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Casino: Robert De Niro’s Lookbook as Ace Rothstein

Nick (luckystrike721)
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Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Casino (1995)

Vitals

Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, Vegas casino executive and mob associate

Las Vegas, 1973 to 1983

Film: Casino
Release Date: November 22, 1995
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Design: Rita Ryack & John A. Dunn
Tailors: Carlos Velasco, Tommy Velasco, and Vincent Zullo

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Martin Scorsese’s Las Vegas-centric crime epic Casino premiered in New York City thirty years ago tonight on November 14, 1995, eight days before its wider release.

Chronicling the rise and fall of the midwest mob’s influence in Sin City during the 1970s and ’80s, Casino stars Robert De Niro as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a fictionalization of real-life bookie Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal (1929-2008). De Niro was re-teamed with Joe Pesci as yet another volatile gangster—this time the hotheaded Chicago hitman Nicky Santoro, based on Lefty’s actual pal Tony “the Ant” Spilotro, and Sharon Stone received an Academy Award nomination as Ace’s hustler wife Ginger.

Part of Casino‘s legacy is due to the lavish costume design by Rita Ryack and John A. Dunn, who researched and worked with the real Lefty’s tailors and shirt-makers to recreate the gambler’s eye-catching style for the screen. De Niro’s dozens of costume changes in suits and sport jackets ranging from bright pastels to rich plaids (and occasionally both at the same time!) have led to many ongoing myths about the movie’s wardrobe, which I’d like to dispel from information provided firsthand by Ms. Ryack:

In addition to the aforementioned tailors, Rita Ryack and John Dunn worked with Beverly Hills shirtmaker Anto to craft shirts, ties, and pocket squares using the actual cloths and cuts favored by the real Lefty Rosenthal during the 1970s and ’80s. De Niro’s screen-worn shoes were from Bally, Bruno Magli, Di Fabrizio, Florsheim, and Johnston & Murphy, in addition to black slippers from Neiman Marcus and Roundtree & York. The team spent considerable time with Lefty during their preparation for the film, which included trips into his personal closet.

From left to right: Ann and Michael Spilotro (brother of Tony Spilotro, who inspired Pesci’s character Nicky Santoro), Geri McGee Rosenthal, and the real Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal in a characteristically loud sports coat. This photo was likely taken in Las Vegas after the Spilotro brothers joined Lefty there during the early 1970s.

Although many of Ace’s on-screen looks defy easy description—just like the complex character himself!—I did my best to catalog everything that De Niro visibly wears on screen!

Salmon-Pink Jacket for a Car Bombing

“When you love someone, you’ve gotta trust them. There’s no other way. You’ve got to give them the key to everything that’s yours. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

Casino begins with a bang—literally and sartorially. We meet Ace in “1983” (actually October 4, 1982), walking across the parking lot of Tony Roma’s restaurant on East Sahara Avenue to his silver 1981 Cadillac Eldorado coupe. He turns the key… and is engulfed in flames, launching us a decade into the past to the dramatic sounds of Bach’s “St Matthew Passion”.

You can read more about this look in one of my first BAMF Style posts here.

Green Herringbone Silk Suit

“Before I ever ran a casino or got myself blown up, Ace Rothstein was a hell of a handicapper, I can tell you that. I was so good that whenever I bet, I could change the odds for every bookmaker in the country. I’m serious, I had it down so cold that I was given paradise on earth. I was given one of the biggest casinos in Las Vegas to run: the Tangiers.”

Initially only seen for a brief but memorable shot as we establish Ace’s casino empire within the Tangiers ten years earlier (1973), this vignette also maintains Ace’s particular style of dressing: unorthodox colors, shirts and ties often of matching fabric, and rotating pinky rings to coordinate with the entire ensemble.

Cream, Black, and Blue Plaid Blazer

One of several tailored pieces to only appear in a single shot, Ace wears this blazer (which classifies as such due to the metal buttons) during an early vignette looking out onto the Tangiers sports book from his office. The jacket may resemble other checked sports coats he wears throughout Casino, but the colors, pattern, and details distinguish this from those.

Gray Tonal-Striped Silk Suit

Early in Ace’s reign, he emerges from a black late ’60s Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado coupe under the bright entrance to the Tangiers, where he meets his casino manager Billy Sherbert (Don Rickles). The suit follows a unique cut that differs from most of his tailoring to follow.

