky.

The Remington Model 8 semi-automatic rifle is prominently featured as one of Hamer’s own weapons that he packs along for the journey, arming himself with it as he did in real life for the May 1934 ambush. Designed by John Browning, the recoil-operated Model 8 was introduced to the civilian market in 1905 as the first commercially successful semi-automatic rifle and found quick success in the sport hunter market, though it was also favored by law enforcement. In fact, Frank Hamer owned and used several different Model 8 rifles that he used for both purposes.

Remington introduced four new rounds for the Model 8:  .25 Remington, .30 Remington, .32 Remington, and .35 Remington. Hamer notably carried the former during an October 1918 expedition to capture and kill the dangerous criminal Encarnacion Delgado. “Good God! Watch Frank use the pear burner on him!” exclaimed a member of Hamer’s posse as he observed Hamer squeezing the trigger of his .25-caliber Remington Model 8 so quickly that “the blazing muzzle looked like the flame of a ‘pear burner’ torch,” as Boessenecker describes.

In the spring of 1922, Hamer was presented with “a beautifully scroll-engraved .30-caliber [Remington] Model 8 semiautomatic rifle, inscribed CAPT. FRANK HAMER OF THE TEXAS RANGERS on the left side of the frame,” which was shipped to the same Petmeckey’s Sporting Goods store in Austin where the Rangers often purchased their weaponry. This .30 Remington would become Hamer’s favorite deer hunting rifle.

A decade later, an all-new Remington Model 8 would come into play for the most storied chapter of Hamer’s life: the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde. Having lent his .25-caliber Remington Model 8 to Maney Gault to use in the ambush, Hamer armed himself with a customized Model 8 chambered in .35 Remington, the most powerful round offered for this particular rifle. (Prentiss Oakley, deputy sheriff of Bienville Parish, Louisiana, was also armed with a borrowed Remington Model 8A that he reportedly used to fire the first fatal shots.)

Hamer’s rifle, serial number #10045 was a special order from Petmeckey’s originally with a 15-round box magazine that was modified to accept a “police only” 20-round magazine, obtained via the Peace Officers Equipment Company in St. Joseph, Missouri. Every last round would count against the well-armed Clyde Barrow.

Armed with his Remington Model 8, Frank Hamer prepares for his final showdown with Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker.

Despite their reputation as old-fashioned cowboys, the Rangers kept up with the latest technology and weaponry that would keep them evenly matched with the increasingly well-armed criminals they faced. In fact, the Rangers were the first to introduce airplanes to Texas law enforcement during the Mexia boomtown raids in early 1922 and a reporter breathlessly noted “they are armed with machine guns, high-powered rifles, and automatic pistols” as Hamer and his Rangers held off a Waco lynch mob that spring.

While Hamer still proudly carried his single-action “Old Lucky” during this period, the Rangers did not stubbornly stick to their tried-and-true 19th century firearms and eagerly adopted the most innovative tools of the trade. As early as January 1922, three Thompson submachine guns were purchased for the Rangers with some of Hamer’s men—though not the senior captain himself—fielding portable .45-caliber “tommy guns” during raids in Mexia and corrupt Texas boomtowns.

Like his prey Barrow, Frank Hamer had little use for the Thompson despite the Rangers’ enthusiastic adoption of the weapon in the early 1920s. Boessenecker writes that “the Thompson was the antithesis of Hamer’s style of combat shooting. He believed in calm, deliberate marksmanship, firing as few shots as possible, thus reducing the danger to innocent civilians… For those who carried a Thompson, calmness, deliberation, and deadly marksmanship were not part of the equation. Hamer recognized that its threatening appearance would be useful in cowing mobs, but he never once used a fully automatic weapon in a gunfight.”

The Highwaymen features an entertaining scene that finds a lone Hamer entering a Lubbock, Texas, gun store at the start of his manhunt. He pulls out a small book that guided some of his research and declares:

I’d like to have a look at that Thompson submachine gun… and the Colt Monitor machine-rifle—one up top there with the custom pistol grip—and a Colt automatic pistol and a 1917 Smith right behind it. And I wanna see that BAR, .30-06. And the ’03 Springfield with the glass up top there. And that Remington Model 11 riot gun over there.

The Lubbock gun store clerks meet their new favorite customer.

