Ray Liotta and Debi Mazar as Henry Hill and Sandy, respectively, in Goodfellas (1990).

Vitals

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, New York mob associate, drug dealer, and ex-con

New York City, Fall 1978

Film: Goodfellas
Release Date: September 19, 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

Background

Today’s Mafia Monday post examines a brief – but brilliantly-scored – sequence in Goodfellas detailing the newly-paroled Henry Hill’s regression into criminality, now exacerbated with drug deals in Pittsburgh (hey, that’s my hometown!) Of course, not only is Henry’s interstate cocaine commerce illegal for many reasons, but it’s also verboten in his branch of the Lucchese family as dictated by capo Paulie.

Henry’s new drug trade means a few new women in his life, too. In addition to his wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco), the Hills have enlisted the help of an idiosyncratic courier named Lois Byrd (Welker White) who complains about Pittsburgh (HREY!) and refuses to travel without her lucky hat. Henry’s also got a new goomar, Sandy (played by Debi Mazar and based on his real-life girlfriend Robin Cooperman), whose irresponsibility makes her a poor partner for the tricky business of cocaine trafficking.

The sequence is set to The Rolling Stones’ “Monkey Man”, a brilliant deep cut from their masterful 1969 album Let It Bleed that also featured during the movie’s iconic “helicopter sequence” toward the end. Never released as a single, “Monkey Man” enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to its use in Goodfellas and the Stones themselves incorporated it into their Voodoo Lounge and Live Licks tours in the ’90s and 2000s. The song was also prominently used in an episode of HBO’s Entourage, which also starred Debi Mazar in a supporting role.

What’d He Wear?

Henry rocks some great vintage leather while out and about in Queens, sporting a brown hip-length jacket with styling that would’ve been very fashionable in the late ’70s. The front placket has four brown plastic buttons that button up to the long, shirt-style collar. The waist is pulled-in for a more athletic silhouette. On each front side below the waist is a hand pocket with a slanted opening. The breast pocket closes with a straight zipper. The sleeves are set-in and each end in a pointed tab that Henry leaves unfastened over his wrists.

Henry also wore the jacket in a brief scene after the fallout of the Lufthansa heist when leaving a diner with Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro). Jimmy goes over to harass some sleeping FBI agents, giving Henry a great opportunity to showcase The Liotta Laugh.

Henry’s silky white disco shirt would have been quite fashionable in 1978 with its excessively long point collar, worn wide open with the top two buttons unfastened down the placket. His initials “HH” are monogrammed in dark threading on the left breast. The shirt bunches up at the cuffs, fastened tightly with a single button around each wrist.

Men’s fashion in the ’70s followed a somewhat hourglass-inspired structure – not to be confused with hourglass body figures – with width emphasized at the top (shirt collars) and bottom (flared legs), pulled in tight and slim through the torso and mid-section. We clearly see this with that large-collared shirt; his brown flat front trousers also follow this pattern, tight over the hips and then flaring out from the knee to the plain-hemmed bottoms.

The trousers fasten around the waist with two 2-button tab adjusters on each side toward the back. The front has a pointed tab that extends over the right side of the fly and through a single belt loop to fasten with a single button. There is a straight pocket on each side seam and a small pointed flap that buttons down over a coin pocket on the right side, just below the waistband button.

Henry surprisingly opts for black leather footwear despite the brown leather jacket. He appears to be wearing black socks with his black split-toe bluchers.

You can’t really feel bad for Henry Hill at all*; using this apartment as the center of a cocaine-dealing operation is just begging to get caught. (*Also, I tend to have a policy of not feeling bad for criminals!)

Around his neck, Henry wears a gold necklace chain with two pendants symbolizing his faith: a Catholic cross for his birth family and a Star of David for his conversion to Judaism after marrying Karen. Including this necklace, all of Henry’s jewelry is yellow gold.

Karen, Lois, and Henry react to Lois’ borrowed baby with different degrees of enthusiasm.

Henry’s other symbolic jewelry is the plain yellow gold wedding band worn on the third finger of his left hand. The rest of his jewelry is clustered on and around his right hand, including a gold pinky ring with a set-in diamond.

Want to show Henry Hill that you don’t care about him? Buy him silver jewelry.

On his right wrist, Henry wears a slim yellow gold wristwatch with a round white dial and diamond-crusted bezel. Closer to the hand, Henry wears a yellow gold chain-link ID bracelet.

How to Get the Look

Henry dresses fashionably to be a man around town in the late ’70s with brown leather and plenty of gold jewelry to boot.

• Brown leather hip-length jacket with long shirt-style collar, 4-button front placket, straight zip-closure breast pocket, slanted open hand pockets, and 1-button pointed-tab cuffs
• White silk shirt with extra-long point collar, front placket, “HH” breast monogram, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Brown flat front trousers with front pointed-tab self-belt, 2-button side-tab waist adjusters, button-down flapped right-side coin pocket, on-seam side pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather split-toe bluchers/derby shoes
• Black socks
• Thin yellow gold necklace with gold Catholic cross pendant and Star of David pendant
• Gold wristwatch with diamond-circled white dial on flat gold bracelet
• Gold chain-link ID bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with set-in diamond
• Gold wedding band

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody on the set of Boardwalk Empire while filming “The Ivory Tower” (Episode 1.02).

Vitals

Michael Pitt as Jimmy Darmody, ambitious war veteran and “half a gangster”

Atlantic City, January 1920

Series: Boardwalk Empire
Episodes:
* “Boardwalk Empire” (Episode 1.01, aired September 19, 2010, dir. Martin Scorsese)
* “The Ivory Tower” (Episode 1.02, aired September 26, 2010, dir. Tim Van Patten)
* “Broadway Limited” (Episode 1.03, aired October 3, 2011, dir. Tim Van Patten)
* “Anastasia” (Episode 1.04, aired October 10, 2011, dir. Jeremy Podeswa)
Creator: Terence Winter
Costume Designer: John A. Dunn

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Jimmy Darmody’s death was a shocking loss to fans of Boardwalk Empire, especially in the pre-Game of Thrones “anyone can die” TV landscape.

When I revisited the first episodes to capture screenshots for this post, it was even more heart-wrenching to see the character’s potential and the tortured forces that were effectively dooming Jimmy from the outset… not to mention watching poor little Tommy Darmody, clearly unaware of how the events of the following decade would lead to him firing a bullet into the face of his father’s erstwhile mentor.

The world of Boardwalk Empire rewards ambition among the privileged and ruthless, dooming Jimmy’s scrappy but proud brand of ambition from the outset. Tragedy befalls anyone invested in Jimmy’s success, whether it’s a violent end (Angela, Pearl, and Richard Harrow) or an increasingly sad, unavoidable trajectory (Gillian being institutionalized, Tommy’s determination to kill Nucky, etc.)

On the other hand… Nucky gave up on him early and lived just long enough to retire; Jimmy’s father, the Commodore, dismissed him early and enjoyed a long life of ruthless, irascible corruption before Jimmy ended it; and Al Capone – not unsurprisingly – never stood up for his friend and would outlive the show’s time frame to die at his Florida estate after nearly a decade of retirement.

In the first episode, Jimmy bemoans to Nucky that all he wants is an opportunity. Nucky retorts: “This is America, ain’t it? Who the fuck’s stopping you?” You are, Nucky!

What’d He Wear?

Jimmy’s wardrobe during the early days of Prohibition make sense for his character, a lackey freshly returned from serving three years in the death-ridden trenches of France while his native Atlantic City marches on without him to the beat of hot jazz, uninhibited sex, and boisterous parties… all with no end in sight while Jimmy was seeing men his own age meeting their end face down in the mud.

I wrote in my post about Jimmy’s first “grown-up” outfit, a very popular blue tattersall check suit, that Jimmy’s “muted working class style” in these first episodes reflected a clear contrast against the loud pastels and bold checks of Nucky Thompson’s bespoke wardrobe. Jimmy returned from war more cynical than ever but his ambitions were far from tarnished. He knew the potential that the Volstead Act laid out for guys like him – skilled with a gun with nothing to lose – and was more than eager to make the transition from soldier to gangster. It makes sense that his outfit would reflect the colors and structure of the former occupation.

Two very different men with very different aesthetics.

Jimmy wears two different brown cheviot tweed Norfolk jackets during his duration in Atlantic City over the show’s first three episodes. Originally designed as a loose, belted shooting jacket and named for either the Duke of or county of Norfolk, the Norfolk jacket became a country staple when it was popularized by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in the 1880s. A “Norfolk suit”, which Jimmy Darmody wears, is a moniker for a Norfolk jacket worn with matching tweed trousers.

Atlantic City is about as far as you can get from the English country, further marking Jimmy as an outsider in this new world of flashy printed suits, vibrant silk ties, and two-tone spectator shoes. The significance of Jimmy the soldier wearing a garment originally designed for hunting shouldn’t be overlooked.

Jimmy’s first Norfolk jacket, worn in the pilot episode only, was auctioned by ScreenBid with the matching trousers and vest in January 2015. The brown tweed is mixed with red, orange, tan, and green yarns.

Source: HBO.

This jacket is distinctive for its box pleat strips down the front and back, holding the belt in place. It is single-breasted, as a Norfolk jacket should be, with a high-fastening 4-roll-3 button front. The highest button is covered by the roll of the notch lapels, and the bottom button is on the self-belt located right on Jimmy’s waist. (This may even be a 5-roll-3 button front if there is a top button under the right collar to connect through the left lapel buttonhole!)

Jimmy stakes out the boardwalk in search of Nucky after a daring heist in the first episode.

The box pleats are two strips of tweed fabric that extend down the front from the pointed chest yokes. The back mirrors the front with a double-pointed back yoke featuring box pleat strips that extend down over the belt to the bottom of the jacket. The jacket is entirely detailed with swelled edges, found on the lapels, pockets, yokes, and pleats. The only outer pockets are the traditional bellows pockets on the hips, located just behind the front box pleat strips. The shoulders are padded, the sleeveheads are roped, and each sleeve has 4-button cuffs at the end.

Jimmy cynically inhales an Old Gold cigarette in front of the flag representing the country he fought so bravely for.

In “The Ivory Tower” (1.02) and “Broadway Limited” (1.03), Jimmy wears a more simplified Norfolk jacket in a slightly duller shade of brown with a new vest and trousers to match. Superficially the same with traditional details like a 4-roll-3 single-breasted front, notch lapels, and edge swelling throughout, this jacket’s notable differences are the absence of box pleats, the addition of a breast pocket, and a full belt held in place by waist loops.

This second Norfolk jacket has all of the buttons placed directly on the jacket rather than the belt. This belt hangs freer, held in place only through the three conventional waist loops rather than sewn into place under the box pleat strips. The lack of box pleats also frees up the chest area for a patch pocket over Jimmy’s left breast. The edge swelling appears more pronounced on this jacket as well. One other slight difference: this jacket has 3-button cuffs while the first episode’s jacket had 4-button cuffs.

Jimmy’s second jacket has a non-pleated front with a breast pocket and a simplified belt loop system.

Jimmy’s tweed flat front trousers match his respective jackets and feature era-correct styling from the long rise and button fly to the split “fishmouth” notched back of the waistband with a small button on each of the two notch points for his suspenders. His trousers have on-seam side pockets with swelled edges, button-through jetted back pockets, and straight legs down to the cuffed bottoms.

Home from war, Jimmy is more than happy to shed his jacket and help around the house, whether that means playing with Tommy or showing off the new vacuum cleaner he got as a Christmas gift for Angela.

Though Jimmy abandons most of his old wardrobe after going suit shopping with Al Capone in Chicago, he does keep the snazzy suspenders from his tweed suit, a surprisingly colorful set of braces that may be a nod to the fact that – under the surface – Jimmy has the same criminal aspirations as his flashier mentor. These red argyle suspenders have an alternating pattern of overchecked tan and blue diamonds and hook to the trousers with brown leather fastening straps.

Jimmy lets a hint of color peek out from the drab, mottled tones of his tweed suit and work shirt.

The suit has a matching tweed vest that he wears in the first episode (sans tie) and again in the second, third, and fourth episodes. Since Jimmy wears a different jacket for the following episodes, it’s possible that he was also fitted with a different waistcoat and trousers to match the tweed of this jacket, but all of the styling remains the same: a single-breasted, high-fastening, six-button front with four welt pockets and a notched bottom. The back of the vest is covered in a dark brown lining with an adjustable strap.

Now an associate of the Chicago Outfit, Jimmy joins Al Capone when meeting with Charlie Sheridan and his cohorts for the first time.

When not wearing the suit’s matching waistcoat, Jimmy rocks some sleeveless cardigan sweaters that stand out from the rest of his early wardrobe by incorporating more than one color. His most frequently seen sleeveless cardigan is a high-fastening red knit vest with brown accents on the edges, pocket welts, and entire back in a shade of brown similar to the color of the suit. This cardigan has six buttons up the front with a notched bottom and two low pockets.

Jimmy has an inkling that he’s in the presence of his wife’s lover… little does he know…

Seen only in the first and third episodes, Jimmy wears a similarly styled bulky gray wool knit sleeveless cardigan with taupe trim on the edges, back, and pockets. It has six buttons and a notched bottom similar to the other vest, but this one has four bellows pockets, best seen when Jimmy is making his getaway to Chicago in “Broadway Limited” (1.03).

Although similar in looks to his red cardigan, this gray sweater has four bellows pockets as opposed to the red vest’s simpler two welt pockets.

Jimmy’s drab-colored shirts continue to illustrate the deep divide between he and Nucky. While Nucky prefers boldly patterned and brightly colored well-starched dress shirts with crisp white detachable collars, Jimmy wears plain rough-and-ready work shirts indicative of his lower status in Atlantic City’s hierarchy. His cotton work shirts have a point collar and dark buttons down the front placket. His rounded cuffs close with a single button. Edge stitching is visible throughout.

Jimmy’s primary shirt is a mottled dark blue work shirt, worn in all four of the first episodes and paired with both the red knit cardigan and the suit’s matching tweed vest.

A brooding Jimmy flips through the family photo album.

When sporting his gray knit cardigan vest, Jimmy wears a lighter mottled gray-blue work shirt with white hairline stripes. He wears this in the first episode as well as during his escape to Chicago in “Broadway Limited” (1.03) and “Anastasia” (1.04).

A production photo from “Anastasia” (1.04) showing Al Capone (Stephen Graham) and Jimmy Darmody prepping for their Sheridan meeting.

When he wears a tie, he opts for a dark olive-shaded ties that further nod to his military service, either a plain drab olive green cotton tie or a slightly fancier tie with a Deco-style pattern in olive and black silk.

Although Jimmy eventually swaps in a patterned tie to replace his drab one, the pattern is still subtle enough to not draw too much attention.

Only 22 when he returns to Atlantic City, Jimmy has barely had time to re-establish himself since he was an 18-year-old who ran off from Princeton to join the American Expeditionary Force. Thus, he still wears a flat “newsboy cap” that, as a rabbi would tell Capone, is more indicative of a boy than a man. Jimmy’s cap is brown mixed tweed with the top panels collected with a single covered button on the top and another button attaching the front to the brim.

Sporting his flat cap, Jimmy corners an easily amused Al Capone in the first episode.

One part of Jimmy’s wardrobe that never changes over the show are his black leather ankle-high combat boots with black laces through six eyelets and four upper hooks. We don’t see yet whether or not he keeps his 1918 Mk I trench knife holstered in his left boot.

Jimmy reaches for his discharge papers (and spare cash!) in the middle of the night.

Jimmy’s Norfolk jacket serves a second functional purpose; this warm suit provides enough insulation to prevent him from needing an overcoat. Despite this, he still briefly sports a topcoat while making Greektown collections with Al Capone in Chicago during “Anastasia” (1.04). Jimmy’s black leather raincoat closes with three large plastic buttons widely spaced down the single-breast front. The coat has a half-tab on the cuff of each set-in sleeve that closes with a single button, open slanted handwarmer pockets, and a wide belted back above the long vent.

Jimmy prepares for stormy days ahead after his move to Chicago in “Anastasia” (1.04).

This outfit makes only a brief appearance during Jimmy’s tenure in Chicago, all featured in “Anastasia” (1.04) which includes a few extended scenes of Jimmy in his underwear, finding consolation in the arms of starry-eyed prostitute Pearl (Emily Meade) at the Four Deuces. His undershorts are beige cotton flannel with a notch on each side of the waistband with laces to fasten them around his waist; modern boxer shorts with elasticized waists were still a few years away as they would developed by Everlast founder Jacob Golomb in 1925 to replace the leather-belted trunks worn by pugilists in the ring.

Jimmy and Pearl by day and by night. She rounded out the trio of beautiful and complex women in his orbit whose association with him ultimately led to their tragic ends.

“Anastasia” (1.04) also showcases Jimmy’s undershirt, a short-sleeve henley in a beige cotton flannel to match his undershorts. The henley shirt has three white buttons widely spaced over the placket and white stitching around the shoulder seams where the sleeves are set in. He was earlier seen wearing a similarly-styled but longer-sleeved henley in “Boardwalk Empire” (1.01).

How to Get the Look

Jimmy bridges his transition from military to mob in simple but practical tweed duds that both serve his purposes and reflect his modest position in life. The Norfolk jacket, developed for shooting purposes, is a perfect fit for a man who lives by the gun.

“The Ivory Tower” (1.02), depicting a simpler Norfolk jacket than the box-pleated one worn in the first episode.

• Brown cheviot tweed single-breasted Norfolk jacket with notch lapels, high-fastening 4-roll-3 button front, full belt with box-pleated front and back, 4-button cuffs, and single vent
• Red knit sleeveless cardigan sweater with brown back and trim, brown pocket welt detailing, and single-breasted 6-button front with notched bottom
• Brown cheviot tweed high-rise flat front straight-leg trousers with button fly, 2-button “fishmouth” notched back, straight/on-seam side pockets, button-through jetted back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark blue-gray cotton work shirt with point collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Dark olive and black-patterned necktie
• Red argyle suspenders with brown leather hooks
• Brown mixed tweed flat “newsboy cap”
• Black leather combat boots with 6 black-laced eyelets and 4 upper hooks
• Black ankle holster for trench knife
• Beige cotton flannel henley shirt with 3-button placket and short set-in sleeves (with white-stitched shoulder seams)
• Beige cotton flannel undershorts with side laces
• Black leather knee-length raincoat with single-breasted 3-button front, slanted handwarmer pockets, 1-button half-tab cuffs, and belted back with long single vent

By the time he buys his first “gangster suit” in “Anastasia” (1.04), his choice is made and his life begins following an inevitable path.

