Tagged: T-shirt
Pulp Fiction: Tim Roth’s Surfer Shirt
Tim Roth in Pulp Fiction (1994)
Vitals
Tim Roth as “Pumpkin”, aka “Ringo”, an otherwise unnamed small-time crook
Los Angeles, Summer 1992
Film: Pulp Fiction
Release Date: October 14, 1994
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Betsy Heimann
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Now that it’s summer—and already a hot one!—I’ve started rotating my favorite aloha shirts and tropical prints into my wardrobe. Luckily for me, bright Hawaiian-style resort shirts have been undergoing a wave of revival each summer, perhaps encouraged by Brad Pitt’s now-famous yellow aloha shirt in Quentin Tarantino’s latest, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Style in QT’s early movies typically conjures the well-armed professional criminals in their uniforms of black suits, white shirts, and black ties, but outside of this lethal look, characters in the Tarantino-verse often pulled from the Hawaiian shirts in their closet. The first example would be Harvey Keitel’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it palm-print shirt before taking Tim Roth’s Mr. Orange for tacos in Reservoir Dogs. Two years later, it was Roth himself that would be tropically attired for the next of Tarantino’s defining cinematic works. Continue reading
The Adam Project: Ryan Reynolds’ Rogue Territory Jacket
Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed in The Adam Project (2022)
Vitals
Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed, time-traveling fighter pilot
Washington State, Spring 2022… then fall 2018
Film: The Adam Project
Release Date: March 11, 2022
Director: Shawn Levy
Costume Designer: Jenny Eagan
Background
For four weeks after it premiered, The Adam Project remained the #1 most streamed movie on Netflix, only recently surpassed. This adventure comedy incorporates elements of sci-fi and action into a fun and often touching celebration of nerdom, summed up by a character stating that “sometimes it pays to be a nerd, guys.” Continue reading
The Squid Game Tracksuit
Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun in Squid Game
Vitals
Lee Jung-jae as Seong Gi-hun, desperate gambling-addicted chauffeur and game player #456
Off the South Korean coast, Summer 2020
Series: Squid Game (Korean: 오징어 게임)
Air Date: September 17, 2021
Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Production Designer: Chae Kyung-sun
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Pop culture moves at such a rapid pace these days, it’s surprising to even consider that a TV show released more than a month ago would still be topical in time for Halloween. Yet, Squid Game has already proved its relative staying power by launching past Bridgerton to become Netflix’s most-watched series worldwide after being released only a month. (And yes, I was one of those 111 million watchers, having binged all nine episodes in two days!)
Green tracksuits have been selling out across the Internet as Halloween revelers are choosing to dress as the desperate players recruited into the deadly games as well as the boiler-suited guards who oversee them… and gun them down.
For those unfamiliar with this South Korean series, Squid Game revolves around a group of 456 everyday people, with little in common aside from being desperately in debt, recruited to compete in a progression of childhood games with deadly stakes, all for the chance to win a life-changing fortune. Continue reading
Point Break: Keanu Reeves’ Wet Lee Storm Rider Jacket
Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah in Point Break (1991)
Vitals
Keanu Reeves as Johnny Utah, ambitious FBI agent
Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia, Spring 1991
Film: Point Break
Release Date: July 12, 1991
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Costume Supervisors: Colby P. Bart & Louis Infante
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy birthday to Keanu Reeves, born September 2, 1964. Born in Beirut, Reeves spent his childhood moving between several countries around the world, including Australia, which would later be the setting for the finale of Point Break, one of the Reeves’ first major movies and a cult favorite 30 years after its release.
Risky Business: Tom Cruise in Donegal Tweed
Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay in Risky Business (1983). Photo by Steve Schapiro.
Vitals
Tom Cruise as Joel Goodson, ambitious high school student-turned-pimp
Chicago, Fall 1983
Film: Risky Business
Release Date: August 5, 1983
Director: Paul Brickman
Costume Designer: Robert De Mora
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
As we enter “Back to School” season, I want to look at one of the most famous cinematic intersections of style and scholastics, a dark coming-of-age comedy starring a young Tom Cruise as a high school student whose desire to compete in the modern materialistic marketplace leads to his engaging in some perilous pursuits… or Risky Business, if you will.
The Big Lebowski: The Dude’s Robe
Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski (1998)
Vitals
Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, laidback stoner and bowler
Los Angeles, Fall 1991
Film: The Big Lebowski
Release Date: March 6, 1998
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres
Background
To commemorate the day that The Big Lebowski was released in 1998, March 6 is considered the high holy day of Dudeism, an “ancient” religious philosophy that touts itself as “the slowest-growing religion in the world” and inspired by the easygoing, non-judgmental attitude of The Dude himself.
