The Family Stone: Luke Wilson’s New Plaid Polo Jacket on Christmas Morning
Luke Wilson as Ben Stone in The Family Stone (2005)
Vitals
Luke Wilson as Ben Stone, documentary film editor
New England, Christmas 2005
Film: The Family Stone
Release Date: December 16, 2005
Director: Thomas Bezucha
Costume Designer: Shay Cunliffe
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Merry Christmas!
Released twenty years ago this month, The Family Stone (written and directed by Thomas Bezucha) has quietly earned its place in the modern Christmas-movie canon—not through spectacle or sentimentality, but by capturing something far more recognizable: the particular emotional chaos of being home for the holidays with people who know you a little too well.
Already an emotionally demanding watch, The Family Stone feels newly poignant in the wake of Diane Keaton’s death in October 2025 at age 79. Her characteristically stylish, warm yet acerbic, and ultimately devastating performance as the matriarch Sybil Stone has long been the film’s emotional anchor, and revisiting it now adds an unavoidable layer of grief and gratitude to a story already steeped in both.
Headed by the formidable Sybil and her husband Kelly (Craig T. Nelson), the Stones live in the fictional New England town of Thayer, likely somewhere in Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley. Each Christmas, their five adult children—and an assortment of significant others—descend on the family home for a few days of overlapping traditions, unresolved resentments, and aggressively honest conversation.
Most families have a Ben. Luke Wilson’s youngest Stone sibling is the laid-back, free-spirited one—sometimes too laid-back, if his two consecutive missed flights are any indication. An excessive stoner even by his liberal New England family’s standards, Ben’s unbothered demeanor ultimately establishes him as the family diplomat: the only one who really gets along with his brother Everett’s tightly wound girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker), gradually thawing her icy, defensive exterior.
What’d He Wear?
“Will you take that goddamn tie off already?!” Sybil snaps at Everett (Dermot Mulroney), who spends his first day back home still dressed for the office. The Stones are well dressed but resolutely informal—a point Sybil later reinforces when she jokes to Ben that Christmas won’t be “clothing-optional” this year due to Everett’s visiting girlfriend.
Appropriately, The Family Stone is a masterclass in cozy holiday dressing: chunky knitwear, shearling coats, broken-in flannel pajamas, and layers that feel lived-in rather than styled. Diane Keaton steals the show, as usual, her neutral-toned combinations—blanket robes over shawl-collar cardigans and turtlenecks—radiating effortless winter cool.
Always the last to arrive, a freshly showered Ben stumbles down the stairs in a red striped polo shirt with the distinctive Original Penguin® by Munsingwear seabird logo embroidered in white against the upper corner of the breast pocket. Likely made from a soft cotton jersey with a three-button top, the short-sleeved shirt features a solid red collar contrasting against a body patterned in widely spaced horizontal stripes of pink, light-blue, and dark-navy. The shirt is a simple choice, but a good one—and the fact that Ben’s wearing some festive red on Christmas morning feels exactly right.
“Houndstooth, right?” Ben asks as he tries on his new jacket, a gift from his sister Susanna (Elizabeth Reaser), who confirms where she found it: “Filene’s Basement.”
He’s half right. The brown-and-black pattern is a glen plaid woven from houndstooth checks, overlaid with a muted red windowpane—arguably pushing it into Prince of Wales territory. It’s a single-breasted, three-button sport jacket with notch lapels, patch breast and hip pockets, four-button cuffs, and double rear vents.
The Polo Ralph Lauren manufacturer’s tag still clings to the left cuff—a detail that should be removed before wear, but feels entirely in character for a guy who didn’t expect to be opening a sport jacket twenty minutes earlier. It’s clearly a hit, as Ben is careful to protect it during his scuffle with Everett (“not on the jacket!”)
Ben initially pairs the Penguin shirt with dark-brown muted-plaid jeans featuring curved front pockets, patch back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms. Whether by coincidence or Christmas miracle, his new jacket’s brown ground and red overcheck neatly echo the colors in Ben’s red polo and brown trousers.
