Vitals

Billy Crudup as Russell Hammond, moody rock guitarist

On tour through the U.S., Spring 1973

Film: Almost Famous
Release Date: September 22, 2000
Director: Cameron Crowe
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere and a limited theatrical release a week later, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical Almost Famous was widely released 25 years ago this week on September 22, 2000.

Inspired by Crowe’s own teenage years as a freelance music journalist—and Rolling Stone‘s youngest-ever contributor—interviewing the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, and bands including Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, and Yes. The 16-year-old Crowe spent three weeks on the road with the Allman Brothers Band for his first cover story, forming the basis for Almost Famous‘ central narrative through the spring of 1973.

Crowe’s on-screen surrogate is the 15-year-old William Miller (Patrick Fugit), who receives the life-changing assignment of following the rising band Stillwater on their national tour. Despite his mentor, rock critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), urging him to maintain an emotional distance, William falls under the spell of the band and their groupies “band aids” like Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), who is embroiled in an affair with Stillwater’s enigmatic guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup)—also the most reluctant member of the band to grant William an interview.

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What’d He Wear?

Costume designer Betsy Heimann has stated in interviews with Variety and other publications that her primary reference points for styling Stillwater were contemporary bands like the Allman Brothers Band and the Eagles. Within the band, each member dressed in accordance with his own personality—from the brash Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee) in a T-shirt emblazoned with his own face to the more withdrawn Russell in more subdued threads that affect a “iconic rock singer as cowboy outlaw look,” as Heimann cited to Emily Blake for Entertainment Weekly.

Russell frequently embodies this look by pulling on a Wrangler Cowboy Cut® work shirt, a staple of the North Carolina-based outfitter’s offerings. Decades after its introduction, the shirt just received yet another public revival after Esquire celebrated Jeremy Allen White wearing one to the 2025 U.S. Open.

Crafted from a 7-oz. stonewashed indigo-blue cotton denim, this shirt boasts the characteristic elements of a western work shirt. The front placket fastens with six pearl-finished snaps, plus a traditional button at the top—though Russell always leaves the top few undone anyway. Both spade-shaped chest pockets close with pointed single-snap flaps and are decorated with the brand’s signature “W”-shaped stitching, plus Wrangler’s white-lettered-on-navy riser logo sewn along the upper corner of the left pocket flap. Western-style yokes come to a point over the front of each shoulder and across the back, with triple-snap cuffs at the end of each sleeve.

This is one of Russell’s few shirts that he never layers under his cool brown leather jacket with its exposed stitches, perhaps aware that it’s solid enough to stand on its own—as illustrated by the fact that he’s wearing it in the photo that was controversially refocused for the Stillwater band T-shirts.

Russell wears his usual boot-cut jeans in a light-blue denim wash, styled with the conventional five-pocket layout and a boot-cut with some distressed fraying along the hems. The profile and the hint of an arcuate stitch across the back pockets suggests Levi’s.

The boot-cut bottoms envelop the tops of Russell’s work boots, which have rugged brown roughout leather uppers attached to black rubber wedge soles—a typical style for contemporary brands like Chippewa, Red Wing, Thorogood, and Wolverine. The moc-toe uppers are derby-laced through five sets of metal-finished eyelets, plus three sets of speed hooks up the ankle for faster lacing.

Russell’s accessories are appropriately minimalist for his classic workwear, sporting only a set of gold-framed aviator-style sunglasses and his usual silver ring on his right hand.

Illustrating the band’s influence on the teenage William Miller, which Lester Bangs had warned him about, William dresses in an identical Wrangler shirt—possibly meant to be Russell’s own shirt, as they never wear it at the same time—fully open over his faded olive pocket T-shirt.

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How to Get the Look

Consistent with his aversion to the limelight, Russell Hammond’s regular “cowboy outlaw” style is typically rooted in workwear, with his double denim snap-shirt and jeans paired with aviators and work boots just as rugged cool today as it was a half-century ago.

• Indigo-blue stonewash 7-oz. cotton denim long-sleeved western-style work shirt with spread collar, snap-up front placket, two spade-shaped chest pockets with single-snap pointed flaps, and triple-snap cuffs
  • Wrangler “Cowboy Cut®”
• Light-blue denim wash boot-cut jeans
  • Levi’s
• Brown roughout leather moc-toe work boots with 5-eyelet/triple-speed hook derby lacing and black rubber wedge soles
• Gold-framed aviator-style sunglasses
• Silver ring

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.