A Mob of Natty Dressers

THE MOVIE: “Bugsy”

THE SETUP: East Coast ‘40s gangster Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel (Warren Beatty, pictured) makes waves in Hollywood. First he hooks up with a bona-fide starlet, Virginia Hill (Annette Bening, pictured), then he persuades his partners-in-crime, including Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel), to build a swank Las Vegas casino.

THE LOOK: Natty. These hoods have class, especially Bugsy, who was a fashion plate with a taste for Sulka smoking jackets and custom shirts. As Academy Award-winning costume designer Albert Wolsky (“All That Jazz”) puts it, he’s a “crossover gangster” who looks more like a lawyer than a thug.

As tailored by Wolsky, Beatty’s Bugsy could single-handedly resurrect the jaunty American sport coat--checked, plaid or houndstooth. Worth noting: It looks pleasing with or without a silk paisley ascot. Noticeably absent from Beatty’s outfits are fedoras, though all his associates wear them. Perhaps the idea is not to confuse him with his last movie incarnation as good guy Dick Tracy, who seldom took his hat off. Wolsky maintains that L.A.’s mild climate dictated the hatless look.

With an ample clothing allowance of $1.5 million, Wolsky didn’t have to cut many corners. Even Beatty’s shoes were custom-made, and the goods really look expensive, from Bugsy’s white tie and tails to George Raft’s (Joe Mantegna) California good-life tan suits to the conservative gray business suits worn by Lansky, et al.

Whether it’s intentional or not, Bening’s Hill is no match for Bugsy in the fashion department. She’s not tarty, but then she’s not exactly chic, except for the night she shows up at Ciro’s in a budget-breaker gown of nude chiffon embroidered with 9 pounds of silver beads.

THE SOURCES: Save for two silk ascots from Sulka, all the principal’s clothes were custom-made, including neckties. Di Fabrizio on 3rd Street in Los Angeles made Beatty’s spectator shoes, and tailors at Western Costume whipped up his suits from new and vintage fabrics. Bill Hargate Costumes stitched together Bening’s wardrobe.

THE PAYOFF: A movie with a male fashion plate--a category that has become cinema’s long-endangered species.