It's Always Tony Soprano Season

An interview with The Sopranos's costume designer on creating a sleeper menswear legend.

It was last summer, some 30,000 feet over the Middle East, that I realized Tony Soprano was one of the best dressed men on TV. That, in a way, I aspire to dress like him, and that a lot of guys I pass on the street seemingly do, too. It came to me as I was powering through the first half of a long work trip (20+ hours in economy!), and, to pass the time, I’d downloaded a few movies and TV shows. It was there, in an Ambien-induced daze, some half-dozen episodes into HBO’s seminal drama The Sopranos when I felt it, like a tickle at the back of my skull. Yes, the show remains as good as ever, but it wasn’t that; there was something else adding to my enjoyment. It was that I kept coming back, again and again, to Tony’s unassuming yet strangely elegant wardrobe as he moodily puttered around New Jersey or sat nervously at Dr. Melfi’s office. The clothes — those knit shirts, those pleated pants, those unassuming dress shoes, mostly rendered in earthy shades — they all just felt so right. 

Which isn’t to say they’re GOOD, really. Just right — which is different. They felt contemporary, a no-brainer prototype of what a guy could easily wear today, but also very much of that particular turn-of-the-century moment (just the slightest whiffs of Helmut and Prada). Timeless, I guess you’d say. They were also, in their amazing way, totally divorced from the idea of fashion. Funnily, they were the exact opposite of winter’s fleeting “Mob Wife Aesthetic” — some TikTok-generated trend that tried desperately to impart an idea of inner life (mystery, decadence, danger) onto a few stylistic gestures (namely a fur coat and winged eyeliner). No, this was the inverse of that, starting with the life, and then unspooling the clothes from there. This is about a very particularly person moving through the world and wearing something that helps him to do so, and in that straightforward, unromantic way, it then says something revealing about the wearer. In this case, Tony. 

So I did what any unwell person with too much time on their hands would do — I tracked down Juliet Polcsa, the show’s costume designer, for a chat. “You know, there needed to be this everyman quality to him,” she told me. “Polo shirts, slacks … you know it was 1999 and that was a common look. It wasn’t sloppy, I didn’t want him to be sloppy — he was pulled together. But the idea was he was in all these worlds: with Dr. Melfi, his family, his crew. So we gave him a sort of vague aesthetic, something he could wear at the Bada Bing or the doctor’s office. That’s what people responded to — he was a suburban dad, he was a ‘business owner’ who dealt with all the headaches and troubles of that.”

“I remember reading an article,” she added. “And this firefighter was like ‘He’s just like me!’” She laughed. “So there needed to be something that people could latch on to.”

Polcsa said that she frequented shops in Brooklyn, specifically certain men’s clothiers that were known for servicing members of the mob. She name-checked Jack Charles in Bensonhurst which, like many of the others, are now, sadly, closed. Over time, certain unofficial rules emerged, contours of the wardrobe that reflected who Tony was: he never wore jeans, and preferred Allen Edmond shoes. On set, a prop person was in charge of giving James Gandolfini, who played Tony, his watch (a Rolex, Polcsa recalled), rings, and gold necklace. “When he put those on,” she said, “he really became Tony. They were like talismans.” Once, in the first season, Polcsa put Tony in shorts for a backyard barbecue only to hear from one of the owners of the stores she frequented that it was beneath a mob boss to wear that, and, so, Tony was never again seen in shorts (at least in public).

Really, though, it’s such a good look — textured knit polo, tapered pleated pants and a loafer or lace-up. Sometimes he’d add a loose blazer to top things off, for a nice dinner or for a visit to Melfi’s. Depending on the season, the shirt had short or long sleeves. Sometimes they were collarless, sometimes they had some geometric patterns. And, yes, there were the more, shall we say, “festive” bowling shirts because even a murderous mob boss is allowed express a little personality. Am I maybe indulging in a little selective remembering here as there were more than a few missteps? Sure! But overall, I think Tony provides us with a bit of an easy, timeless template to adhere to.

I want to take a moment to stress that this is not a TREND, just an appealing way to dress. As I was writing this, I was scrolling Twitter and noticed the menswear writer Derek Guy had recently pointed out that Tony’s wardrobe, specifically the double-pleated loose trousers, hold up in our age of streetwear and athleisure. His look worked then, it works now. And it works on Gandolfini, who, shall we say, wasn’t sample size. His look fits in that quixotic concept of “uniform dressing” that menswear types love to obsess over, but for good reason — it’s a formula that makes life easier. It’s a way to chase away all the distractions (and today, in fashion and elsewhere, there are so many) and cultivate a wardrobe and personal style that works for you, for your life. That makes life easier and better. 

