Dustin Hoffman and Justin Henry in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Vitals

Dustin Hoffman as Ted Kramer, ad man and divorced dad

New York City, January 1979

Film: Kramer vs. Kramer
Release Date: December 19, 1979
Director: Robert Benton
Costume Designer: Ruth Morley

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

One of my more recent posts focused on a movie where Dustin Hoffman played a conniving con artist, so let’s allow him to redeem himself as a workaholic learning how to be a more present dad in Kramer vs. Kramer, Robert Benton’s 1979 divorce-centric drama that won Hoffman his first Academy Award for Best Actor—in addition to Oscars for his co-star Meryl Streep, Benton’s screenplay and directing, and the Best Picture trophy.

Hoffman and Streep play the titular Kramer couple, who split after eight years of marriage when an overwhelmed Joanna leaves Ted and their seven-year-old son Billy (Justin Henry) in the New York apartment they once shared. Ted initially struggles with the demands of parenting, but he grows from an aloof workaholic to an engaged dad over the year and a half that he raises Billy exclusively before Joanna re-enters their lives and requests custody.

What’d He Wear?

Field jackets were standardized as American military gear during World War II. After spending a generation in this domain, this ruggedly utilitarian outerwear was embraced by 1960s counterculture until it eventually became so mainstream by the late ’70s that it was no longer strictly associated with macho outdoorsmen nor militant protestors but everymen played by Woody Allen, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Dustin Hoffman.

For Hoffman, this applies specifically to the latter scenes in Kramer vs. Kramer when Hoffman’s Ted is ordered by the court to arrange reunions between Billy and Joanna. His M-65 field jacket diverts from Ted’s usual wardrobe of suits, sports coats, and the occasional hoodie. Indeed, it may be his subconscious choice to sport a military-associated garment to signal his readiness to fight when facing the enemy—in this case, his ex-wife.

The U.S. Army authorized the M-65 field jacket in 1965 to replace the Korean War-era M-1951, which itself was an evolution of the WWII-era M-43. Most widely associated for its service during the Vietnam War, the classic all-green M-65 began to be phased out in the early 1980s as the military shifted to standardized camouflage Battle Dress Uniforms (BDU) but the M-65 pattern coat remained in limited usage until at least 2005.

Also known as the “M-1965” (for obvious reasons) and designated the “Coat, Cold Weather, Man’s Field”, the M-65 maintained the windproof and water-resistant olive-green (OG-107) cotton shell of its predecessors as well as the overall hip-length cut and four flapped pockets—two bellows pockets over the chest and two set-in hip pockets. The M-65 also continued the M-51’s double fastening system of a straight-zip front covered by a snap-up storm flap, as well as the internal drawcord to cinch the waist.

Perhaps the most obvious visual differentiator between the M-65 and its predecessors is its rounded collar with a built-in protective hood enclosed by a zipper. The shoulders are detailed with epaulets that button closed at the neck, and the set-in sleeves are finished with velcro-adjustable cuffs.

Ted’s dark-brown woolen scarf tends to cover most of the space left open where the jacket is unzipped down to mid-chest, though he appears to wear a mauve button-up shirt with a brick-red overcheck when he debuts his M-65 during Billy’s Central Park reunion with Joanna.

He often pairs the field jacket with the tan needlecord trousers that he wears frequently through Kramer vs. Kramer. The tufted corduroy texture of these flat-front trousers harmonizes with the rugged jacket, as well as the military-informed pockets that echo OG-107 fatigue pants. These consist of patch front pockets with slanted entry and rectangular flaps over the inverted box-pleated back pockets. Rigged with belt loops in alternating widths around the waistband, these trousers have a straight cut down to plain-hemmed bottoms.

Aside from a few occasions that call for sneakers, Ted almost exclusively wears horsebit loafers with his daily wardrobe that ranges from suits and ties to sport jackets and jeans. This distinctive slip-on shoe was pioneered by Italian fashion house Gucci in 1953 when they began adorning vamps with metal straps shaped like a horse’s snaffle bit. More than 70 years later, the Gucci Horsebit 1953 Loafer remains a brand signature.

A field jacket and corduroys are informal enough to have worked with sneakers in this context, but Ted maintains some panache with his black leather moc-toe loafers and their gleaming gold bits, worn with plain black socks.

From the father’s field jacket and horsebit loafers to his young son’s duffle coat, the Kramer boys demonstrate that style may indeed be an inherited trait.

Ted wears a blackened chronograph which resembles contemporary Heuer and LeJour models, though some visual details have me convinced that the watch is most likely a LeJour. The 42mm steel case, pushers, crown, and three-piece link bracelet are PVD-coated for an all-black finish. The black dial features the requisite tachymeter scale around the outer edge, with luminous non-numeric hour indices and a white-wheeled date window at the 6 o’clock position.

The twin sub-registers at 3 and 9 o’clock are consistent with nearly identical Heuer and LeJour chronographs during the 1970s, both powered by the 17-jewel Valjoux 7734 movement that was developed in 1969 in the Vallée de Joux region of Switzerland.

Earlier in the movie, we get an eyeful of Ted’s chronograph as he attempts to make Billy’s French toast.

While awaiting the verdict, Ted and his neighbor Margaret (Jane Alexander)—a fellow single parent who has become more his friend than Joanna’s—walk through the snow, where she confides in him that the custody trial has had her considering rekindling her own relationship with her ex-husband.

The snowy weather understandably has Ted pulling on a heavier-duty mauve wool scarf and black ski gloves. His brown trousers are also corduroy, though he curiously wears the same black horsebit loafers—hardly a practical choice when navigating icy sidewalks!

Carl Bernstein and Judy Hoback seem to developed quite a friendship in the years following their respective roles in uncovering the Watergate scandal.

Hoffman’s screen-worn M-65 may have belonged to the actor in real life, as he was photographed wearing an identical field jacket for months following the film’s release.

How to Get the Look

Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

Ted Kramer models how an average joe can wear a classic Army field jacket without looking like cosplaying G.I. Joe, pairing it with comfortable fall staples like a loose scarf, corduroy trousers, and perhaps unexpected—but not unwelcome—horsebit loafers.

• Olive-green (OD-107) cotton sateen M-1965 U.S. Army-issue field jacket with rounded collar (with integrated zip-in hood), zip/snap front closure, four flapped pockets (with covered snaps), epaulets/shoulder straps, back shoulder pleats, and drawstring-cinched waist
• Mauve (with brick-red overcheck) long-sleeved button-up shirt
• Dark-brown woolen scarf
• Tan needlecord flat-front trousers with wide belt loops, slanted-entry patch front pockets, flapped inverted box-pleated back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather moc-toe Gucci-style horsebit loafers
• Black socks
• Black PVD-coated steel chronograph watch with 42mm case and black dial (with two black sub-registers, luminous non-numeric hour indices, and 6:00 date window) on black three-piece link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. Criterion Channel subscribers can also stream it before it leaves the channel at the end of November!

The Quote

We’re gonna be okay.

The post Kramer vs. Kramer: Dustin Hoffman’s M-65 Field Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.

Bill Murray as Frank Cross in Scrooged (1988)

Vitals

Bill Murray as Frank Cross, cynical TV executive

New York City, December 1988

Film: Scrooged
Release Date: November 23, 1988
Director: Richard Donner
Costume Designer: Wayne A. Finkelman

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy December! I’m already in the the midst of rewatching many of my favorite Christmas movies, which range in vibe from sentimental to cynical. Action director Richard Donner helmed two of the most cynical holiday-themed movies—Lethal Weapon and Scrooged—released back-to-back in 1987 and 1988, respectively.

A comic update of Charles Dickens’ classic novel A Christmas Carol, Scrooged stars Bill Murray as Frank Cross, president of the fictional IBC television network who gets the chance to prove whether Murray still ain’t afraid of no ghosts.

We meet Frank in the midst of reviewing IBC’s proposed slate of Christmas Eve programming, consisting of a machine-gunning Lee Majors saving Santa Claus, Bob Goulet’s Cajun Christmas, the innuendo-laden ’50s-style sitcom Father Loves Beaver, and a $40 million live production of “Scrooge” starring Buddy Hackett and Jamie Farr that ultimately prompts Frank to react:

Oh my gosh! Does that suck?

It becomes quickly evident that Frank will be our own Scrooge surrogate, as he demands his loyal assistant Grace (Alfre Woodard) work late rather than take her son to a much-needed medical appointment after taking a perverse delight in firing a nervous employee who had the nerve to speak out against Frank’s shock-and-awe TV promo.

What’d He Wear?

Frank Cross is introduced in a villainously dark corporate wardrobe, chaotically patterned with a navy pinstripe suit over a paisley-on-paisley shirt and tie combination. Despite the chaos, the clothing follows a relatively timeless cut that flatters Bill Murray while avoiding much of the bagginess that plagued menswear through the late 1980s.

The navy worsted wool suiting is patterned with a narrowly spaced white pinstripe. Frank’s tailor gives him the “power suit” silhouette with pagoda shoulders, which follow the concave part of the shoulder but curves out (rather than down), as defined by Matt Spaiser for Bond Suits‘ post that describes them as “the other natural shoulder”. This technique was popular at the time Scrooged was produced in the late 1980s, as also modeled on screen by Pierce Brosnan on Remington Steele and Timothy Dalton in his first James Bond film, The Living Daylights. Frank’s suit jacket has roped sleeve-heads that further emphasize the concave shape.

Frank’s double-breasted 4×1-button suit jacket has handsomely broad peak lapels with slightly slanted gorges. The 4×1-button configuration originated during the 1930s when Prince George, the Duke of Kent, only the bottom row of his 4×2-button double-breasted jackets. A more intentional 4×1-button style emerged at the time and was revived in the 1980s with the lower row of buttons often positioned below the waistline.

The ventless jacket has straight jetted hip pockets and a welted breast pocket that Frank dresses with a slate-blue silk pocket square. The sleeves are finished with three vestigial buttons on each cuff.

While Frank and his boss Preston Rhinelander (Robert Mitchum) differ with their shirts and ties, both men model conventional yet contemporary double-breasted pinstripe business suits.

The single-pleated trousers rise to Murray’s natural waist, rigged with both belt loops and buttons along the inside of the waistband to accommodate suspenders. They have side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) that break over the tops of his black leather plain-toe, high-vamp loafers.

Belt or braces?

Frank wears both belt and braces, though this is likely a continuity error rather than sartorial redundancy. During the initial scenes in his office, he holds his trousers up with a narrow black scaled leather belt that closes through a gold-toned rectangular single-prong buckle. In a later scene, Frank removes his jacket to reveal no belt, instead now holding up his trousers with black cloth suspenders that have silver-toned adjusters and black leather hooks connecting to buttons along the inside of the waistband.

After decades of easier-to-wear belts having eclipsed suspenders in popularity, suspenders returned as a fashion statement during the ’80s as seen in movies like Wall Street, where businessmen sported them as a status symbol. Given this cultural context, our more incidental glimpse of Frank’s belt in the previous scene, and the fact that costume designer Wayne A. Finkelman prominently dressed Frank in suspenders during the scene where he actually removes his jacket, we can conclude that suspenders are the “canonical” choice for how Frank chose to hold up his trousers.

Rather than a conventional white, blue, or striped shirt, Frank initially wears an offbeat navy-blue shirt in a tonal all-over paisley print. The shirt has a semi-spread collar, breast pocket, button cuffs, and a fly front which covers the button-up placket.

By merely swapping out a traditional white or lighter blue shirt for his dark paisley shirt, Frank Cross subverts business dress conventions and looks every bit the brash, hotshot ’80s executive.

Frank’s colorful paisley tie is muted against the busy paisley print of his shirt. This slim silk neckwear features a large-scaled all-over green-and-burgundy paisley print against a mid-blue ground. Though he isn’t as seasonally festive in his apparel as his boss Preston Rhinelander (Robert Mitchum), the green and red tones in Frank’s tie could be a subtle nod to the upcoming Christmas holiday.

That evening, Frank changes into a black velvet dinner jacket and bow tie that he wears during his initial spectral visit from the ghost of his deceased mentor Lew Hayward (John Forsythe), followed by a navy cashmere double-breasted jacket that he wears with a white shirt and burgundy patterned tie for his experiences with the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future.

Through it all, Frank always wears his Audemars Piguet Quantieme Perpetual Calendar watch, likely the 25657BA model. The 18-karat yellow-gold 36mm case encircles a round white dial with gold non-numeric hour indices and sub-registers indicating the day of the week, month, and date at 9, 12, and 3 o’clock, respectively, as well as a moon-phase complication above the 6 o’clock position. Powered by Audemars Piguet’s 2120/1 caliber automatic movement, the watch is secured to Frank’s left wrist on a black leather strap.

A later scene leaves no doubt regarding the watch model on Frank’s left wrist, though it curiously depicts the date as November 23rd for a scene set exactly one month later on December 23rd.

What to Imbibe

Frank Cross typically drinks Vodka & Cola, specifically mixed with Smirnoff “Red Label” 80-proof vodka and Tab cola. This unsophisticated highball suits the brash Frank who doesn’t care about the opinions of others. On a deeper level, this low-calorie combination is also as devoid of substance as the programming that Frank approves.

Frank’s assistant Grace pours him one of his usual Stoli-and-Tabs while they review his Christmas gifts for people like Colonel Tom Parker.

How to Get the Look

Bill Murray as Frank Cross in Scrooged (1988)

Frank Cross puts a characteristically brash spin on the ’80s “power suit” look, balancing his smart tailoring with a subtly sinister dark shirt—its busy paisley print competing with the paisley in his tie—and accessorizing with a tonal pocket square, suspenders, and a gold luxury watch.

• Navy pinstripe suit:
  • Double-breasted 4×1-button jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Navy tonal paisley shirt with semi-spread collar, covered-fly front, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Blue silk tie with green-and-burgundy paisley print
• Black suspenders with silver adjusters and black leather hooks
• Black leather plain-toe loafers
• Audemars Piguet Quantieme Perpetual Calendar 25657BA watch with 18-karat yellow-gold 36mm case, round white dial (with 3 sub-dials and moon-phase complication), and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

We have spent $40 million on a live TV show—you guys have got an ad with America’s favorite old fart reading a book in front of a fireplace! Now… I have to kill all of you!

The post Scrooged: Bill Murray’s Navy Pinstripe Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.

Christopher Plummer in The Silent Partner (1978)

Vitals

Christopher Plummer as Harry Reikle, sadistic armed robber

Toronto, Christmas 1977 through Summer 1978

Film: The Silent Partner
Release Date: September 7, 1978
Director: Daryl Duke
Wardrobe Credit: Debi Weldon

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 95th birthday of Christopher Plummer, born December 13, 1929. To celebrate the Toronto-born actor’s birthday amidst the holiday season, today’s post centers around Daryl Duke’s Canadian Christmas-centric 1978 thriller, The Silent Partner.

Plummer appears as Harry Reikle, a ruthless criminal who begins terrorizing Miles Cullen (Elliott Gould), a mild-mannered teller who foiled Harry’s earlier attempt to rob a branch of the First Bank of Toronto within Eaton Centre, a then-new shopping mall filled with bustling holiday shoppers who may have expected long lines but certainly would not expect to see Santa Claus exchanging shots with a bank security guard.