Tan Peak-Lapel Suit

Blink and you’ll miss Ace striding through the Tangiers past “this old Mormon fuck” John Nance (Bill Allison) while Nicky’s voiceover explains the mob’s skim operation. With the jacket’s broad shoulders, wide peak lapels, single-button closure, and squared front quarters, this suit is clearly cut like a pair of dark-blue ones he wears in other scenes set during the ’70s.

Taupe Suit with Brown-and-Blue Overcheck

In early May of 1972, Ace and Billy watch as Andy Stone (Alan King) awards Philip Green (Kevin Pollak) a check for $62.7 million on behalf of the Central States Teamsters Pension Fund. We don’t see below Ace’s waist, but—based on the occasion—we can infer that he’s wearing a full suit rather than just a plaid jacket.

Colorful Check Poolside Sport Jacket

“You know if I did it, I’d have to run it my way… I’m serious, no interference.”

It’s presumably around this same time that Andy has his poolside chat with Ace at the Riviera (which stood in for the fictional Tangiers), asking him to run the casino over Ace’s hesitations. This brief scene debuts his sporty tortoise aviator-style sunglasses, which some have suggested to be Carrera frames but these temples are clearly marked with a different logo that looks like “SunCloud”.

This was always one of my favorite looks from Casino, so you can read more about it in one of my first BAMF Style posts about it here.

Gray Iridescent Twill Suit

A behind-the-scenes photo of De Niro on set better shows the unique details of Ace’s suit as he walks the casino floor.

Once Andy et al have agreed to Ace’s terms, he begins running the Tangiers with the characteristic exactitude of a man who “ate, slept and breathed gambling.” He works the casino floor, examining the dice used on the craps table and criticizing a dealer’s chip methods.

“Back Home, Years Ago”

Ace builds his reputation as the “fuckin’ brain surgeon” of gangland gamblers through the 1960s. He’s still a snazzy dresser, but his style is more conventional—better-suited for the Midwest mob scene than under the bright neon lights of Las Vegas. His suits are more conservative shades of navy and gray, paired with white (or off-white) shirts and silk ties, often layered under dark overcoats that would be considerably out of place in the warmer Nevada climate.

Word to the wise: If this guy hands your pen back to you, just take it and thank him nicely. Especially if his seething little friend is around.

Glen Plaid and Salmon-Overcheck Suit

Billy Sherbert (Don Rickles) patiently listens and advises during another of Ace’s tirades.

And… back to 1973 Las Vegas! One suit that appeared more prominently in promotional photography than on screen itself was this natty take on a Prince of Wales check suit, detailed with the usual black-and-white glen plaid suiting but boldly overchecked in a salmon-framed windowpane that Ace coordinates to his shirt, which appears to be made from a lighter silk than his usual matte charmeuse shirting. He wears this outfit while doing what he does best: complaining about perceived incompetence in his casino.

Tan-and-Slate Muted Plaid Suit

“This is the end result of all the bright lights and the comp trips, of all the champagne and free hotel suites, and all the broads and all the booze. It’s all been arranged just for us to get your money.”
Another rare instance of Ace repeating a suit with a different shirt and tie, this case in consecutive scenes.

While handling VIPs like a lecherous state senator (Dick Smothers) or Japanese “whale” K.K. Ichikawa (Nobu Matsuhisa), Ace wears yet another uniquely woven suit in a deeply muted tan-and-slate plaid, allowing him to play up either the warmth or cool tones based on the shirts and ties he pairs it with. He embraces the coolness with a matching pale-slate shirt and tie while entertaining the senator, then plays up the warmer shades in a cream shirt and gold tie when engineering the tycoon’s losses at the blackjack table.

Blue Glen Check Suit

“What a move. I fell in love right there…”

It’s unfortunately love at first sight for poor Ace—and only Ace—when he spies Ginger making a scene at the craps tables. After first noticing her while patrolling the “eye in the sky” cameras, he descends to the casino floor to witness the dazzling hustler’s antics that send Tangiers patrons slippin’ and slidin’ around the room.

This suit was the focus of its own BAMF Style post earlier this year.

Brown Muted-Stripe Suit

“…but in Vegas, for a girl like Ginger, love costs money.”

The next we see poor lovestruck Ace, he’s making out with Ginger somewhere in the Tangiers, where he seems almost happily suckered to dish out a hundred bucks for her to, uh, tip the bathroom attendant.

Pale-Gray Self-Striped Sport Suit

Ace rolls out the welcome wagon for the Santoro family.

