Vitals

Michael Pitt as Matthew, expatriate student and self-professed cinephile

Paris, Spring 1968

Film: The Dreamers
Release Date: October 10, 2003
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Costume Designer: Louise Stjernsward

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Much discourse around Bertolucci’s 2003 erotic drama The Dreamers (which premiered in Italy 22 years ago today) centers around what the characters aren’t wearing, so I’ll flip the script by focusing on Louise Stjernsward’s evocative costume design that brings to life Parisian culture against the backdrop of the 1968 student protests.

Hailing from San Diego and studying in Paris, Matthew encounters sibling activists Isabelle (Eva Green) and Théo Fontaine (Louis Garrel) among his “freemasonry of cinephiles”—introduced during the very French situation of Isabelle asking Matthew to take her cigarette during a police demonstration at the storied Cinémathèque française. He’s quickly drawn into the siblings’ strange dynamic of deeply incestuous overtones littered with cinematic references epitomized by Isabelle’s insistence on leading the trio on a run through the Louve as seen in Bande à part.

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What’d He Wear?

Matthew is a neutral canvas when he meets the siblings, clad in a stone plaid jacket and white shirt—both fashionable but fully buttoned to the neck, echoing his repressed amiability that would be penetrated by the Fontaines in their soft, vibrant costumes of Isabelle’s red beret and green velvet dress and Théo’s Bullitt-esque turtleneck under a sports coat with jeans.

“You’re awfully clean for someone who likes the cinema so much,” Isabelle jokes of Matthew’s polished appearance. When Matthew shows up similarly buttoned-up for dinner with their family two nights later, Isabelle ruffles his hair and loosens his tie to help him make a stronger impression on their artist father, a famous poet.

Matthew might make a smart initial impression in his brown silk suit, button-down collar framing a tie knot, and thoughtfully tousled hair, but then can’t help but to stim out at dinner about the dimensions of a Zippo lighter against the tablecloth.

The more time that Matthew spends with the siblings, the more his clothing—in the increasingly rare moments when he’s fully dressed on screen—decreases in formality to become almost indistinguishable from Théo’s, wearing sporty textured jackets and jeans far more frequently than his tailored attire.

When recreating a speed-run through the Louvre at Isabelle’s insistence to channel Bande à part, his sport jacket, buttoned-up shirts, and slacks have been replaced with a partially zipped brown suede blouson over a plain white T-shirt and jeans—still an all-American look but more reminiscent of James Dean playing the titular Rebel Without a Cause, one of the movies Matthew cited as a favorite from Nicholas Ray’s filmography.

Made from a rich tobacco-brown suede body with darker chocolate-brown ribbed-knit collar, cuffs, and hem, this blouson fashionably translates the contemporary MA-1 bomber jackets that had recently been adopted by American military pilots. The jacket gets drenched in the rain following their Bande à part Louvre run, though Matthew fares better than Jerry Seinfeld as the suede sufficiently dries enough for him to later wear on his date with Isabelle.

The plain white cotton undershirt that Matthew initially wears with this jacket reinforces his decreased formality—both related to his clothing and his comfort around a pair of siblings who bathe together.

For his date with Isabelle, he dresses up the look with a navy-blue short-sleeved polo shirt, styled with a two-button top and white piping banded around the sleeve-ends and waist hem.

Both Matthew and Théo frequently wear Levi’s jeans, though the denim of Matthew’s 501s—identified as such by the cut and the button-fly, which gets plenty of use—are dyed to a darker indigo-blue. Whether by the costume design team or intended to be Matthew’s work, the jeans have been de-branded with the leather “two horses” patch and red Levi’s tab removed from the back-right, though the jeans retain the brand’s signature arcuate stitch across both back pockets.

Matthew sports his dark Levi’s during moments of hot and cold passion with Isabelle.

Part of Matthew’s sartorial transformation toward more casual clothing includes ditching his leather loafers in favor of more scuffed Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers.