The real Bad Santa.

What’d He Wear?

Sandwiched between his bank-robbing disguises as a mall Santa and a middle-aged woman, Reikle’s street attire is anchored by a fashion-forward evolution of the classic naval pea coat. The heavy dark-navy wool, double-breasted front, pocket arrangement, and hip-length cut are familiar elements, but the most dramatic difference is the high Prussian collar on Reikle’s jacket as opposed to the flat ulster collars conventionally found on pea coats.

Structured with a suppressed waist and front darts, Reikl’s coat has an 8×4-button double-breasted front that tapers toward the bottom, and he typically only wears the bottom two buttons fastened; the top row of buttons would close the revers over the chest while keeping the high structured collar in place. The shoulders are roped at the sleeveheads, with shoulder yokes that slant down from the neck toward each armhole. The set-in sleeves are finished with plain cuffs. Vertical-entry hand pockets are set-in above the large flapped patch pocket on each hip.

After Harry’s first aborted robbery at Eaton Centre, he takes off his red Santa suit and swaps out the jolly old elf’s jacket for his pea coat layered over a dark-gray pullover sweater with a plain-knitted shawl collar and textured-stitched body and sleeves. He wears the sweater over his black mesh sleeveless undershirt, one of several flamboyantly effete aspects of his appearance including his array of jewelry, eye makeup, and manicured fingernails.

Months later, a paroled Reikle storms back into Miles Cullen’s life—and his apartment—wearing a navy-blue velour quarter-zip pullover under his usual pea coat.

Harry always wears dark-navy trousers, possibly with a polyester construction that wouldn’t be out of place for the late ’70s. These flat-front trousers have a medium rise, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. He holds them up with a black leather Gucci belt with the brand’s flashy gold-toned buckle of two interlocking “G”s. The belt leather coordinates to his black leather shoes, worn with black socks.

Reikle spends much of The Silent Partner directing his anger toward women, whether he’s whipping off his belt in response to his former partner Elaine (Celine Lomez) refusing to help him take Cullen’s money or kicking the lockers at his gym when going “too far” with a teenager after his first robbery attempt.

Reikle decorates himself with a trio of silver-toned chain-link jewelry, including a round necklace and a heavy round-linked bracelet on his right wrist.

In what might be a BAMF Style first, Harry also wears a small silver-toned chain-link ankle bracelet around the bottom of his right leg.

The Gun

Reikle carries a Walther P38, perhaps chosen to reinforce his villainous coding as the P38 had been designed prior to World War II specifically to replace the legendary Luger as the German service pistol. Though operationally different from the Luger, the double-action P38 retains some cosmetic aspects of its predecessor, specifically the exposed barrel.

After years of development, Walther began manufacturing the P38 in 1940. Like the Luger, it also fed from eight-round magazines of 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition, though the locked-breech P38 was much faster and less expensive to produce than its toggle-locked predecessor. Despite the P38 being easier to produce than the complex Luger, logistics issues delayed Nazi leadership’s ability to fully move production lines until later in the war.

Nearly 1.3 million P38 pistols were produced during World War II, with half manufactured by Walther while the remaining were split between the Mauser Werke and Spreewerk companies. After the Axis powers were defeated at the end of World War II, German weapons manufacturing was paused for more than a decade until West Germany founded the Bundeswehr to defend itself.

Walther was quick to resume production on the P38, which would serve as the Bundeswehr’s initial service pistol for six years from 1957 to 1963, when it was re-designated as the P1. Only their aluminum frames distinguished postwar Walther P38 and P1 pistols from those fielded during the war.

Though the P38 was primarily a German weapon, Reikle’s pistol may have made its way back to Canada as an Allied serviceman’s war souvenir.

Reikle blows any chance of keeping his less-than-convincing disguise working when Miles pulls a lateral and prompts him to draw his Walther during his final robbery attempt.

How to Get the Look

Christopher Plummer in The Silent Partner (1978)

Amidst his silver chain-link jewelry that even includes an ankle bracelet, Harry Reikle maintains a villainous sartorial template of dark clothing anchored by his fashionable spin on the classic navy pea coat.

• Dark-navy wool pea coat with Prussian collar, 8×4-button front, vertical-entry hand pockets, flapped patch hip pockets, set-in sleeves with plain cuffs, and ventless back
• Dark-gray shawl-collar pullover sweater or navy velour quarter-zip pullover
• Black mesh sleeveless undershirt
• Dark-navy polyester flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather Gucci belt with gold interlocking-G buckle
• Black leather shoes
• Silver chain-link necklace
• Silver heavy round chain-link bracelet
• Silver chain-link anklet

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

I’m just going to give you a little time… to try to be reasonable. If you decide you’re not going to be reasonable, then one night when you come home, you’ll find me inside, waiting for you. And that will be the night you’ll wish you’d never been born.

The post Christopher Plummer in The Silent Partner appeared first on BAMF Style.

Rafe Spall in the Black Mirror Christmas Special (2014)

Vitals

Rafe Spall as Joe Potter

Set on Christmas… somewhere

Series: Black Mirror
Episode: “White Christmas” (Episode 7)
Air Date: December 16, 2014
Director: Carl Tibbetts
Creator: Charlie Brooker
Costume Designer: Sharon Gilham

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Black Mirror‘s Christmas special—considered one of the series’ best episodes—aired ten years ago today on December 16, 2014. Written by series creator and showrunner Charlie Brooker, the episode takes a yuletide twist to Black Mirror‘s trademark tech-infused dystopia, centering on a new kind of “Christmas cookies” that you would not want at your holiday gathering!

We’re introduced to Joe Potter (Rafe Spall) as he wakes up on the morning of December 25th to the sounds of Christmas music and the sounds of cooking in the mysterious remote cabin here he’s evidently lived for five years. Stepping out into the kitchen, Joe discovers his apparent colleague and co-resident Matt Trent (Jon Hamm), a loquacious former social interaction engineer whose work included creating “cookies”—digital clones of people to serve as their own assistants.

“No one ends up here without things going to total shit for them back out there,” Matt observes when discussing their respective pasts with Joe.

Spall was nominated for an International Emmy Award for Best Actor for his performance as Joe.

What’d He Wear?

Unlike the smart layered winter gear he wears in the flashbacks set “back out there”, Joe Potter dresses simply—and somewhat slovenly—for his pitiful Christmas with Matt. His outer layer is a lightweight mustard-yellow cotton flannel waist-length jacket with a shirt-style collar, straight front zip, and patch-style breast pocket. The plaid pattern consists of a balanced brick-red check framed by narrow black stripes and wider blue stripes—the vertical stripes comprising each check are more vividly intense than the horizontal stripes. He leaves the single-button squared cuffs undone.

Joe layers the jacket over an olive-green ribbed cotton long-sleeved henley shirt with five mixed plastic 4-hole buttons at the top placket. The green henley and red check in his jacket may be costume designer Sharon Gilham having some ironic fun with Joe’s wardrobe by infusing the festive holiday’s traditional colors for this decidedly non-festive observance.

Joe’s navy cotton chino-cloth trousers have a flat-front, side and back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. His tan leather moc-toe derby-laced work boots fit the rugged setting of their remote cabin, even if he never actually goes outside during the scene.

Joe and Matt are both dressed in mustard tops and navy trousers, suggesting some uniformity between them. Consistent with their natures, Matt’s gold shirt is more solid, straightforward, and simple, while Joe’s plaid jacket suggests a greater complexity.

What to Imbibe

“No work today, so bottle’s on the table,” Matt greets Joe, indicating the tawny port on the table. Appropriate for the setting, I believe the screen-used bottle features a fictional label, though it features some resemblance to real-life port brands like Graham’s and Maynard’s.

Tawny port is a style of port wine that is aged in wooden barrels, resulting in a lighter amber color and a smooth and somewhat spicy nutty flavor profile with notes of dried fruit, caramel, and nuts. The bottle in “White Christmas” indicates that the port was “aged 25 years” in casks.

How to Get the Look

Rafe Spall in the Black Mirror Christmas Special (2014)

The festive red and green present in Joe’s clothing could make his simple ensemble a comfortably casual approach to Christmas dressing.

• Mustard-yellow (with brick-red and blue plaid) cotton flannel waist-length zip-up jacket with shirt-style collar, breast pocket, and single-button squared cuffs
• Olive-green ribbed cotton long-sleeved henley shirt with 5-button placket
• Navy cotton chino-cloth flat-front trousers with side pockets, back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Tan leather moc-toe derby-laced work boots

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series.

The Quote

It’s a job, not a jail.

The post Rafe Spall’s Colorful Plaid Jacket in the Black Mirror Christmas Special appeared first on BAMF Style.

Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers (2023)

Vitals

Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, cantankerous boarding school professor

Massachusetts, Christmas Eve 1970

Film: The Holdovers
Release Date: October 27, 2023
Director: Alexander Payne
Costume Designer: Wendy Chuck

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The release of The Holdovers last year filled a long-needed gap in theatrically released holiday canon, offering a fresh yet timeless addition to the roster of rewatchable Christmas movies. Directed by Alexander Payne, the movie is set during Christmas 1970 at the fictional Barton Academy boarding school in New England, where a group of students not going home for the holidays are chaperoned by a skeleton crew of the school’s staff.

After all but one are given the opportunity to leave before Christmas, the remaining student—the bright but troubled Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa)—remains behind under the watchful lazy eye of resentful classics professor Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti). Paul’s few friends on staff include the cheerful administrator Lydia Crane (Carrie Preston) and the cafeteria manager Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who is mourning her son’s recent death in Vietnam.

Lydia invites them to spend Christmas Eve at her home, but Paul’s reluctance frustrates both Angus and Mary, who confronts him:

Mr. Hunham, if you are too chickenshit to go to this party, then just say that. But don’t fuck it up for the little asshole! What’s wrong with you? It’s just a party… what are you afraid of?

His confidence boosted by a few extra sprays of Glade under his armpits to subdue his characteristic odor, Paul accompanies Angus and Mary to Lydia’s party, scored by Herb Alpert’s Christmas album—until Mary puts herself in charge of the music, and the Temptations and Artie Shaw take over the soundtrack.

While all three partygoers engage in flirtations with varying degrees of success, Mary’s question about his fear is answered as a promising conversation with his crush Lydia is cut short by the arrival of her “friend” Tom… though Paul may have been out of his emotional depth to begin with when his response to Lydia’s playful peck under the mistletoe was informing her that “Aeneas carried mistletoe with him when he descended into Hades in search of the father.” I guess you can take the teacher out of the ancient civilizations classroom, but you can’t take the ancient civilizations classroom out of the teacher.

What’d He Wear?

Rather than his usual knitwear-focused wardrobe, Paul dresses to impress as much as he can for the party hosted by his faculty crush Lydia, though he sticks to his tried-and-true template of corduroy suits and bow ties.

“I thought of him as professorial—tweed jackets, bow ties, sweater vests, and corduroy. While I didn’t want to go completely into that stereotypical look, how could I not a little? Besides, the yearbooks demonstrated that was exactly the right look for the period,” costume designer Wendy Chuck explained to Focus Features of her vision for Paul’s costumes. “Also, in prepping his costumes, we spent a lot of time making sure his three-piece suits felt like he’d lived in them for the last 10 years.”

Between interviews for Awards Daily and AnOther, Ms. Chuck confirmed that—while Paul’s “everyday” tan corduroy suit came from Brooks Brothers, this darker olive-brown corduroy suit was sourced from J. Press:

David Hemingson, the writer, had attended the schools so he had reference to a company in New York called J. Press where he knew that all his teachers had sourced their clothes. And they are still in existence – they still have the three-piece corduroy suits. So, we were able to go there and get in his head. That’s where Paul’s Christmas party suit comes from… J. Press is still very much a walk-in and walk-out, like with a professorial look kind of shop.

This olive three-piece suit is decidedly dressier than the two-piece suit, lacking the latter’s sportier touches like the patch pockets, elbow patches, and half-belted back on its jacket. Instead, the olive suit jacket is styled more like a traditional lounge suit with its set-in pockets and plain, single-vented back, albeit retaining the Ivy-style 3/2-roll button configuration and the swelled edges along the notch lapels. The breast pocket is welted, the straight hip pockets covered with flaps, and the sleeves are finished with three-button cuffs.

While he typically wears one of his sweater vests with the tan corduroy suit, Paul steps out in the olive corduroy suit’s matching waistcoat (vest), which has a single-breasted, five-button front that he correctly wears with the lowest button undone. The waistcoat has two welted pockets positioned low on the front and a dark satin-finished back with an adjustable strap.

The flat-front trousers have side pockets and two back pockets. Though Paul’s vest covers the waistband, we can discern that he likely holds the trousers up with a dark-brown leather belt as he does with all of his other trousers. The plain-hemmed bottoms break over the tops of his usual utilitarian dark-brown leather apron-toe derby shoes.

In another departure from his usual style that shows the attention he’s putting into making a good impression at the party, Paul leaves his rumpled button-down collar shirts in his closet and wears a light-yellow self-striped shirt that features a point collar, plain button-up front, and barrel cuffs that close through one of two buttons for an adjusted fit over each wrist.

Reaching for another of his trademark bow ties, he knots on a butterfly-shaped silk tie in “Malcolm” tartan plaid. This Christmassy pattern consists of double sets of red stripes and sets of yellow and blue stripes intersecting perpendicularly over a dark-green and navy-blue checked ground.

Between his combed mustache and Glade-refreshed armpits, Paul Hunham is ready to party!

Strapped to his left wrist on a black leather bracelet, Paul’s yellow-gold wristwatch has a round black dial marked with gold non-numeric hour indices.

“For Paul, there were two things that were important to get right—his hat and his jacket,” costume designer Wendy Chuck shared with Focus Features. Indeed, his checked tweed trilby and duffel coat perfectly complement the rest of his outfit. The short-brimmed tweed trilby features a gun club check pattern, with a rust-and-black houndstooth design set against a beige background.

Duffel coats, which are recognized for their integrated hoods and loop-and-toggle front closures (easily operated even with gloved hands), were named after the coarse wool fabric originally produced in the Belgian town of Duffel during the 15th century. Though their roots may trace back to earlier Polish military outerwear, the duffel coat gained popularity in the 1850s when British outfitter John Partridge designed a version that was later adopted by the British military, especially by the Royal Navy, though its famed wearer British Army Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery resulted in its enduring “Monty coat” nickname.

Like many military garments, the duffel coat transitioned into civilian fashion after the war, popularized by companies like Gloverall. It became a staple in northern colleges across both the UK and the U.S. Given that Paul was a lifelong Barton man, it’s likely he acquired his duffel coat sometime between his student years and his early years as a faculty member.

Paul’s dark-gray melton wool duffel coat stays true to the traditional design, featuring a black-lined integrated hood and four black leather toggle-fastened loops up the front. The thigh-length coat also includes a shoulder and back yoke, set-in sleeves with plain cuffs, flapped patch-style hip pockets, and a single vent.

What to Imbibe

Like any good host, Lydia anticipates Paul’s preferred spirit, confirming “Jim Beam for you, right?” as he walks in. This bourbon whiskey received its current name in 1943 after decades branded as “Old Tub”—which may have been a more fitting brand for the schlubby Paul.

