Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Style: Suede, Camp Collars and Moccasins
The short answer: the stunt man never looks rushed because nothing he wears resists him. Suede bends where his body bends, an open camp collar removes the only piece of hardware a shirt has, and moccasins put him in a room without announcing it. Comfort is doing all the work here, and on screen comfort reads as confidence.
Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film, costumed by Arianne Phillips, sets Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth next to Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton and dresses them as opposites. Dalton wears the money: the tailoring, the cravat, the effort. Booth wears a yellow Hawaiian shirt, a brown suede jacket and a pair of moccasins, and he is the one the camera cannot stop watching. The film knows exactly what it is doing. The man with nothing to prove is dressed like a man with nothing to prove.
Suede moves the way you do
Put on a new leather jacket and you can feel it arguing. Finished leather has a tight grain and a coated surface, so it holds its own shape and your arm has to push through it. Over a year or two it gives in and becomes yours, which is the whole romance of leather, but on day one it is a piece of equipment you are wearing.
Suede is the same hide split and sanded to raise a nap on the inside surface, and that one difference changes everything. It is softer, lighter and drapes rather than stands. It creases into soft folds instead of hard lines, and it starts behaving like cloth from the first hour. A suede blouson on a relaxed man reads as an extension of him; the same cut in stiff black leather reads as armour.
What to look for:
- Goat or lamb suede for softness, calf suede for a little more body. All three are better than a bonded or split finish.
- Mid brown, tobacco or sand. Suede lives on warmth, and a black suede jacket throws away the one thing suede is good at.
- A blouson or a shirt jacket cut, ending at the hip. Suede has no structure to hold a long line.
- Keep it dry and brush the nap back up when it flattens. A rubber suede brush costs almost nothing and is the entire maintenance routine.
A camp collar says off duty without saying casual
A plain tee says nothing at all, which is sometimes what you want and is never interesting. A standard shirt collar says office, and keeps saying it even with the top button open, because the collar is built with interlining to stand up under a tie that is not there.
The camp collar sits between the two. It is a flat one piece collar with a small notched opening at the front, designed to be worn open, with no interlining and nothing to prop up. It lies down on the collarbone and stays there. That is the entire mechanism: a shirt that is finished without being fastened. It reads as a man who is not working today and has still got dressed.
What to buy:
- Rayon or a rayon blend for the drape that makes these shirts hang properly; cotton or linen for a drier, quieter version.
- A pattern if you want the Booth version, a plain colour if you want to wear it to dinner. Both are the same shirt.
- Worn loose but not long. The hem should sit at the top of the trouser pocket.
- Short sleeve ending mid bicep. A short sleeve that reaches the elbow turns the whole shirt shapeless.
Moccasins let you arrive quietly
Hard leather soles are loud by design. A Goodyear welted shoe with a stacked leather heel strikes the floor, and in a corridor it announces every step you take. For a lawyer walking into a courtroom that is an asset. For everyone else it is noise.
A moccasin is built the other way round. One piece of soft leather wraps the foot from below and is stitched to an apron on top, so there is no welt, no shank and no heel stack. The sole flexes with the foot and the step lands quietly. That construction also means the shoe shapes to your foot within a week rather than a season, which is why people who own one pair end up owning four.
What to look for:
- A true moccasin or a driving shoe for the softest version; a lightweight loafer if you need something slightly dressier.
- Unlined suede or soft calf. A stiff lining defeats the construction.
- A thin rubber pod sole if you walk on pavement. Pure leather moccasin soles wear through fast.
- No socks is the film version and it is fine in summer. The rest of the year, a low cut sock keeps the leather from taking the damage.
Easy, warm, unhurried
Put the three together and nothing on the man is holding him in place. The jacket moves, the shirt lies open, the shoes bend. There is no stiffness anywhere, and because there is no stiffness there is nothing for an observer to read as effort.
That is the useful lesson from a wardrobe that looks, at first glance, like it has no lesson in it. Booth is not dressed badly. He is dressed in soft versions of correct things, which is a completely different outfit from the one most men assemble when they decide to dress down.
If you take one thing from this: replace the stiffest thing you own with a soft version of itself. A suede jacket instead of the leather one, a camp collar instead of the office shirt, a moccasin instead of the derby. The shape of your wardrobe does not change at all. The way you move in it does.
Frequently asked
Is a suede jacket practical in the rain?
Not in heavy rain. Light damp brushes out once it dries, and a spray protector helps, but suede is a dry weather jacket and worth treating as one.
Can I wear a camp collar shirt to the office?
In a plain colour with a jacket over it, in a workplace without a tie rule, yes. A loud print is a weekend shirt and it is better to keep it that way.
Are moccasins acceptable with tailored trousers?
With a soft odd trouser, yes. With a suit, you want a proper loafer instead, because the moccasin has no heel and the proportion falls short.
What colour suede should I buy first?
Tobacco or mid brown. It sits with denim, grey flannel, navy and every shade of cream, which covers almost everything else you own.
Do I need to wear this with denim?
No. The same three pieces over cream chinos or grey flannels is the quieter and in most cases better version of the outfit.