The Gun

Although Jimmy would later notably arm himself with the popular .32-caliber Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol, the only sidearm that he has during these early days in Atlantic City is a blued Smith & Wesson “Military & Police” revolver that he retrieves from atop a cabinet in his home before leaving town in “Broadway Limited” (1.03). It may be a memento from the war, as Smith & Wesson “Military & Police” revolvers were indeed fielded in small numbers by U.S. Army troops during World War I.

Jimmy grabs his revolver before heading off to Chicago. The fixed front sight looks like it has a notch rather than the S&W Military & Police’s simpler half-moon sight.

Originally known as the “Smith & Wesson .38 Hand Ejector”, this revolver has been continuously produced by Smith & Wesson since 1899. It received its current designation – the Smith & Wesson Model 10 – when the company began numbering its models in the late 1950s. It is every bit the classic service revolver with its six-shot swing-out cylinder, fixed sights, and venerable .38 Special chambering.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the whole series. This outfit is seen in various incarnations throughout first three first season episodes.

The Quote

Look, you can’t be half a gangster, Nucky. Not anymore.

Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder on Justified (Episode 6.07: “The Hunt”)

Vitals

Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder, scrappy Harlan County criminal chieftain

Harlan County, Kentucky, Fall 2014

Series: Justified
Episode: “The Hunt” (Episode 6.07)
Air Date: March 3, 2015
Director: John Dahl
Costume Designer: Patia Prouty

Background

Next week is the start of deer hunting season here in western Pennsylvania*, so BAMF Style is taking a look at the appropriately titled “The Hunt”, the seventh episode of Justified‘s sixth and final season. The episode title primarily refers to the hunt for fugitive killer Ty Walker (played brilliantly by Timothy Olyphant’s fellow Deadwood alum Garret Dillahunt) but it also alludes to Boyd and Ava’s venture into the woods.

Ava: What the hell, Boyd?
Boyd: We going hunting.
Ava: What?
Boyd: First day of razorback season, state of Kentucky. I already got the coffee going.
Ava: What time is it?
Boyd: It’s early. And we need to get to the stand while the sun is rising if we gonna bag us a shoat.

Boyd takes a nervous Ava (Joelle Carter) up to his long-departed father’s cabin up in Bulletville, an aptly named location that lent its name to the first season finale. After a night that finds Boyd breaking into a rare bottle of 20-year-old Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve**, he leads Ava on an early morning razorback*** hunt, laced with innuendo about killing and betrayal made all the more menacing by the audience’s knowledge – and Boyd’s justified suspicion – that Ava is Raylan’s informant. It isn’t until after he goes off to kill a wild boar and leaves an alarmed Ava unarmed, that he confronts her with his knowledge.

Both Walton Goggins and Joelle Carter brilliantly seize this opportunity to further define their characters with only six episodes remaining in the show’s run. Goggins subtly but definitively throws the full weight of Boyd’s character into each line he delivers, including his seemingly sycophantic small talk that previous opponents like Devil and Johnny recognized as an exploitative weakness to their own peril. Goggins conveys that Boyd’s primary fear is that he has lost Ava’s love, hence his seemingly greater concern that she has returned to Raylan as a romantic interest in addition to being his informant. His fear strips away the sinister layers that he had adopted for their ominous morning as he desperately tries to connect with Ava. A more one-note villain may have seen her confession as the means to her fatal end, but the complexly conflicted, twistedly romantic Boyd convinces himself that his and Ava’s love can be salvaged, and she even acknowledges the possible toxic nature of their association before signing on to rationalize their mutual delusion.

* Western Pennsylvania doubled for Kentucky during Justified‘s pilot episode, which was filmed in the greater Pittsburgh area near me!

** This show loves good bourbon!

*** For those not in the know – like me when I first saw this episode – a “razorback” is an American and Australian colloquial term for a wild boar or hog or feral pig.

What’d He Wear?

Boyd Crowder first donned a pea coat in the third season of Justified when he sported a black wool model over a seemingly endless collection of plaid flannel shirts… always buttoned up to the collar, of course. He wore this coat through the bulk of the third season with sporadic appearances in the end of season 4 and beginning of season 5.

It wasn’t until “The Hunt” (Episode 6.07), the final season’s ostensible midway point, that Boyd again slipped into this classic outerwear staple, this time sporting a dark navy model in 100% wool, a slightly lighter weight than the traditional naval pea coat. (This scene was briefly addressed in the comments section of costume designer’s interview with True To Me Too, where she may have clarified that Boyd’s coat in this scene is from Douglas Fir in Los Angeles while Ava’s red-and-black plaid coat was sourced from RRL.)

Neither of them may be particularly good people, both Boyd and Ava both know how to rock the hell out of a stylish pea coat.

Boyd’s navy pea coat has four closely spaced rows of two dark navy plastic buttons, creating a tight 8-on-4 button layout that differentiates it from both his earlier pea coat and a classic naval pea coat. It has the usual broad “Ulster collar” lapels, short length, and slanted hand pockets characteristic of pea coats. The sleeves have roped shoulders and plain cuffs as opposed to his previous coat, which had single-button tabs at the cuffs.

Due to its lighter weight, the coat’s seams are not swelled like the previous coat. The seam in the back splits at the bottom where there is a short single vent.

With the pea coat, Boyd wears his increasingly common combo of a plaid shirt, vest, and dark jeans. His olive cotton shirt has a blue and black buffalo check. The black plastic buttons are fastened all the way up the front placket and closed under the spread collar; Boyd has an enduring habit for wearing his shirts buttoned up this way. The cuffs also fasten with a button, but Boyd rolls his sleeves up his forearms after removing his coat.

Boyd’s choice of waistcoat for this day in the woods is a dark navy fuzzy wool cardigan sweater vest with a high-ribbed hem across the bottom. It has six large light brown faux-wooden buttons with the bottom button left undone. The welted pockets toward the hip are best seen when Boyd reaches for the Beretta in the back of his waistband.

Boyd wears a pair of very dark indigo-washed denim jeans with the classic five-pocket layout and slim throughout the legs down to the bottoms that Boyd finishes himself with a single turned-up cuff.

Boyd’s belt is wide black plain leather with a large rectangular brass single-prong buckle, very similar to this belt from the appropriately named Moonshine Leather.

Note the small sliver of a white undershirt poking out above the right back belt line as Boyd grips his Beretta.

Boyd also sports his usual footwear, a pair of well-worn dark brown leather work boots with brown laces through four brass eyelets. The yellow oval logo on the soles, seen in other episodes, may help with identification.

Boyd sets aside his kill of the day, signaling to Ava that he may be preparing to make a second kill

Go Big or Go Home

Boyd Crowder prefers to settle his differences with bourbon rather than bullets. He, and many characters on Justified, justifiably turn to Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve whenever possible, but he cites the more accessible (and certainly excellent) Woodford Reserve as his preferred conflict resolution method.

How to Get the Look

Walton Goggins and Joelle Carter as Boyd and Ava on Justified (Episode 6.07: “The Hunt”)

Boyd Crowder dresses warmly, fashionably, and directly on brand for his sinister hunting trip with Ava.

• Dark navy medium-weight wool double-breasted pea coat with 8-on-4 tight button layout, slim-welted slanted hand pockets, plain cuffs, and short single back vent
• Olive green plaid cotton shirt with blue-and-black buffalo check, spread collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Dark navy wool cardigan sweater vest with six faux-wooden buttons and two lower welt pockets
• Dark indigo blue denim jeans with belt loops, five pocket layout, straight leg fit, cuffed bottoms
• Black plain leather belt with large rectangular brass single-prong buckle
• Brown leather front-laced work boots with brass eyelets and heavy soles
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt

The Gun

Boyd: Are you sleeping with Raylan Givens?
Ava: What?
Boyd: Are you sleeping … with Raylan?
Ava: You’re gonna ask me that?
Boyd: ‘Cause if you are, take it. Take it! Take it! Put a bullet… in my head right now. Do it.

In Boyd Crowder’s bullet-riddled world, this level of drama might be the epitome of romance. He wants Ava to know just how devastating her betrayal was to him… but he’s also testing just who’s side she is on. What Ava doesn’t know – and what we don’t find out until after she refuses to buy into his drama – is that Boyd’s gun, his go-to Beretta 92FS semi-automatic pistol that spends most of every episode either in his hand or in his waistband, is unloaded.

Boyd checks his Beretta after testing Ava’s loyalty. Note the faux wooden buttons of his navy cardigan.

Naturally, given the episode’s title and the presumption that he is hunting wild hogs, Boyd also brings along a hunting rifle that appears to be a bolt-action Winchester Model 70 with a walnut stock and fitted with a scope.

Boyd the hunter.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the entire series.

Also check out The Bourbon Babe’s entry from this episode, debunking several of Boyd’s claims about Kentucky, whiskey, and Kentucky whiskey. I’d include some here, but the post is so entertaining and well-written that – once you’ve watched “The Hunt” – you should read out for yourself!

The Quote

If they weren’t happy with their lot in my crew, why didn’t they just come to me? I’m a reasonable man. We could have hashed our differences out over a bottle of Woodford.

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990)

Vitals

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, New York mob associate and ex-con

Queens, NY, December 1978

Film: Goodfellas
Release Date: September 19, 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

Background

Following the record-breaking Lufthansa heist on December 11, 1978, Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) hosted a few of his nearest, dearest, and soon-to-be-deadest Mafia pals over to Robert’s Lounge for some Christmas cheer.

Robert’s Lounge was a real-life mob hangout in South Ozone Park, Queens, only a few miles away from the Lufthansa terminal at JFK International Airport (formerly Idlewild) from which Jimmy’s crew had just stolen more than $5.8 million in cash and jewels. Robert’s Lounge hosted both the planning and the celebration of the crime.

Jimmy may have appreciated taunting law enforcement by celebrating the heist’s success in a location so close to its execution, but he certainly does not appreciate the guys bringing around their new Cadillacs and fur coats to give probable cause… unfortunately for these gangsters, Jimmy also used the basement of Robert’s Lounge to dispose of several of their corpses.

Although likely meant to be set at Robert’s Lounge, the Christmas sequence among others was filmed at Neir’s. Originally opened as “The Blue Pump Room” in Queens in 1829, Neir’s Tavern is the oldest operating bar in New York City, beating out McSorley’s by 25 years as documented by the Daily Mail.

What’d He Wear?

Christmas Party

Henry and Karen’s arrival at Jimmy’s Christmas party isn’t ostentatious enough to earn Jimmy’s ire, unlike Johnny Roastbeef and Frankie Carbone. After greeting a temporarily jubilant Jimmy, Henry takes off his winter outwear, a tan gabardine overcoat and a white silk scarf with long fringe. The double-breasted coat has sweeping peak lapels with six brown urea buttons on the front (with two to button) and three on each cuff.

Things certainly look jolly from the outset…

Never one to shy away from loud colors, Henry wears a rust red velvet blazer in a color befitting the season. The jacket is single-breasted with large notch lapels and swelled edges. The hip pockets slant slightly toward the back with wide flaps, and there is a welted breast pocket. The sleeveheads are slightly roped, and there is a single back vent.

Why wouldn’t Henry be grinning ear-to-ear after getting a gift like that?

For an added touch of festivity, the two buttons on the front and the two smaller buttons on each cuff are red plastic sew-through buttons with gold edges.

You know it’s a good Christmas party when no one can stop hugging each other.

Henry’s dress shirt is light ecru silk with an extra-long point collar that works with his lapel width, flared trouser bottoms, and hairs to make him quite the fashionable man in 1978. The shirt has a front placket, single-button cuffs, and “HH” monogrammed on the left breast.

Henry seems to be enjoying himself, but Jimmy’s expression would stop me dead in my tracks.

The texture of Henry’s wide black tie looks duller than silk, suggesting cotton twill.

Jimmy and Henry look understandably disappointed. To be honest, is there really any other expression when looking at a man named Johnny Roastbeef?

Best seen when the Hills are celebrating their Christmas at home, Henry wears dark brown flat front trousers with a long rise and a self-belt like many of his other pants in Goodfellas. They appear to have side pockets and jetted back pockets. The plain-hemmed bottoms flare out slightly, though not to the extent that some trendy trousers in the ’70s did…

Henry also sports a pair of dark brown leather tassel loafers with brown silk dress socks that contribute to the domination of earth tones in the outfit. Henry seemed to prefer loafers – whether with horsebits, tassels, or penny slots – to the degree that I don’t believe we ever see him wear any laced dress shoes as an adult.

The Hills enjoy a quiet Christmas at home.

Henry wears his usual jewelry with a ring on each hand – a gold pinky ring on his right hand and his thin plain gold wedding band on his left. He doubles up on his right wrist for the party, wearing both a flat all-gold wristwatch and a yellow gold ID bracelet.

It seems like a fun party and all, but Henry and Karen are wise to pull an Irish goodbye once Jimmy and Morrie start their “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” karaoke duet.

Christmas at Home

For Christmas at home with the wife and kids, Henry takes a more casual approach by ditching the jacket and tie but wearing a similarly styled shirt in pale pink poplin with a white contrast collar and cuffs… and yes, it’s the same extra-long point collar as on his other shirts. He wears the top few buttons worn open to reveal his usual white ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt beneath it… as well as his gold necklace with both the Catholic cross and Star of David to represent his religious affiliations.

To truly get into the spirit of the holidays, you should always try to match your shirt to your Christmas tree. Way to go, Hendry!

Although more casual in his dress, he ups his watch game by sporting a yellow gold Rolex Day-Date wristwatch with a champagne dial and gold “President” link bracelet.

Go Big or Go Home

Henry Hill knows the perfect gift for both Christmas and and Hanukkah when he hands Karen (Lorraine Bracco) a fat stack of cash… now that’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.

A gold Rolex would also make for a fine Christmas gift… *cough cough*

Naturally, Scorsese digs out the perfect Christmas music for the background of Goodfellas‘ holiday scenes, subtly decreasing in energy from frantic and fun when everyone is riding on the high of the Lufthansa heist to slow and somber just before the wave of murders.

His arms outstretched for the biggest of hugs (awh!), Jimmy greets Henry at Robert’s Lounge while The Ronettes’ rendition of “Frosty the Snowman” plays, from the masterful 1963 holiday album A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector.

Once Jimmy has sufficiently berated enough mobsters, another terrific track kicks in – Darlene Love singing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, an energetic ballad of loneliness from the same great album. Originally, this song was also supposed to be a Ronettes contribution to the album but Love was brought in when Ronnie Spector was unable to deliver the “emotion and sheer vocal power” that Rolling Stone noted when ranking the song highest on its list of The Greatest Rock and Roll Christmas Songs.

Finally, the Christmas sequence ends with Henry handing off his very thoughtful gifts to Karen to the tune of The Drifters’ “The Bells of St. Mary’s”. Originally appearing in the 1945 film of the same name (which Michael Corleone took Kay to see in The Godfather!) during a Christmas pageant, “The Bells of St. Mary’s” is actually not directly a Christmas song with more explicit lyrical suggestions of fall than winter or the holidays.

Nonetheless, the song has become a tradition on holiday albums with The Drifters recording it as the B-side to their doo wop “White Christmas” single in 1954, a track that itself appeared in both Home Alone and The Santa Clause.

What to Imbibe

This drink here is better than sex, babe.

Stacks Edwards (Samuel L. Jackson) is briefly shown pouring shots of green liqueur into glasses full of white wine to impress his date. This is almost definitely a reference to the drink that Nicholas Pileggi mentions Henry’s crew enjoying before Henry was sent off to prison six years earlier: “At eleven o’clock, Henry and his pals were at the bar at Maxwell’s drinking Screaming Eagles – shot glasses of white Chartreuse dropped into large goblets of chilled champagne.”

I have yet to take Stacks up on his dubiously bold claim about this drink, but I’d say it’s at least worth a try.

Other than the context, the only major difference from page-to-screen is Stacks’ choice of using the stronger (110 proof) and more colorful green Chartreuse rather than yellow, which is milder and sweeter at 80 proof. (Pileggi refers to “white” Chartreuse when he likely means the yellow version; production of White Chartreuse ended in 1900, more than seven decades before any of these scenes are set.)

How to Get the Look

Henry injects some late ’70s festivity into his holiday party attire, sporting some subtle earth tones with his decidedly-less-subtle rust-colored velvet blazer.

Not exactly the life of the party…

• Rust red velvet single-breasted 2-button blazer with welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 2-button cuffs, single vent, and gold-trimmed red plastic sew-through buttons
• Ecru silk dress shirt with long point collar, front placket, monogrammed chest, and single-button cuffs
• Black cotton twill tie
• Dark brown flat front trousers with self-belt, side pockets, jetted back pockets, and slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark brown leather tassel loafers
• Dark brown silk dress socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Tan gabardine double-breasted overcoat with wide peak lapels, 6×2-button front, 3-button cuffs, long single vent
• White silk scarf with frayed edges
• Rolex Day-Date yellow gold wristwatch with champagne dial and gold link “President” bracelet
• Yellow gold ID chain-link bracelet
• Pinky ring, worn on right pinky
• Plain gold wedding band, worn on left ring finger
• Yellow gold necklace with Catholic cross and Star of David

For an extra pop of color, swap out the ecru shirt for a pale pink shirt with a large white contrast collar and cuffs!

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie. And, if you’re throwing your own Goodfellas style holiday bash, grab a copy of A Christmas Gift for You from Phil Spector to play in the background.

The Quote

Morrie, relax, okay? It’s Christmas.

