Under the Silver Lake: Andrew Garfield’s Wood Badge T-Shirt
Andrew Garfield in Under the Silver Lake (2018)
Vitals
Andrew Garfield as Sam, sensitive stoner and conspiracy theorist
Los Angeles, Late Summer 2011
Film: Under the Silver Lake
Release Date: April 19, 2019
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Costume Designer: Caroline Eselin
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
David Robert Mitchell’s surrealist neo-noir Under the Silver Lake premiered seven years ago today during the 71st Cannes Film Festival, nearly a year before it was finally released theatrically by A24 in April 2019.
Andrew Garfield stars as Sam, a stoner in his early 30s whose interests of comics, classic movies, and conspiracy theories combine when he begins investigating the disappearance of his attractive neighbor Sarah (Riley Keough), the day after they met at the pool in his apartment complex. The two spend the evening getting high and watching How to Marry a Millionaire, only to be interrupted when her roommates return to the apartment. Sam returns the next morning to find that Sam and her roommates have swiftly moved out with no indication regarding what happened—aside from a mysterious symbol pointed on the wall.
Because he evidently didn’t watch the first season of Mad Men, Sam eventually learns from a comic book author (Patrick Fischler, whom he would have recognized if he had also watched the second season) that the symbol is from the old Hobo code meaning “stay quiet”, just one of many hidden messages prevalent throughout modern society. The mystery continues with a show at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery that leads to a party at an underground club, where a doped cookie lands Sam waking up in front of Janet Gaynor’s grave the following morning.
What’d He Wear?
Sam’s wardrobe features an assortment of graphic T-shirts, including this heathered cotton “Wood Badge” ringer T-shirt that he wears through this pivotal sequence. Tan through the body, this short-sleeved T-shirt has a darker brown crew-neck and sleeve-ends.
The screen-printed graphic over the left chest is the Wood Badge insignia for staff at Camp Manatoc in Peninsula, Ohio. The design features the appropriate iconography of an axe embedded in a log labeled “EC 26-W,” encircled with the camp info and finished on the bottom with the two-beads symbol of Wood Badge, the Boy Scouts of America’s advanced leadership training program for adult volunteers.
That’s one way to earn your wood badge!
Sam layers for the evening when attending the Jesus and the Brides show at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, pulling on a red-and-violet tartan plaid cotton flannel long-sleeved shirt with a large point collar, five-button front, two flapped chest pockets, and squared button cuffs.
Sam’s jeans are made from a faded light-blue wash cotton-blend denim that provides the wearer the stretch necessary within the narrow confines of this slim cut. The red tab on the back-right pocket and arcuate stitch across both pockets informs that he’s clearly wearing Levi’s—likely the Levi’s® 511 Slim Fit model, characterized by a close fit through the seat, slim legs through the thighs with narrow leg openings, and a mid-rise, where Sam holds them up with a smooth dark-brown leather belt that closes through a matte silver-toned single-prong buckle. These zip-fly jeans otherwise follow the standard Levi’s arrangement of its five pockets, including an inset watch/coin pocket on the right side.
The one constant in Sam’s wardrobe is his pair of black-and-white Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star high-tops. Introduced by Massachusetts-based Converse Rubber Shoe Company in the early 1920s, these iconic basketball sneakers were developed with input from Charles “Chuck” Taylor, a player-turned-salesman who helped refine the design for greater ankle support and flexibility. His signature was added to the ankle patch in one of the earliest examples of athlete endorsement, cementing the shoe’s place in pop culture.
Worn with black socks, Sam’s Chucks follow the classic design: black canvas uppers with white contrast stitching, flat white cotton laces threaded through eight sets of metal eyelets, and white rubber toe caps and outsoles. Two ventilation grommets add breathability, while the round ankle patch features a bold blue star surrounded by red “CONVERSE ALL STAR” text and Taylor’s signature.
What to Imbibe
Sam accepts the comic book collector’s offer of a beer (“hot day, cold beer”), which turns out to be the Mexican lager Tecate. Named after the Baja California border city where it was first brewed in the early 1940s, Tecate was acquired in the mid-’50s by the Monterrey-based Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma, which also brews Carta Blanca, Dos Equis, and Sol.
On his own, Sam demonstrates a preference for Pabst Blue Ribbon, the classic lager dating back to 1844 when German immigrant Jacob Best founded his Milwaukee brewery. After decades associated as a budget-priced brew and blue-collar favorite (think Johnny Russell’s 1973 country single “Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer”), PBR underwent a resurgence in the late 2000s among urban hipsters—a subculture illustrated by Sam’s unnamed “Bar Buddy” (Topher Grace) with his archetypal trilby, thick glasses, earrings, and beard.
Sam’s investigation into Sarah’s disappearance leads him to the Secret Summertime Party at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where he orders a Jack and Coke for himself—plus one for “Balloon Girl” (Grace Van Patten).
For the uninitiated, Jack and Coke is exactly that: a shot or two of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey topped with cola—typically Coca-Cola. Mixing whiskey with Coke is hardly a novel combination, as Dixie bartenders were serving “Coca-Cola highballs” since at least the start of the 20th century, though Jack and Coke specifically gained a renewed popularity among young adult drinkers during the early 2000s.
While Jack Daniel’s itself was a favorite of hard-drinking musicians from Frank Sinatra to Keith Richards, the celebrated Jack-and-Coke combo was so deeply associated with Lemmy Kilmister that fans of the late Motörhead frontman petitioned to have this highball renamed the “Lemmy” after his death in 2016.
How to Get the Look
Andrew Garfield in Under the Silver Lake (2018)
Sam hardly acts like a Boy Scout—so his Wood Badge staff tee delivers an appropriately iconic undercurrent to his Obama-era hipster lite persona, completed by a plaid flannel shirt, skinny jeans, Chucks, and a PBR.
- Red-and-violet tartan plaid cotton flannel long-sleeved shirt with point collar, five-button front, two flapped chest pockets, and squared button cuffs
- Tan heathered cotton BSA “Wood Badge” staff ringer T-shirt
- Light slate-blue stretch denim Levi’s 511 Slim Fit five-pocket, zip-fly jeans
- Dark-brown leather belt with rounded brass-toned single-prong buckle
- Black-and-white Converse Chuck Taylor All Star high-top basketball sneakers with black cotton canvas uppers, white laces, and white rubber outsoles and toe caps
- Black socks
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
The Quote
You ever feel like you fucked up somewhere a long time ago? You’re living a wrong life—like a bad version of the life you’re supposed to have?
Discover more from BAMF Style
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.