sovay: (Sydney Carton)
sovay ([personal profile] sovay) wrote2023-03-09 02:15 am

From my room I can hear the trains running out to the seas of Europe

My arm hurts and my head aches more than usual and I just sneezed, which had better be the Pneumovax, but I wish to express my delight that someone who runs a site dedicated to men's fashions on film and TV has devoted an entry to Walter Matthau in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) because I adore him in that movie and one of the things I adore about him is how good he doesn't look:



Look, I have one husband who can wear orange plaid and the other owns a tie we call the blue-ringed octopus: I'm not biased against the flamboyant. I am biased against a tie that matches a box of aspirin and looks like it was chosen so its owner could put all the mustard on his hot dog he wanted without risk. I am biased against a shirt that if it came on your TV screen at sign-off you would call the repairman the next day. The tweed jacket not pictured is a saving grace because it covers most of the shirt, but not even a raincoat improves the effect of the tie. The most I would ever attempt to argue for this ensemble is that it looks exactly like its character and avoids public indecency. But I am charmed by the analysis, even if I feel that "coordinating" is an optimistic designation for what that tie is doing. Now I just want to watch the film again.
ethelmay: (Default)

[personal profile] ethelmay 2023-03-10 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
My daughter used to date a guy who wore extremely multicolored shoes (I remember pink and yellow for sure, and I think there may have been some shade of blue or green in there). When she ribbed him about them he said placidly, "They express my cheerful nature." Which they did.
asakiyume: created by the ninja girl (Default)

[personal profile] asakiyume 2023-03-10 12:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Those sound like some fabulous shoes!
ethelmay: (Default)

[personal profile] ethelmay 2023-03-10 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Multicolored running shoes were A Thing for a while (probably still are, but I have a general impression they've settled down a little). In women's shoes it got so I had the choice of wearing Barbie-frock-colored sneakers or looking like a 1970s nurse.