Al Pacino as Carlito Brigante in Carlito’s Way (1993)

Vitals

Al Pacino as Carlito “Charlie” Brigante, paroled nightclub owner and former heroin dealer

New York City, September 1975

Film: Carlito’s Way
Release Date: November 3, 1993
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Aude Bronson-Howard

Background

After his parole, Carlito’s “street uniform” is typically a cool ’70s leather jacket in black or brown, but nights that find him hosting in his hot spot –  El Paraíso – call for a slick black three-piece suit.

What’d He Wear?

Carlito wore elements of this suit during the movie’s climactic sequence that leads him from El Paraíso to Grand Central Station and, thus, as a blend of both his street and nightclub roles, he wore the suit’s vest and trousers under a badass black leather coat.

The three-piece suit is comprised of a jacket, vest, and trousers in black wool with black tonal striping. A popular fashion of 1970s men’s suits was the revival of wide peak lapels on single-breasted jackets and this suit is no exception with its extra-long lapel points and gorges pointed up toward each padded, roped shoulder.

You know it’s the ’70s when you see lapels like that.

The two-button suit jacket also has three-button cuffs, long double vents, straight flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket where Carlito frequently wears a black silk display kerchief for a just a subtle touch of luxury.

Not much of a fashion plate, Carlito likely only wears suits because he is aware of the respectability that comes with them as he tries to make his “way” in legitimate business. He wears the suit’s matching vest almost as an after thought, fastening just a few of its five buttons and allowing the notched bottom to ride high over his waist line, exposing both his shirt and trouser belt.

The single-breasted vest has four welted pockets and a self-lined back with an adjustable strap along the bottom.

Carlito’s tense meeting with Lalin (Viggo Mortensen) also serves as a de facto fashion show for sartorial bloggers looking for details of his outfit…

The low rise of his flat front suit trousers is a poor match with his waistcoat, and Carlito makes the additional faux pas of wearing a belt (and an easily exposed one, at that) with a three-piece suit. Despite the faux pas, his black leather belt matches the black leather Cuban-styled ankle boots that he wears. His socks are likely black, unseen under the slightly flared plain-hemmed bottoms of his trousers.

Carlito struts into his new job.

Carlito first wears this suit for a brief meeting with Saso (Jorge Porcel), the original owner of El Paraíso. He wears a mustard brown silk shirt with a point collar and button cuffs, and his gold printed silk tie provides only a subtle contrast against the solid-colored shirt.

On several occasions, Carlito wears the suit slightly more dressed down with a black shirt with a muted blue and purple foulard check pattern. This shirt has a front placket and a long point collar, which he wears open with no tie.

Carlito is wowed after a visit to Gail’s strip club.

Although it is the least formal shirt that he wears with his suit, this shirt has double (French) cuffs that Carlito fastens with a pair of silver ovular links.

Carlito’s all-black attire in this scene further draws the line of contrast between “old school” Carlito and the brash, flashy, and irresponsible Benny Bianco in his bright red three-piece suit.

The third shirt that Carlito wears with this suit, most notably for his meeting with paraplegic informant Lalin, is likely the same mottled mulberry purple shirt that he wore in other scenes with his brown leather jacket. The shirt has a breast pocket and a large collar with long but soft points. The buttons on the front placket, cuffs, and gauntlets are all dark gray plastic.

As he did with the gold shirt, Carlito wears a similarly colored but subtly patterned silk tie, this time featuring a small light blue ovals on a muted purple ground.

Carlito may be trying to stay legit after his parole, but his propensity for gold jewelry gives him away as a gangster at first sight. Luckily for him, of course, this is the mid-’70s during the height of men’s tacky jewelry, making his gold pinky ring and gold chain-link ID bracelet subtle when compared to his contemporaries in the decade.

Carlito and Gail enjoy a drink together to the bumpin’ sounds of ’70s disco.

Carlito’s watch is also yellow gold, worn on his left wrist as opposed to the rest of his jewelry which adorns his right hand. Supposedly, the book calls out Carlito’s wristwatch as an 18-karat Piaget, but that certainly doesn’t confirm that this was his on-screen choice as well.

How to Get the Look

Carlito defines his nightclub host persona differently than his street persona, although his black suit and gold jewelry still mark him more as a gangster than the legitimate businessman he aspires to be.

• Black tonal-striped wool three-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and double vents
  • Single-breasted 5-button vest with four welt pockets and notched bottom
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops, slanted side pockets, jetted back pockets with button loops, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black blue/purple-foulard patterned shirt with long point collar, front placket, and double/French cuffs
• Silver oval cuff links
• Black leather belt with gold rectangular single-prong buckle
• Black leather Cuban-style ankle boots
• Black socks
• Gold chain-link identity bracelet
• Gold wristwatch with dark blue dial on gold bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with black square-set stone

For extra touches of color, Carlito wears a solid dress shirts and matching printed ties in shades of gold and purple. He always wears a black silk display kerchief in his breast pocket, despite the color of his shirt and tie.

The Gun

As noted in an earlier post, Carlito Brigante’s preferred sidearm of a Beretta 92F is slightly anachronistic for the film’s 1975 setting; the first Beretta 92 wasn’t introduced until that year with the 92F only appearing a decade later.

Carlito shows an impressive familiarity with a firearm that won’t even be developed for another ten years.

Kept in his office safe, Carlito’s Beretta is indeed one of the 92F models produced in the mid-1980s, similar to the one famously carried by Bruce Willis in Die Hard, although Carlito opts for the more practical carry method of his waistband rather than taping it to his bare back. Like the earlier Beretta 92 and the later 92FS, the Beretta 92F is a full-size semi-automatic pistol with a traditional double-action trigger and chambered for 9x19mm Parabellum ammunition.

If the filmmakers were so hell-bent on Carlito carrying a full-size 9mm Beretta, a more chronistically-appropriate choice may have been the Beretta M1951, which was produced from the 1950s through 1980 in Italy, where it was the standard sidearm of the Italian Navy, Carabinieri, and national Polizia Stradale highway patrol.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

What, you think you like me? You ain’t like me, motherfucker. You a punk. I’ve been with made people, connected people. Who you been with? Chain-snatching, jive-ass, maricón motherfuckers. Why don’t you get lost? Go ahead, snatch a purse. Come on, take a fuckin’ walk.

Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan in Miller’s Crossing (1990)

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Gabriel Byrne as Tom Reagan, pragmatic Irish mob fixer

Upstate New York, Fall 1929

Film: Miller’s Crossing
Release Date: September 21, 1990
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Aude Bronson-Howard

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Miller’s Crossing is one of my favorite Coen Brothers movies as well as one of my favorite crime films. Perhaps overshadowed the year it was released by higher pedigree mob flicks like Goodfellas and, uh, The Godfather Part III, the Coens’ neo-noir black comedy has gained a cult following in the years since for its spirited tribute to the works of Dashiell Hammett, particularly Red Harvest (1929) and The Glass Key (1931).

Roger Ebert even noted at the time of its release: “It is likely to be most appreciated by movie lovers who will enjoy its resonance with films of the past.”

The central mover-and-shaker in Miller’s Crossing is Tom Reagan, a slick Irish mob fixer whose influence comes from his subtlety. Unlike the two reigning mob bosses in the unnamed Prohibition-era town, Tom has no ambitions to be sitting in the top spot, but it is his machinations that drive the plot as he works each side against the other, a classic narrative structure also found in Yojimbo (1961), A Fistul of Dollars (1964), and Last Man Standing (1996).

What’d He Wear?

Tom Reagan wears two warm suits in Miller’s Crossing, both appropriate to the era as well as the climate in what appears to be a northeast American small town in late fall. The suit that gets the most screen time is a charcoal striped flannel three-piece suit.

Tom’s sense of sartorialism is certainly greater than that of the schlubby screaming pugilist seated behind him.

The single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels – with a buttonhole through the left lapel – that roll to a two-button front. In addition to the welted breast pocket, Tom’s suit jacket has straight jetted hip pockets that may have flaps which are tucked into the pockets. The back is ventless. The straight shoulders are roped at the sleeveheads, and each sleeve ends with three buttons on the cuff.

Leo’s office is one of the few places where Tom actually takes off his coat (without taking off his jacket and shirt as well!)

Tom wears his matching suit vest with all five buttons fastened, even the lowest button over the notched bottom. The vest has two lower welted pockets.

By the late 1920s, it was typically customary to wear the lowest waistcoat button unfastened to avoid bunching at the bottom… Tom didn’t get the memo.

Unlike most suits featured on this blog, we get much better looks at the trousers than the jacket as Tom has a tendency for not wearing the suit’s jacket and waistcoat without sporting his overcoat as well.

The trousers have double forward pleats and an appropriately high rise that buries the waistband under the waistcoat when the suit is worn as a whole. There are no belt loops or adjusters on the waistband, just buttons along the inside that fasten to his suspenders’ ear tabs for a clean look. (His other trousers, part of his taupe tweed suit, have buttons along the outside of the waistband. That suit will be the focus of a future post.)

The only back pocket is a jetted right-side pocket that closes through a button, and each side pocket is open along the side seams. When fully dressed, Tom wears his keys in the left-side pocket with a long silver chain.

The back of the trousers is split with a small fishmouth notch that divides each inner button that connects to his suspenders. About an inch or so below that is a cinch adjuster loop with a buckle, a period detail found on many suits of the 1920s. The bottoms are finished with cuffs.

Tom kicks back in his trousers at home.

Tom’s suspenders (aka braces) are tan fabric with olive brown stripes; there is a thick stripe near each edge of the suspenders with two thinner broken stripes between them. They have silver metal sliding adjusters in the front and a black leather back patch that matches the black leather double ear tabs that connect to the buttons along the front and back of his inner trouser waistband.

Tom has a habit of lounging around his apartment in his suit trousers and undershirt, a beige cotton long-sleeve henley with a three-button placket and a wide, reinforced crew-neck collar. The henley shirt is oversized with his shoulder seams falling off the shoulders to well down his biceps.

One of many lonely nights with only an endless supply of cigarettes and a striped pair of suspenders to keep Tom company.

Tom has a clear preference for lighter blue striped shirts, wearing a few with this suit and one that alternates with other more colorful shirts with his taupe tweed suit. His main shirt, worn in many scenes – including Tom’s first appearance – consists of tonal blue stripes against a periwinkle ground. It has a point collar, squared button cuffs, and a breast pocket.

The opening scene also features Tom’s first tie, a green silk tie with scattered yellow ovals split in the center with a short red line.

Tom takes the first of many – and I mean many – swallows of whiskey.

Tom’s other shirt, which makes a brief appearance with his first tie and is worn again during the final scene at Bernie’s funeral, is periwinkle striped cotton like the other shirt but with light blue stripes bisected by a muted red stripe.

As opposed to the all-blue striped shirt, this one has a muted red stripe.

The second tie that Tom wears with this suit – when he is getting beat up by Leo and again for Bernie’s funeral – is deco-patterned silk with a pattern resembling indigo-colored amoebic floral bursts with white borders on a dark purple ground.

Tom’s “amoeba tie” is best seen just before Leo gives him the kiss-off.

Returning to the nightclub later (even though he’s persona non grata), Tom wears a more conventional foulard tie with alternating navy and olive cross-checked boxes, all with red dots in the center.

Finally, when Tom confronts Bernie in his apartment hallway toward the end, he wears a duo-toned tie comprised of an interlocking pattern of orange shapes connected by a red grid that zig-zags down the tie.

Tom sports some colorfully patterned ties through the latter half of Miller’s Crossing.

Tom wears a pair of dark brown leather cap-toe oxfords with gray striped dress socks that nicely continue the color and pattern of the trouser down the leg line and into his shoes.

Tom kicks back in Leo’s office.

Tom spends much of the film wearing a knee-length double-breasted overcoat in brown twilled flannel. The coat has wide peak lapels, detailed with swelled edges, felt under the collar, and a buttonhole through each lapel. It has a six-button (two to close) front, padded shoulders, turned-back gauntlet cuffs with no buttons, and a belted back over the single vent. Tom’s coat has a welted breast pocket and straight flapped hip pockets.

When surrounded by so many disappointing faces in the middle of the woods, Tom is always wise to be on his guard.

“There’s nothing more foolish than a man chasing after his own hat,” Tom concludes after recalling his recurring dream, and yet who is Tom Reagan without his trusty fedora? Tom’s felt hat is a rich dark brown, like his coat, with a pinched crown, wide black grosgrain band, and brown grosgrain edges.

The life of a noir hero.

Tom wears an ornately engraved silver ring throughout the film, although – unlike many movie gangsters – he opts to wear it on the third finger of his right hand rather than his pinky. Further up his right arm, he wears a round-cased steel wristwatch with an off-white dial on a black leather strap.

Tom wears both his ring and watch on his right hand.

Tom’s Dressing Gown

When receiving late night visitors, Tom has the decency to cover up his big, dirty undershirt by slipping into a luxurious navy blue printed paisley silk dressing gown with shawl lapels and turnback cuffs both faced in solid navy satin.

Tom lounges comfortably around his house.

There may be some significance in the fact that the pragmatic, rational Tom wears a cool-tinted blue robe compared to the fiery red robe worn by the hot-blooded, impulsive Leo… right?

How to Get the Look

Tom dresses practically and warmly for his profession and setting, but his ties especially allow for some subtle creativity.

• Charcoal striped flannel three-piece suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 5-button vest with two welted pockets and notched bottom
  • Double forward-pleated high-rise trousers with straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted button-through back right pocket, adjuster cinch back loop, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Periwinkle blue cotton striped dress shirt with point collar, breast pocket, and squared button cuffs
• Deco-patterned printed silk tie
• Tan fabric suspenders with brown stripes, silver adjusters, and black leather ear tabs
• Dark brown leather cap-toe balmorals/oxfords
• Gray striped dress socks
• Beige cotton long-sleeve henley undershirt with 3-button placket
• Brown twilled flannel knee-length overcoat with peak lapels, 6-on-2-button double-breasted front, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, turnback gauntlet cuffs, belted back, and single rear vent
• Dark brown felt fedora with wide black grosgrain ribbon
• Silver etched ring
• Steel round-cased wristwatch with round off-white dial on black leather strap

The Gun

I’ve seen it identified as both an Official Police and a Police Positive, but I believe that Tom’s bedside Colt revolver is actually a .32-caliber Colt Pocket Positive, similar to the one later seen in the hands of Verna Birnbaum (and possibly intended to be the same gun.) The Pocket Positive is a practical choice for Tom, who would favor functionality over flash despite the many interesting and lesser-seen period firearms in Miller’s Crossing like the Astra 400 and CZ-27 pistols.

Tom quickly grabs his Colt after Bernie Birnbaum returns to life. Note the key chain next to it; this is typically worn on his trousers with the keys tucked into his left side pocket.

Though only briefly seen, I deduce the revolver to be a Pocket Positive due to the pre-1927 black hard rubber grips (ruling out the Official Police) and the 2.5″ barrel with its rounded front sight. Tom’s Pocket Positive revolver has a smaller frame than the otherwise cosmetically similar .45-caliber Colt New Service that Leo keeps on his bedside table (and draws in a similarly quick shot when assassins enter his home.)

Introduced in 1905 as an evolution of the Colt New Police, the Colt Pocket Positive was also a favored sidearm of J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover was presented with his nickel-plated .32 New Police model with its two-inch “snub nose” barrel in 1938, two years before Colt ended production of the Pocket Positive. Hoover would keep his revolver – serial #157299 – in his desk drawer for much of the career, an unsecured place for a firearm but decidedly safer than out on his nightstand.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

The Quote

Is there a point… or are you just brushin’ up on your small talk?

John Travolta as Chili Palmer in Get Shorty (1995)

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John Travolta as Chili Palmer, Miami loan shark and aspiring filmmaker

Los Angeles, Winter 1995

Film: Get Shorty
Release Date: October 20, 1995
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann

Background

Today’s Mafia Monday post explores one of the many delightfully idiosyncratic characters from the wonderful world of Elmore Leonard.

Miami loan shark Chili Palmer is effortlessly capable at his job, but – like many people – when a job is too easy, it becomes tedious. Bored with the incompetence of psychotic mobsters in his orbit like Ray “Bones” Barboni (Dennis Farina), Chili embraces the opportunity to go west in search of a delinquent dry cleaner.

Already a fan of movies as his poster of The Thin Man in his Miami office suggested, our charismatic loan shark takes to Hollywood like a duck to water, shaking up the town with his syndicate sensibilities. Chili has found his calling, but his dangerous line of work and true appreciation for classics like Rio Bravo and A Touch of Evil make him the perfect foil to spineless producers like Harry Zimm (Gene Hackman) and eccentric actors like Martin Weir (Danny DeVito).

What’d He Wear?

Like most of Elmore Leonard’s work, there’s no time wasted in exposition when we could be getting straight to the story. In this case, it’s a black leather jacket that sets everything in motion:

Do you see a black leather jacket, fingertip length like the one Pacino wore in Serpico? ‘Cause if you don’t, you owe me $379.

Setting aside the fact that Al Pacino wore no such jacket in Serpico, this line alone tells us three things about Chili Palmer: he’s assertive, he appreciates movies, and he’s [relatively] principled.

Also, it’s worth noting that Travolta is still playing characters who strive to sartorially emulate Pacino two decades after his hotheaded Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever memorably used Pacino as inspiration when getting ready for a night on the town. Interestingly, the line about Serpico’s leather jacket comes straight from Leonard’s original novel.

Chili retrieves his jacket from Ray Bones that same day in Miami, but the jacket itself doesn’t make an appearance on his person until he’s at a screening of Touch of Evil in L.A. a few nights later.

Chili’s leather jacket is cool, but I’m all about Karen rocking that vintage Lakers tee like a pro. The Randy Pfund era was a bold time to be a Lakers fan.

Chili wears a black leather jacket, accurately described as “fingertip length,” styled like a single-breasted suit jacket with long edge-stitched notch lapels and a ventless back. The jacket’s low stance two-button front is split by a horizontal seam above the second button.

Chili always manages to keep cool, making him far more deserving of the cool leather jacket than the excitable Ray Bones.

