Vitals

Roy Scheider as Martin Brody, pragmatic island police chief

Off the coast of Amity Island, July 1974

Film: Jaws
Release Date: June 20, 1975
Director: Steven Spielberg
Costume Design: Louise Clark, Robert Ellsworth, and Irwin Rose

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today is the 50th anniversary since Jaws first swam into theaters on June 20, 1975, redefining the summer blockbuster and establishing Steven Spielberg as a major director. In addition to breaking box office records and winning three Academy Awards (including one for John Williams’ iconic score), Jaws continues to succeed as a thriller, still terrifying generations with its portrayal of danger lurking beneath the waves.

Adapted from Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel of the same name, the story is relatively simple: after a string of deadly shark attacks off the coast of the fictional Amity Island (filmed on Martha’s Vineyard), three men—grizzled shark-hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), passionate oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and Amity’s aquaphobic new police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider)—set out aboard Quint’s boat to hunt the creature terrorizing the island’s residents and tourists.

Chief Brody’s wardrobe has been arguably one of the most-requested blog posts over the last decade, so—Darius, John, Lee, Na, R.M., Rob, and everyone else who has shared an interest in seeing this one—I hope you enjoy!

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What’d He Wear?

After spending most of Jaws‘ first act in his khaki police uniform, Chief Brody layers on hardy civilian clothing for his mission to sea with Quint and Hooper. He leaves the shore aboard Orca wearing a matching rainproof suit made from a rubberized navy-blue polyvinyl chloride (PVC), though he evidently sheds the jacket soon after their departure. This thigh-length raincoat has a full hood with a reinforced brim, four white-finished snaps up the front, two hip pockets with double-snap flaps, and light-gray corduroy inner edge trim.

Brody continues wearing the rubberized navy pants, with snaps around the bottom hems to presumably cinch a closer fit around each ankle and keep out water. Brody keeps his shirts untucked over the top of these pants, so we can’t tell if they’re simple pull-on trousers with an elasticized waist or fuller-coverage overalls, as both of these remain common configurations for this style; however, based on the cinching around the waist in some shots, Brody likely wears the simplified former design.

Brody’s slate-gray chambray shirt echoes traditional maritime workwear, like Quint’s richer blue USN-issued work-shirt. The shirt has a point collar, a front placket with six white buttons, two button-through chest pockets, and button cuffs that he wears undone with the sleeves rolled up past his elbows.

First as an intermediate layer under his chambray shirt and then on its own, Brody wears a dark-navy wool sweater with a ribbed mock-neck and set-in sleeves which he also often rolls up past his elbows.

By the first evening and throughout the entire second day, Brody wears indigo-blue denim jeans with the traditional five-pocket layout and arcuate back-pocket stitch associated with Levi’s. He holds the jeans up with a wide black leather belt that closes through a polished silver squared single-prong buckle.

When the going gets tough, Brody straps on his duty gun-belt: a wide swath of black leather that closes through a silver-toned rectangular double-prong buckle. In addition to the holster with a snap-closed retention strap for his service revolver positioned on Brody’s right hip, the gun-belt has two snap-closed ammo pouches on the left side and his handcuff pouch on the back.

As the mission to sea grows increasingly intense by the second day, Brody strips off the sweater to reveal the same faded indigo dyed cotton (or cotton/polyester) short-sleeved sweatshirt that he’d previously worn on the beach during the 4th of July shark attack. Similar to the lighter-colored T-shirt that Steve McQueen wore with a flight jacket in The Great Escape, Brody’s shirt has a reinforced crew neck and short raglan sleeves.

Brody starts off his voyage aboard the Orca in a pair of waterproof sea boots—a practical design also known as deck boots or sailing boots, often supplied by rugged outfitters like Aigle, B.F. Goodrich, Gill, Helly Hansen, Le Chameau, Jeantex, Newport, and Sperry. These oft-shorter alternatives to full-length Wellington boots are also designed for wet conditions but with with non-marking, slip-resistant soles that maintain traction on slick decks.

His initial pair—worn only on the first day at sea—feature black vulcanized rubber uppers and thick white gum outsoles. By the next day, however, Brody has swapped them out for a more modest set of black pull-on boots with narrower white siped soles that appear less water-resistant. Unfortunately for him, this is the very day Bruce the shark turns up the carnage, leaving Brody’s new boots a little less prepared to keep his feet dry as chaos overtakes the Orca. We never actually see his socks, though his wife nervously shares that she packed him an extra pair of black socks while running him through his pre-departure checklist.

