Fila Makes The 'Fellas
Article in the Star Ledger: by .M.Z.S
They say clothes make the man. On "The Sopranos," clothes make the made men - and their women. The wardrobe in "The Sopranos" is the domain of Juliet Polcsa, the show's costume designer. The governing principle is realism. The clothing - chosen by Polcsa with input from organized crime experts, the producers and the actors - expresses the characters' personalities. It also underlines the difference between their ambitions and the reality of their lives.
First, the men. Tony Sopranos and his crew are suburbanites - the mob equivalent of striving junior executives, closer in earning power to the "Goodfellas" gang than to the high-living Corleones of the "Godfather" trilogy. Like West Coast musicians or Detroit auto workers, Notheastern mobsters have a certain style of dress taht's so time-honored that it's almost like a uniform. Nonetheless, says Polcsa, "We wanted to stay away from the sterotype that everybody expected." The "Sopranos" mobsters don't often wear silk shirts and flashy tailored suits because they aren't often seen in formal settings. Much of the time, they're tooling around the state collecting debts, terrorizing people and strategizing. Under those conditions, it's better to be comfy. So running suits are a major component of the wise guy wardrobe - often Fila, sometimes more expensive labels like Alan Stuart or Genelli.
The latter are woven from silk. Granted, silk isn't ideal fabric for a running suit. But then, says Polcsa, "These guys don't run. They wear athletic wear, but there's nothing athletic about them. The style has evolved over time, from Bogart-esque suits in the '40s, to leather jakcets in the '50s and '60s, to John Gotti's shiny suits in the '80s. By choosing to dress in the style of a gangster from a certain period, a wise guy displays his allegiance to a certain style of mobster and a certain way of doing business. "Twenty years ago, wise guys didn't wear running suits as often as they do now," says Polcsa. "That's a style thing. They're like anybody else when it comes to clothes: They find something they like and that's appropiate for that time and place, and then the latch onto it. They go to great lengths to make sure cetain stores carrey the same brand of Fila running suits or the same kind of shoes. It's like they're dealing with their own kind of internal peer pressure."
But within these specific parameters, there's wiggle room to express personality. Take Tony Soprano, the underboss played by James Gandolfini. During the first season,some people associated with the production thought Tony should wear expensive tailored suits like convicted Gambino boss John Gotti, a k a "The Dapper Don." "Well, that's not really who that guy was. That's a look people were used to seeing in newspapers, from pictures of Gottie going to and from courtrooms. Nobody ever saw John Gotti hanging out in front of a pork store with his friends. That's the look we wanted to go for." Tony has an "upscale" but low-key look, says Polcsa: high-quality running outfits for days when he has to drive around and ake meetings, some classy but not ostentatious suits, and a large assortment of attractive but nondescript shirts and slcacks.
"He's upscale but not flashy. He wears quality clothes, but he has an accessibility about him. The clothes tell you that he's a guy who can move in and out of a lot of different worlds, and who has a certain flexibility." Steve Van Zandt's character, the hit man and nightclub owner Silvo Dante, is more colorful, and his wardrobe reflects this. Polcsa says he sees himself as a throwback to the slick cowboy hoodlum seen in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and "Casino." So he wears sleek leather jackets, shiny suits and flashy ties. Chris Moltisanti, the twentysomething mobster played by Michael Imperioli, is a loose cannon who desperately wanted to move up in Tony's crew. His clothes suggest his youth, short attention span and lack of discipline. "With Christ, I can get away with more. He's not as staid as the older wise guys who keep the same look they've had for years. He's younger and a bit more fashionable - one of the few wise guys on our show who wears jeans. He's hip, but he's not GQ; he wouldn't shop at Barney's. He's younger, and Michael has a great body, so we can put Chris in a lot of stylish clothes that the older guys couldn't get away with."
The women are even more complex because their lives are only partly defined by the mob world. Tony's mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), a dour fuss-budget who might secretly be a vengeful harpy, in sometimes seen in an old robe; other times she wears clothes that Polcssa says "have probably beenin her closet for 15 or 20 years." This could indicate that Livia has given up on being happy in life, or it could just be a cleve way of camouflaging evil intent. Lorraine Bracco's Dr. Melfi, the therapist to Tony, favors sleek but nondescript ensembles, usually in black, gray and beige, which suggests professional stability and a lack of ego. But her occasional short skirts (by Vestimenta, an Italian company that manufactures Armani clothing) udnerline her femininity. They also amp up the weird sexual tension between her and Tony.
Carmela Soprano, Tony's wife, is a mob spouse, but she's also a suburbanite with pertensions toward respectability and sophistication. She isn't shy about spending Tony's ill-gotten money on the finer things, but deep down, she seems troubled by the amorality of her life. She wears dresses and blouses that are a bit tight, to show off her neckline, her jewels and a bit of cleavage - a vestige of youthful sensuality. But because she's a suburban mom, she's more often seen in pants or patterned jeans. But there's always a splash of color. "In an episode this season, we had to send her to a wake, which means we put her in a completely black dress, Polcsa says. "But even then, she had on brightly colored shoes. The way she dresses says, 'I'm here, I'm a woman, I'm successful, I'm not just a mob wife.' "
Chris' girlfriend, Adriana (Drea de Matteo), has similiar conflicts. She loves Chris dearly, which means she might end up married to him someday - a Carmela-in-training. But she's also a free thinker who dreams of self-made wealth and is proud of her sexuality. When she's working as a hostess at a restaurant, Adriana dresses in a professional way, but when she hits the night clubs with Chris, "she's very body-conscious, very sexy, with bright colors that Carmela would never consider wearing."
After a while, Polcsa says, the clothing becomes a part of the actors' tool kit. The regular cast members have gotten so comfortable in their roles that they can second-guess a wardrobe suggestion in much the same way that they might second-guess a line of dialogue that doesn't quite ring true. "As you start trying out different clothes on actors, you realize, 'No, that's not that person. She would never wear that.' The characters become like a person you know. You see them in something, and you say, 'That's not you.' "
Email: carmsoprano@aol.com