I’m pleased to again present a guest post contributed by my friend Ken Stauffer, who has written several pieces for BAMF Style previously and chronicles the style of the Ocean’s film series (and beyond!) on his excellent Instagram account, @oceansographer.
George Clooney as Jack Foley in Out of Sight (1998). Photo credit: Merrick Morton.
Vitals
George Clooney as Jack Foley, charismatic bank robber and prison escapee
Detroit, February 3-5, 1999
Film: Out of Sight
Release Date: June 26, 1998
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
When people lament that Hollywood studios should go back to making more high quality, mid-budget movies, Out of Sight is exactly what they’re referring to, even if they don’t realize it. Looking back on it today, the film is not only perfectly cast and beautifully shot, but it manages to strike the perfect balance of character and plot, humor and drama, while telling a unique story.
Based on a then-just-published novel by Elmore Leonard, the movie stars George Clooney as lifelong bank robber Jack Foley who breaks out of prison in Florida, getting away by hiding himself in a car trunk with U.S. Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez). With the law hot on his tail, Foley and his best friend Buddy (Ving Rhames) hoof it to Detroit to pull off one last score at the home of two-faced businessman Richard Ripley (Albert Brooks), whom they did time with years earlier. They’re forced to form an uneasy alliance with a far more violent crew led by the murderous “Snoopy” Miller (Don Cheadle).
Watching the finished product, it’s hard to believe how troubled the production was at the outset. The story goes that the late, great Sydney Pollack left the project when he learned George Clooney was attached, feeling he wasn’t a movie star in the immediate wake of Batman & Robin. As he told TCM presenter Ben Mankiewicz on a recent podcast, Steven Soderbergh “desperately tried” to get into the director’s chair of this film, but coming off a series of flops he was ultimately forced to “wait for most of the town to pass.”
Once hired, Soderbergh and screenwriter Scott Frank (who had adapted Leonard’s Get Shorty a couple years earlier) restructured the story with a series of flashbacks, intending to reveal information when it would have the most weight. With a reworked ending and a few other additions to better tie characters together, the general consensus is that the pair actually improved upon the plot of an already engrossing and witty novel.
With a director and star who were far from anyone’s first choice, the studio set a budget that necessitated the cast be filled with more affordable, up-and-coming actors, namely Don Cheadle, Steve Zahn, Viola Davis, Catherine Keener, Isaiah Washington, and Luis Guzman. Accomplished comedian Albert Brooks joined wanting a venue to try something different and play against type. Clooney personally recommended Ving Rhames for the role of Jack’s best friend, “Buddy” Bragg, as the two had spent the mid-’90s co-starring on ER (though to my recollection, they never share a single scene). At the time of production, the most bankable stars in the movie were Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Keaton, both of whom went uncredited!
A virtual unknown at the time, Jennifer Lopez was cast because of her immediate chemistry with George in auditions. Soderbergh recognized that Clooney was simply giving a better performance when acting opposite Lopez. That spark between the two stars is why the film regularly appears on lists of the “sexiest movies of all time.”
Now while it’s seldom celebrated outside of my household, in universe, the day that Jack, Buddy, and Snoopy’s crew illegally entered Ripley’s mansion in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, was Friday, February 5, 1999—exactly 25 years ago today.
What’d He Wear?
Having helped define the distinct look of ’90s criminals in Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Get Shorty, Betsy Heimann was the natural choice to costume the rogues gallery of Out of Sight. As she told the From Tailors With Love podcast back in 2020, “a lot of my work, still to this day, combines vintage and modern, current to the time.” She then recounted that in her first collaboration with Quentin Tarantino she developed a theory that “if you’re a criminal who is in and out of jail, you probably don’t have a lot of money so you might shop at the thrift store,” which she carried over to her work here.
After spending the first half of the movie between the Florida Everglades, Miami Beach, and Lompoc, California, the film’s look takes a sharp turn when the story heads into the icy cold of wintertime Detroit. As he would famously do in Traffic two years later, Soderbergh pulled the 85 filter when shooting these scenes, eliminating all warm tones from the image, and giving everything a cold, blue tint.
Shot on location, Jack and Buddy’s first stop in Detroit is the original Kronk gym on McGraw Ave. Foley wears most of his cold-weather wardrobe in this scene, and the centerpiece of it is easily his retro-styled gray car coat. It’s made in a heavyweight wool in heathered charcoal, and has a distinctive ulster collar made from faux fur. Soderbergh has specifically mentioned that he wanted the film to feel like 1973, and indeed this coat wouldn’t look out of place in The Friends of Eddie Coyle or The Last Detail.
Though the faux fur collar takes on a navy hue on screen, it’s most likely a black nylon or polyester pile with a blue undertone that gets accentuated by Soderbergh’s filtering. As shown in a deleted scene, the coat has a matching pile lining, as is typical on coats of this style. You can find similar examples, mostly from the ’60s and ’70s, from brands like London Fog and Botany 500.
