Costume Breakdown: The School Uniforms
A few days back, @and-the-gun-kissed-my-face asked if anyone had some screenshots of the clothing worn by Alex and Nigel. As it turns out, I am incapable of simply posting some screenshots like a normal person, and I had already been meaning to make some posts breaking down the costuming and how to search for similar items for your own closet. Since I was gathering example shots all together in one place, I figured now is as good a time as any to get into this breakdown.
Note: Normally I edit my screenshots from this film to counteract the excessively desaturated cold gray tones. For this post series, I have avoided any color correction, only increasing exposure or brightness when necessary (often) and sometimes upping the sharpness to get a little more detail on blurry shots.
Both of them wear the basic school uniform consisting of blazer, pants, shirt, and tie, although Alex and Nigel each have their own personal touches as well. Breakdown below the cut:
The Suit Jacket
Jacket Style: Single-breasted, notch collar, two button, double vent, navy buttons, flap pockets.
Color: The blazer and pants are navy, a tricky color to search for because it can mean a pretty wide range of hue-saturation-lightness combinations, from very blue to almost gray, and from medium tone to almost black. Color grading in this film makes the uniforms read very heavy on the gray tones at times, but in some shots the blue becomes more apparent.
The promo shots for the movie lean far more into the heavily saturated and high contrast territory, so some of the blues become almost black.
Fabric: These are simply school uniforms meant for growing boys, so they could be a pretty cheap fabric like a wool/polyester blend. It IS a posh boarding school, and it’s in the cold climate of England, so they could also be a 100% wool as well. For anyone out there trying to find something similar, go with what you can afford and what works for your climate. I don’t recommend 100% polyester anything, but life be expensive these days so I get it.
Sourcing: (I am USA-based, so I only know of suggestions available here.) Depends a lot on your proportions and also on how screen accurate you want to be.
If you have a masculine body type that falls within or near standard sizing, this is straightforward. There are countless options for navy suits.
If you don’t fit easily into off the rack men’s blazers, there are a few other possible paths. If height is the primary issue, check the boy’s section of a department store (like JCPenney, Macy’s, Dillard's, etc). They often have fairly cheap versions of a suit cut for the shorter and narrower frame of a teenager.
If you are both short and wider in the upper body than a typical teen boy (shoulders, chest, stomach, etc), some stores also offer “Husky” boys sizes—still shorter than adult men’s options, but cut wider for thicker bodies.
If you have a pronounced feminine body type (wider in the hips/butt/thighs), finding a men’s/boy’s blazer is going to be difficult since they are cut on the assumption of a narrow lower body. In that case, your best bet might be simply to shop in the women’s section—they also sell navy blazers/suits, so the main thing is finding something that fits and has a classic menswear style cut.
If you are focused on recreating the vibes without worrying about exact matching, there’s a lot of room to play. Basic navy blazers or suits are widely available from so many places (in the US/Europe at least), both new and used.
If money is no object and you want accuracy and a good fit for your body, you could have an off the rack blazer tailored at a local alteration place or splash out the big money on a store like Indochino which will take your measurements and have a suit custom made to fit you, and you get to choose the fabric, the lining, the details, the buttons, etc.
Matching suit or separates: Due to the variations of color and fabric finish, it is extremely hard to match up navy items purchased as separates. If you really want that uniform vibe, it would be best to get both pieces as a “suit” or from the same store, same designer, and at the same time.
The Pants
Pants Style: Flat front (meaning no pleats), straight leg, no cuffs, extended tab closure with hidden bar hook, slant pockets.
Sourcing: See above re: finding a matching jacket and pants if at all possible. The exact style doesn't matter too much as long as they fit you and are the same color as the jacket. If you are aiming for a more casual interpretation of the vibes, you can also pair a navy blazer with contrasting pants like chinos in another color, or even just the right shade of jeans. Casual Academia, if you will.
The Shirt
All the students wear the same style of white dress shirt, and we don’t really see it without a layer of clothing on top. Look for a plain white button up dress shirt with a classic straight collar, sometimes also called a point collar. Avoid spread, button down, cutaway, club, or elongated point collars. Button down collars are too casual and more common in the US, plus they can be awkward with a tie. Aim for a smooth woven fabric rather than the more textured oxford weave. To make your life easier, try to look for one that is both machine washable and “wrinkle-resistant” or “no iron”. Trust me on this.
The Tie
Tie style: Regimental or repp stripe navy tie with green and gray stripes in a very particular pattern.
Sourcing: Search for regimental tie navy green, or repp tie navy green, and then try every variation of that you can think of. There are so many tie vendors at so many price points online. This style of tie is very popular for school uniforms, for adults showing sports team or alma mater pride, and for people who love the US East Coast old money preppy aesthetic—think brands like Ralph Lauren and its various sub-brands, J Crew, Brooks Brothers, etc. I will usually recommend silk fabrics for almost any tie. Although there is a lot of variation depending on the fabric weave and the construction of the tie (how many layers are folded into it), silk generally gives the best knot and avoids the tacky cheap vibes of synthetics. You can often find cheap used ties at thrift stores, but you'd have to be lucky to find one similar to the movie tie.