Like the Ford V8 sedan that he transports his high-caliber stockpile in, all of the weapons that Hamer chooses were known to be used by the Barrow gang. The BAR, of course, was Clyde’s favorite, and the gang always had many .45-caliber M1911 pistols in stock from its frequent robbing of military and police armories, often stealing more than three dozen at a time. Clyde also got his hands on a stag-gripped Smith & Wesson M1917 revolver—identified in several of the gang’s famous photos taken in the spring of 1933—taken from Springfield, Missouri, motorcycle cop Tom Persell after they had kidnapped him for a few hours that January. The short-barreled Remington Model 11 semi-automatic shotgun in both 12- and 16-gauge was also a common weapon in the Barrow gang’s arsenal, particularly 16-gauge models modified with a sawed-down barrel and stock to be wielded by Bonnie Parker as her “whip-it” gun and still on her lap when the couple was killed.

Hamer specified to the gun store clerk that he wanted the Model 11 with the shorter, 20″ barrel, indicating a weapon that would be intended more for close quarters combat than hunting. It makes a few appearances in his hands over the course of The Highwaymen, first pulled from the Ford’s backseat as Gault talks to the denizens of a migrant camp that harbored Bonnie and Clyde before examining the criminal couple’s recently abandoned campground nearby.

Remington riot gun in hand, Hamer finds a discarded bottle of Hiram Walker’s Royal Oak whiskey… remnants of the Barrow gang’s last campsite.

While fun to watch, the gun store shopping scene is decidedly fictional. Hamer was already armed with “Old Lucky” and his trusty Remington Model 8 rifle when he set out on the manhunt, but it wasn’t until Texas National Guard unit commander Weldon Dowis was contacted in the spring of 1934 on Hamer’s behalf that he was able to take delivery of weapons powerful enough to outgun Clyde Barrow and puncture the steel doors of his stolen Fords. After Texas congressman Hatton Summers effectively intervened on Hamer’s behalf, “Dowis reluctantly issued a pair of BARs to Hamer and his men,” according to Jeff Guinn in Go Down Together. “He said decades later that he had to teach the lawmen how to shoot them—the BARs were so powerful that they required a much stronger grip than ordinary rifles.”

As Clyde Barrow stood at 5’7″ and never more than 130 pounds, the heavy Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) remains a surprising weapon of choice for the slightly built outlaw, particularly when one considers the theory that he would weld three 20-round box magazines together for one “super-magazine” that could fire nearly 60 rounds of potent .30-06 Springfield rifle ammunition at a rate of more than 500 rounds per minute. Designed by John Browning like many of the other weapons featured here, the BAR was hurried into production after the United States entered World War I and remained in U.S. military service through World War II and even in limited quantities during the Vietnam War. (Read more about Clyde Barrow’s preferred weapons here.)

In 1931, Colt introduced the Colt Monitor (R80) automatic machine rifle, intended for law enforcement usage but also offered to the civilian market for $300 each, and produced a limited run of 125 rifles, of which 90 would eventually be purchased by the FBI. The Monitor was operationally identical with the fully automatic BAR, with mostly cosmetic differences including a separate pistol grip and butt stock attached to a lightweight receiver and a barrel length shortened from the BAR’s 24″ down to 18″ with the addition of a 4-inch Cutts compensator.

Gault: “What the hell is that?”
Hamer: “It’s a Colt Monitor machine-rifle. Fires a 20-round volley at 3,000 feet per second. Our boy Clyde, he prefers a Browning Automatic, .30 cal. Pretty much the same gun, except now the little shit uses a welded over-and-under clip that can fire 40.”
Gault: “Well, he ain’t met Old Lucky.”
Hamer: “Shit, I ain’t that lucky.”

Impressed by Hamer’s display with the powerful BAR, Gault asks if he has another Colt Monitor for him and eventually it is Gault who is shown using the Colt Monitor during the climactic ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. In real life, Gault had carried a .25-caliber Remington Model 8 as stated above and the group’s sole Colt Monitor was in the hands of Dallas County Deputy Ted Hinton…who is seen firing a standard M1918 BAR rather than a Monitor in The Highwaymen when, in fact, it was Hinton’s fellow deputy Bob Alcorn that was armed with a BAR in real life. Alcorn and Gault were also armed with backup Remington Model 11 riot shotguns.

While the Colt Monitor may have been among the latest in American weaponry, Hamer doesn’t discriminate based on age of a weapon’s design. “Let me see that old Winchester you got there, that .30-30,” Hamer requests in the gun shop, indicating a blued lever-action Winchester Model 1894 rifle. “I’ll be needin’ one gun that won’t jam,” Hamer grunts about his necessity for the old-fashioned but familiar rifle.

