Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Costuming Thread (Rick & Cliff)

[Panaflex]

Starting this thread as a place for any costuming related info for the Rick and Cliff characters played by Leo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.

I’ve been researching Cliff’s belt buckle which is a Vintage Stuntmen’s Association buckle from the 1960’s or 1970’s.

I have found a few variations were made over the years and the one in the film seems to be something of a mystery.

Screen grab:

It has “Member” spelled boldly on the bottom.

A more commonly seen vintage 1970’s version:

The bottom shows “Of motion pictures” instead of “Member”
and “Hollywood” on a banner in the middle. The reverse has a text history of the organization founded in 1961.

An oddity with less detail:

Here, “Hollywood” has been replaced with “Safety first” I believe this is a modern variant.

The reverse is mostly blank except for a code. The belt attachment is a solid bent bar instead of the hinged version seen above. Overall, this version just seems cheaper, maybe even a knockoff...

And a rare and what may be the earliest version in a gold tone that does have the “Member” designation but in a different spot and smaller font than the screen used version. The word “Hollywood” is absent on this one.

I haven’t found a reverse image of this buckle.

So far I haven’t found a trace of the screen used one in the wild or in google searches. The costumer for the film has said she found it in a box of other buckles so I don’t believe it was a one off for the film. Another prop mystery...

I’m thinking the screen used version came after the gold tone version and they kept the “Member” designation while updating the design but this is just a guess at this point.

 

[Panaflex]

Stoked to have found Cliff’s belt buckle!

 

[Jr. jones]

Very cool! Where'd you find it?

 

[Panaflex]

Thanks! A guy in LA who owns a trophy shop said he found it in a drawer I guess when he bought the place. Just happened to be working out here now and found him on OfferUp.

 

[jonnytrooper]

Congrats on the belt buckle! Glad to see a collector snagged it! I’ve wondered if Cliff’s might’ve been a variant made by the studio prop department since the costume designer found it amongst their props and we’ve never seen a Shelton that’s exactly the same. Matter of fact, there are a number of other details that differ from Cliff’s to Shelton’s beyond the word “member”, making it quite unique. Here’s a good look here:

We can see that on Cliff’s the font is different, there’s an additional raised boarder around the camera, the banner under the camera is smaller, and there’s also a motif on either side of “member” rather than having stars on either side of the camera. All of this lead me to believe it might’ve been custom made, although not custom made for *this* film.

On Rick’s wardrobe, this pair of pants are vintage Wrangler:

And I haven’t found either of his exact leather jackets yet, but I’ve seen some very similar ones out there. The blazer was a style common to Remy, Scully, Silton, and other popular jacket companies of the day that had western vibes. Here’s a Silton that’s quite close to give an idea:

And I’ve seen some others that are similar to his brown one like this one here, although there are many inaccuracies:

Hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend!

 

[Apollo]

Man what a catch !

Congrats it was meant to be!!!

Thanks! A guy in LA who owns a trophy shop said he found it in a drawer I guess when he bought the place. Just happened to be working out here now and found him on OfferUp.

 

[Panaflex]

Thanks Apollo! Feeling lucky!

jonnytrooper, wow, great info. Nice screen grab! Really wondering what’s up with the the buckle now...
You doing the full Rick costume?
Halloween is coming!

 

[jonnytrooper]

Hey Panaflex, thanks so much man! I haven’t collected any of Rick’s wardrobe yet, but I put together my Cliff getup a few months back. What about you, are you going as Cliff for Halloween?

By the way, the strap he wears his Citizen 8110 on was made by Red Monkey Designs if anyone’s after it. Jennifer Aniston actually got Brad a Red Monkey with a Rolex ages ago, (he even wore it in The Mexican and Ocean’s 13!) so it’s cool to see him in one of their designs again! Here’s the style they made for Cliff paired with one of their own watches:

 

[jonnytrooper]

Well there we have it! She had originally said she’d found the buckle amongst other buckles, and now we know that they duplicated them! It makes sense that they would need multiples, and also makes sense that they’d alter the design while they were at it! And this photo from her really shows the contrast to the original Shelton buckle! Mystery solved! Now for whether or not they’ll be offered to the public...

 

[Panaflex]

Awesome score on the info! Guess we’ll have trouble getting the SU look now, lol.

