Vitals

Dan Hedaya as Julian Marty, surly bar owner

Texas, Fall 1982

Film: Blood Simple
Release Date: January 18, 1985
Director: Joel & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Sara Medina-Pape

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

In honor of Dan Hedaya’s 85th birthday—born July 24, 1940—it’s worth revisiting one of the most memorable early showcases for his talents: the Coen brothers’ 1984 feature debut, Blood Simple. With a screen career stretching back to 1970, Hedaya has long been one of cinema’s most welcome character actors, equally at home playing sleazeballs and softies—from Carla Tortelli’s scummy ex-husband Nick on Cheers to Cher Horowitz’s gruff but loving dad in Clueless.

In Blood Simple, Hedaya takes on one of his most tragic and pathetic roles as Julian Marty, the cuckolded Texas bar owner whose simmering jealousy leads him to hire crooked private detective Loren Visser (a sweaty, unforgettable M. Emmet Walsh) to trail his wife Abby (Frances McDormand, also making her screen debut). 

Shot on location in and around Austin in the fall of 1982 and released two years later after post-production and funding scrambles, Blood Simple announced the Coens as stylists from the jump—rooted in hardboiled pulp but already steeped in irony, with a tone as bleak and blackly comic as Marty’s fate: kicked in the groin until he pukes, shot in the chest, and left gasping for air as he’s buried alive.

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What’d He Wear?

Of the three primary costumes that he wears through Blood Simple, Julian Marty’s leisure suit gets the most prominent screen time… at least while he’s still able-bodied and alive.  The softly napped, dark slate-blue cloth is more subdued than the bright yellow polyester of Loren Visser’s leisure suit, though I’m sure most would argue any discussion of “taste” is relative when it comes to leisure suits. However, it does unify both morally bankrupt men as they verbally spar in their respective leisure suits—despite being a symbol of disco-era kitsch that had fallen far out of fashion by the time Blood Simple was produced and released in the early ’80s.

Marty’s jacket follows the typical safari-informed beats of ’70s leisure-wear with its flared shoulder epaulets that button down at the neck, false half-belted waist, and four squared patch-style pockets—each covered with a non-buttoning flap. Styled with a horizontal back yoke, the jacket has dark-blue 2-hole buttons up the wide front placket to the convertible shirt-style collar that rests flat under the shirt collar he wears atop the jacket.

Made from either cotton or a cotton/poly blend, Marty’s shirt features a soft plaid design against a pale-peach ground, consisting of an irregular black check framing wider white checks. The shirt echoes the safari-informed styling of his leisure jacket, with shoulder epaulets and flapped patch pockets; both non-matching chest pockets are covered by a single-button flap, and the left sleeve also has a utility pocket with a single-button flap. When he removes the jacket, Marty unbuttons his cuffs and rolls his sleeves up over his elbows.

Marty keeps the top few buttons on the front placket undone, showing his flat gold necklace and reminding us that no matter what Dan Hedaya’s costume is, he’s always sporting it over a natural sweater of chest-hair.

The matching slate-blue trousers appear to be rigged with front darts, a popular contemporary detail that curve trousers over the hips without the extra folds required by pleats while still presenting the cleaner profile of a classic flat front. The trousers have been tailored to fit Hedaya without the need for belt, braces, or even side-adjusters, and the bottoms are plain-hemmed.

The on-seam side pockets are supplemented with a smaller set-in pocket covered by a single-button squared flap just below the right side of the waistband, matching the larger set-in flapped pocket over the back-right of the seat.

Sensitive about how he’s perceived, Marty regularly wears the cowboy boots he’d believe to be expected of a Texas bar owner. Built on stacked leather soles, the russet leather uppers feature the typical bug-and-wrinkle stitching over the instep and decorative stitching up the calf-high shafts.

The Texan iconography extends to his jewelry, dressing his right pinky with a gold ring that boasts a dozen shining diamonds in a horseshoe. On the opposing hand, he wears a plain gold wedding band.

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How to Get the Look

Julian Marty’s choice to keep wearing a ’70s-style leisure suit into the early ’80s—paired with cowboy boots and a diamond horseshoe pinky ring—suggests a man clinging to a fading sense of power and style, desperate to project control in a world that’s already moving past him. The Lone Star flair underscores his regional machismo, but the dated silhouette hints at insecurity and stagnation beneath the swagger. It’d look good on you, though!

• Slate-blue napped leisure suit:
  • Single-breasted shirt-jacket with convertible collar, flared shoulder epaulets, front placket, four flapped pockets, and plain cuffs
  • Darted-front trousers with fitted waistband, straight/on-seam side pockets, set-in front-right coin pocket (with single-button flap), set-in back-right pocket (with single-button flap), and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Pale-peach with black-and-white faded plaid cotton or cotton/poly long-sleeved shirt with front placket, two chest pockets (with single-button flaps), left-sleeve pocket (with single-button flap), and button cuffs
• Russet leather cowboy boots with bug-and-wrinkle stitching and decorative-stitched shafts
• Diamond-studded gold horseshoe-shaped pinky ring
• Gold wedding band
• Gold flat necklace

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

Don’t come around here anymore. If I need you, I’ll know what rock to turn over.