Cut! – Pirates – Jack

 Ok, the first costume that I’ll show off from the Cut! exhibit is from Pirates of the Caribbean – Jack Sparrow’s costume.  This costume includes a white shirt, blue vest, grey coat, tricorn hat, pants, boots, two belts, sword, holder and scarf.  I was kind of disappointed that they didn’t have any of the women’s costumes – though I suppose that Johnny Depp is a bigger draw than Keira Knightly any day.

I looked around, and didn’t find a lot of good, clear, full-body screen caps/promotional photos showing this costume, but the description ( you can click the image for a larger version) says that this costume was “based on Restoration fashion, as shown in the deep cuffs of the long frock coat and the deep cuffs of the boots.  Other indications of the period are the long sleeveless vest and the multiple oversized button holes.  The fabrics of the coat, shirt, and breeches are rough and distressed emphasizing the life of a pirate.”  The movie is “set in the 18th century” according to the poster.

Here is a full-length shot of the costume – with the interesting (relevant, but not distracting) background.  I really appreciated the backgrounds in this exhibit – they tied areas together nicely, but didn’t attempt to be the focal point – you could almost forget about them entirely which I liked – plus it makes a nicer shot than a plain white background.  LOL

There was a fair amount of distressing work done on the garments, which was interesting to see.  I don’t know how much of this really translates on screen, but perhaps it has as much to do with what the audience sees as how the actor feels?  Plus there are always those purists who freeze-frame every thing and look for details…. In this shot I can see that one of the button holes looks like it’s ripped out and been mended back.  I also found the two belts kind of interesting – and wanted a shot of the various textures of leather in the belt and diagonal sword belt.

Oddly enough, the belt carrier on the black belt has holes on it – as though it were made from a narrow black belt….?

More distressing on the brown leather belt, and more wear on the button holes (at the very bottom).  As with all of the pictures, to get a larger view, just click…

You can also see that only part of the buttonhole for the vest was actually cut open.  The stitching is long, but the hole itself is sized appropriately to fit the button itself.

More distressing on the jacket.

It also appears that none of the holes for the jacket’s buttons were ever cut.  I find this kind of interesting.  Obviously the exaggerated ‘button holes’ are purely decorative, but I find it interesting that even just the functionality is decorative as well.

Likewise, it appears that the buttonholes on the vest, near the top (where they would not be closed) are also uncut, and thus also just purely decorative.  (The buttonhole at the very top does not look like it was cut open.)

Onto the cuff… it looks like it has some structure (interfacing) behind it, making it a bit more substantial, compared to the fabric of the body of the jacket itself.  The white shirt peeks out here – as well as at the neckline, but that’s about it.  I do find it a bit curious that the cuff buttons appear to be larger in this photo than the jacket front buttons – but obviously that’s just a trick of the camera – in the next photo this is remedied.

  Another shot of the complete outfit (from the pants up… since the pants and boots were pretty boring to me..)  I looked a bit at other men’s Restoration fashion, and most show breeches to the knee worn with stockings – obviously that would be covered by the tall boots here, so i wonder if these are full (ankle-length) pants, or if they also stop just below the knee?

Most of the other illustrations of historical fashion are a bit more ‘fabulous’, and show more trim, fancier fabrics, and cutaways for either the vest or the jacket (both of the ones in this costume fall fairly straight).

This photo also shows the fringed scarf a bit more clearly – a black, gold and red scarf fringed on all four sides.

I wish that there had been a better display of the tricorn hat though… I don’t remember it being especially notable from the movies – but I know that there are people out there who have tried to recreate it for their own costumes, and it would have been nice to have a clearer view of it.

I for one, won’t ever be recreating this costume for anything… I am, however, tagging this with “airship pirate” as well, in case the pirate references help one of these days with a Steampunk pirate-influenced costume….

If anyone else is making a Jack Sparrow recreation costume though – please let me know in the posts below if my photos have helped you with your costume research!