The jacket has a welted breast pocket and a jetted hip pocket on each side that sits on the horizontal seam that traverses the front just above the second button. The shoulders appear to be padded and slightly too wide for Travolta’s frame with the roped sleeveheads a few inches off his shoulder.

Plenty of replicas for this popular jacket, in varying degrees of accuracy, exist online such as this $189 example from New American Jackets. To track one down that’s closer to Travolta’s screen-worn jacket, try to find that distinctive horizontal stitch above the second button as well as the wide lapel notches. Jackets like Chili’s would often be marketed as a “leather blazer” today, such as this stylistically similar lambskin jacket from Koza Leathers.

A movie fan like Chili would be tickled to know just how popular replicas of his jacket are.

The Chili Palmer of Leonard’s 1990 novel often wore suits and ties; one outfit in particular is described as a muted dark blue pinstripe suit with a tab-collared blue shirt and rust-colored tie.

The cinematic Chili played by Travolta eschews dress shirts, in favor of exclusively wearing long-sleeve soft knit polos in dark, solid colors. This Chili also reflects the ’90s trend of layering black on black, a risky sartorial option as not all blacks are as similar as they seem. Chili goes a safer route, as his leather jacket and soft cotton polo nicely contrast each other due to the comfortably different material.

Chili’s black soft cotton knit long-sleeve polo appears to be the same one he wore with his black suit in Miami and his gray suit in Vegas. It has a large collar and four black plastic buttons that he always wears fastened to the neck.

Chili takes a drag from one of his Gitanes cigarettes as all of his problems appear to be working themselves out.

His untucked polo shirt often covers his black leather belt, which has a gold-toned single-prong buckle. A black leather belt from the production featured on Prop Bay gives a closer look at the belt’s edge stitching and the squared buckle with three thin ridges above and below the prong.

Chili wears a pair of black wool flat front trousers with straight side pockets and and plain-hemmed bottoms.

Chili is dragged into action for the film’s finale.

Although he appears to be wearing black derbies for the balcony-dangling action sequences in the finale (perhaps so Travolta or his stuntman didn’t lose his shoes), the film makes a point of showing his black alligator loafers as he saunters along the iconic terrazzo stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

A gangster arrives in Hollywood; no single image could better encapsulate the film’s plot than the mafioso-evoking alligator loafer stepping on a Walk of Fame star.

Chili completes his image as the consummate gangster with all yellow gold jewelry to complement his all black clothing.

On the third finger of his right hand, Chili wears a gold ring with a large green stone. On the opposing wrist, he wears a thin gold wristwatch with a rectangular case and a flat bracelet. Quora users have speculated about the watch’s maker, with one Patek Philippe example proposed as the possible watch.

Gene Hackman supposedly said that the scene where Chili recites Touch of Evil’s lines while watching it in the theater was one of the most “engaging” things he’d witnessed in a movie. (Source: IMDB)

How to Get the Look

All black is a risky look, but Chili Palmer pulls it off with a confidence and contrasts, accenting his leather-centric look with gangster touches like alligator loafers and gold jewelry.

• Black leather jacket with edge-stitched notch lapels, low 2-button front, welted breast pocket, straight/on-seam jetted hip pockets, snap cuffs, and ventless back
• Black soft cotton knit long-sleeve 4-button polo shirt
• Black wool flat front trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black edge-stitched leather belt with gold-toned single-prong ridged square buckle
• Black alligator loafers
• Black dress socks
• Thin rectangular yellow gold watch on a flat gold bracelet
• Gold ring with green stone

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie. It even had the rare approval of Elmore Leonard himself – as reported in the Los Angeles Times in 1995 – and is still considered among the best adaptations of his work.

And speaking of his work… you should definitely grab Leonard’s novel while you’re at it!

The Quote

Now, I’ve been shot at three times before – twice on purpose and once by accident – and I’m still here. And I’m gonna be here for as long as I want to be.

Footnote

Chili Palmer wears similar outfits in the film’s 2005 sequel, Be Cool. One of his outfits from that film was later auctioned, a charcoal suit and a black long-sleeve 3-button cotton-blend polo made by Jhane Barnes, which discontinued its menswear line in 2013.

Robert Redford as Harry “the Sundance Kid” Longbaugh in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Vitals

Robert Redford as Harry Longbaugh, aka “The Sundance Kid”, American outlaw

New York City to Bolivia, Spring 1901

Film: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Release Date: October 24, 1969
Director: George Roy Hill
Costume Designer: Edith Head

Background

For Western Wednesday, BAMF Style is taking a look at one of the most classic and unique films in the genre, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The film is loosely based on the true story of the turn-of-the-century outlaws who fled to South America after their gang, the Wild Bunch, was broken up by the long arm of the law. William Goldman’s witty, engaging screenplay became a hot commodity in Hollywood once studio execs warmed up to the idea of its Old West heroes fleeing. A veritable “who’s who” of the era’s most popular actors were considered for the titular leading roles before Paul Newman and Robert Redford were cast, cementing their place in film history as one of the most dynamic buddy duos to hit the screen.

Redford’s Sundance Kid provides a steady presence that balances the idealistic Butch as played by Newman. Like many traditional cinematic gunslingers, Sundance is laconic and suspicious with a laidback sense of humor as opposed to the charming and clever Butch who is always looking for the next laugh. Each brings a sense of balance to their bickering partnership that strengthens it as a brotherhood rather than a friendship or professional association. Tension rises and falls throughout Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but at no point is there even any threat that one will turn on the other, even as both seem to share the affections of Sundance’s romantic partner, Etta Place (Katharine Ross).

William Goldman said he was drawn to the story of Butch and Sundance as it countered F. Scott Fitzgerald’s theory of “no second acts in American lives,” with the duo faced with determining their second act in the face of the changing state of the American frontier. Given the choice of adapt or die, they choose a third option: fleeing to Bolivia, by way of New York City.

The changing state of the American frontier catches up to horseback bandits Butch and Sundance, and the duo is given the choice: adapt or die. Instead, they choose a third option: fleeing to Bolivia, by way of New York City.

What’d He Wear?

Sundance’s “day dress” outfit of charcoal jacket and waistcoat with striped trousers is his most formal look in the film. When situations call for a suit, he typically sports a gray tweed three-piece suit more fitting his usual image of an outdoorsy gunslinger, but he rises to the occasion for a formal portrait in New York with this turn-of-the-century take on a Masonic suit that was also preferred by some real-life Wild Bunch bandits at the time…but more on that later.

Although its purpose is mostly ceremonial in New York for a day of portraits and jewelry shopping, Sundance’s formal day dress serves a greater purpose when it lulls a Bolivian bank president into a false sense of security; the president willingly leads this prosperous prospect through his bank, grinning ear-to-ear until Etta hands Sundance his .45 and the ruse is up.

(Left) Butch didn’t realize we weren’t smiling for that one.
(Right) A Bolivian bank president, distracted by Sundance’s fine formal attire, mindlessly leads him down into the vault.

Sundance would have been the height of 1901 fashion in his sack jacket, with Brooks Brothers introducing its iconic “Number One Sack” that year and redefining American menswear for the better part of the 20th century.

Redford’s screen-worn jacket, auctioned in 2011. The piping along the edge seems to have been added after the production.

Redford’s charcoal worsted wool jacket in the film was custom made for him by Western Costume with his usual padded shoulders and heavily roped sleeveheads, although the wide shoulders are not as noticeable given the cut’s traditional shapelessness. It follows the sack cut, unshaped by darts and short-fitting with a rounded cutaway bottom, although the four black plastic buttons are one more than Brooks Brothers’ seminal sack coat’s 3-roll-2 stance.

The ventless jacket has notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, and straight flapped hip pockets that line up directly with the lowest buton. There are two decorative buttons at the end of each sleeve.

The jacket was auctioned in June 2011, fetching $8,500, although some modifications had evidently been made since Redford wore it as the Sundance Kid. His name and measurements (40 chest and 17½ sleeve) are still printed on the tag, but dark taping has been added to the edges.

Sundance wears a charcoal waistcoat that matches his jacket. It fastens high on the chest with short notch lapels that roll to the top of the six-button front.

The waistcoat has four thinly-welted pockets, and Sundance keeps his unseen gold pocket watch in the lower left pocket, allowing easy access for the left-handed gunslinger. The watch has a thick gold “single Albert” chain through the fourth buttonhole with a dropped fob that hangs down to just above the vest’s straight-cut bottom.

Dammit, Butch! Get it together.

Sundance wears cashmere stripe trousers, another fashion from the era typically associated with morning dress. “Cashmere stripe” refers to the stripe itself rather than the material, which was traditionally worsted, and has been used to describe a variety of similar patterns of black stripes on a gray ground. In Sundance’s case, the stripes appear to alternate in thickness between hairline and a slightly thicker stripe.

True cashmere striped trousers would have more likely followed the baggier “sponge bag” style, but this adherence to the era’s fashion wouldn’t translate as well in 1969. In fact, Redford’s flat front trousers are very much a product of 1969 with the slim, tapered leg and low rise that reveals the bottom of the trousers’ belt loops peeking out from his waistcoat.

Redford’s trousers also have a straight fly with no extended waist tabs and frogmouth front pockets; he slips his left hand into this pocket during the many takes of the trio’s photo session.

Cashmere striped trousers have essentially gone the way of morning dress with your best bet being buying a costume or going vintage if you want a pair of your own, such as these pleated trousers with side adjusters available at Savvy Row.

Butch opts for a more “city dude”-friendly pair of Chelsea boots for their photo session, but Sundance evidently wears the same tall black leather plain-toe riding boots that he wore with his gray tweed suit, a surprising yield given the rest of the outfit’s formality.

Redford on set in Mexico with his first wife, Lola Van Wagenen.

Sundance wears a white cotton dress shirt with a front placket and single-button rounded barrel cuffs. Detachable collars were de rigeur for even semi-formal attire at the time, so he wears a stiff rounded club collar.

For the New York photo session, Sundance’s silk tie is multi-striped in gradient shades of blue and gray. For one of the gang’s bank robberies and celebratory post-heist dinner in Bolivia, he wears a dark navy silk tie with a foulard pattern of lavender squares, each with a small purple dot in the center.

Redford gets a head start on Operation Dinner Out.

Three years earlier, Robert Redford had received a silver ring as a gift from a Hopi tribe that he began wearing on the third finger of his right hand in nearly all of his films to follow.

The gang toasts after their latest criminal venture.

Like the rest of his outfit, Sundance’s homburg was the cutting edge of turn-of-the-century fashion, having been popularized in the English-speaking world in the 1890s after Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, returned from Germany wearing one. Sundance sports a gray felt homburg with a wide black grosgrain band and gray grosgrain trim along the edge of the hat’s signature stiff, kettle-curled brim.

Although he wisely doesn’t wear it during the actual photo session shown in the film, promotional images of the trio’s New York photo shoot feature Sundance’s wide black leather gun belt with a large steel single-claw Ranger-style buckle and a holster for his Single Action Army revolver hanging down against his left thigh.

It would be highly irregular that Sundance, traveling incognito, would draw such attention to himself by posing with his holster revolver for a New York City photographer. (He doesn’t wear his gun rig in the actual film.)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid‘s formal portrait session of Butch, Sundance, and Etta pays homage to two famous photos of Sundance, taken months apart and more indicative of successful businessmen of the era than the rugged bandits who persistently raided the express trains of Mr. E.H. Harriman.

Okay…What Did He Really Wear?

(Left) Redford as Sundance.
(Center and right) Sundance himself, as seen around the time the film was set.

In The Last Outlaws: The Lives and Legends of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Thom Hatch describes the gang’s infamous photo session in Fort Worth in the fall of 1900, coming off of a successful bank robbery months earlier in Winnemucca, Nevada:

A few blocks from the Maddox Hotel, at 705 Main Street, stood the Swartz View Company, the studio of photographer John Swartz. Inside the second-floor studio was taken the most notable and ill-conceived photograph of the Old West era. On November 21, Butch Cassidy, Harry Alonzo Longbaugh, Harvey Logan, Ben Kilpatrick, and Will Carver – dressed in their Sunday-go-to-meeting clothing – sat together for a portrait.

Butch’s derby was tilted jauntily to the left, Carver’s to the right. Logan pushed his hat back to expose his forehead and wore a nosegay in his buttonhole. Ben Kilpatrick’s lanky frame dominated the center of the photo. Sundance appeared uncomfortable, uncertain about whether or not to smile. All the men wore white shirts with crisp, stiff collars and long ties, and exhibited shiny watch fobs. The well-dressed gentlemen in the photo might have been mistaken for a group of bankers or merchants.

The notion to record their visit to Fort Wroth with a lasting souvenir such as a group photograph has been credited over time to both Butch and Sundance. It would be in keeping with Butch’s personality to find amusement in joking around, perhaps even mocking – in a cowboy way – the well-to-do folks who wore such dude clothing every day. On the other hand, Sundance was known to have a propensity for dressing up in nice clothing and showing off whenever the occasion arose. Whatever the reason, the photograph would prove to be a foolhardy idea.

The Wild Bunch in Fort Worth, November 1900.
Top row (left to right): Will Carver and Harvey “Kid Curry” Logan.
Bottom row (left to right): Harry “the Sundance Kid” Longbaugh, Ben “the Tall Texan” Kilpatrick, and Butch Cassidy.

The outfit sported by Redford as Sundance looks like an amalgamation of looks from across the gang. Redford borrows the club collar shirt and dark sack jacket and waistcoat from Ben Kilpatrick (front and center) while also jauntily wearing his hat back on his head like the bushy-mustached Harvey Logan (top right) did for the real life photo. The collared waistcoat and single Albert watch chain with a dropped fob look most like the ones sported by the real life Butch Cassidy… while the real life Sundance Kid with his dark patterned three-piece suit and wide-knotted tie looks most like Paul Newman’s Butch Cassidy!

The newly married (perhaps) Harry Longbaugh and Etta Place in New York City, February 1901, en route South America.

Months later, Butch and Sundance were on the run, determining to leave the dangers of the United States behind them to bask in the warm freedom that South America has to offer. As portrayed in the film, the duo decided to live it up before leaving for good with a jaunt through the Big Apple before sailing for Buenos Aires, their first port of call.

Sundance preceded Butch to New York City, arriving with his fiancee, the mysterious and alluring Etta Place, on February 1, 1901. They immediately took residence in a second-floor luxury suite at a West 12th Street boarding house, living as Mr. and Mrs. Harry Place. They would be shortly joined by “James Ryan,” Etta’s brother, portrayed by Butch Cassidy.

Two days after their arrival in the city, Sundance and Etta had their formal portrait taken at the DeYoung Photography Studio on Broadway. You’d never guess that Sundance was a train-hopping, fast-shooting bandit to see how at home he looks in his staid formal attire of a high-fastening double-breasted frock coat, silk top hat, bow tie, and well-shined cap-toe oxfords.

“…from New York City, with a picture of him and his wife, saying he had married a Texas lady he had known previously,” read the notation made by David Gillepsie after Sundance personally mailed him a print. Before they reached New York City, Sundance took Etta to meet his family, where he had introduced her as his wife despite no actual evidence that the two had gotten married.

Butch, Sundance, and Etta boarded the freighter SS Herminius on February 20 after nearly three weeks and a spectacular blizzard that had sent massive ice floes down the East River.

Go Big or Go Home

Thom Hatch describes the enthusiasm that must have flowed through Butch, Sundance, and Etta as they toured New York for three weeks before their eventual departure to South America:

They were flush with money and the prospects of adventure and a new life. But first they were anxious to see all the wondrous sights this vibrant city of nearly three and a half million people had to offer.

Indeed, the lively ragtime-influenced track that plays over the montage of the trio’s adventure in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid even captures the spirit with its title: “The Old Fun City”.

“Accustomed to saloons, snow-capped mountains, and desolate open places,” Hatch continued, “the three Westerners must have marveled at the skyscrapers, automobiles, and bright streetlights that welcomed them.”

Hatch describes a trip to the famous Tiffany & Co. store, located in 1901 at the corner of 15th Street at Union Square, where Butch purchased a $40 gold watch for himself while Sundance picked up a diamond stickpin for himself and spent $150 on a gold lapel watch for Etta.

How to Get the Look

Sundance dudes up for the gang’s tour of New York, presenting himself as a fashionable, dapper gentleman of means.

• Charcoal worsted wool single-breasted 4-button sack coat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, decorative 2-button cuffs, ventless back
• Charcoal worsted wool single-breasted 6-button waistcoat with short notch lapels, slim-welted pockets, and straight-cut bottom
• Gray-and-black “cashmere stripe” wool flat front trousers with belt loops, straight fly, frogmouth front pocekts, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White cotton dress shirt with white detachable club collar, front placket, and 1-button rounded cuffs
• Blue patterned silk tie
• Black leather calf-high riding boots with raised heels
• Gray felt homburg with black grosgrain band
• Black leather gun belt with steel Ranger-style single-prong buckle and left-hand-draw thigh holster
• Gold pocket watch on gold “single Albert” chain with dropped fob, worn in left vest pocket
• Silver Hopi ring with black imprint, worn on right ring finger

Elements of Sundance’s take on formal day dress are more 1969 than 1901, but perhaps Sundance has adopted some of Butch’s forward-thinking attitude: “I got vision and the rest of the world wears bifocals.”

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

To learn more about the real Butch and Sundance, check out Thom Hatch’s The Last Outlaws: The Lives and Legends of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a terrifically entertaining and informative read that I quoted liberally in this post. You can find the book on Amazon.

Footnote

What was initially planned to be a movie montage of Butch, Sundance, and Etta enjoying the sights and amusements of New York City became a challenge when director George Roy Hill was refused permission to film on the period set of Hello, Dolly! in the neighboring soundstage. To work around this, Hill reformatted the sequence as an energetic series of still photographs, taken of Newman, Redford, and Ross on the Hello, Dolly! set then sliced and merged into a series of hundreds of actual period photos.

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas (1990)

Vitals

Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito, volatile and violent Mafia associate

New York, Spring 1979

Film: Goodfellas
Release Date: September 19, 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

We always called each other “good fellas.” Like you said to somebody, “You’re gonna like this guy. He’s all right. He’s a good fella. He’s one of us.” You understand? We were good fellas. Wiseguys.