Introduced in 1922 as a celebrity-branded evolution of Converse’s earlier “Non-Skid” basketball shoes, Chuck Taylor All-Stars are characterized by their rubber soles, canvas uppers, and Taylor-“autographed” circular logo patches protecting the ankles. These were originally only high-top models in all-black or all-white, but the introduction of new colorways and the low-top model through the 1950s expanded the Chuck Taylor All-Star’s popularity beyond the basketball court.

Worn with his usual hole-strewn white ribbed athletic crew socks, Matthew’s high-top Chucks have gray canvas uppers, contrasting with the usual white rubber outsoles and toe-cap. Each shoe is designed with seven sets of nickel-finished derby-laced eyelets, though Matthew only pulls the flat white woven laces through the lower five sets.

As the trio change out of their wet clothing, Théo calls Matthew into his room to pull on something dry—issuing him a traditionally feminine-looking floral-trimmed dressing gown, perhaps Théo testing Matthew’s fitness for the siblings’ unorthodox sexuality while still asserting his own masculinity. While Matthew does retreat into a corner to change, he’s up for the test, stripping down to nothing but his checked boxer shorts and distressed white ribbed crew socks before tying on the robe that becomes his de facto uniform through the rest of his tenure in the Fontaine apartment.

Matthew’s mechanical wristwatch has a stainless steel cushion case with thick crystal protecting its black dial, detailed with luminous non-numeric hour indices and a white-wheeled date window at the 3 o’clock position. The hour and minute hands are luminous-tipped, contrasted by the orange second-counting hand.

Though the screen-worn watch has been customized with a black leather Bund strap that has perforated edges and a tan grain-leather under-side, it echoes contemporary water-resistant Timex Marlin divers and early ’70s Kelton racing watches. Kelton was created specifically for the French market in 1955 through a partnership between Timex and local watchmakers, who assembled slightly adjusted—or simply rebranded—Timex watches under the Kelton label.

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What to Imbibe

Even after drinking so much French wine with Isabelle and Théo, there’s a moment where Matthew halts his morning sit-ups to take a pull from a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, the iconic Tennessee whiskey instantly recognizable for its black “Old No. 7” label, perhaps indicating his American “otherness” among the French siblings that foreshadows his eventual rejection by them.

If you’d prefer mixing a more complicated cocktail in the spirit of The Dreamers, the Jack Daniel’s website includes a recipe for the “Bonded Boulevardier”, made of equal parts Jack Daniel’s, sweet vermouth, and an Italian apertif (like Campari), stirred with ice and finished with an orange peel. The Boulevardier originated among the “Lost Generation” era in late 1920s Paris, developed by Harry MacElhone at his legendary establishment Harry’s New York Bar. The classic Boulevardier is essentially a Negroni with bourbon instead of gin; the Bonded Boulevardier merely swaps in Tennessee whiskey as the primary spirit.

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How to Get the Look

Eva Green and Michael Pitt in The Dreamers (2003) 

Matthew updates his wardrobe to align with the Fontaines’ more casual lifestyle, adopting a timeless aesthetic with its suede bomber jacket, subdued polo, dark jeans, and Chucks.

• Tobacco-brown suede bomber-style blouson jacket with darker ribbed-knit collar, cuffs, and hem with side pockets
• Navy knitted short-sleeved polo shirt with two-button top and white-piped sleeve-ends and hem
• White cotton crew-neck short-sleeved undershirt
• Dark indigo-blue denim jeans with belt loops, button-fly, and five-pocket arrangement
  • Levi’s 501 Original Fit
• Gray canvas-upper high-top basketball shoes with white rubber outsoles and toe-caps and white flat woven laces
  • Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star
• White ribbed cotton athletic crew socks
• Stainless steel cushion-cased Timex/Kelton-style watch with black dial (with non-numeric hour indices and 3:00 date window) on black leather perforated-edge Bund strap

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

Yes, I’m drunk. And you’re beautiful. And tomorrow morning, I’ll be sober but you’ll still be beautiful.