Tagged: Leather Jacket

The Professional: Belmondo’s Blue Leather Jacket

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Joss Beaumont in The Professional/Le Professionnel (1981)

Vitals

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Josselin “Joss” Beaumont, vengeful French secret agent specializing in “espionage and brawls”

Paris, Spring 1981

Film: The Professional
(French title: Le Professionnel)
Release Date: October 21, 1981
Director: Georges Lautner
Costume Designer: Paulette Breil

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Today would have been the 90th birthday of Jean-Paul Belmondo, the prolific and popular French star who rose to fame during the New Wave cinematic movement in movies like Breathless and Pierrot le Fou before he was established as a dynamic hero of action and adventure movies. Belmondo actually appeared in a 1984 movie titled Happy Easter, but—despite the egg-cellent holiday today—let’s refocus to three years earlier and Bébel’s iconic action role in The Professional, released in France as Le Professionnel. Continue reading

Noah Segan in Blood Relatives

Noah Segan in Blood Relatives (2022)

Vitals

Noah Segan as Francis, classical music-loving vampire

Across the Great Plains and Southwest, Summer 2022

Film: Blood Relatives
Release Date: November 22, 2022
Director: Noah Segan
Costume Designer: Michael Bevins

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Sometimes I read a description of or watch a trailer for a movie and think that it had to have been written specifically for me. A recent example of this phenomenon is Blood Relatives, Noah Segan’s directorial debut that premiered on Shudder four months ago, following a leather-jacketed Jewish vampire on a Paper Moon-style road trip in a classic muscle car through the neon-lit small towns of the Midwest and Central Great Plains while unpacking generational trauma with his daughter.

Needless to say, I loved the movie and urge all fellow fans to vote for it as Best First Feature for the 2023 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards, which ends on Monday, February 27. Continue reading

Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise

Ethan Hawke as Jesse in Before Sunrise (1995)

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Ethan Hawke as Jesse Wallace, itinerant American

Vienna, June 16-17, 1994

Film: Before Sunrise
Release Date: January 27, 1995
Director: Richard Linklater
Costume Designer: Florentina Welley

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy Valentine’s Day! While I’ve occasionally used this holiday to feature style from movies depicting gangland violence (think Jimmy Hoffa’s February 14th birthday or the 1967 movie The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre about the real-life 1929 event), this marks my first Valentine’s Day as a married man, so I’m feeling romantic and thus wanted to write about one of my favorite romance-themed movies: Before Sunrise.

For his fourth feature film, director Richard Linklater took inspiration from his chance meeting with a woman in a Philadelphia toy shop that led to the two walking through the city and conversing well into the night. Linklater collaborated with Kim Krizan on a screenplay that would focus heavily on dialogue between a man and a woman who had just met, with their conversations realistically balanced between casual and deep as they get to know each other… and learn more about themselves in the process. Continue reading

The Terminator: Arnie’s Leather Jacket and Gargoyle Sunglasses

Today’s post about an iconic screen badass was written by the curator of the popular Instagram account @jamesbondswardrobe. Enjoy!


Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Terminator (1984)

Vitals

Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800, an “unassuming” cyborg sent back in time to assassinate an unassuming waitress

Los Angeles, May 1984

Film: The Terminator
Release Date: October 26, 1984
Director: James Cameron
Costume Designer: Hilary Wright

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

The same year that he was filming Conan the Destroyer, rising film star and retired bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger—along with his agent—was sent a script penned by James Cameron that was simply titled The Terminator. His interest piqued, the eight-time Mr. Olympia later met the aspiring director, ostensibly to be cast as Kyle Reese. However, Arnie’s own musings on how the titular villain ought to be played stirred Cameron’s imagination, who began to sketch his likeness on a notepad, coming to the conclusion that, instead of Reese, “he’d make a hell of a Terminator.” Continue reading

The Bourne Supremacy: Karl Urban as Kirill

Karl Urban as Kirill in The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

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Karl Urban as Kirill, determined FSB assassin

Moscow, Winter 2004

Film: The Bourne Supremacy
Release Date: July 23, 2004
Director: Paul Greengrass
Costume Designer: Dinah Collin

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

After Wednesday’s post about Ford v Ferrari, today features another Matt Damon movie… but instead focused on one of his co-stars. In the spirit of Friday the 13th, let’s check out the style of one of the unlucky assassins assigned with exterminating the elusive Jason Bourne. Continue reading

From Dusk till Dawn: Tom Savini as Sex Machine

Tom Savini as "Sex Machine" in From Dusk till Dawn (1996)

Tom Savini as “Sex Machine” in From Dusk till Dawn (1996)

Vitals

Tom Savini as “Sex Machine”, whip-snapping biker

Mexico, Summer 1995

Film: From Dusk till Dawn
Release Date: January 17, 1996
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Costume Designer: Graciela Mazón

Background

Though it may be a few days late to celebrate Halloween, it’s always the right time to celebrate Tom Savini, my fellow Pittsburgher who turns 76 tomorrow!

Born November 3, 1946, Savini grew up in the Bloomfield neighborhood and served in the Vietnam War before following his cinematic passion to become an iconic figure in horror movies, working extensively on both sides of the lens as a prosthetic makeup artist, stunt performer, actor, and director. (Non-horror fans may recognize Savini as the beleaguered shop teacher Mr. Callahan in the Pittsburgh-filmed The Perks of Being a Wallflower.)