Henderson Jordan, the sheriff of Bienville Parish, Louisiana, is depicted firing the Winchester in the final ambush, which fits with Jeff Guinn describing the lawman with “a Winchester lever-action rifle” in Go Down Together. Nearly 30 years before Bonnie and Clyde were killed, Hamer himself had used a Winchester Model 1894 Saddle Ring Carbine to kill murderous swindler Ed Putnam.

Amidst the automatic and semi-automatic rifles arming him for his journey, Hamer finds comfort in the mechanical reliability of a classic Winchester rifle.

Hamer continues his order in the gun shop after looking over the Smith & Wesson Model 1917, requesting “a handful of them half-moon clips for this Smith if you  got ’em.”

The M1917 revolver was hastily developed during World War I when the U.S. military faced a shortage of the relatively new M1911 semi-automatic pistols. The military had plenty of .45 ACP ammunition but not enough pistols to issue, so they requested the nation’s two major revolver manufacturers—Colt and Smith & Wesson—to adapt their heavy-frame civilian New Service and .44 Hand Ejector revolvers, respectively, to fire .45 ACP. Joseph Wesson, son of Daniel B. Wesson, patented the unique half-moon clip that would allow these revolvers to fire this rimless semi-automatic pistol ammunition. At the government’s request, Smith & Wesson allowed Colt to use these half-moon clips for free, though Smith & Wesson kept an ace in the hole by fitting their M1917 cylinders with a shoulder that would permit the rimless cartridges to headspace on the case mouth.

Despite how finnicky he is about the revolver and getting one without the “shiny” nickel finish, Hamer never actually carries or fires the M1917 revolver on screen. Interestingly, it was an M1917 revolver—albeit a Colt with stag grips—that Denver Pyle had carried as Hamer in 1967’s Bonnie and Clyde.

“You have this in black instead of nickel?” Hamer asks. “Too damn shiny.”

“I want all of ’em. Along with four cases of .45 lead, same for the .30-06, and say an even hundred for each of the others,” Hamer concludes, finally completing his order at the Lubbock gun store.

“What all you goin’ after that needs this much firepower?” asks the gun shop owner. “If you don’t mind me askin’.”

“No sir, I don’t mind at all,” replies Hamer, looking up from his gun catalog but not answering the question, characteristic of the famously laconic lawman.

How to Get the Look

Kevin Costner as Frank Hamer in The Highwaymen (2019)

Although he has an extensive reputation and experience as a gunfighter on horseback, Frank Hamer’s wardrobe has evolved by the 1930s to follow the new Texas Ranger standards for business suits, neckties, and city hats… though Kevin Costner’s portrayal in The Highwaymen balances the sartorial image with a pair of subtle black leather boots nodding to the veteran lawman’s cowboy nature.

• Charcoal multi-striped flannel three-piece suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat (vest) with four welted pockets and adjustable back strap
  • Double reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White self-striped lightweight cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, breast pocket, shirred back, and button cuffs
• Dark striped tie with short, wide blade
• Black leather belt with dulled silver box-style buckle
• Black leather cowboy boots with pointed toe caps
• White cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Black felt fedora with black ribbed grosgrain silk band
• Gold wedding ring

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, streaming now on Netflix.

The Highwaymen (2019)

As someone who’s been reading about the Barrow gang for more than 15 years, I was delighted by the amount of often-ignored details, facts, names, and incidents that were included in The Highwaymen‘s depiction of the outlaw duo’s final months and the manhunt that permanently stopped them.

While there are still liberties taken for the sake of storytelling (perhaps most significant being that it was Dallas County Deputy Sheriff Bob Alcorn who rode with Hamer for most of the investigation instead of Maney Gault, who didn’t join until about two months later), The Highwaymen may be one of the most fact-informed adaptations of the story—and respective personalities—of Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow, and Frank Hamer. You can read more about the truth and fiction of the film’s approach in Andrew R. Chow’s March 2019 analysis for TIME.

If you’re looking to learn more about Hamer, I suggest John Boessenecker’s 2016 biography Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer, the Man Who Killed Bonnie and Clyde. As Boessenecker concludes, “Frank Hamer played an important role in American history. He was part of the forces that dragged Texas—kicking and screaming—into the twentieth century. He started life as a humble cowboy and ended up the most extraordinary lawman of his era. His controversies had been many; his victories, even greater. From his ironfisted protection of African Americans to his war against the immoral Texas Bankers Association, he showed what a lone Ranger, armed with little but courage and a Colt .45, could accomplish.”