The author’s own Botany 500 fur-collared car coat, similar to the style worn by George Clooney on screen.
The coat’s roped shoulders are a bit too large on Clooney’s frame, hanging off on each side, and the body of it is likewise cut a bit fuller. The hem of the coat extends just beyond Clooney’s fingertips. It closes with three shank buttons wrapped in a weathered dark leather, with two smaller matching buttons at the end of each of its plain sleeves. There is a center vent in the back and a slanted outer pocket on each hip.
I had the pleasure last month to ask Ms. Heimann a few questions about her work on the film, and she relayed the following insight into what inspired this selection:
I grew up in Chicago. There is a photo I have of two of my friends standing on the Addison Rocks wearing coats very similar to Jack Foley’s winter coat. That was the image I had in my mind when I thought about his costume for Detroit. So you are right, it had to have a vintage feel. I found it in an old fashioned workwear store in South Gate, CA while searching for something else.
That sounds a lot like Greenspan’s on Tweedy Blvd in South Gate that’s been selling new men’s workwear since 1928. So while the coat has a distinctly vintage look, it was most likely manufactured in the ’90s closer to the film’s production.
Betsy Heimann’s production sketch of Foley in the full costume including his brown velour polo.
Beneath the coat, Foley wears a dark collared shirt, with the top two buttons undone, and a plain wool scarf with plain edges. Neither is that easy to make out on screen, so I’ll let Betsy take the lead here:
The shirt in question also came from there. It was more of a Pendleton… ombre shirt jacket. Same with the black scarf.
Most likely Jack wears one of Pendleton’s hardy wool CPO-style overshirts, characteristically finished with an extra layer of quilted lining and two chest pockets with buttoning flaps. We can’t discern much of the shirt’s true color due to the scene’s blue filter, but judging from a production still, it looks like an ombre plaid pattern in shades of brown and gray. It has a large-scale gold overcheck that bisects its row of gray buttons.
Beneath the Pendleton, Jack wears a basic black waffle-knit thermal cotton crew-neck long-sleeved T-shirt. Not expecting to see Karen, he recycles this shirt on its own two days later, wearing it directly beneath his coat. We can see that it has ribbed cuffs and a plain bottom, as the character wears it untucked here.
This production still of George Clooney and Ving Rhames shows the color and pattern of Jack’s Pendleton shirt more clearly than seen in the film itself.
Jack begins his second day in Detroit on the phone with Buddy from his motel room, before casually stalking Karen by asking for her at every area hotel. Here, he’s opted for a slightly oversized, grayish-brown velour long-sleeve polo with a placket of three gray mother-of-pearl buttons. The sleeves are finished plainly with a simple T-shirt style hem, rather than a ribbed cuff.
Even a fugitive on the lam deserves to feel cozy.
Throughout his short stay in Michigan, the character only wears a single pair of dark brown flat front pants with slanted side and button through rear pockets. As these pants have no crease, they appear more casual, maybe cotton work pants offered by brands like Dickies, or something thicker like moleskin for the cold. They have straight legs that are cuffed at the bottom. As less dressy pants are rarely finished with cuffs, I’m guessing fugitive Foley hasn’t bothered to have them properly hemmed and just rolled them up to better suit his inseam.
During the scene at the gym, Jack’s black leather belt can be briefly glimpsed. We get a better look at it when Jack meets up with Karen Sisco later in the film, while wearing a navy silk-and-mohair suit (I promise to cover that outfit here soon). It has edge stitching and a small rectangular silver buckle that’s slightly taller than it is long. Based on how thin the belt is, it’s definitely better suited for a more formal outfit, but as Jack is traveling light, it makes sense that he would reuse it here. The character forgoes the belt on the day of the robbery, perhaps because Buddy lectures him as he’s getting dressed.
Even though Jack asks Buddy to drop him off at the city’s landmark Renaissance Center so he can buy some better shoes, the character actually relies on a simple pair of black calf leather derbies throughout the majority of the film. They have a plain toe, five lace eyelets, a tan leather lining, and rubber soles by Vibram, as revealed by the brand’s distinctive yellow logo (seen in the last act when Foley and Snoopy wrestle on the floor). Their rather plain appearance and hard-wearing bottoms create a very versatile shoe, wearable with a suit or more relaxed workwear. Beneath them, Jack always seems to wear simple black dress socks with vertical ribs.
Thanks to a deleted scene, we can see that Foley is wearing a pair white cotton boxers on the day of the robbery, just as he had the night before when visiting Karen’s hotel room. Let’s just hope that he owns more than one pair!
This is my 9th article on BAMF Style in the last 3 years, and I’ve finally been able to work in a pic of Clooney in his underwear!
Jack’s limited wardrobe and recycling of pieces makes practical sense in the plot of the film as the character carries all of his belongings in a single Burdine’s paper shopping bag. As Ms. Heimann related to me, “it has always been my habit to build the closet and then put the items together in the same or different ways. Jack wasn’t planning on going to Detroit for very long. It was supposed to be an easy in and out job. It was always my idea that he really didn’t need a lot of clothes.”
