Peter Sellers with Claudia Cardinale in The Pink Panther (1963)
Vitals
Peter Sellers as Jacques Clouseau, bumbling Sûreté investigator
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Winter 1963
Film: The Pink Panther
Release Date: December 18, 1963
Director: Blake Edwards
Wardrobe Supervisor: Annalisa Nasalli-Rocca
Background
Four months after it premiered in Italy on December 18, 1963 (the same day that Brad Pitt was born, for what it’s worth), The Pink Panther was released in the United States sixty years ago this March, introducing audiences to the inept Inspector Clouseau portrayed by Peter Sellers.
Though future installments would focus more intentionally on Sellers’ pratfall-laden performance as Clouseau, The Pink Panther was initially more of a stylish, star-studded caper, set in the favorite winter destination for Camelot-era jet-setters: Cortina d’Ampezzo in the Italian Alps.
Clouseau is in the midst of his investigation into a prolific jewel thief known only as “the Phantom” when joining his wife Simone (Capucine) in Cortina, where we learn Simone had been planning to meet her lover, the dashing Sir Charles Lytton (David Niven)—who happens to be the mysterious Phantom that Clouseau had been chasing. Adding to the complication is the unexpected arrival of Sir Charles’ mischievous nephew and protege George (Robert Wagner) and the target of Charles and Simone’s next heist: the glamorous Princess Dala (Claudia Cardinale) and her princess gem called “The Pink Panther”.
Of course, Clouseau never suspects any of the intrigue happening right under his nose as he joins the buttoned-up insurance investigator Tucker (Colin Gordon) and the elegant après-ski set in the hotel lounge during a random but Fran-tastic performance of Henry Mancini’s samba “It Had Better Be Tonight (Meglio stasera)”.
What’d He Wear?
Inspector Clouseau’s clothing often conjures either one of his elaborate disguises or his familiar trench coat and trilby. While these hallmarks were still present in this first installment, Clouseau also deftly dresses for the luxurious ski resort setting, whether in a fashionable three-piece dinner suit while dancing with his wife or socializing fireside in a cozy sweater and corduroys.
Unlike the stoic Tucker in his tweed suit and bow-tie, Clouseau doesn’t look comically out of place as all the gents sport comfortable sweaters while relaxing in the resort’s Tyrolean-themed lounge.
Clouseau layers the sweater over an open-neck shirt, a white cotton long-sleeved button-up with a small brick-red graph check. The shirt has a semi-spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs.
Clouseau wears an ivory wool sweater with a deep V-shaped neckline framed by a wide brown napped trim that matches the short strips decorating the tops of the two patch-style hip pockets. The set-in sleeves are widely ribbed, beginning about an inch out from the shoulder seams, echoing the tapered vertical ribbing down the front, following the neckline.
The sweater’s oversized fit may be intentional as a loose outer layer to be worn over ski clothes, or it may have been selected for Clouseau’s wardrobe before Peter Sellers’ extensive weight loss (said to be partially triggered by Sellers’ insecurity when sharing the screen with the strapping young Robert Wagner.)
Clouseau tonally and texturally coordinates his trousers with the rest of his look, wearing olive-brown wide-waled corduroy trousers with plain-hemmed bottoms. The voluminous fit of his sweater covers the trousers’ waistband area, but they appear to be flat-fronted and likely styled with at least hand pockets.
Clouseau continues wearing the snuff-brown suede two-eyelet plain-toe chukka boots that he had also worn with his brown flannel sack suit upon arriving in Cortina. These ankle-high boots were a relatively recent phenomenon, purportedly originated by British Army officers playing polo in India (a “chukker” is a 7½-minute period of play in polo), brought west by the Prince of Wales (who else?), and increasingly popular from the late 1940s onward. “More of a high shoe than a boot,” sartorial expert Sir Hardy Amies described in his 1964 volume ABC of Men’s Fashion, “and very smart in suede for the weekend wear.”
Less smart are Clouseau’s chocolate-brown ribbed socks, which nicely continue the leg-line between his similarly tinted trousers and shoes but are unfortunately in need of mending with a substantial hole on the back of the right heel… much to a hidden Sir Charles’ amusement.
When Clouseau receives George’s decoy call that summons him to Brunico, he pulls on his tweed hat and trench coat to complete the enduring “Inspector Clouseau” image for the first time in The Pink Panther‘s canon. (He had previously worn the coat with a less characteristic black leather cap upon checking into the hotel, so I wouldn’t count that.)
