Vitals

Rossano Brazzi as Renato de Rossi, antique store owner

Venice, Summer 1954

Film: Summertime
Release Date: June 21, 1955
Director: David Lean
Costume Designer: Rosi Gori (uncredited)

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Prolific Italian actor and director Rossano Brazzi was born 110 years ago tomorrow on September 18, 1916. An on-screen fixture of Italian cinema since the late 1930s, Brazzi rose to global fame after three consecutive roles as a suave Italian romancing American women visiting his country in The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), and Summertime (1955).

The latter paired Brazzi opposite Katharine Hepburn, who portrayed American secretary Jane Hudson visiting Venice at the end of her lifelong dream vacation to Europe. Over evening drinks in Piazza San Marco, she spies the dashing antiques dealer Renato de Rossi (Brazzi), who romantically pursues her with goblets and gardenias until the two embark on a brief but passionate aestival affair.

With summertime officially ending after this weekend, let’s explore how Brazzi dressed for, well, the ending of Summertime.

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What’d He Wear?

Waving from the platform in one of his handsomely cut suits, Renato leaves Jane with a lasting image of her knight in shining armor—tailored in a pearl-gray serge with an elegantly subtle sheen under the Venetian sun.

The single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that gently roll over the top of its three buttons for a 3/2.5-roll presentation. The natural shoulders are wider than some of his other suits but still finished with the spalla camicia sleeve-heads, characteristic of Neapolitan tailoring, with three vestigial buttons at the end of each cuff. Additional signatures of Italian tailoring include the ventless back and gently curved barchetta-shaped breast pocket, supplemented by jetted pockets positioned straight over the hips; a plain white kerchief pokes out from his welted breast pocket as he runs after the train.

It feels significant to see the sharply dressed Renato stripped down with his open-neck shirt and no tie, especially considering how prominently his yellow tie figures in Jane’s memory from their first meeting. He’s no longer smoothly on the make in Piazza San Marco, now stripped down to romantic desperation. His white cotton shirt is buttoned up the plain front open at the neck at the spread collar. The rounded cuffs each close with a single button, the left sleeve enveloping his tastefully minimalist stainless wristwatch with its round white dial and black leather strap.

The generously cut double-pleated trousers rise high to Rossano Brazzi’s natural waist, where he secures them in place with a nearly matching gray leather belt that closes through a gold-toned single-prong buckle. All of Brazzi’s screen-worn trousers have side pockets with long vertical openings along the side seams and button-through back pockets. The bottoms are finished with turn-ups (cuffs) with a full break over the tops of his black calfskin apron-toe single-eyelet derbies.

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How to Get the Look

Rossano Brazzi models the impact of tasteful tailoring with his simple style at the end of Summertime, wearing little more than a gray suit, white open-neck shirt, and black shoes without looking like a businessman who simply lost his tie.

• Pearl-gray serge Italian-tailored suit:
  • Single-breasted 3/2.5-roll jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Double-pleated trousers with belt loops, side pockets, button-through back pockets, and turn-ups/cuffs
• White cotton shirt with spread collar, plain button-up front, and single-button rounded cuffs
• Gray leather belt with curved gold-toned single-prong buckle
• Black calf leather apron-toe derby shoes with single-eyelet lacing
• Black cotton lisle socks
• Stainless steel wristwatch with round white dial and black leather strap
• White cotton pocket square

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.