Vitals

Bruce Dern as Tom Buchanan, hulking polo player

Long Island, New York, Early Summer 1925

Film: The Great Gatsby
Release Date: March 29, 1974
Director: Jack Clayton
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Clothes by: Ralph Lauren

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The 1974 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s landmark Jazz Age novel The Great Gatsby was my cinematic introduction to Bruce Dern, who celebrates his 90th birthday tomorrow! Born June 4, 1936 in Chicago, the actor’s birthday falls curiously close to the start of the action, when the irresponsible flapper Daisy Buchanan bemoans over dinner that “in two weeks, it’ll be the longest day of the year,” referring to the mid-June summer solstice.

Among an ensemble cast including Robert Redford and Mia Farrow as Daisy, Dern co-stars as Daisy’s husband Tom—a hulking millionaire constantly chasing the sensation of when he peaked as a college athlete. After greeting Daisy’s cousin Nick (Sam Waterston) in the midst of Tom’s own polo match, our introduction to Tom isn’t a flattering one. We quickly get the sense of a boastful if initially gregarious profligate who checks all the stereotypical boxes of his class: playing polo, philandering, and casual bigotry by touting a fictional volume called The Rise of the Colored Empires—evidently the 1920s equivalent of a racist podcast.

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What’d He Wear?

Tom later complains of Gatsby introducing him exclusively as a polo player, though even F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary introduction shares that there’s little more depth to the character than his equestrian pursuits:

…he’’ left Chicago and come East in a fashion that rather took your breath away: for instance, he’d brought down a string of polo ponies from Lake Forest. It was hard to realize that a man in my own generation was wealthy enough to do that. Why they came East I don’t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there unrestfully wherever people played polo and were rich together.

Fitzgerald further describes Tom dressed in riding clothes for this first scene, from his “thin coat” to “glistening boots [that] strained the top lacing.” Costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge translated this to the 1970s big screen by dressing Bruce Dern in athletic-oriented polo clothes.

Oversized to allow a wide range of movement while on horseback, Tom’s mid-French blue cotton poplin shirt has his team color marked by a bold white band encircling the torso, matching the number “2” sewn over his back. Unlike both contemporary definitions of a “polo shirt”, Tom’s short-sleeved jersey has a full button-up front and a soft spread collar without the closure that inspired Brooks Brothers’ iconic button-down “polo collar” around the turn of the 20th century.

Tom wears the traditional white polo breeches, a fuller-fitting evolution of the tighter jodhpurs that originated in India. These cotton drill flat-front trousers have slanted front pockets and two set-in back pockets, each covered with a single-button pointed flap. He holds them up with a dark-brown leather trouser belt through the waistband’s integrated belt loops, which—at this point in the 1920s—were still more common on sporting clothes before their near-ubiquity a century later. (In a continuity error, Tom’s belt is initially a lower-contrasting white leather when he greets Nick outside his car.)

Following the classic polo trouser design, the bottoms taper below the knee to allow a proper tuck within Tom’s riding boots. Resembling tall English-style field boots, these have smooth dark mahogany leather uppers with calf-high shafts detailed with short side straps and elastic rear gussets at the top.

Upon returning home with Nick, Tom pulls on an ivory shawl-collar cardigan that he hilariously wears for less than two minutes—hastily pulling it off once he’s back outside and sweating again. This comfortably roomy open-knit ribbed sweater has a broad shawl collar that tapers to six gilt blazer-style shank buttons up the front—supplemented by two more buttons positioned high on the right side of the chest for fuller closure. The left sleeve is banded with two dark-navy stripes just above the elbow, and each front panel has a squared patch pocket at hip level just above the hem.

Tom wears the classic white canvas-covered cork polo helmet, with ventilation holes and a white chin-strap to secure it in place during play. He also dons weathered russet-brown leather gloves to maintain a strong grip on reins and mallet while also preventing blisters. He supplements the right hand with a dark-gray elastic wrist brace.

Worn over his waist atop where his shirt tucks into his trousers, Tom’s three-buckle kidney belt is a broad swath of beige woven canvas—fastened in the front through three horizontal British tan leather straps that each close with a gold-finished single-prong roller buckle, connecting to rear brace straps that form a “V” across the back. Kidney belts were common among late 19th- and early 20th-century equestrians from polo players to cavalry officers, providing lower-back support, stabilizing a rider’s torso, and ultimately protecting a rider’s internal organs… specifically kidneys! For more modern wearers that have also adopted them for activities like weight-lifting and motorcycling, kidney belt technology has evolved to almost exclusively elasticized synthetics and Velcro rather than leather and buckle-straps.

 

Especially once he’s out with Daisy, Nick, and Jordan (Lois Chiles) dining in the early summer heat, Tom frequently fusses with a crimson, navy, and white-striped silk scarf, though he never prominently wears it on screen. Production stills do show him wearing it with his buttoned-up cardigan during the sunset sequence when he and Daisy wave goodbye to Nick at the dock, though the finished film only shows Tom and Daisy silhouetted from the back.

After this opening scene, Tom spends the remainder of The Great Gatsby sharply tailored in three-piece suits, varying only with the occasional situation-dependent blazer or formal white tie ensemble.

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How to Get the Look

They may have been vicious romantic rivals, but one wonders if Gatsby at least respected the fact that Tom was appropriately dressed to play an (clears throat) old sport.

• Ivory open-knit ribbed wool shawl-collar cardigan with gilt shank buttons, navy double-banded left sleeve, and low-slung patch pockets
• French blue cotton short-sleeved polo jersey with narrow spread collar, plain button-up front, wide white torso band, and white “2” on back
• White cotton drill flat-front polo breeches with belt loops, slanted front pockets, two button-flapped back pockets, and tapered bottoms
• Dark-brown leather belt
• Beige canvas triple-buckle equestrian kidney belt
• Dark mahogany leather English-style field boots with calf-high shafts and low heels
• White canvas-covered cork polo helmet with white chin-strap
• Russet leather polo gloves

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and read the book.

Ivy Style founder Christian Chesvold profiled sportsman Tommy Hitchcock for Ralph Lauren Magazine, describing him as Fitzgerald’s clear inspiration for the character of Tom Buchanan by quoting Sarah Ballard’s description in Sports Illustrated that “dressed for polo in shining boots and white breeches, with a camel hair coat thrown over his muscular shoulders, Hitchcock appeared clothed where other men looked costumed.” However, unlike Buchanan who sat out the war to sharpen his athletic abilities, the polo champion Hitchcock also served as an aviator during both world wars until his 1944 death in a plane crash.