Vitals

Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper, FBI agent

Twin Peaks, Washington, March 1989

Series: Twin Peaks
Episodes:
– “Cooper’s Dreams” (Episode 1.06, dir. Lesli Linka Glatter, aired 5/10/1990)
– “Realization Time” (Episode 1.07, dir. Caleb Deschanel, aired 5/17/1990)
– “Variations on Relations” (Episode 2.19, dir. Jonathan Sanger, aired 4/11/1991)
Created by: Mark Frost & David Lynch
Costume Design: Sara Markowitz

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Following what would have been series co-creator David Lynch’s 80th birthday on Tuesday, I decided to make this Twin Peaks week on BAMF Style to give Lynch and Mark Frost’s surreal mystery series some long overdue attention. If you don’t like that, fix your hearts or die.

Twin Peaks centered around the arrival of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) to the fictional titular small town in upper Washington state, where he joins Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean) to investigate the murder of local teen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Even after the murder is ostensibly solved, Coop hangs around in Twin Peaks, lured by its colorful townsfolk and growing lore around the mysterious Black Lodge.

Coop’s idiosyncratic investigative tools include his own dreams and tips from the enigmatic Margaret Lanterman (Catherine E. Coulson), affectionately and appropriately nicknamed the “Log Lady” for the log she ubiquitously carries and evidently uses to communicate with the supernatural realm. Piecing together these clues, Coop leads Sheriff Truman, Deputy Tommy “Hawk” Hill (Michael Horse), and Dr. Hayward (Warren Frost) to a log cabin, where Coop finds the One Eyed Jack’s casino chip that prompts the next step in his investigation.

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What’d He Wear?

“Episode 5” (Episode 1.06), also known as “Cooper’s Dreams”, is the first time that we see agent Dale wearing anything on screen that isn’t his pajamas or one of the black suits established as the FBI’s de facto daily uniform in the Twin Peaks universe. Leading Harry, Hawk, and Doc into the woods, Coop dons his dark-blue FBI identifier jacket, which he continues wearing at the start of “Episode 6” (Episode 1.07) and which reappears sporadically in “Episode 18” (Episode 2.19).

Informally standardized rather than formally uniformed, these waist-length identification raid jackets were commercially sourced or occasionally contract-made, crafted from water-resistant nylon or poly-cotton shells like civilian windbreakers and snap-front athletic coach jackets. Around the late 1970s, LEOs brought these jackets from the sidelines directly into action, wearing them to clearly identify themselves while serving warrants, making arrests, or other operations that valued mobility and authority informed by clear identification.

Like any good federal agent, Coop knows exactly where to find his appropriately sized dark-blue nylon raid jacket—wearing it only when necessary for the operation and with the correct agency clearly identified via the letters “FBI” boldly embroidered in yellow over the right chest, across the back, and both upper sleeves. Coop’s jacket has a plain, shirt-style collar, five blue-finished nickel snap-buttons up the front, and large open-top hip pockets.

The jacket’s generous cut promotes mobility while accommodating layered sweaters and Coop’s holstered sidearm. Beneath it, he wears a black mid-weight cotton turtleneck (à la Sterling Archer’s “tactile-neck”), with only the roll neck peeking above the crew-neck collar of the ribbed brown sweater layered over it.

Cooper’s black flat-front cargo pants are made from either cotton, polyester, or a blend. They have slanted side pockets and large bellows pockets on each thigh, covered by a two-button flap. He tucks the bottoms into the mid-calf shafts of his smooth black leather plain-toe combat boots—styled like mid-century service boots with thick rubber outsoles and ten rows of derby-laced eyelets; he only laces them through the lowest six sets before tying the round black laces around the shafts themselves, cinching the uppers into makeshift gaiters that keep his tucked-in trouser hems secured.

Coop buckles a wide black webbed gear belt over his waist, rigged with a holster on the right side for a strong-side draw and a canteen pouch just behind it. He also tucks his black leather gloves into the belt when not wearing them—or when he has to change them out for disposable white latex gloves while finding clues.

