Summary
The Color of Money ” to “ Minority Report .” I hated others. On a filmography of this size, nothing unusual. There is, however , one thing that has always intrigued me about Tom Cruise: his relative lack of style . Jordan once asked himself this question:But with Tom Cruise, it's something else. Style is not what you first notice about him. We do n't really feel any particular passion for clothing or men's fashion either, whether in his films or even outside of them. Unlike other names in contemporary American cinema such as Brad Pitt or, a little younger, Leonardo Di Caprio, style and clothing do not impress Tom Cruise .
Is it because his colleagues would blend more and literally into their characters? Still, he has little influence on me. Maybe I'm not alone, you tell me.
At his house, I have a hard time extracting a fantastic outfit that can inspire my unconscious fashion lover. So I dug into the question a little to understand. And strangely, it's not always the outfit that's the problem.
1. THE REFERENCE IMAGE, PREPPY TREND
The image I have of Tom Cruise is the one we see in one of his first films: “ Risky Business ”. I rediscovered it late, in particular thanks to its soundtrack which combines Phil Collins and Tangerine Dream. We discover an outfit in jeans, t-shirt, tweed blazer, Nike Cortez sneakers and Wayfarer Ray Ban glasses .
This outfit doesn't revolutionize the style wheel. Similar ones can be found in many American films of this period. But this is my reference image of Tom Cruise: young, carefree, rather close to the preppy style and wearing very American brands like Nike, Levi's or Lee . Something like triumphant America, and the smile that goes with it.
Even though I've seen dozens of other films, it's always this image that comes to mind when I think of him. Ten years later, Tom Cruise's plain clothes in “ Men of Honor ” evolved in the same register. It's the same guy, who Demi Moore advises in passing to think about matching his socks . You can look here, if you are also in this situation:
SOME BULK OUTFITS
The aviator style of “Top Gun”? Cary Grant pretty much defined the genre with wild elegance in the beautiful “ Only Angels Have Wings ”. For a more recent comparison: we may prefer the aviator style of Leonardo Di Caprio in the aptly named “ Aviator ”.
The suit with white shirt from “ Collateral ”? Too basic, not inspiring enough? For other ideas for white shirt looks, you can take a look here .
The “ Mission Impossible ” series? You might find the style a little bland, without much character. In the action and espionage register, none of these films displays a passion comparable to that of James Bond for style. In short, if I were to go through the different wardrobes of Tom Cruise's films one by one , I would perhaps always arrive at this same initial image, without finding it wildly original.
2. THE STYLE MATCH: TOM CRUISE VS PAUL NEWMAN
In 1986, “The Color of Money” by Martin Scorsese celebrated Tom Cruise’s meeting with an authentic man of style and cinema: Paul Newman . It's about generations, billiards and competition. In this case, the match is between a cunning but aging Paul Newman and a young and spirited Tom Cruise.
This film is, in my opinion, quite symptomatic of Tom Cruise's wardrobe at the cinema. It is there without being there, rather ordinary. All we remember is Tom Cruise himself, rarely Tom Cruise AND his clothes . Sometimes I even think that certain outfits would work better on others.
© IMAGO / Allstar
Tom Cruise and Paul Newman in “The Color of Money”, 1986.
If we stick to the art of dressing well , the match between the two men is on the other hand folded in a few seconds. Question of style, cut, ease of clothing. It comes naturally to Paul Newman: he lives in his clothes. But it won't be a surprise to anyone.
Here, it will therefore possibly make you want to wear the suit with a long-sleeved polo shirt , invest in a camel coat and look at the winter coats now :
Those who make you want to dress like this are not that numerous: let's say Steve McQueen for men and Romy Schneider for women, if we had to name only two . They are inspiring because they give soul to their clothes.
It's not just a decorative element: it makes them more beautiful, they live in it. Does Tom Cruise fit into this category? The style fundamentally changes nothing about its characters. Do the exercise to see: gather your memories of her outfits at the cinema and ask yourself if one of them ever inspired you or simply made you want to dress well.
3. “EYES WIDE SHUT”: THE SPECIAL CASE OF AESTHETE STANLEY KUBRICK
You probably know the very careful attention given to aesthetics in the films of the American Stanley Kubrick. Unlike a filmmaker like Oliver Stone for example, with whom Tom Cruise filmed “ Born on the 4th of July ” in 1989, Kubrick's costumes are always incredibly careful . Randomly remember “ Barry Lyndon ” or “ The Shining ”: there is always something inspiring to see there clothing-wise.
In 1999, we discovered what would be the filmmaker's last film: " Eyes Wide Shut " starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. The couple, in the city as on screen, was in complete disarray. It's one of my favorite films by the filmmaker and incidentally what I consider to be one of Tom Cruise's best, along with Paul Thomas Anderson's “ Magnolia ”. Chance or coincidence, the two filmmakers are of the esthete type.
But here too, this is not the clothing we remember from Tom Cruise in “Eyes Wide Shut” . Beyond its still obsessive and enigmatic character, Stanley Kubrick's latest film is, with Neil Jordan's " Interview with the Vampire ", one of the few in Tom Cruise's filmography to finally drop the mask: what if it was only a cinema fantasy, an actor who tirelessly plays his own role, crushing even the wardrobe of his characters ?
4. THE BRAND MAN
I finally had to wait until the actor's 60th birthday and the phenomenal success of “ Top Gun: Maverick ” to understand the source of what I feel is a remarkable absence of style.
We never really talk about the films Tom Cruise stars in. The star focuses attention and overshadows everything else, starting with his own wardrobe . Have you also noticed how little we remember the names of our characters?
This unique and almost mythological character, who attracts the light while being full of dark areas, you know him too: he's the same one since the beginning of the 80s and his name is simply Tom Cruise. However, it is no small feat to have managed to become a real brand without being able to associate it with a personality, a style or specific clothing .
If the image I have of him has not changed despite all his appearances on screen, it may simply be that my reference outfit marks the birth of the star . The rest is just cinema, directed by Tom Cruise himself. Fashion, style and clothes obviously have no influence on him.
