Johnny Depp as Cry-Baby
Johnny Depp in Cry-Baby (1990)
Vitals
Johnny Depp as Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker, rebellious high school hellcat and rockabilly singer
Baltimore, Spring 1954
Film: Cry-Baby
Release Date: April 6, 1990
Director: John Waters
Wardrobe & Makeup Designer: Van Smith
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Just over three weeks after its premiere in John Waters’ native Baltimore where the film—among so many of his others—is set, Cry-Baby was more widely released 35 years ago tomorrow on April 5, 1990 in more than 1,200 theaters across North America—an unprecedented opening for the offbeat director.
This wider release indicated the film’s more mainstream appeal, lacking the more scatological elements of Waters’ prior works like Pink Flamingos (1972) while retaining enough of the director’s signatures to make it an effective introduction to his work. Despite this increased accessibility and some critical acclaim, Waters’ camped-up tribute to ’50s teen romances (think Grease for weirdos) still failed to find a solid audience at the outset. It wasn’t until years after its initial release that Cry-Baby developed a cult following among much of Waters’ other movies.
The titular “Cry-Baby” is Wade Walker, a high schooler who leads a gang of “Drapes”, much to the pride of his grandmother Ramona (Susan Tyrell)… though one of my favorite aspects of Cry-Baby is that, despite their image, he and his friends are actually quite polite, friendly, and respectful. During the school’s polio vaccination drive, he meets the charming fellow orphan Allison (Amy Locane), who rejects her clique’s dismissal of her new friends, insisting that “Drapes are people too!”
Cry-Baby’s own friends are much more accepting of the fact that he digs a “Square” chick, with his perpetually pregnant sister Pepper (Ricki Lake) flatteringly describing Allison as “a Scrape… part Square, part Drape.” Pepper and fellow Drape chicks “Hatchet-Face” (Kim McGuire) and Wanda (Traci Lords) give Allison a Drape-makeover when she attends his performance at the Jukebox Jamboree at Turkey Point, the same night that Allison’s Square friends take their revenge on her defection by trashing the Drapes’ party, leading to a brawl that lands Cry-Baby in jail until his 21st birthday.
What’d He Wear?
Having learned how to dress from his style-savvy Uncle Belvedere (Iggy Pop), Wade “Cry-Baby” Walker channels the image of a 1950s juvenile delinquent practically torn from the silver screen. His signature look is directly inspired by the likes of Marlon Brando in The Wild One—and it shows in every stitch.
Black Biker Jacket and Blue Jeans
The centerpiece of his rebel uniform is a classic motorcycle jacket, built from thick black leather and finished with gold-toned hardware, including the asymmetrical front zipper characteristic of biker jackets. The wide lapels have gold-finished snaps that fasten to the body of the jacket, as do the square-ended shoulder epaulets. The ends of the sleeves are finished with zip-back cuffs. Rather than the typical configuration of zippered pockets and snap-closed flap pockets, Cry-Baby’s biker jacket has a cleaner design with just two gently slanted set-in side pockets.
Cry-Baby leads his gang of Drapes in their nearly identical black leather biker jackets.
The jacket has a full self-belt around the waist, which closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle in the front and pulls through three snap-down loops around the back. Wade and his fellow Drapes all personalize their jackets with “Cry-Baby” boldly hand-painted in silver letters across the upper back.
Johnny Depp’s screen-worn jacket was auctioned by Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, though the listing doesn’t confirm its maker.
Unlike the Squares, Cry-Baby eschews the traditional button-up shirts that were still expected for respectable young men of the era and goes full greaser-style with his white cotton crew-neck T-shirt, with short sleeves easily rolled up when receiving the fateful polio vaccine that introduces him to Allison.
Cry-Baby tucks the plain white tee into his jeans, which were undergoing their 1950s transformation from a workwear staple to a sartorial symbol for a dressed-down counterculture. His indigo-blue denim Levi’s 501® Original Fit jeans follow the postwar configuration with button-fly, belt loops, and five pockets that changed little from their 1947 standardization—though the screen-worn jeans are likely contemporary as it features the back belt loop perfectly centered with the seat seam, which typically signifies post-1964 jeans. The key Levi’s identifiers are the arcuate stitch across the back pockets and red brand tab sewn along the back-right pocket, with the button-fly and cut further characterizing the iconic 501.
His edge-stitched belt is black leather—echoing his jacket and boots—with a tall, silver-toned single-prong buckle to close. He keeps his black leather wallet in the back-right pocket of his jeans, attached to a silver chain that connects to a black leather loop hooked over the right side of his belt.
Cry-Baby maintains his functional counterculture image with his well-worn black leather engineer boots. These rugged working-class boots were intended for train firemen upon their introduction in the 1930s, but bikers would soon adopt them, favoring the calf-high shafts and laceless design that would protect their legs from heat and potential snags in motorcycle drive-belts. Instead of laces, the boots are fitted with a buckled strap over the instep and another over the gusset atop each shaft. Cry-Baby keeps his jeans pulled over the shafts—self-cuffed at each end—so we only see the lower set of straps, each with a squared silver-toned single-prong buckle.