When the Santoros move out to Las Vegas and visit Ace in his Tangiers penthouse, they’re stunned to meet his new girlfriend Ginger—evidently unlike anyone Ace has ever dated before. (And how!) Ace dresses down in a sporty suit that shares some DNA with contemporary ’70s leisurewear, paired with a printed burgundy shirt—a rarity among his closet full of solid-colored matte silk shirting.

Tan Checked Suit

Nicky establishes his presence at the Tangiers, illustrated by a scene where he subtly intimidates two meatheads trying to scam the casino. This method seems to earns Ace’s quiet approval, as seen by the nod he offers in response.

Navy Raw Silk Peak-Lapel Suit

Ace oversees the “cheater’s justice!” meted out by his gung-ho guards.

Ace demonstrates that he doesn’t always need Nicky’s muscle to enforce the casino’s policies, dressed in all blues as he coolly convinces two blackjack cheaters to check the Tangiers off their hit list… with the help of a buzz-saw, a hammer, and a cattle prod:

They never know what hit them. And if, and when, they do find out that they just got zapped by a cattle prod, they wish they really did have a heart attack.

You can read more about this suit and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Red Dotted Silk Robe

I first watched Casino in 8th grade and always envisioned wearing this to propose to my fiancée. It’s no wonder I wasn’t really getting dates until later in high school.

Poor Ace! As he himself narrates… for a guy who likes sure things, he’s about to bet the rest of his life on a real long shot. Dressed like the dashing romantic he envisions himself in that moment, Ace complicates an intimate evening in with Ginger by proposing to her—even when she admits she’s not in love with him.

You can read more about this elegant loungewear in my BAMF Style post.

Black Wedding Suit with White-on-White Shirt and Tie

When the guy she tells you not to worry about is James Woods in a ratty bathrobe and even rattier mustache snorting rails with a bikini-clad bimbo.

Ace adapts his go-to aesthetic of a matching shirt and tie with a solid-colored suit for his wedding to Ginger, opting for the classic formality of black and white—in this case, a black suit and white silk shirt and tie (with a grenadine weave rather than his usual satin), decorated with matching white pocket square and white boutonnière.

You can read more about Ace’s black wedding suit in this 2013 BAMF Style post, which was my first to focus on Robert De Niro!

Green Western Suit

Ace Rothstein never met a mirror he doesn’t like, particularly when he’s rocking all green silk while showing off his new bride’s chinchilla coat.

When Ace first brings Ginger to their shared home right behind the Las Vegas Country Club golf course, he’s also finally inviting us to see that colorful wardrobe firsthand—sorted into racks inside a closet bigger than most people’s bedrooms. He doesn’t disappoint with is own attire either, sporting shades of green as though sartorially communicating that he can’t believe his own luck. The iridescent light-green suit is detailed with Western yokes and blazer-style buttons for a truly unique presentation.

You can read more about this suit and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Yellow Linen Sport Jacket

Ace and Ginger are freshly settled at their new home before he jets them off to L.A., where they deposit two million dollars into a safety deposit box as “Mr. and Mrs. Tom Collins”. However, there’s no mistaking his true identity as it’s very Ace Rothstein for him to conduct some banking in a bright yellow linen jacket with a contrasting silk shirt and white loafers.

You can read more about what “Mr. Tom Collins” wears in my BAMF Style post.

All-White Suit

Ace may feel settled in his personal life (despite marrying a woman who used his proposal to assure him that she didn’t love him), but things are getting tricky in his professional sphere as Nicky’s toxic influence is growing at the Tangiers.

Dark-Navy Linen Suit with Lavender Shirt and Tie

When he’s reprimanding the incompetent Don Ward (John Bloom) and sharing his concerns about Nicky’s oversized presence, Ace continues wearing his signature formula of a solid-colored suit with matching shirt, tie, and kerchief—this time in a color combination that Rita Ryack described to me as a “deep navy” against silks in a “lavender (towards orchid).”

You can read more about this suit in my BAMF Style post.

Mustard Micro-Checked Jacket

It was Colonel Mustard in the casino with the cigarette.

I have a soft spot for Ace’s all-yellowed slapdash suit of a micro-houndstooth checked jacket over solid trousers and coordinated silk shirt and grenadine tie, but even I have to admit it doesn’t quite have the same intimidating factor that would be useful when trying to convince a crude, mob-connected cowboy to take his shit-kickin’ feet off the blackjack table and put his boots back on.

Light-Blue Glen Check Suit

One of my favorite sartorial details included about Ace is that he keeps his entire suit—jacket and trousers—hanging in his office closet, so he can avoid unnecessary creasing when seated at his desk until greeting visitors.