The line may have been an afterthought to explain the new Goodfellas title after Scorsese was unable to use the book’s original Wiseguy title, but it provides the perfect context and framework for Tommy DeVito prepping for his “made man” ceremony, especially against the optimistic driving piano exit of Derek and the Dominoes’ “Layla”.

Of course, little does Tommy know that he’s in for the ultimate case of the [Mafia] Mondays…

What’d He Wear?

This isn’t the first Mafia “made man” ceremony covered in BAMF Style, so we know from Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos that this is a time for an ambitious mafioso to look his best…and shoot his cuffs.

Tommy DeVito has a closet full of sharp silk suits and jackets that we’ve seen throughout Goodfellas, but this is the most prominent appearance of this sportcoat in black and white Glen Urquhart plaid silk with a blue overcheck.

The details of the jacket are proportional for Joe Pesci’s 5’4″ height such as the single-button closure and the short double vents, a more flattering style for a shorter guy than the exaggeratedly long vents that were characteristic of late ’70s jackets. Esquire’s The Handbook of Style suggests single-button jackets for “the short guy” as it lengthens the silhouette and “the deep V will give length to your torso,” although Pesci doesn’t take full advantage of that since he wears his jacket open.

The single-breasted jacket has wide-notched lapels and a single blue-gray button that fastens at his waist line, but Tommy wears his jacket unbuttoned and open. The jacket has sporty slanted flap pockets over the hips and a welted breast pocket for his black satin display kerchief. At the end of each sleeve is the same distinctive 1″ turnback cuff that differentiates most, if not all, of Tommy’s jackets in the film, accented by two non-functioning buttons.

Tommy preps for his big day.

Tommy’s white shirt has thin white satin stripes for a touch of contrast. It has a front placket, a box-pleated breast pocket with Tommy’s monogram, and double (French) cuffs that he fastens with a set of gold ball cuff links.

This shirt features the same long “spearpoint” collar distinctive to Mafioso in Scorsese’s films. This collar, marketed alternatively as a “Goodfella collar” or “Tony collar” by some retailers, has an almost non-existent spread with a consistently narrow tie space between the long collar leaves. His wide black silk tie thus appears to explode out from the collar as the knot is almost completely hidden by the collar.

Speaking of exploding… the black and white tones of his outfit make Tommy’s blood all the more jarring as the stark red splashes all over his clothing.

Tommy wears black silk flat front trousers with a high rise that perfectly meets his jacket’s fastening button and his tie blade at his waist. The trousers have a fitted waistband, worn sans belt. The trousers’ plain-hemmed bottoms are worn over the decoratively stitched shafts of his black leather cowboy boots, a fitting choice for Tommy in terms of both form (evocative of his wild “cowboy” reputation) and function (adding an inch or two of height).

Crime doesn’t pay!

Tommy wears all of his gold jewelry on his left hand, a square-cased wristwatch and a diamond pinky ring.

The Dressed-Down Polo

This jacket makes a brief appearance earlier in the film when Tommy meets Henry and Jimmy at the Department of Probation to discuss their burgeoning cocaine business. (Odd choice of venue, no?)

Tommy dresses down his jacket, wearing a black knit long-sleeve polo shirt with a large collar. All other elements, including his black trousers and cowboy boots, remain the same.

Henry got pretty dolled up for his probation officer, didn’t he?

How to Get the Look

The Goodfellas gangsters are frequently colorful dressers, but Tommy dresses for the solemnity of the occasion in subdued but stylish black and white… unknowingly giving his murderers a stark visual palate for his violent murder.

• Black-and-white Glen Urquhart check silk single-breasted single-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, slanted flapped hip pockets, 2-button “turnback” cuffs, and short double vents
• White-on-white satin-striped dress shirt with long “spearpoint” collar, front placket, monogrammed box-pleated breast pocket, and double/French cuffs
  • Gold ball cuff links
• Black silk tie
• Black silk flat front high-rise trousers with fitted waistband and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather cowboy boots
• Gold square-cased wristwatch
• Gold diamond pinky ring

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie.

Footnote

Fans of Goodfellas know that Joe Pesci’s character, Tommy DeVito, was primarily based on real life mobster Thomas “Two-Gun Tommy” DeSimone, a burly associate of the Lucchese crew who shared Pesci’s on-screen temperament if not his physical characteristics.

The real DeSimone was killed in the months following the December 1978 Lufthansa heist in relatively similar circumstances as his on-screen death in Goodfellas. “It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things,” explains Henry’s on-screen narration, although Hill himself didn’t explain the “lot of other things” until his 1994 book Gangsters and Goodfellas.

Already unpopular among mob leadership for his violent volatility, DeSimone sealed his fate by attempting to rape Karen Hill, not only the wife of then-imprisoned associate Henry Hill but also the mistress of capo Paul Vario. Vario went to the Gambino crew, explaining that Tommy had killed two of its members without permission and developing the plan to lure DeSimone to his death under the pretense that he will be formally inducted as a “made man”.

Hill accompanied Jimmy Burke to Florida in the last week of 1978 with DeSimone remaining in New York for his supposed ceremony. Burke called from Florida to ask about the ceremony and, as seen in Goodfellas, reacted to the news of Tommy’s murder with overwhelming sadness, slamming the phone down and crying. Hill posits that the notorious John Gotti, who had been a personal friend to one of Tommy’s victims, was the actual triggerman.

Henry’s narration in Goodfellas explains that “they even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn’t give him an open coffin at the funeral,” but the actual corpse was never discovered. Tommy’s wife Cookie reported him missing on January 14, 1979, a few weeks after the last time she had seen him. By that time, Burke had already started his wave of post-Lufthansa killings that would lead to a dozen violent deaths of mob associates and their girlfriends, including DeSimone’s mistress Theresa Ferrara, a former fashion model found dismembered in Barnegat Inlet the following month.

The Quote

Oh, n-

Al Pacino as Tony Montana in Scarface (1983)

Vitals

Al Pacino as Tony Montana, impulsive and hotheaded cocaine dealer

Miami, Fall 1981

Film: Scarface
Release Date: December 9, 1983
Director: Brian De Palma
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris
Tailor: Tommy Velasco

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Miami, Florida, was incorporated as a city 121 years ago today – July 28, 1896. Today’s post focuses on one of the city’s most infamous fictional residents.

And, of course, that would be Tony Montana, the Cuban-born drug dealer portrayed by Al Pacino as he works his way to the top of the Miami drug world in the 1983 remake of Howard Hawks’ Prohibition-era pre-Code crime classic, Scarface.

As in the 1932 film, Tony’s swift seduction of the boss’ blonde moll leads to said boss ordering a hit on Tony’s life. Armed with his smooth young protégé and the element of surprise, an injured Tony heads to the oblivious boss’ office to confront him and force him into a confession. The boss desperately begs for Tony not to kill him; Tony agrees… then his protégé swings in and ends the boss’ life with a single shot.

The exact same scene description applies to both the 1983 film and its 1932 predecessor, where Paul Muni played the role of Tony Camonte, a hotheaded Mafia lieutenant rising through the Chicago Outfit à la Al Capone. Osgood Perkins played Camonte’s boss, Johnny Lovo, a thinly disguised version of the real-life Johnny Torrio. As Tony’s protégé Guino Rinaldo, George Raft’s first major cinematic role found him in a part that paralleled Raft’s own scrappy salad days as a crony of Bugsy Siegel and Owney Madden.

In 1983, Steven Bauer played the Raft role of Tony Montana’s protégé Manny Ribera, a fellow Cuban immigrant. Robert Loggia brought both charisma and just the right amount of sleaze to the role of Frank Lopez, Tony’s treacherous boss who meets his fate at the end of Manny’s gun. The ’83 update also adds a few new elements to the scene such as the presence of corrupt Miami detective Mel Bernstein (Harris Yulin) and Lopez’s burly bodyguard, Ernie (Arnaldo Santana), who sweats through the scene but lives after Tony presents him with the offer of a lifetime.

What’d He Wear?

They wanted to spoil my $800 suit…

Sitting before Frank Lopez in his bloodied red, white, and blue, Tony Montana personifies the cutthroat nature of the American dream. His sky blue three-piece suit may have been appropriate for the pastel party atmosphere of The Babylon nightclub, but it also provided a stark palette for the bloodshed that would engineer his final pole vault into power.

That’s no way to treat an $800 suit…

This sky blue gabardine suit was made for the production by Paramount tailor Tommy Velasco. Like many of other Tony Montana’s three-piece suits, the single-breasted jacket has peak lapels, perhaps a nod to the fashions of the early ’30s when the original film was made as this style – though briefly revived in the ’70s – was falling out of fashion again by the early 1980s.

The peak lapels have dramatically slanted gorges and roll to the low stance two-button front, which Tony wears open throughout the suit’s time on screen. The shoulders are padded with roped sleeveheads, each sleeve ends with three buttons on the cuff, and the back is split with double vents. The straight hip pockets are jetted, and Tony wears a white silk display kerchief puffed in his welted breast pocket, but the lights of the nightclub reflect on the pocket square’s shiny satin finish and it often appears pink.

Tony’s arm seems to make a full recovery, but his suit will never be the same again.

The suit has a matching single-breasted vest (waistcoat) with lower welt pockets and a notched bottom. Tony wears all six buttons fastened… until the aftermath of his shooting when he wears it totally open under his jacket. The satin-finished back is covered in an indigo blue tonal foulard pattern with an adjustable strap to tighten or loosen the fit.

Another sartorial highlight? Nick the Pig’s bold mustard printed shirt.

Tony wears his white-on-white striped silk shirt as open as he can with at least the top three or four buttons undone and the long-pointed spread collar draped over the collar of his suit jacket. The shirting is all white silk with double satin tonal stripes adding a touch of contrast.

The shirt has a front placket and single-button “Lapidus” pointed-tab cuffs, a popular detail in the era of the late ’70s and early ’80s that can also be found on the shirts of Roger Moore’s James Bond and Robert De Niro in Casino.

Octavio, we hardly knew ye.

The flat front suit trousers have a medium-low rise and straight pockets along the side seams. When Tony opens his vest, we see the light brown leather belt he wears, hooked in the front with a Western-styled gold single-prong buckle.

SCARFACE

Tony’s tan patent leather cap-toe oxfords make another appearance, worn with beige socks that create a boot-like effect. He previously wore these shoes with his gray silk suit and would later wear them with the cream three-piece suit he sports for his wedding.

It’s all fun and games until Octavio the dancing clown gets peppered with rounds from a set of MAC-10s.

Tony Montana festoons himself with gold jewelry to flash his status. He wears two yellow gold necklaces, a larger Cuban-style chain and a slimmer rope necklace on a longer chain, that both get plenty of screen time due to his low-buttoned shirts.

Manny clearly takes after his mentor Tony when it comes to how to best button – or unbutton – your shirt to show off any flashy gold jewelry you’ve got.

Tony also loads up his right hand with gold rings, wearing a diamond ring on his third finger and a ruby stone on his pinky.

Sign of success or excess? Tony flashes his double gold rings while conversing with the corrupt Mel Bernstein at The Babylon club.

A fashion plate like Tony Montana wouldn’t wear just any gold wristwatch. Tony wears a Omega La Magique watch in yellow gold with a small round black dial and a gold bracelet. Introduced in 1981, the La Magique was positioned as one of the thinnest watches on the market. Tony begins wearing it as a symbol of success, flashing it on his wrist at moments like his and Omar’s fateful first meeting with Sosa in Colombia.

Tony Montana would have been an aggressive bathroom monitor.

Tony also wears a gold chain-link ID bracelet on his right wrist.

How to Get the Look

Tony Montana doesn’t plan on this simple visit to a nightclub to result in one of the biggest nights of his life, but he is nonetheless dressed for the occasion in his sky blue three-piece suit. Tailored for today and worn with a tie, this outfit could work just as well 35 years later.

• Sky blue gabardine tailored suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and double vents
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest with lower welt pockets, notched bottom, and adjustable back strap
  • Flat front medium-rise trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White satin tonal-striped silk dress shirt with spread collar, front placket, and 1-button “Lapidus” tab cuffs
• Light brown leather belt with gold Western-style single-prong buckle
• Tan patent leather cap-toe oxfords/balmoral shoes
• Beige socks
• Omega La Magique wristwatch on left wrist with gold expanding bracelet, gold rectangular case, and round black dial
• Gold chain-link ID bracelet
• Gold ring with diamond, worn on right ring finger
• Gold ring with square ruby stone, worn on right pinky
• Two yellow gold necklaces

By the time he gets back to Miami and is introducing Sosa’s henchmen to his “little friend”, Tony’s already ditched his tie and overcoat. The white silk pocket square stays in his breast pocket, though it certainly isn’t white by the end of the battle.

The Gun

Tony Montana’s blue steel Beretta Model 81 pistol is as much a loyal companion to him as his pal Manny, carrying it from his first botched drug deal through to the film’s bloody climax.

Introduced in 1976, the Model 81 was the first in Beretta’s “Cheetah” series of compact blowback-operated semi-automatic pistols in low-to-medium calibers. The Beretta Model 81 and Model 82 are both chambered in .32 ACP, but the Model 82 has a slimmer grips to accommodate the single-stack 9-round magazine while the Model 81 has a double-stacked magazine that carries 12 rounds. Tony adds extra bulk to his Model 81 with wraparound Pachmayr grips.

Al Pacino’s screen-used Beretta Cheetah 81, sourced from The Golden Closet.

IMFDB has exclusive photos from The Golden Closet of one of the Beretta Model 81 “Cheetah” pistols used by Al Pacino in Scarface, serial #D87016W.

Tony uses his Beretta to great effect after he finds himself cornered by assassins at The Babylon club.

When a wounded but relatively unfazed Tony shows up at Frank Lopez’s office, he still carries his Beretta but it is now fixed with the suppressor that The Golden Closet noted was custom made for the film. Tony typically carries his Beretta in an IWB holster in the small of his back, but his shoulder sling provides a very convenient makeshift holster for Tony’s weapon after he is injured by Lopez’s hitters.

“He produces his Baretta [sic] from his sling and holds it in his left hand pointed at the big man,” wrote Oliver Stone the screenplay for Scarface, one of many script-to-screen details that was clearly part of Stone’s vision for the way the action would unfold.

Tony’s methods for dealing with cockroaches would not endear him to New York City landlords.

Three Beretta Model 81 pistols were rented to the Scarface production for Al Pacino’s Tony Montana to carry over the course of the film.

It’s a different Beretta, a suppressed Beretta M951, that Manny Ribera uses when he executes Lopez on Tony’s behalf. The M951 ended its nearly three decade production run in 1980, just a few years before Scarface was made, as its popularity was being eclipsed by the more modern Beretta 92 series of pistols.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the deluxe DVD gift set… which also comes with a copy of the original Scarface from 1932!

The Quote

A man who ain’t got his word… is a cockroach.

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano on The Sopranos (Episode 1.04: “Meadowlands”)

Vitals

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, New Jersey mob boss

New Jersey, Fall 1999

Series: The Sopranos
Episode: “Meadowlands” (Episode 1.04)
Air Date: January 31, 1999
Director: John Patterson
Creator: David Chase
Costume Designer: Juliet Polcsa

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy birthday to James Gandolfini, born September 18, 1961. The celebrated late actor revolutionized television with his portrayal of troubled mob boss Tony Soprano on HBO’s The Sopranos from 1999 to 2007. (For those with an interest in the Zodiac, Gandolfini shared his astrological sign with Tony, who would be a fellow Virgo with his given birth date of August 24, 1960 in the final season premiere episode “Soprano Home Movies”.)

“My uncle, he’s got me in a box where I gotta do something I don’t want to do,” bemoans Tony at the outset of “Meadowlands”, the fourth episode of The Sopranos and the first without an on-screen murder. “Then there’s my mother. I pay four grand a month for this place, and she acts like I’m an eskimo pushing her out to sea.”

Tony’s problems with his family continue to grow through “Meadowlands” as his mother (Nancy Marchand) resents her placement in the Green Grove nursing home retirement community and his uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) resents his nephew’s behind-the-scenes power plays. “Next time you come, you come heavy or not at all,” orders Junior after an especially tense meeting, causing a split in his family that not even Tony can bear.

And if only Tony’s problems ended there! The popular boss of the family, Jackie Aprile (Michael Rispoli), is laying on his deathbed, stimulating a potentially fatal power vacuum between Tony and his prickly uncle. Toss in Tony’s own hotheaded nephew Christopher (Michael Imperioli), who’s packing heat and looking to avenge a friend, and degenerate detective Vin Makazian (John Heard, in his first appearance on the show), who’s getting the wrong idea about Tony and his new therapist.

It’s almost forgivable when a raging Tony grabs a staple gun and punctures a few “overdue” holes into Junior’s lackey Mikey Palmice (Al Sapienza) and his suit. (Actually, any action taken against the obnoxious Mikey is automatically forgivable.)

What’d He Wear?

From the early days of suave sociopaths Bugsy Siegel and Frank Costello through the “Dapper Don” himself, John Gotti, mobsters have always had the reputation for their distinctive fashion sense. Silk suits, spearpoint-collared shirts, and sparkling pinky rings are all conjured with the image of the archetypal “made man”.

The Sopranos tore down several Mafia myths that glamorized gangsterdom, frequently outfitting its mobbed-up goombahs in track suits. Of course, head of the family Tony Soprano typically dressed a step beyond his underlings with tailored sport jackets and suits, French cuff shirts, and well-shined Allen Edmonds on his feet. “Meadowlands”, the show’s fourth episode, featured Tony in one of his first suits that really stood out to me as a sartorial combination befitting a man of his status.

Tony’s gray semi-solid wool suit may be very appropriate in the closet of a more – let’s say – traditional businessman, but his choice to wear it with a black-on-black shirt and tie with pocket hankie to match is far more Bada Bing! than boardroom.

Compared to the track-suited Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore) and disco-couture Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) behind him, Tony looks downright professional.

