The hit FX series “The Bear” is about many things: complicated family dynamics, grief, toxic work environments, Chicago, career obsession and, of course, food. But for some people, it’s really just a show about clothes set in and around a restaurant in Chicago.
The show’s third season has already provided plenty of fodder for style-obsessed viewers. In the first episode, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, played by Jeremy Allen White, wears a distressed Barbour Ogston jacket in olive green during a flashback; later in the season he wears one cotton deck jacket from the workwear-inspired Ralph Lauren sub-label RRL. J. Crew released a capsule collection — a hat, T-shirt, sweatshirt and work jacket — emblazoned with the logo of the fictional company of the Fak brothers from the show, played by Matty Matheson and Ricky Staffieri.
Unlike ‘Sex and the City’, which featured Carrie Bradshaw’s Fendi baguette bags, and ‘Succession’ on HBO with the ‘ridiculously roomy’ Burberry bag, ‘The Bear’ was not conceived with major ties to the fashion world.
“I didn’t expect this, not at all,” said Courtney Wheeler, the show’s costume designer. “Our show is not outwardly about fashion, like ‘Sex and the City’ or ‘Emily in Paris.’ It’s what we think the world these characters live in would feel like. The fact that people are responding to it is really great, but that wasn’t necessarily our intention.”
But since the show’s debut in 2022, parsing what the characters are wearing has become a bit of a fixation for some, especially the main character Carmy, a wounded but fiery chef who owns his late brother’s humble Italian beef sandwich shop. turns into a temple. of good food.
For example, online sleuths have tracked down the exact plain white T-shirt that Mr. White wears all three seasons of the show: the 215 loopwheel t-shirt for men made by the German company Merz b. Schwanen, which costs about $85. The company, which opened its first U.S. store earlier this year, didn’t know the shirt would be on display and experienced a surge of interest, temporarily crashing the company’s website.
Similarly, a wool jacket with a patchwork design from the Danish cult brand NN07, which Mr. White wore in the first season, has since become a fetishized piece of menswear. Ms. Wheeler recalled that a sales associate at Bloomingdale’s took it off a mannequin so she could present it during a fitting, and Mr. White was drawn to it. Once it was identified on a Reddit menswear forum, the jacket – a style known as de Gael – out of stock; it has since been restocked twice and sold out within 30 minutes both times, wrote Mikkel Hammershoj, a press representative for NN07.
“I would say there is a very direct effect,” Mr Hammershoj added.
Although character and plot inform the costume design, fashion has not become a leitmotif of ‘The Bear’ as aesthetics and craftsmanship are highly valued in the gastronomic world due to the profession. “I really think Carmy is the type of person who always had the urge to get out,” Ms. Wheeler added. “He is the type of person who looks for quality.”
The cast and creators also seem to be exploring their own styles, including Mr. White, whose personal style has followed closely and also recently modeled in a much-discussed Calvin Klein underwear ad; his co-star Ayo Edebiri, who plays Sydney “Syd” Adamu, a red carpet favorite in part because she worked with stylist Danielle Goldberg and is currently on the cover of the most recent issue of Vanity Fair; Mr. Matheson, a chef and executive producer of the show who has his own clothing line, Rosa Rugosa; and the show’s creator, Christopher Storer, who has a fondness for Thom Browne and the Drake’s label. “Sometimes I just go into his room and ask a quick question,” Ms. Wheeler said of working with Mr. Storer, “and we end up spending 45 minutes talking about loafers.”
Certain fashion items have even become plot points, such as a stash of ‘Big E’ Levi’s jeans that are so valuable that Carmy uses them to pay off a debt, or a Thom Browne-designed chef’s jacket given to Syd during a dramatic reveal in the movie. second season.
When asked if she has played more to those who watch the show for the fashion, Ms. Wheeler said, “There’s a little bit of that, but we don’t want to force it.”
And while these pieces may provide fodder online, Ms. Wheeler said it’s important that the clothing serves the story. “When you’re trying on clothes and everything comes together — everything clicks and it starts to feel like a real character — you think, oh yeah, this is it,” she said.
And while menswear enthusiasts may continue to clamor, looking for the exact style of pants, T-shirts and outerwear Carmy wears on the show, Ms. Wheeler pointed out a very important detail. “A lot of what you see on TV,” she said, “we custom-made.”