Yeah, planning for Halloween now. Ordered a champion shirt from Redbubble but am thinking they put the logo too low on the shirt perhaps....

The Red Monkey stuff is cool but out of my budget for this unfortunately. I’ll go with a random version from somewhere.

My next question is will anybody do Rick’s flame thrower setup and costume.

 

[jonnytrooper]

Thanks man! Happy to have some clarity on it now, at any rate!

Cliff would be so much fun to go as for Halloween! I’d love to see photos of your getup when the time comes!

And that Red Monkey strap looks pretty straight forward to recreate if you wanted to take a stab at it!

I would LOVE to see someone tackle the flame thrower rig and costume! haha I hope somebody does!

In other news, I’ve made some progress on identifying Rick’s leather blazer! Just waiting to find the exact one now! Here’s a little teaser:

And just for fun, here’s a photo of some of my Cliff getup!

Hope you’re all enjoying the weekend!

 

[Panaflex]

Thanks man! Happy to have some clarity on it now, at any rate!

Cliff would be so much fun to go as for Halloween! I’d love to see photos of your getup when the time comes!

And that Red Monkey strap looks pretty straight forward to recreate if you wanted to take a stab at it!

I would LOVE to see someone tackle the flame thrower rig and costume! haha I hope somebody does!

In other news, I’ve made some progress on identifying Rick’s leather blazer! Just waiting to find the exact one now! Here’s a little teaser:
View attachment 1047401

And just for fun, here’s a photo of some of my Cliff getup!
View attachment 1047409
Hope you’re all enjoying the weekend!

Super cool. Are the boots the ladies I keep seeing on their site? Can’t seem to find those in men’s. Nice score on the glasses. Where did you find those. Do they have a model number? Right now I just have cheapie repros off Amazon.
I’ll post pics with the champion + Hawaiian soon.

 

[jonnytrooper]

Super cool. Are the boots the ladies I keep seeing on their site? Can’t seem to find those in men’s. Nice score on the glasses. Where did you find those. Do they have a model number? Right now I just have cheapie repros off Amazon.
I’ll post pics with the champion + Hawaiian soon.

Thanks man! Yep, the boots are ladies softsole just like his. I’m a 10.5 and these are a women’s 11. They fit snug but comfortably, and I suspect he would’ve worn the same size. And thanks so much man! The glasses were a result of looking at hundreds and hundreds of vintage aviators. The only markings on them are discrete and read “taiwan A” on the interior of the left temple and “foster grant” on the interior of the right temple. They seem pretty hard to come by, but they’re out there! Looking forward to the pics dude!

 

[jonnytrooper]

By the way, since everybody is searching for the Wrangler jacket now, if anyone’s after one but isn’t concerned with complete screen accuracy, Maverick made the exact same jacket back in the day. They just flipped the W’s on the chest pockets and added their tags.

 

[ddspike22]

What kind of Levi's are Cliff's jeans? look like 501's to me.

 

[Panaflex]

What kind of Levi's are Cliff's jeans? look like 501's to me.

Possibly the Levi’s 517 boot cut introduced in 1969, when the film is set but could also be the “regular fit” from 1967.

 

[jonnytrooper]

I’ve believed them to be the Levi’s Vintage Clothing 1967 505 but I haven’t had confirmation from the studio yet. LVC makes faithful reproductions of specific models from specific years, and I think the ‘67 505 would be the most likely for him to wear, and all of the details match up. Even for the timeline, it would make sense from a costume design standpoint that his jeans would be a couple years old based on fading and whiskering. They’ve produced a lot of different washes for that model, but here’s a potential candidate to give an idea:

I’ll let you know if I get confirmation!

 

[Panaflex]

jonnytrooper, That’s some great info, TFS. So cool that you’re reaching out to production!

 

[jonnytrooper]

jonnytrooper, That’s some great info, TFS. So cool that you’re reaching out to production!

Thanks man! Happy to share it! Hopefully we’ll get a conclusive answer!

 

[jonnytrooper]

I figured they had custom printed the Champion shirt so it’s nice to have definitive confirmation on it being custom in addition to the Hawaiian shirt. I believe the Lions shirt was also custom, given that no vintage or contemporary production has proven an exact match.