The Talented Mr. Ripley: Dickie’s White Polo and Pink Shorts
Jude Law with co-stars Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Vitals
Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf, narcissistic profligate playboy
Italy, October 1958
Film: The Talented Mr. Ripley
Release Date: December 25, 1999
Director: Anthony Minghella
Costume Design: Ann Roth & Gary Jones
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
After exploring some of Alain Delon’s sharply tailored style in Plein soleil (Purple Noon) earlier this week, today’s post shifts attention to the 1999 adaptation of the same source material, Patricia Highsmith’s psychological thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley set on the sunny Italian coast.
The somewhat awkward triangle of carefree Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow), and interloping grifter Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) is made all the more uncomfortable with the presence of Dickie’s outspoken friend Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who spends the better part of a morning at Mongibello openly mocking Tom. When Dickie doesn’t come to Tom’s defense and, in fact, seems to encourage the behavior, his time grows increasingly limited as his obsessive young houseguest seethes.
What’d He Wear?
Dickie Greenleaf’s luxurious yet laidback style sets an ideal example for warm weather casual wear. Scott Fraser Collection, a unique London menswear label that operates on the philosophy of retrospective modernism, has recently introduced two impressive knit shirts to its emerging Icons Series line that were directly inspired by Jude Law’s on-screen style in The Talented Mr. Ripley, specifically the Ripley Ischia Knit Shirt (based on Dickie’s yellow mesh shirt) and the Ripley Anzio Knit Shirt (based on Dickie’s white-and-slate shirt), both crafted in Milan from fine merino wool.
Not all of Dickie’s shirts are quite as complexly designed, however, and he joins his guests on this particular morning in a simple white short-sleeved polo shirt, woven in a light diamond-textured cotton with a wide double-layered collar and two-button top.
Dickie also presses into service the trusty comfort of his frequently worn light pink Bermuda shorts, which he’d also worn earlier at home with his white-and-slate panel-front shirt. Per the era’s fashions, these shorts rise high to Law’s natural waist line, where they are tightened into place with side adjuster tabs on each side of the waistband. These double forward-pleated shorts have side pockets, button-through back pockets, and are worn with the bottoms casually cuffed. (Despite how much Dickie seems to favor them, these didn’t fare too well in Bustle’s commemorative piece ranking all of Dickie’s shorts, published in time for the film’s 15th anniversary on Christmas 2014.)
Pink shorts for men are hardly as elusive as they may have been, thanks to brands like Nautica and even Amazon’s house brand Goodthreads, safe chino-cloth offerings for gents looking to test whether pink shorts are right for them but lacking the panache of Dickie’s mid-century shorts with their elegant long rise, pleats, and summer-weight fabric. Available in a variety of colors (though not pink), the Scott Fraser Collection includes Dickie-inspired high-waisted Riviera shorts, naval-detailed with double pleats, side adjusters, and a range of colors in summery cotton and linen fabrics.
As we can’t see Dickie’s feet during this sequence, we can only assume that he’s wearing his usual white canvas slip-on “half-sneakers”, laced through four sets of eyelets but with no back for a comfortable, casual pair of shoes to be worn without socks.
Of course, Dickie took the time to dress his hands with his signature array of jewelry, including the gold-ridged ring on his right middle finger and the gold pinky ring with its gleaming green stone that Dickie received as a gift from Marge and “had to promise—capital P—never to take it off”. He also wears his sleek steel watch with its silver dial and steel mesh bracelet with a single-prong buckle, which has never been positively identified to my knowledge but has been speculated to be a product by Bulova, Hamilton, Longines, Swanson, or Wittenauer.
Breakfast in style.
Update! Thank you to BAMF Style reader Scott, who shared a Spotern link indicating that Dickie’s screen-worn timepiece is almost certainly an inexpensive Swanson watch from Japan, with a stainless case and silver dial detailed with a diamond at the 12 o’clock position and the 3, 6, and 9 o’clock hours marked with Arabic numerals.
Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf in The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
How to Get the Look
While more confident than many in his complex knitwear, flashy jackets, and boldly patterned shorts, Dickie Greenleaf also dresses comfortably in relatively simple staples like a white polo and pink shorts, though the subtle details of each add a layer of luxury apropos his status and lifestyle and, like the movie and its characters, reveal that there’s plenty more to see when you examine more closely.
- White diamond-textured cotton short-sleeve polo shirt with two-button top
- Light pink double forward-pleated Bermuda shorts with side adjusters, side pockets, and button-through back pockets
- White canvas slip-on backless sneakers
- Steel wristwatch with silver dial on silver mesh bracelet
- Gold double-ridged ring, worn on right middle finger
- Gold signet pinky ring with green stone, worn on left pinky
Does anybody know where I can find an alternative to the slightly sheer button-up short sleeved black shirt Dickie wears in the boat scene? It’s a pain – ASOS has a ‘sheer knit’ shirt that would be perfect, but it’s a polo, not a button up, and therefore couldn’t be worn with just the one button done up in the middle, like the most esteemed of prats (such as myself) would.
Correction on his canvas sneakers. They arent slip on, the back of the sneaker is just pressed down for easy on and off. You can clearly see when Dickie is dead in the boat. The camera pans over his sneakers and the back of the sneaker is present, but squished down.