As it features across three different scenes—hiring Jonathan and David’s tiger act, meeting county commissioner Pat Webb (L.Q. Jones), and confronting Ginger about taking his anti-ulcer medication—this complexly patterned glen plaid suit gets some of the most concentrated screen time on every detail… helped by the fact that we see Ace emerge from behind his office desk, sans jacket and trousers, to put on both before greeting Webb. The glen plaid suiting consists of a blue and white warp and weft, creating an overall light slate-blue finish, with dimension added by red and yellow checks.

There may also be some significance to the fact that he covers his torso in silk that matches the sky-blue bottle of the Mylanta antacid he takes before the meeting… or this could just be me sharing Ace’s paranoia.

You can read more about Ace’s suit in my BAMF Style post, as well as how it contrasts with Pat Webb’s cowboy gear.

Azure Mini-Checked Peak-Lapel Jacket

“Never mind the ‘sir’.”

Ace blends bright blues and yellows while inspecting the French showgirls weighing in for the Femme Fatale show he imported from Paris. He appears to be wearing the same shirt, tie, trousers, and pocket square as he did with the mustard jacket when ejecting the rude cowboy, but the mustard jacket has been swapped for another micro-houndstooth coat in a rich azure. (Different ring, too!)

Brown Glen Check Suit

As Ace looks over his innovative sports book inside the Tangiers during the same montage, he’s dressed surprisingly traditionally (and, of course, tastefully) in a brown-forward glen plaid trousers, white shirt, and matching red tie and pocket square. Unfortunately, this tasteful ensemble only appears for this single, seconds-long vignette, but is also prominently featured in promotional photography.

Black Tuxedo

Congratulations, Ace! Our hero dresses in black tie to accent a certification of appreciation from the Charitable Foundations of Greater Las Vegas (dated August 6, 1972, though it feels like we’re much later in the timeline than this!), but he isn’t so charitable when a young executive from the casino goes a little too far complimenting Ginger: “Nice kid, bright boy… what balls on this fuckin’ kid! The next day I fired him.”

Mint-Green Shirt

That face when you have to break it to your friend that his criminal activity means he can’t even come to your casino to get one of those sandwiches he likes.

While Ace is getting awards, Nicky is getting banned… but that’s what extortion, murder, and robbery gets you, I guess! To meet Nicky sixty miles outside of Vegas at the dreary Idle Spurs restaurant, Ace goes as “incognito” as we’ve seen him—foregoing his usual sport jackets or suits and just wearing his shirt-sleeves. (Presumably, he is wearing pants… but we know it wouldn’t be the first time he foregoes those as well!)

Green Herringbone Silk Suit… Again

Back at the Tangiers, Ace is briefly seen repeating one of his suits when he pairs the green herringbone silk suit (from the immediate post-credits scene) during a vignette where a crooning Jerry Vale is interrupted by Ace’s narration about his new title as the casino’s food-and-beverage chairman.

Beige with Blue(berry)-and-Yellow Check Jacket

Does he know how long this blueberry request is going to take? I suspect he doesn’t care.

Ace is fed up! Not only is Don Ward committing fireable offenses as slot machine manager, but the muffins produced in the Tangiers’ kitchen have wildly differing amounts of blueberries in them. Time to do something about it.

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post. There are production stills of De Niro wearing what appears to be this same jacket but with a cream shirt and blue-and-gold cross-hatched tie while talking to Don Rickles, likely from a deleted scene.

Navy Printed Silk Dressing Gown

Ace’s most frequently worn loungewear is a dark-blue silk dressing gown with the same small repeating animal-shape print that would be on the pink robe which Nicky criticizes during an argument. He initially wears this blue silk robe over his pajamas during morning feeds and late-night meetings, but then he pulls it on over the midnight-hued shirt and trousers he’d worn with his red silk jacket when “greeting” Ginger after her all-nighter.

Ivory Western Suit

“How are you doin’, Les? It’s Lester, right..? From my recollection, aren’t you the card shark, the golf hustler, the pimp from Beverly Hills? If I’m wrong, please correct me. ‘Cause I never knew you to be a heist man.”

After Ginger’s shady request for $25,000, Ace follows her—and the money—to the diner where she meets her old boyfriend, the sleazy pimp Lester Diamond (James Woods). Ace dresses for dominance in his ivory Western-informed suit over a blood-red silk shirt and tie combination, unintentionally echoing Lester’s own clothing as the pimp sits before him in a white denim leisure suit with green-and-scarlet Gucci-striped accents.

