Tagged: David Sanders

The Deep: Nick Nolte’s Chambray Shirt at Sea

Nick Nolte as David Sanders in The Deep (1977)

Nick Nolte as David Sanders in The Deep (1977)

Vitals

Nick Nolte as David Sanders, vacationing scuba diver

Off the Bermuda coast, Summer 1976

Film: The Deep
Release Date: June 17, 1977
Director: Peter Yates
Costume Designer: Ron Talsky

Background

Okay, yes, I acknowledge that one of the few reasons anyone might still be talking about The Deep more than 40 years later is… well, the same reason anyone talked about it when it was released.

The Deep‘s enduring cultural significance indeed resulted from a costuming decision, though not related to anything Nick Nolte wore but rather Jacqueline Bisset’s simple but oh-so-memorable white tee during the underwater opening sequence.

Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep (1977)

Costume designer Ron Talsky’s on-screen credit appeared next to arguably his most famous wardrobe choice.

Once I registered what all the fuss was about, I also observed that Nolte—playing Bisset’s partner, David Sanders—begins the movie wearing an aquatic-adjacent outfit appropriate for gents developing their spring-to-summer transitional wardrobe or dressing for any seagoing getaways over Memorial Day weekend. Continue reading