The Quote

Outlaws and mustangs, they always come home.

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt in The Sandpiper (1965)

Vitals

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt, self-righteous Episcopal boarding school headmaster

Pebble Beach, California, Spring 1965

Film: The Sandpiper
Release Date: June 23, 1965
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Costume Designer: Irene Sharaff

Background

This Thursday, June 13, the USGA U.S. Open begins at Pebble Beach Golf Links, a renowned public golf course in Monterey County celebrating its centennial this year. 2019 marks the sixth time that Pebble Beach has hosted the U.S. Open, the first time being in 1972, seven years after Richard Burton teed off for a brief scene in The Sandpiper.

The Sandpiper recognizes the golf course’s significance in business transactions, even for school headmasters like Dr. Edward Hewitt (Burton) and his group of major donors. One fellow golfer offers to donate $300,000 to the school’s chapel fund if Dr. Hewitt hits the green… unfortunately, his ball flies into the water instead.

What’d He Wear?

Rarely seen without a dress shirt and tie, Edward dresses for golf in a casual cream knit polo shirt with a large collar and three dark brown buttons fastened to the neck.

Edward prepares his shot.

Edward opts to wear green for the green…though in this case, his green is an olive wool knit cardigan sweater with a straight-cut bottom, six-button front, and welted pockets. The set-in sleeves are elasticized at the cuffs, keeping the material of the sleeves away from his hands as he swings. The cardigan has a short two-button vent on each side of the waist hem.

Edward keeps his earthy tones intact with a pair of dark brown flat front trousers with straight side pockets and jetted back pockets. His shoes appear to be standard brown calf derbies rather than any sort of golf-informed footwear like kilties or cleats, though it’s difficult to tell given the fact that we only really see his feet in wide shots.

A picturesque spot for fundraising.

Edward wears a cream leather golf glove on his left hand. Though they had been commercially available for the better part of a century, golf gloves were not universally popular until the 1960s when golf-wearing champions Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus sported them on the green. Read more about the history of the golfing glove here.

Since Edward wears the glove on his non-dominant left hand, it runs up against his gold wristwatch, possibly the Patek Philippe that Elizabeth Taylor had gifted him during the production of Cleopatra a few years earlier. This automatic watch has a champagne gold dial and a woven gold bracelet. Admittedly, a Patek Philippe would be quite a showy piece for a school headmaster to wear… unless he’s one heck of a fundraiser, though his golf skills seem to prove otherwise.

How to Get the Look

Richard Burton as Dr. Edward Hewitt in The Sandpiper (1965)

Richard Burton taps into his innately timeless sense of style when teeing off at the famous Pebble Beach Golf Links in The Sandpiper, dressing for the cool coastal California climate in an earthy cardigan, polo, and slacks.

• Cream knit long-sleeve polo shirt with three dark brown buttons
• Olive wool knit 6-button cardigan sweater with welted pockets, straight-cut bottom, elasticized cuffs, and 2-button side vents
• Dark brown flat front trousers with straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, turn-ups/cuffs
• Brown calf leather derby shoes
• Black socks
• Patek Philippe yellow gold automatic wristwatch with champagne-colored dial and woven bracelet
• Cream leather golf glove

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie or see a variety of movies that Liz and Dick made together with the Taylor and Burton Film Collection.

Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Casino (1995)

Vitals

Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, Vegas casino executive and mob associate

Las Vegas, Spring 1978

Film: Casino
Release Date: November 22, 1995
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Rita Ryack & John A. Dunn

Background

More than a year has passed since I last explored the expansive and flashy wardrobe worn by Robert De Niro as “Ace” Rothstein in Casino, so what better occasion than the real Ace’s birthday to take another look at the casino executive’s colorful attire.

Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was born 90 years ago today—June 12, 1929—in Chicago, where he spent his formative years and early career until moving to Miami in the early ’60s. Within the decade, Lefty grew tired of the attention from local police and federal authorities and moved out to Las Vegas, where he swiftly and secretly established himself as the operator of the now-demolished Stardust Resort and Casino.

Lefty’s tenure in Vegas was plagued from the start due to his mob connections and the eventual arrival of his once-friend Anthony “Tony” Spilotro, a violent enforcer from the Chicago Outfit looking to make his own mark in Sin City. In Casino, Spilotro was renamed Nicky Santoro for Joe Pesci’s explosive portrayal of him.

What’d He Wear?

I lost control? Look at you! You’re fucking walking around like John Barrymore! A fuckin’ pink robe and a fuckin’ cigarette holder?