Funnily, it, too, reminded me of our enduring cultural obsession with dads and their style, something I’ve covered a few times in my life as a writer. As a gay man with no children, it’s funny to see this come up time and again — what is it about dads that fascinates us so much? That by them not caring about fashion (obviously a wild generalization), they somehow give us this unexpectedly “real” idea of style, divorced from the chains of capital-F fashion system? I still haven’t figured it out.

Anyway, all this to say that, I have had pictures of Tony, and his normal guy duds, dancing in my brain as I have done some online shopping this spring. There are so many versions of this type of pant now, and it’s fully been absorbed by a certain type of guy — especially the type of man who is consumed by the Shape of Pants Today™ (indeed, pants may be the menswear guy’s Roman Empire). A pleated, tapered pair of pants with just the right amount of drape, made from some lightweight wool, are no longer the purview of suburban dads, but Brooklynites and TikTok influencers (for better or worse, I reserve judgment). 

I thought of these pants late last year when I was interviewing Pierre Mahéo of Officene Générale for a GQ story about flea markets. We were at The Mercer hotel and he was wearing some pleated pants of his own design, paired with a vintage T-shirt, if I remember correctly, and they had a bit of that same vibe (there’s the Pierre Pants, which I believe are the ones he wears, but the Hugo ones are slightly less dramatic).  I thought of it again earlier this year when I dropped in on the new Stóffa store, in Soho. The brand specializes in made-to-measure, but has a few off-the-rack items on display, among them some really breathtaking double pleated trousers ($575) in plain weave tropical wool that have just the right amount of laid back elegance (I wanted to say insouciance, which is actually the right word, but it sounds a bit pretentious for something Tony Soprano would maybe wear?) Anyway, versions are everywhere, at every price point, ranging from Dries (I’ve always been obsessed with the pants he wears to take his runway bow! He’s truly the best-dressed designer) to NN07 (heavier fabric, but my oh my so good). Oh, and these ones from MFPEN! Recently I bought an incredibly well-priced vintage Armani suit for a wedding (no, I won’t say where) and the PANTS, my God! The man is a MASTER. I always think about how Armani studied to be a doctor before moving to fashion — you can tell how attuned to THE BODY he is. Luckily you can find a bunch of old Armani on Etsy and eBay and, as my friend Justin Berkowitz pointed out (and helped me buy said suit), there’s a lot on The Real Real for obscenely low prices. Oh! And don’t sleep on Abercrombie! I could go on. 

And we’re just lousy with the types of shoes Tony would wear, namely leather loafers or lace-ups (never sneakers, Polcsa told me). She specifically called out Allen Edmonds, and their Newman style is sort of the paragon of the category, though I will say you can’t ever go wrong with GH Bass’s Larson Weejuns. (Mr Porter’s in-house line, Mr P, has a chunkier one that’s sorta chef’s kiss.) The folks at Sebago actually sent me a pair of their classic Dan style recently, and they’re really gorgeous, and, to be honest, I had forgotten about Sebago (and the fact that they are American made, which makes the $230 price tag very much worth it). Also on my radar are the streamlined styles (both loafer and lace-up) from the Parisian brand Jacques Soloviere (the Alexis is gorgeous and comes in a bunch of different materials and colors, and is a reasonable price and the derby style is also great) and Vinny’s. I guess, if you want to make it a bit trendy, you could sub in some more slipper-like shoes from Lemaire or The Row.

The best part is obviously the knit tops. Tony’s are almost always collared, and there are a surprising amount of these types of shirts out there, in a range of styles and price points (which is kind of the whole point — while this is certainly a uniform, there’s a fair amount of flexibility within the guardrails). Knit polos are sort of the perfect shirt, a Goldilocks “just right” that sits perfectly nestled between formal and casual, flashy and discreet. There are buttery ones from Brunello Cucinelli with just the right amount of texture, but those will cost you an arm and a leg. Auralee has some perfectly relaxed 4-ply knit polos that come in discreet navy and brown, and then a bonkers hi-lighter green if you’re feeling frisky. Knitwear master John Smedley collaborated with Todd Snyder on a few long sleeve polo shirts that look like they could easily be daily go-tos, and are priced at a nice $360. Lately, I’ve become strangely obsessed with old Missoni Sport shirts, which have lots of oomph, and are easily found on Etsy, eBay and even Grailed. Go look at the polo shirt tab on SSENSE and, well, see you in a few weeks! (This Carhartt WIP one is giving pitch perfect bowling shirt vibes and this Maison Kitsuné one is def giving late-90s abstract/geometric golf shirt energy …)

All of which is just to say, it’s officially Tony Soprano season in these parts. “You know, I have noticed that pants are starting to get bigger again,” Polcsa told me when I pointed out how current those early seasons of The Sopranos look. I ask her what Tony would wear if the show were set today, and she struggles to answer. No jeans, no athleisure, that’s for sure. To be honest, she said, it probably wouldn’t be much different. “That’s why costume is so much more interesting than fashion,” she said. “Because you’re telling a story, not just making a pretty picture.”