The ventless single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that roll to the top of the three-button front. In addition to being popular during the show’s late 1990s and early 2000s timeframe, three-button suit jackets are more flattering for a “big and tall”-sized man like the 6’1″ James Gandolfini. The three buttons on the jacket’s front and the four-button cuffs are all black buttons that coordinate well with Tony’s choice of shirt and tie as well as the black silk display kerchief that he wears in the welted breast pocket.

Tony’s crew conducts an impromptu hospital huddle at the dying Jackie Aprile’s bedside.

The suit is likely Italian in origin, though a more eagle-eyed viewer may have more luck identifying the label based on the logo sewn into the inner left of the tan satin-finished lining, best seen as Tony leans into Mikey Palmice’s car.

Peep the label on Tony’s suit. Any idea who made this one?

Tony’s suit trousers have single reverse pleats that begin an inch below the waistline where his belt loops remain unused in lieu of suspenders (braces) fastened to buttons sewn into the inner waistband. His trousers have straight pockets along each side seam, jetted back pockets, and are finished with cuffs (turn-ups) on the bottoms.

Scenes from Green Grove.

His suspenders coordinate nicely with his outfit, a wise move as he removes his suit jacket through his duration at the funeral home (good thing he didn’t “come heavy” for that visit!) The suspenders are black with a thick gray center stripe and a red hairline stripe on each side of that center stripe. Gunmetal clips on the front and back to hook the black leather strips into the trouser waist buttons. The adjusters are gold-toned.

When dealing with a corrupt lawman, Tony has to lay down the law himself.

Tony wears a black silk dress shirt with a point collar, plain front, breast pocket, back side pleats, and button cuffs that he unfastens when rolling up his sleeves. The black silk tie with its subtle tonal box pattern provides little contrast against Tony’s shirt for a slick, mobbed-up look.

Tony endures yet another afternoon of degradation from his mother.

Tony’s derby shoes are black leather with a perforated cap toe and five lace eyelets, worn with black socks.

Tony steps out of his Suburban.

Tony establishes his habit for yellow gold jewelry early on, wearing the same chain-link bracelet and ruby-and-diamond pinky ring on his right hand as he would for the rest of the show’s run. On the opposing hand, he sports his gold wedding band and his ultimate status symbol, an 18-karat all-gold Rolex Day-Date President, ref. no. 18038. The “President” name is derived from the distinctive link bracelet that Rolex introduced exclusively for this Day-Date model.

Tony none too subtly sports his Rolex President as a nod to his organizational aspirations.

We can assume he is also wearing his usual gold open-link chain necklace with a pendant of St. Jerome around his neck.

Go Big or Go Home

Born Pierino Como to immigrants from from the Abruzzese town of Palena, Perry Como is always a pleasant and dependable choice when looking for the soundtrack of your mobbed-up afternoon. Though not as legendary as fellow Italian-American crooners like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Tony Bennett, the well-respected “Mr. C.” remains beloved in his hometown of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, where a statue of Perry Como plays his music 24/7.

“Meadowlands” features Perry Como’s original 1945 recording of “Prisoner of Love”, which was also used in Raging Bull (1980), when Tony drops in on Uncle Junior.

Tony and his captains go a less traditional route when chowing down on lobsters in the back room at the Bada Bing as Tipsy’s “Ugly Stadium” provides the backdrop.

How to Get the Look

If the maxim is true that one should “dress for the job you want,” Tony Soprano’s future as a mob boss should be well secured by his sartorial approach in “Meadowlands”.

• Gray semi-solid wool suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button suit jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single reverse-pleated trousers with belt loops, straight/on-seam side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black silk dress shirt with point collar, plain front, breast pocket, button cuffs, and side pleats
• Black tonal box-patterned silk tie
• Black gray-and-red striped suspenders with gold adjuster, gunmetal clips, and black leather double strips
• Black leather perforated cap-toe 5-eyelet derby shoes
• Black dress socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Rolex President Day-Date 118238 yellow gold wristwatch
• Gold open-link chain bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with ruby and diamond stones
• Gold wedding band
• Gold open-link chain necklace with round St. Jerome pendant

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the entire series.

The Quote

He tries to leave, you break his other neck.

Footnote

James Gandolfini shares his September 18th birthday with my dear sister. Happy birthday, Sis!

Johnny Depp as John Dillinger in Public Enemies (2009)

Vitals

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

Chicago, Spring 1934

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What’d He Wear?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to Get the Look

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

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

The Gun

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do Yourself a Favor and…

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

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

The Quote

Want to take that ride with me?

Emile Hirsch and Holliday Grainger as Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in Bonnie and Clyde (2013)

Vitals

Emile Hirsch as Clyde Barrow, amateur armed robber

Texas, Spring 1932

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

Background

Earlier this week, I posted about the (possibly brown) single-breasted, peak-lapel suit worn by Derrick De Marney in Hitchcock’s 1930s thriller Young and Innocent. Today’s post expands on that theme, exploring a similar suit worn by another desperate young man on the run during the 1930s.

A trigger-happy killer who rarely displayed remorse or reason, the real Clyde Barrow was certainly no BAMF, but his exploits with partner-in-crime Bonnie Parker were almost immediately romanticized by a hungry public during the early years of the Great Depression. Their story thus became fodder for several stylized cinematic adaptations, most prominently the iconic 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde with the unrealistically attractive Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty assuming the title roles.

The Bruce Beresford-directed miniseries Bonnie and Clyde aired in two parts in December 2013, taking a different approach that recreated many of the lesser known facts and figures from Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker’s crime spree.

Of course, that’s not to say that the miniseries follows historical detail. Bonnie and Clyde historians may have been interested to see filmed depictions of the gang’s exploits like the tragic killing of John Bucher, the Grapevine double murder, and the car crash that badly burned Bonnie for the last months of her life, but much dramatic license is taken in presenting these incidents, often out of order and without adhering to the known facts.

What’d He Wear?

In the series, Clyde Barrow sports a brown nailhead worsted suit for the inauspicious start to his criminal career with Bonnie. Though a full cut was certainly fashionable during the 1930s, Clyde’s oversized suit dwarfs him to the point that he is reduced to the appearance of a little boy wearing his father’s clothes. The ill-fitting suit is a realistic touch given Clyde’s modest budget as a two-bit hood.

Bonnie may be unimpressed by Clyde’s ill-fitting suit and his inability to successfully commit a crime, but she’s still in it for the long run.

The single-breasted, ventless suit jacket with its wide peak lapels is consistent with fashions of the era. The already oversized jacket is emphasized with roped, padded shoulders and a full cut. The jacket has a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, four-button cuffs, and a two-button front that Clyde wears open.

The low-rise trouser are reverse-pleated with a full cut through the legs down to the cuffed bottoms. The baggy fit was more acceptable in the 1930s, but I would still give these trousers a longer rise and a lifted break over his shoes to reduce the aforementioned “little boy in his dad’s clothes” image. Clyde wears a wide black leather belt with a squared steel single-prong buckle, similar to belts that the real Clyde Barrow had been photographed wearing during his lifetime.

Clyde’s reduced posture from hobbling out of prison (after cutting off two of his toes) certainly doesn’t do him any favors in his oversized suit.

Clyde wears a light gray cotton shirt with a point collar, front placket, and button cuffs. Based on the space around his neck, it’s just as oversized as his suit and adds to the overall image of Clyde being overwhelmed by the ambitions of his criminality.

Abstract printed ties were en vogue during the early ’30s. “Hand painted art deco designs started in the ’20s but really found a place in the 1930s,” wrote Debbie Sessions of Vintage Dancer. “Earthy greens, yellows, peach, and blues were the predominant colors of the ’30s.” Clyde’s short, wide silk tie with its gray and gold leaves printed on a dark “midnight green” ground was typical of the era.

Clyde wears an olive felt fedora with a non-contrasting grosgrain band and a non-trimmed overwelt edge. He previously wore this same hat with his charcoal chalkstripe three-piece suit before graduating to a better looking and better proportioned gray fedora.

Clyde Barrow’s mother Cumie was a major presence in his life, despite being left out of the 1967 film. Seen here, she was portrayed in the 2013 miniseries by Tennessee-born actress Dale Dickey who has been a strong presence in movies and TV shows for the last two decades.

Following his release from prison, Bonnie takes Clyde to a Texas motel for their first night together. He sits wearing only his underwear, a pair of era-specific light blue cotton boxer shorts with a two-button fly, before Bonnie makes her move.

Clyde wears the same black leather cap-toe derby shoes seen in other early scenes with a pair of light gray socks.

How to Get the Look

Left: Emile Hirsch as Clyde in 2013.
Right: The real Clyde Barrow, circa spring 1933, wearing a similar suit that likely provided the inspiration for Hirsch’s baggy duds.

You’ll certainly want a better fitting suit, but Clyde’s early suit is consistent both with the era’s fashions and his real life counterpart’s eye for style.

• Brown nailhead worsted oversized suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button suit jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Reverse-pleated low-rise trousers with tall belt loops, side pockets, back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Light gray cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, and button cuffs
• Midnight green silk tie with gray and gold leaf print
• Wide black leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Black leather four-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes
• Light gray socks
• Pale blue cotton undershorts with a 2-button waistband closure
• Olive felt fedora with olive grosgrain ribbon

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series and visit Frank Ballinger’s Bonnie & Clyde’s Hideout site.

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano on The Sopranos (Episode 6.11: “Cold Stones”)

Vitals

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, New Jersey mob boss

New Jersey, Fall 2007

Series: The Sopranos
Episodes:
– “Moe n’ Joe” (Episode 6.10, dir. Steve Shill, aired May 14, 2006)
– “Cold Stones” (Episode 6.11, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired May 21, 2006)
– “Walk Like a Man” (Episode 6.17, dir. Terence Winter, aired May 6, 2007)
– “The Second Coming” (Episode 6.19, dir. Tim Van Patten, aired May 20, 2007)
Creator: David Chase
Costume Designer: Juliet Polcsa

WARNING! Spoilers (and a rather graphic screenshot) ahead!

Background

I’ve received several requests this year alone to focus on some of the style worn by Tony Soprano in the show’s latter years, particularly this brown tattersall sport jacket he wears across the two-part final season. It’s a nice look to keep in mind as fall progresses here in the Northern Hemisphere.

What’d He Wear?

A few episodes sprawled across the latter portion of The Sopranos‘ last season feature Tony Soprano wearing a brown wool sport jacket finely checked in a black, red, and navy tattersall pattern. This color variety gives Tony plenty of options for choosing a shirt that coordinates with the sportcoat.

Tony’s single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that roll to a high two-button front. The jacket also has a welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and four-button cuffs best seen during his therapy session in “Moe n’ Joe” (Episode 6.10), though there appears to be some discrepancy with the cuff buttons in later episodes.

Tony should take notes from his consigliere Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) and wear his jacket open as the high buttoning point isn’t very flattering when worn closed. Of course, fastening the front keeps it from flapping around on what appears to be a rather windy day.

In both “Moe n’ Joe” (Episode 6.10) and “Cold Stones” (Episode 6.11), Tony wears a navy blue dress shirt with a front placket stitched very close to the edges. The buttons on the placket and on the cuffs are black plastic, and the shirt has a breast pocket. He wears the top button undone with no tie.

“Moe n’ Joe” (Episode 6.10): Navy shirt that would reappear in the following episode, “Cold Stones” (Episode 6.11).

The brown tattersall jacket doesn’t make another appearance for six episodes when it reappears several times in “Walk Like a Man” (Episode 6.17), first with an autumnal russet red-orange tonal-striped shirt with a shine that suggests silk or a high-twist cotton. It has a breast pocket and button cuffs, but – unlike the navy shirt – it has a plain front (or “French placket”).

“Walk Like a Man” (Episode 6.17): Russet red-orange tonal-striped shirt.

Tony has also upgraded his look in “Walk Like a Man” with a series of pocket squares, beginning with this muted jacquard silk kerchief with a pattern in silver and gold.

Tony counters the frivolity of his fancy pocket square with a disapproving frown.

Later in “Walk Like a Man”, Tony wears another shiny shirt though in a shade of olive brown. Like the other, it has a plain front, button cuffs, and is worn with the top button undone. He also is wearing a different pocket square, patterned in navy, maroon, and gold printed silk.

“Walk Like a Man” (Episode 6.17): Olive brown shiny shirt.

The jacket’s final appearance is its most dressed up. In “The Second Coming” (Episode 6.19), Tony wears his brown tattersall jacket and dark brown trousers with a French blue cotton shirt with a moderate point collar and double (French) cuffs with flat gold cuff links.

Not only is it the outfit’s only appearance with cuff links but also with a tie as Tony wears a dark brown silk tie covered in an abstract pattern resembling small off-white seashells and bronze lines.

Production photo of James Gandolfini and Robert Iler at A.J.’s therapy session in “The Second Coming” (Episode 6.19). Note the two-button cuffs of Tony’s jacket; is this a different jacket than the identical one with four-button cuffs in the first half of the season, or…?

Although he cycles through a series of differently colored shirts with this jacket, he always wears a pair of chocolate brown worsted wool trousers with double forward pleats and turn-ups (cuffs). Gandolfini was known to wear trousers from Italian fashion house Zanella on the show, particularly the later seasons, and it’s likely that these trousers are made by Zanella as well.

Tony wears a dark brown leather belt with a squared single-prong buckle with these trousers in their first two appearances in the first half of the sixth season; by the final half of the sixth season, he appears to be wearing suspenders rather than a belt to hold up these trousers, at least when wearing the outfit with a tie in “The Second Coming” (Episode 6.19).

One of the drawbacks of trouser cuffs is that you may sometimes be surprised to find a mobster’s bloody tooth tucked away.

With an outfit centered around earth tones like this, Tony naturally opts for brown shoes that are best seen in the outfit’s final two appearances. In “Walk Like a Man” (Episode 6.17), his cognac brown leather shoes appear to be cap-toe oxfords with closed lacing.

Two episodes later, in “The Second Coming” (Episode 6.19), we get a good look at his similarly colored shoes that are now split moc-toe derbies with five open-laced eyelets for the dark brown laces. Both times, Tony is wearing dark brown ribbed cotton lisle socks.

Reviewing the many auctions of clothing worn from The Sopranos, one consistent brand of footwear that emerged from Tony (as well as other characters) was Allen Edmonds, the legendary American shoemaker that has cobbled for every U.S. President since Millard Fillmore in the early 1850s. It’s fitting that Tony Soprano, with a Rolex President to match his presidential role in the mob, would also wear the shoe of choice for U.S. presidents. The nearest approximation from Allen Edmonds’ current lineup that would match Tony’s footwear here is the MSP Split-Toe Blucher in walnut brown, currently available for $295.

Tony Soprano doesn’t frequently wear an overcoat in the show’s final season, but his violent visit to Coco and Butchie in “The Second Coming” (Episode 6.19) calls for a villainous black wool topcoat with  a Prussian-style collar and a four-button single-breasted front.

After rising to the top as boss of the Jersey Mafia, Tony typically delegates this type of rougher work to his underlings. When his family is involved, however, all bets are off.

As mentioned, Tony continues to wear the status symbol of his power, an 18-karat yellow gold Rolex Day-Date “President” ref. 18038 on his left wrist. The watch has a gold dial and is worn on the distinctive gold “President” bracelet that lends the watch its moniker.

That tooth I mentioned… were you wondering how it got there? Wonder no longer.
(Apologies for the graphic screenshot, but this really is one of the better closeups of Tony’s Rolex President!)

The rest of Tony’s jewelry is all gold as well, from the yellow gold chain-link bracelet on his right wrist to the rings on his fingers. In addition to the plain gold wedding band on the third finger of his left hand, he also wears a pinky ring on his right hand with a ruby and diamond stone.

Gold jewelry gleams from Tony’s wrists and fingers as he waxes in Dr. Melfi’s office about his “rotten, fuckin’ putrid genes.”

Though it remains unseen (or barely glimpsed) during these scenes, Tony also is known to wear a gold open-link chain necklace with a pendant of St. Jerome.

How to Get the Look

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano on The Sopranos (Episode 6.10: “Moe n’ Joe”)

Tony Soprano has amassed a variety of stylish sportcoats by the final season of The Sopranos, and he deploys this particular jacket with skill by pairing it with solid shirts that coordinate with the colors that make up the jacket’s subtle tattersall check pattern.

• Brown tattersall check single-breasted two-button sportcoat with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and single vent
• Solid color button-up dress shirt with breast pocket
• Chocolate brown worsted wool double forward-pleated trousers with turn-ups/cuffs
• Dark brown leather belt with squared steel single-prong buckle
• Cognac brown leather 5-eyelet moc-toe derby shoes
• Dark brown ribbed cotton lisle socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Rolex President Day-Date 118238 yellow gold wristwatch
• Gold open-link chain bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with ruby and diamond stones
• Gold wedding band
• Gold open-link chain necklace with round St. Jerome pendant

The Gun

For his vicious assault on Coco in “The Second Coming” (Episode 6.19), Tony arms himself with a blued steel “snub nose” revolver with a two-inch barrel and a five-round cylinder. It’s never seen very clearly, but it’s more than likely a Smith & Wesson Model 36 “Chiefs Special” revolver.

It’s not business, it’s personal.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the entire series.

The Quote

So… after all is said and done, after all the complainin’ and the cryin’ and all the fuckin’ bullshit… is this all there is?

Warren Oates as John Dillinger in Dillinger (1973)

Vitals

Warren Oates as John Dillinger, Depression-era bank robber

Indiana, Fall 1933

Film: Dillinger
Release Date: July 20, 1973
Director: John Milius
Costume Designer: James M. George

Background

Eighty four years ago tonight – November 15, 1933. Four police cars converge on a small office building on Irving Park Boulevard in the Chicago Loop. In an upstairs doctor’s office, one of the most wanted men in the tri-state area is being treated for either a ringworm infection or “barber’s itch,” an inflammation of hair follicles, depending on which account you read. On the floor below, a cagey informant named Art McGinnis is signaling desperately to police that their quarry is upstairs. Fate, however, is on the side of the outlaw, a thirty-year-old bank robber named John Dillinger.

