If you have Netflix, stop. Whatever you are doing, stop. Go watch Ripley. It is a remake of The Talented Mr. Ripley, taken from the Ripley series of books, but it had to be written by someone who reads the site because it is all inside Ivy-Style jokes.
I won’t ruin the story but just one story to illustrate the point. Ripley is going to Italy to meet people above his class, and he needs clothes, so he goes to Brooks Brothers. This is a period piece, and the director spends a good 15 seconds just on the packaging. He picks a bathroom, a maroon paisley thing. Even the salesman asks him if he is sure. Later in the film he shows the robe to someone he is trying to impress and they grimace and go, “Who would wear such a robe?” (Check Brooks’ robe collection today).
Or.
The real star of the series is… A Montblanc 149 Ripley “acquires” and once he has it, he won’t write with anything else. And the director is IN on the joke because there are at least 4 scenes where people say, “nice pen” or they try to hand him a pen and he refuses and brandishes the 149, which the director closes in on ALL the time. It’s hilarious.
The clothes are stunning. Stunning. I wish I had been grown then (1960’s). It is one of those series that you could watch just for the clothes.
Ok, carry on, except for that one internet troll who is gonna write, “Burton is so arrogant he thinks that directors go to him for ideas.” I don’t think that. It’s a joke.
JB
1961, isn’t it? From the titles at the beginning?
You are right!!!
Thank for the review, I have been curious about this. Only qualm that I can see is that Brooks Brothers did not have any stores in Italy until the relatively recent past. Certainly not in the 1960s. Still, I am excited to check this out because I am rather keen on the Highsmith novels but it does not bode well as far as authenticity goes.
The Brooks was before he went to Italy, sorry I wasn’t clear 🙂
Oh I gotcha! I just made the assumption once you said Italy but that was my bad. In any event, that makes sense because Brooks Brothers in Italy would have been a rather glaring error, at least to people who read Ivy Style 😉
“The clothes are stunning. Stunning. I wish I had been grown then (1960’s). It is one of those series that you could watch just for the clothes.”
YES.
By that point Brooks had been outsourcing the manufacturing (clothing, ties, shirts, shoes… basically everything) for a while. Smart decision(s), actually. Very. The yesteryear Paterson, NJ shirts are unlike anything being made (RTW) today,* but another NJ shirt making outfit (factory) contributed to a lion’s share of the inventory, including custom. Grieco Bros. (Southwick) made most of the tailored clothing; Greenfield was later invited to manage the higher end (Golden Fleece) goods. Alden for floor stock shoes, of course. C&J and Lobb contributed to the Peal&Co. line. The knitwear was Drumohr and Bonner; cloth unique to Brooks by the old W. BILL (tweed, cavalry twill, whipcord) of London — and suiting cloth by the ancient, now deceased (R.I.P.) weavers, some of them revived for the sake of branding. Not the same quality.
Trivia: lapped seams and Brooks’ version of a hook vent (more of a “T”) were de rigueur for custom tweeds and blazers of heavy cloth. Jay Walter shared that a favorite of many was a dark navy Harris Tweed of bold 4×4 (2×2 is typical) twill, accompanied by matte-finish antique brass buttons.
*Fact. They just are.
Spotted it on Netflix and added it to our queue last night. Mentioned it to the Grand Duchess last night while clearing the dinner table, and she was onboard. So, I expect we’ll catch an episode or two this weekend. Assuming we are not seized by the Mahjong spirit to the exclusion of all else in the meantime of course!
Kind Regards,
Heinz-Ulrich
Just watched the first episode. My initial reaction was, “Why would this scammer go to all that trouble for a $20-40 payday?” The answer of course was that he was grifting in the early 1960’s when a Brooks Brothers OCBD was $7.50, their cashmere sweaters from Scotland were $25, their India Madras sport coat was $39.50, and a tweed jacket was $85. Around the same time, a J. Press shirt was $6.50, a London Fog raincoat was $43.95, and a British Baracuta G-9 jacket was $65 (which sounds like a lot considering McGregor and several other American manufacturers knocked off the G-9 for about one-third of that price. Looking forward to watching the rest of the episodes.
I have to be That Guy but.. he picks a bathroom… I’m guessing bathrobe?
Autocorrect can be such a scourge.
Case in point.. autocorrect changed “I hate to be” to “I have to be”… UGH!!!
I’m confused about the robe thing: if the robe’s maroon paisley style is “wrong,” in that in-the-know way, then why did Brooks Brothers even have it in stock?
I just watched the first two episodes. Sorry, I found it ponderous. There were lots of mysterious, foreboding looks from the characters, which usually signals to me that they’re padding it to stretch the video. And I spied none of the button-down collars, 3/2 rolls, soft shoulders, or rep ties from that era. I saw the pen and Brooks robe, but that didn’t make it Ivy for me. Again, sorry to be harsh.
