Vitals

Chris Isaak as Chester “Chet” Desmond, FBI agent

Deer Meadow, Washington, February 1988

Film: Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
Release Date: August 28, 1992
Director: David Lynch
Costume Designer: Patricia Norris

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

GET ME SPECIAL AGENT CHESTER DESMOND OUT IN FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA!

Kyle MacLachlan had been intended to more prominently reprise his role as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, David Lynch’s 1992 cinematic prequel to the then-recently canceled series. But the actor’s reluctance to be typecast prompted Lynch to reimagine the first act’s federal investigator as the more laconic Chester “Chet” Desmond—which became the first major acting role for singer Chris Isaak, born 70 years ago today on June 26, 1956. Isaak’s music career had already received a boost after his breakthrough song “Wicked Game” was featured in Lynch’s previous film, Wild at Heart.

The prequel features a similar setting and vibe from the series, albeit slightly darker and twisting the formula. The polite Cooper is relegated to the sidelines as the first act follows Chet into a mysterious Pacific Northwest town but, unlike the quirky yet welcoming townspeople in Twin Peaks, the residents of Deer Meadow offer little but resistance to Desmond and his towhead assistant, Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland). Regional bureau chief Gordon Cole (David Lynch) had sent the agents to the small Washington town to investigate the murder of drifter and diner waitress Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley). Chet’s eventual disappearance brings Coop back into the action, searching for answers in the week before Cole sends him to Twin Peaks to investigate another murder.

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What’d He Wear?

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me continues the series’ established uniform for FBI agents as black suits with pale shirts and classic ties, though it does introduce some variance with Sam Stanley’s blue suits and bow ties as well as the contextually appropriate light stone suit and open-necked printed sport shirt that Phillip Jeffries (David Bowie) wears when reappearing from his disappearance in Buenos Aires.

Chester Desmond typifies the Coop-and-Cole “uniform” in his somber black worsted wool suit, tailored with a roomy cut characteristic of late 1980s and early ’90s fashions. The single-breasted jacket has notch lapels tapering to a two-button front positioned over Chris Isaak’s waist, styled with the conventional welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, four-button cuffs, and single rear vent.

Chet’s black pleated suit trousers have a medium-high rise to Isaak’s waist, where he holds them up with a black braided leather belt that closes through a silver-toned box-frame buckle. He carries his Bureau-issued sidearm—which appears to be a full-size SIG-Sauer P226 semi-automatic pistol—in a black ballistic nylon holster against the right sie of his belt.

The trousers have on-seam side pockets and jetted back pockets, with a button through the back-left pocket to close. The bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs), which break over the tops of his black leather cap-toe derby shoes and black socks.

Chet wears pale-blue poplin shirts with a narrow spread collar, which doesn’t look particularly good with his heftier tie knots. Like many American off-the-rack shirts, it has a breast pocket: a large squared patch pocket over the left side of the chest, reinforced across the top. The sleeves are finished with single-button cuffs.

We exclusively see Chet wearing striped ties, arriving in Deer Meadow wearing a black tie patterned with repeating sets of five closely positioned white “downhill”-direction stripes. He keeps his ties in place at mid-torso with a darkened gold oval-shaped clip.

When we’re introduced to Chet in Fargo, he’s wearing a simialrly striped tie—also with a black ground but made from a textured repp silk and patterned with narrow crimson-red downhill stripes, framed on each side with an equally thin white stripe.

Instead of the 1950s-era Army overcoats favored by Coop, Cole, and even Sam Stanley, Chet wears a classic example of a taupe gabardine trench coat—aligning his appearance and attitude more with the slicker agent Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer). The coat has a straight 6×3-button double-breasted front, arranged in two parallel columns of three buttons each. Button-down epaulets are looped onto each shoulder, set-in at the top of the sleeves which are finished with belted cuffs. A wide double-pointed storm flap extends across the back and onto both sides of the chest, where the flaps are buttoned down on each side, and the back is split with a long vent. The wide-welted hand pockets are also positioned on a slant, with a single-button closure to keep out rain.

Though Chet’s coat has wide loops on each side fo the waist, he wears his trench coat sans belt—predating the first mention of Morty Seinfeld’s “Executive” beltless raincoat by nearly two years.

Chet’s silver signet ring is more decorative than Dale Cooper’s simpler pinky band. Worn on his right ring finger, Chet’s ring has a flat surface with a figure in relief like a bird with outstretched wings.

Also worn on his right wrist, Chet’s stainless steel wristwatch has a plain white round dial printed with Arabic numeral hour indices and fastened to an expanding silver-toned band.

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How to Get the Look

Though dressed in the Twin Peaks universe’s expected black suits, light shirts, and ties for FBI agents, Chet Diamond establishes his own distinguished look apart from Dale Cooper with his trench coat, tie clip, braided leather belt, and signet ring.

• Black worsted wool suit:
  • Single-breasted 2-button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button cuffs, single vent
  • Pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, jetted back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• Pale-blue poplin shirt with narrow spread collar, squared patch breast pocket, and single-button cuffs
• Black and narrow white “downhill”-striped ties
  • Gold oval-shaped tie clips
• Black braided leather belt with silver box-frame buckle
• Black calfskin leather cap-toe derby shoes
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Taupe gabardine trench coat with shoulder epaulets, button-down storm flaps, 6×3-button double-breasted front, slanted single-button hand pockets, set-in sleevees with belted cuffs, and long single vent
• Silver signet ring
• Stainless steel watch with round white dial on steel expanding band

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

Due to.a lessened role for fan-favorite characters and Lynch’s already surrealist style perhaps putting off those who only knew him via the popular series, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me failed to resonate with viewers after premiering at Cannes in May 1992 and its wider American release three months later. However, it has been reapprpraised through the decades as an essential entry in Twin Peaks canon that expanded with Lynch’s 2017 sequel series The Return.