Category: TV Series
Walton Goggins on The White Lotus: Storytelling Through Pattern Play
The White Lotus just earned 23 Emmy nominations for its third season, including Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Contemporary Costumes, and seven acting nods—among them Walton Goggins, recognized for his turn as Rick Hatchett.
While I’m on vacation this week, it feels like the perfect time to share this guest article focused on the style of a man on vacation—Goggins’ very own Rick—written by Katherine Manweiler, founder of Montage, the storefront for media and culture that turns on-screen style into personalized fashion discovery.
The White Lotus: Storytelling Through Pattern Play
What memory do floral patterned shirts conjure? Tom Selleck on Magnum P.I.? Your dad at a Sandals all-inclusive? How about the breakout style icon of summer 2025?
Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett on The White Lotus (Episode 3.04: “Hide or Seek”)
At Montage, we’re curating a shoppable collection of styles from beloved television shows and films. From activity on our Instagram page to a global user base on our shopping app, we had a front row seat to the commentary, crazes, and clicks driven by costume designer Alex Bovaird’s eclectic wardrobing of The White Lotus‘ third season. Continue reading
Duster: Josh Holloway’s Black Zip Polo and 1970 Plymouth
Josh Holloway as Jim Ellis in the pilot episode of Duster. Photo credit: James Van Evers.
Vitals
Josh Holloway as Jim Ellis, getaway driver and Army veteran
American Southwest, Summer 1972
Series: Duster
Episode: “Baltimore Changes Everything” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: May 15, 2025
Director: Steph Green
Created by: J.J. Abrams & LaToya Morgan
Costume Designer: Dayna Pink
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
One of the most fun new shows of 2025 is Duster, a breezy-yet-badass crime thriller that screeched onto HBO Max this spring and just wrapped its first season last week. Despite my current enthusiasm for the series, its initial announcement prompted what can only be described as deeply conflicted car-guy feelings—equal parts excited (a ’70s-set crime series starring my dream car? yes, please) and irrationally anxious (what if this makes Dusters too popular for me to afford one?)
Once I decided that this was a ridiculous basis for resentment, I locked into Duster—and I’m glad I did! Duster delivers plenty of stylish retro fun, complete with a swaggering soundtrack, Dayna Pink’s period-perfect costume design, and a rubber-burning parade of car stunts performed by both veteran stuntman Corey Eubanks and series star Josh Holloway.
Set against the dusty backdrop of the American southwest in 1972, Duster stars Holloway as a talented getaway driver who gets recruited by the FBI’s first Black woman agent Nina Hayes (Rachel Hilson) to turn against his employer, Phoenix crime boss Ezra “Sax” Saxton (Keith David)—described by one of Nina’s new colleagues as “the Southwest Al Capone.” (The FBI didn’t actually hire its first Black woman agent until four years later, when 27-year-old Sylvia Mathis graduated from the FBI Academy in June 1976.)
As one of the few who had never seen Lost, I was unfamiliar with Holloway before the series, but he’s terrific as the ruggedly charming Jim Ellis, sharing an easy chemistry with the excellent Rachel Hilson as the two work against a characteristically cool-as-hell Keith David. And of course, we’re treated to plenty of Mopar muscle action, scratching my Vanishing Point-sized itch.
Following the first-season finale last week, let’s wrap up this summer’s Car Week with our introduction to Jim as he tears through Arizona’s desert highways with his precocious niece Luna (Adriana Aluna Martinez) in that sharp red-and-black V8-powered ’70 Duster. Continue reading
The White Lotus: Walton Goggins Arrives in Thailand in a Mexico-Print Shirt
Walton Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood on The White Lotus, Episode 3.01: “Same Spirits, New Forms”. Photo by Fabio Lovino.
Vitals
Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, grouchy “victim of [his] own decisions”
Koh Samui, Thailand, Spring 2024
Series: The White Lotus
Episode: “Same Spirits, New Forms” (Episode 3.01)
Air Date: February 16, 2025
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Now that we’re more than a week into summer, I’m revisiting one of my new favorite sources of warm-weather style inspiration: Walton Goggins as the sardonic Rick Hatchett in the latest season of The White Lotus.