Perhaps best known for his six (to date) collaborations with George A. Romero, Savini memorably appeared in From Dusk till Dawn, perhaps one of his earliest prominent roles in which he was solely credited as an actor. Savini co-stars as “Sex Machine”, a biker who becomes one of only a half-dozen initial survivors after the vampiric employees of a rowdy bar in the Mexican desert turn on its customers. Continue reading

The Right Stuff: Sam Shepard’s Flight Jacket as Chuck Yeager

Sam Shepard with Brig Gen Chuck Yeager during production of The Right Stuff (1983)

Sam Shepard with Brig Gen Chuck Yeager during production of The Right Stuff (1983)

Vitals

Sam Shepard as Chuck Yeager, record-setting U.S. Air Force test pilot

Murac Army Air Field (now Edwards Air Force Base), Kern County, California, from fall 1947 to summer 1961

Film: The Right Stuff
Release Date: October 21, 1983
Director: Philip Kaufman
Costume Supervisor: James W. Tyson

Background

Today marks the 75th anniversary of when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier on October 14, 1947, piloting a rocket-propelled Bell X-1 aircraft—named Glamorous Glennis, after his wife—over the Mojave Desert at a speed greater than Mach 1. The event is depicted at the start of The Right Stuff, Philip Kaufman’s 1983 flight epic based on Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction book of the same name, chronicling the pivotal early years of American aeronautics between Yeager’s supersonic achievement and the conclusion of the successful Project Mercury manned space missions.

Continue reading

Hugh Jackman’s Leather Jacket as Wolverine in X-Men

I’m again pleased to present a guest post contributed by my friend Ken Stauffer, who has written several pieces for BAMF Style previously and chronicles the style of the Ocean’s film series on his excellent Instagram account, @oceansographer.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men (2000)

Hugh Jackman as Logan, a.k.a. Wolverine, in X-Men (2000)

Vitals

Hugh Jackman as Logan a.k.a Wolverine, itinerant and amnesiac cage-fighter and part-time superhero

Northern Alberta, Canada and Westchester, New York, in the not too distant future

Film: X-Men
Release Date: July 15, 2000
Director: Bryan Singer
Costume Designer: Louise Mingenbach

Background

Happy Birthday to Hugh Jackman! The charismatic Australian song-and-dance man turns 54 today.

Earlier this month, Ryan Reynolds broke the Internet with his announcement that Hugh would be strapping on the claws to play Wolverine once more in Deadpool III. Despite his repeated declarations that James Mangold’s Logan in 2017 would be his last dance with the character, it seems he just couldn’t say no to the prospect of reprising the role that made him famous. Continue reading

The Nice Guys: Russell Crowe’s Blue ’70s Leather Jacket

Russell Crowe as Jackson Healy in The Nice Guys (2016)

Russell Crowe as Jackson Healy in The Nice Guys (2016)

Vitals

Russell Crowe as Jackson Healy, unlicensed private detective

Los Angeles, Fall 1977

Film: The Nice Guys
Release Date: May 20, 2016
Director: Shane Black
Costume Designer: Kym Barrett

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

I was pleased to again join my friends Pete Brooker and Ken Stauffer on another episode of Pete’s podcast From Tailors With Love, this time discussing the fun ’70s style of Shane Black’s action comedy The Nice Guys.

For those unfamiliar, the “nice guys” in question are Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, bringing back Black’s signature buddy comedy style in a big way as competing private eyes Jackson Healy and Holland March, respectively.

The older and worldlier yet paunchier Jack is more an enforcer than investigator, balancing his limb-breaking toughness with at least some remaining scruples, particularly when compared to the younger and less experienced Holly, who’s not above taking a case agreeing to help an aging woman track down her “missing” husband… whose ashes rest in an urn just a few feet away from them.

Like Crowe’s star-making turn almost twenty years earlierThe Nice Guys’ conspiratorial heartbeat is driven by Kim Basinger’s role at the intersection of corruption and porn in the City of Angels forty years prior, but the villains’ overcomplicated scheme are certainly secondary to the comedic chemistry between Crowe and Gosling, whom I—and Crowe himself—would love to see re-team for a follow-up… and with a built-in sequel title like The Nicer Guys, what’s stopping them? Continue reading

The Sopranos: Saying Goodbye to Paulie Walnuts

Tony Sirico as "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri in "Made in America", The Sopranos' series finale.

Tony Sirico as “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri in “Made in America”, The Sopranos‘ series finale.

Vitals

Tony Sirico as “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri, mob captain and Army veteran

Kearny, New Jersey, Late Fall 2007

Series: The Sopranos
Episode: “Made in America” (Episode 6.21)
Air Date: June 10, 2007
Director: David Chase
Creator: David Chase
Costume Designer: Juliet Polcsa

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

This weekend, fans of The Sopranos mourned the death of Tony Sirico, who had played the eccentric gangster “Paulie Walnuts” in addition to appearances in movies like GoodfellasDead Presidents, and Cop Land.

Sirico was born July 29, 1942 in Brooklyn, beginning a colorful life that would be paralleled by his character’s succinct autobiography as shared in a third-season episode:

I was born, grew up, spent a few years in the Army, a few more in the can, and here I am: a half a wise guy.

Continue reading