Nearly ubiquitous in bars around the world, Jim Beam’s standard 80-proof “White Label” variety was deemed the world’s most popular bourbon in Brad Japhe’s reporting for Forbes, citing the IWSR Drinks Market Analysis.

How to Get the Look

Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers (2023)

Paul Hunham dresses up his “uniform” of corduroy suits and bow ties to make an impression for a friend’s Christmas Eve gathering, sporting a three-piece lounge suit in a darker shade of corduroy and tying on a bow tie patterned in a festive yet classic tartan plaid.

• Olive-brown corduroy cotton three-piece suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/2-roll jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Single-breasted 5-button waistcoat with two welted pockets
  • Flat-front trousers with side pockets, two back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Light-yellow tonal-striped shirt with point collar, plain button-up front, and button barrel cuffs
• Malcolm tartan plaid silk bow tie
• Dark-brown leather apron-toe derby shoes
• Beige gun club check tweed trilby
• Dark-gray melton wool duffel coat with integrated hood, four black leather loop-and-toggles, flapped patch hip pockets, and single vent
• Yellow-gold wristwatch with round black dial and black leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

The world doesn’t make sense anymore. It’s on fire. The rich don’t give a shit. Poor kids are cannon fodder. Integrity’s a punchline. Trust is just a name on a bank.

The post Christmas Eve in The Holdovers: Paul’s Corduroy Three-Piece Suit and Duffel Coat appeared first on BAMF Style.

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

Vitals

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, calculating Mafia boss

Washington, D.C., Winter 1959

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Just over a week after its New York City premiere on December 12th, The Godfather Part II was widely released 50 years ago today on December 20, 1974. The follow-up to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 epic continued chronicling the ambitions of underworld boss Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) following his ascension to power after the death of his father and the orchestrated murders of his enemies.

By the latter half of Part II, the tension between Michael’s public persona and private life reach a boiling point as he’s faced with the consequences of his ruthlessness. Called to testify in front of a Senate subcommittee investigating organized crime, he maintains composure while defending his reputation—starkly contrasted by the emotionally charged confrontation with his wife Kay (Diane Keaton).

Kay’s revelations about the loss of what would have been their third child strains their already fragile marriage to a pivotal breaking point that underscores Michael’s increasing isolation and the personal cost of his choices.

What’d He Wear?

In contrast to the opulent costumes of some movie gangsters—think the neon-hued tailoring worn by Robert De Niro in Casino—Michael Corleone maintains a rotation of only four suits through The Godfather Part II, each serving its own purpose. Michael reserves his fashionable gray dupioni silk suit for public appearances like his son’s communion and a conference in Cuba. His subtly checked tan suit is ideal for the warmer climates during his visits to Havana and Florida. His solid black silk suit serves him at occasions where he needs to be taken seriously among his underworld confederates.

Finally, Michael wears a black pinstripe three-piece suit that he wears to project professional decorum while testifying to the Senate. Unlike the bold chalk-striped suits often associated with gangsters, this suit’s subdued white pinstripe is more akin to what a banker or businessman might wear, reinforcing Michael’s cultivated public image; indeed, it recalls the very suit that Senator Geary (G.D. Spradlin) wore for their first meeting during the aforementioned communion.

Though not a common choice in professional attire, black can be appropriate in business contexts when patterned with a restrained pinstripe like Michael’s suit.

The style is contemporary to tailoring of the 1950s, though the somewhat closer fit of Michael’s suit reflects a sleeker, more continental-inspired tailoring than the then-fashionably boxy Ivy-style suits worn by Geary and Michael’s own lawyer, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall).

Michael’s single-breasted suit jacket reflects the same 3/2-roll button configuration as the other men’s suits, with the notch lapels rolling over the top button. The jacket has straight flapped hip pockets and a welted breast pocket that remains unadorned. The padded shoulders are typical of the era’s tailoring and build up his silhouette but not to the extremes of his solid black silk suit jacket with its dramatically roped sleeveheads. Each sleeve is finished with two vestigial cuff-buttons, and the back likely has a single vent.

The matching waistcoat has four welted pockets and six buttons that fasten high on the chest. Michael wears all six buttons fastened without leaving the bottom one undone, subverting a common sartorial practice, though he’s quick to unbutton them all when relaxing on the couch in his suite at the Hotel Washington. Rigged with an adjustable strap across the bottom, the black satin-finished back lining contrasts against the white inner lining.

The suit’s pleated trousers have side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs). Through the belt loops around the waist, Michael wears a black leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle. The belt leather appropriately coordinates to this black leather cap-toe oxfords, naturally worn with black socks that maintain a continuous line from his trousers into his shoes.

Michael wears his usual white cotton shirts, styled with a point collar, front placket, and button cuffs. Unlike Frankie Pentangeli’s Italian brother Vincenzo (Salvatore Po) who appears in court wearing Sicilian folk costume complete with the fuzzy red pom-pom neckwear resembling two cherries, Michael prefers a traditional four-in-hand necktie—patterned in a regal gold paisley jacquard woven against a black ground.

The gold watch shining from Michael’s left wrist has been speculatively identified as a 1950s-era Omega Constellation chronometer. A 14-karat yellow-gold 34mm or 35mm case encloses the white or light champagne-colored “pie pan” dial with its gold non-numeric hour indices, connected to a gold link bracelet.

Hoping to convey to the Senate that he’s a family man—but no, not that Family—Michael is sure to continue wearing his gold wedding band on the ring finger of his left hand.

How to Get the Look

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

• Black pinstripe three-piece suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/2-roll jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, and single vent
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with four pockets and adjustable back strap
  • Pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Gold-on-black paisley tie
• Black leather belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Black dress socks
• Omega Constellation gold wristwatch with round champagne “pie pan” dial on gold link bracelet
• Gold wedding band

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series, including the masterpiece sequel The Godfather Part II.

The Quote

Do you expect me to let you take my children from me? Don’t you know me? Don’t you know that that’s an impossibility—that that could never happen, that I would use all my power to keep something like that from happening? Don’t you know that?

The post The Godfather, Part II: Michael Corleone’s Black Pinstripe Suit appeared first on BAMF Style.

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas (1954)

Vitals

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, Broadway entertainers and World War II veterans

Florida, December 1954

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

Background

One of the most stylish classic Christmas movies, White Christmas was released 70 years ago this year in October 1954. The movie was intended to re-team Bing Crosby with Fred Astaire after their previous collaborations in Irving Berlin musicals Holiday Inn (1942) and Blue Skies (1946), but Astaire dropped out after reading the script and Danny Kaye was hired to co-star with Crosby.

Crosby and Kaye share a marvelous screen chemistry that showcases their respective talents while also allowing for a greater emphasis on humor, illustrated by their performance of “Sisters” that was devised on set after director Michael Curtiz was entertained watching Crosby and Kaye clown around performing the song.

The story follows Crosby and Kaye as Bob Wallace and Phil Davis, two World War II veterans who met while entertaining their fellow troops in the U.S. Army’s fictitious 151st Division. After Phil saved Bob from a falling wall during an attack, Phil talked Bob into joining him for a double act that has catapulted them to musical stardom a decade later. Despite their boffo success, Phil worries that workaholic Bob isn’t allowing him the chance to enjoy a fulfilling personal life—though Phil doesn’t help his case by trying to set Bob up with showgirls like the alluring but airheaded Doris (Barrie Chase):

The subsequent scene of Bob and Phil arguing in their dressing room about Bob’s disinterest in building a family outside of work required a sharp amount of physical choreography and comic timing that remind us we’re seeing two of the 20th century’s greatest talents at the top of their game.

What’d They Wear?

Christmas is around the corner, but it’s hardly a holiday show as Bob and Phil are performing Irving Berlin’s 1926 standard “Blue Skies” to this Floridian audience. However, they’re dressed for some holiday festivity in their matching burgundy dinner jackets, bow ties, and velvet ribbons around the flat straw boaters that add a roaring ’20s panache to their wardrobe.

Handsomely tailored in accordance with 1950s menswear trends, these burgundy wool dinner jackets have appropriately self-faced shawl collars that roll to a single button positioned low over each man’s natural waist. These buttons and the three decorating each cuff are all burgundy plastic. The backs are ventless, and the shoulders are wide—each with significant roping at the sleeve-heads. In addition to the straight jetted hip pockets, the jackets have a welted breast pocket where each man wears a neatly folded white pocket square. Bob and Phil also each have a white carnations pinned to their respective left lapel.

The outfits are hardly traditional evening-wear, but Bob and Phil appropriately sport pleated-front evening shirts, uniquely detailed with white collars and cuffs that contrast from the shirts’ light slate-blue cotton bodies. The front plackets are closed with three mother-of-pearl studs, flanked on each side by a squared bib of narrow pleats. The double (French) cuffs are fastened with ruby cuff links that coordinate with their burgundy jackets and neckwear.

Both Bob and Phil wear burgundy bow ties, though Bob’s follows a traditional butterfly (thistle) shape, while Phil wears a straight-ended batwing shape that was fashionable for mid-century menswear.

Only Bob undresses during this scene to the degree that we see his underclothes, including a white woven cotton short-sleeved T-shirt with a wide crew-neck and banded cuffs.

Though made from identical powder-blue cloth, the trousers are the only other noticeable departure for each man—perhaps informed by each wearer’s personal preference. Danny Kaye wears long-rise trousers with a fitted waistband and two buttons across the back, presumably for suspenders (braces), while Bing Crosby’s lower-rising trousers are rigged with belt loops that remain unused through the scene. (Adding to the chaos, behind-the-scenes photography clearly shows Crosby wearing white suspenders with this outfit; perhaps he wore them for the actual performance but not the undressing scene?)

The men’s fashionably full-fitting trousers are otherwise stylistically similar, with double sets of reverse-facing pleats, on-seam side pockets (but no back pockets), and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Their stage performance attire extends to their shoes, which are plain-toe oxfords made from a powder-blue leather to match their trousers. Both men wear matching powder-blue socks in the dressing room scene, though Bob’s hosiery appears to be mustard-colored when he walks off stage after “Blue Skies”.

Bob and Phil’s revue may have a 1920s theme, as suggested by “Blue Skies” and their straw boaters. These semi-formal summer hats were popular through the early decades of the 20th century but had generally fallen out of fashion by the ’50s—at least for all but the Princeton University Band, who added them to their uniforms in 1952. Bob and Phil both wear boaters made of stiff sennit straw, detailed with wide burgundy velvet bands that harmonize with their burgundy jackets and ties.

Even some of Bob and Phil’s stagehands wear straw boaters, though most have plain black bands rather than the more festive burgundy velvet bands worn by the performers.

Of the two men, only Bob prominently wears a wristwatch. The gold watch strapped to a curving dark-brown tooled leather bracelet was likely Bing Crosby’s personal timepiece, and he wears it on the inside of his left wrist.

How to Get the Look

Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in White Christmas (1954)

Wallace and Davis’ burgundy dinner jackets and bow ties—especially with straw boaters, contrasting shirt collars, and matching powder-blue trousers and oxfords—may be a little showy for your holiday festivities, but they’re perfect if you’re planning to take the stage and perform a 1920s-themed musical revue!

• Burgundy wool single-button dinner jacket with self-faced shawl collar, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • White carnation (in lapel)
  • White folded pocket square
• Light slate-blue cotton evening shirt with white point collar, narrow-pleated front bib (with mother-of-pearl studs), and double/French cuffs (with ruby links)
• Burgundy bow tie
• Powder-blue double reverse-pleated trousers with straight/on-seam side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Powder-blue leather plain-toe oxford shoes
• Powder-blue socks
• Natural sennit straw boater with burgundy velvet band
• Gold wristwatch on tooled dark-brown leather curved strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

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

The Quote

Phil: My dear partner, when what’s left of you gets around to what’s left to be gotten, what’s left to be gotten won’t be worth getting, whatever it is you’ve got left.
Bob: When I figure out what that means, I’ll come up with a crushing reply.

The post White Christmas: Burgundy Jackets and Boaters for “Blue Skies” appeared first on BAMF Style.

Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Vitals

Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold Jr., food additive executive and “last true family man”

Chicago, Christmas Eve 1989

Film: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Release Date: December 1, 1989
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Merry Christmas! Now a perennial holiday classic, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation was released 35 years ago this month in December 1989 as the third installment to feature Chevy Chase as the hapless head of the Griswold family.

After zany misadventures on an American road trip and a European vacation, Clark clings to his idealistic hope for a “fun, old-fashioned family Christmas,” which somehow means inviting both his and his wife’s sets of parents to stay with them for more than a week leading up to the actual holiday. In the meantime, Clark is eager to surprise his family with the news that he placed a down payment on a swimming pool… a payment he’ll be able to cover as soon as he receives his company’s usual holiday bonus.

(For modern readers, a “holiday bonus” is a monetary payment that employers used to give to their employees at the end of each year. In the late 1980s when Christmas Vacation was made, this often amounted to several thousand dollars; for most employees today, this may take the form of a branded reusable water bottle, already-obsolete Bluetooth earbuds, or simply not being fired.)

Inspired by producer and co-writer John Hughes’ semi-autobiographical short story “Christmas ’59”, the festivities culminate on Christmas Eve as both sides of Clark and Ellen’s families gather at the over-illuminated Griswold home for an over-cooked turkey dinner, a surprise rodent guest, and the family’s first kidnapping. Happy holidays!

What’d He Wear?

Consistent with his dreams of hosting an old-fashioned family Christmas, Clark W. Griswold Jr. models himself after the Rockwellian image of an all-American patriarch, his Christmas tie pulled tight to the neck and swathed in a cozily oversized cardigan that suggests he’s more concerned with looking fatherly than fashionable. Indeed, his idea of the perfect father at Christmas may have been inspired from his own father, Clark Sr. (John Randolph), the only other man at the gathering to wear a necktie and who also festively festoons his natty sport jacket and cardigan with a plastic holly sprig pinned to his lapel.

Clark’s dark taupe-brown ribbed-knit cardigan sweater is made from an Irish Donegal wool, characterized by the colorful flecks woven into the cloth. The cardigan has a narrow shawl collar that tapers away above the five dark-brown woven leather buttons that Clark wears fully open throughout the night. The collar, cuffs, and hem are all slightly more widely ribbed than the body of the sweater, with the cuffs rolled back once over each wrist. Patch pockets are positioned just above the hem on each side of the front.

Clark’s light-blue high-twist cotton shirt looks like the shirts he wears to the office, conventionally styled with its semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs.

Perhaps heeding his daughter Audrey’s criticism of “those stupid ties with the Santa Clauses on it”, Clark opts for a more subdued neckwear that still showcases festive seasonal colors with its pattern of red squares (with five white lines pulsating out from a corner) against a green tonal geometric-patterned silk ground. At one point, Clark—distracted by the family’s disgusting dinner of dry turkey and cat food-laced jello—accidentally uses it instead of a napkin to wipe his mouth.

Clark doesn’t seem too appreciative to receive the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.

