Vitals

Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, Vegas casino executive and mob associate

Las Vegas, Spring 1979

Film: Casino
Release Date: November 22, 1995
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Rita Ryack & John A. Dunn

Background

It’s still early enough in spring for sweaters to be appropriate—especially when worn lightly and layered in bright, seasonal colors, like the pastels that costume designers Rita Ryack and John A. Dunn worked into Robert De Niro’s vibrant wardrobe in Casino, Martin Scorsese’s neon-lit 1995 crime epic celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. De Niro stars as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a meticulous gambler and mob-connected gaming executive based on real-life figure Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust Hotel and Casino from the 1960s through the early ’80s.

With an array of period-detailed pastel suits, silk shirts, and coordinated ties lining his closet, Ace rarely appears on screen in casual attire, but Ryack shared in 2002 that one of her favorite of Ace’s outfits from among her and Dunn’s costume design was “a pink bouclé golf sweater and trouser ensemble,” as cited in a 2002 New York Post article by Megan Turner.

Ace coordinates the sweater with a tonal shirt and trousers when his pivotal interview with two investigators from the Nevada state gaming control board is interrupted by an FBI plane making an emergency landing in his backyard while surveilling his estranged gangster pal Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), golfing with his crooked colleagues on the neighboring golf course. “The feds were watching Nicky play golf for so long, they ran out of gas,” Ace narrates. While Ace is horrified, Nicky is amused—challenging his mooks with “a hundred dollars to whoever hits the plane!”

(And speaking of money—Casino did not have a million-dollar costume budget, despite this oft-repeated rumor!)

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What’d He Wear?

Even in casual settings like his poolside interview, Ace can’t help but to revert to the borderline-obsessive color coordination that he maintains with his suits and ties. He greets the gaming board officials while dressed entirely in pink, including the bouclé-woven lightweight wool V-neck sweater with set-in sleeves and ribbed cuffs that he rolls back once over his wrists.

Ace layers the sweater over a fancy-striped shirt with an era-appropriate long-pointed collar that rests outside the neckline of his sweater, with only the top of his plain button-up front visible. The stripe alternates between a pale rosy pink and a muted salmon, separated by narrower white stripes. The sleeves are likely finished with button-fastened cuffs—either plain barrel cuffs or the fussier tab cuffs on some of his other shirts—as link-fastened double or single cuffs would be too bulky under the sweater’s elasticized cuffs.

Most of De Niro’s screen-worn shirts in Casino were made by Anto Beverly Hills, who reportedly revisited their original patterns for the shirts they made for the real Lefty Rosenthal through the ’70s and ’80s when crafting Ace’s shirts.

Ace’s solid pale-pink trousers have a flat front and plain-hemmed bottoms with a fashionable degree of ’70s flare. Though he sits through the scene, we can assume they’re tailored and styled like most of his other trousers, with a fitted waistband and “frogmouth”-style full-top front pockets.

Even his shoes appear to be pink, crafted from mauve leather uppers with long, pointed vamps and dark leather soles. Worn with muted rose-pink silk socks, these loafers may be the “pink leather shoes” by Johnston & Murphy mentioned among the inventory of De Niro’s screen-worn Casino costumes at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

Ace conducts the interview while wearing tortoise-framed aviator-style sunglasses in a sporty style popularized by the contemporary Carrera 5425 model, though the temple logos indicate a different brand. The text and style all suggest the possibility of the brand SunCloud… except I’ve never seen the SunCloud temple logo on eyewear of this era not represented in large, all-capitalized serif text. (In later scenes set in the early ’80s like his desert confrontation with Nicky, Ace wears the massive Ultra Goliath II frame, but these are clearly not those.)

Ace maintains his practice of wearing a pinky ring and (likely) a wristwatch, though the latter is concealed by the sleeves of his sweater. The 14-carat white-gold ring on his right pinky has a radiant-cut cubic zirconia—rather than a legit diamond—set in a geometric polished shank. Though unseen, his watch would likely also be white-gold, perhaps one of the 18-carat Bueche Girod quartz watches that Ace wore elsewhere.

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How to Get the Look

You can incorporate Ace Rothstein’s colorful sophistication into your spring wardrobe without a bright silk suit and a Regis-style matching shirt and tie, as the debonair De Niro pulls on the classic combination of an open-neck shirt, V-neck collar, and slacks—all in shades of pink, which Casino costume designer Rita Ryack has cited as one of her favorites from his wardrobe.

• Pink fancy-striped shirt with long-pointed collar, plain button-up front, and button cuffs
• Light-pink bouclé lightweight wool V-neck sweater
• Pale-pink flat-front trousers with fitted waistband, “frogmouth” full-top front pockets, and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
• Mauve-pink leather loafers
• Pink silk socks
• Tortoise-framed aviator-style sunglasses
• White-gold pinky ring with radiant-cut cubic zirconia

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.