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flaunt the imperfection
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No Helmut Required
By PAUL L. UNDERWOOD
Published: March 11, 2007
For the man who rides motorcycles — or just wants to look as if he does — Steve McQueen is It. He was so devoted to biking that, for the epic chase scene toward the end of “The Great Escape,” he actually played one of the Nazis racing after his character. He was also — no surprise — extremely concerned with looking the part. His label of choice? Belstaff. The company reinvented the biker jacket in 1924, when it pioneered the use of waterproof, breathable wax cotton. But Belstaff coats are more than just practical: they have an élan that gives ordinary guys King of Cool status. So it made sense for the company’s owners, the Malenotti family, to buy McQueen’s Belstaff Trialmaster at auction last November for $32,000.
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From Belstaff
A spring runway look.
Miramax
Leonard DiCaprio in "The Aviator."
From Belstaff
Another spring look.
Italian Visual Press
Will Smith in "I Am Legend."
The brand’s relationship with movie stars is still revving high. When Hollywood needs rough-and-tumble duds, Belstaff gets the call. Brad Pitt (and Angelina), George Clooney and Tom Cruise have all fashioned themselves as latter-day McQueens at some point. Clooney has a wardrobe full of them; Cruise’s custom-designed Belstaff in “Mission: Impossible III” was arguably the best thing in the movie and quickly became a best seller. Bad guys wear Belstaff, too: Kevin Spacey, as Lex Luthor, wore a parka with fox-fur trim in “Superman Returns.” Even the literati use Belstaff as a signifier for cool: the middle-aged real estate agent in Richard Ford’s “The Lay of the Land” makes a point of letting you know it’s his brand.
The best place to see Belstaff in action is in “The Aviator,” where the jacket got almost as much play as Leonardo DiCaprio. (After all, the film won an Academy Award for costume design.) DiCaprio’s looks were based on pieces from the 1920s and ’30s, which were then produced for the public and sold as a new line called Aviator by Belstaff. Devotees went crazier than Howard Hughes in a private screening room.
Wearing Belstaff doesn’t make you look like you stepped out of a period piece. In the coming “I Am Legend,” Will Smith plays the last survivor on earth. His jacket isn’t the fruit of some futurist’s imagination; it’s the good old Trialmaster, McQueen’s favorite, which remains unchanged from its original incarnation. The implication is that a Belstaff jacket is strong enough to withstand not just the passing of time but also apocalyptic annihilation.
nytimes.com
By PAUL L. UNDERWOOD
Published: March 11, 2007
For the man who rides motorcycles — or just wants to look as if he does — Steve McQueen is It. He was so devoted to biking that, for the epic chase scene toward the end of “The Great Escape,” he actually played one of the Nazis racing after his character. He was also — no surprise — extremely concerned with looking the part. His label of choice? Belstaff. The company reinvented the biker jacket in 1924, when it pioneered the use of waterproof, breathable wax cotton. But Belstaff coats are more than just practical: they have an élan that gives ordinary guys King of Cool status. So it made sense for the company’s owners, the Malenotti family, to buy McQueen’s Belstaff Trialmaster at auction last November for $32,000.
Skip to next paragraph
A spring runway look.
Leonard DiCaprio in "The Aviator."
Another spring look.
Will Smith in "I Am Legend."
The brand’s relationship with movie stars is still revving high. When Hollywood needs rough-and-tumble duds, Belstaff gets the call. Brad Pitt (and Angelina), George Clooney and Tom Cruise have all fashioned themselves as latter-day McQueens at some point. Clooney has a wardrobe full of them; Cruise’s custom-designed Belstaff in “Mission: Impossible III” was arguably the best thing in the movie and quickly became a best seller. Bad guys wear Belstaff, too: Kevin Spacey, as Lex Luthor, wore a parka with fox-fur trim in “Superman Returns.” Even the literati use Belstaff as a signifier for cool: the middle-aged real estate agent in Richard Ford’s “The Lay of the Land” makes a point of letting you know it’s his brand.
The best place to see Belstaff in action is in “The Aviator,” where the jacket got almost as much play as Leonardo DiCaprio. (After all, the film won an Academy Award for costume design.) DiCaprio’s looks were based on pieces from the 1920s and ’30s, which were then produced for the public and sold as a new line called Aviator by Belstaff. Devotees went crazier than Howard Hughes in a private screening room.
Wearing Belstaff doesn’t make you look like you stepped out of a period piece. In the coming “I Am Legend,” Will Smith plays the last survivor on earth. His jacket isn’t the fruit of some futurist’s imagination; it’s the good old Trialmaster, McQueen’s favorite, which remains unchanged from its original incarnation. The implication is that a Belstaff jacket is strong enough to withstand not just the passing of time but also apocalyptic annihilation.
nytimes.com
..I never got around to going back to the store.