Clark wears dark-gray worsted wool flat-front slacks with a medium rise, held up by a dark-brown leather belt with a gold-toned single-prong buckle. Like his shirt, these flat-front trousers are typical of contemporary ready-to-wear men’s clothing, with belt loops and plain-hemmed bottoms. We can tell the trousers have slightly slanted “quarter top” side pockets, though the cardigan’s back hem covers the seat to the point where we can’t determine if there are back pockets. However, given their standard styling, it’s likely that these trousers are rigged with two jetted back pockets—at least one with a button-through closure.

While I would endorse loafers as a comfortable alternative with his cardigan and tie, Clark opts for the formality of cap-toe oxford shoes—albeit in a dark-brown leather that harmonizes with the homespun tones of the rest of his outfit. Tied through either a four- or five-eyelet closed-lacing system, the shoes are worn with dark taupe-brown socks that continue the leg line from his trousers… and are a shockingly subdued choice for a man who certainly must have at least one pair of garish Christmas socks.

Clark escorts the crass Uncle Louis (William Hickey) and senile Aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) inside at the beginning of the evening, wearing the same trench coat that he earlier wore to keep warm when it was “a bit nipply out” while flirting with a voluptuous saleswoman.

Made from a waterproof cotton/polyester blend in the traditional khaki shade, the garment follows the classic belted trench coat design with its double-breasted 10×5-button front and military-informed details like shoulder epaulets, storm flaps across the back and over the right shoulder, and side pockets with button-closed flaps to keep out rain. In addition to the full-belted waist with its leather-covered single-prong buckle, the raglan sleeves are secured at each wrist with belted cuffs that also each close with a leather-covered single-prong buckle.

Aside from a Walmart trip with cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid), Clark typically wears the coat with a tan woolen felt collar attached. In addition to removable liners, outfitters like London Fog often produced trench coats with removable collars that add touches of both formality and functional warmth.

Louis’ unintentional—but unapologetic—act of setting Clark’s Christmas tree aflame with his cheap stogie sends Clark off the deep end. Chainsaw in hand, Clark secures a new tree from outside and then dresses like Santa Claus to decorate it. His St. Nick garb consists of a red felt coat with a shirt-style collar and white faux-fur trim around the cuffs and along the waist hem, continuing up the left side of the front so that it would be centered when buttoned.

Clark also wears Santa’s traditional red felt stocking cap, also detailed with white faux-fur trimming the wide cuff along the brim that matches the pom bobbing off the top. Three silver jingle bells are sewn to the right side of the hat.

As the insanity subsides—at least for the time being—Clark follows his father’s advice to calm down and read “A Visit from St. Nicholas” to his family, pulling on his large tortoiseshell-framed reading glasses to do so.

“When what to my wondering eyes should appear but a miniature sleigh and—and Eddie? With a man in his pajamas with a dog chain tied to his wrists and ankles…?”

Most clearly seen in the earlier scenes as he hangs Christmas lights, Clark wears a stainless steel dive watch with a black bezel, black dial with luminous non-numeric hour indices, and black center-ridged leather strap.

The squared bump at each integer of 10 around the bezel aligns with some contemporary Seiko divers—and indeed a Redditor suggested a specific 1988 quartz Seiko as the possible watch—though I haven’t seen any watches by Seiko, Citizen, or other suggested manufacturers that specifically align with the details of Clark’s screen-worn watch.

What to Imbibe

After discovering his company “rear-ended” him with a severely lacking Christmas bonus, Clark immediately turns to the family’s bowl of egg nog—presumably spiked—though this doesn’t really help him take the edge off as, the next time we see him, he’s wielding a chainsaw.

“‘s good, ‘s good!”

Brandy, rum, and whiskey are all among the most popular spirits for spiking egg nog. Without any suggestion about the Griswold family’s preferred spirit, we can only take some direction from Clark’s father admitting that he only survived their family’s holidays with “a lot of help from Jack Daniel’s!”

While you could just mix some Jack Daniel’s—or any other spirit—with pre-made egg nog, Philip Greene’s excellent calendrical cocktail guide Cheers! paraphrases “father of American mixology” Jerry Thomas’ 1862 recipe for classic 19th century “egg nogg” in its December 24th entry.

Greene cites inspiration from the eggnog riot (also known as the “grog mutiny”) at West Point that began on Christmas Eve 1826 when “cadets smuggled in three or four gallons of whiskey, and all hell broke loose” in response to an academy edict preventing alcohol on campus. In the resulting damage that led to the expulsion of 19 cadets, a number of stair banisters were smashed—which seems considerably appropriate given the Griswold family’s troublesome Newel post.

Thomas’ recipe combines all of the below ingredients have been well-shaken together, then poured into a tumbler with nutmeg grated on top:

• 4 ounces of whole milk
• 2-4 ounces of bourbon or rye whiskey (or, in tribute to Clark Sr., Tennessee whiskey—which is not the same)
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of water

Of course, you’ll also want the proper glassware. Though Clark pulls a conventional cut-glass mug during his nog-fueled meltdown, the family’s moose-shaped mugs (perhaps a nod to their love of Walley World and its mascot) have become iconic in the decades since its release.

How to Get the Look

Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)

Aside from the obvious festivity of his Santa hat and coat, Clark builds upon an unexceptional blue shirt and gray slacks with a cozy cardigan and red-and-green tie that convert his humble casual-wear into holiday garb befitting “the last true family man”.

• Dark taupe-brown ribbed-knit Donegal wool shawl-collar cardigan with five-button front, set-in sleeves, and patch hip pockets
• Light-blue high-twist cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, breast pocket, and button cuffs
• Green tonal geometric-printed silk tie with red square-and-white pulsating corner print
• Dark-gray wool flat-front trousers with belt loops, “quarter top” side pockets, back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Dark-brown leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Dark taupe-brown socks
• Red felt Santa hat
• Tortoiseshell reading glasses
• Stainless steel dive watch with black bezel, black dial, and black center-ridged leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, and have a very merry Christmas!

The Quote

Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas! No, no, we’re all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We’re gonna press on, and we’re gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye! And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he’s gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.

The post Clark Griswold’s Christmas Eve Cardigan appeared first on BAMF Style.

Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II (1974)

Vitals

Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth, mobster and gambling kingpin

Havana, New Year’s Eve 1958

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Released 50 years ago this month, The Godfather Part II expands the Corleone crime family chronicles to include Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg), a respected gangster inspired by the real-life Meyer Lansky. Al Pacino had been one of Strasberg’s students at the Actors Studio and recommended his former acting coach for the role that would eventually garner Strasberg his sole Academy Award nomination.

Decades after his rumrunning partnership with the Corleones during Prohibition, the aging Roth is now based in Miami, where he’s visited by Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) to discuss a history-making collaboration. The two travel to Havana to work with representatives from American corporations and Fulgencio Batista’s corrupt Cuban government to take over a Reno casino—all while Roth is plotting to fatally double-cross Michael.

Of course, it’s the last week of December 1958, so the Batista government’s days are numbered as Fidel Castro’s rebels are getting closer to their New Year’s Eve victory. However, the primary celebration on Hyman Roth’s mind is his 67th birthday, which he celebrates on a Havana rooftop with Michael, Roth’s right-hand man Johnny Ola (Dominic Chianese), and other criminal cohorts.

“I hope my age is correct! I’m always accurate about my age,” Roth insists to his guests, then requests with even more Capricorn efficiency to “make sure that everybody sees the cake before we cut it.” The cake depicts an outline of Cuba, which is then symbolically cut up into pieces for Roth and his guests, though Roth—in deference to his health issues—requests a smaller piece for himself.

After how events unfolded in The Godfather, Roth was smart to not include oranges as part of his birthday spread.

“These are wonderful things we’ve achieved in Havana, and there’s no limit to where we can go from here. This kind of government knows how to help business, to encourage it,” Roth assures his guests of cooperation from the Batista administration. His short-sightedness isn’t shared by Michael, who has witnessed the motivated revolutionaries firsthand. Back in his suite, Roth—or, rather, co-screenwriters Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo—borrowed a line from the actual Meyer Lansky to reassure Michael:

We’re bigger than U.S. Steel.

What’d He Wear?

Hyman Roth dresses for his birthday party in a cream knit long-sleeved shirt, representative of knitwear’s popularity as casual sportswear through the 1950s and ’60s. The back and set-in sleeves are all a solid-colored ribbed knit, contrasting with the front panel detailed with a black-on-cream static pattern. The pattern resembles Morse code, grouped in columns of three, alternating between two columns of dots and a column of short horizontal lines.

The large collar and ribbed waist hem are both solid cream, patterned with double solid black lines along the edges. The false placket with its four large plastic buttons give the appearance of a polo shirt, though the the placket appears sewn down to the body on both sides without any actual buttonholes for the four vestigial buttons.

Nice shirt, Hyman. Be a real shame if someone lost it before the end of the scene…

Several sources cite that weather difficulties stretched out production of the two-minute scene to more than a week, during which time Lee Strasberg’s screen-worn shirt was misplaced. Unfortunately, the shirt’s distinctive pattern meant the production team had to quickly improvise in order to dress Strasberg for the scene’s completion. The end result is a commendable effort that likely would have bypassed most contemporary audiences and even casual viewers today, but the home video/streaming era has made the switch quite obvious, especially as the scenes with this second shirt featured more substantial close-ups of Strasberg.

According to IMDB, it was “the production designer” (Dean Tavoularis) who oversaw the attempted recreation, though costume designer Theadora Van Runkle surely would have been involved in this process. The new shirt was a plain cream-colored shirt in a softer cloth with narrower and less prominent ribbing that was consistent throughout the body and the sleeves. A black marker was then evidently used to recreate the “Morse code” pattern on the front, though it’s at a much larger scale with longer dashes than the original shirt and also falls short of the shoulder seam.

The replacement shirt is also a more conventional polo shirt, with a functioning placket that closes with three smaller cream-colored plastic buttons—a considerably more subdued presentation than the false placket and its four oversized buttons on the original shirt.

Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Under his collar (regardless of which shirt it is), Roth wears a light-brown tonal paisley silk neckerchief.

Roth wears beige cotton flat-front trousers with a long rise to Strasberg’s natural waist, where they’re held up by a beige cotton self-belt with the gold-toned squared single-prong buckle pulled off to the left side à la Fred Astaire. These slacks also have side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Was the decision for Hyman Roth to be shirtless during the subsequent scene back in his suite made to ditch the troublesome shirt altogether? Or did Lee Strasberg just want to strut his 72-year-old stuff? Either way—respect.

Roth wears tan socks that continue the leg line of his trousers into his dark burgundy leather derby shoes, detailed with a straight cap-toe and open three-eyelet lacing system.

Like Michael and many of the more serious gangsters across The Godfather canon, Hyman Roth keeps his jewelry and accessories subdued and functional, wearing only a wristwatch and a gold wedding band on his left ring finger. The gold watch has a light-colored dial and is strapped to a brown leather strap.

How to Get the Look

Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth in The Godfather Part II (1974)

Having trouble finding a shirt like Hyman Roth wore for his birthday? Never fear—just like The Godfather Part II‘s production team, you can always just take a black magic marker to any cream-colored knitted long-sleeved polo for that sadly screen-accurate look.

• Cream with black “Morse code” static-like front pattern knitted long-sleeved polo shirt with long point collar (with double black-striped edge), four-button false placket, ribbed-knit sleeves and back, and ribbed-knit waist hem (with double black-striped edge)
• Light-brown tonal paisley silk neckerchief
• Beige cotton flat-front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Beige cotton belt with gold-toned squared single-prong buckle
• Dark burgundy leather cap-toe derby shoes
• Tan socks
• Gold wedding band
• Gold wristwatch with round light-colored dial on brown leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series, including the masterpiece sequel The Godfather Part II.

The Quote

When a man comes to this point in his life, he wants to turn over the things he’s been blessed with—turn them over to friends—as a reward for the friends he’s had and to make sure that everything goes well after he’s gone.

The post The Godfather, Part II: Hyman Roth’s Birthday Party Knit Shirt appeared first on BAMF Style.

Roger Moore as James Bond in A View to a Kill (1985). Photo by Keith Hamshere, sourced from Thunderballs archive.

Vitals

Roger Moore as James Bond, British government agent

Siberia, Winter 1985

Film: A View to a Kill
Release Date: May 22, 1985
Director: John Glen
Costume Designer: Emma Porteous

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

On this snowy 00-7th of January, let’s hit the slopes with Roger Moore—and his stunt doubles John Eaves and Martin Grace—in Sir Roger’s swan song as James Bond, A View to a Kill, celebrating its 40th anniversary this May.

Though the title originated from one of Ian Fleming’s short stories, the movie demonstrates how far the franchise had drifted from the source material, exemplified by this pre-credits sequence, which introduces a cringe-worthy “California Girls” needle drop as Moore’s stuntman skis through the mountains of Siberia—though actually filmed at Piz Palü in Switzerland and Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon in Iceland.

After completing his mission to recover a microchip from the corpse of his colleague 003, Bond escapes a group of skiing gunmen and finds refuge in a waiting underwater submarine stocked with his three vices—vodka, caviar, and a stunning blonde half his age (Mary Stävin).

What’d He Wear?

James Bond’s “white hooded ski suit and back pack” described in Richard Maibaum and Michael G. Wilson’s screenplay was provided by Willy Bogner Jr., the former alpine ski racer who inherited his father’s eponymous sportswear brand in 1977, the same year that Sir Roger first appeared in Bogner ski gear in The Spy Who Loved Me. This would become something of a tradition, with Moore’s Bond sporting Bogner every four years—again in For Your Eyes Only and finally in A View to a Kill. In all of these films—as well as George Lazenby’s sole 007 film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service—Bogner himself operated the camera to capture the thrilling ski sequences.

Moore’s stuntman John Eves with Willy Bogner Jr. on location in Switzerland filming A View to a Kill. Photo sourced from the thunderballs.org archive.

The nature of Bond’s secret mission in A View to a Kill likely influenced his decision to wear all-white ski apparel that would camouflage him against the snow, unlike the yellow and blue ski suits he wore when skiing recreationally in The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only, respectively.

Matt Spaiser’s comprehensive look at Bond’s white Bogner ski clothing for Bond Suits was a valuable source for the following analysis, as well as auction listings for Sir Roger’s screen-worn ski parkas from Christie’s (in 2001) and Prop Store (in 2014).

Bond’s hip-length Bogner ski parka is made from layers of water-resistant white nylon, insulated with down feathers. The parka is lined in a pink-and-gray-on-cream tartan plaid cotton flannel, most clearly seen as Bond unzips to get comfortable aboard MI6’s well-stocked arctic submarine.

A storm fly with four darkened metal snap buttons covers the straight-zip, which extends up to the standing collar and features Bogner’s silver-toned “B” logo on the zip pull. A narrow self-belted sash pulls through wide loops around the waist between the lowest two buttons, where Bond keeps it knotted. “Bi-swing” pleats behind the shoulders allow for a greater range of movement, which would be a particularly helpful asset for quick getaway on skis. The shoulders also have adjustable narrow epaulet straps.

A removable fur-trimmed hood attaches outside the standing collar, with a white drawstring adjusting the fit. The set-in sleeves are reinforced with elbow patches and feature Velcro-fastened belted cuffs which adjust the tightness over the wrists. The Bogner logo is embroidered in silver over the upper left sleeve. Of the four bellows pockets, the two chest pocket flaps are reinforced with buckled straps while the two hip pocket flaps close onto a Velcro patch in each corner.