“Look at all the police cars outside,” the physician observed. “I wonder what’s happened.” In an instant Dillinger was at the window and comprehended at a glance. The next instant, he was running down the stairs with a gun in each hand.

Dillinger fired two shots as he stepped from the office, and his waiting companion started the car. Before the startled police understood what was happening, he had run across the street, jumped into the car, and discarded his pistols for a machine gun. Billie hurriedly backed into Irving Park Boulevard, ramming and disabling a police car waiting there, and headed east. By the time the police could take up the pursuit, the outlaw’s machine was traveling eighty-five miles an hour, and the slower Chicago squad cars were soon hopelessly outdistanced. Dillinger had broken the glass in the rear window, and his machine gun was returning the rain of lead from the police.

– G. Russell Girardin, Dillinger: The Untold Story, Chapter 7

Some of the above story may have been embellished on both sides… according to both John Toland’s The Dillinger Days and Bryan Burrough’s Public Enemies, Dillinger had noticed the trap as soon as he drove up and instantly hopped back into the car to speed the car away himself without ever firing a single shot back let alone a “rain of lead” from his Thompson. No matter what actually happened, the incident was one of many that transformed Depression-era desperado John Dillinger into a living legend who captivated the public through his multiple escapes and flagrant disregard for the law.

Newspaper reports at the time that used the incident to introduce the public to the outlaw also made mention of the woman at his side, his latest girlfriend Evelyn “Billie” Frechette. Unlike Bonnie Parker or some of the more famous “gun molls” of the day, Billie’s relationship with Dillinger was more romantic than criminal and she was rarely involved in the larcenous side of his life. Girardin wrote: “While the state of Indiana was mobilizing its forces on land, sea, and in the air, John Dillinger was falling in love again. He had met Evelyn Frechette in a nightclub on the North Side of Chicago, and henceforth she would be a loyal companion in his dangerous activities, and the ‘Maid Marian’ of the Dillinger gang.”

The two had likely met about three months prior to their escape from the police trap, around late August 1933 when Dillinger was in the midst of his first bank-robbing spree, raising funds to bust his friends from the Indiana State Penitentiary. Having recently moved to Chicago, Dillinger accompanied his accomplice Harry Copeland to a cabaret where Copeland introduced Dillinger – as “Jack Harris” – to his girlfriend Pat Cherrington’s friend Billie.

Billie would claim she never forgot Dillinger’s first words. He was standing beside her at the table, looking down with that lopsided grin. “Hey baby,” he said. “Where have you been all my life?” They danced. Dillinger was polite, which was enough for Frechette.

– Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies, Chapter 6

All accounts of Dillinger’s rather gentlemanly first encounter with Billie are considerably at odds with the couple’s anti-“meet-cute” in 1973’s Dillinger which finds Warren Oates’ version of the outlaw aggressively pounding shots of Jack Daniel’s at an Indiana road house while trading barbs with “dime-a-dance girl” Billie (Michelle Phillips, in her first film role.) The rest of the scene unfolds in a manner uncharacteristic to the real couple as Oates’ Dillinger drunkenly fires his guns akimbo while impulsively robbing the joint, then violently absconds with Billie to his gang’s motel hideout.

What’d He Wear?

Warren Oates’ John Dillinger has a penchant for brown suits, wearing a variety of earthy suiting for his string of bank robberies from Indiana to Iowa. For this night of drinking alone in an Indiana roadhouse, Dillinger sports a warm russet brown three-piece suit with subtle triple stripe sets of  gray, rust, and gray.

“All of you… look at my face, you sons of bitches. You’re gonna remember this face. I’m John Dillinger. You’re gonna pick up your newspaper tomorrow and be reading it, and you’re gonna see my face. I’m John Dillinger, and I don’t want you to ever forget it.”

Dillinger’s single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels and wide, padded shoulders that were characteristic of the era’s tailoring. The back appears to be half-belted with no vents, and his sleeves end with the same spaced, non-functioning two-button cuffs as we see on his other suits. His three-button jacket also has notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, and straight flapped hip pockets with a ticket pocket on the right side.

Dillinger’s shirt is subtly striped with tan and white alternating stripes on an ecru ground. A gold pin fastens the narrow collar under his tie knot, and the double (French) cuffs are secured with round links. His tie consists of a Deco-style print of bronze leaves on a bold red ground.

Billie is rightfully annoyed when Dillinger continues to hog every shot of Jack on the bar.

The suit’s matching double-breasted, six-button vest is one of the most unique and period-specific aspects of the outfit. The wide peak lapels sweep across the torso with three rows of two buttons in a straight, rectangular formation, cut straight across the bottom.

The single-breasted suit with notch lapels – paired with this dressier, vintage-styled type of waistcoat – would be revived the following year for Robert Redford’s period suits in The Great Gatsby.

Terrible behavior.

The trousers are single reverse-pleated like his others with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms. He wears them with suspenders (braces) that have brown leather hooks fastened to buttons along the inside of the trouser waistband.

Over his waistcoat, he wears a large tan leather double shoulder rig with a holster under each armpit for his two 1911-style semi-automatic pistols. (Oates and his on-screen cronies carry the 9mm Star Model B rather than the historically correct Colt-produced M1911A1 in .45 ACP and .38 Super that was preferred by the Dillinger gang; this armament was typical in films of the era due to the difficulty of cycling .45-caliber blanks through a standard 1911.) The holsters connect over his back and shoulders with a series of dark brown straps.

Dillinger’s double shoulder holster rig is best seen as he prepares to shave his Fairbanks-style mustache.

Dillinger wears a pair of dark brown leather cap-toe oxford shoes, seen only when he is backing out of the bar with Billie.

Believing himself to have proven his bravado to Billie, Dillinger takes the money he just robbed from the barroom denizens and scatters it onto the ground.

Go Big or Go Home

NB: As much as I appreciate Dillinger’s sartorial sensibilities in this scene, I abhor his behavior. Let’s make that perfectly clear!

The scene opens with Dillinger steadily getting himself drunk while chatting up Billie, who makes more than a few references to his resemblance to mustached swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks. In the background, we hear a vocal version of “Honey” recorded specifically for the film by Gus Levene and his Orchestra.

“Honey” was penned in 1928 with music by Richard A. Whiting and lyrics by Seymour Simons and Haven Gillespie. It serves as a leitmotif for John and Billie’s “romance” throughout Dillinger after making its first appearance in this barroom scene where they meet. Following this, Dillinger briefly sings a few bars after describing his “hopes and dreams” to Billie, a slow strings version plays as the two experience one final moment of happiness while rowing on the lake, and an instrumental version plays over the closing credits after Billie stands witness to Dillinger’s death in a Chicago alley. (The film vaguely suggests that Polly Hamilton, Dillinger’s actual girlfriend at the time of his death, was actually Billie under an assumed name.)

The vocal version of “Honey” heard in this scene was arranged by Barry De Vorzon and shares many similarities with the song’s popular 1929 recording by Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees.

Dillinger and Billie make their acquaintanceship over a bottle of Jack Daniel’s “Old No. 7” Tennessee whiskey, identifiable by its square bottle and the classic black label that the brand has used continuously since the early 1900s.

Although Jack Daniel’s is now the top selling American whiskey in the world, its appearance in an Indiana barroom circa 1933 is technically anachronistic. The Lynchburg distillery had ceased operations by 1920 due to the onset of Prohibition, not to resume until 1938, five years after this scene is purportedly set and four years after Dillinger was killed. (Thus, it’s quite likely that poor John Dillinger never got to taste a drop of Sinatra’s preferred elixir during his lifetime.)

A boastful, impromptu bar holdup, uncharacteristic of the real John Dillinger.

That said, it could be possible that this Indiana barkeep (whose hands are quite enthusiastically raised during Dillinger’s impromptu robbery) kept a pre-Prohibition bottle around as the brand was quite popular across the Midwest after taking home the gold medal for best whiskey from the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair.

How to Get the Look

The real John Dillinger “was a bit of a clothes horse, keeping his suits pressed and his hats blocked,” wrote Bryan Burrough in Public Enemies. In fact, soon after he began living with Billie Frechette in the fall of 1933, Burrough reported that “Dillinger bought several new blue suits and a brown one,” and the latter color seems to be his suiting of choice in 1973’s Dillinger as Warren Oates sports one of his many brown three-piece suits when he meets Billie.

• Russet brown striped suit:
  • Single-breasted 3-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets and right-side ticket pocket, 2-button cuffs, and half-belted ventless back
  • Double-breasted 6×3-button vest with peak lapels
  • Single reverse-pleated trousers with side pockets and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Ecru softly striped shirt with pinned point collar and double/French cuffs
• Red tie with Deco-style print of bronze leaves
• Suspenders/braces with brown leather hooks
• Tan leather double shoulder holster rig, for two 1911-style pistols
• Dark brown leather cap-toe oxford shoes

For as much as Oates’ Dillinger seems to take displeasure in being mistaken for Douglas Fairbanks, it’s interesting that his very 1930s-styled suit shares plenty of similarities with Magnoli Clothiers’ Fairbanks Suit… right down to the double-breasted waistcoat with its peak lapels, three rows of two buttons, and straight-cut bottom.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

I rob banks for a living, what do you do?

Footnote

The 2009 film Public Enemies stars Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard as John Dillinger and Billie Frechette, respectively, and more accurately portrays their meeting over a slow dance in a Chicago nightclub.

Paul Muni as Tony Camonte in Scarface (1932)

Vitals

Paul Muni as Tony Camonte, ruthless Italian-born bootlegger and mob enforcer

Chicago, Summer 1927

Film: Scarface
Release Date: April 9, 1932
Director: Howard Hawks

Background

I’m wrapping up what turned out to be a week focused on classic gangster style with a look at one of my favorite mob movies, the original Scarface released in 1932. Both the film and its source novel of the same name by Armitage Trail (Maurice R. Coons) were undoubtedly inspired by the rise and fall of Chicago kingpin Al Capone, who reportedly grew to love the film so much that the owned his own print of it.

Tony Camonte’s rise through the underworld is depicted by a Thompson submachine gun blowing through the pages of a calendar, stopping somewhere around Friday, August 26, for the action to begin. (August 26 fell on a Friday in 1927 and 1932; as the events that inspired the film occurred throughout the 1920s and production wrapped in mid-1931, it’s safe to assume that this scene picks up the action around the late summer of 1927. Anyway…)

Spectacularly attired in a bold new suit, Tony runs into Poppy (Karen Morley), his boss’s platinum blonde moll, who is getting a little warmer to Tony’s form after his repeated attempts at seduction.

Poppy: You sure are a funny mixture, Tony.
Tony: That’s the first time you’ve smiled.
Poppy: Yeah…?
Tony: How do you mean you think I’m funny?
Poppy: You just are, that’s all.

Does this exchange seem familiar?

What’d He Wear?

Tony: Hey, what’s all the time eatin’ you? You afraid of me?
Poppy: Well, that outfit’s enough to give anybody the yips.
Tony: Nice, huh? I got three more. Different colors.

Tony works his “charm” on Poppy…

Tony Camonte makes quite an impression on Poppy – and the audience – when he struts into his gang headquarters sporting a snazzy double-breasted three-piece suit in a fancy “basketweave check” suiting… in this case, “basketweave” refers to the pattern of the suiting rather than the actual woven fabric.

From a distance, the suiting looks more like a field of dark lozenges against a light-colored ground, but a closer look reveals the unique interconnected pattern.

The unique suit parallels Tony’s unique rise through the underworld, disobeying orders and protocol just as he eschews traditional standards of “tasteful” dress. The distinction is made especially clear as the brash Tony is forced to defend his rash decisions to his exasperated boss, Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins).

The tactful if overly cautious Lovo is dressed in a subdued dark pinstripe three-piece suit, plain white shirt, and striped tie, a standard look for the typical American businessman through the 20th century, the total opposite of Tony’s frantic suit, striped shirt, and sparkling diamond tie tack.

The gangster and the businessman: The brash Tony Camonte’s loud clothing reflects his impulsive decisions while his boss Johnny Lovo channels the look and tact of a traditional businessman.

Now that Tony is on the fast track to power and success, he wears exclusively double-breasted suits from this point forward; even his black dinner jacket is double-breasted per a newly popular style of black tie dress in the early 1930s.

This double-breasted suit jacket has a six-on-two (6×2) button front that he keeps fastened at all times, with an era-consistent full wrap that covers most of his torso and all but the very top of the suit’s matching single-breasted waistcoat.

The full-bellied peak lapels have long, straight gorges and a buttonhole through each side. The shoulders are padded and structured with roped sleeveheads, and the back is ventless. The flapped hip pockets are straight in line with the lowest row of buttons, and the welted breast pocket is embellished with a dark printed silk kerchief that is rakishly flopping out.

Tony Camonte swaggers into the office, checking in with his associates before facing the music from his boss. We’ve all been there.

Assuming that this suit is styled like his other three-piece suit – a solid dark suit worn for the film’s finale – the waistcoat (vest) has six buttons and a notched bottom, and the flat front trousers have side pockets and belt loops where he wears a dark leather belt with a flat buckle. The trouser bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs) that drape over the top of his spats.

“Spats” is a shortened colloquialism for spatterdashes (or spatter guards), which were a cloth cover that buttoned around the ankles of men’s and women’s shoes to protect them from the elements. Most popular from the late Victorian era through the early 1920s, spats have been out of fashion in all but the most old-fashioned or formal contexts for nearly a century. Their most immediate pop culture reference is from Some Like It Hot where Muni’s Scarface co-star George Raft parodied his own gangster image by playing the ruthless coin-flipping mob boss “Spats” Colombo. In their infinite wisdom, the vintage-minded outfitters at Historical Emporium offer spats in a variety of styles.

Beginning with this sequence, Tony Camonte wears light button-side spats over black patent leather shoes with all of his double-breasted lounge suits.

Tony leads his crew out to discover the corpse of a fellow gang member, his spats protecting those patent leather shoes against the dirty street.

Tony wears one of his new dress shirts with bold dark stripes on a white ground. The shirt has a large point collar with moderate tie space, a front placket, and single-button rounded cuffs. He would later wear this same shirt with his more subdued pinstripe double-breasted suit after Poppy’s visit… despite sharing with her his plan to wear shirts only once.

Tony wears a dark silk tie with white polka dots, adorned with a diamond-studded pin in the shape of a horseshoe, echoing the diamond stickpins known to be worn by the real Al Capone of whom Tony Camonte is a thinly veiled cinematic surrogate. He wears the tie pin only a few inches below his tie knot so that it remains visible above his high-fastening vest.

Keeping that proudly auction-bought ring clean…

Dazzled by Tony’s diamond-studded stickpin and pinky shiner only inches away from each other, Poppy can’t help but to deadpan: “I see you’re goin’ in for jewelry. Kind of effeminate, isn’t it?” Tony, hardly the most adept commander of the English language, interprets this as a compliment – “Huh? Yeah! I got ’em at an auction. A bargain!” – which he punctuates by blowing on his ring and rubbing against his suit lapel to shine it.

Tony tops off the look with a light-colored felt fedora with a dark grosgrain band and a slightly recessed pinched crown.

How to Get the Look

Production photo of Paul Muni on the set of Scarface (1932)

Tony Camonte shows his wild side when dressing to impress, outfitting himself in a trifecta of patterns that’s so brash he doesn’t even care if there’s clash.

• Basketweave check-patterned three-piece suit:
  • Double-breasted 6×2-button suit jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Single-breasted 6-button vest
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White striped shirt with point collar, front placket, and 1-button cuffs
• Dark polka-dot silk tie
• Diamond-studded horseshoe-shaped tie pin
• Diamond pinky ring
• Light fedora with dark grosgrain band
• Black patent leather shoes with light gray button-side spats

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie or the Deluxe Gift Set which offers both the 1932 and 1983 versions as well as collectible lobby cards and featurettes on both discs.

If you subscribe to The Chap, the winter 2017 issue is coming out today and features an article I penned about the role of suits and style in early 1930s gangster cinema with this suit specifically mentioned.

The Quote

Ah, he ain’t so tough… hanging out in a flower shop. You afraid of a guy like that?

Footnote

A somewhat larger scaled example of basketweave-patterned suiting can be found on Gary Cooper’s jacket in this photo, circa 1937.

John Travolta as Chili Palmer in Get Shorty (1995)

Vitals

John Travolta as Chili Palmer, Miami loan shark and aspiring filmmaker

Los Angeles, Winter 1995

Film: Get Shorty
Release Date: October 20, 1995
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann

Background

December is here, and while you may not be in the mood yet for that “bold” Christmas sweater with working lights (these exist!), a nice warm long-sleeve polo in a reddish, rustic shade is the perfect layer for transitioning from the fall harvest season into the chilly first weekend of the holiday month.

Of course, in the L.A. of Get Shorty, the sun is brightly shining on Chili Palmer and his new acquaintances in the film industry as he takes a meeting with the eccentric pint-sized superstar Martin Weir (Danny DeVito), supposedly based on Dustin Hoffman after Elmore Leonard’s experiences working with him in the ’80s.

Chili is all ears to hear about Martin’s experiences in movies, but Martin finds himself wowed by Chili’s set of wheels… an Oldsmobile minivan that he was mistakenly given at the airport rather than his requested Cadillac. (“It’s the Cadillac of minivans,” Chili was told.)

What’d He Wear?

I’ve received several requests to write about John Travolta’s style as Get Shorty‘s slick loan shark-turned-movie producer. Chili Palmer is hardly a vibrant dresser; he uses a limited palette of strong, dark colors to create a smooth look that simultaneously evokes sophistication and danger.

In addition to his plot-propelling leather jacket, Chili brings three suits with him to the West Coast: a taupe silk suit from which he wears the orphaned jacket, a solid black suit that gets the most wear out of, and this subtly striped black suit that he wears only with a rust-colored polo shirt that coordinates with the russet tones of the stripes in the suiting.

Chili encounters Bear (James Gandolfini), Bo Catlett’s right-hand man.
Notice the very subtly striped suiting, differentiating it from Chili’s usual solid black suit.