— Nicky Santoro

While not quite as opulent as the monogrammed dressing gown Barrymore wore in Dinner at Eight (1933), Ace’s pink silk robe with its violet-and-gold triple-prong repeating print is a far cry from anything that Nicky would feel comfortable wearing. The robe has a broad shawl collar, a breast pocket and two large hip pockets, and it ties around the waist with a sash made from the same fabric as the rest of the robe. The sleeves have wide self-cuffs at the ends, extending about six inches back from each wrist.

Ace’s choice of loungewear provides yet another source of conflict between the two frenemies.

Ace wears the same light pink self-striped satin silk pajamas that he sported earlier with his similarly patterned navy silk robe. The pajama set has a button-up top with a plain front and breast pocket.

Ace laments that there’s just never anything good on TV these days…

Ace completes his image of luxurious leisure with a pair of black velvet Prince Albert house slippers with hard soles, worn without socks. According to the De Niro movie costume archive at the Harry Ransom Center at University of Texas at Austin, these are likely the “black slippers with gold beaded embellishment on vamp” by Neiman Marcus.

Scorsese directs Pesci and De Niro on set.

Perhaps as he was planning to go to bed, Ace’s hands are bare of rings or excess jewelry and he instead wears only his 18-carat white gold vintage Bueche Girod wristwatch with its blue square dial tri-sected by thin white gold bars.

Ace ashes one of his many Dunhill cigarettes before taking a late night call.

Go Big or Go Home

For the most part, Ace tries to stay out of his former pal Nicky’s profanity-laden tirade against mob-friendly banker Charlie Clark (Richard Riehle), instead supervising the conversation from behind his well-stocked home bar, a watering hole so exquisitely decorated that it is clearly the domain of the man in the immaculate silk dressing gown.

No home bar is complete without a photo of you shaking hands with Kevin Pollak.

How to Get the Look

Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Casino (1995)

Lounging around the house in a pink satin robe and pajamas may not be an instinctive choice for your morning attire, but it certainly evokes the elegance of a bygone era… particularly in the right context; pink-on-pink loungewear may be best deployed for a comfortable breakfast in bed with a loved one and not for overseeing a gangster’s attempted extortion of a bank president.

• Pink patterned silk dressing gown/robe with wide shawl collar, breast pocket, hip pockets, wide-cuffed sleeves, and waist sash
• Light pink self-striped satin silk pajama set:
  • Button-up pajam top with plain front and breast pocket
  • Pajama pants with plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black velvet Prince Albert slippers with gold beaded embellishment and hard leather soles
• Bueche Girod 14-carat white gold vintage wristwatch with blue square face on link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Listen, I would appreciate it if you’d stay out of my personal life, okay? You wouldn’t like it if I did it to you.

Footnotes

I should’ve never married him. He’s a Gemini. Triple Gemini. Duality. Gemini is the snake, you know. You can’t trust a snake.

— Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone)

Given the real Lefty’s birthday of June 12, Ginger’s frustrated reference to his being a Gemini is completely accurate, as is her judgement that the twins symbolize duality, though her ruling that “Gemini is the snake” is an inaccurate blending of Western astrology and the Chinese zodiac. (His June 12, 1929, birthdate also squashes her “triple Gemini” theory as his Moon sign would technically be Virgo… which makes sense.) However, it is true that the period of February 10, 1929, to January 29, 1930, is the year of the snake under the Chinese zodiac.

(The real Ginger, Geraldine “Geri” McGee, was born on May 16, 1936, thus sharing her Taurus sign with Tony Spilotro, the real Nicky. According to astrologer Joanna Martine Woolfolk, romance between Taurus and Gemini is “an unpromising match.”)

Roger Moore as James Bond in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Vitals

Roger Moore as James Bond, British government agent

Bangkok, Thailand, Spring 1974

Film: The Man with the Golden Gun
Release Date: December 20, 1974
Director: Guy Hamilton
Tailor: Cyril Castle
Clothes by: Jimmy Chen
Wardrobe Supervisor: Elsa Fennell

Background

Today marks the momentous 20th anniversary of the first time I’d ever seen a James Bond movie. June 19, 1999, was the first Saturday of my summer vacation after 4th grade, and my friend Nate was hosting a dozen friends for his 10th birthday party. Among the pizza, pop, and festivities was a rented copy of The Man with the Golden Gun on VHS… and thus Roger Moore was my introduction to agent 007.