While Brody may be prepared for the sea in his head-to-toe waterproofed gear, he still wears his landlubber watch, which Danny Milton identified in his 2021 Hodinkee article as “a rather unassuming Hamilton Lyndon CLD” that significantly contrasts—in both form and function—with Hooper’s water-ready Alsta Nautoscaph diver.

Though not designed as a water-forward watch, the Lyndon “was one of Hamilton’s sealed (CLD) models with gaskets in the crown and around the crystal to keep the environment out of the inside of the case,” as described by Dan Keefe at his excellent Hamilton Chronicles blog. The Lyndon was powered by Hamilton’s 18-jewel caliber 748 manual-winding movement.

As Hamilton only produced the Lyndon for two years in the mid-1950s, Brody’s watch would have already been almost 20 years old by the time he wore it out to sea during the hunt for Bruce. Strapped to a worn-and-weathered brown leather band, Brody’s Lyndon has an 18-karat gold-filled 34mm case and a sterling silver dial marked with gold-applied Arabic hour indices and hands.

Brody continues wearing his prescription eyeglasses, built within the then-fashionable aviator-style frames with a chromed silver finish, beveled eye frames, double nose bridge, and black plastic temple tips. Scheider’s screen-worn specs were sold by Heritage Auctions in 2018, with the listing describing “‘Captain’ imprinted on the inner right stem and ‘REM’ on the left,” suggesting the manufacturer. My research has yielded REM Thomas as the most likely contemporary manufacturer to whom this could refer.

For those inspired by Brody’s eyewear, I feel it’s most responsible to share Caroline Reilly’s recent article, “Put Down the Dahmer Glasses”, which rightfully warns of the risk that prescription aviators will more closely resemble a creepy killer than ’70s Robert Redford or Roy Scheider.

Brody pulls on a pair of gray lined rubber work gloves to chum the water.

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The Guns

Chief Brody continues to carry his .38-caliber Smith & Wesson Model 15 service revolver holstered in his gun-belt. Smith & Wesson introduced this traditional double-action (DA/SA) revolver in 1949 as the K-38 Combat Masterpiece, rechristened the Model 15 when the company began numbering its models the following decade.

The K-38 Combat Masterpiece was developed as a duty-ready alternative to the more competition-focused K-38 Target Masterpiece (now Model 14), itself derived from the venerated Military & Police (now Model 10) revolver. The Model 15 shares the Model 14’s improved sight plane with a narrow rib along the top of the barrel and a micrometer click rear sight, but it reduces the Model 14’s six-inch barrel to the more portable four-inch service revolver standard. With all six .38 Special rounds loaded, a standard Model 15 typically weighs 34 ounces.

In the decades to follow, Smith & Wesson introduced a range of barrel lengths from a snub-nosed 2″ to a full 8-3/8″ as well as the stainless Model 65 from the ’70s onward, but the classic blued Model 15 with its four-inch barrel remains a standard for excellence.

For more intense firepower as Bruce overtakes the Orca (and its captain), Brody arms himself with Quint’s M1 Garand to score a perfect shot into the shark’s mouth. Designed by John C. Garand in the late 1920s, this semi-automatic service rifle was the first auto-loading rifle to be officially issued to American troops and remains iconic for its widespread usage during World War II. Adopted in 1936, the M1 Garand remained in service for more than two decades until it was officially replaced by the select-fire M14 rifle in the spring of 1958, but this durable battle rifle remained in limited military service for years and remains a favorite among drill teams, collectors, and hunters.

The gas-operated M1 Garand fires the same .30-06 Springfield cartridge that had been developed decades earlier for the bolt-action M1903 Springfield rifle series, but fed from an eight-round en bloc clip—yes, clip, not magazine, in this specific case—that automatically ejects from the rifle with a sharp ping! when the last round is fired, locking the bolt open to reload another.

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How to Get the Look

Half a century later, Chief Brody remains one of the best-dressed men ever to dread going back in the water.

• Slate-gray chambray cotton work-shirt with point collar, 6-button front placket, two button-through patch chest pockets, and button cuffs
• Dark-navy wool sweater with ribbed mock-neck and set-in sleeves
• Indigo cotton short-sleeved sweatshirt with crew neck and raglan sleeves
• Dark-blue denim Levi’s five-pocket jeans
• Black leather belt with polished silver-toned single-prong buckle
• Black rubber sailing boots with white gum outsoles
• Black socks
• Chromed silver-framed aviator-style prescription glasses
• Hamilton Lyndon CLD watch with gold-toned 34mm case, sterling silver dial (with gold-applied Arabic hour indices), and brown leather strap

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and Peter Benchley’s novel.

For more great takes on the costuming in Jaws, check out Chris Scott’s Primer article from summer 2015.

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The Quote

You’re gonna need a bigger boat.