Blue/Navy Suit Archives » BAMF Style (2024)

Vitals

Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman, investment banker and killer

New York City,Spring 1988

Film:American Psycho
ReleaseDate:April 14, 2000
Director:Mary Harron
Costume Designer:Isis Mussenden

WARNING!Spoilers ahead!

Background

Happy 50th birthday to Christian Bale!

Prior to his blockbuster performances as Gotham’s caped crusader in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and his Academy Award-winning performance inThe Fighter (2011), the Welsh-born actor’s breakthrough adult role was arguably as the sociopathic businessman—and suggested serial killer—Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, adapted by Mary Herron from Bret Easton Ellis’ dark satirical novel of the same name. Continue reading →

Vitals

Harvey Keitel as Charlie Cappa, conflicted Mafia associate

New York, Fall 1972

Film: Mean Streets
ReleaseDate: October 14, 1973
Director: Martin Scorsese
Wardrobe Credit: Norman Salling

WARNING!Spoilers ahead!

Background

You don’t make up for your sins in the church. You do it in the streets. The rest is bullsh*t and you know it.

This month marks the 50th anniversary ofMean Streets, Martin Scorsese’s breakthrough film that premiered today in 1972 during the New York Film Festival, twelve days before it was widely released.

Though arguably the first of his movies to include many of his now-familiar themes and techniques,Mean Streets was actually Scorsese’s third film, following his debutWho’s That Knocking On My Door? (1967) andBoxcar Bertha (1972), the latter one of the low-budget Depression-era crime flicks produced by Roger Corman’s American International Pictures in the wake of the successfulBonnie and Clyde (1967).

Following John Cassavetes’ encouragement to “write what you know” and incorporate more of his own experiences onto the screen, Scorsese reintroduced himself to the world with the remarkableMean Streets—essentially his own retelling ofI Vitelloni (1953) set among the mobbed-up mooks in Little Italy—viewed through the same unapologetically gritty lens that Scorsese would return to three years later inTaxi Driver (1976).

Unlike the then-recent hitThe Godfather (1972),Mean Streets focused not on the dons leading these crime families but rather the street-level hoods whose lives are defined by small-time scores, gambling debts, and long nights. Reuniting with Scorsese after appearing in his directorial debut, Harvey Keitel stars asMean Streets‘ ostensible protagonist Charlie Cappa. Continue reading →

Vitals

Sidney Poitier as Dr. John Wade Prentice, widowed physician and professor

San Francisco, Spring 1967

Film: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
ReleaseDate: December 12, 1967
Director: Stanley Kramer
Costume Designer: Joe King

Background

As we gear up for arguably the biggest family dinner of the year this week, I want to revisit one of the most famous “dinner movies” despite never actually seeing the titular meal on screen.Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner broke ground upon its release 55 years ago for its positive portrayal of an interracial relationship when the white Joanna Drayton (Katharine Houghton) returns from a Hawaiian vacation with her new fiancé, a widowed black doctor named John Prentice (Sidney Poitier). Continue reading →

Vitals

Marlon Brando as Sky Masterson, smooth gambler

Havana to New York, Spring 1955

Film:Guys and Dolls
ReleaseDate: November 3, 1955
Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Costume Designer: Irene Sharaff

Background

On the traditionally unlucky day of Friday the 13th, we could all use a dash oflady luck, the concept popularized in the standard “Luck Be a Lady” that Frank Loesser had composed for the musicalGuys and Dolls. Five years after Robert Alda had originated the song on stage in 1950, Marlon Brando overcame his own insecurities about his singing voice resembling “the mating call of a yak” to perform the song in Mank’s cinematic adaptation… much to the likely chagrin of his co-star Frank Sinatra, who would record it twice for his own Reprise Records label in the ’60s.

But before Sky Masterson asked lady luck to show him just how nice a dame she can be, he sets his sights on another doll, specifically the prim and pretty Sergeant Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons) of the Save-a-Soul Mission, whose organizational goals could not be more antithetical to all Sky holds dear. To win a bet with fellow gambler Nathan Detroit (Sinatra), Sky invites her to dinner in Havana, where Sister Sarah’s uncharacteristic Thursday night results in plenty of Bacardi and barfighting. Continue reading →

Vitals

Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born bandleader, actor, and TV producer

Los Angeles, September 1952

Film:Being the Ricardos
Release Date: December 7, 2021
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Costume Designer: Susan Lyall

Background

I grew up watchingI Love Lucy, my childhood punctuated by many memories of me channeling inordinate levels of anxiety at Lucy’s antics into pacing around my grandmother’s kitchen while the decades-old drama unfolded in black-and-white from the small TV tucked on a corner countertop. Almost thirty years later, I still can recollect Lucy pitching Vitameatavegamin or stomping grapes with better clarity than anything I may have binged on Netflix over the last year.

