Swagger and Inspiration From Clothing in "The Gentlemen"

If you're a fan of British bespoke tailoring and appreciate exaggeration of traditional English clothing as well as the social class it might represent, you'll definitely want to put "The Gentlemen" on your "Movies to See" list. You'll see clothing styles adopted by wealthy drug-lords, nouveau riche mafia bosses, street gangs, and council estate boys. The ladies? They don't really figure here, except for Michelle Dockery's character, Rosalind Pearson, who exudes her own power and charm from atop Christian Louboutin 5-inch black stilettos while running a women-only auto garage.

In fact, near the beginning of the movie, there is a discussion between Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) and Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong) where they discuss their suits at a dinner party. “Oh, I like to make a splash whenever possible,” says Matthew Berger. It would be so easy to say that the clothing stands as shorthand for each character, but that is wrong. Rather, the clothing become tribal threads and second skins.

But the real style that is exuded is Colin Farrell and his team of "good lads." Every time they entered a scene, I could not take my eyes off them! Custom suiting, check! Matched plaids, check! Exquisite tailoring, check!

It is over-the-top street style, and in interviews with the costumer, Michael Wilkinson, you see how exaggerating a traditional fabric and design can really create a bold style statement. Wilkinson explained that they used designs based on classic English suiting fabrics, which we enlarged, brightened and printed onto a modern quilted technical fabric.

Incidentally, if you're looking for more costuming by Wilkinson, check out "Seberg," starring Kristin Stewart.

If Colin Farrell and his "Toddlers" have you aching to pull out that bright plaid in your stash, you can check this blog post by McCall's for ideas and links to fancy zippers and rib knit to match or contrast that can add incredible flair to your project!