Vitals

Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway, feared mob associate

Queens, New York, Spring 1980

Film: Goodfellas
Release Date: September 19, 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Richard Bruno

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today marks 35 years since the release of Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese’s kinetic crime epic chronicling three decades of Mafia life through the eyes of real-life Lucchese family associate-turned-informant Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). Though Henry was the ostensible protagonist, top billing went to Robert De Niro as one of Henry’s mentors-in-crime, Jimmy Conway.

De Niro’s character was based on the fearsome James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke (1931-1996), who terrorized the New York underworld—and anyone who dared to cross him—from his teenage years in the 1940s until the early ’80s when Hill famously became a government informant whose testimony helped send Burke to prison for life. Method actor De Niro’s prep work included thorough research of the real Burke to effectively portray his mannerisms and menace, though—like everyone outside of Henry—his name was changed for the screen by swapping in Burke’s mother’s surname, Conway.

Unlike the volatile Tommy (Joe Pesci) with his violent outbursts, Jimmy operated with a quiet danger—planning from the shadows and then striking when it was unexpected, a pattern that Henry luckily recognizes quickly enough to save his life. “Your murderers come with smiles,” Henry narrates as we watch him approach his last meeting with Jimmy: a public breakfast at the now-closed Clinton Diner in Maspeth, where he and Jimmy had learned of Tommy’s death, making it twistedly poetic that this is also where Henry discovers his own head is next on the mob’s chopping block.

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What’d He Wear?

Jimmy had always been a generally more subdued dresser than his contemporaries like Henry or Tommy, but his wardrobe becomes even more subtle after the Lufthansa heist—living his own credos to avoid attention. Gone are the flashier clothes of Jimmy’s late ’70s wardrobe, like his cream peak-lapeled suit or sporty russet leather jacket; instead, Jimmy looks the part of a middle-aged businessman in his smart sport jackets, conventional slacks, and open-neck shirts—without the dramatic spearpoint shape favored by Tommy and Henry. Only the three diamonds mounted on his pinky ring belie that Jimmy isn’t one of those “nine-to-five suckers” frequently referenced in the crew’s voice-overs.

Through these scenes set across 1979 and 1980, Jimmy’s most frequently worn costume piece is a dark-brown worsted wool sport jacket with a muted rust windowpane check. Only the long double vents date it to this time period, as this single-breasted jacket follows an otherwise timeless design with its notch lapels of moderate width rolling to a two-button front over De Niro’s waist, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, and four-button cuffs. The padded shoulders and roped sleeve-heads build up the silhouette to match Jimmy’s menacing reputation.

Tommy Gets Made

They fucking whacked him…

On the day of Tommy’s “made man” ceremony, Jimmy meets Henry at their usual breakfast spot, debuting this windowpane sports coat that he would also wear for several pivotal scenes to follow. He tonally coordinates his sport jacket with an ecru poplin shirt, likely one of the many custom-made for the production by New York-based Geneva Custom Shirts. Like all of the shirts Jimmy wears with this jacket, it has a sizable point collar and white 4-hole buttons up the front placket and is likely short-sleeved since we don’t see the cuffs under the sleeves of his jacket.

Jimmy’s fawn-colored trousers follow a typical style for the 1970s, with a darted front and curved full-top front pockets—era-specific alternatives to the flat-front and side pockets more common on modern off-the-rack trousers. The trousers have a medium-high rise to De Niro’s waist, where they’re fitted to be worn sans belt but have buckle-tab adjusters toward the back on each side of the waistband. Though the camera never angles below De Niro’s knees, we can be sure that the bottoms are plain-hemmed (rather than cuffed.)

Dresses for Karen

What kind of questions they been asking?

Karen soon realizes that Henry may not be “totally paranoid” after all when she secretly visits Jimmy to ask for assistance. He welcomes her with his usual warmth—or at least as much warmth as an archcriminal with his body count can offer—but she gradually senses something sinister about the way he offers her a collection of hijacked Dior dresses that he keeps stored down the block, in a closed-up storefront where the burly silhouettes of two men stop working as she approaches.

Rather than the tonal light browns he had worn at the diner, Jimmy pulls together more businesslike colors that call out his jacket’s cooler shade of brown. The short-sleeved shirt is light blue with satin self-stripes, detailed with a point collar and front placket.

Jimmy’s dark-gray worsted trousers echo the styling points of his fawn-colored slacks, with a fitted waistband that likely also boasts side adjusters, full-top front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms with a subtle yet fashionable flare. Only this outfit also shows Jimmy’s shoes on screen, which look like dark-brown leather cap-toe derby shoes.

The Last Breakfast

I been telling you your whole life, don’t talk on the phone. Now you understand?

Henry’s last meeting with Jimmy is at the diner where they learned about Tommy’s death, intentionally chosen as a public place so that Henry could feel safer about meeting with the man he suspects wants him dead. “I got there 15 minutes early and Jimmy was already there,” Henry narrates. “He took a booth near the window so he could see everyone who drove up. He wanted to make sure I wasn’t tailed.”

Jimmy again wears the windowpane sports coat for a third and final time on screen, this time sporting a vivid cornflower-blue poplin shirt—styled like his others with an open-neck point collar, short sleeves, and a front placket, from which the white buttons contrast even more prominently against the shirting than they had with his paler blue and ecru shirts. Briefly glimpsed under the table are the same light-brown trousers he wore when he received the news about Tommy.

Jimmy always wears his usual pinky ring and wristwatch on his left hand. With its cluster of three full-cut diamonds lined across the center, Jimmy’s gold pinky ring stands out as his only visual indication of gangsterdom, as he’s eschewed the silk suits, flashy collars, and excess jewelry of his associates.

He cycles through several watches over the course of Goodfellas, wearing a two-toned Bulova through these scenes set in 1980. The stainless steel-cased quartz watch has a gold-toned fixed bezel encircling the round silver-toned dial with its gold hands and hour indices, strapped to his left wrist on a silver-toned panther link bracelet with gold-toned ball accents.

In addition to the reading glasses he wore earlier, two other pairs of faux tortoiseshell prescription glasses are included in the Harry Ransom Center’s inventory of De Niro’s screen-worn wardrobe from Goodfellas. The glasses he pulls on in this scene closely match the description of the Revue brand glasses with their “tortoiseshell-colored thin metal frames with prescription lenses,” leaving no doubt about the latter as the corrective lenses magnify De Niro’s glare as Jimmy’s eyes silently but intensely probe Henry’s soul.

“On the surface, everything was supposed to be fine,” Henry narrates, “but I had a feeling Jimmy was trying to sense if I’d rat on him to save my neck.”

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How to Get the Look

Jimmy Conway may be a murderer and a thief, but at least he’s not a hypocrite. Demanding that his crew tone down their presence in the wake of the record-breaking Lufthansa heist, Jimmy applies this to his own wardrobe, dressing with tasteful restraint in a muted windowpane sports coat with open-neck shirts and solid slacks.

• Dark-brown windowpane-check wool single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, and long double vents
• Ecru or light-blue poplin short-sleeved shirts with point collar and front placket
• Light-brown darted-front trousers with buckle-tab side adjusters, frogmouth-style front pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Dark-brown leather cap-toe derby shoes
• Tortoise-framed reading glasses
• Triple diamond-set gold pinky ring
• Mixed-metal Bulova quartz watch with stainless steel case, gold-toned fixed bezel, silver round dial (with gold hands and hour indices), and stainless panther link bracelet with gold-toned ball accents

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.