Marty Supreme Costume Designer on Timothee Chalamet Menswear Inspo

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A brief movie from the experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs, documenting the predominantly Jewish immigrant life in Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1955, served as a main reference point for Josh Safdie and costume designer Miyako Bellizzi when constructing out the bustling downtown world in “Marty “Supreme.”

“Obviously I was looking at the young cool kids,” Bellizzi tells Variety about the quick movie, which she says Safdie confirmed her after stumbling across it at the Museum of Modern Art. 

In the colorized vignette, boys put on pleated trousers, white tanks, slim ties, sleeveless knit vests. Girls put on culottes and classic tees. “They almost look contemporary to us,” Bellizzi says, noting that downtown New York was the epicenter of favor, even then. Women weren’t sporting pants in the Nineteen Fifties however “the girls in the Lower East Side were.” 

The grotty tenements of the Lower East Side — and the distinct trend within — is as a lot of a personality in A24’s drama as the eponymous ping pong participant himself. In the movie, Timothée Chalamet performs the mousy, boastful and delusionally formidable Marty Mauser as he hustles for the probability to show his greatness at a sport that no person takes significantly.  

Authenticity and historic accuracy is of utmost significance to each Bellizzi and Safdie, who beforehand labored with each other on “Uncut Gems” and “Good Time.” For manufacturing design, this meant utilizing the precise proper font on a Delancey storefront. For the costumes, it meant no up to date manufacturers — anyplace.

“Even down to the underwear!” Bellizzi quips. The women’s tights in the movie, for instance, have been sourced from Williamsburg’s Hasidic Jewish Center.

But as soon as those markers for historic accuracy have been set, it was actually about inhabiting the thoughts of Marty Mauser. “What was he looking at? What were his references? Who did he look up to? Who were the types of people that he saw on a regular basis?” These have been the questions that have been top of thoughts for Bellizzi when setting up his wardrobe, she says.  

The hustler subculture was particularly compelling for Bellizzi, who appeared to twentieth century Wise Guy gangsters to evoke Marty’s gritty swagger. This reference finally informed his boxier, outsized fits; tailor-made two-piece units with strong, padded shoulders, in darkish colours such as deep charcoal and navy blue, turned his uniform for a lot of the movie. 
 
“It’s kind of like dressing for the job you want,” she says. “It’s not even ‘Fake it till you make it,’ it’s just him wanting to show he’s in the know.” 

Of course, the real-life table-tennis sensation Marty Reisman, who Chalamet’s Marty is loosely based on, was also on her temper board. “The real Marty was eccentric, so I wanted to give him a little bit of flair and style without being overly stylized,” she says. “He’s pretty classic – it’s more in the shapes and in small details.” One standout trend second consists of a pair of purple leather-based gloves he wears while shoveling a scorching canine down his throat in the center of a traffic-riddled avenue.  

Of course, it might be remiss to put in writing about the costume design in “Marty Supreme” without mentioning Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), the retired film star that Marty is intent on seducing. Kay’s refined type – made up of ivory wool coats, pillbox hats and delicate face veils – is Marty’s aspirational reverse. While we largely see her in impartial colours, her most putting ensemble is a purple, satin night coat she wears to the opening of her play — and later, to a secret rendezvous with Marty.

“That was her ending when she felt the most alive again, and that’s why we chose red,” Bellizzi says. “This dress is her moment. She’s so excited – this is the party for her big new theatrical show and then we find out it doesn’t do well, it doesn’t get great reviews.” 

“This emotional, alive feeling gets destroyed,” she continues. For Bellizzi, this second comes near encapsulating the complete point of the movie: “Sometimes you have big dreams for yourself, and then sometimes they don’t go the way you want them to.”