I spent a few years searching every way imaginable, scrolling through images and browsing countless stores on a desperate hunt for this exact pattern, all to no avail. There are plenty of navy and green striped regimental ties out there, some with a white or gray stripe as well, just none in that exact stripe repetition. If you’re aiming for something as close as possible, do note that British repp/regimental ties have stripes going in one direction, while US versions have the stripes reversed the other way. (Here’s a little explainer about the history of regimental ties.)
The Real Thing: One day I happened to be watching the full credits of the movie roll and I saw they credited the company in Wales that supplied their ties and scarves--which turned out to still be in business. Their website didn’t have movie pattern listed, so I emailed them. They had the fabric in stock and I special ordered a batch of the ties (thankfully just before these shitty US tariffs hit). I now have the exact screen accurate tie, as do a few other fans out there, and it’s as exciting and surreal as you might imagine. It is worth noting that these were meant as school uniform ties, and thus they are made out of polyester rather than silk.
If this company (Wrexham Club Ties Ltd.) continues to have the fabric in stock, you may also be able to contact them about a special order, but I can’t vouch for whether they can make another order, how far they are able to ship, or whether it would be cost effective to do so. Shipping from UK to US was certainly not cheap.
Tie Knot: Alex and Nigel both use what I believe is the Four in Hand knot, sometimes called the Simple or Schoolboy knot. It’s easy and quick, slim, and asymmetrical.
Analysis Note: Nigel’s notes about Alex mention that he always does his tie in a Windsor knot. Because I believe in Nigel’s powers of observation and his extensive knowledge about tie knots given his background and father, I think this is an error on the part of the propmakers. If you look at every screenshot of Alex in this post, he is decidedly NOT using a Windsor knot. For comparison, John Colbie has what appears to be a full Windsor knot at Josh’s funeral. These are wide, bulky, symmetrical knots, considered to be at the highest end of formality—worn by high-powered business men or someone attending a formal event like a wedding or funeral. I'm sure an older Alex might lean in to this kind of vibe, but it's not happening in this movie.
Another Note: Alex's tie is comically too short in this first shot below, and it always bothers me. Never do this! The point of your tie should hit just at your pants button/belt buckle area. Sometimes this means re-tying several times until you get the length just right, but over time you will learn exactly where to start your knot to get the right length.
Alex’s V-Neck Sweater
On multiple occasions, Alex wears a v-neck sweater as an extra layer between jacket and shirt (and sometimes without the jacket). This makes particular sense given the climate and the fact that Alex doesn’t seem to have a formal coat (or at least never wears one). While the sweater does look almost black in some scenes/lighting conditions, in others it reads as a dark navy. Navy makes more sense here—a black sweater with the blue of the suit and the tie isn’t a common choice, and isn't one I would ever make. As a layering piece, it’s thin enough to fit under a jacket. If it is 100% wool, it would be plenty warm without having to be bulky.
Sourcing: Plenty of these sweaters available when fall/winter clothing hits the stores, and they’re very unisex garments. Navy v-neck layering sweater is a good search to run, and I’d suggest looking for merino wool which can be fairly affordable, but beware that in recent years many of these sweaters are so thin that they’re almost transparent. I avoid polyester and acrylic sweaters like the plague because they are bad at keeping you warm and not at all breathable, so you’re going to be both cold and sweaty at the same time. Super gross.
Alex’s School Scarf
Alex uses his school colors scarf quite often, both with his uniform and in casual clothes. I would guess this is also likely wool, though hopefully a nice superwash merino which is much softer and more pleasant to wear against the skin. At Josh's funeral, you can see other students also wearing the same scarf.
Sourcing: You can find so many scarves with horizontal stripes, but it’s a lot harder to find them with these vertical stripes. It seems to be more of a UK thing, and there are even photos of Eddie wearing a similar scarf with a red stripe instead of the green.
I found a UK site called OXFOX that sells scarves of this type—the closest ready made listing has two sets of smaller white-green-white stripes instead of one large set (also in the movie it's gray stripes rather than white). They also offer a custom option that lets you pick the colors and stripe pattern to create an exact replica of the scarf in the movie. The scarves are quite expensive, but I do plan to have one made in the future whenever I feel like I can afford such a frivolous expenditure.
Nigel’s Waistcoat
Like the posh little rich boy he is, Nigel adds a medium gray waistcoat to his uniform for formal occasions like the funeral and the play. He also wears a silver pocket watch with this outfit, the frosting on top of this fancy bitch cupcake. It’s hard to get much in the way of details from the scenes in which he wears it, but in the promo image further up the post, we can see the fabric is a fairly textured weave, though maybe not quite something as nubby as a tweed.
Sourcing: Search for gray waistcoat, single-breasted, 6 button, no lapel, gray buttons. There are plenty of waistcoats (vests in the US) in both feminine and masculine cuts, it’s just a matter of casting a wide net until you find one that fits your criteria for similarity, fit, and price. Best option is to get one that has the same fabric on back and front, rather than the ones with the suiting fabric in front and that shiny lining fabric on back. This allows you to wear the vest by itself, which is a whole vibe, and thus gets you more bang for your buck.
This turned into SUCH a stupidly long post, so expect two more posts in the near future, in which I will discuss casual wear for Alex and Nigel.
Costume Breakdown: Nigel Colbie
Like Minds Masterpost - Aesthetic/Creative (costuming posts will be linked on this masterpost)
Like Minds Masterpost - Main