We meet Rick alongside his much-younger girlfriend Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) as they arrive by boat to the Koh Samui resort, where he quickly earns the ire of the Ratliff family by defiantly refusing to put out his cigarette. In tow: a suitcase full of loud shirts, plenty of emotional baggage, and a simmering grudge tied to resort owner Sritala Hollinger (Lek Patravadi) and her husband Jim (Scott Glenn).
Though Rick’s true motives grow more dangerously apparent as the season unfolds, our early impressions are limited to Chelsea’s casual comments: he doesn’t work much, he’s not quite balding enough to qualify as an “LBH” (loser back home) like her new friend’s all-too-familiar paramour, and her genuine desire that he take better care of himself. But as we quickly learn, Rick is often his own worst enemy. Continue reading
Don Draper’s Gray Jacket and Striped Tie for a “Zou Bisou” Birthday Surprise
Jon Hamm and Jessica Paré on Mad Men, Episode 5.01: “A Little Kiss, Part 1”. Photo by Ron Jaffe/AMC.
Vitals
Jon Hamm as Don Draper, 40-year-old remarried ad man
New York City, June 1966
Series: Mad Men
Episode: “A Little Kiss, Part 1” (Episode 5.01)
Air Date: March 25, 2012
Director: Jennifer Getzinger
Creator: Matthew Weiner
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Mad Men‘s fifth season double-episode premiere “A Little Kiss” begins on Memorial Day 1966 and follows through the next weekend, when Don Draper’s new wife Megan (Jessica Paré) curiously decides to throw her husband a surprise 40th birthday party… despite knowing literally anything about him. Continue reading
The White Lotus: Walton Goggins’ Cream Tailoring in Bangkok
Walton Goggins on The White Lotus, Episode 3.08: “Amor Fati”
Vitals
Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, vengeful tourist
Bangkok, Thailand, Spring 2024
Series: The White Lotus
Episodes:
– “Denials” (Episode 3.06, aired 3/23/2025)
– “Killer Instincts” (Episode 3.07, aired 3/30/2025)
– “Amor Fati” (Episode 3.08, aired 4/6/2025)
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
With Memorial Day weekend ushering in the unofficial start of summer, many gents are rotating their whites to the front of their closets.
On the latest season of Mike White’s anthological black comedy The White Lotus, costume designer Alex Bovaird contrasts the gloomy attitude of self-appointed vigilante Rick Hatchett (Walton Goggins) with an insouciant wardrobe of vibrant tropical shirts and bleached tailoring that he pulls together across the season’s final three episodes for his mission of revenge against the man he believes responsible for his father’s death: ruthless land baron Jim Hollinger (Scott Glenn). Continue reading
The White Lotus: Lochlan’s Tombolo “Reptile Dysfunction” Full Moon Party Shirt
Sam Nivola as Lochlan Ratliff on The White Lotus, Episode 3.04: “Hide or Seek”. Photo credit: Fabio Lovino.
Vitals
Sam Nivola as Lochlan Ratliff, timid and self-questioning high school senior
Ko Pha-ngan, Thailand, Spring 2024
Series: The White Lotus
Episodes:
– “Hide or Seek” (Episode 3.04, aired 3/9/2025)
– “Full-Moon Party” (Episode 3.05, aired 3/16/2025)
– “Denials” (Episode 3.06, aired 3/23/2025)
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This weekend, revelers gathered on the Thai island of Ko Pha-ngan for the monthly Full Moon Party, a celebration that coincided this month with the start of Songkran—the vibrant three-day festival observing the Thai New Year. While the April Full Moon Party is often the biggest of the year for this reason, the 2025 celebration is especially significant as it markst he 40th anniversary of the first Full Moon Party on Haad Rin Beach in 1985.
The intersection of Songkran and the Full Moon Party was depicted on the most recent season of The White Lotus, which ended last Sunday. While most characters from the ensemble cast were removed from the central Songkran action, the privileged Ratliff brothers Lochlan (Sam Nivola) and Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger) joined their new friends Chelsea (Aimee Lou Wood) and Chloe (Charlotte Le Bon) on the island for a night of neon-lit chaos and self-discovery.
