Jay Gatsby has been a hot topic for our gossip, but if you’ve a keen eye, you might have noticed no lack of extraordinary fashion sense in this young man!
Gatsby appears to have a suit in every shade, for every occasion. Our frequent anonymous informant was generous enough to describe some of Gatsby’s favored hues to flaunt his wealth in.
“We hadn’t reached West Egg village before Gatsby began leaving his elegant sentences unfinished and slapping himself indecisively on the knee of his caramel-coloured suit.” – N.C.
“Gatsby in a white flannel suit, silver shirt, and gold-coloured tie, hurried in.” – N.C.
“Recovering himself in a minute he opened for us two hulking patent cabinets which held his massed suits and dressing-gowns and ties, and his shirts, piled like bricks in stacks a dozen high.” – N.C.
(Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter 4).
(Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter 5).
(Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter 5).
How exactly does Gatsby dress so well? Does he hire somebody to create outfits out of his incredible wardrobe, ensuring he is always the best dressed man in any room? Or, has his worldwide traveling introduced him to all the trends of all different countries, allowing him perspective with our dear American fashion?
Or maybe, Gatsby just has so much money, he simply ensures he looks wealthy!
We’ve been lucky enough to gather one answer from the man of the hour:
“I’ve got a man in England who buys me clothes. He sends over a selection of things at the beginning of each season, spring and fall.” – Jay Gatsby
(Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter 5).
This answer might be for the best, not directly naming his dressing diva, as we are absolutely certain that the poor fellow would proceed to be so successful with orders lining up, that his wealth might surpass Gatsby’s!
If there’s one thing more colorful than Gatsby’s suits, it’s his shirts. Our anonymous informant describes a wonderful display of Gatsby’s button-ups, button-downs, crewnecks and t-shirts…
“Shirts of sheer linen and thick silk and fine flannel, which lost their folds as they fell and covered the table in many-coloured disarray… shirts with stripes and scrolls and plaids in coral and apple-green and lavender and faint orange, with monograms of indian blue.” – N.C.
(Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Chapter 5).
It is a blessing, or perhaps a curse, that Gatsby has found his trade in parties and showstoppers, rather than fashion competitions. While it surely would provide some of the most exquisite outfits America has ever seen, his couture would put some of the best designers to shame!
1 Comment
Add Yours →One of my main interests in “The Great Gatsby” is all of the sartorial references and what those references suggest about the social rules about the roles and performances of gender, class, gangsters, social mobility, consumerism, and the construction and mediation of consumer identity.
Thus, I’m interested in what you, as a gossip columnist, think about Gatsby’s wardrobe and male fashion of the 1920s RE: the colors of Gatsby’s suits and shirts, how he wears them, how they help him to construct an identity, what/what kind of identity, when and for whom?