Tagged: Denim Shirt
Almost Famous: Billy Crudup’s Denim Wrangler Shirt
Billy Crudup as Russell Hammond in Almost Famous (2000)
Vitals
Billy Crudup as Russell Hammond, moody rock guitarist
On tour through the U.S., Spring 1973
Film: Almost Famous
Release Date: September 22, 2000
Director: Cameron Crowe
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Following its Toronto International Film Festival premiere and a limited theatrical release a week later, Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical Almost Famous was widely released 25 years ago this week on September 22, 2000.
Inspired by Crowe’s own teenage years as a freelance music journalist—and Rolling Stone‘s youngest-ever contributor—interviewing the likes of Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, and bands including Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Steely Dan, and Yes. The 16-year-old Crowe spent three weeks on the road with the Allman Brothers Band for his first cover story, forming the basis for Almost Famous‘ central narrative through the spring of 1973.
Crowe’s on-screen surrogate is the 15-year-old William Miller (Patrick Fugit), who receives the life-changing assignment of following the rising band Stillwater on their national tour. Despite his mentor, rock critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman), urging him to maintain an emotional distance, William falls under the spell of the band and their groupies “band aids” like Penny Lane (Kate Hudson), who is embroiled in an affair with Stillwater’s enigmatic guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup)—also the most reluctant member of the band to grant William an interview. Continue reading
Sam Shepard’s Denim Western-wear in Fool for Love
Sam Shepard in Fool for Love (1985)
Vitals
Sam Shepard as Eddie, rodeo stunt rider
Mojave Desert, Spring 1985
Film: Fool for Love
Release Date: December 6, 1985
Director: Robert Altman
Wardrobe Credit: Kristine Flones
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today marks eight years since the death of 10-time Obie Award-winning actor, director, and writer Sam Shepard, who died July 17, 2017 at the age of 73.
As someone who loves movies set in motels and thinks that Shepard and Harry Dean Stanton were two of the coolest guys to have walked on this planet, I had long been intrigued by Robert Altman’s 1985 adaptation of Shepard’s own play Fool for Love, starring Shepard and Stanton opposite Kim Basinger. Continue reading
Inherent Vice: Doc’s Blue Denim Western Shirts
Joaquin Phoenix as Doc Sportello in Inherent Vice (2014)
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Joaquin Phoenix as Larry “Doc” Sportello, hippie private investigator
Los Angeles County, Fall 1970
Film: Inherent Vice
Release Date: December 12, 2014
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Costume Designer: Mark Bridges
Background
Adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s novel of the same name, Inherent Vice premiered as the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival ten years ago today on October 4, 2014, two months before its initial public release.
“Doc may not be a do-gooder, but he’s done good,” the trailer describes of the protagonist Larry “Doc” Sportello, the stoner sleuth played by Joaquin Pheonix who reprised his Oscar-winning role of Arthur Fleck in Joker: Folie à Deux, released in theaters today.
Five years before he first donned Joker’s clown makeup, Phoenix framed his face in mutton chops as the scraggly beach-dwelling private eye spurned into action by visits from his estranged ex-girlfriend Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston), first to ask his help in protecting the real estate developer she’s been seeing. Continue reading
Rolling Thunder: William Devane’s USAF Lightweight Blue Jacket
William Devane in Rolling Thunder (1977)
Vitals
William Devane as Major Charles Rane, twice-traumatized Vietnam War veteran and “one macho motherfucker”
Texas and Mexico, Summer 1973
Film: Rolling Thunder
Release Date: October 7, 1977
Director: John Flynn
Wardrobe Credit: Nancy McArdle
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
You learn to love the rope. That’s how you beat ’em. That’s how you beat people who torture you. You learn to love ’em. Then they don’t know you’re beatin’ ’em.
Today is the 85th birthday of William Devane, the talented Albany-born actor who appeared in the rare starring role in the 1977 revenge-centered action thriller Rolling Thunder.
Written by Paul Schrader and Heywood Gould as an intended expansion of the Travis Bickle Cinematic Universe that began in Schrader’s script for Taxi Driver, Rolling Thunder centers around Major Charles Rane, a United States Air Force pilot returning home to San Antonio after seven years of imprisonment and torture in a Hanoi hellhole.
