The charismatic Dickie Greenleaf’s appetite for fashion is as voracious as his obsession with women and the life of La Dolce Vita. “Let me buy you a coat,” he says in the lavish big-screen adaptation of The talented Mr. Ripleybased on Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel. “When we get to Rome, there’s a great place: Battistoni,” says Jude Law’s mischievous Greenleaf to Matt Damon’s awkwardly shuffling Tom Ripley, the Pygmalion-meets-psychopathic shadow in its wake.
Of course, the chilling story has a rich cultural legacy; after the book came the sixties Purple afternoon starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, both devastating in their portrayal of Riviera Eleganza. This month, the story is being reimagined by Netflix, in a new series starring Irish actor Andrew Scott as the monster in the making. He has his work cut out for him, as the soft-focus style of Anthony Minghella’s enchanting 1999 film remains the absolute benchmark for summer style.
Where to start? There are those panoramas of Ischia, the rocky outcrop of the Albergo Il Monastero against rippling water and Jude Law, Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow in their 1950s clothes, created by Ann Roth, the Oscar-winning costume designer (who happens to be in a memorable scene). at Greta Gerwig Barbie film as an older lady who reminds the doll that beauty comes in all generations and forms). Ripley’s venom works its way through the happy group, like the powerful unfurling of vermouth in a negroni.
Arriving from cash-strapped post-war Manhattan, Greenleaf and Paltrow’s Marge land in Europe for a series of jaunts along the Amalfi Coast and Venice, with a wardrobe that’s very much of the period – full skirts, camp-collar shirts – but that today’s day are also extremely desirable.
From Greenleaf’s pastel wardrobe to Marge’s tie-front shirts and tablecloth-patterned skirts (that could have come straight off the Prada runway), I’ve seen these scenes on mood boards from the biggest names in fashion, from Paris to Milan.
Scott’s performance as Ripley looks a bit darker – all chiaroscuro tones and functional 1950s workwear – but will no doubt inspire a shift towards the vintage menswear of the era this summer.
I contend that no man – apart from possibly Delon before him – has ever looked better on film than Law in his summer polo shirts and short shorts, chore jackets, soft linen trousers and boat shoes and – when he enters the more metropolitan environs of Rome – impeccable customization that creates a feeling of Sprezzatura ease; the draping of the shoulder, the fact that the pants are fresh white (a nod to Marcello Mastroianni in La Dolce Vita) instead of corporate Americana greige.
Roth (and Law) revel in the sheer Italian opulence of it all; Ripley, on the other hand, is the preppy American – because that’s all he knows – who can only aspire to match Greenleaf’s effortless continental swagger. In the first scene he slides over a Princeton emblem; however, it is not his. His suit, too, was designed by Roth to fit poorly, and never quite looked ‘just so’ in the eyes of Dickie Greenleaf’s absolute correctness and pecuniary confidence in all situations.
“In the 1940s we had the limitation of war and a limited number of fabrics. After the war, Dior came up with the New Look and that was very interesting, with the use of more fabric, the grandeur of menswear,” Roth said in an interview in 2000. “As we entered the 1950s, when the jet, something started happening: Italians, the Riviera, Brigitte Bardot and the Mambo Kings, there was a certain atmosphere in the city.’
How evocatively she evokes that world, and how seductive it all seems now in the age of Ryanair and the proliferation of Zara shirts and too-tight shorts and trousers for men in warmer climates today. Call it the Love Island effect; ‘athletic fit’ shirts designed to accentuate one’s David Lloyd-sculpted deltoids, a wacky ‘holiday shirt’ with a bold print and spray-effect shorts and trousers. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a bold pattern here and there, and it’s quite cheerful when the sun shines, but if Law, Damon and Minghella’s mesmerizing cinematography offer an alternative, it’s worth exploring those seductive codes.
For men, that translates to camp-collar shirts in muted colors and a reliance on softness and ease of manufacture rather than glossy Daz whites and spray-on proportions. Crumpled linen trousers with a pair of deck shoes or espadrilles, or a chore jacket over blouse trousers for when a whiff of seafaring calls (beware of shopping belts, mind you). And for the aperitivo hour, that gentle approach to customization applies in the way that Italians do so well; the shoulder with strings, the pants that sit away from the body so that there is some ventilation.
Of course, costumes can get quite ridiculous and Am Dram – no one expects a full pastiche of 1950s clothing and Vespa rides with the Positano sunset on the horizon.
But a few gentle references to one of the most stylish characters of all time, and one of fashion’s most magical eras, aren’t a bad thing. It’s a lifestyle and a world that the Machiavellian Mr. Ripley wanted for himself so badly that he would do anything to get it. Long live this sinister story of call paese style at its best.
Get the look…
Ornos polo shirt, £215, smrdays.com; Castaner espadrilles, £60, farfetch.com
Linen shorts, £150, lovebrand.com; PO3272S sunglasses, £214, persol.com