Arguably one of the most iconic outfits—for better or worse—from Moore’s sophomore outing is the green safari shirt-jacket and cream trousers that the agent wears when he arrives to meet Andrea Anders (Maud Adams) at a Muay Thai match to take possession of the film’s MacGuffin, a solex agitator.

Unfortunately, Andrea’s dead—shot in the chest—with the solex agitator initially nowhere to be found. Bond finds himself sitting next to the sinister yet sophisticated Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), who prides himself on the “difficult… but most gratifying” shot that ended Andrea’s life before introducing his peanut-munching pal Nick Nack (Hervé Villechaize) who has a derringer aimed at Bond, prompting the agent to quip: “A gun in a bag of peanuts, how original. What will they think of next?”

As Scaramanga pontificates, Bond spies the solex agitator among the trash at Andrea’s feet and slides it under his loafer, smoothly smuggling it to his ally Lieutenant Hip (Soon-Tek Oh)—undercover as a waiter—by pretending to purchase a bag of peanuts from him. Unaware of Bond’s maneuver, Scaramanga surprisingly departs after a brief chat—hoping that he and Bond shall never meet again—and the whole movie might have ended there with Bond’s mission relatively accomplished… until the MacGuffin ends up with the bumbling but beautiful MI6 agent Mary Goodnight (Britt Ekland), who finds herself in the trunk of Scaramanga’s AMC Matador.

With vacationing Louisiana sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) riding shotgun, Bond gives chase in an AMC Hornet stolen from a Bangkok dealership (gee, I wonder if AMC paid for all of this product placement?) with considerable impressive stunts to follow, beginning with a “J-turn” from reverse that would be popularized on The Rockford Files, which premiered the same year.

In a truly impressive stunt ruined by a truly awful slide whistle, Bond—in actuality, stunt driver Loren “Bumps” Willard—performed a groundbreaking “aerial twist” as the red Hornet drove off the elevated broken end of a bridge and rotated counter-clockwise a full 360° before making a smooth landing on the other side of the bridge.

Pretend there’s no slide whistle.

Despite the impressive stunt, it’s not enough for Bond and Sheriff Pepper to catch the assassin whose Matador transforms into a plane that flies away.

What’d He Wear?

The inclusion of this distinctive shirt-jacket in Orlebar Brown’s official 007-inspired collection this season makes this the perfect time to take another look at Sir Roger’s outfit. Perhaps more than any other actor who would strap on James Bond’s Walther PPK, Roger Moore stepped into the role with a well-informed and strongly developed sense of style, a sartorial savvy that permitted him to take more risks than Sean Connery who often reverted to safe but stylish classic pieces like the navy blazer, brown tweed jacket, and gray business suit with “cocktail cuff” shirts and navy grenadine ties.

Armed with English clothing experts like Cyril Castle and Frank Foster as well as his own experience as a natty dresser in The Saint and The Persuaders!, Moore had no need for such a safe “uniform”, introducing a style for James Bond that effectively balanced the trends of the ’70s with timeless style. Yet, there has been much unfair dismissal of Moore as “the leisure suit Bond” from those who overlook his beautifully tailored suits and sport jackets crafted by such hands as Mr. Castle, Angelo Roma, and Douglas Hayward.

While safari-inspired clothing was indeed a 1970s trend that many men wore at the wrong time and wrong place—look no further than episodes of classic city-set sitcoms like The Bob Newhart Show for evidence—Sir Roger’s 007 wore only well-cut, well-made safari clothing and only when appropriate, such as in warm, tropical environments. Even Ian Fleming did not shy away from dressing the literary James Bond in safari clothing, describing the “faded khaki bush shirt” that Bond borrowed for the final chapter of Diamonds are Forever.

Thus, the warm southeast Asian setting of The Man with the Golden Gun provides an appropriate setting for Roger Moore’s James Bond to step out in safari garb like this green safari-style shirt worn with light slacks and loafers.

Even in an urban setting like Bangkok, Bond’s safari shirt-jacket provides comfort in the warm climate and is appropriately dressed up for the city with his linen trousers and leather loafers.

In its auction listing, the Prop Store confirms that Moore’s bespoke green safari shirt was “a custom-made garment by Hong Kong tailor Jimmy Chen,” made from lightweight cotton in a light shade of sage green similar to the Class A uniform dress shirts worn by the U.S. Army at the time.

Fitted with a half-belted back and double side vents, the shirt-jacket has a wide camp collar and the usual safari-inspired detailing of epaulettes (shoulder straps) and four patch pockets, all box-pleated with pointed flaps that close with a single button.

