Style Advice From American Psycho
Mary Harron’s American Psycho (2000), starring Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman is a postmodern cult classic that most of film buffs have seen several times already. Hence, we will not focus on Bateman’s sexism, obsession with his own looks and a grotesque bloodlust. Instead we'll have a look at his ties, suits, and eyeglasses, to get inspired by the quintessential late 1980s and early 1990s fashion details before the death of the power-suit Wall Street era.
The story itself revolves around a wealthy New York City investment banking executive, who hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
If you’ve read the book or watched the movie, you’ll know that it’s not a good idea to emulate Patrick Bateman in any way other than his style. Keeping this in mind, we are aiming to give you a few samples of the fictional character’s wardrobe and lifestyle. Below, is our top list.
The Place
To this day the slick minimalist vibe of Bateman's apartment continues to be a vision of modernist Eighties chic. From Robert Longo "Men in the Cities" drawings to Mies van der Roche sleek leather Barcelona chairs, the living room is brimming with iconic furniture. Nowadays, 10-room New York penthouse with large windows and clean open spaces, designed by Pembrooke & Ives Inc. would satisfy his voyeuristic self-indulgence well.
The Suit
In most memorable scenes, Patrick Bateman wears charcoal chalk stripe double-breasted suit. But he also wears grey wool suit in the office, to lunch at the club with the friends, to an afternoon assignation, and a more sinister evening. His grey suit has all the details of 1980s men’s fashion, and it is a fine example of what we have in mind when describing an Armani-dressed yuppie of the time with emphasized shoulders, roped sleeve heads and the loose fit of the suit jacket. The Armoury’s Model 1 suit model with a sculpted waist, lightly structured shoulder, wider lapels, and a clean but generous sleeve head, is the business suit for the man that still demands power-suit in 2021.
The Shirt
While the contrast collar shirt is famously worn by Gordon Gekko in another classic movie of that era, we are more keen of Bateman's striped shirts with thin white and blue stripes. Fully handmade shirt from Neapolitan masters Cesare Attolini, featuring a balanced cutaway collar, rounded cuffs and thick mother of pearl buttons would be a suitable choice today.
The Tie and The Suspenders
Although his trousers have belt loops, Bateman wears suspenders throughout the movie and pairs them well with his shirts and ties. Spacca Neapolis offers a selection of traditional Neapolitan ties made of exclusive fabrics. Each tie is hand-rolled, features unlined blades, and is perfectly suitable to deliver a timeless look.
The Glasses
His iconic Wall-Street look is completed with the "O’Malley" frames by Oliver Peoples. If you want something contemporary, "Cran" is the first model from TBD Eyewear, and have a tortoise-shell frame, handmade in Italy. The lenses, along with the rounded form of the glasses, sum up the imperative of style in simplicity.
The Underwear
While the content of the movie seemed so dark to sponsors that Calvin Klein pulled their products from the movie, allowing Perry Ellis to walk in and save the underwear scene, we recommend CDLP's boxer trunk that features no-tag construction, refined waistband, and an enhanced pouch for superior fit and support.
The Music
Crafting a playlist based on a movie which already has a soundtrack might seem a fruitless exercise, but a lot of the music featured in American Psycho did not appear on the album release. This playlist makes up for these absences from the soundtrack release and serves perfectly as your music time capsule. Enjoy!