Foremost, Into the White is interesting for the many British and German cold weather army coats and jackets. The most familiar style, a jacket still popular and being reproduced a today by notable brands like Eastman or Aero Leather, is the Royal Air Force “Irvin” flight jacket. The reproduction seen here is an original design without the side pockets, with the waist belt and lined with sheepskin. Remarkable is the design on the back with the many seams, one I couldn’t really find elsewhere on the net. Apparently the designs of the Irvin jacket differed a lot during the WWII, since there were several contractors for manufacture. Note the British lieutenant is wearing the complete suit, including the sheepskin lined leather flying pants.

The Germans Luftwaffe soldiers are wearing one-piece flying suits, the Luftwaffe “Fliegerschutzanzug” KW 1/33 style. Sheepskin lined canvas suits, with high collars. They have some nice insignia’s on their upper arms, indicating their Luftwaffe rank.

Present too are the cotton henley’s with a double-faced button placket and cotton long johns.

Underneath the sheepskin lined coats and suits, both the Germans and British wear their own clothing or uniform. The British wear their BDU 1940 Pattern style uniform, with the nice bellow chest pockets. Seems like an original vintage piece, since it has a lot of wear on it.

Some last detail shots..

It starts with the amazing Modernist house of his friend Cameron, in real life known as the Ben Rose home. Beautiful constructed largely from just glass and steel adjoining a forest, resulting in a beautifully spacious and light interior. It was designed by James Speyer for Ben Rose in 1953 and clearly in the Modernist style, so it doesn’t surprise Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe was a huge inspiration to Speyer.

Even though Ferris is considered of as the coolest kid on highschool, I think Cameron is definitely best dressed in the latest part of the movie. Some well waist-fitted khaki trousers, rolled cuffs, an army green t-shirt and a fancy pair of loafers. Although it’s regrettable he’s wearing both suspenders and a belt at the same time..

I love the DeLorean-like speakerphone Cameron uses to talk to Ferris. Pretty modern with steel and wood for that time, resembling a little bit the Jakob Jensen design phones a decade later.

Then the most iconic element of the whole movie: the Ferrari 250 GT California. Manufactured only for the US market and therefore only 55 of these beauties have ever been made. And that’s exactly the reason why the red car in the movie isn’t a real 250 GT Califronia, but actually an MG chassis with a modified exterior. It was impossible to use one of the few genuine 250 GT’s still around for the wide shots, since the risk of damage was too costly.

One of the places the Ferrari leads the three of the main characters to, is the Art Institute of Chicago. A couple of seconds the movie presents you a small share in the history of painting, with works from Picasso, Seurat and Matisse amongst others. Hughes made the right pick to research the amazing detail from Seurat’s painting Un Dimanche Après-Midi, one that has always struck me for both the magnificent execution of pointillism and the bizarre sqaure shape of the figures in the painting. Take a look at the full visit of the Chicago Art Institute here.

The cinematography in Jack Reacher really struck me. Great use of color and composition in most of the shots. I really love the next one, reminds of one of the better works by Edward Hopper.

Then there’s muscles, car muscles. Ford Mustang. Chevrolet Camaro. Chevrolet Cheselle SS edition. All cars from the late ’60s and beginning of the ’70s. They made some fine cars back then, love the continues line from the top to the high-positioned backs of these racemonsters.

First there’s the Italians, Sal and his two sons, who run the local pizzeria. They’re definitely proud of their Italian roots and have a Wall of Fame to celebrate the Italo-American successes. And there’s Mookie, with his Dodgers baseball outfit, who works as a delivery boy for Sal.

Buggin’ Out is the kid on the block that causes trouble. He’s wearing his nerdy round spectacles, Black Power and Afrocentric style necklaces, bracelets and his yellow afrocentric tee. When a white guy steps on his brand new Nike Air Jordan IV’s in a white/cement color way, he flips and the classic “You’re Jordan’s are f*cked up!” scene that any sneaker fan dreams is born. Later on Nike would hire Spike Lee to make some marvelous tv-commercials with Michael Jordan for the Nike Air Jordan sneaker line.

Radio Raheem is the big, cool guy walking around with his huge boom box, a Bed-Stuy tee and his LOVE and HATE four finger rings, that everybody respects. Samuel L. Jackson plays a small role too in the movie, as the local radio dj by the name of Mister Señor Love Daddy.

The part of the movie with the aesthetically best set-design without a doubt, is the “no ball playing allowed” corner where Sweet Dick Willy and his old pals are hanging out. They sit there all day on rickety chairs in half opened shirts, hats on their heads and bandana’s to wipe their sweat off. Some hilarious dialogues follow.

On a different note, at a certain moment Newman is wearing this great engineer workwear outfit. Although the brand tab has been torn off, I’m quite sure this must have been a Lee bib overall. The spot with the torn tab is exactly where the Lee Union Made label was usually stitched.

When Redford is taken in by Newman to be his apprentice as a real time crook, he visits a tailor to make him a bespoke suit. Well, the tailor did quite understood his craft and here’s the result.

Some further random screenshots of the classic suit treasury found in The Sting. Oh and note the whiskey Redford is drinking in the white shirt. Next to him is a bottle of Old Bushmills Irish Whiskey, the whiskey brand with the oldest distillery in the world. Last week an Irish friend of me introduced me to the Old Bushmills 12-year aged type, and have to say it’s top-notch.