On his feet are low-profile CVO-style deck sneakers with navy canvas-and-brown leather composite uppers atop white rubber outsoles, neatly bridging the family’s New England academic-prep atmosphere with Ben’s offbeat, stoner-adjacent sensibility. He wears them with plain white ribbed cotton crew socks.
The brown leather sides against the blue canvas vamps and heel counters present like an inverse of the Vans Vagabond shoe, though Ben’s shoes more clearly resemble the classic Sperry CVO—more dock, less skate park.
Possibly vintage or a drug-store Timex, Ben’s unpretentious stainless steel-cased wristwatch rocks a simple, round white dial and a steel expanding bracelet.
While this post focused on Ben, I can’t wrap things up without acknowledging his little sister Amy (Rachel McAdams) in her T-shirt with a faded graphic celebrating Dinosaur Jr., an alt-rock band formed in Amherst in 1984. I’ve seen the specific monster print on her shirt described in connection to the band’s “Feel the Pain” tour in ’94, though that single had different imagery on the cover. Though nothing beats true vintage, you can find replicas of the shirt available on eBay here, here, and here.
“Good morning! Merry Christmas!” greets Ben, whose chipper attitude doesn’t align with the rest of his family at the moment (or most of the time, for that matter.)
“Unlike many other Christmas movies, The Family Stone doesn’t overwhelm you with bright whites, emerald greens, and candy-cane reds. Instead, the set design is rich with wood: dressers, desks, staircase banisters, and a busy baker’s block in the kitchen. Even the wallpaper and curtains throughout the house are various shades of brown. The wardrobe reflects this brown palette, too,” writes Reed Motti in his Autostraddle article “Why I Rewatch ‘The Family Stone’ Every Year”, adding that “In color psychology, brown is associated with comfort, security, and relaxation, and in interior design, it’s often used to make a space feel more open and inviting. When you watch The Family Stone, you are quite literally being welcomed into a home that three generations call their own, and you can feel it.”
What to Imbibe
The previous night, Ben nurses a few bottles of Dos Equis XX Special Lager over Christmas Eve dinner, then keeps the same easygoing pace at the local dive bar where he takes Meredith after her spectacular self-inflicted embarrassment.
Though I was a few years younger than Ben Stone when The Family Stone was released, I can definitely relate to the stranglehold that short-sleeved shirts over long-sleeved tees had on polite skater-adjacent culture.
Brewed in Mexico since 1897, Dos Equis XX Special Lager traces its roots to Cervecería Cuauhtémoc in Monterrey and reflects the influence of German and Austrian brewers who emigrated to Mexico in the late 19th century. Just a year before the brand would be recast as the Most Interesting Man in the World’s preferred brew, Ben drinks it as himself—unassuming, uncurated, and completely uninterested in projecting anything at all.
How to Get the Look
Luke Wilson as Ben Stone in The Family Stone (2005)
Ben Stone offers a Christmas-morning lesson in relaxed coordination: start with a casual red polo, add brown trousers, and let a thoughtfully chosen plaid sport jacket do the heavy lifting. The result is festive without being precious, polished without feeling overdressed—proof that sometimes the best holiday style comes gift-wrapped.
- Brown, black, and muted red Prince of Wales check wool single-breasted 3-button sport jacket with notch lapels, patch pockets, 4-button cuffs, and double vents
- Polo Ralph Lauren
- Red cotton jersey short-sleeved polo shirt with solid collar, three-button top, and widely spaced pink, light-blue, and navy horizontal stripes
- Original Penguin® by Munsingwear
- Dark-brown plaid jeans with curved front pockets, patch back pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms
- CVO-style deck sneakers with navy canvas-and-brown leather uppers and white rubber outsoles
- White ribbed cotton crew socks
- Stainless steel wristwatch with round white dial on steel expanding band
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie, and have a very happy holiday!
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Those are definitely Vans judging by the waffle soles, every Sperry sneaker I’ve ever seen or owned had chevron soles