Just before entering Ripley’s mansion, Foley dons a pair of black leather gloves, with exposed stitching on the edges of the fingers and palms, and a black acrylic three-hole ski mask. Once inside, he stuffs the gloves into his right coat pocket and shifts the mask back, cuffing the lower edge over his hairline, making it resemble an oversized knit cap.
Jack: “You ever wear one of these?”
Buddy: “I don’t ski.”
The Guns
Smith & Wesson .32 Double Action 4th Model
On the cusp of making a clean getaway with Ripley’s diamonds, Foley has an attack of conscience and decides to go back to rescue the hapless couple inside. Buddy hands him his revolver (and silver cross necklace) for protection and briefly watches his friend run inside before driving away.
Buddy’s revolver is a blued Smith & Wesson .32 Double Action 4th Model, one of the many top-break models that Smith & Wesson produced through the last decades of the 19th century, which ranged from the massive .44- and .45-caliber Model 3, New Model No. 3, and Schofield revolvers to the more compact “Lemon Squeezer” Safety Hammerless variety. This top-break design differs from the familiar (and more modern) swing-out cylinder.
The .32 Double Action typically featured a three-inch barrel, with steel frames finished in either standard blue or nickel-plating and the round-butt grips either checkered or floral-embossed hard rubber. Smith & Wesson produced nearly identical runs of these double-action revolvers in both .32 S&W and .38 S&W, with Buddy handing Jack the smaller-caliber .32 model.
Evolved from prior versions of the .32 Double Action (I’ll let you guess how many), the 4th Model was visually distinguished from its predecessors by an oval-shaped trigger guard. Nearly 240,000 4th Models were manufactured between 1883 and 1909—which would have made Buddy’s revolver likely over 90 years old by the time Jack wielded it in Ripley’s mansion.
After taking care of business in Ripley’s bedroom, Jack is forced into a shootout with Snoopy. After his assailant runs out of ammo, Jack believes he has the upper hand. However, having never used a gun before this day (and perhaps unaware that Buddy’s pistol only holds five rounds), he’s shocked to discover that he’s also out of bullets.
After a brief hand-to-hand fight that quickly devolves into a clumsy wrestling match on the floor, Snoop slides down the grand staircase to grab another loaded weapon, while Jack retreats to the bedroom to arm himself with Kenneth’s revolver….
Smith & Wesson Model 38 “Bodyguard”
Desperate not to spend the rest of his life in prison but with no intention of hurting Karen, Jack privately empties the bullets from Kenneth’s revolver onto the floor, but keeps clutching the gun as he walks out of the bedroom into her line of sight.
Compared to the antique 4th Model Double Action, Kenneth’s Smith & Wesson Model 38 is a more “modern” design from the same manufacturer, though it still dates to the 1950s when it was launched as the “Airweight Bodyguard” in ’55, designated the Model 38 two years later when Smith & Wesson began numbering their models.
The Bodyguard revolver modifies the design of the traditional double-action Smith & Wesson Model 36 “Chiefs Special” for concealed carry, with a frame made of lighter-weight alloy that includes a rounded shroud to cover the hammer and prevent it from snagging on clothing while still allowing the user to manually cock it. Like the Model 36, the Model 38 typically featured a two-inch “snub-nosed” barrel (though the rare three-inch barrel can still be found) and was finished in blue or nickel-plating.
How to Get the Look
George Clooney as Jack Foley in Out of Sight (1998)
Largely functional with some unique vintage style, Jack Foley’s cold-weather wardrobe reflects his practicality, his charm, and even his knack for improvisation. Like the film itself, his costume is made of seemingly disparate elements that combine to make something greater than the sum of its parts:
- Heather charcoal wool car coat with black faux-fur ulster collar and lining, 3-button front with leather wrapped shank buttons, center vent, slanted hip pockets, and 2-button cuffs
- Gray-and-brown ombre plaid wool overshirt with a large-scale gold overcheck, and gray buttons
- Black waffle-knit thermal cotton long-sleeve crew-neck T-shirt with banded cuffs
- Brown velour long-sleeve polo shirt with 3-button placket and hemmed cuffs
- Dark-brown casual flat-front trousers with off-seam side pockets and button-through back pockets, worn cuffed
- Slim black leather dress belt with small rectangular silver buckle
- Black calf leather plain-toe 5-eyelet derby shoes with tan leather lining and black rubber Vibram soles
- Black cotton ribbed dress socks
- White cotton boxer shorts
- Black acrylic ski mask with three holes
- Black wool scarf finished with plain edges
- Black leather gloves with exposed edge-stitching
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Avoid Detroit in the winter and check out the movie.
The Quote
The good life? Buddy, do you know anybody that’s done one last big score and then gone on to live the good life?
The post George Clooney’s Charcoal Car Coat in Out of Sight appeared first on BAMF Style.