Russian Dressing

THE MOVIE: “The Hunt for Red October”

THE SET-UP: Tom Clancy’s pre-Gorbachev thriller about a defecting Soviet submarine captain, Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) and the American voice of reason CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin), is the basis of the movie. But this is no update on “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.” No comrades, the submarine carrying the pensive, brilliant Capt. Ramius is a top-of-the-line typhoon-class sub able to travel without a telltale sonar echo. Which comes in real handy when avoiding those speed traps near Thor’s Twins off the coast of Iceland. Needless to say, this ship (the Red October of the movie’s title) becomes the hottest, most sought-after vehicle in the Greater North Atlantic. Sorta like an ocean-going Miata.

THE LOOK: Uniformly speaking, it’s the basic, monochromatic, no-nonsense look from the American military Establishment: khaki shirts and slacks above the waterline, and in the belly of the American sub in hot pursuit, it’s a little more Navy : navy blues, denim shirts and even a little J. Crew, with white turtlenecks under the officers’ jackets. We’ve seen it all a thousand times. But those Soviets: ahh, a little more romance, a little more stylish flair. Connery looks like Russia’s last czar with his l-o-o-n-g buzz cut, distinguished beard, and severe, cobalt blue tunic jacket with a stand-up collar. His officers are dressed similarly, their chests aglow with combat ribbons and medals and the shine of brass buttons. The lesser seamen wear navy blue and stripes. Co-star Baldwin tries for a typical bureaucratic, rumpled look: slacks, white shirts, and at one point, a purloined Navy officer’s dress uniform. Russians win the style war, hands down.

THE LABELS: For the U.S. Navy, especially the khaki, the source was Army-Navy surplus. The rest of the uniforms (500 of them) were handmade by costumers under the film’s wardrobe supervisor, Jim Tyson. The Russian uniforms were based on what Tyson could find among collectors who had Russian paraphernalia. “We Hollywooded it up some. It’s not that the Russian uniforms are incorrect, it’s just something they’d be more likely to wear in an office or for dress. What they really wear on submarines is blue fatigue jumpers. More like a janitorial jumper than anything.” The most difficult thing to get was the Russian insignia and braids for the uniforms. “Believe it or not,” Tyson said, “the Mainland Chinese make the insignia for the real Russian Army. However, Chinese New Year occurred right before we had to start shooting, and they celebrate for weeks! We got the stuff literally the day before we began!”