The Thomas Crown Affair

[Soph]

Watched this again for the 20th so time,
I really like P.B.'s style in the 2nd from the suits to the more casual attire:
Seems very powerful, strong, masculine, and understated.
Very nice sartorial inspiration.
White Bow Tie

 

[skalogre]

That IS a nice suit. I should probably rent that film

 

[Get Smart]

It's a great film, I was surprised how much I liked it when I saw it in theater. and I did leave thinking what a great wardrobe PB had. makes me want to rent it to see it again.

 

[Jared]

Does being Bond cause dressing well or do only actors with the potential get picked as Bond?

 

[sammy]

I love this movie too! Remember the scene where he's being fitted for a suit in his office? I'm quite sure that the tailor in the movie is Gianni Campagna of Sartoria Domenico Caraceni.

 

[rabbimark]

One of the few times when the remake vastly outstrips the original.

Here's David Denby in The New Yorker from August 16, 1999:

A spirited, entertaining remake of the profoundly unimportant 1968 movie that starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. ... [Renee Russo] can't change the actor's [PB] resemblance to a luxury item ordered from a catalogue, but at least she musses him up a bit.​

Here's Pauline Kael on the original, which to my mind was horrible, despite the presence of Le Steve:

"If we don't deny the pleasures to be had from certain kinds of trash and accept The Thomas Crown Affair [1968] as a pretty fair example of entertaining trash, then we may ask if a piece of trash like this has any relationship to art. And I think it does." ("Trash, Art, and the Movies," from Harper's in 1969, essay reprinted in Going Steady)​

Sartorially, I thought Steve McQueen's wardrobe was vastly superior to PB's. Beyond the threads themselves, Steve has that essential roughness that PB lacks. I just couldn't see PB as bestirring himself from his cognac for long enough to steal a painting from the Met. Steve, on the other hand ... the kind of guy who would do it with a big grin on his face.

 

[CoryB]

It is amongst the best movies for fashion, but if you are PB when do you not look great in clothing. I actually went out and rented it a second time a few months ago.

 

[heavyd]

Dude, TCA, Tailor of Panama, James Bond... Remmington Steele... The guy is handsome and looks great in clothes!

 

[bigbadbuff]

Great movie, and Pierce looks good in anything.

 

[imageWIS]

Originally Posted by sammy

I love this movie too! Remember the scene where he's being fitted for a suit in his office? I'm quite sure that the tailor in the movie is Gianni Campagna of Sartoria Domenico Caraceni.

Originally Posted by sammy

The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
August 22, 1999

RICH CLOTHES ARE THE JEWEL IN 'THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR'
by Cynthia Robins, San Francisco Examiner

In one of the character-establishing scenes in The Thomas Crown Affair, Crown (Pierce Brosnan), an international billionaire businessman with a taste for great art and grand theft, is being fitted for a bespoke suit.

As Brosnan moves around his office with its panoramic views of New York City, he is oblivious to the two Italian tailors who patiently are chalk-marking the half-finished jacket he wears. It is the only unscripted scene in the film. And the tailors are real.

The Milanese bespoke tailor, Gianni Campagna, and his son, Andrea, had made suits for Brosnan's personal wardrobe and, at one time, he mentioned he wanted them to design a wardrobe for a future film. The opportunity presented itself last summer when they were called back from a vacation by the Thomas Crown producers, who requested that the Campagnas create the $ 400,000 wardrobe the title character wears.

Gianni Campagna, Milan's premier bespoke tailor, was perfect for the part. His $ 3,400 custom-made suits drape the shapes of such real-life gazillionaires as Mattel's Bill Rollnick, Revlon's Ron Perelman and the wife of arbitrageur Henry Kravis, as well as actress Sharon Stone, who considers Campagna "an old-world artisan at the finest level."

The fashion look for the film was designed by MGM costumer Kate Harrington, who dressed co-star Renee Russo in strong, tough chick chic from Michael Kors for Celine - bulky-knit cashmeres, fox mufflers, mink-trimmed coats, suede and leather. And the costumes were to become to Thomas Crown as important a signature as the theme song, Michel Legrand's Windmills of Your Mind.

Clothing denotes class, income and station, and in this film - certainly with the body-revealing Kors clothes on Russo and the Campagnas' easy-fitting, second-skin suits on Brosnan - character. These clothes had to telegraph the message that Crown was not only relaxed, adventuresome and rich, but active, handsome and addicted to risk.

Russo's character, the insurance investigator sent to track the culprit in the theft of a valuable Monet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the remake is set in New York rather than Boston), also was delineated by her clothes - beautiful, peripatetic, rich, reckless and dangerous. (When a woman wears butter-soft black leather, black cashmere and silver fox, you can bet she's got more than an edge going for her.)

In the original film, Steve McQueen, whose sense of irony overcame his shortness, was dressed in clothes that probably were expensive for the time. But they were off-the-peg, preppy and boxy and did not send any messages except that this was not an international.

"We saw that movie before starting this one," said Andrea Campagna on the phone from New York (he was acting as interpreter for his father, who speaks very little English). "The style was very classic, but the quality of the suits weren't hand-made like we do. We tried to create something even better in terms of making it perfect on the body of Pierce Brosnan." The elder Campagna knew what he was looking for, having dressed the international rich since he was apprenticed to the most famous tailor in Italy, Domenico Caranceni, who dressed Gianni Agnelli, Aristotle Onassis, Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Sophia Loren, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper and Tyrone Power. Before Campagna left Caranceni to go on his own, he made wedding clothes for Prince Rainier of Monaco and Prince (now King) Juan Carlos of Spain. "(My father) knew how to make suits for movie stars already," noted Andrea Campagna. "He sewed suits for Gable and Cooper in the '50s and '60s, and he wanted to take inspiration for Thomas Crown from that time with those kinds of vested,three-piece suits. Very elegant and classy." So while we see Russo in hard-edged fabrics,welt-seams, boiled cashmeres and wools, leather and suede, Brosnan's clothes are relaxed-to-fit - a "softer suit that moves with the body, an important shoulder," says Gianni Campagna through his son. "We tried to represent the kind of character Crown would have been in real life - a rich man who was easy in his life and not stiff."

In the original Thomas Crown Affair in 1968, thelook was designed by Theadora Van Runkle, who dressed Faye Dunaway (as the insurance investigator)in sophisticated suits, gowns and flowing.chiffon scarves in palomino colors. The look started several fashion trends.

This version of Thomas Crown probably will set itsown fashion precedents and ensure the success of respected designer Michael Kors and that of the Celine line.

Watch as this fall's fashion looks all include bulky-knit, body-hugging sweaters with funnel or turtlenecks over some kind of animal pelt.

Also, watch for the bespoke suit look translated into men's ready-to-wear. The Campagnas have created their own preta-porter line, Sartoria Campagna. The prices will be high (the line compares to Brioni at $ 2,500 for a suit). But the look is priceless.


Jon.

 

[BigJim'sSon]

For those who may have the TCA on DVD...can anyone make a guess at the pen PB uses to sign the contract at the beginning of the movie? Cartier?

 

[Lear]

I'm digging up this decaying corpse of a thread from six years ago. Not a fan of Brosnan in the Bond movies, but in this film he's simply perfect. Particularly like the pairing of tie + ps in the opening scene.

I do realize that my short and dumpy frame will always have me looking more like Andrew Lloyd Webber than Mr Brosnan. Still, this film provides many ideas and inspiration for us unfortunates.

Edit to add pic:

Lear