Tagged: White Shirt
Summertime: Rossano Brazzi’s Glen Plaid Suit
Rossano Brazzi as Renato de Rossi in Summertime (1955)
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Rossano Brazzi as Renato de Rossi, antique store owner
Venice, Summer 1954
Film: Summertime
Release Date: June 21, 1955
Director: David Lean
Costume Designer: Rosi Gori (uncredited)
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Summertime is here! And by that I mean both the fact that Friday was the summer solstice and that David Lean’s Venetian romance Summertime was released in the United States seventy years ago yesterday on June 21, 1955, nearly a month after its Venice premiere.
Like Lean’s 1940s dramas Brief Encounter and The Passionate Friends, Summertime lushly depicts the intense romance between two strangers—in this case, the American tourist Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn) and the dashing local antiques dealer Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi), whom she meets during her long-awaited summer vacation to Venice.
Lazing across a few chairs in Piazza San Marco, Renato first observes Jane while she’s filming the square. She’s initially oblivious to his attention, then becomes uncomfortably befuddled by it and hurries out of the area. Continue reading
Rosemary’s Baby: John Cassavetes’ Light Blue Summer Sport Jacket
John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Photo by Paul Slade.
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John Cassavetes as Guy Woodhouse, ambitious actor
New York City, Summer 1965
Film: Rosemary’s Baby
Release Date: June 12, 1968
Director: Roman Polanski
Costume Designer: Anthea Sylbert
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy Mother’s Day! In honor of one of cinema’s most infamous pregnancies, today’s post looks at the enduring style of Rosemary’s Baby—Roman Polanski’s 1968 adaptation of Ira Levin’s best-selling horror novel, which had been published less than six months before filming began.
Though the film’s fashion legacy largely belongs to Mia Farrow’s iconic pixie cut and stylish wardrobe as the titular Rosemary Woodhouse, her on-screen husband Guy—a struggling actor played by John Cassavetes—also exhibits a sharp and understated sense of style. Continue reading
Heat: Val Kilmer’s Gray Glen Plaid Bank-Robbery Suit
Val Kilmer in Heat (1995)
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Val Kilmer as Chris Shiherlis, professional armed robber
Los Angeles, Spring 1995
Film: Heat
Release Date: December 15, 1995
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Designer: Deborah Lynn Scott
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
R.I.P. Val Kilmer (1959-2025)
After becoming the youngest student ever accepted into Juilliard’s prestigious Drama Division at the time, Kilmer rose to fame through a streak of memorable ’80s hits like Top Secret! (1984), Real Genius (1985), and Top Gun (1986). The ’90s saw Kilmer take on a range of leading roles, from his magnetic turn as Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991) to donning the cape in Batman Forever (1995), as well as his scene-stealing performance as the sardonic and tubercular Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993).
Kilmer followed that success with another standout role in Heat (1995), Michael Mann’s masterful crime epic that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Kilmer plays Chris Shiherlis, a reliable criminal but not-so-reliable husband, part of a tight-knit crew led by the calculating Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro). Hoping that one last big score will salvage his unraveling marriage, Shiherlis throws in on a high-stakes heist at the Far East National Bank in downtown Los Angeles. “The bank is worth the risk. I need it, brother,” he tells McCauley. Continue reading
Something Wild: Jeff Daniels Goes Wild in a New Blue Silk Suit
Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith in Something Wild (1986)
Vitals
Jeff Daniels as Charlie Driggs, buttoned-up investment banker
From Pennsylvania to Virginia, June 1986
Film: Something Wild
Release Date: November 7, 1986
Director: Jonathan Demme
Costume Designer: Norma Moriceau
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Happy 70th birthday to Jeff Daniels, the versatile actor who may be one of the few talents that could effectively transition from playing a decorated Civil War general one year to Harry Dunne in Dumb and Dumber the next. The actor rose to prominence through the ’80s with back-to-back Golden Globe-nominated performances in The Purple Rose of Cairo and Something Wild.
“Jonathan Demme’s Something Wild is a lot of things—Renoirian screwball, Gen-X The Odd Couple, defense for the reggae mixtape—but it’s a road movie first and foremost, and it introduces its lead, Charlie Driggs, as a man untraveled. Played with dopey precision by Jeff Daniels, Charlie is a golden retriever of a Reaganite, eager to climb the ranks of his job on Wall Street and content with the grass on his side of the fence. Building a career in the big city implies some degree of worldliness, but Manhattan can be deceptively hermetic,” writes Christian Craig at Bright Wall/Dark Room. Continue reading
In the Mood for Love: Tony Leung’s Gray Silk Suit
Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love (2000)
Vitals
Tony Leung as Chow Mo-wan, sensitive journalist
Hong Kong, Spring 1962
Film: In the Mood for Love
(Chinese title: 花樣年華)
Release Date: September 29, 2000
Director: Wong Kar-wai
Costume Designer: William Chang
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Valentine’s Day feels like the appropriate time to discuss In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai’s lush and compelling exploration of loneliness, loss, and love set in Hong Kong’s Shanghainese community in 1962. Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung), live with their respective spouses in neighboring apartments but each often find themselves alone in their rooms, venturing out only for noodles from a street stall where they occasionally make contact. As the two connect over their oft-absent spouses, Chow and Su slowly come to the realization that his wife and her husband are engaged in an affair. Continue reading
The Fourth Protocol: Pierce Brosnan’s Black Leather Biker Gear
Pierce Brosnan in The Fourth Protocol (1987). Photo credit: Stanley Bielecki.
