Tagged: Puffer Vest
Clark Griswold’s Christmas Tree-Hunting Parka and Sweater
Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
Vitals
Chevy Chase as Clark W. Griswold Jr., festive family man and food additive executive
Chicago*, December 1989
Film: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Release Date: December 1, 1989
Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik
Costume Designer: Michael Kaplan
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Let’s officially launch the Christmas season and continue this winter’s Car Week with the Griswold family in their “ol’ front-wheel-drive sleigh” in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, released 36 years ago today on December 1, 1989!
After the first two films took the Griswolds traveling across the United States and Europe, the family spends the holidays at home, where “the last true family man” Clark (Chevy Chase) and his wife Ellen (Beverly D’Angelo) are trying to spread yuletide cheer to their kids Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Rusty (Johnny Galecki) with a snowy Saturday afternoon trek into the most mountainous region of rural Illinois* in search of “that most important of Christmas symbols.”
Audrey: We’re not driving all the way out here so you can get one of those stupid ties with the Santa Clauses on it, are we Dad?
Clark: No, I have one of those at home.
Rather than neckwear, the family is embracing the frosty majesty of the winter landscape to find the perfect tree that will anchor the “fun, old-fashioned family Christmas” envisioned by Clark, foregoing the pre-cut trees offered in Jolly Jerry’s lot to chop one down himself… despite forgetting a saw. Continue reading
Back to the Future: Marty McFly’s Denim and DeLorean from 1985 to 1955
Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future (1985)
Vitals
Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, time-traveling high schooler and guitarist
Hill Valley, California, Fall 1985—then 1955
Film: Back to the Future
Release Date: July 3, 1985
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
If my calculations are correct… anyone with a functioning DeLorean time machine who punches in July 3, 1985 and floors it to 88 mph would indeed see some serious shit—the release of Back to the Future, which premiered 40 years ago today.
One of the most celebrated movies of all time (and featuring the now-iconic DeLorean very appropriate for Car Week), Back to the Future became an instant cultural phenomenon upon release. It earned an Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing, grossed over $380 million worldwide to become the top-earning movie of 1985, and propelled the careers of director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis (then riding high off Romancing the Stone) and star Michael J. Fox (best known at the time for playing Reaganite teen Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties), who replaced Eric Stoltz in the now-iconic role of Marty McFly. Continue reading
Succession: Tom’s Cashmere Puffer Vest and White Sneakers in Norway
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans on Succession, Episode 4.05 (“Kill List”)
Vitals
Matthew Macfadyen as Tom Wambsgans, obsequious corporate media executive
Møre og Romsdal, Norway, Fall 2020
Series: Succession
Episode: “Kill List” (Episode 4.05)
Air Date: April 23, 2023
Director: Andrij Parekh
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Working my way through the winter blues, I’m returning to some of the luxuriously simple cool-weather looks from the final season of Succession—specifically the fifth episode trip to Norway, where the Roy siblings hope to land a deal with tech giant GoJo.
Included among the Waystar RoyCo contingent is the spineless yet calculating Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), whose machinations and devotion to the company’s late CEO Logan Roy (Brian Cox) placed him in a better position for advancement than Logan’s own children… including his daughter Siobhan (Sarah Snook), whom Tom had married before betraying to advance his good graces with Logan. Continue reading
The Deer Hunter: Robert De Niro’s Hunting Gear
Robert De Niro in The Deer Hunter (1978)
Vitals
Robert De Niro as Mike Vronsky, steel worker
Southwestern Pennsylvania, Fall 1967 and Winter 1973
Film: The Deer Hunter
Release Date: December 8, 1978
Director: Michael Cimino
Costume Supervisor: Eric Seelig
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Michael Cimino’s acclaimed second film The Deer Hunter was released 46 years ago today on December 8, 1978. Aside from the sequences set in Vietnam, the film primarily takes place among the steel towns of western Pennsylvania. As we’re currently in the midst of the two-week deer-hunting season for Pennsylvania riflemen, let’s look at how Robert De Niro dressed as the titular outdoorsman Mike Vronsky. Continue reading
Succession: Cousin Greg’s Pre-Thanksgiving Puffer Vest
Nicholas Braun as “Cousin Greg” Hirsch on Succession, Episode 1.05: “I Went to Market”
Vitals
Nicholas Braun as Greg Hirsch, mild-mannered media conglomerate underling and family outsider
Canada to New York City, The day before Thanksgiving 2018
Series: Succession
Episode: “I Went to Market” (Episode 1.05)
Air Date: July 1, 2018
Director: Adam Arkin
Creator: Jesse Armstrong
Costume Designer: Michelle Matland
Background
Ahead of Thanksgiving tomorrow, one of the things I’m grateful for is that—if Succession had to end this year—the fact that it did so perfectly when the series finale ended in May. To commemorate the final year from this landmark series, let’s flash back to the first season as we joined the Roys for their annual Turkey Day celebration.
From the start of Succession, the anxious Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun), aka “Cousin Greg”, aka “Greg the Egg”, initially served as an audience surrogate as we were all collectively introduced to the world of the extremely wealthy and highly dysfunctional Roy family, led by domineering patriarch Logan (Brian Cox) as his children Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Siobhan (Sarah Snook) wrested for their withholding father’s favor… and the keys to control his media conglomerate, Waystar RoyCo.
The outsider Greg had never been part of their circle, thrust into it during Logan’s 80th birthday party when his mother—Logan’s niece—dispatched him to New York for a job after he was fired from one of a Waystar amusement park for getting high inside a mascot costume. Within a month, he’s got a job with the company that pays himself just enough that he needn’t sneak food out of the Waystar break room in doggie-doo bags anymore, and he can afford enough gas to power his three-year-old Hyundai to Canada (“with the healthcare and the ennui!”) and back to transport his grandfather Ewan (James Cromwell) to New York for Logan’s Thanksgiving dinner.
Greg: Happy Thanksgiving!
Ewan: Not for the Indians.
Greg: No sir! Nope… that is still true.
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
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