Tom Cruise "Collateral" suit

[armscye]

I'm late to the party but just saw Collateral last night on hotel cable. I seem to recall a thread on the gray minimalist suit he wears-- allegedly the product of an obscure Oriental tailor.

The suit has narrow lapels with an unusual gorge, single button front, longish side vents, beltless slacks without side tabs, and a single cuff button that in one scene appeared to have a diagonal-cut buttonhole. The overall effect is sleek and almost machine like-- director Michael Mann seems to have matched the gray dyed color of Cruises's hair, suggesting a metallic killing organism. He uses some motion-control techniques to give Cruise superhuman speed in the nightclub fight and briefcase chase scenes, presumably to underscore this.

I'm tempted to have one made (or adapted from a more conventionally cut suit), though I would return the lapel width to a more conventional halfway-to-the-shoulder seam width, possibly with a modest peak or else a fishmouth effect. I'm considering fabric-covered buttons in the suit fabric. The gray color is a question mark-- I'm not gray yet.

Opinions? Details?

 

[uriahheep]

I thought that Collateral was great. It's one of my all-time favorite movies. I really like what Michael Mann does with his main criminal characters in Collateral(DeNiro) and Heat(Cruise). Both DeNiro and Cruise had sharp-looking suits and unbuttoned white shirts. Maybe Cruise's suit in Collateral was inspired in part by the Conduit Cut suits made by Anthony Sinclair for Sean Connery in the Bond films.

 

[imageWIS]

I could swear that the suit had 2 buttons, but that they were very close together. Jon.

 

[drljva]

What I liked most about the suit was how it looked when TC ran in it.  It seemed cut for that, like an Olympic sprinter's outfit.

I posted this same query somewhere right after I saw the movie.  I may not have know about SF or AAAC at the time, so I think I posted it on IMDB, the Internet Movie Data Base.  No one could say much.  Someone noted that TC's clothes are often made by Gucci or Prada, I forget which...but the style details of the Collateral suit were like nothing sold anywhere, really.

I recall a feature story in a newspaper noting that  Michael Mann is big on telling character through costume, and had or developed TC's suit as if he had had it made in HK where he could specify a very international range of cut and style details that a mere mortal would never think or want to put together.  The suit is supposed to be located everywhere and nowhere, as TC's character is both geographically and morally.

But to answer the question simply, no one could say who made it.

Mann was quoted in the magazine Premiere as saying that TC's suit "was made by the best tailor in Kowloon". That's the most specific reference I've seen as to the origins of the suit.

JV

 

[justlurkingthanks]

I hope that wasn't the tailor who chased me down the streets of Kowloon demanding that he make me a suit.

 

[imageWIS]

I hope that wasn't the tailor who chased me down the streets of Kowloon demanding that he make me a suit.

Jon.

 

[j]

I'll try to flip through it and get a screenshot or two tonight if I get a chance.

 

[armscye]

Okay, here's the link to the suit, a bit bloodstained since it's the final act. Note the odd gorge, loose sleeves, single button. The ever-cryptic forum software tells me the syntax does not match what they want, so you'll have to paste it into a browser. http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=....intl=us

 

[Duveen]

Hi, I got curious about the suit, and found a few pics on a german website that give a good (and less bloody) sense of the cut. Look at the middle image found on this link. It shows the suit buttoned, giving you a sense of the low gorge and overall look. The suit looks odd - not like a 'real' suit, but - as armscye says - like some kind of wierd uniform. This Univision link gives a pic that shows the suit's balance.

 

[johnapril]

Hi, I got curious about the suit, and found a few pics on a german website that give a good (and less bloody) sense of the cut. Look at the middle image found on this link. It shows the suit buttoned, giving you a sense of the low gorge and overall look.  The suit looks odd - not like a 'real' suit, but - as armscye says - like some kind of wierd uniform. This Univision  link gives a pic that shows the suit's balance.

I saw nearly the exact same cut on a suit coat by Dolce & Gabbana for spring 2005. The pants, however, were pencil thin, without room for a gun on the ankle.

 

[uriahheep]

A homage to the Conduit Cut?

 

[armscye]

The Conduit cut was very spare in the arms and legs-- unlike the Collateral suit, which definitely has loose arms and legs.

By the way, I don't believe Cruise carried anything on the ankle. His H&K USPF 45 ACP (a big gun, by the way, on a relatively small guy) was in a strong side hip holster, with a double magazine pouch on his left hip. The gun in the jazz club scene is an integrally suppressed Ruger Mk II 22LR with an 8-inch barrel, and would probably just have been stuffed in his waistband. The Smith 5906 9mm he carries in the photo whose link I posted is taken from the dead guard at the Federal building. He also has a folding knife in the Benchmade pattern, used to cut Jamie Foxx's zipties off.

 

[imageWIS]

I think part of the look Mann was going for was a suit that looks very, very common place, almost as if it could have been bought off the rack and taken in, thus making the TC character blend even more with everyday surroundings. Alas, the well dressed man in perfect-fitting bespoke is going to get more attention than the guy with the RTW suit that he got on sale at Macy's.

Jon.

 

[Sevcom]

t shows the suit buttoned, giving you a sense of the low gorge and overall look.  The suit looks odd - not like a 'real' suit, but - as armscye says - like some kind of wierd uniform.

The gorge doesn't seem particularly low--it's almost on par with the Connery Conduit cut photo. But I agree that it looks like it's meant to be fairly unremarkable to the casual observer, and not immediately recognizable as one style or another.

 

[Tokyo Slim]

By the way, I don't believe Cruise carried anything on the ankle. His H&K USPF 45 ACP (a big gun, by the way, on a relatively small guy) was in a strong side hip holster, with a double magazine pouch on his left hip. The gun in the jazz club scene is an integrally suppressed Ruger Mk II 22LR with an 8-inch barrel, and would probably just have been stuffed in his waistband. The Smith 5906 9mm he carries in the photo whose link I posted is taken from the dead guard at the Federal building. He also has a folding knife in the Benchmade pattern, used to cut Jamie Foxx's zipties off.

Finally...someone else who notices these things...