What the hell kind of spy submarine is that? Looks more like an underwater motel room.

Bond’s Bogner ski pants are made from the same white nylon as the parka. They appear to have zip-fastened side pockets, and the bottoms are elasticized over the ankles with zip-up sides.

As he is skiing, Bond wears ski boots to fit the bindings of his black Olin Racing skis. The boots are all-white to match his outfit, including the white steps over the instep.

Bond protects his eyes against the blinding snow—and allows the franchise yet another opportunity for product placement—by sporting the unique Bogner 7003 9141 sunglasses. Developed in the early 1980s in collaboration with Austrian eyewear manufacturer Eschenbach, these sporty pilot-style glasses are built with white acetate frames, purple gradient lenses, and adjustable black metal temples and bridge. These innovative pieces could be tooled with a micro-screwdriver included by Bogner to adjust the fit to the wearer’s comfort; for example, the bridge could be adjusted to between 15 and 21 millimeters in width.

Naturally, Bond’s ski gloves are also made by Bogner, evident by the silver “B”-logo zip pull hanging from the short zippers over each wrist. The sheepskin leather shell is a slightly warmer shade of cream than the rest of his white outfit, with padding along the tops of the hands and wide Velcro straps tightening the top of each wrist.

Bond gets comfortable inside the submarine after removing his glasses and gloves and unzipping his parka to reveal his base layer, a white jersey-knit half-zip pullover shirt. This long-sleeved shirt has a widely spread collar and yet another silver “B” dangling from the zip pull that identifies this as more Bogner gear. (This is the 1980s equivalent of Bogner’s current “Harry” first layer made from a stretchy “performance” blend of polyamide/elastane technical fibers.)

A View to a Kill would be the final film to prominently feature the SEIKO watches that had dressed Roger Moore’s wrist as Bond since The Spy Who Loved Me. He cycles through a trio of SEIKOs in A View to a Kill, beginning with the SEIKO 7A38-7060 quartz chronograph shining from his left wrist as he settles in with Kimberley Jones (Mary Stävin).

According to James Bond Lifestyle, 007’s chronograph was long thought to be the cosmetically similar 7A28-7020 model until @rexworthywatches identified it as the 7A38-7060 by the small day-date windows within the 3 o’clock sub-register. The 15-jewel 7A28 was the world’s first mass-produced analog quartz chronograph when SEIKO introduced it in 1983, followed the next year by the 7A38 that introduced a day-date complication.

Moore’s screen-worn SEIKO chronograph features a stainless steel 36mm case on a three-piece steel bracelet. The relatively rare white dial nicely coordinates with the rest of his polar attire, boasting three sub-registers at the 3, 6, and 9 o’clock positions.

A subtle watch-related continuity error appears earlier when Bond discovers 003’s corpse, dressed similarly to himself in a white Bogner parka. Removing his gloves for better dexterity when digging out 003 and searching his clothing for the microchip, a blackened watch with silver-toned pushers flashes from 007’s left wrist—likely the SEIKO H558-5000 that he canonically wears later in the film.

I suppose it’s possible—though not probable or practical—that Bond wore the H558-5000 diver for his mission and then quickly swapped it out for the 7A38-7060 chronograph that would look more dashing for romancing Kimberley on the submarine?

Known among collectors as the “Arnie diver” after Arnold Schwarzenegger also wore it the same year in Commando, the rugged H558-5000 may have been a better fit for the action-packed context of this sequence. Curiously, Bond would later canonically wear the H558-5000 with his tuxedo in Paris… a situation where the dressier 7A38-7060 chronograph would have been considerably more appropriate!

What to Imbibe

Bond confirms that his mission has been accomplished by revealing his haul: “best caviar… vodka, rather shaken… and one microchip.” The vodka in question is a bottle of Stolichnaya, specifically the standard 80-proof “Red Label” variety.

The vodka can trace its origins to 1901, when the Russian government opened Moscow State Wine Warehouse No. 1 to ensure consistently high quality of vodka production. However, the Stolichnaya brand itself didn’t emerge until sometime around World War II, between the 1938 trademark registration and V. G. Svirida’s 1944 label design.

The vodka received a gold medal upon its 1953 introduction at the Bern international trade show but would remain exclusively available within the Soviet Union for nearly twenty years, until the 1972 agreement that granted PepsiCo the rights to market and export Stoli in Western nations in exchange for Soviet importation of Pepsi—the first American consumer product to be produced, marketed, and sold within the USSR. From this period until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Stolichnaya intended for export was manufactured in Ukraine.

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the current owner SPI Group has officially marketed the vodka by its nickname “Stoli” since March 2022.

How to Get the Look

Roger Moore with Mary Stävin and Carole Ashby during production of A View to a Kill (1985). Photo sourced from Thunderballs archive.

Secret agent or snow bunny? 007’s all-white ski outfit through the pre-credits sequence in A View to a Kill helps him blend in against the snow while dodging the Soviet gunmen on his trail, while also helping EON Productions make good on whatever product placement promises were made to Willy Bogner Jr.

• White nylon hip-length Bogner ski parka with fur-trimmed removable hood, straight-zip/four-snap front closure, full waist belt sash, two bellows chest pockets with buckle-strapped flaps, two bellows hip pockets with Velcro-fastened flaps, belted cuffs, and bi-swing shoulder pleats
• White nylon Bogner ski pants with zip-up side pockets and elasticized ankles with zip-up sides
• White jersey-knit Bogner long-sleeved “first layer” pullover shirt with spread collar and half-zip top
• White ski boots with white instep straps
• Bogner 7003 9141 sunglasses with white acetate frames, purple gradient lenses, and adjustable black metal bridge and temples
• Cream-white padded leather Bogner ski gloves with zip-back cuffs and wrist-straps
• SEIKO 7A38-7070 quartz chronograph watch with stainless steel 36mm case, round white dial (with 3 sub-registers, including day-date window at 3 o’clock), and stainless steel three-piece link bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie… perhaps following Matt Singer’s positive reassessment, published in 2012 for Indiewire.

The Quote

Call me James.

The post A View to a Kill: Roger Moore’s White Bogner Ski Clothes appeared first on BAMF Style.

Rock Hudson in Avalanche (1978)

Vitals

Rock Hudson as David Shelby, stubborn ski resort developer

Colorado, Winter 1978

Film: Avalanche
Release Date: August 30, 1978
Director: Corey Allen
Wardrobe Credit: Jane Ruhm

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

In the spirit of another snowy weekend, today’s post focuses on one of the lesser-discussed (and for good reason!) disaster movies of the 1970s. After the disaster genre conquered air (Airport), water (The Poseidon Adventure), and fire (The Towering Inferno), what was left but… snow?

Thus, Corey Allen—no relation to “Master of Disaster” Irwin Allen—took it upon himself to direct and co-write Avalanche, a harrowing tale of a ski resort built on hubris and soft-focus shots of Mia Farrow. Farrow stars as Caroline Brace, invited to the grand opening of a ski resort owned by her ex-husband David Shelby (Rock Hudson). While there, she finds herself drawn to earnest environmental photographer Nick Thorne (Robert Forster), who repeatedly tries to warn David about the threat that heavy snowfall would pose to his resort.

Of course, Nick’s premonitions are tragically realized when a rogue plane crash triggers the titular avalanche that threatens not only Mia’s burgeoning romances but also the lives of everyone at the resort—including a chef who dies covered in his own soup. Who else will perish during the avalanche? Will it be soup or snow that claims additional victims? And, most importantly, which man will Mia choose??

Included by Razzie Awards founder John Wilson among the 100 “most enjoyably bad movies ever made”, Avalanche‘s $6.5 million budget also gave it the distinction of one of the most expensive movies made by Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Released weeks after New World’s less-expensive Pirahna, Corman reportedly expected Avalanche‘s star power to drive box office, but it ultimately flopped while Pirahna would become one of New World’s most profitable hits.

What’d He Wear?

On the day of the avalanche, David Shelby pulls on a heavy hip-length chore coat with a woolen flannel twill outer shell patterned in a cream-and-brown plaid, framed in a navy overcheck and overlaid in a narrow double-striped brown perpendicular check. The coat has a dark charcoal piled fleece lining that presents along the collar. Four caramel-colored leather shank buttons fasten up the front, with an additional button at the neck which David always wears undone. The set-in sleeves are finished with plain cuffs, and the gently slanted set-in side pockets have narrow flaps which occasionally get tucked into the pockets themselves.

David kicks off the grand opening ceremonies by wishing everyone to “have a good day!”

Under the coat, David wears his usual insulating pairing of a turtleneck as his base layer under a button-up shirt—in this instance, a yellow two-pocket work-shirt buttoned over a dark midnight-blue lightweight turtleneck.

The work-shirt appears to be made from a pale-yellow moleskin—a heavy cotton fabric that’s been woven and shorn to a soft, felt-like piled texture. Moleskin has long been a popular fabric for winter workwear due to the dense weave’s durability and wind resistance. David’s long-sleeved moleskin shirt has a then-fashionably long point collar, a button-up front placket, single-button rounded barrel cuffs, and two patch chest pockets that each close with a single-button flap. All of the buttons are large mixed beige plastic four-hole buttons.

David’s golden-tan trousers have a suede-like finish suggesting corduroy, though we never see the cloth close enough to determine if it has corduroy’s characteristic wales. If they are corduroy, it would be a fine pinwale (also known as “needlecord”) with at least 16 wales per inch of fabric, like the rust-brown cords he had worn the previous day.

Through the trouser belt loops, David wears a wide dark-brown leather belt that closes through a sterling silver open-framed buckle similar to sandcast Navajo buckles like this. David’s symmetrical buckle has a snake motif across the top and five-feathered “wings” flaring from each side of the round-framed center.

The flat-front trousers have slanted side pockets, plain-hemmed bottoms, and a close fit through the thighs and are slightly flared below the knees—a silhouette contemporary with contemporary trends while also holding space for David’s heavy boots. These slip-on snow boots have hazelnut-brown leather uppers that rise to mid-calf and tan rubber soles.

David slides across the desk to access the lodge’s administrative areas.

David’s light-gray scarf is made from a soft wool, likely cashmere, and fringed at the ends. Outside, he wears a set of silver-toned aviator-style sunglasses with wide metal arms.

David begins the day wearing black leather three-point gloves, which he evidently loses at some point during the avalanche. This exposes the yellow-gold dress watch on his left wrist, which features a round silver dial and flat gold bracelet.

What to Imbibe

At the end of the movie, Caroline finds a bottle of Moët & Chandon Impérial Brut champagne chilling in a pile of snow and brings it inside the ruined resort to offer David a drink. “What should we drink to?” he asks. “We survived,” she responds. As they pass the bottle between each other, David takes responsibility for the disaster.

How to Get the Look

Rock Hudson in Avalanche (1978)

• Cream-and-brown plaid woolen flannel twill chore coat with charcoal fur lining and collar, four caramel brown woven leather shank buttons, gently slanted flapped hip pockets, and set-in sleeves with plain cuffs
• Pale-yellow moleskin cotton long-sleeved work-shirt with long point collar, front placket, two chest pockets (with single-button flaps), and single-button rounded cuffs
• Dark-navy lightweight turtleneck
• Golden-tan pinwale corduroy flat-front trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather belt with silver pronged Navajo-style buckle
• Hazelnut-brown leather mid-calf slip-on snow boots
• Silver-framed aviator-style sunglasses
• Light-gray cashmere scarf with fringed ends
• Black leather three-point gloves
• Gold dress watch with round silver dial on flat gold bracelet

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, currently (and often) streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Or, better yet, check out the episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 that riffs on it.

The Quote

I always thought survival meant being king of the mountain.

The post Avalanche: Rock Hudson’s Plaid Jacket appeared first on BAMF Style.

Tim Dutton as Eamon in The Bourne Identity (2002)

Vitals

Tim Dutton as Eamon, wealthy family man

French countryside, Winter 2002

Film: The Bourne Identity
Release Date: June 14, 2002
Director: Doug Liman
Costume Designer: Pierre-Yves Gayraud

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Poor Eamon, seemingly always having to get his half-sister Marie (Franka Potente) out of jams!

The latest finds Eamon and his two kids driving up to his Christmas-decorated French country home (actually filmed in the Czech Republic), only to find that Marie and her new boyfriend have broken in, apparently in some kind of trouble and seeking refuge. The next morning, he learns that “some kind of trouble” centers around that boyfriend being Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), a trained killer whose amnesia has made him a target for a rogue branch of the CIA specializing in assassinations.

Initially unaware of the danger that Bourne’s presence means for his family, Eamon hosts the couple for the night, preparing dinner and even lending a pair of spare pajamas. He’s understandably upset the next morning when an assassin known simply as “The Professor” (Clive Owen) brings the fight to his home, which takes some damage as Bourne arms himself with Eamon’s shotgun to defend himself. The last we see of Eamon, he’s understandably pissed while driving Marie and his children to relative safety after she and Bourne part ways.

What’d He Wear?

Marie finds herself caught between two men in overcoats and turtlenecks, though Eamon’s dramatic suede coat and full turtleneck is an appropriately more fashion-forward look for a family man less concerned with covert movements than Bourne in his more austere charcoal coat and slate mock-neck.

Eamon’s knee-length topcoat is made from a saddle-brown sueded leather, worn and aged to a rugged patina. The broad ulster lapels have a brown printed felt under the collar, sweeping high above the single row of buttons that present a 2×1-button double-breasted front that closes over the waist. Each set-in sleeve is finished at the cuff with a short strap that closes through a single button.

The coat’s only outer pockets are a straight set-in pocket at hip level on each side of the front, and a single long vent extends up the back. A full belt pulls through a loop on each side of the waist to presumably wrap around Eamon’s body, but he keeps it tightened in the back through the silver-toned buckle and self-keeper.

Unlike Bourne’s trim, minimalist mock-neck sweater, Eamon wears a cozily full-fitting gray woolen turtleneck sweater with a wide-ribbed roll-neck, ribbed hem, and ribbed cuffs at the ends of the set-in sleeves. Under the chunky roll-neck, Eamon adds a predominantly dark-red printed scarf; in addition to being a rakish touch, this may also protect his neck from getting itchy under the wool fibers.

Eamon’s dark rust-brown trousers have a soft sheen that suggests a pinwale corduroy (also known as “needlecord”), which would be warmly comfortable and harmonious with the textures of his sweater and suede coat. Under the long coat and untucked sweater hem, little can be seen of these flat-front trousers aside from the plain-hemmed bottoms which collect over the tops of his dark-brown leather Chelsea boots.

We know Eamon is married thanks to the silver-toned wedding band on his left ring finger and his dialogue with his children (“mummy is away for two days, thank God…”) His only other visible jewelry or accessory is the polished steel watch he wears on his left wrist, styled with a round white ringed dial and a dark-brown edge-stitched leather strap.

The Car

Eamon keeps a cherry-red 1995 Jeep Cherokee for hauling his kids around in the snowy French countryside. This influential “XJ” series of compact Cherokee models was introduced in 1984 and would be produced globally until 2014, though American production ended before the 2002 model year when the existing Cherokee was transitioned to the new Jeep Liberty to differentiate it from the full-size Grand Cherokee.