You can read more about this suit and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Dark-Blue Windowpane Suit

“Well, in a sense, you could say that I am the boss when Mr. Green is away. You could say that.”

With the Tangiers’ reputation up for debate as Philip Green’s past connections come to light, Ace handles public relations in his office by taking an interview that will come back to bite him in the ass when he’s forced to admit that there are times when he’s the boss.

Pink Printed Silk Dressing Gown

John Barrymore could never.

“I lost control? Look at you! You’re fucking walking around like John Barrymore! A fuckin’ pink robe and a fuckin’ cigarette holder?” Nicky Santoro can’t believe the slick gambler he’s known since their shared childhood in the streets of Chicago is now parading around his country club home in a pink silk robe with a cigarette holder, but one of you gets brutally beaten to death in a Midwest cornfield while the other survives into old age while still picking winners, so… advantage Ace and his pink robe.

You can read more about this dressing gown in my BAMF Style post.

Pink Golf Sweater

In case the gaming control board can’t take a hint, there’s nothing less sartorially threatening than a man in a pink golf sweater… layered over a pink shirt and trousers. With pink loafers.

Even with all the colorful tailoring and ties that define Ace Rothstein’s style, costume designer Rita Ryack cited Ace’s all-pink golf sweater outfit to be among her favorites during a 2002 interview with Megan Turner for the New York Post. While it may have been comfortable enough when the day started, Ace probably started through that sweater when his interview with the gaming control board was interrupted by the feds landing on his lawn during their surveillance of Nicky on the golf course.

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Tan Blazer

After years of changing his job title and navigating the cowboy boots of bitter local politicians on his neck, Ace is finally given his opportunity to receive a gaming license… but the senator he comped so many times has caved to local pressure and denies his application without even giving him a chance to speak on it—despite Ace opting for grounded neutral tones (and no pinky ring!) to look more like a smart businessman than a mob-connected bookie.

(Though the actual hearings began in January 1976, Casino advances this scene to “1980” per an on-screen title.)

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Blue Shiny TV Suit

Spurned by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Ace takes his grievances public on his new public-access show Aces High!, filmed from the Tangiers within his capacity as public-relations director. He takes this opportunity to dress even flashier, having suits made in his usual patterns but with a degree of sparkle woven into the cloth! When he also welcomes Frankie Avalon as a guest for the inaugural episode, he wears a shimmering blue suit.

Charcoal Shiny TV Suit

Ace foreshadowing the “DEBATE ME!” guys who litter the podcast scene nearly a half-century later.

Another day, another episode of Aces High!, another sparkly suit… another diatribe about local politicians like Pat Webb that’s a little too loud for Ace’s mob friends’ liking.

The Juggler’s Jacket

Ace, don’t do it… Oh, no, no. Oh, no. Oh, Jesus. He’s juggling!

It’s only from Philip Green’s horrified POV that we see Ace juggling on his new TV show, dressed in a beige checked sport jacket, solid beige slacks, white loafers, and a matching red silk shirt, tie, and pocket square.

Cream Flecked Desert Jacket

When Nicky gets wind that Ace has been criticizing the heat brought on by his blatant criminal activity, he summons his old pal to a stormy confrontation in the desert. Ace dresses to reflect the sandy surroundings, sporting a cream flecked jacket with his subdued gray shirt and black trousers, as well as a matte black-framed set of the appropriately named Ultra Goliath II oversized sunglasses (reportedly chosen by De Niro himself) that reflect Nicky’s ’77 Monte Carlo as it speeds through the desert toward him.

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Lime-Green Sport Jacket

Ace was no stranger to wearing green before, but he’s fully embracing a wider spectrum of the color for the early ’80s, wearing an almost neon-hued lime-green jacket when leading his posse into a nightclub to the tune of Devo’s “Whip It”.

Brown Glen Plaid Jacket #2

Ace gets the unwelcome call in the middle of the night that Nicky, technically banned from entering any Las Vegas casino, is on some cocktail of substances and abusing the Tangiers’ blackjack dealers. He quickly (but not carelessly) dresses in a brown-forward glen plaid peak-lapel sports coat which differs from the suit jacket featured in an earlier vignette, then enters the casino to confront Nicky, approve his emergency marker for $10,000, and then storm out to leave poor Billy Sherbert suffering Nicky’s wrath.

Mint-Green Silk Notch-Lapel Sport Jacket

When you’ve got a divorce at noon but a casino to run at 1.

