Below is the press release in its entirely. No word yet if there will be a Gatsby clothing collection available in retail stores. — CC
(New York, NY – June 7, 2012) – Brooks Brothers, the iconic American brand founded in 1818, partners with Warner Bros. and Bazmark to be the official men’s clothier for Baz Lurhmann’s highly anticipated Warner Bros. film The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 literary classic.
Brooks Brothers, America’s oldest apparel retailer, has collaborated with two-time Academy Award-winning costume and production designer Catherine Martin to produce more than 500 evening and day ensembles as costumes for the male principal and background casts.
Catherine Martin worked closely with the brand’s archivist, designers and merchants to research Brooks Brothers’ history, studying artifacts popular during the 1920s as well as specific merchandise introduced by the brand to America. Ms. Martin has interpreted this historical research to create a look that both encapsulates the Jazz Age but also specifically addresses the storytelling needs of Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.
“Fitzgerald was a Brooks Brothers customer. It is this most basic and fundamental connection that has made our collaboration so authentic. Brooks Brothers is mentioned numerous times in Fitzgerald’s writings as a representation of the ultimate gentleman’s purveyor of fine clothing to the American man of distinction,” stated Catherine Martin. “Over the years, Brooks Brothers has also defined the collegiate style – the preppy look – which was so close to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Princeton heart. The same look was described in The Great Gatsby by narrator, Nick Carraway, as his look of choice the first time he visits Gatsby’s mansion for one of his neighbor’s extraordinary parties: ‘Dressed up in white flannels I went over to his lawn a little after seven, and wandered around rather ill-at-ease among swirls and eddies of people I didn’t know – though here and there was a face I had noticed on the commuting train.’ For all these reasons, Brooks Brothers seemed the obvious partner to work with on the creation of the men’s wardrobe for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.”
The Brooks Brothers archives from the 1920s revealed innovative designs mixing textured fabrics and patterns that were reinterpreted by Catherine Martin for the characters of Jay Gatsby (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), Nick Carraway (played by Tobey Maguire) and Tom Buchanan (played by Joel Edgerton). The Brooks Brothers costumes range from formalwear to daywear – tuxedos, tailored suits, suiting separates (sport coats, waistcoats and trousers), shirts, ties, shoes and accessories.
“Catherine Martin’s costumes bring F. Scott Fitzgerald’s world to life,” said Brooks Brothers Chairman and CEO Claudio Del Vecchio. “She truly has redefined the menswear of the Roaring Twenties with her creativity, attention to detail, and passion for the era. We are proud to be a part of this unique project and to have had the opportunity to work with such a visionary team.”
A bad fit might very well serve as proof that the article of clothing in question has been inherited. Maybe even a second or third generation hand-me-down. In which case it would stand as evidence not of proleness, but perhaps the sort of why-bother-buy-something-new thrift for which Old Money types are knownl
“Prole gape, you say, old boy? Well, yes. Of course. It was my great, great grandfather’s, you see. Good enough for him, good enough for me!”
If all this were the case, old sport, I would expect to see a patina on the buttons. Perhaps one would be missing. They look so shiny and new. And if Nick had a “why-bother” attitude, I think a frayed collar would enter into the mix. I’m positively all for thrift, mind you, and don’t mind inherited clothes in the least.
This silliness actually brings up a good point. Anybody remember Nick’s backstory off the top of your head? He admits to Daisy “not having any money,” and talks about how cheap his cottage rental is. Gatsby also says “You don’t make much money, do you? Sels bonds?” and Nick says, “I try to.”
So how did he go to Yale?
Novel’s set in 1925, during which Nick turns 30. So he would have graduated Yale in 1917 or so, depending on whether he served in the war before or after completing college.
@ Christian – I had the impression that Nick, while not rich by Buchanan standards, was from a solid midwestern family that might have the means to pay Yale’s tuition. I always respected Nick’s value system. He was head and shoulders above Gatsby and the Buchanans.
@ oobopshbam – I was speaking back to S.E. in his idiom. Please don’t report me to Dean Wormer. Actually, I think S.E. could be Richard from WASP101.
Could you possibly be good enough to ask your uncle Jimmy (Ivy Menswear Consultant) HIS opinion on Toby’s jacket? Why should mere mortals trouble their minds with this when we have the font of all Ivy knowledge only next door, so to speak.