Described by Clouseau as “my Surété Scotland-Yard-type mackintosh,” the beige gabardine trench coat features all the major design elements that have characterized trench coats since Thomas Burberry submitted his initial British Army officer’s raincoat to the War Office around the turn of the 20th century. (Despite Burberry’s long association with the coat, Sellers’ screen-worn coats were reportedly made by their competitor Aquascutum, as the brand Tweeted in 2016, though this may refer to coats he wore in later movies; a glimpse at the large-scaled red-and-green windowpane check on the beige full-length lining may help identify the maker of Clouseau’s coat in The Pink Panther.)
The broad lapels over the front can be fastened up via the 8×4-button double-breasted front, extending up from the waist to neck. The self-belt around the waist closes through a tall tan leather-covered single-prong buckle and has the array of brass D-rings that had been added during World War I to attach equipment. The shoulder straps (epaulets) were another WWI-era addition to the design, and a storm flap drapes over the right shoulder onto the chest. The cuffs are fastened with the usual belted straps, and the hand pockets have button-down flaps to protect the contents from rain.
Esquire‘s The Handbook of Style cites Inspector Clouseau as one of the most famous trench coat wearers, explaining that he “wore his trench coat buttoned and belted, an attempt to preserve a semblance of suave control as Clouseau bumbled through crime scenes.”
Prior to the brown trilbies he would wear in later films, The Pink Panther dresses Clouseau in a dark-gray tufted tweed trilby, styled with a narrow self-band and a short brim. In A Shot in the Dark, he would wear a brown soft felt trilby before switching to the less structured mixed brown tweed Lock & Co. hats for the trio of 1970s-made films.
Dressing against the cold for his aborted journey from Cortina to Brunico, Clouseau also wraps a plain white scarf around his neck and pulls on two-toned leather three-point driving gloves with cream roughout tops and smooth taupe leather bottoms and trim. These are true driving gloves, with cutout holes over the knuckles and two carpal ventilation holes.
Signifying his marriage to the duplicitous Simone, Clouseau wears a gold wedding band on the ring finger of his left hand.
The Gun
Upon realizing that Sir Charles must be the notorious Phantom, Clouseau draws his gold-plated Beretta Model 70 and accidentally fires a .32-caliber round into the ceiling. This would be the only time we see Sellers’ Clouseau armed in the line of duty.
A precursor to Beretta’s compact “Cheetah” series, the Model 70—also known as the “Puma”—was developed as an improvement on the aging Model 1934 and 1935 service pistols that were wielded by the Italian military during World War II. Beretta launched the Model 70 in 1958, so it still would have been relatively new to the world firearms market by the time Clouseau armed himself with a gold-plated Model 70 in The Pink Panther, released at the end of 1963.
“Careful, you fool! Don’t you realize this gun is loaded?” a pajama-clad Clouseau admonishes poor Tucker after Tucker redirects the muzzle away from pointing at himself!
The standard Model 70 weighed 660 grams—just shy of a pound and a half—with a 3.5-inch barrel on an overall 6.5-long frame. Though future evolutions would be chambered for .22 LR (and even a limited run in .380 ACP, introduced in the late ’70s), the base Model 70 fired the .32 ACP cartridge, fed from eight-round magazines.
While this common and easily concealed semi-automatic pistol makes sense as the sidearm for a Sûreté inspector, the gold plating and ivory grips are far too flashy for a detective to have the good sense to carry… but who would ever accuse Inspector Clouseau of having good sense?
How to Get the Look
Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther (1963)
Before donning his signature trench coat and trilby, Inspector Clouseau actually fits in quite well among the mid-century “jet set” in his comfortably oversized sweater, open-neck shirt, corduroys, and suede chukka boots.
- White with red graph-check cotton long-sleeved shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
- Ivory wool V-neck sweater with brown napped trim on neck and tops of both patch-style hip pockets
- Olive-brown wide-waled corduroy flat-front trousers with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
- Snuff-brown suede two-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes
- Brown ribbed socks
- Dark-gray tufted tweed trilby
- White scarf
- Beige gabardine trench coat with 8×4-button double-breasted front, self-belt with leather-covered single-prong buckle, epaulets (shoulder straps), right-side storm flap, slanted hand pockets (with button-down flaps), and belted cuffs
- Cream roughout-and-taupe leather three-point open-knuckle driving gloves
- Gold wedding ring
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
At times like this, I wish I was but a simple peasant.
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