Among The White Lotus‘ characteristically excellent ensemble cast, the third season offered a breakout performance for 21-year-old Sam Nivola as Lochlan, the shy youngest sibling navigating the uncertain space between adolescence and adulthood and the masculine and feminine forces in his family. Continue reading
Michael Scott in The Office’s First Episode
Steve Carell as Michael Scott on The Office (Episode 1.01: “Pilot”)
Vitals
Steve Carell as Michael Scott, paper sales regional manager
Scranton, Pennsylvania, February 2005
Series: The Office
Episode: “Pilot” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: March 24, 2005
Director: Ken Kwapis
Creator: Greg Daniels
Costume Designer: Carey Bennett
Background
The American adaptation of The Office debuted 20 years ago today on NBC, bringing viewers into the everyday monotony of the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the Dunder Mifflin paper company. Led by the cringe-worthy but eventually endearing salesman-turned-manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell), the show quickly established Michael’s desperate need for affection, which only becomes more apparent with each passing episode. Continue reading
Moonlighting: Bruce Willis’ First Brown Leather Jacket
Bruce Willis as David Addison on the pilot episode of Moonlighting
Vitals
Bruce Willis as David Addison Jr., wisecracking private detective
Los Angeles, Spring 1985
Series: Moonlighting
Episodes:
– “Pilot” (Episodes 1.01-1.02, dir. Glenn Gordon Caron, aired 3/3/1985)
– “The Murder’s in the Mail” (Episode 1.07, dir. Peter Werner, aired 4/2/1985)
– “Funeral for a Door Nail” (Episode 2.17, dir. Allan Arkush, aired 4/26/1986)
Creator: Glenn Gordon Caron
Costume Designer: Robert Turtrice
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
For Bruce Willis’ 70th birthday today, I was inspired by a reader’s recent comment to revisit the series that launched the actor to initial fame. Moonlighting premiered with its two-part pilot episode 40 years ago this month, starring Willis opposite Cybill Shepherd. Continue reading
Justifed: Raylan’s Pilot Episode Charcoal Pinstripe Suit Jacket and Jeans
Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens in the pilot episode (“Fire in the Hole”) of Justified.
(Photo by: Prashant Gupta, FX)
Vitals
Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, proudly old-fashioned Deputy U.S. Marshal
Miami to Kentucky, March 2010
Series: Justified
Episode: “Fire in the Hole” (Episode 1.01)
Air Date: March 16, 2010
Director: Michael Dinner
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designer: Ane Crabtree
Background
Inspired by a selection of Elmore Leonard stories like “Fire in the Hole”, Justified premiered 15 years ago this week on March 16, 2010.
The series began with a literal bang as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) demonstrated his quick trigger finger by outdrawing a “gun thug” in his assigned territory of Miami. Though he frequently insists “it was justified,” Raylan is ordered by his superiors to leave Miami, reassigned to the Lexington field office in his home turf of eastern Kentucky where he used to dig coal with now-criminal Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins).
“We weren’t what you call buddies, but you work a deep mine with a man, you look out for each other,” Raylan reflects of his and Boyd’s initial acquaintanceship. Continue reading
The White Lotus: Walton Goggins’ Crane-Printed Aloha Shirt
Walton Goggins on The White Lotus, Episode 3.03: “The Meaning of Dreams”
Photo credit: Fabio Lovino
Vitals
Walton Goggins as Rick Hatchett, troubled tourist
Koh Samui, Thailand, Spring 2024
Series: The White Lotus
Episode: “The Meaning of Dreams” (Episode 3.03)
Air Date: March 2, 2025
Director: Mike White
Creator: Mike White
Costume Designer: Alex Bovaird
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Whether you’ve been a fan of Walton Goggins since his intensity on The Shield and Justified or his comic turns on Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones, it’s great to see the 53-year-old emerging as an unlikely heartthrob thanks to his back-to-back TV performances as the noseless Ghoul on Fallout and the moody Rick Hatchett on this season of The White Lotus. Continue reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.