Tagged: Black Suit
Twin Peaks: FBI Agent Dale Cooper’s Black Suit
Kyle MacLachlan as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper on Twin Peaks, in a promotional image for “The Man Behind the Glass” (Episode 2.03).
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Kyle MacLachlan as Dale Cooper, unusually perceptive FBI agent
Twin Peaks, Washington, February and March 1989
Series: Twin Peaks (Seasons 1-2)
Air Dates: April 8, 1990 to June 10, 1991
Created by: Mark Frost & David Lynch
Costume Design: Sara Markowitz (seasons 1-2) & Patricia Norris (pilot episode only)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Diane… 11:30 a.m., February 24th, entering the town of Twin Peaks. It’s five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line.
Twin Peaks canon brought FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) into this small upstate Washington town exactly 37 years ago today in 1989, narrating the first of many unreturned missives into a tape recorder after the corpse of popular local teenager Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) was discovered washed ashore near the town’s lumber mill. Continue reading
Oscar Isaac’s Byronic Black Frock Coat and Red Kerchief as Victor Frankenstein
Oscar Isaac in Frankenstein (2025)
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Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, baron and budding mad scientist
Edinburgh, Scotland, Fall 1855
Film: Frankenstein
Release Date: October 17, 2025
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Costume Designer: Kate Hawley
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
“I feel like, if I were around in the 1850s, this is how I would have dressed,” I commented to my wife, who just nodded with her characteristic patience when I say insane things. While she didn’t respond by telling me how much I look like Oscar Isaac (but was definitely thinking it, right? Right??), I was nonetheless intrigued by Kate Hawley’s deservedly Academy Award-nominated costume design in Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 retelling of Frankenstein, adapted from the famous 1818 novel by Mary Shelley, who died 175 years ago this week on February 1, 1851.
Director and screenwriter del Toro updated Shelley’s Romantic era setting to the 1850s, incorporating the medical advancements during the Crimean War into the context around Dr. Frankenstein’s experiments. We are introduced to the adult Frankenstein as he vehemently defends himself to a disciplinary tribunal for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh:
If we are to behave as immodestly as gods, we must—at the very least—deliver miracles, wouldn’t you say? Ignite a divine spark in these young students’ minds: teach them defiance rather than obedience!
Twin Peaks: David Lynch’s Black FBI Suit as Gordon Cole
David Lynch as FBI Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole on Twin Peaks (Episode 13: “Demons”)
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David Lynch as Gordon Cole, hearing-impaired FBI regional bureau chief
Twin Peaks, Washington, March 1989
Series: Twin Peaks
Episodes:
– “Demons”, aka “Episode 13” (Episode 2.06, dir. Lesli Linka Glatter, aired 11/3/1990)
– “Lonely Souls”, aka “Episode 14” (Episode 2.07, dir. David Lynch, aired 11/10/1990)
– “On the Wings of Love, aka “Episode 25” (Episode 2.18, dir. Duwayne Dunham, aired 4/4/1991)
– “Variations on Relations”, aka “Episode 26” (Episode 2.19, dir. Jonathan Sanger, aired 4/11/1991)
Created by: Mark Frost & David Lynch
Costume Designer: Sara Markowitz
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 80th birthday of David Lynch, the celebrated filmmaker whose surrealist productions often blended elements of humor and horror. Born January 20, 1946 in Missoula, Montana, Lynch died just four days before his 79th birthday last year when his emphysema was exacerbated from his Hollywood Hills home during the destructive wildfires that ravaged southern California.
In addition to the ten feature films he directed, Lynch co-created the TV series Twin Peaks with Mark Frost. On its surface, this mystery series centered around FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) investigating the death of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in a small Washington town, while more surreal elements focused on the supernatural realm presented through Coop’s bizarre dreams and the interactions among the quirky Twin Peaks townsfolk that lean into the characteristically Lynchian references to mid-century Americana.
Lynch himself would finally appear on screen during the second season as Coop’s hearing-impaired supervisor: “Federal Bureau of Investigation Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole,” as he introduces himself to local sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean), adding, “that’s a real mouthful, but I can’t hear myself anyway.” Continue reading
Samuel L. Jackson in The Hateful Eight
Samuel L. Jackson as Major Marquis Warren in The Hateful Eight (2015)
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Samuel L. Jackson as Maj. Marquis Warren, bounty hunter and veteran Union Army cavalry officer
Wyoming Territory, Winter 1877
Film: The Hateful Eight
Release Date: December 25, 2015
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Courtney Hoffman
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy birthday to Samuel L. Jackson! Born December 21, 1948, the actor hustled for two decades before his breakthrough performance as Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction (1994), his first of six collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, and he is currently the highest-grossing actor of all time with his films having collectively grossed more than $27 billion worldwide.
The actor’s most recent prominent role in a QT joint was the wintry western The Hateful Eight, released ten years ago this month on Christmas 2015, and an appropriate watch for tonight’s winter solstice.
Jackson leads the ensemble cast as Major Marquis Warren, a former Union Army cavalry officer now working as a bounty hunter who prides himself on his deadly reputation:
My bounties never hang, ’cause I never bring ’em in alive.
Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove
Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove (1964)
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Peter Sellers as Dr. Strangelove (né Merkwürdigliebe), ex-Nazi nuclear war expert
Washington, D.C., September 1963
Film: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Release Date: January 29, 1964
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Costume Designer: Bridget Sellers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Comedy icon Peter Sellers was born 100 years ago today on September 8, 1925, making today an ideal opportunity to celebrate Stanley Kubrick’s political satire that featured Sellers in one three of his most memorable roles. Continue reading
Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter
Robert Mitchum in The Night of the Hunter (1955)
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Robert Mitchum as Harry Powell, self-described preacher and serial-killing swindler
West Virginia, Summer 1930
Film: The Night of the Hunter
Release Date: July 26, 1955
Director: Charles Laughton
Wardrobe Credit: Jerry Bos
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 108 years ago today on August 6, 1917, Robert Mitchum delivered arguably the greatest performance of his prolific career in Charles Laughton’s 1955 gothic horror masterpiece The Night of the Hunter, which premiered 70 years ago last month in Des Moines, Iowa. Laughton’s first and only directorial effort was negatively received upon its release, though decades of reassessment have elevated its reputation and it’s now included on lists among the best movies ever made. Continue reading
Reservoir Dogs — Michael Madsen’s Black Suit and Cadillac as Mr. Blonde
Michael Madsen as Vic Vega (“Mr. Blonde”) in Reservoir Dogs (1992)
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Michael Madsen as Vic Vega, cold-blooded professional thief
Los Angeles, Summer 1992
Film: Reservoir Dogs
Release Date: October 9, 1992
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Many have been sharing tributes to the late Michael Madsen (1957-2025), who died just days ago on Thursday, July 3, of cardiac arrest at age 67.
Following the start of his career in the early 1980s with films like WarGames (1983) and The Natural (1984), Madsen performed his arguably most iconic role as the psychopathic Vic Vega—aka “Mr. Blonde”—in Quentin Tarantino’s breakthrough 1992 directorial debut, Reservoir Dogs. Continue reading
Kiss of Death: Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo
Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947)
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Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo, psychopathic mob hitman
New York City, Spring 1947
Film: Kiss of Death
Release Date: August 13, 1947
Director: Henry Hathaway
Wardrobe Director: Charles Le Maire
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Born 110 years ago today on December 26, 1914, Richard Widmark made his explosive and Academy Award-nominated screen debut in Henry Hathaway’s 1947 noir thriller Kiss of Death, filmed on location that spring in New York City and the surrounding area. Though Hathaway had fought Darryl F. Zanuck on casting Widmark, the director and actor developed a mutual respect for the other that would lead to five additional cinematic collaborations and Widmark serving as pallbearer during Hathaway’s 1985 funeral.
After a Christmas Eve jewelry heist gone wrong, Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) shares a jail cell with the sadistic Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark), a psychopathic criminal “picked up just for shovelin’ a guy’s ears off his head…. traffic ticket stuff.” Refusing to name his accomplices, Nick is sentenced to 20 years in Sing Sing, handcuffed on the train to Tommy who remembers that it’s his birthday… making this an especially appropriate post for today!
The Godfather, Part II: Michael Corleone’s Black Pinstripe Suit
Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
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Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, calculating Mafia boss
Washington, D.C., Winter 1959
Film: The Godfather Part II
Release Date: December 12, 1974
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Costume Designer: Theadora Van Runkle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Just over a week after its New York City premiere on December 12th, The Godfather Part II was widely released 50 years ago today on December 20, 1974. The follow-up to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 epic continued chronicling the ambitions of underworld boss Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) following his ascension to power after the death of his father and the orchestrated murders of his enemies.
By the latter half of Part II, the tension between Michael’s public persona and private life reach a boiling point as he’s faced with the consequences of his ruthlessness. Called to testify in front of a Senate subcommittee investigating organized crime, he maintains composure while defending his reputation—starkly contrasted by the emotionally charged confrontation with his wife Kay (Diane Keaton).
Kay’s revelations about the loss of what would have been their third child strains their already fragile marriage to a pivotal breaking point that underscores Michael’s increasing isolation and the personal cost of his choices. Continue reading
Pulp Fiction: Travolta’s Black Suit and Tie as Vincent Vega
John Travolta as Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction (1994)
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John Travolta as Vincent Vega, laidback mob hitman and self-described “Elvis man”
Los Angeles, Summer 1992
Film: Pulp Fiction
Release Date: October 14, 1994
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Pulp Fiction was released 30 years ago today on October 14, 1994, establishing Quentin Tarantino’s trademarks like a nonlinear narrative, many references to older movies and TV, and even the “trunk shot” from the POV of an open car trunk.
In addition to establishing Tarantino as a serious filmmaker after his impressive debut Reservoir Dogs, the movie also revitalized John Travolta’s career. The actor received an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Vincent Vega, the canonical brother to Michael Madsen’s psychotic killer Vic Vega—aka “Mr. Blonde”—in Reservoir Dogs. Continue reading
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