The boots’ black rubber outsoles are finished with steel heel plates to preserve the heels’ durability and also add that unmistakable sharp click with every step. Based on the outsoles’ tread patterns and the placement of the green rubber “OIL AND CHEMICAL RESISTANT” plugs, I believe Depp’s screen-worn boots were made by Texas-based bootmaker Honcho.
Cry-Baby completes his bad boy aesthetic with a set of black-framed sunglasses with amber-tinted lenses, echoing the “Wayfarer” model that Ray-Ban had just rolled out in 1952 but with a rounder shape.
Rockabilly Suits
When fronting his band on stage for “King Cry-Baby” during the Jukebox Jamboree, Wade ditches his streetwear for an attention-grabbing two-tone rockabilly suit that would’ve looked just at home anywhere between the Grand Ole Opry and the recording space at Sun Studio.
The wide-shouldered jacket is a creamy off-white across the shoulders and upper chest, separated from the black lower section with a row of silver-toned diagonal studs. The narrow all-white shawl collar dips down to a low-positioned contrasting white button that closes through a white-threaded buttonhole. The collar frames his all-white shirt and matching slim silk tie. The silky sport shirt has black stitching around the edge of the spread collar, with a snap-up front placket, breast pocket, and single-snap squared barrel cuffs.
The black trousers have white piping down each side seam, finished with white embroidered arrows. The front pockets have curved openings, revealing a contrasting cream-white lining, and Wade holds the trousers up with a slim black-to-white gradient leather belt. Rather than his engineer boots, he wears black leather derby shoes with pointy cap toes.
Freshly released from prison with just $3.50 and some clean underwear, Cry-Baby gears up for a game of chicken with the loudmouth Baldwin (Stephen Mailer). He’s wearing another rockabilly suit, this time in blue and white—perhaps some regional pride colors to honor the Baltimore Colts, which had just been established the year before and were still nearly three decades away from moving to Indianapolis.
The trousers are a bright-blue that matches the body of the full-fitting jacket, which has a contrasting white shawl collar (featuring a blue-embroidered design around the upper collar), single white shank button, narrow slanted white pocket flaps, and white sleeves that are banded in blue at the ends. He wears another silky white shirt—this one with an unadorned collar and plain button-up front—and a skinny pale-blue silk tie with navy dots against the tonal diamond design.
(If there’s any interest—either from readers or me—Cry-Baby’s rockabilly-inspired suits may get their own dedicated posts.)
Cry-Baby’s Wheels
From driving the Drapes home after school to the culminating game of chicken, Cry-Baby’s trusty “jalopy” in his 1951 Ford Custom two-door sedan, painted in matte priner black with orange flames curling back over the hood and from the front two tires. This was the last model year for the first line of full-size Fords introduced after World War II. Launched in 1949, these Fords were powered by either a 226 cubic-inch inline six-cylinder engine or the 239 cubic-inch “flathead” V8, which generated five more horsepower for a total output of 100 hp. Ford denoted the engine with a “6” or 8″ emblem at the center of the bullet-nose grille, which was updated for ’51 with a dual bullet-nose design, though Cry-Baby has clearly swapped in a custom grille.
1951 was also the first year for Ford to offer an automatic transmission, with the three-speed Ford-O-Matic available as an alternative to the standard three-speed sliding-mesh manual transmission.
The Drapes pile into Wade’s ’51 Ford.
Cry-Baby is delighted when he brings everyone home to his grandmother Ramona (Susan Tyrrell), who gifts him a brand-new Harley-Davidson Model KH motorcycle. Produced from 1954 through 1956 to compete with the growing popularity of lightweight British motorcycles, this was the final iteration of Harley’s sporty flathead K-series before the introduction of the overhead-valve Sportster lineup in 1957.
The Model KH increased the displacement of the side-valve flathead engine up to 888 ccc, in turn increasing output to approximately 38 horsepower. Mated to a four-speed foot-shift transmission, this would propel the 400-pound bike up to top speeds around 100 mph.
The screen-used 1955 Model KH was put up for auction in June 2022 by GWS Auctions.
“Grandmother… Uncle Belvedere… you’ve made me the happiest juvenile delinquent in Baltimore!”
How to Get the Look
Johnny Depp in Cry-Baby (1990)
Cry-Baby epitomizes the ’50s rebel in his black biker jacket, plain white tee, self-cuffed blue jeans, and scuffed black engineer boots—with both the flame-painted hot rod and Harley to authenticate his image.
- Black leather motorcycle jacket with gold-toned asymmetrical front zip, gold-toned snaps, slanted set-in side pockets, and full waist-belt with gold-toned single-prong buckle and triple back snap-down loops
- White cotton crew-neck short-sleeved T-shirt
- Indigo-blue denim Levi’s 501 Original Fit jeans
- Black edge-stitched leather belt with tall silver-toned single-prong buckle
- Black leather engineer boots with silver-toned single-prong buckles
- Black acetate-framed round-shape sunglasses
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
Electricity makes me insane!
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Great story, thanks. As I recall, Waters was the first director to recognize Depp as a talented actor who could lead a film — he was in 21 Jump Street at the time, destroying hotel rooms, derided as a talentless pretty boy. Costuming such an integral part of this film — sharp, funny, accurate — Depp didn’t get credit before this for his intelligence, but only someone with a sharp sense of humor and irony could have pulled this off.