Originally Posted by
normanduke
Another tour de force from our resident style mayven.
Clothes : His image was working class ( aside from "The Thomas Crown Affair ) where a lot of fashion percolates upward.
You were aware that you liked his clothes and made mental notes, but like all really well dressed people, nothing drew attention to itself.
He did most of 'Bullitt" in a black tutleneck and suede desert boots...and a shoulder holster. The car is the star in that movie.
In ' Love With the Proper Stranger ' his image is again working class.
Paired with the incomparable Natalie Wood ( that girl could ACT ), he's seen in a series of skinny suits and skinny ties and a Burburry trenchcoat.
As Rocky Papazanno, an on-the-make saxaphone player from the Bronx, clothes aren't important here. What is important is that here is the McQueen as he really was. Scrappy and tough, inside is a tender heart and that is his allure. He can love and he is loveable for it.
'Thomas Crown' shows him in a deluxe setting, an elite world of all the fine things, cars and clothes that money can buy and this was really his last blockbuster film.
Paired nicely with Faye Dunaway ( another classy act up from the working class ), he's at his icy best in a game of cat and mouse with Faye.
In Posh's off the set shots, he's wearing a classic that most of us had, the Irish Fisherman's sweater. Again, in the poor boy hat and glasses, he's wearing really the ne plus ultra sweater, the Dean's cable. These were pricy as hell, sold ONLY at the very best men's shops and were fragile and delicate. They were a true status symbol and the more of them you had, the more colors, the better.
There was a famous shot of him dancing the Watusi with President Lyndon Johnson's daughter, Luci at the White House.
He died at 50, too young. I think it's something of a failure to die young. You didn't survive. But maybe it's best he died young because he really hadn't been Steve McQueen for a long time.
Norman
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