More green for Ace, this time a paler mint-toned slubby silk jacket worn with all-black—perhaps mourning the death of his failed marriage when accompanying Ginger to a divorce meeting with his lawyer, future Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman (playing himself!)

Mint-Green Flecked Silk Peak-Lapel Blazer

“Two loud light-green jackets is surely enough for one man, right?” you ask… only to look up and see Ace Rothstein in TV makeup, making his way toward you through a maze of showgirls while sporting yet another mint-green jacket—this one detailed with a mid-century atomic fleck, blazer-style metal buttons, and wide peak lapels—paired with a coordinated mint-green shirt and tie but with contrasting trousers and pocket square… though the fact that he matched his pocket square to his trouser color and not his shirt and tie as usual should have told us all that something was awry! (FYI: the shirt is the same one he wore when talking black books and sandwiches with Nicky at the Idle Spurs several scenes earlier!)

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Blue-and-Green Plaid Silk Suit

“First of all, he’s not gonna wear thousand dollar suits. But let’s say he did, which he won’t. How you gonna get fitted for twenty-five suits in three days? I mean, how could you get fitted that fast? I can’t get fitted that fast, and I pay twice as much… but even if you bought him a watch, a really nice watch, one that he thought was nice —and he doesn’t know what the fuck a good watch is—so, you go, five, ten, twelve grand?”
Ace’s natty suit drives the point home as he questions Ginger about how much of their stolen money benefited Lester’s questionable fashionable taste.

Ace picks Ginger up from the airport after she fled with their daughter and Lester to SoCal, then takes his wife out to dinner to confront her about the mess. Under his dark overcoat, he wears a chaotically colorful plaid suit, perhaps significantly paired with the same blood-red shirt and tie combo he’d sported with his ivory Western suit when also confronting Lester in the Vegas diner years earlier.

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Red, Blue, and Green-on-White Mini-Gun Check Jacket

Ace shows he’s at the cutting edge of both style and technology, when—dressed in another colorfully checked sports coat—he presents Ginger with a beeper so that he can contact her at any time.

Terra-Cotta Jacket

In the 2002 New York Post interview where costume designer Rita Ryack mentioned the pink golf sweater as one of her favorites from Ace’s wardrobe, she also described “the ‘car seat costume’—a terra-cotta silk jacket, gold shirt and tie teamed with chocolate-brown pants.” Also a favorite costume of mine, this burnt-orange ensemble appears as Ace questions Ginger about her whereabouts, only to learn the potentially deadly truth of her affair with Nicky Santoro.

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Red Raw Silk Jacket

The action comes full circle; we first heard the strains of the Stones singing their original version of “Satisfaction” back when Nicky stabbed a guy’s neck on Ace’s behalf in a bar “back home, years ago”… and now Devo’s electrified cover plays as Nicky again disrupts Ace’s life, this time by dangerously seducing his wife.

One of the most iconic of Ace’s looks is the bright red silk jacket over dark matching shirt, tie, and trousers that he wears for the extended sequence when Ginger ties up their daughter so she can enjoy a night out drinking alone in Nicky’s restaurant. Costume designer Rita Ryack has said she intentionally planned Ace’s already unconventional wardrobe to grow increasingly chaotic to echo the growing chaos in his life, so this bold outfit perfectly suits the moment.

You can read more about this style and scene in my BAMF Style post.

Silver Polka-Dot Robe

Ace’s robes are getting less fussy by the early 1980s, when he’s getting visits from the feds alerting him to Nicky and Ginger’s affair. Of course, this is old news to him, but he’s still depressed as hell. This is a simpler robe than his trio of dressing gowns, made from a thin single layer of gray silk that’s covered with a large black polka-dot print, coordinating with the black shirt he’s wearing with it.

Blue Striped Shirt with Contrasting Yellow Accents

“But in the end, I wound up right back where I started. I could still pick winners, and I could still make money for all kinds of people back home. And why mess up a good thing? And that’s that.”

More than a decade after the mob hits and overdoses that took out most of his old friends and cohorts, Ace survives into the present day—back to his roots as an unmatched sports better. Even thirty years later in the DraftKings era, I’d feel much more comfortable trusting my money to a gray-haired guy with custom shirts, a pinky ring, and the scars from an old car bombing.

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie, as well as Nicholas Pileggi’s nonfiction volume Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas that he published while researching with Scorsese.

I’m also hardly the first to try to catalog all of Ace’s style. Artist Ibraheem Youssef illustrated this stunning poster that follows the 45 suits and sport jackets that De Niro wears, available for sale on his site.

Art by Ibraheem Youssef.

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