I don't know if Juliet Polcsa, costume designer for most of HBO's "The Sopranos," did the clothes for this ensemble photo taken near the end of the series run. Whoever dressed James Gandolfini (lower right) had a wonderful eye. It's just so wrong, in so many ways.
From the unpleasantly aqua poplin shirt to the matching tie and pocket square, Tony paints a perfect picture of how not to look upwardly mobile. Look, shudder, and learn.
Friday, March 28, 2008
So Wrong
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10 comments:
Maybe it's my monitor settings, but that shirt doesn't look too bad to me... it doesn't even look "aqua," it looks blue.
where's that green tea when you need it.....
Well, John, by the looks of the picture, Silvio died his shirt with the green tea.
I just wish that most men put as much thought, right or wrong, into what they're wearing to begin with...
John and Turling -- two Cooper photos. Good choices. He was also fluent in French. A man to emulate. Can we these days?
I do, of course, mean "dyed", not "died". Darn flu. Can't type because of it. Perhaps, some green tea. Or a shot of Maker's Mark, I say.
I fail to see what they've done wrong, then again, I'm young and ignorant so maybe you'll forgive me for that.
Can you explain more along the lines as to why it is wrong
Blackspeeker, jacket and tie dressing comes from an English aristocratic tradition. Tony's matching tie and square, his wristwatch, the french cuffs worn with an odd jacket, the odd jacket itself in that setting, the too-dark shirt, and the blue tie, shirt and jacket combination are all wrong by those standards.
Any one of these things might be OK. In combination they shout prole. See Paul Fussell's Class: A Guide Through the American Status System.
To be fair, Tony's version of dressed up was generally superior to the other male characters.
His style is always about trying to appear powerful and dominant in his role as a crime boss, no more no less. I never got any real sense that he thought of himself as just another upwardly mobile business man. He knows who he is. His style isn't informed by Flusser et al, but by decades of Italian underworld fashion. And the creators of The Sopranos nailed this.
I thought that the whole idea about Tony was just that: That EVERYTHING about him is so wrong.
Will,
I watched Notorious (1946) last night with cary Grant and Ingrid Berman. It appeared that Grant's white button down collar shirt had cufflinks - AND he was wearing it with an odd jacket and at times wore it with a double-breasted suit which I understand not to be correct. However despite these abnormalities he still did not look like a rube - like everyone does in this photo here.
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