Richard Gere’s fashion in the 1980 film American Gigolo was groundbreaking, largely because it introduced Giorgio Armani’s signature “deconstructed” menswear to a global audience and helped launch his career. His character, Julian Kaye, a high-priced male escort, used clothing as both a profession and an identity, treating his wardrobe with an almost fetishistic reverence.
The fashion in the film broke from the boxy, structured suits and flamboyant disco styles of the 1970s. Armani’s designs were a radical departure, defined by their relaxed silhouette and use of soft, luxurious fabrics.
John Travolta was originally attached to the lead role, with his casting announced by the Los Angeles Times in January 1978. He was provided a wardrobe by Giorgio Armani and appeared in a photo spread for the trade publication Variety announcing his participation. The following year, Travolta dropped out of the production to deal with his mother’s death and father’s illness.
In Travolta’s absence, Barry Diller of Paramount Pictures offered the part of Julian Kay to Christopher Reeve, but Reeve turned down the million-dollar offer. Chevy Chase was also offered the role but declined. Schrader offered the part to his first choice, Richard Gere, who accepted. Gere was cast two weeks before shooting began. In 2012, Gere said he was drawn to the role partly because of its gay subtext, commenting, “I read it and I thought, ‘This is a character I don’t know very well. I don’t own a suit. He speaks languages; I don’t speak any languages. There’s kind of a gay thing that’s flirting through it and I didn’t know the gay community at all.’ I wanted to immerse myself in all of that and I had literally two weeks. So I just dove in.”
Given his racy role in American Gigolo, Gere had to look good, and while his nude scene got people talking, so did his stylish suits. The suits are immediately recognizable for their relaxed yet refined tailoring and muted color palettes, and they’re practically their own character in the film. As Schrader quipped, “As an actor, Richard was more interested in the character than the clothes, but to me the clothes and the character were the same. I mean, this is a guy who does a line of coke in order to get dressed!”
Gere and Armani were forever linked in the public eye, as American Gigolo made them both stars. They remained friends after the film. There’s even a long-running rumor that because of the impact American Gigolo had on the brand, Gere had the privilege of walking into any Armani store and getting whatever he wanted for free.
Armani credited Gere with making him famous, saying, “It was what I would call a crucial moment. Nobody could have imagined the success that film would have, which in fact marked the imagination of the ’80s, and it became an important vehicle for my fashion. He helped me to make myself known in the United States, where many requests for my clothes started to arrive.”
In a 2000 Vanity Fair interview, Gere spoke admiringly of Armani’s aesthetic, praising how the suits were “Quite stylized, big shoulders and thin waists, thin lapels. It was like looking at an old carpet where the natural colors blend and even bleed as opposed to some of these new carpets made of plastic fibers where the colors are monolithic,” and emphatically saying, “I don’t know any other designer.” The actor has continued to wear Armani suits throughout his career, and his American Gigolo looks have stayed on the vision boards of designers and menswear enthusiasts for decades.
(via Woman’s World)
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