Bond’s green long-sleeved shirt has four widely spaced buttons in “pearlescent green”, as described by the Prop Store auction, and Moore wears the top button undone for extra breeziness.

The cuffs also close with a button, but Moore wears them unbuttoned and rolls up his sleeves through the entire sequence.

Armed with his trusty Walther PPK and his less trusty companion Sheriff J.W. Pepper, Bond prepares to confront Scaramanga.

Using the exact original shirt that they purchased at auction in 2014, EON Productions coordinated directly with Orlebar Brown on their version of the “Bond Safari Jacket”, which is again available on their site in most sizes for $595 after initially selling out within a week of the line’s release on May 15, 2019.

The official Orlebar Brown “Bond Safari Jacket”, accompanied by atmospheric props and photos.

Orlebar Brown’s unlined shirt-jacket in a breathable blend of 51% cotton and 49% linen takes its cues from The Man with the Golden Gun, right down to the “tonal imitation mother of pearl buttons” and “military pockets and epaulette detailing.” The most notable differences appear to be:

• the color, which OB also calls “sage” but more resembles the darker, earthier tone of green used to make the U.S. Army’s OG-107 and OG-507 fatigues popularized by M*A*S*H, and
• the modernized details, including slimmer pocket flaps and collar than what would have been fashionable in the 1970s.

For firsthand feedback about the OB collection, including this particular piece, I refer you to Matt Spaiser of The Suits of James Bond and a review by my friend Shawn Michael Bongiorno. (You can also read a thoughtful and detailed analysis of the original outfit from The Suits of James Bond here.)

If the OB price tag is a little high, Iconic Alternatives again saves the day with its characteristically thorough research that finds affordable updates for all of Moore’s safari-influenced shirts and jackets as James Bond, including a nice alternative in a pale “marine green” cotton/linen twill by Massimo Dutti.

While Bond’s safari shirt may not be for everyone, even its most ardent critics should agree that Sheriff J.W. Pepper’s touristy getup isn’t right for anyone.

Bond wears the safari shirt untucked with the hem covering the waistband of his trousers, a pair of cream-colored flat front slacks in a lightweight slubbed material almost certain to be linen. The trousers appear to have vertical pockets cut along the side seams and the plain-hemmed bottoms are fashionably flared.

Given the lack of layers preventing him from comfortably holstering his sidearm, he appears to keep his Walther PPK tucked into the left side of his waistband, secured by his belt. Moore’s black leather belt, briefly seen as he pulls the PPK from his waistband, has a large semi-oval gold buckle and is likely among the Salvatore Ferragamo leatherware that the actor began wearing wearing after his then-neighbor, who was married to Salvatore Ferragamo’s eldest son, expressed concern that 007 had worn Gucci belts and shoes in Live and Let Die.

Production photo of Roger Moore as James Bond, drawing his Walther PPK from his trouser waistband in The Man with the Golden Gun. (Source: Thunderballs archive)

While some strict menswear purists would advocate that wearing a black belt means a gent should be sporting black shoes, Moore’s Bond skirts that “rule” by wearing a pair of more contextually appropriate plain-toe loafers in a rich brown leather, albeit accented with black contrast leather including the woven tassels and side lacing as well as the black hard leather soles.

Despite the conspicuous Gucci branding throughout The Man with the Golden Gun, these shoes are likely also a product of Ferragamo. Moore’s beige ribbed socks neatly continue the trouser leg line into the shoes.

The unique details of these shoes make it very difficult to find modern equivalents unless one is willing to purchase them in all one color or with a different type of two-tone detailing.

Bond wears his signature Rolex Submariner, a reference 5513 Oyster Perpetual with a stainless steel 40mm case, black rotating bezel, black dial, and stainless Oyster-style bracelet.

The Man with the Golden Gun marks the last time that Roger Moore’s 007 wears the character’s usual Rolex Submariner as he would switch to Seiko watches from The Spy Who Loved Me through his final appearance in A View to a Kill. In fact, the Rolex would only appear once more on Bond’s wrist, worn in 1989 by Timothy Dalton in Licence to Kill.

The Car

It’s not officially #CarWeek yet, but how would we not talk about the red 1974 AMC Hornet X that James Bond “borrows” from an AMC dealership… complete with Sheriff J.W. Pepper already riding shotgun.

In retrospect, the car itself is nothing too spectacular—representative of the underdesigned, underpowered state of the American automotive industry in the mid-1970s—but the impressive feat designed and performed in an AMC Hornet X in The Man with the Golden Gun earns it a notable place among 007’s gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5 or amphibious Lotus Esprit.