“He’s unemotional, unresponsive, and stoic to the point of not being among the living,” writes Quentin Tarantino in Cinema Speculation, the volume that introduced me to Rolling Thunder. Continue reading
The Big Chill: Tom Berenger’s Convertible Down Jacket
Tom Berenger in The Big Chill (1983)
Vitals
Tom Berenger as Sam Weber, jaded TV star
Beaufort, South Carolina, Fall 1983
Film: The Big Chill
Release Date: September 28, 1983
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Costume Designer: April Ferry
Background
As I prepare to gather with friends today for our annual Friendsgiving celebration, there’s a cinematic choice that perfectly captures the essence of fall, friendship, and the shared warmth of communal meals.
Despite not being centered around the holiday itself, The Big Chill has earned a place among many as a quintessential “Thanksgiving movie” with its autumnal setting, the camaraderie of old friends reuniting, and the soul-stirring soundtrack creating a nostalgic backdrop reminiscent of the season’s familial gatherings.
Beyond this thematic resonance, the film also offers a visual feast served by costume designer April Ferry’s array of early ’80s threads worn by its ensemble cast. Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, and JoBeth Williams star as college friends who reunite more than a decade after their graduation to mourn one of their group lost to suicide—portrayed by Kevin Costner, who was almost entirely cut from the film. Almost.
I recently had a request to explore Berenger’s style as Sam Weber, who was become arguably the most famous of his college pals, gracing magazine covers as the star of the Magnum, P.I.-like series, J.T. Lancer. Continue reading
Pedro Pascal in The Last of Us
Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us
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Pedro Pascal as Joel Miller, tough pandemic survivor and former contractor
Boston to Utah, Fall through winter 2023
Series: The Last of Us (Season 1)
Air Dates: January 15, 2023 – March 12, 2023
Created by: Craig Mazin & Neil Druckmann
Costume Designer: Cynthia Ann Summers
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
It was fascinating to see my distaste for mushrooms validated in such a distressing manner in one of the biggest shows of the year.
Based on Naughty Dog’s popular video game of the same name, The Last of Us concluded its acclaimed first season on Sunday night. The series was primarily set in a post-apocalyptic 2023 in the grim aftermath in a global pandemic (albeit far more dystopian than our current reality), caused by a mass fungal infection that transforms its human hosts into grotesque quasi-zombies (shroombies?) that still roam the tattered world two decades following the societal collapse. Continue reading
Justified: Raylan’s Wool Coat and Double Denim
Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens on Justified (Episode 6.11: “Fugitive Number One”). Photo by Prashant Gupta/FX.
Vitals
Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, old-fashioned Deputy U.S. Marshal
Harlan County, Kentucky, Spring 2010 to Fall 2014
Series: Justified
Creator: Graham Yost
Costume Designers: Ane Crabtree (Season 1) & Patia Prouty (Seasons 2-6)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Justified is one of my favorite fall shows (despite the fact that each season originally aired in the spring), and I always like to revisit the tangled, moonshine-soaked underworld of Harlan County every autumn.
The first episode established the series-long conflict between Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), who dug coal together in the mines of eastern Kentucky before their diverging career paths as Raylan rose through the ranks of the U.S. Marshals Service tracking down criminals like Boyd, who started the series as the explosives-loving leader of a gang of bank-robbing white supremacists.
Both Raylan and Boyd have frequently been the subjects of requests from fans of the series as the series costume designers neatly established each man’s signature style: Boyd, somewhat fussy for a country criminal, with his layered sport jackets, waistcoats with dangling pocket watch chains, and shirts buttoned to the neck; and Raylan, who blends old-fashioned cowboy aesthetics into his modern business apparel. Continue reading
Jurassic Park: Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant
Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (1993)
Vitals
Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, top paleontologist
“Isla Nublar”, 120 miles west of Costa Rica, Summer 1993
Film: Jurassic Park
Release Date: June 11, 1993
Director: Steven Spielburg
Costumes: Mitchell Ray Kenney, Sue Moore, Kelly Porter, and Eric H. Sandberg
Background
Happy birthday, Sam Neill! The actor—born 72 years ago today on September 14, 1947—racked up plenty of BAMF Style points early in his career for his depiction of real-life spy Sidney Reilly in Reilly: Ace of Spies, a stylish mini-series that established Neill as a strong contender to succeed Roger Moore as James Bond. Neill’s greatest commercial success as a star was arguably his role of esteemed paleontologist Alan Grant in Jurassic Park, the 1993 blockbuster that needs no introduction.
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