Typo, should be bathrobe not bathroom, but a fun series none the less. Made me seek out the original movie as it’s been a while
JB: Thanks for the recommendation. If the outfits are any good, and considering it’s set in 1961 and recommended here, I’ll try not to spend too much time trying to get the perfect screenshot(s) of an outfit I like. Oops.
HU: Cheers.
I just watched Roadhouse 66 (1984) based off of a post on this site from a while ago. It made me decide to pull the trigger on an ecru OCBD. Look up “Yellow Oxford” in the search bar. I took a bunch of fine screenshots of the Ivy/prep outfits I could send your way, JB, if you’d like. Have a good one, all.
The Reincarnation of Mr. Ripley: My wife and I watched the final episode of Ripley last night on Netflix. The eight-episode series is a remake of the 1999 film, The Talented Mr. Ripley, starring Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow, and based on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel of the same name.
Bottom Line: The mini-series is blessed with an interesting plot, respectable acting, and brilliant writing and directing by Steven Zaillian. Robert Elswit’s cinematography is also top-notch and sets the tone for this neo-noir period drama which takes place in New York City and Italy in the early 1960’s.
At first, I questioned why the series was produced in black and white. After all, if you are shooting on location in Italy, why not get credit for it? In retrospect, however, some of my favorite films from that era – To Kill a Mockingbird, Dr. Strangelove, Seven Days in May, The Manchurian Candidate, The Pawnbroker, and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold – were filmed in black and white.
Tom Ripley is played by Andrew Scott, an English actor approaching fifty, cast as a New Yorker, presumably in his late 20’s. And it works! His performance is calm, calculating, conniving, and convincing. The series details the metamorphosis of Ripley from a New York-based forger, grifter, and petty scammer into an up-scale international con artist.
The other principal characters are Ripley’s pseudo-friend and mark, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf, a benign idler, living in Italy on the proceeds of his irrevocable trust. He is a frustrated painter and the son of a wealthy New York boatbuilder. Dickie lives at Atrani, a coastal town on the Tyrrhenian Sea, south of Naples. His Minnesotan girlfriend and neighbor, Marge Sherwood, is well-played by the American actress, Dakota Fanning. Marge is an aspiring author, struggling to write a travel book.
Other actors deserve special mention. The British singer-songwriter-actor, Eliot Sumner, stole the show with his two brief cameos as Ripley’s persistent, epicene antagonist, Freddie Miles. Freddie’s surname is consistently mispronounced Mil’ez by Police Inspector Ravini. That little quirk is reminiscent of John Huston’s incessant reference to Jack Nicholson’s character in Chinatown as Mister Gidz (1974). Sumner’s supporting performance is rivaled only by Maurizio Lombardi’s portrayal of Inspector Ravini, who is a hybrid of Columbo and Chief Inspector Hubbard from Dial M for Murder (1954). Also worthy of mention is the brilliant Lucio, the ubiquitous, observant Maine Coon hall cat at Ripley’s Rome apartment, a fine, handsome actor in his own right.
The film has flaws and implausible situations – the most absurd being the motorboat sequence and Ripley’s interview, disguised as Dickie Greenleaf, with Inspector Ravini. Nevertheless, Zaillian has produced a masterwork well worth the investment of your time.
Despite a few careless lapses, Ripley is a cool, calm, creative sociopath. He has a taste for the finer things in life and pursues them relentlessly. Viewers are never made privy to the enigmatic Ripley’s real background. As the series progresses, he actually assumes the persona of his companion, Dickie Greenleaf, and successfully toggles back and forth between his own identity and Greenleaf’s – until he doesn’t.
Curiously, Zaillian’s production is asexual. There is no passionate kissing. Not one breast is fondled. There are no discarded panties on the floor. Yet, he teases his audience with undeniable undercurrents of non-binary sexuality.
For readers of Ivy Style, links to all things Ivy are tenuous at best. Although some of Dickie’s clothing originated at Brooks Brothers, there were no OCBD’s, no 3/2 sack suits or sport coats, no regimental or club ties, no penny loafers – although Ripley got called out for wearing a pair of Greenleaf’s Ferragamo loafers, reportedly “purchased in Florence.” The only real exception to the non-Ivy wardrobe is a tan raincoat worn by Ripley in Rome, which could have passed for a 1960’s London Fog beltless trench. Ripley’s own clothes were nondescript, off-the-rack, vintage J.C. Penney or Marks & Spencer.
There is an old Hollywood adage: “Bad movies are always too long; good movies are never long enough.” The eight episodes of Ripley might have been made in seven – perhaps even six. I will leave it up to the reader to determine how that old saw applies to Ripley. As for me, I will anxiously await Zaillian’s next project for television, which might just be Season II of this one.