Produced in both two- and four-door variations, the Cherokee was marketed as a “Sportwagon”, credited as the first modern sport utility vehicle (SUV) before the term was even created. This was also the first Jeep Cherokee to be widely available in Europe, though Eamon’s ’95 Cherokee was likely made for the North American market—suggested by the U.S.-spec taillights and the “Marietta Jeep Eagle” decal below the rear window, which implies it was purchased from a dealership in Cobb County, Georgia.

Eamon waits inside the Cherokee as Marie and Bourne part ways.

By ’95, the Cherokee was available in a range of trim lines and engines as well as either the rugged four-wheel-drive or a simpler rear-wheel-drive train. Engines included both gas-powered and “TurboDiesel” 2.5-liter straight-four options or the high-output 4.0-liter straight-six.

While European export models were almost always mated to a five-speed manual transmission, North American models like Eamon’s Cherokee also offered a four-speed automatic transmission. His aluminum lace-spoke wheels were standard with the “Country” trim, though his “flame red” Jeep lacks any additional badging (and the Country’s two-tone exterior paint) so Eamon likely drives a base-model ’95 Cherokee with custom wheels.

The Gun

Bourne earlier indicated to Marie that he has a trained sense on where to look for weapons. After finding a box of 12-gauge shells in Eamon’s desk, he immediately clocks the top of a cabinet as the most likely place to find the accompanying firearm—and indeed pulls down Eamon’s hammerless double-barreled shotgun to defend himself against “The Professor”.

Bourne checks the barrels of Eamon’s side-by-side shotgun.

Side-by-side shotgun design has hardly evolved since it was perfected in the mid-19th century, with little to distinguish between makers. On IMFDB, Eamon’s shotgun has been noted to have “a box lock action and a Churchill or Uplander stock and a splinter fore end,” though it’s unlikely that additional identification is possible without input from the movie’s armorer.

How to Get the Look

Tim Dutton as Eamon in The Bourne Identity (2002)

A minor—but stylish—character in The Bourne Identity, Eamon presents a nattier alternative to Bourne’s topcoat-and-turtleneck look with his own dramatic suede coat over a chunky roll-neck, accented with a scarf—all impractical for a spy on the run but suitable for a father of two dwelling in the French countryside.

• Saddle-brown suede knee-length topcoat with wide ulster collar, 2×1-button double-breasted front, straight set-in side pockets, full belt (with silver-prong buckle), set-in sleeves with single-button cuff straps, and long single vent
• Gray wool turtleneck sweater with wide-ribbed roll-neck, cuffs, and hem
• Dark-red printed scarf
• Rust-brown pinwale corduroy flat-front trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather Chelsea boots
• Silver wedding band
• Steel wristwatch with white ringed dial and dark-brown edge-stitched leather strap

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post The Bourne Identity: Tim Dutton as Eamon appeared first on BAMF Style.

Richard Gere as “Dixie” Dwyer in The Cotton Club (1984)

Vitals

Richard Gere as Dixie Dwyer, mob-connected movie star and jazz trumpeter

New York Spring, Winter 1928 to Winter 1931

Film: The Cotton Club
Release Date: December 14, 1984
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Milena Canonero

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Fraught with almost as much deadly drama behind the scenes as depicted on screen, Francis Ford Coppola’s contentious crime epic The Cotton Club was released 40 years ago last month in December 1984. From a story by Coppola, William Kennedy, and Mario Puzo, the story centers around the real-life titular Harlem nightclub that operated during Prohibition, which was first enforced across the United States 105 years ago today on January 17, 1920. The movie was received about as well as Prohibition itself, with both Oscar and Razzie nominations, four-star ratings and dead financiers.

The Cotton Club blends actual gangsters like Owney Madden and Dutch Schultz and popular musicians like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington with fictional characters inspired by real-life figures. Richard Gere stars as “Dixie” Dwyer, a jazz musician destined for stardom as a matinee idol who shares biographical traits with the actor George Raft and alliteratively named trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke. Dixie finds himself vying against Schultz for the affections of Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), a vivacious singer reminiscent of nightclub owner “Texas” Guinan—who also inspired Gladys George’s brassy character in The Roaring Twenties.

The cast also includes a young Nicolas Cage as Dixie’s deranged brother Vincent—inspired by the Prohibition-era gunman “Mad Dog” Coll—and Gregory and Maurice Hines as tap-dancing brothers inspired by the real-life Nicholas brothers who performed at the Cotton Club during their youth.

What’d He Wear?

The Cotton Club was Francis Ford Coppola’s first collaboration with four-time Oscar-winning costume designer Milena Canonero, who would later design the costumes for Coppola’s films Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988) and The Godfather Part III (1990). Canonero received a BAFTA Award nomination for her work on The Cotton Club, bringing the Prohibition era to life through the clothing.

As the stylish and confident multi-instrumentalist Dixie Dwyer, Richard Gere frequently wears tuxedoes for his performances, whether at a dingy jazz club or bringing down the house at the famous Cotton Club. From the sequences set in the late 1920s through the early ’30s, Canonero evolves Dixie’s black tie kit to reflect what was most fashionable at the time.

1920s: Single-Breasted Dinner Jacket

Though still a struggling musician when we meet him in 1928, Dixie pulls together a smart three-piece dinner suit anchored by a black wool single-breasted dinner jacket. Perfectly tailored for Gere, the ventless jacket follows a timeless style with silk-faced peak lapels that roll to a single-button closure over his natural waist. The sleeves are roped at the shoulders and finished at each cuff with three black plastic or horn buttons. In addition to the jacket’s straight flapped hip pockets, Dixie dresses the welted breast pocket with a white linen pocket square. He also frequently wears a white carnation through the buttonhole in his left lapel.

Vera’s two romantic rivals—Dutch Schultz and Dixie Dwyer—each attend the Cotton Club wearing black single-breasted, peak-lapel dinner jackets with wing collars and black waistcoats, though Dixie sports a white carnation as opposed to Dutch’s red boutonnière—perhaps hinting at the blood Dutch loves to spill vs. Dixie’s purer motives.

Waistcoats and cummerbunds are the most acceptable waist coverings with black tie, the latter developed as a cooler-wearing alternative. Since we typically see Dixie sporting his black tie during chilly New York winters, he would be comfortable in his full-backed black waistcoat, which also allows him to pull off his jacket and tie without looking too undressed during late night jam sessions at Harlem jazz clubs.

Evening waistcoats typically have a lower opening than those worn with business suits, typically in either a V-shape—as worn by Dutch Schultz (James Remar)—or the rounder U-shape worn by Dixie. Dixie’s single-breasted waistcoat has a narrow shawl collar that frames its U-shaped opening which drops below mid-chest, enhancing the bib-like effect of his stiff white shirtfront. Four black buttons close the front above a dramatic notched bottom.

Per its nomenclature, Dixie’s waistcoat appropriately keeps his waist covered for a smooth transition to his black wool trousers. These forward-pleated trousers feature the requisite black silk galon down each side seam to the plain-hemmed bottoms, which break over the tops of his black leather lace-up shoes.

Dixie evidently wore his own dinner suit for his Hollywood screen test.

The only element of Dixie’s black tie ensemble that varies through these late 1920s-set sequences is the tie itself. First, he wears a black silk diamond-ended bow tie before transitioning to the butterfly-shaped one which resembles the one he would also wear with his double-breasted dinner jacket. Since he always wears wing collars that keep the tie fully exposed, Dixie smartly wears self-tying neckwear that lack the adjusters or clips of pre-tied bow ties.

Dixie prefers the most formal-looking variation of the white evening shirt, styled with a neckband to attach a collar, a stiff front bib rather than the pleats which detail the front of many evening shirts, and single cuffs rather than double (French) cuffs. Indeed, the details are more consistent with shirts often worn with full “white tie” evening dress rather than black tie.

Dixie always opts to wear a stiff white wing collar, which attaches to the neckband with gold studs—one through the back, and one through the front—as seen when he wears the collar undone during the jam session where he’s recruited to play Dutch’s party. He also wears two silver-trimmed black onyx squared studs on the shirt’s front bib. Often, studs and cuff links match, but Dixie foregoes this convention by wearing round gold links.

Though sun-protective eyewear had existed in various forms for centuries, modern sunglasses emerged during the early 1920s, standardized at the end of the decade when Foster Grant developed injection molding technology that resulted in the first inexpensive mass-produced sunglasses. Worn on the beaches of both American coasts, sunglasses became associated with Hollywood stars like actors and musicians. Likely the latter appealed to Dixie, who wears his round tortoise-framed sunglasses even while playing night gigs indoors.

Through these sequences set in the late ’20s, Dixie sports the same taupe fedora and woolen knee-length overcoat with his tuxedo as he does with lounge suits. Made from a heavy dark-gray herringbone tweed, the coat has swelled-edge peak lapels that roll to a double-breasted front in a 6×3-button arrangement. The tailored coat has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and an additional flapped ticket pocket on the right side, and the sleeves are finished with four “kissing” cuff-buttons. The ventless coat has a half-belted back, secured with a button at each end of the belt.

The Dwyer boys’ night out at the Cotton Club, sporting topcoats over their tuxedoes.

After Dixie begins attaining some degree of success, he begins wearing a gold ring that swells out to show a black onyx facing, shining from his right ring finger.

Dixie accompanies Vera on trumpet as she croons “Am I Blue?” to her nightclub audience. This is actually after his return from Hollywood, so he’s wearing a different dinner jacket, which you’re about to read about…

1930s: Double-Breasted Dinner Jacket

Dixie returns to New York in 1930 after reaching some degree of Hollywood stardom with a leading role in the gangster movie Mob Boss. He strides through Vera’s new club wearing the newly fashionable double-breasted dinner jacket, waving his hand to fans in a half-salute not unlike Paul Muni’s similarly dressed character in Scarface (1932).

There are Scarface parallels everywhere for those with the eyes to see. While Gere’s mannerisms and double-breasted dinner jacket echo Paul Muni in the title role, Dixie Dwyer’s character was arguably inspired by George Raft—standing to Muni’s right in the Scarface screenshot.

Like Dixie’s earlier dinner jacket, the cloth is also a smooth black wool with black satin-faced peak lapels, though all the buttons are also covered in the same black silk. The lapels roll to a square 4×2-button double-breasted arrangement, which Dixie often wears with both buttons fastened. The straight shoulders are slightly wider than his previous jacket, consistent with early ’30s tailoring, and the sleeves are finished with three-button cuffs. The jacket otherwise follows the same details, including the appropriately ventless back, straight flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket. Dixie continues his practice of decorating his jacket with both a white linen pocket square and white carnation through his left lapel.

Dixie’s white evening shirt appears similar to the ones he wore in the earlier sequences, also with a wing collar buttoned to the neckband and silver-trimmed black studs up the stiff front bib. He never removes the dinner jacket on screen, so I can’t discern if the sleeves are finished with single or double cuffs. His black self-tying bow tie is in the traditional butterfly (thistle) shape.

The full wrap of a double-breasted dinner jacket negates the need for an additional layer of waist covering, so Dixie likely foregoes a cummerbund or waistcoat as he properly keeps his dinner jacket buttoned anytime he is on screen. This also covers many details of the trousers, though we can tell they have the requisite silk-striped side galon and are finished with plain-hemmed bottoms.

Backstage at the Cotton Club, we get a good look at Dixie’s black patent leather cap-toe oxfords, naturally worn with black dress socks. Especially with patent leather uppers, non-brogued black oxfords are traditionally acceptable footwear with black tie.

Fellas, that’s when you know she really likes you.

He also swaps out his original brass rectangular-cased watch on a dark leather strap for a dressier all-gold watch with a long tonneau-shaped case and beige dial on a gold expanding band.

Dixie’s outerwear also evolves to be dressier, with a black silk top hat, gray dress gloves, and a fur-collared charcoal wool coat. This knee-length coat features a shawl collar of soft dark-brown fur, rolling to a 6×2-button double-breasted front. The set-in sleeves are finished with four-button cuffs, and the coat features a welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets.

Dixie and Vera are framed with his Mob Boss poster—featuring Dixie himself aiming a pistol in Vera’s direction—between them.

For his return to New York after the release of Mob Boss, Dixie wears a cream silk scarf printed with black squares filled with small black dots.

How to Get the Look

Richard Gere and Diane Lane in The Cotton Club (1984)

Even before finding fame, Dixie Dwyer approaches the black tie dress code with smart, formal sensibilities, opting for the dressiest stiff-fronted evening shirt and appropriately wearing a self-tying bow tie with his wing collar. And whether sporting a single-breasted dinner jacket in the roaring ’20s or a fashionable double-breasted dinner jacket in the early ’30s, he always complements his evening-wear with a white carnation and pocket square.

• Black wool single-breasted/single-button or double-breasted/4×2-button dinner jacket with satin-faced peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• White cotton evening shirt with detachable stiff wing collar, stiff front bib (with two black-faced silver square studs), and single cuffs (with round gold links)
• Black silk butterfly/thistle-shaped bow tie
• Black patent leather cap-toe oxford shoes
• Black dress socks
• Black silk top hat
• Charcoal wool knee-length overcoat with dark-brown fur shawl collar, 6×2-button double-breasted front, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Cream silk scarf printed with dot-filled black squares
• Gray dress gloves
• Gold ring with black onyx setting
• Gold dress watch with tonneau-shaped case, beige dial, and gold expanding band
• White linen pocket square

FYI: Prop Store has auctioned a black double-breasted Bermans & Nathans dinner jacket claimed to be Gere’s screen-worn jacket from the 1930s scenes. Indeed, the overall appearance is similar to Dixie’s costume, but—in addition to the missing bottom right vestigial button (which is a common casualty after decades of storage)—the pocket flaps are silk-faced, the buttons are uncovered, and the sleeves are finished with four (rather than three) buttons. The tag is clearly printed “COTTON CLUB” (with “R. GERE” seemingly added later in purple ink), so it’s possible that this jacket was indeed tailored for the film but worn by a different character and mistaken for Dixie’s jacket due to the similarities with this one.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The post The Cotton Club: Richard Gere in Prohibition-era Black Tie appeared first on BAMF Style.

Paul Schneider and Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Vitals

Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil, smooth-talking outlaw and incorrigible “innamoratu”

Missouri and Kentucky, Fall 1881

Film: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Release Date: September 21, 2007
Director: Andrew Dominik
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The James Gang committed over 25 bank, train, and stagecoach robberies from 1867 to 1881. But, except for Frank and Jesse James, all of the original members were either now dead or in prison. So, for their last robbery at Blue Cut, the brothers recruited a gang of petty thieves and country rubes, culled from the local hillsides.

— Hugh Ross’ narration from The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Based on the last few months of the infamous bandit leader’s life, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford illustrates how Jesse (Brad Pitt) and Frank James (Sam Shepard) had fallen from their notorious “glory days” of riding with the Youngers, now reduced to a band of fanboy ruffians like the simple-minded Ed Miller (Garret Dillahunt) and brothers Charley (Sam Rockwell) and Bob Ford (Casey Affleck). One of the more capable members of this new iteration of the gang is Dick Liddil (Paul Schneider), though even he seems more interested in how many women he can “diddle”.

