Two for the Road: Albert Finney’s Cream Trucker Jacket and Jeans

Albert Finney in Two for the Road (1967)

Vitals

Albert Finney as Mark Wallace, young architect and amateur photographer

Northern France, Spring 1954

Film: Two for the Road
Release Date: April 27, 1967
Director: Stanley Donen
Wardrobe Coordinator: Sophie Issartel-Richas
Albert Finney’s Clothes: Hardy Amies

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Born 88 years ago today on May 9, 1936, the late, great Albert Finney’s prolific stage and screen career spanned six decades from his 1956 stage debut in Henry V to his final screen appearance as the grizzled Scottish groundskeeper Kincade in Daniel Craig’s 2012 James Bond adventure Skyfall.

The 1967 romantic road comedy Two for the Road presented one of Finney’s most stylish performances—appropriate for starring as the romantic lead opposite Audrey Hepburn. The story chronicles the 12-year relationship between the English couple Mark and Joanna Wallace through a series of trips taken together through northern France, including the first trip when they meet on the ferry from England to Dieppe.

Traveling with her choir, Jo introduces herself to Mark by helping him find the passport he believed he had misplaced but was merely on top of his backpack. Their paths cross several times on the road to Abbeville, where Mark seems to be growing closer to the choir supervisor Jackie (Jacqueline Bisset), only for Jackie to succumb with the rest of the group to chickenpox… leaving only Jo and Mark unaffected.  Jo then joins a reluctant Mark as he continues hitchhiking farther south into France, exploring the country and their fledgling relationship through his oft-boorish monologues on architecture, sex, and marriage, until he ends up proposing the latter after their week together.

What’d He Wear?

Three years after the publication of his seminal style guide, ABCs of Men’s Fashion, London designer Hardy Amies was credited with “Mr. Finney’s clothes” in Two for the Road, though Sir Hardy’s fingerprints were arguably less conspicuous for Mark and Jo’s initial adventure through France when his modest road wardrobe consists of the clothes on his back and whatever he can fit into his knapsack.

The wandering young architect anchors his daily apparel around a jacket and jeans made from a matching cream-colored twill, likely chosen to fit Amies’ definition for appropriate leisure wear in that volume as “any sort of clothing that is comfortable without being sloppy.”

Though his matching set recalls the Lee Westerner outfit introduced in 1959 as an extension of the Lee-Sures casual line, Mark’s jacket is actually a Levi’s 840B—a 1960s variation of the contemporary denim “Type III” trucker jacket.

Albert Finney and Aubrey Hepburn in Two for the Road (1967)

The Levi’s “jean jacket” dates back to the 1905 introduction of the 506XX Blouse, which evolved into two-pocket 507XX in 1953. Later known to collectors as the “Type I” and “Type II”, respectively, these two garments would have been more contemporary to the 1954 setting of this scene, as the Type III wasn’t introduced until the launch of the 557XX model in 1962. It’s this 557XX/Type III that remains the quintessential Levi’s trucker jacket, retaining some elements of earlier designs but with V-shaped seams replacing the earlier “knife pleats”.

The 840B was essentially an off-white twill facsimile of the blue denim 557XX, with its shirt-style collar, six branded copper rivet buttons, two-button waist tabs, single-button squared cuffs, and two chest pockets positioned at the horizontal chest yoke with pointed flaps fastening closed over a single button that covers the top of the “V”-shaped seams extending down from yoke to waist. (The 840B isn’t as conspicuously branded as the typical 557XX, lacking the signature Levi’s tab often sewn along the jacket’s left chest pocket flap.)

Albert Finney and Aubrey Hepburn in Two for the Road (1967)

Mark’s cream twill jeans are likely also Levi’s to match the jacket, almost certainly from their sporty STA-PREST™ line introduced in the ’60s as a permanent-pressed alternative to “wash-and-wear” fabrics of the era.

Levi Strauss & Co. historian Tracey Panek wrote that the first run of STA-PREST™ trousers introduced in 1964 were 100% cotton, but the brand ultimately transitioned to a 65/35% blend of synthetic and natural fabrics that better withstood being baked at 300°F in the curing ovens at the Levi’s plant in Knoxville. The marque was revived in the ’90s and eventually found its way into James Bond’s closet when Daniel Craig’s 007 sported two pairs of light beige STA-PREST™ jeans in Quantum of Solace (2008)—which you can read more about here and here.

Like the 840B, these cream-colored straight-leg jeans echo the styling of their denim cousin with the traditional five-pocket layout—two patch-style back pockets, two curved front pockets, and a coin/watch pocket inset on the right—and belt loops that go mostly unused, save for a few scenes when Mark wears a narrow brown leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle.