Certainly a man who cares about style, Chili’s suits are styled in the fashion of the 1990s without giving too much to the era’s trends (think Chandler Bing’s boxy three-button suits). At 6’2″, John Travolta is the kind of guy who could have gotten away with the three-button suit jacket fad of the ’90s, but Chili’s single-breasted jacket is more inspired by timeless trends with its (albeit low) two-button front.

Additional concessions to the decade are the padded shoulders and ventless back. The jacket also has a welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, and four-button cuffs.

Chili demonstrates the wonders of the 1994 Oldsmobile Silhouette for an astonished Martin Weir.

Unlike his literary counterpart in Elmore Leonard’s 1990 novel, Travolta’s on-screen Chili eschews dress shirts, instead exclusively wearing long-sleeve soft knit polo shirts in dark, solid colors. With this suit, he calls out the subtle striping with a rust-colored silk polo shirt, worn buttoned to the neck as usual.

Karen Flores (Rene Russo) accompanies Chili on his adventurous day of meetings.

The soft silk shirt has a large self-collar with gently rounded points and pick stitching visible along the edges. He wears it with all three of the rust-colored recessed plastic sew-through buttons closed up to the neck.

Chili listens attentively as Martin Weir regales him with film industry lore.

Chili wears his shirt untucked, covering his waistband, but his trousers likely have belt loops and would be worn with a black leather belt, similar to this one from the production featured on Prop Bay with its ridged gold-toned single-prong buckle.

The flat front trousers have side pockets where Chili frequently slips his hands and plain-hemmed bottoms.

A blink-if-you-miss-it continuity error: Chili’s usual black alligator loafers are replaced by these noticeably different off-white shoes in this full shot of Martin, Chili, and Karen leaving the Weir mansion.

It would be hard for a guy like Chili Palmer to have street cred with the mob if he didn’t own at least one pair of gator-skin footwear. Chili sports a pair of black alligator loafers throughout Get Shorty, worn with a pair of black ribbed socks that continue the leg lines of his invariably black trousers into his shoes.

Chili on set, prominently sporting his black alligator loafers.

Chili doubles down on his mob street cred factor by sporting all gold jewelry, albeit more subtly than some. His thin gold watch has a rectangular case and is strapped to his left wrist on a flat gold bracelet. On his right hand, Chili wears a gold ring with a large green square stone.

The closest approximation to this outfit in the source novel would likely be when Leonard describes Palmer’s muted dark blue pinstripe suit, worn with a rust-colored tie and a tab-collared blue shirt. Here, we indeed have a muted dark striped suit but the rust coloration is spread from the tie into a more casual shirt.

How to Get the Look

Saunter into the first weekend of the holiday month by subtly incorporating some color into your wardrobe à la Chili Palmer in Get Shorty.

• Black wool suit with subtle rust striping:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops, side pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Rust-colored silk knit long-sleeve 3-button polo shirt
• Black edge-stitched leather belt with gold-toned single-prong ridged square buckle
• Black alligator loafers
• Black dress socks
• Thin rectangular yellow gold watch on a flat gold bracelet
• Gold ring with green stone

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Buy the movie. It even had the rare approval of Elmore Leonard himself – as reported in the Los Angeles Times in 1995 – and is still considered among the best adaptations of his work.

And speaking of his work… you should definitely grab Leonard’s novel while you’re at it!

The Quote

Rough business, this movie business. I’m gonna have to go back to loan sharking just to take a rest.

Albert Finney as Leo O’Bannon in Miller’s Crossing (1990)

Vitals

Albert Finney as Liam “Leo” O’Bannon, Irish Mob-connected political boss

Upstate New York, Fall 1929

Film: Miller’s Crossing
Release Date: September 21, 1990
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Aude Bronson-Howard

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Following an assassination attempt that he foiled with his Thompson artistry, small-town political boss Leo O’Bannon summons his troops to his office. One of said troops, Hammett-esque anti-hero Tom Reagan (Gabriel Byrne) uses the opportunity to earn the ire of his boss by revealing his affair with Leo’s main squeeze, Verna (Marcia Gay Harden).

Stewing after watching his house burn down and now learning about the blatant betrayal of his closest acquaintances, Leo literally (and yes, I mean “literally”) kicks the insolent Tom out of his office and out of his club, set to the deliciously incongruous but strangely appropriate sound of tenor Frank Patterson crooning “Goodnight, Sweetheart” in the style of British vocalist Al Bowlly.

What’d He Wear?

Caught in the middle of his evening ritual, Leo escaped from his fiery abode in only a red silk robe, pajamas, and velvet slippers. Classy? Yes. Practical for ordering revenge on the mob that tried to kill you? No.

Thus, Leo evidently finds himself some decent clothes to wear while commanding his gangsters from the office above his nightclub. The timeless ensemble of a charcoal odd jacket and gray flannel trousers is dated perhaps only by the two-tone spectator wingtips… but they’re perhaps a better fit with this outfit than the slippers would have been!

Leo’s charcoal wool jacket is double-breasted with a six-button front. The full-bellied peak lapels sweep across his torso with a broad convex lapel line, ending at sharp peaks pointing toward the wide, padded shoulders.

Leo’s jacket has a welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets on axis with the lowest two of his six-button front, and three-button cuffs. The jacket is tailored to give the burly Leo a more athletic silhouette, built up at the shoulders and suppressed at the waist with a half-belted back. A long single vent extends up the center back to the bottom of the belted waist line.

Leo takes a moment to consider his next move.

Leo wears a pale blue cotton shirt with widely spaced blue-gray stripes that alternate between thin double sets and a thicker single stripe. The shirt has a semi-spread collar, a large breast pocket, a plain front with mother-of-pearl buttons, and square single-button cuffs that Leo unbuttons and rolls up when he realizes he needs to kick some ass.

When your boss charges at you with rolled-up shirt sleeves and a stern expression, watch out. Be especially on guard if he’s surrounded by his gun-toting flunkies.

Leo’s maroon foulard tie has a subtle box pattern, styled apropos the era with a wide blade that ends at his high waistband. The knot is a small four-in-hand that looks less balanced with the wide blade.

Rather than a belt, Leo wears maroon box-patterned fabric suspenders that look like a larger scaled version of his tie pattern. The suspenders have shiny gold-toned adjusters and black leather ears that hook into buttons along the inside of his trouser waistband.

Leo delivers “the kiss-off.” You’re on your own now, Tom.

Leo’s gray flannel trousers have a long rise and double reverse pleats, consistent with menswear fads of the late ’20s and early ’30s. They have side pockets and a full fit through the hips and legs down to the turn-ups (cuffs) with a full break over his shoes.

The guy over Leo’s left shoulder attempts to pull off a similar look but hits a few bumps along his sartorial path.

Spectator shoes enjoyed the pinnacle of their popularity during the ’20s and ’30s, and it’s fitting that a confident if somewhat oblivious type like Leo O’Bannon would wear his when trying to command respect during a night of mob war. Leo’s medallion perforated semi-brogues have a black wingtip, black heel counter, and black lace panels on white vamps.

Flashy footwear doesn’t end with his shoes. Leo coordinates his socks to his shirt and tie with a pair of maroon socks with a solid blue stripe on each side and widely spaced brick red stripes providing a gentle tonal contrast.

Leo O’Bannon in colorfully-hosed respite.

On the third finger of his right hand, Leo wears a large gold ring with a round green setting, an appropriately colored stone for a guy who channels the luck o’ the Irish.

Unwelcome shoulder rubbing is not cool, Leo.

Having left his pocket watch to burn in the blazing house fire, Leo wears no watch at all in this sequence.

How to Get the Look

Leo O’Bannon’s conservatively dressed down office outfit could form the basis for your next date night attire, with a few updates here or there to make it contemporary for 2018… rather than 1928.

• Charcoal wool double-breasted six-button jacket with wide peak lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and half-belted back with single vent
• Pale blue striped cotton shirt with semi-spread collar, plain front, large breast pocket, and 1-button squared cuffs
• Maroon box-patterned tie
• Maroon box-patterned fabric suspenders with gold adjusters and black leather connectors
• Gray flannel double reverse-pleated trousers with side pockets and turn-ups/cuffs
• Black-and-white leather wingtip spectator semi-brogue shoes
• Maroon dress socks with blue side stripes and widely spaced brick red stripes
• Gold ring with large green stone

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

It’s the kiss-off! If I never see him again, it’ll be soon enough!

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos episode “Meadowlands” (Episode 1.04)

Vitals

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, Jersey mob boss and conflicted family man

New Jersey, Fall 1999

Series: The Sopranos
Episodes:
– “Meadowlands” (Episode 1.04), dir. John Patterson, aired 1/31/1999
– “The Knight in White Satin Armor” (Episode 2.12), dir. Allen Coulter, aired 4/2/2000
– “Employee of the Month” (Episode 3.04), dir. John Patterson, aired 3/18/2001
– “All Due Respect” (Episode 5.13), dir. John Patterson, aired 6/6/2004
Creator: David Chase
Costume Designer: Juliet Polcsa

Background

According to the list of “who knew?” observances, February 27th is National Cigar Day! To commemorate this celebration of Winston Churchill, Ulysses Grant, and Mark Twain’s favorite past time, BAMF Style explores one of my favorite cigar smokers of the small screen, Tony Soprano.

So what is Tony’s preferred cigar? We’ve seen him gift a box of Montecristos, and the second season finds him lighting up Macanudos before switching to what appears to be CAO L’Anniversaire Robusto in the third season. (If you’ve observed any other cigars smoked on The Sopranos, let everyone know in the comments section!)

Today’s post goes back to the beginning, when Tony Soprano is balancing the prospect of a mob war with his stubborn Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese) with the demands of his therapy and family life. If ever there was a time for a man to need a cigar!

What’d He Wear?

The fourth episode of The Sopranos, “Meadowlands”, features Tony Soprano in an outfit that he would intermittently return to through the series’ run, pairing a black odd jacket with a dressed-down shirt and earth-tone slacks. Interestingly, this combination is almost always worn in tandem with one of Tony’s therapy sessions.

Tony’s black wool single-breasted jacket in “Meadowlands” has notch lapels that roll to a two-button front, straight flapped hip pockets, and a welted breast pocket where he wears a gold printed silk pocket square.

Heeding Junior’s advice to “come heavy” before their next meeting, Tony checks the load in his 9mm FEG pistol…

Men of James Gandolfini’s size tend to prefer pleated trousers for their roominess over the hips, and Tony wears a pair of khaki slacks with double reverse pleats. These trousers have narrow belt loops for his black leather belt, side pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs) on the bottoms.

…Tony then stashes the pistol in the back of his trouser waistband, hoping that he won’t need it but fearing the worst when working against his excessively proud uncle.

Tony’s shoes are the same black calf leather derbies that he had worn for his previous confrontation with Uncle Junior in the same episode when he wears wearing his gray suit with a black shirt and tie. These shoes have a perforated cap toe and five lace eyelets. He wears them with black cotton lisle socks.

Tony’s patterned silk polo shirt, also briefly worn sans jacket in “Boca” (Episode 1.09), consists of a print of broken gray rectangles and black hash marks on an olive-taupe ground. The shirt’s twill collar, ribbed sleeve ends, and inner placket are all the same solid olive-taupe color. Tony wears the three-button “plain front” placket both buttoned to the neck and with the top button undone.

Prozac time!

Tony sports both of his usual rings, a gold ring with diamond-and-ruby clusters on his right pinky and a plain gold wedding band on the third finger on his left hand. On his right wrist, Tony wears a gold chain-link bracelet.

Tony’s watch, an 18-karat yellow gold Rolex “President” Day-Date 18238 is worn on his left wrist. This classic watch has a 36mm yellow gold case, a champagne-colored dial, and a heavy Oyster three-piece link bracelet which gives the timepiece its “President” moniker.  Touted by Rolex as its “most prestigious” model since 1956, when it was famously worn by then-U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, the Rolex President is a fitting choice for a powerful man in a leadership position like Tony Soprano.

Tony uses his aged uncle’s pride as a negotiating tactic, quietly arguing for more control in the middle of a congratulatory embrace.

Unseen here but almost certainly present is the gold 18″-long open-link chain necklace with a St. Jerome pendant that Tony always wears.

Beyond Season 1…

As I mentioned, the black odd jacket and earth-tone slacks would come back from time to time over the course of The Sopranos. Certain elements remained the same: a black single-breasted jacket, an earth-toned shirt always worn sans tie, earth-toned pleated trousers, and black derby shoes.

The outfit’s next appearance was the penultimate episode of the second season, “The Knight in White Satin Armor” (Episode 2.12), when Tony shows up in therapy wearing clothing that is likely bigger than his first season garb to accommodate Gandolfini’s increasing size. Tony wears a black three-button jacket and taupe pleated trousers. His black derby shoes have a split-toe unlike the perforated cap-toe of his first season footwear.

Tony also wears a melange oatmeal mock-neck shirt, a style that combines the aesthetic of a crew-neck sweatshirt with the lightweight comfort of a T-shirt. It’s slightly dressier than either of those garments, but it’s still less formal than a collared shirt so Tony foregoes a pocket square with this outfit.

“The Knight in White Satin Armor” (Episode 2.12): Tony’s most dressed-down version of the black odd jacket and earthy slacks ensemble.

In all future appearances of this outfit aesthetic, Tony eschews pullover shirts in favor of button-up shirts. Costume designer Juliet Polcsa confirmed in a September 2014 interview with The Independent that “less polo shirts became more of a necessity as Jim Gandolfini gained more weight. He wasn’t comfortable in knits that clung to him.”

Thus, by the time of “Employee of the Month” (Episode 3.04), Tony arrives at his therapy appointment with Dr. Melfi wearing a silky brown shirt with a plain front, breast pocket, and button cuffs. Much of the character’s wardrobe overlapped between seasons two and three, so he seems to be wearing the same larger black three-button jacket as he did in “The Knight in White Satin Armor”, this time with brown double-reverse pleated trousers and an olive silk pocket square.

“Employee of the Month” (Episode 3.04): The silky texture of the shirt is all that keeps Tony’s base layer from resembling a UPS uniform.

The most sinister incarnation of the black odd jacket and earthy trousers arrives for the outfit’s final observed appearance. Even for a violent mob-centric show, The Sopranos had taken a decidedly dark turn by the time of “All Due Respect” (Episode 5.13), reflected by Tony’s all-black upper half. He has graduated to an even larger black jacket, this one with a two-button front and three-button cuffs, worn with a silky black shirt with a plain front and mitred two-button cuffs.

“All Due Respect” (Episode 5.13)

Tony wears another pair of taupe brown slacks with double reverse pleats and cuffed bottoms. His cotton lisle socks are a close match for the trouser color, continuing the leg-line into his black derby shoes. His finishing touch is a black silk pocket square with a tan-and-taupe pattern, unifying all of the colors in the outfit.

“All Due Respect” (Episode 5.13)

How to Get the Look

James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano in The Sopranos episode “Employee of the Month” (Episode 3.04), following his usual template for wearing a black odd jacket with earth-toned trousers, silk pocket square, and dressed-down shirt.

Black suits and jackets are often associated with mobsters. It’s interesting to see the difference that color makes when comparing Tony Soprano’s black odd jacket and slacks with the more traditional navy blazer and khakis… and thus determining what his diversion from this norm says about how he balances his own image with that of a “legitimate businessman”.

• Black wool single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
• Earth-toned short-sleeve polo or long-sleeve button-up shirt
• Taupe or khaki double reverse-pleated slacks with belt loops, side pockets, and turn-ups (cuffs)
• Black leather belt with silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black leather perforated cap-toe 5-eyelet derby shoes
• Black cotton lisle socks
• White ribbed cotton sleeveless undershirt
• Rolex President Day-Date 118238 yellow gold wristwatch
• Gold open-link chain bracelet
• Gold pinky ring with ruby and diamond stones
• Gold wedding band
• Gold open-link chain necklace with round St. Jerome pendant

The Gun

Having been warned by his Uncle Junior to “come heavy or not at all” to their next meeting, Tony packs heat before entering Junior’s hangout. The pistol that Tony loads and slips into the back of his trouser waistband has been identified by IMFDB and confirmed by The Golden Closet’s records to be a FEG R9, a double-action Hungarian copy of the classic Browning Hi-Power.

Tony prepares for the worst.

After decades in the design phase, the single-action Browning Hi-Power was introduced by Belgian manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN) in 1935 and led the way for the following generation of “Wonder Nines,” a moniker given to semi-automatic pistols chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum with staggered magazines designed to carry nearly double the capacity of their predecessors.

As it was introduced in the years leading up to World War II, the Hi-Power design was a hot commodity among both Allies and Axis, with the Germans taking control of the FN factory after they occupied Belgium in 1940. Many countries took a stab at producing their own copies of the Browning Hi-Power, including Canada, India, and Hungary.

The Hungarian firm Fegyver- és Gépgyár (FEG) may be better known to the world now for its HVAC units than its firearms, but it produced its own variants of the Browning Hi-Power, the P9M and the PJK-9HP, during the Cold War. During the 1990s, FEG began exporting its products to the United States, including the single-action FP9 and traditional double-action P9R and R9 variants.

The Sopranos used at least one of the latter, a FEG R9, during the first season. It was first seen in “Meadowlands” (Episode 1.04) when Tony packed one before his meeting with Uncle Junior and again in “I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano” (Episode 1.13) when Paulie is gunning down one of Junior’s guys in the woods.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the entire series… and celebrate National Cigar Day accordingly!

The Quote

My uncle, he’s got me in a box where I gotta do something I don’t want to do. Then there’s my mother. I pay four grand a month for this place, and she acts like I’m an Eskimo pushing her out to sea.

Lee Marvin as Charlie Strom in The Killers (1964)

Vitals

Lee Marvin as Charlie Strom, professional mob hitman

Los Angeles, Fall 1963

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

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

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

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

What’d He Wear?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charlie Strom takes aim.

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

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

How to Get the Look

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

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

The Guns

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do Yourself a Favor and…

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

The Quote

Lady, I don’t have the time!