Three-Piece Suit

Name: Ralph Lauren Three-Piece Suit
Brand: Ralph Lauren
Availability: OutOfStock

Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) in The Great Gatsby, 1974 — as worn by Robert Redford

The scene

In The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) arrives at Nick Carraway’s cottage in an off-white three-piece suit, waiting in the rain to reunite with Daisy Buchanan. Nick (Sam Waterston) watches Gatsby pace and nearly abandon the meeting before Daisy (Mia Farrow) arrives and sees him in a mirror. After their awkward encounter, Gatsby takes them next door to his mansion and shows Daisy his shirts. Ralph Lauren supplied the film’s menswear, while costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge selected the wardrobe; director Jack Clayton favored pale pastels for the principal costumes.

The single-breasted jacket’s broad lapels sit over a low-cut, double-breasted waistcoat, with a silvery-blue shirt and gold tie completing Gatsby’s appearance. The suit makes his wealth unmistakable when his confidence fails him. His pacing and fear that Daisy will not come expose how little control he has over the encounter. The cottage sequence keeps much of the exchange in tightly framed medium shots, moving closer to Gatsby’s apprehensive face and to Daisy as she sees him in the mirror.

Rain and a ticking clock make the wait palpable without drawing attention from the pale suit. Once the three cross the lawn, the camera follows them through Gatsby’s house; a high view of the marble staircase gives his wealth a scale the cramped cottage could not. In his dressing room, he tosses shirts into the air for Daisy and Nick, until Daisy begins to cry.

The object

Ralph Lauren launched his Polo neckwear line in 1967 and introduced a full menswear collection the following year; that first collection included a white flannel suit. By the time Jack Clayton made The Great Gatsby, Lauren had opened a Polo boutique at Bloomingdale’s and a standalone store in Beverly Hills. The film placed his tailoring before a wider audience. This off-white three-piece suit worn by Jay Gatsby (Robert Redford) pairs a single-breasted, two-button jacket with a matching double-breasted waistcoat and pleated trousers. The jacket has wide notch lapels, a welted breast pocket, flapped hip pockets and a ventless back.

The waistcoat’s peak lapels frame three pairs of buttons; the trousers have forward pleats and turned-up hems. Their generous proportions suggest the 1920s without concealing the film’s 1970s tailoring. The cloth looks like lightweight wool, but its fibre content has not been verified. Costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge selected Ralph Lauren to provide menswear for the 1974 production. Lauren’s own accounts differ on whether the film’s clothes were made specifically for it or drawn largely from the contemporary Polo collection; both distinguish Gatsby’s specially designed pink suit. Neither establishes a commercial model for this off-white one.

Clayton’s production notes favoured pale colours for principal costumes, an approach to which the suit belongs. Its afterlife is unusually well documented in images: a photograph of Redford wearing a white day suit on set appeared in Vogue in December 1973, and later menswear coverage has examined the off-white three-piece in detail. A different three-piece suit worn by Redford in the film appeared in a Sotheby’s sale, evidence of collector interest in the wardrobe rather than provenance for this garment. No distinct model number or documented reissue identifies this suit as a retail product.

Provenance

AvailabilityUnavailable

MakerRalph Lauren

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