The real-life Dick Liddil had been recruited into the gang two years earlier in late 1879 and was reportedly well-respected by Frank James over the course of several robberies together, which explains how he ends up with the envied spot right by Jesse’s side during the takeover of the Blue Cut train in September 1881. Dick’s smooth-talking ways (“you talk good,” purrs an impressed Ed Miller) make him popular among the gang, all of whom look up to him for his self-professed mastery with women as illustrated by his crude aphorisms like “poetry don’t work on whores.” One can only imagine the kind of despicable podcast Dick Liddil would host in 2025.

The real Dick Liddil, circa 1883.

This philandering eventually lands Dick in hot water with his fellow bandit Wood Hite (Jeremy Renner) as the two men compete for the affections of the Fords’ widowed sister, Martha Bolton (Alison Elliott)… though we never see her recognize the ironic love triangle where she finds herself forced to choose between Wood and Dick, so to speak. Much to Wood’s violent dismay, Dick uses his “real pleasant disposition” to seduce Wood’s young stepmother Sarah (Kailin See) during an outhouse assignation where he kissed more than just her dainty nubbins… despite the inevitable stench of their surroundings.

On December 4, 1881, a now-bearded Wood’s quest for .45-caliber vengeance leads him back to Martha’s rented Ray County farmhouse, where he corners Dick in an upstairs bedroom. The resulting gunplay left Wood dead—shot in the head by Bob Ford, who was probably all too happy to make good on his threat to shoot the bandit who had bullied him months earlier.

As Wood Hite was Jesse James’ cousin, Bob and his brother Wilbur (Pat Healy) bury the corpse in the snow and conceal their crime from their feared gang leader, allowing Dick to recuperate from his Wood-fired leg wound in their attic crawlspace. However, it’s only a matter of time before Dick and Bob are arrested, surrendering themselves to Sheriff James Timberlake (Ted Levine) at Martha’s home on January 21, 1882, 142 years ago this week. The arrest set in motion the series of events that would result in Bob Ford turning on his boss and infamously shooting Jesse James to death less than three months later.

What’d He Wear?

Among the ruffians that fill the ranks of the James’ gang for the Blue Cut train robbery, only Dick Liddil comes close to maintaining the levels of wardrobe and grooming decorum as Frank and Jesse themselves—perhaps even surpassing both brothers in formality as he’s the only bandit to wear a tie. His particular neckwear is a strip of black silk, looped around his neck and then tied over itself like a droopier variation of the “crossover tie”, with both ends hanging over the chest like dog ears—all held in place with a gold stickpin.

Dick always wears white cotton shirts with a neckband that can be fitted with detachable collars. Aside from a brief occasion where he wears a wing collar and tie, Dick typically wears a club collar—characterized by its rounded edges. Aside from its neckband which takes studs to attach these collars, the shirt’s button-up front placket and button cuffs demonstrate how much men’s shirt design has remained generally the same for over a century.

In 1957, author, historian, and sartorialist Lucius Beebe wrote for The Deseret News that “the Stetson myth” was one of the greatest hoaxes of Western lore as his research uncovered that the derby hat was the true “hat that won the west.” This round-crowned headgear is known as a “bowler hat” in tribute to Thomas and William Bowler, the English hatmakers who designed it in 1849.

Costume designer Patricia Norris followed Beebe’s logic when dressing the characters of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, with more hard-traveled “city hats” than cowboy hats. Dick Liddil exemplifies Beebe’s hypothesis, exclusively wearing a low-crowned black felt derby hat with a matching black grosgrain band.

Dick’s ubiquitous tweed three-piece suit is woven in a dark-brown and beige wool that alternates between a barleycorn weave and a large-scaled herringbone, overlaid with a muted red windowpane check. The overall effect presents like a taupe-brown.

The single-breasted sack jacket has narrow notch lapels with wide notches, rolling over the top button of the distinctive 4/3-roll front, which cuts away around the front quarters. With its welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets, Dick’s ventless suit jacket otherwise follows the example continued by modern business suits more than a century later. The sleeves are roped at the shoulders and finished with three-button cuffs.

The suit’s matching single-breasted waistcoat (vest) has a six-button front that also rises high on Dick’s chest, mimicking the cut of the jacket with the top button rolled over by the waistcoat’s notch lapels—thus, Dick typically leaves both the top and bottom buttons undone. Lined along the back and inside in a dark-brown cloth that matches the darker thread in his tweed suiting, the waistcoat has two low-positioned welted pockets and is cut straight across the bottom.

For the opening Blue Cut train robbery and his snowy travel with Jesse to call on an absent Jim Cummins, Dick swaps out the suit’s matching waistcoat for a plain black wool waistcoat. This single-breasted vest also has a six-button front but is more conventionally styled, with no lapels and a notched bottom.

Regardless of if he’s wearing a jacket or waistcoat, Dick always wears the tweed suit’s flat-front trousers. Despite his trousers’ belt loops around the waist, Dick wears black suspenders that have russet leather hooks connecting them to buttons along the inside of the trouser waistband. Between the cinematography and the regalia of Dick’s gun belt, not much other detail can be ascertained about his trousers, which have plain-hemmed bottoms that break over the tops of his plain black leather square-toed mid-calf boots.

He keeps his Colt 1851 Navy revolver holstered in a dark-brown leather gun belt that features cartridge loops and a large scalloped gilt-toned single-prong buckle. The holster is worn butt-forward on the left side of the belt, giving Dick a right-handed cross draw.

As the weather gets colder, Dick often pulls on his black wool knee-length overcoat. Styled with a belted back, this coat has wide peak lapels, a 4×2-button double-breasted front, flapped hip pockets, and set-in sleeves that are cuffed at the ends.

From his seduction of Sarah Hite to the resulting gunfight with her stepson, Dick is clad in his underwear for many of his most prominent scenes. Due to the decorum of the era and the wintry setting, this consists of an ecru cotton long-sleeved shirt and matching long pants. The top is a henley-style shirt with a three-button placket and set-in sleeves with elasticized ends. Both garments show considerable wear and tear, including some attempts at mending holes over the right shoulder.

The Gun

Aside from Bob Ford’s “granddaddy Colt Paterson” that Dick briefly uses to threaten young Bob, Dick Liddil is the only member of the Jesse James’ gang to still carry an older percussion-style revolver—specifically the venerable Colt Model 1851 Navy revolver.

Percussion revolvers were all but obsolete for more than a decade by the time The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is set in the early 1880s, as the expiration of the Rollin White patent in April 1869 resulted in nearly all major American handgun manufacturers switched from cap-and-ball revolvers to cartridge-fired models. While this included Colt’s iconic Single Action Army that would be immortalized as the “Peacemaker”, Colt also capitalized on the existing parts and ongoing popularity of its Navy revolver by converting them at the factory to fire .38 rimfire cartridges.

The most common Navy conversions included the “Richards Conversion” and the later “Richards-Mason Conversion”, developed by Charles Richards in 1871 and William Mason in 1872, respectively. While the Richards Conversion models maintained the percussion model’s profile with an integral ejector rod replacing the under-barrel loading lever, the Richards-Mason Conversion replaced the whole barrel with one mimicking the Single Action Army with a shrouded ejector rod running parallel along the lower right side.

The fact that Dick carries metallic cartridges in his gun belt suggests that his Colt is cartridge-converted, though the simplified silhouette of his Navy revolver aligns more with the earlier Richards Conversion than the Richards-Mason.

I love the gunfight between Dick Liddil and Wood Hite, as it realistically shows how two experienced gunmen could still miss at such close quarters, especially when emotionally charged and firing black powder revolvers that emit considerable smoke with each shot.

Samuel Colt designed this “Colt Revolving Belt Pistol” as a lighter alternative to the .44-caliber Walker Colt and “Army Dragoon” revolvers developed over the previous decade, firing a .36-caliber ball that had previously been used in the aged Colt Paterson. The original percussion models were manually loaded with black powder, followed a lead ball bullet—specifically a .36-caliber ball, ballistically comparable to a modern .380 ACP round—then a percussion cap on the rear of the chamber, which ignites when struck by the hammer. All mass-produced percussion revolvers were single-action, meaning that the hammer needed to be cocked to pull the trigger and fire a shot.

“Undoubtedly the most popular revolver Colt produced in the medium size and power range,” according to Gun Digest editor Dan Shideler, Navy revolvers were typically case-colored with brass grip frames and trigger guards and walnut stocks. Though primarily issued to land forces throughout its production timeline from 1851 through 1873, the revolver gained its “Navy” nickname for Waterman Ormsby’s detailed barrel engraving of the Second Texas Navy’s 1843 victory at the Battle of Campeche.

How to Get the Look

Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

Dick Liddil’s tweed three-piece suit demonstrates how surprisingly liddil little menswear has changed since the Old West, as a few adjustments to the cut and a conventional shirt collar and tie would make his outfit just as stylish today as it would have been when riding with Jesse James.

• Brown-and-beige barleycorn-and-herringbone woven tweed three-piece suit:
  • Single-breasted 4/3-roll sack jacket with narrow notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with narrow notch lapels, two welted pockets, and straight-cut bottom
  • Flat-front trousers with belt loops and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black wool single-breasted 6-button waistcoat
• White cotton shirt with neckband, front placket, and button cuffs
  • White detachable club collar
• Black silk crossover tie
• Gold stickpin with amber stone
• Black suspenders with russet leather hooks
• Black leather mid-calf square-toed slip-on boots
• Black felt derby hat with black grosgrain band
• Dark-brown leather gun belt with cross-draw revolver holster, cartridge loops, and scalloped gold-toned single-prong buckle

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

You can hide things in vocabulary.

The post Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford appeared first on BAMF Style.

Paul Newman in Slap Shot (1977)

Vitals

Paul Newman as Reggie Dunlop, renegade hockey coach and player

Southwestern Pennsylvania, Winter 1977

Film: Slap Shot
Release Date: February 25, 1977
Director: George Roy Hill
Costume Designer: Tom Bronson

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 100th birthday of screen icon Paul Newman, born January 26, 1925. Across his prolific career that spanned six decades and yielded a competitive Oscar win among his ten nominations, Newman frequently cited the 1977 sports comedy Slap Shot as the most fun of his career. Though Pauline Kael described Newman giving “the performance of his life—to date” in her contemporary review for The New Yorker, her otherwise mixed review represents the film’s generally lukewarm reception at the time before it grew to its more widely appreciated cult status today.

Slap Shot re-teamed Newman with director George Roy Hill after their successful collaborations with Newman’s co-star Robert Redford in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). Newman stars in Slap Shot as Reggie Dunlop, coach of the fictional Charlestown Chiefs—a scrappy minor-league hockey team in a struggling small town in southwestern Pennsylvania’s steel country.

Behind the scenes and on the ice, George Roy Hill keeps warm in a Pendleton Cowichan-knit zip-up cardigan, the sweater later immortalized by Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski.

Nancy Dowd’s screenplay was inspired by her younger brother Ned’s experiences playing for the Johnstown Jets. Thus, the movie was filmed through the summer of 1976 in and around Johnstown, Pennsylvania, standing in for the fictional Charlestown but keeping much of the city’s history like a legendary flood in his history (represented by the statue of Morley’s Dog that was relocated for the film) and the importance of steelmaking on the local economy.

Realizing that likelihood of an upcoming mill closure in the town could jeopardize the already unpopular team’s prospects, Reggie schemes to draw attendance by emphasizing the sport’s violence, perhaps inspired by the three reckless Hanson brothers who had just been signed onto the team. While Reggie initially bemoans that “they’re too dumb to play with themselves!”, he eventually comes to appreciate the trio’s maverick playing style that aligns with his new vision for the Chiefs. Indeed, the team’s newfound propensity for fighting increases ticket sales, subsequently boosting morale and the team’s performance, ultimately landing them in the playoffs.

What’d He Wear?

Reggie Dunlop’s wardrobe is precisely what you might expect of a ’70s hotshot, with plenty of leather, printed polyester, and plaid jackets and slacks. Though he cycles through this wardrobe over the course of the Chiefs’ season, arguably the most prominent item from his closet is his dramatic fur-collared leather coat.

Made from a dark-brown leather, the knee-length coat has a belted sash that pulls through button-down belt loops to be tied in the front. In addition to this belt, the coat has a 4×2-button double-breasted front with the buttons all covered in leather to match the coat. Slanted hand pockets are set-in just below the waist line. The dramatic collar that gives the coat its unique edge is likely raccoon fur, which aligns with Sammy D. Vintage reporting that “raccoon trapping for outdoor garment use reached an all time high in the ’70s when 5.2 million raccoons were caught in the hunting season of 1976-1977.”  (Reggie’s fur collar is evidently also removable, but we’ll discuss that later.)

A single-pointed western yoke extends down each side of the chest, with a double-pointed yoke on the upper back above the inverted box-pleat in the center and a long single vent that extends up to the belt. The shoulders feature ornamental epaulets, either a holdout from a trench coat’s military-informed details or a signifier of the safari influence on contemporary menswear through the 1970s. The set-in sleeves are left plain at the cuffs, which are reinforced with diamond-pointed yokes.

The dissonance between Reggie’s brash outerwear and Ned’s more practical puffer vest foreshadows how the two friends ultimately clash over Reggie embracing more theatrical hockey.

Reggie debuts the coat over a baby-blue turtleneck and plaid trousers that he wears when he and fellow player Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean) are being interviewed on the air by local sports radio personality Jim Carr (Andrew Duncan). The soft, lightweight jersey-knit cloth suggests cotton or a synthetic blend, and it is styled with a full roll-neck and set-in sleeves that Reggie rolls back once over his wrists. His flat-front trousers are a black-and-white glen plaid, framed by a wide-scaled red windowpane overcheck. These trousers have slanted front pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms that break over his black leather boots.

Reggie’s complement of jewelry includes a ring on each hand and a gold-plated LED watch that he initially wears à la Gianni Agnelli, strapped over his shirt cuff with a matching three-piece link bracelet. Hamilton had launched LED-display digital watches earlier in the decade with the Pulsar that prominently appeared on screen when Roger Moore wore it for his debut as James Bond in Live and Let Die. Reggie wears the brand’s next evolution of the Pulsar, the Hamilton QED Frontier. Produced through the mid-1970s, these QED (“Quartz Electronic Digital”) watches were finished in either brushed steel or gold plating and feature a dot-display LED module. This trendy timepiece better suits Reggie than watches like the tastefully functional Rolex Daytona that Newman famously wore in real life.

Despite his estrangement from his wife Francine (Jennifer Warren), Reggie continues wearing his gold wedding band on his left ring finger. On the other hand, he wears a flashier gold filigreed ring with a square-set coral-red stone.

Reggie fidgets with his ring while he and Ned talk to Jim Carr on the air. Note his LED watch strapped over his turtleneck’s left cuff.

For the team’s first road game with the Hanson brothers on the roster, Reggie wears the coat over an orange lightweight polyester shirt with an all-over print of narrow brown, yellow, and tan stripes arranged in triangular streaks. The shirt follows a typical design for the era with its long-pointed collar as well as a front placket and two-button mitred cuffs. The shirt’s sheer fabric clearly shows the outline of his usual white cotton V-neck short-sleeved undershirt beneath it.