We mustn’t be too harsh on oobopshbam. He apparently dislikes everything. It might not be his fault. From what I gather he is a very serious man, very serious indeed. How else would the obvious silly irony of the banter about the “prole gap” go right over his head? This is a blog comment board! This is no place for irony or silliness! That FIRST shiite Gatsby film with Robert Redford and costumes designed by that Ralph Lauren boob!? If ONLY oobopshbam were on the case! He’d have schooled Ralph on real 20s period clothing and thrown in a few free acting lessons for Redford, on the house.
It must be hard for him, being such a tortured genius, toiling in obscurity in the midst of a crass, callous, and unappreciative world.
We need to realize that Oobopshbam belongs to the ‘Uncle’ Russell Street school of sartorial criticism, which is essentially an unemployed and unemployable no-account making it up as he goes along and lording it over imbeciles who have recently evolved from latter day English mod-dom to become ‘Uncle’ Russell’s devotees. Although many of them are beginning at last to twig to his fantasy back-story and psychotic agenda, they still show loyalty, which is, I suppose, something of a credit.
And the same for The Sting – sumptious 1920’s spats and suits, but look closer and everything is pure 1970s. Very clever and no wonder they got the Oscar for it.
That’s been standard Hollywood practice since the beginning. Look at, say, “Good News,” made in ’47 I think but set in the ’20s at the fictitious college Tate. In the 1950s it was really pronounced, and films set in the ’20s and even earlier have the unmistakable stamp of the ’50s. In fact it’s often easier to tell when a film was made rather than when it’s set by looking at the clothes.
I think it’s only in the last couple of decades that we expect costumes to have painstaking historical accuracy.
Christian is right regarding the Ivy Menswear Consultant’s lack of credibility these days. I’ve just had a look and Jimbo is fantasizing and ranting while parallel conversations take place as if he just didn’t exist.
More importantly Christian is right about Hollywood wardrobe practices.
Earlier today an unhappy reader — who’s probably unhappy with a lot more than just me — left a comment telling me to fuck off, evidently because I wouldn’t approve his previous comments which told me the same thing, just in slightly less profane language.
Coincidentally, telling someone to fuck off in a comments section is more or less a line from this parody song “Thank You Hater,” which is “dedicated to hard-working Internet trolls everywhere.”
My sister just posted this on Facebook. Perfect timing.
Oddly enough, the video is apparently from England:
Great video Chris!!
Folks,someone have noticed the flapper with the strange hat to the Toby Maguire left?
Is a very interesting girl.
Very,very interesting.
Well I guess Ralph Lauren is out of the question, for all of you who don’t know Ralph Lauren designed the chracters for the first filming of the Great Gatsby back in 1978 I think, and Ralph Lauren name was not mentioned, when Mrs. Catherine Martin made her acceptance speech at the Oscars. Mr. Ralph Lauren felt like he should had recevied full credit for the job, sense most of the designs and ideas where mostly all his own, and of course Mrs. Catherine Martin, and Mr. Ralph Lauren never spoke again because of this tragedy.
P.P.S: @ Carmelo: what’s so wrong with Tobey MacGuire’s blazer being darted? About 70 % of all 1920s suits were darted. Mostly the Brooks Brothers No.1 and some sport suits/coats were sacks. The rest was darted. Fact.
For authenticity this is the trailer and only known footage from the 1926 film version of The Great Gatsby starring Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, Georgia Hale, and William Powell I can’t tell if the suits are darted or not but it does show that Baz, as one done expect, got it wrong. I never expected anything less.
@ Leer R.
what’s so wrong with Tobey MacGuire’s blazer being darted?
Nothing.
Nothing if costumes were from Ralph Lauren or Henry Poole.
But the Blazer is cut by Brooks Brothers,and in 20s most of BB blazers were undarted.
I have see many photos of FS Fitzgerald in BB sacks,and are all undarted.
See also to Ivy Style Exhibit.
In the Redford version, the suits were indeed from the 1970’s. I remember the scene where Gatsby drives Nick to lunch in the Rolls. I had two almost identical suits back then. One navy and one grey, both chalkstripes and vested. In fact, after seeing the movie, I bought an identical panama hat like Redford’s. A sharp combination, but even then, very rarely seen in public. I never wore the hat much, and ended up selling it at a yard sale (for $ 2) in the early 2000’s to an elderly gent whose wife probably wouldn’t let him wear it.
On another note, happened to do some browsing at Macy’s the other day. Saw the spring and summer stuff. Saw pastel oxford shirts with a wide assortment of bow ties. Nice try, but the designers have been trying to bring back bow ties for 40 years. The only guys that wear them are lawyers and college English professors. No one will touch them. Wore a bow once in a while in the 1980’s. Too much negative reaction, just like a DB blazer.