The dream team of James Bond and Sheriff J.W. Pepper chase after Scaramanga in their commandeered red AMC Hornet X.

American Motors Corporation (AMC) formed in 1954 during the largest American corporate merger to that point in history when Nash-Kelvinator and the Hudson Motor Car Company combined forces to take on the Big Three—Chrysler, Ford, and GM—lasting more than three decades before it was absorbed and bought out by Chrysler in the late ’80s.

However, AMC proved to be a force on the marketplace during the disco decade, consolidating its passenger car offerings in the ’70s and introducing the compact Hornet range in 1970, coinciding with the American demand for smaller cars as the looming gas crisis threatened the once-enduring supremacy of increasing power or prestigious size.

The compact Hornet replaced the Rambler for a seven-year production run of sedans, hatchbacks, and eventually wagons. By 1973, AMC neatly adapted the Hornet to incorporate new emissions controls with two six-cylinder and two eight-cylinder engines, with the two-barrel 360 cubic-inch V8 providing the most power at 175 horsepower, still underpowered when compared to the American muscle heyday of only three years earlier but considered “a mildly spirited performer” by Matt Stone and Preston Lerner in History’s Greatest Automotive Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed.

1974 AMC Hornet X

Body Style: 2-door hatchback coupe

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

Engine: 360 cu. in. (5.9 L) AMC V8 with 2-barrel carburetor

Power: 175 hp (130.5 kW; 177 PS) @ 4000 RPM

Torque: 285 lb·ft (387 N·m) @ 2400 RPM

Transmission: 3-speed “TorqueFlite” automatic

Wheelbase: 108 inches (2743 mm)

Length: 187 inches (4750 mm)

Width: 71.1 inches (1807 mm)

Height: 52.5 inches (1334 mm)

The filmmakers envisioned a stunt adapted from Jay Milligan’s Astro Spiral Javelin show cars that thrilled audiences across the United States, but in order to ensure that the roll could be carried out safely, the stunt team created what became the first computer-modeled car stunt in movie history, utilizing resources at the Cornell Aeronautical Labratory (CAL) to calculate the stunt that would call for a 3,219-pound weight (including the car and driver), a launch speed of 40 miles per hour, and a distance of 52 feet between ramps which would be disguised as a broken bridge.

At a curb weight of 3,236 pounds, the AMC Hornet was the ideal car of the era’s offerings that could make the intended barrel roll jump work on screen. A 1974 Hornet X in “matador red” with dealer-installed 14×6 Cragar S/S wheels, a floor-mounted three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission, and the top-of-the-line 360 V8 engine was supplied to the production (according to IMCDB) and modified with a redesigned chassis, center-positioned steering wheel, and larger wheel wheels. You can read more about the actual Hornet hatchback used on screen at James Bond Lifestyle.

For the safety of stunt driver Loren “Bumps” Willard (who went tragically uncredited in the film), seven tests were performed in advance before the actual manned jump, with emergency personnel on standby should anything go wrong. In a testament to both the driver’s skill and the precision of the filmmakers’ pre-jump testing, only a single take was needed as Willard completed the roll in one attempt, a stunt that would be lauded by Guinness World Records as “revolutionary”. Read more about this impressive, innovative stunt in Jason Torchinsky’s June 2015 article for Jalopnik.

Roger Moore as James Bond on location filming The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Given the impressive stunt performed in the film, AMC referring to “a whole new driving experience” seems like quite the understatement.

How to Get the Look

“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” goes the old adage, and I have to think it’s particularly appropriate for Roger Moore’s oft-aligned safari attire as James Bond.

Personally, this outfit from The Man with the Golden Gun is my favorite of 007’s safari outfits, helped by the contrast between the shirt and trousers that makes it more of a casual outfit than a straight safari costume.

• Light sage green cotton safari shirt-jacket with large camp collar, epaulettes, four-button front, four box-pleated pockets with button-down flaps, and button cuffs
• Cream linen flat front trousers with wide belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black Italian leather Salvatore Ferragamo belt with gold semi-oval buckle
• Brown leather plain-toe tassel loafers with black woven leather tassels and side lacing
• Beige ribbed socks
• Rolex Submariner 5513 Oyster Perpetual stainless wristwatch with black bezel, black dial, and stainless link bracelet

On the other hand, if you’re interested in dressing like J.W. Pepper… don’t.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

Well, we, er… all get our jollies one way or another.