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Pierce Brosnan as Valeri Alekseyevich Petrofsky, cold-blooded undercover KGB operative
Suffolk, England, Spring 1987
Film: The Fourth Protocol
Release Date: March 20, 1987
Director: John Mackenzie
Costume Designer: Tiny Nicholls
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Many James Bond fans know that Pierce Brosnan was first offered the role in the 1980s, but the announcement ironically improved Remington Steele‘s ratings to the point that the series was renewed and Brosnan had to turn down the Bond role to honor his commitments to the series. Three months before the next Bond film—The Living Daylights starring Timothy Dalton—was released in June 1987, Brosnan appeared in a different espionage thriller, The Fourth Protocol.
Indeed, the plot of a British agent trying to stop a rogue Soviet mission to detonate a “false flag” nuclear device at an American airbase must have sounded awfully familiar to Bond fans who watched Roger Moore do the same thing four years earlier in Octopussy… but this time, the maverick British spy is an MI5 agent named John Preston (Michael Caine), squaring off against Brosnan as KGB Major Valeri Petrofsky. Continue reading
Selma: David Oyelowo’s Navy Suit as Martin Luther King Jr.
David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma (2014)
Vitals
David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr., iconic civil rights activist
Alabama, January to March 1965
Film: Selma
Release Date: December 25, 2014
Director: Ava DuVernay
Costume Designer: Ruth E. Carter
Background
Since 1986, Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been observed on the third Monday of each January since President Ronald Reagan signed Rep. Katie Hall’s proposed bill into law. Though King was actually born on January 15, 1929, “MLK Day” follows the pattern of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act that designates several American federal holidays to be permanently observed at the start of the workweek, like Presidents Day and Memorial Day.
Nominated for Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards, Ava DuVernay’s 2014 drama Selma chronicles the events leading up to the famous Selma-to-Montgomery marches in March 1965, organized by nonviolent activists to protest the widespread denial of Black Americans exercising their constitutional voting rights. Continue reading
Death on the Nile: Maggie Smith in Menswear-informed Black Tie
Maggie Smith in Death on the Nile (1978)
Vitals
Maggie Smith as Miss Bowers, dependable nurse and traveling companion
Egypt, September 1937
Film: Death on the Nile
Release Date: September 29, 1978
Director: John Guillermin
Costume Designer: Anthony Powell
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Today would have been the 90th birthday of prolific English actress Dame Maggie Smith, who died three months ago in September 2024. Born December 28, 1934, Smith was a two-time Academy Award winner for her performances in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) and California Suite (1978), later endearing herself to modern audiences for her roles in the Harry Potter film series and on Downton Abbey.
BAMF Style readers familiar with my appreciation for Agatha Christie novels and their screen adaptations may not be surprised to learn that I became a fan of hers following her appearances in the lavish Anthony Shaffer-penned adaptations of Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun, both of which starred Peter Ustinov as the fastidious Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Continue reading
Murder on the Orient Express: Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot
Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
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Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, meticulous Belgian detective
The Orient Express, December 1935
Film: Murder on the Orient Express
Release Date: November 21, 1974
Director: Sidney Lumet
Costume Designer: Tony Walton
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Ladies and gentlemen, you are all aware that a repulsive murderer has himself been repulsively, and, perhaps deservedly, murdered…
The first prominent—and arguably still definitive—adaptation of Agatha Christie’s mystery Murder on the Orient Express premiered 50 years ago today on November 21, 1974. The star-studded cast was led by a nearly unrecognizable Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, the fastidious Belgian detective tasked with solving the baffling murder of a gangster on a luxury train stuck in a snow drift. Continue reading
Stop Making Sense: David Byrne’s Big Suit
David Byrne models the famous “big suit” he introduced in Stop Making Sense (1984)
Vitals
David Byrne, eccentric Talking Heads frontman
Los Angeles, December 1983
Film: Stop Making Sense
Release Date: October 19, 1984
Director: Jonathan Demme
Costume Designer: Gail Blacker
Background
Widely regarded as one of the best concert films ever made, Stop Making Sense was released 40 years ago today on October 19, 1984. Independently produced by Gary Goetzman and directed by Jonathan Demme, Stop Making Sense captures Talking Heads performing over four nights in December 1983 at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, during their tour promoting the album Speaking in Tongues.
As the lead singer and chief songwriter, frontman David Byrne defined much of the band’s quirky personality, energetically dancing across the stage and rotating between his Martin D-35 acoustic guitar, sunburst ’63 Fender Stratocaster, and dual-humbucker Roland guitars.
In a 2020 Newsweek interview with Samuel Spencer, Byrne shared that he maintained a cohesive visual effect by “[asking] everyone to wear medium grey outfits, whatever style they preferred (a questionable decision there), but always in medium grey. It worked—this consistency meant the effects of the various lighting cues and gags were more seamless.” However, drummer Chris Frantz had to break from this neutral formula after his laundry wasn’t returned following the first night’s performance, opting for a turquoise-blue polo shirt each night to maintain continuity.
Still, it’s not Frantz’s splash of color that steals the sartorial spotlight in Stop Making Sense. After Tina Weymouth and Frantz perform “Genius of Love” from their side project Tom Tom Club, Byrne rejoins his band on stage ahead of “Girlfriend is Better”, now dressed in an absurdly oversized business suit. Continue reading
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