The coach-style FBI raid jacket returns for a sole final instance during the canonical series when exploring Owl Cave—and then picking up Double R Diner donuts for the hungry lawmen waiting out in the car. He again wears it with a black turtleneck base layer and black cargo pants, though he’s swapped out the sweater for one of the plaid flannel shirts that had been Coop’s daily attire during his brief suspension from the FBI. This long-sleeved shirt is a black-and-slate shadow-plaid framed by a blue overcheck, styled with two flapped chest pockets and black buttons up the front placket.

Cooper wears his grandfather’s simple silver banded ring on his left pinky without ceremony throughout the whole first season, finally addressed in the second season premiere when “The Giant” (Carel Struycken) demands that he hand over his ring, adding that “I will return it to you when you find these things to be true.”

He rotates through three wristwatches over the course of Twin Peaks. A steel-cased field watch with a cream dial and brown leather strap appears only in the pilot, replaced by a sleek gold dress watch with a black rectangular minimalist dial and black leather band. During his brief suspension in the second season, he swaps out the dress watch for a more everyday blackened wristwatch with a white dial, which he continues wearing for tactical ops even after he is reinstated. Unfortunately, we can’t discern on screen which watch Coop wore during these sequences due to his black leather gloves and the multiple layers of sleeves over his left wrist.

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The Gun

Dale Cooper draws his sidearm more during “Cooper’s Dreams”—and into the subsequent episode, “Realization Time”—than we had previously seen on Twin Peaks. Holstered in a black leather belt rig, Coop’s issued sidearm is a Smith & Wesson Model 66 revolver—identifiable by its gleaming stainless steel frame, front sights, and shrouded ejector rod under the 2.5-inch barrel.

Smith & Wesson introduced the Model 66 in the early 1970s as a stainless-framed variant of the blued or nickel-finish Model 19, both marketed as “Combat Magnum” revolvers built on Smith & Wesson’s medium-sized K-frame. Both the Model 19 and Model 66 are double-action revolvers with adjustable rear sights and six-round cylinders chambered for .357 Magnum ammunition. Barrel lengths ranged from 2.5″ to 6″, with the intermediate 4-inch barrel a service revolver standard. The 2.5″-barreled Model 66 like Coop used through the first season weighs approximately 30.5 ounces and was carried by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) through the mid-1990s.

During the late 1980s, FBI agents were typically armed with Smith & Wesson revolvers chambered in .357 Magnum and .38 Special, though this was increasingly considered under-gunned when facing powerfully armed criminals—a situation tragically illustrated during an April 1986 gunfight between federal agents and two bank robbers in Miami that resulted in the deaths of agents Benjamin Grogan and Jerry Dove. In response, the Bureau collaborated with Smith & Wesson to develop a 10mm Auto pistol that increased both the power and capacity of agents’ sidearms, hence the Smith & Wesson 1076 that Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole (David Lynch) issues to Coop upon his reinstatement late in the second season.

The Model 66 may have been authorized for FBI personnel during the Twin Peaks timeframe, though my understanding of Bureau regulations are that only Smith & Wesson’s Model 10, Model 13, and Model 19 revolvers were officially issued.

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How to Get the Look

Special Agent Dale Cooper dresses for understated and utilitarian duty when leading his small task force into the woods during Twin Peaks‘ first season, blending tactics with rugged realism in his coach-style FBI raid jacket over layered sweaters with black cargo pants and combat boots.

• Dark-blue nylon FBI identification raid jacket with shirt-style collar, five-snap front, and open-top hip pockets
• Brown wool ribbed crew-neck sweater
• Black mid-weight cotton turtleneck
• Black flat-front cargo pants with slanted side pockets, flapped cargo pockets, and plain-hemmed bottoms (tucked in)
• Black smooth leather derby-laced/10-eyelet plain-toe combat boots
• Black leather gloves
• Silver banded pinky ring

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the series.