FIRE SALE No. 31
🎥 Best Fits Committed to Film in 2025 👔
My interest in movies and clothes is like a snake eating its own tail, or a circle, or some other tired metaphor. Do I like clothes because of movies, or do I like movies because of clothes? I had a couple of columns in Byline about costumes and wardrobes. I wrote about the fellas dressing like The Sandlot, Parker Posey in Party Girl, mundane office clothes in Office Space, the origins of cowboy chic in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and the beige suit in After Hours, which Scorsese put through the wringer in a proto-Safdie downtown mayhem quest. Central to all of these pieces was the idea that clothes are a form of communication, expression, and the creation of a singular identity. You hit the streets, and you could find the total opposite. The manchild uniform is omnipresent. A borg hive mind of Paul Mescals reading Bell Hooks when they could and should be watching the College Football Playoff. This is all to say that the silver screen is one of the dwindling number of places where you can get genuine style cues from costume designers whose job it is to make the character as much of themselves as possible. Simply by soaking up the considered wardrobes, you are also flexing that muscle, and someone who really, truly appreciates movies has a much greater chance of dressing well than someone who doesn’t. So without further ado, a few films in 2025 that got the juices flowing for me.
🏓 Marty Supreme
The lastest installment of Safdie induced panic was the last movie I saw in the theatre, so it’s top of mind. I thought the film was the best use of Chalamet’s boyish talent and wiry enthusiasm. In the film, Marty is constantly dwarfed by his clothing. He’s a wisp of a man trying to grow into his wardrobe. Chalamet’s reedy physicality only makes the clothes seem bigger. The piece that I coveted the most was the USA polo when he’s playing in the British Open – something you could imagine Ralph Lipschitz finding on the Lower East Side 20 years later. This film is also a flashpoint in the never-ending “pants” discourse. My thoughts – pants are big right now. They are getting slimmer, but they are also going to get LONGER. Meaning it’ll become increasingly stylish to drag your damn hems across the pavement and through the gutter a la the chase sequence in Marty Supreme.
🖼️ The Mastermind
La Chimera is one of my favorite movies I’ve seen EVER. O’Connor looks great in it in a dusted-up linen suit very similar to the khaki suit in After Hours. Instead of a grief-stricken archaeologist, in The Mastermind, O’Connor plays a well-dressed moron. After his art heist goes inevitably wrong, he blows off his wife, sees some old art school friends, and tries to escape to Canada. He’s a slacker in classic Northeast prep, then an ex-hippie in a cord jacket and cap, and finally dons a slouchy suit when he is booked right before he flees. O’Connor looks good in a suit, and they’re not reinventing the wheel here. Just good American classics. Also, peep the BTS photo of director Kelly Reichardt in double knees and wallabies. Would be very at home in the FIRE SALE universe.
💣 One Battle After Another
As predicted, Leo’s character in PTA’s latest was the go-to last-minute costume for many of the fellas this Halloween. But I wanted to turn your attention to Benicio Del Toro, who stole the show in this film as the kind-vibe karate instructor Sensei Sergio St. Carlos. Sensei has a uniform – a track jacket and gi pants – but it’s his footwear choice that really sells it and only adds to his chill factor. Cooked Adidas slides or well-worn cowboy boots paired with a gi is some major I have a teenage daughter and I don’t give a fuck energy that is extremely powerful and mind-expanding.
🏛️ After the Hunt 🎓
Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt is about campus sexual assault, Me Too, agency, philosophy, power, and academic bureaucracy. It is also the third collaboration between Jonathan Anderson and Guadagnino, and aside from its high-minded aspirations is fundamentally about blazers. Ayo Edibri, Andrew Garfield, and Julia Roberts style themselves their own way. Edibri’s are conceptual, minimal, and an attempt at sophistication. Garfields are tweed and professorial, emblematic of the old boys’ club of the philosophy departments of Ivy League institutions. While Roberts are strong, shoulder-padded, and adds to her impenetrability. Each blazer serves as a shield to protect each character, and it is notably absent during their most vulnerable moments.
🍷 BONUS: The Godfather Part III 🤌
For my entire life, this movie has been completely shit on to the point that I, a huge Godfather fan, have avoided it entirely. My girlfriend is a strong defender of the film (especially Sofia Coppola’s performance, which I have to agree with her is not bad, perhaps even good), and over the holiday we decided to watch it. What I saw was an expansive, tragic, and inevitable conclusion to the Michael Corleone story. Gordon Willis shot Part III as well, and the depth of color, shadows, and darkness make the wardrobes pop. Andy Garcia steals the show as Vincenzo Corleone in slick leather jackets and gorgeous camel suits. Sofia’s sartorial style is blossoming in a brass skirt and a beautiful black jacket. Also, honorable mention to Michael’s kerchief. 1990 was probably the last year Al Pacino was hot, so he was still able to pull it off here.
I leave you with what is possibly Francis Ford Coppola’s most sentimental scene. Sonny’s son, Vincent joins the family and Michael and Mary (Sofia Coppola share a dance). It’s hard not to imagine that the tortured Godfather is Coppola himself.