We meet The Dude during a late-night Ralph’s run to pick up some much-needed half-and-half for his beloved White Russians, dressed in a soft robe, plaid shorts, sandals and sunglasses, a laidback loungewear ensemble emblematic of the unofficial wardrobe of Dudeists. Continue reading
The Big Lebowski – The Dude’s Kaoru Betto T-shirt
Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski (1998)
Vitals
Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, laidback stoner and bowler
Los Angeles, Fall 1991
Film: The Big Lebowski
Release Date: March 6, 1998
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 100th birthday of Japanese baseball star Kaoru Betto who, despite his talents as one of the league’s earliest power hitters, may be most recognizable to many as his likeness graces the front of Jeff Bridges’ T-shirts in Cold Feet (1989), The Fisher King (1991), and most famously in The Big Lebowski (1998).
Born in Nishinomiya on August 23, 1920, Kaoru Betto made his Nippon Professional Baseball debut as an outfielder for the Ōsaka Tigers (now the Hanshin Tigers) in 1948. After two years with the Tigers, Betto moved to play for the Mainichi Orions (now the Chiba Lotte Marines) for the team’s inaugural season in 1950. Having attained a .335 batting average and 43 home runs during that first season with the Orions and leading them to victory in the first Japan Series, Betto was awarded the Pacific League’s first NPB Most Valuable Player. Betto finished playing after the 1957 season, focusing solely on managing. “The Gentleman of Baseball” died on April 16, 1999, a year after The Big Lebowski was released.
Kaoru Betto, playing for the Ōsaka Tigers in the late 1940s.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Brad Pitt’s Double Denim and Karmann Ghia
Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019)
Vitals
Brad Pitt as Cliff Booth, taciturn Hollywood stuntman and personal “gofer”
Los Angeles, February 1969
Film: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Release Date: July 26, 2019
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Costume Designer: Arianne Phillips
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
This summer’s Car Week posts are likely to be more embraced than usual as many are enthusiastically embracing the open road after months of global lockdown and road trips emerging as safer alternatives for summer travel.
My first official Car Week post of the year was an obvious one for me. I went into Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last year knowing I’d be entertained, but the absolute immersion into 1969 Southern California far exceeded my expectations. By the time we were joining Brad Pitt as he worked the gears of his sporty Karmann Ghia through the streets of L.A. to the shifting sounds of Billy Stewart’s “Summertime”, Joe Cocker’s “The Letter”, The Bob Seger System’s “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man”, and Aretha Franklin’s “The House That Jack Built”, I was hooked. It’s hardly two minutes of screen time, but the kinetic energy, superb soundtrack (how much did it cost to license music for this scene alone?), and electrifying sense of place made it one of the most memorable sequences I’d seen on the big screen in years and gave me a sense of the entertainment that was to follow. Continue reading
The Rum Diary: Kemp’s Off-White Corduroy Trucker Jacket
Johnny Depp in costume as Paul Kemp on the set of The Rum Diary (2009)
Vitals
Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp, expatriate American journalist
San Juan, Puerto Rico, Summer 1960
Film: The Rum Diary
Release Date: October 28, 2011
Director: Bruce Robinson
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood
Background
The end of this week means the start of summer, arguably the strangest summer I’ll have experienced in my thirty years. The global coronavirus pandemic has seen the cancellation of sunny getaways, a halt in peanut or crackerjack sales at old ballgames, and consumers foregoing bathing suit deals in favor of fashionable face masks (like these Magnum, P.I.-inspired masks made by my friends at Aloha Funwear!)
In the spirit of what promises to be a surreal summer, I’m exploring a functional look extracted from the chaos of The Rum Diary, adapted from Hunter S. Thompson’s semi-roman à clef inspired by his brief career with the Puerto Rican sporting magazine El Sportivo. More than a decade after he portrayed HST surrogate Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Johnny Depp returned to star in this somewhat less successful adaptation of a chapter from his late friend’s life.
The Big Lebowski – The Dude’s Green Hoodie and Shorts
Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” in The Big Lebowski (1998)
Vitals
Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, laidback stoner and bowler
Los Angeles, Fall 1991
Film: The Big Lebowski
Release Date: March 6, 1998
Director: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Costume Designer: Mary Zophres
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not “Mr. Lebowski”. You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.
Having already established their appreciation for film noir and detective pulp with earlier movies like Blood Simple and Miller’s Crossing, the Coen brothers spun their fandom in a new direction with The Big Lebowski, a cult classic that riffs on the likes of Raymond Chandler, particularly his complex novel The Big Sleep. Rather than a quick-witted and snarky detective chain-smoking decks of unfiltered Camels in between shots of whiskey, Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski is a simple, good-natured slacker who chooses to bowl his way through life at a glacial pace fueled by weed and White Russians.