Until it’s time to undress and pull on his hockey gear, Reggie wears the shirt tucked into tan pinwale corduroy flat-front trousers. Held up by a tan leather belt pulled through the loops around the waist, these trousers have two patch pockets over the front of the hips (similar to Navy-issued dungarees) with a small white branded patch sewn over the top of the right-hand pocket. The seat features a single-pointed seam rather than back pockets, and the plain-hemmed bottoms are gently flared. Rather than his usual leather boots, Reggie wears navy-blue Adidas sneakers with white laces, white rubber outsoles, and the brand’s signature triple stripes—also white—along each side.

Back in Charlestown, where he catches up with Ned’s increasingly frustrated wife Lily (Lindsay Crouse), Reggie again wears the coat with a turtleneck and plaid slacks. This time, it’s a slightly thicker brick-red turtleneck with a ribbed roll-neck. He also wears a large medallion with a black-stenciled pattern against a white ground, suspended from a thin gold chain over the outside of his turtleneck.

Reggie’s trousers appear to be checked in a black, white, and blue plaid, though they’re mostly covered by his fastened coat through the duration of his screen time. The plain-hemmed bottoms fall over the tops of his black leather ankle boots, which have the dramatically raised soles and heels associated with then unfortunately trendy “platform shoes”.

We follow the Chiefs on the road during their unprecedented winning streak. This means plenty of time hopping on and off the team bus, where Reggie and his fellow players pass the time with plenty of beer and card games. During one of these sequences, he wears an orange velour polo shirt with blue denim jeans and—upon stepping off the bus—his fur-collared leather coat. The long-sleeved shirt has a long, shapely collar, a three-button placket at the top, and elasticized cuffs.

As their season continues, another scene features Reggie getting back on the bus after making a call to his ex-wife that another man answers. He takes off his coat and settles in for another long night of gambling and guzzling beers, wearing a garish silky rayon sport shirt with his same blue jeans.

Amidst the thin multi-colored stripes of alternating thickness, the ivory shirt has an intermittent multi-colored floral print over the shoulders, sleeves, and across the hem line. The shirt otherwise follows the fashionable trends of the ’70s with its long collar, front placket, and tightly buttoned cuffs that cause the sleeves to blouson above the wrists.

The coat’s final appearance is ahead of the culminating Charlestown vs. Syracuse game, though Reggie appears to have detached the fur collar—in response to the warming spring weather—to reveal the coat’s broad cran necker lapels. He layers the coat over a beige, blue, olive, and cream tartan blazer with two brass shank buttons, beige slacks, and a brown silky rayon sport shirt with a rainbow-striped print crossing from the right shoulder down to the left hip.

Note that the rest of the coat’s details are exactly the same, save for the removed fur collar—revealing the wide cran necker-style collar made from the same leather as the rest of the jacket.

What to Imbibe

The unofficial beers of the Charlestown Chiefs appear to be Schmidt’s and Stroh’s, two popular brands during the 1970s.

There were actually two different Schmidt breweries operating at the time: the Philadelphia-based Christian Schmidt Brewing Company founded in 1860 and the St. Paul-based Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company founded in 1855. Appropriate to their Pennsylvanian locale, the Chiefs always drink the former—evident by the “Schmidt’s of Philadelphia” labels on the cans.

The largest brewery in Philadelphia history, Schmidt’s expanded its product line through the ’70s and was producing nearly four million barrels per year by the end of the decade. Unfortunately, waning popularity and its then-president’s shady criminal connections pushed Schmidt’s into financial trouble, and it ended operations in 1987—marking the first time since the city’s founding more than 300 years earlier that Philadelphia had no functioning brewery.

The Car

Given the motorsports enthusiast that Paul Newman was in real life, it’s no surprise that Reggie Dunlop drives a cool car—specifically a “Baja gold” 1970 Pontiac GTO hardtop with a brown vinyl roof. According to IMDB, the GTO was loaned to the production by the Johnstown Jets’ real-life defenseman Guido Tenesi, who plays the laconic ladies’ man Billy Charlebois on screen.

The ’70 GTO falls into the model’s second generation, considered to be from 1968 through 1972. The 1970 model year offered a standard 400 cubic-inch “big block” V8 engine as well as the new High Output 455 V8, though Youtuber CarStarz shares that Newman’s screen-driven GTO was powered by the standard 400 V8 with a rated output around 350 horsepower—mated to a four-speed Muncie manual transmission.

“It effectively conveyed the character’s persona as a once-promising figure whose best days might be behind him,” CarStarz contextualizes. “By the mid-1970s, the GTO—once the pinnacle of Pontiac’s muscle car lineup—was no longer viewed as fresh or cutting-edge. Much like Reggie himself, who was stuck coaching a struggling minor-league hockey team in a fading Pennsylvania mill town, the GTO still had enough street cred to suggest that Dunlop had once enjoyed a taste of success or flair, yet it also looked worn and lived-in, symbolizing how both he and the car had seen better times.”

You can read more about the screen-used GTO here.

How to Get the Look

Paul Newman in Slap Shot (1977)

It takes a brash confidence to pull together the signature elements of Reggie’s off-ice style: a long leather coat with a fur collar, a rotation of turtlenecks, boldly checked trousers, and platform boots.

• Dark-brown leather knee-length coat with raccoon fur-covered collar, 4×2-button double-breasted front western-pointed yokes, sash belt through button-down belt loops, slanted side pockets, inverted box-pleated back with long single vent
• Baby-blue jersey-knit cotton turtleneck
• Black, white, and red plaid flat-front trousers with slanted front pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather ankle boots
• Gold filigreed ring with coral-red square-set stone
• Gold wedding band
• Gold-plated Hamilton QED Frontier LED digital watch

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

It’s their rink, it’s their ice, and it’s their fuckin’ town. But tonight we got our fans with us! They spent their own dough to get here, and they came here to see us! All right, let’s show ’em what we got, guys! Get out there on the ice and let ’em know you’re there. Get that fuckin’ stick in their side. Let ’em know you’re there! Get that lumber in his teeth. Let ’em know you’re there!

The post Slap Shot: Paul Newman’s Fur-collared Leather Coat appeared first on BAMF Style.

Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick on Severance (Episode 2.04: “Woe’s Hollow”)

Vitals

Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick, devoted Lumon Industries floor manager

“Dieter Eagan National Forest”, Winter 2024

Series: Severance
Episode: “Woe’s Hollow” (Episode 2.04)
Air Date: February 7, 2025
Director: Ben Stiller
Creator: Dan Erickson
Costume Designer: Sarah Edwards

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Now more than midway through its second season, Severance fans know shit’s about to get real when Milchick pulls up in a turtleneck. Whether it’s spinning defiant jazz for our first on-screen music dance experience (MDE) or asserting his power after a promotion, Milcheck’s roll-necks are his defining sartorial signature to distinguish him from the everyday short-sleeved white shirts and ties he wore in his lower supervisory position.

“I really wanted to tap into this ten-toes-down, more locked-in character, this energy that he has,” Tramell Tillman explained of his character to Killian Faith-Kelly for GQ UK ahead of the second season premiere. “His hair is more quaffed. He’s no longer in the short-sleeve shirts and the tie anymore. Now he’s wearing turtlenecks. His clothes are a bit darker. His approach is darker. I think he’s enjoying this new place of leadership that he’s in.”

One of the most chilling episodes—if you’ll forgive the pun—illustrates Milchick’s leadership style as he hosts the first-ever Outdoor Retreat and Team Building Occurence (ORTBO) for the four troublesome macrodata refiners: Mark S. (Adam Scott), Helly R. (Britt Lower), Dylan G. (Zach Cherry), and Irv B. (John Turturro). “This ORTBO is in response to your desire to see the outside world,” explains “Mr. Milchick from work” in a mechanical video greeting the four innies upon their awakening along the icy ridges. “With your outies’ blessings, you will spend the next two calendar days walking the meadows, thickets, brambles, and brooks that make up the Dieter Eagan National Forest.”

The innies contend with the knowledge of a heretofore unknown Eagan, the ill-fated brother of the mythic company founder Kier who ostensibly murdered Dieter in retaliation for his wanton habits of self-abuse. Dieter’s eponymous forest was portrayed on screen by Minnewaska State Park Preserve in New York’s Hudson River Valley, overlooking the Catskills. (I had the good fortune to visit this beautiful park in October 2022 when my wife and I drove through the area after our wedding.)

The refiners follow ghostlike apparitions of themselves to Woe’s Hollow, where Milchick literally greets them with open arms. Given the innies’ lack of familiarity with the world outside their severed floor, Milchick takes advantage by making outlandish claims, like that he brought them to “the tallest waterfall on the planet,” though the thirty-foot Awosting Falls—while lovely—isn’t even close to being the tallest waterfall in New York state. Milchick leads them to a campsite, resplendent with individual tents for each refiner, four-ply washroom tissue in the outhouse, and “copious luxury meats” on the grill.

The fun comes to an abrupt end when Helena punctuates Milchick’s recital of the masturbatory Dieter’s death with sardonic laughter, prompting an offended Milkshake to demand that his mysterious babyfaced assistant Miss Huang (Sarah Bock) dump their yet-untouched dessert into the fire:

Marshmallows are for team players, Dylan. They don’t just hand them out.

What’d He Wear?

Executive producer and frequent director Ben Stiller recalls on The Severance Podcast that he collaborated with costume designer Sarah Edwards to discuss how the refiners and the limited Lumon staff would be dressed for the ORTBO, following series creator Dan Erickson’s concept of “something that would feel like it was from a hundred years ago.” With that direction, Ms. Edwards crafted costumes of long coats and fur hats: black for the refiners, inverted by a more pristine white for Mr. Milchick and Miss Huang.

“They look like they’re in The Empire Strikes Back, and we look like we’re in Jeremiah Johnson,” observes Adam Scott of the black-clad refiners as opposed to Milchick and Miss Huang’s more elegant white winter gear.

The white vs. black costumes create an obvious divide, perhaps a subtle sartorial reminder to the innies that the outie staff did not have to undergo as much of a trek, thus their clothing can remain pristine and clean while the innies must wear darker clothes that better hide the dirt attained through their rugged journey—a callback to the era when white clothing indicated an elevated status as only a privileged few could afford to wear clothing that required such maintenance to keep clean. The white also camouflages Mr. Milchick and Miss Huang into the snowy forest, reinforcing to the outies that their Lumon overseers have a stronger sense of “belonging” in the outside world—while still illustrating, perhaps more to the audience than to the refiners, that they are still restrained to a degree of uniformity.

Milchick’s white costume nearly blends into the snowy forest, while the four black-clad refiners starkly stand out against their surroundings.

Milchick is bundled in white from head to toe like a corporate abominable snowman. His knee-length coat resembles classic shearling sheepskin outerwear, with a suede-like outer shell and a soft piled fleece reverse side that shows against the broad, ulster-like lapels and along the ends of each set-in sleeve.

“You have followed the path of Kier and Dieter and reached Woe’s Hollow. You stand upon sacred earth.”

The toggle-fastened, double-breasted front recalls classic duffel coats. A column of three horn toggles are positioned along a swelled seam down each side of the coat, with a braided ivory leather rope extending out from the left-side toggle to a small loop that can be fastened around the right-side toggle. The vertical swelled seam is met perpendicularly by a horizontal swelled seam that aligns with the second row of toggles. The only outer pockets on this ventless coat are set-in along each side, with a wide-welted entry that slants back from the bottom of these horizontal seams.

Milchick and his assistant Miss Huang are nearly identical in their white layers, though her coat has a full hood and pom-like baubles hanging from it, emphasizing her incongruous youth… as she has yet to eradicate childish folly from her essence.

Marshmallows are for team players… aka the Lumon staff members who are literally dressed like human marshmallows.

After debuting the first of his powerful turtlenecks for the “defiant jazz” MDE in the first season, Milchick pulls on a newly seen roll-neck for the snowy ORTBO, layered over a white long-sleeved base layer shirt.

The soft white turtleneck features a variety of different knitting patterns, including a wide-ribbed neck, cable-knit bib, and denser wave-knitted lower body arranged in columns to align with the upper cable-knit bib.

Awakened by the disturbance with Helly and Irv, Dylan and Mark did not have time to pull on their black turtlenecks over their long johns. “Everything down to the undergarments were period, were from a particular time. It felt like revenant era,” Adam Scott shared on The Severance Podcast.

Milchick’s ivory-colored trousers are made from a heavy cloth intended to withstand the cold and snow, styled with a flat-front, side pockets, and sets of two nickel buttons at the top of the waistband for his suspenders. His white suspenders (braces) have sets of two long taupe-brown leather straps, which connect to these buttons.

Though the trousers lack belt loops, Milchick still wears a belt over the top of the waistband—a fitting sartorial decision for this untrustworthy character, recalling Henry Fonda’s observation in Once Upon a Time in the West: “How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can’t even trust his own pants.” Milchick’s belt is a wide strip of stone-colored rawhide, fastened through an ornate blued copper-noted buckle with a decorative etching which appears to depict two bulls charging at each other. This illustration must be of some significance to Lumon, as the refiners appear to be wearing identical belt buckles.

Milchick tucks his trouser bottoms into his fur-trimmed, calf-high white snow boots. Of their footwear, Adam Scott recalls in The Severance Podcast that “we had these boots that also had crampons attached to them that were made for walking on slippery ice… like straight claws that lift you an extra five inches off the ground. But walking through deep snow and/or blueberry bushes made lifting our feet up and down exhausting, and we were all drenched in sweat by the time we made it across those fields.”

Everyone wears the same type of round fur hats with wide cuffs, similar to the pie-shaped Cossack hats known in Russian as Шапка Пирожок or “shapka pirozhok”. (Note that this differs from the ear-flapped ushanka hat.) Naturally, Milchick wears a white hat as opposed to the refiners’ black hats. Following the rest of what he wears, the hats may also be sheepskin like these “snowball hats” by Cloud Nine Sheepskin.

Milchick also wears three-point sheepskin gloves, lined in the fluffy white fur and presenting a neutral cream-colored suede-like outer fabric with top-stitched seams exposed along the edges.

How to Get the Look

Tramell Tillman as Seth Milchick on Severance (Episode 2.04: “Woe’s Hollow”)

Please enjoy each part of Mr. Milchick’s costume equally.

• White sheepskin knee-length coat with fur lapels, double-breasted 6×3 toggle-fastened front, slanted wide-welted hand pockets, set-in sleeves with fur-trimmed ends, and ventless back
• White turtleneck with wide-ribbed roll-neck, cable-knit chest bib, and wave-knitted lower body
• Ivory flat-front snow pants with suspender buttons and side pockets
• White suspenders with taupe-brown leather double-hooks
• Stone-colored rawhide belt with blued copper ornate double-bull buckle
• White sheepskin fur snow boots
• White sheepskin fur Cossack hat
• Cream-colored sheepskin three-point gloves

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series on Apple TV+, and praise Kier!

The Quote

You know we often laugh at what we don’t understand.

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