Albert Finney in Two for the Road (1967)

Mark cycles between two plaid poplin shirts with his Levi’s sportswear that are identical in every detail, including the check pattern which differs only by the specific colorways. These long-sleeved shirts each have a spread collar, plain button-up front, breast pocket, and single-button cuffs. Given his involvement in Finney’s on-screen wardrobe, these shirts may have been from Hardy Amies’ ready-to-wear line, which launched in 1959.

The first shirt, worn during the ferry ride to Dieppe and subsequent trip to Abbeville, features a wide mint-green and violet windowpane check against a white ground, intersected by a narrower violet and pale-blue graph check.

Albert Finney and Jacqueline Bisset in Two for the Road (1967)

Jo interrupts Mark and Jackie who, if not for an unfortunate case of chickenpox, may have been the one to eventually be returning to France with him several times over the next dozen years.

Later in the journey, Mark changes into a shirt with a nearly identical check pattern, though the violet windowpane check is framed by a wide yellow shadow-check against a white ground, intersected by a narrower violet and magenta-pink graph check.

Albert Finney and Aubrey Hepburn in Two for the Road (1967)

Mark and Jo.

When Mark wears his white cotton undershirts, the crew-neck shows under the open-neck collar of his plaid sport shirts. These undershirts have very short set-in sleeves, and we see that he wears them with nearly matching white cotton short-inseam undershorts.

Albert Finney in Two for the Road (1967)

On the ferry, Mark wears a cream ribbed-knit bobble hat that nearly matches his jacket and jeans, cuffed around the opening and detailed with a pom-pom.

Albert Finney in Two for the Road (1967)

Mark hunts desperately for his passport aboard the ferry in Dieppe.

Hardy Amies touts the desert boot in his 1964 volume ABCs of Men’s Fashion, describing the two factors that resulted in its development shortly after World War II: “One was the voertrekker boot, deriving from Dutch settlement days, and introduced into Western Desert warfare by South African divisions of the Eighth Army; the other was the Chupplee sandal worn by Indian troops on the North West frontier, and admired for its comfort by officers from the Western Desert visiting Burma.” This familiarity influenced Nathan Clark’s design for the “desert boot” as executed by pattern-cutter Bill Tuxhill when introduced by his family’s Somerset-based shoemaker Clarks at the 1950 Chicago Shoe Fair.

Desert boots share the ankle-high uppers of similarly styled chukka boots but are characterized by their crepe rubber soles, intended to wear comfortably on sand. Though the colors and cloths used to craft the uppers have varied in the decades since their introduction, the original Clarks desert boots featured sand-colored suede uppers like the two-eyelet boots worn by Mark in Two for the Road. He exclusively wears white ribbed crew socks that have a black and dark-taupe band around the tops.

Albert Finney in Two for the Road (1967)

We actually see Mark wearing his desert boots in the sand during a romp on the beach with Jo toward the end of their sojourn on the Mediterranean, wearing them with his black short-inseam swim briefs and one of the party hats they acquired in their travels.

Albert Finney and Aubrey Hepburn in Two for the Road (1967)

How to Get the Look

Albert Finney and Aubrey Hepburn in Two for the Road (1967)

Mark Wallace’s wardrobe throughout Two for the Road becomes more sophisticated as he ages through his travels with Jo over the dozen years to follow, but the matching cream-colored Levi’s trucker jacket and jeans with plaid sport shirts and desert boots emphasize the character’s youthful sense of adventure when Jo first meets him in 1954—even if most of what he’s wearing hadn’t been technically invented yet.

  • Cream cotton twill Levi’s 840B trucker jacket with shirt-style collar, six copper rivet buttons, two chest pockets (with single-button pointed flaps), V-shaped seams, single-button squared cuffs, and two-button waist tabs
  • Cream poly/cotton twill Levi’s STA-PREST™ straight-leg jeans with belt loops, five-pocket configuration, and plain-hemmed bottoms
  • White and violet multi-checked poplin long-sleeved sport shirt with spread collar, plain button-up front, breast pocket, and button cuffs
  • Sand suede 2-eyelet desert boots with crepe rubber soles
  • White ribbed crew socks with black and dark-taupe bands
  • White cotton crew-neck short-sleeve undershirt
  • White cotton short-inseam undershorts
  • Cream-colored ribbed-knit bobble hat with pom-pom

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

The Quote

If there’s one thing I really despise, it’s an indispensable woman.

One comment

  1. Lex

    One of my favorite actors, RIP. I loved him as Scrooge…and he was a young man when he played him expertly in different stages of life.
    From Saturday Night to Sunday Morning, to the tune of Danny Boy and a Tommy Gun, we salute you, Finney, you magnificent bastard.

    Also, Audrey Hepburn RIP.

    This is why I keep coming back here.

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