Even in his Brooks Brothers blazer, it looks as though Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) suffers from the dreaded prole jacket gape. For an illustration of this condition: http://thriftstorepreppy.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/avoid-prole-jacket-gape/
Nonsense.
A bad fit might very well serve as proof that the article of clothing in question has been inherited. Maybe even a second or third generation hand-me-down. In which case it would stand as evidence not of proleness, but perhaps the sort of why-bother-buy-something-new thrift for which Old Money types are knownl
“Prole gape, you say, old boy? Well, yes. Of course. It was my great, great grandfather’s, you see. Good enough for him, good enough for me!”
If all this were the case, old sport, I would expect to see a patina on the buttons. Perhaps one would be missing. They look so shiny and new. And if Nick had a “why-bother” attitude, I think a frayed collar would enter into the mix. I’m positively all for thrift, mind you, and don’t mind inherited clothes in the least.
This silliness actually brings up a good point. Anybody remember Nick’s backstory off the top of your head? He admits to Daisy “not having any money,” and talks about how cheap his cottage rental is. Gatsby also says “You don’t make much money, do you? Sels bonds?” and Nick says, “I try to.”
So how did he go to Yale?
Novel’s set in 1925, during which Nick turns 30. So he would have graduated Yale in 1917 or so, depending on whether he served in the war before or after completing college.
It would be nice if they knew the difference from a “Tuxedo” and tails.
@ Christian – I had the impression that Nick, while not rich by Buchanan standards, was from a solid midwestern family that might have the means to pay Yale’s tuition. I always respected Nick’s value system. He was head and shoulders above Gatsby and the Buchanans.
@ oobopshbam – I was speaking back to S.E. in his idiom. Please don’t report me to Dean Wormer. Actually, I think S.E. could be Richard from WASP101.
SHAME!! The Maguire’s blazer is DARTED!!!!
Oh dear it is too. A grievous error but historical accuracy has never been Hollywood or Baz Luhrmann’s forte.
@ Oo Bop
Could you possibly be good enough to ask your uncle Jimmy (Ivy Menswear Consultant) HIS opinion on Toby’s jacket? Why should mere mortals trouble their minds with this when we have the font of all Ivy knowledge only next door, so to speak.
Actually, this is a good evidence that we should all cancel our BB mastercards/cards.
@pMj
I won’t desert BB as long as they continue to offer the best OCBD shirts and striped ties. (Not much else)
@oobopshbam
I wonder if you’d be a good sport and cut along and get someone who speaks English to translate for us?
All this concern for accuracy is a bore and I don’t think anyone is waiting for Luhrmann to do a documentary. Relax, enjoy the show.
We mustn’t be too harsh on oobopshbam. He apparently dislikes everything. It might not be his fault. From what I gather he is a very serious man, very serious indeed. How else would the obvious silly irony of the banter about the “prole gap” go right over his head? This is a blog comment board! This is no place for irony or silliness! That FIRST shiite Gatsby film with Robert Redford and costumes designed by that Ralph Lauren boob!? If ONLY oobopshbam were on the case! He’d have schooled Ralph on real 20s period clothing and thrown in a few free acting lessons for Redford, on the house.
It must be hard for him, being such a tortured genius, toiling in obscurity in the midst of a crass, callous, and unappreciative world.
We need to realize that Oobopshbam belongs to the ‘Uncle’ Russell Street school of sartorial criticism, which is essentially an unemployed and unemployable no-account making it up as he goes along and lording it over imbeciles who have recently evolved from latter day English mod-dom to become ‘Uncle’ Russell’s devotees. Although many of them are beginning at last to twig to his fantasy back-story and psychotic agenda, they still show loyalty, which is, I suppose, something of a credit.
Think so? I rarely see anyone agree with him, or even acknowledge the bulk of his ravings.
FYI, Lauren did research the costuming on the first Gatsby.
Costumes of Redford’s Gatsby were 70s suits (see the huge lapels),but were beautifull suits.
These are equally inaccurate,but are UGLY!
@Carmelo
And the same for The Sting – sumptious 1920’s spats and suits, but look closer and everything is pure 1970s. Very clever and no wonder they got the Oscar for it.
That’s been standard Hollywood practice since the beginning. Look at, say, “Good News,” made in ’47 I think but set in the ’20s at the fictitious college Tate. In the 1950s it was really pronounced, and films set in the ’20s and even earlier have the unmistakable stamp of the ’50s. In fact it’s often easier to tell when a film was made rather than when it’s set by looking at the clothes.
