Easy Rider (1969)

Dennis Hopper broke with a lot of conventions in his directors debut, portraying two hippies on their search for the pure experience of freedom riding their, at the time pretty rare, Harley Davidson chopper bikes. The 'easy riders' encounter a range of characters either agreed to their lifestyle and ideals as well as violently opposed to it.

Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper star as the ultimate hippies, driving with just a bag and a woolen Indian type blanket on the back of their bikes. Although Jack Nicholson steals the show with his foolish but superb acting. The characters they meet on their way through the American highlands are dressed as interesting. An overload of traditional americana wear with Wrangler western shirts, Levi's type III denim jacket, many jeans and ivy-style sweaters.

But in the end Easy Rider is the walhalla for the vintage sunglasses collector. I would love to give you the names of all the different frames seen, I simply couldn't get them. The shades worn by Peter Fonda are the Ray Ban Olympia I Deluxe, Jack Nicholson's seem to be a Clubmaster at first sight, but a closer look reveals they're slightly different. Comments on the remaining glasses are more than welcome.

The Matador (2005)

I won't deny that I'm a big fan of Pierce Brosnan, to me the actor that best suited the James Bond character - on which I will do a special soon. He just has a certain class about him, in The Matador combined with a very typical vulgarness which makes his character very absurd but at the same time very entertaining. The moustache, his hawaiian shirts, the sunglasses, the golden jewelry, his frequent smoking behavior and the facial expressions exclusive to Pierce all perfectly fits the character. Basically this character was the reason for this weeks choice, the very colourful cinematography and some other details played a part too.

Blood In Blood Out (1993)

"Miklo, orale, carnalito. What's up, ese?"

Damian Chapa impersonates the Miklo character in this movie, one of his first roles and since then on he would became obsessed with chicano gangster movies, both as actor and director. Too bad he's just not that good in both.. But at least he knows how to dress up properly as a chicano.

A film about three cousins growing up, one active as painter, the second as a narcotic officer and the latter as the leader of the La Onda prison gang. Director Taylor Hackford shot the film inside the San Quentin State Prison and managed to get a great deal of prisoners to act in the film. As for style concerned it's a chicano gangster walhalla; pleated (khaki) chino's, tanktops with flannel check shirts, completed with derby hats. When in prison they wear light blue shirts all with the button up top, denim jeans and jackets, navy colored beanies and all black sunglasses.

I.T Post - The Dreamers Issue

Some while ago I wrote an article for the magazine of Hong Kong's fashion group I.T (who recently bought a 90% stake in BAPE). The article called 'Use Your Imagination' was published in this Spring/Summer 2011 issue. The magazine features beautiful photography by Kwannam Chu, also the art-director and the one who made it possible for me to contribute. Please see the article below on issuu.

And since I made reference in it to 'The Limits of Control' I've added two more stills as an extra. Imagine ;)

Rebel without a Cause (1955)

Writing about 'the James Dean look' on movies like Badlands and Flyboys, I had to cover and show where this ideal image originates from. The popularity of James Dean was immense at the time and some say this was the reason for Warner Bros. to order director Nicholas Ray to re-shoot the movie in color. As originally the film was to be shot in black and white.

The rebellious character of Jim Stark seems of course to have been written for James Dean, who was known for his love of cars and any sorts of racing. However 'the James Dean look' has got nothing to do with cars, but is all about the indifferent, bored but cool expression on his face, his white tee combined with the iconic Lee 101 Riders jeans and the red Harrington jacket completes this look. Nicolas Ray did research on contemporary L.A. gangs for the characters in this movie and this resulted in lots of selvage jeans, probably most of them big E 501's, leather jackets and cowboy-style boots.

American Psycho (2000)

I know American Psycho is an often featured film when talking style, suits or just still images taken from movies. Still I enjoy every single minute of this utterly good movie. The mockery of the 80's and the Wallstreet type of businessmen is just great. The delusion in which these businessmen mingle themselves every single day, the fake burden and responsibility they carry and their materialistic view on life. This hollow life is all too much for the narcissistic character of Patrick Bateman, the best role performed by Christian Bale to date. Perhaps the still of Willem Dafoe need some explaining, it's his face that has got so much character to it, he's the actor that could, in theory, play any kind of role. I had to capture it.

The following thought/quotation from Patrick Bateman is my favorite one of the movie and actually summarizes it quite good:

"Allen has mistaken me for this dickhead, Marcus Halberstram.
It seems logical because Marcus also works at P&P,
and in fact does the same exact thing I do.
He also has a penchant for Valentino suits and Oliver Peoples glasses.
Marcus and I even go to the same barber,
although I have a slightly better haircut."