As the real Desi Arnaz was born 105 years ago today on March 2, 1917, let’s take a look at Javier Bardem’s Academy Award-nominated performance as Desi in Being the Ricardos. Continue reading →

Vitals

Jared Harris as Lane Pryce, advertising agency financial chief

New York City, New Year’s Day 1965

Series: Mad Men
Episode: “The Good News” (Episode 4.03)
Air Date: August 8, 2010
Director: Jennifer Getzinger
Creator: Matthew Weiner
Costume Designer: Janie Bryant

Background

Even with the increasing adoption of hybrid and remote workplaces, there are still many returning to offices and cubicles for the first day of the new year, a specific occupational dread that provides a “welcome distraction” for at least one lonely Brit during the final act of “The Good News”, the third episode of Mad Men‘s fourth season. Continue reading →

On Brad Pitt’s 58th birthday, I’m pleased to present another guest post contributed by my friend Ken Stauffer, who had also covered George Clooney’s fashionable suit in Out of Sight. You can learn more from Ken about the style of the Ocean’s film series on his Instagram account, @oceansographer.

Vitals

Brad Pitt as Robert “Rusty” Ryan, poker pro and casino heister

Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Spring 2001

Film:Ocean’s Eleven
ReleaseDate:December 7, 2001
Director:Steven Soderbergh
Costume Designer: Jeffrey Kurland
Tailor: Dominic Gherardi

Background

Happy Birthday, Brad Pitt! The Academy Award-winning actor and producer turns 58 today, and to celebrate, we’re taking a look back at one of his most fashionable roles, Rusty Ryan, in Ocean’s Eleven. Believe it or not, Steven Soderbergh’s reimagining of the Rat Pack caper, which resuscitated the heist film genre in 2001, celebrated its 20th anniversary this month. I think we can all agree that both actor and film have aged well.

Continue reading →

Vitals

Jack Nicholson as Frank Chambers, dangerous drifter

Southern California, Spring 1934

Film:The Postman Always Rings Twice
Release Date: March 20, 1981
Director: Bob Rafelson
Costume Designer: Dorothy Jeakins

WARNING!Spoilers ahead!

Background

After posting about John Cassavetes in the 1964 remake ofThe Killers last week, I wanted to focus on another color remake of classic film noir: the 1981 adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange, reuniting Nicholson with director Bob Rafelson following their earlier collaborations inHead (1968),Five Easy Pieces (1970), andThe King of Marvin Gardens (1972). Continue reading →

Vitals

Daniel Craig as James Bond, tough British government agent

Lahore, Pakistan, Summer 2005

Film:Casino Royale
Release Date: November 14, 2006
Director: Martin Campbell
Costume Designer: Lindy Hemming

Background

On the 00-7th of August, with just two months until Daniel Craig’s final Bond movie will [likely] be released, I wanted to reflect on the start of his tenure and also include some insights from my friend Caleb Daniels, who many in the Bond fan-iverse know as the creator of the @CommandoBond Instagramand blog, discussing the then-significant return of 007’s trademark Walther PPK! Continue reading →

Vitals

Robert Culp as Bob Sanders, swinging documentary filmmaker

Las Vegas, Summer 1969

Film:Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
ReleaseDate: September 17, 1969
Director: Paul Mazursky
Costume Designer: Moss Mabry

Background

“Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice!” is the subject of the titular toast Alice (Dyan Cannon) delivers in a shared suite at the Riviera in Las Vegas, where the foursome—so to speak—has gathered for a weekend of gambling and a Tony Bennett concert.

A discussion of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” leads to a newly open-minded Alice questioning where Bob (Robert Culp) and Carol (Natalie Wood) have been leaving more than just their hearts. The swinging couple’s admissions lead to a peanut-munching Ted (Elliott Gould) confessing his own recent affair to Alice who, following her initial outrage, has the most unpredictable reaction of any of the spouses as she begins to undress and declares that the four need to have an orgy.

Although it was Bob’s breakthrough at Esalen that got the ball (or, uh, balls) rolling in exploring this degree of openness, it’s both men who require the most convincing, particularly Ted, who finally gives in after deciding: “We’ll have an orgy, and then we’ll go see Tony Bennett.” Continue reading →