I think it’s only in the last couple of decades that we expect costumes to have painstaking historical accuracy.
Christian is right regarding the Ivy Menswear Consultant’s lack of credibility these days. I’ve just had a look and Jimbo is fantasizing and ranting while parallel conversations take place as if he just didn’t exist.
More importantly Christian is right about Hollywood wardrobe practices.
@Christian
You mean to tell me that Robin Hood didn’t actually have a pencil-thin Errol Flynn mustache? Damn!
(See also the 40s Pride & Prejudice where Laurence Olivier’s hair is brylcreemed half to death.)
Earlier today an unhappy reader — who’s probably unhappy with a lot more than just me — left a comment telling me to fuck off, evidently because I wouldn’t approve his previous comments which told me the same thing, just in slightly less profane language.
Coincidentally, telling someone to fuck off in a comments section is more or less a line from this parody song “Thank You Hater,” which is “dedicated to hard-working Internet trolls everywhere.”
My sister just posted this on Facebook. Perfect timing.
Oddly enough, the video is apparently from England:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz2jbCJXkpA&feature=youtu.be
Great video Chris!!
Folks,someone have noticed the flapper with the strange hat to the Toby Maguire left?
Is a very interesting girl.
Very,very interesting.
Well I guess Ralph Lauren is out of the question, for all of you who don’t know Ralph Lauren designed the chracters for the first filming of the Great Gatsby back in 1978 I think, and Ralph Lauren name was not mentioned, when Mrs. Catherine Martin made her acceptance speech at the Oscars. Mr. Ralph Lauren felt like he should had recevied full credit for the job, sense most of the designs and ideas where mostly all his own, and of course Mrs. Catherine Martin, and Mr. Ralph Lauren never spoke again because of this tragedy.
Hey, all good grammar here on Ivy Style. The Great Gatsby was filmed in 1973…
P.P.S: @ Carmelo: what’s so wrong with Tobey MacGuire’s blazer being darted? About 70 % of all 1920s suits were darted. Mostly the Brooks Brothers No.1 and some sport suits/coats were sacks. The rest was darted. Fact.
For authenticity this is the trailer and only known footage from the 1926 film version of The Great Gatsby starring Warner Baxter, Lois Wilson, Georgia Hale, and William Powell I can’t tell if the suits are darted or not but it does show that Baz, as one done expect, got it wrong. I never expected anything less.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asajgm-ciWA
OH NO! Check out the lapels and those aren’t sack coats.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/05/29/watch-%E2%80%98the-great-gatsby%E2%80%99-1926/
@ Leer R.
what’s so wrong with Tobey MacGuire’s blazer being darted?
Nothing.
Nothing if costumes were from Ralph Lauren or Henry Poole.
But the Blazer is cut by Brooks Brothers,and in 20s most of BB blazers were undarted.
I have see many photos of FS Fitzgerald in BB sacks,and are all undarted.
See also to Ivy Style Exhibit.
Why Gatsby is so Great:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jun/10/great-gatsby-fitzgerald-jay-mcinerney?CMP=twt_gu
@Carmelo
In the Redford version, the suits were indeed from the 1970’s. I remember the scene where Gatsby drives Nick to lunch in the Rolls. I had two almost identical suits back then. One navy and one grey, both chalkstripes and vested. In fact, after seeing the movie, I bought an identical panama hat like Redford’s. A sharp combination, but even then, very rarely seen in public. I never wore the hat much, and ended up selling it at a yard sale (for $ 2) in the early 2000’s to an elderly gent whose wife probably wouldn’t let him wear it.
On another note, happened to do some browsing at Macy’s the other day. Saw the spring and summer stuff. Saw pastel oxford shirts with a wide assortment of bow ties. Nice try, but the designers have been trying to bring back bow ties for 40 years. The only guys that wear them are lawyers and college English professors. No one will touch them. Wore a bow once in a while in the 1980’s. Too much negative reaction, just like a DB blazer.
I look forward to this movie strictly for the wardrobe. My girlfriend will go for the literary work. I’m ok with that.
The Great Gatsby and The American Dream:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/25/american-dream-great-gatsby
Word is Gatsby has been moved back to summer 2013 release.
Smart actually, as summer plays such a role in the movie.
I believe the same production company has other Christmas releases it doesn’t want to compete with.
Well yes, I should have said I’m sure there’s a practical rather than poetic reason for it.
No, you said it correctly and poetically. Hollywood needs you, Dr. Spin.
How could production costs be so high? Everything looks green-screened.