Some items of clothing, like blue jeans and white button-downs, can be worn by most anyone to nary a second glance. Other garb, however, can be pricklier, and require from the wearer a degree of authority. A bit more gumption, some oomph. Take, for instance, the leather blazer—a polarizing (if trendy) garment. And with all due respect to the Howie Ratners of the world, the actor Michael Keaton might offer the best possible blueprint for any regular fellas looking to pull off such a piece.
Keaton was in New York City this week to promote Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the Tim Burton-directed sequel 36 years in the making. For a rooftop photo call alongside his castmates, the actor looked casual in faded gray jeans, black leather boots, and dark shades, which he dressed up with the plush notched-lapel black leather blazer layered over a buttoned-to-the-collar gray polo cardigan. (A plain white T-shirt probably might’ve looked cooler, but this combo made sense in its own fittingly daddish way.) En route to the venue, he accessorized with sprezzatura—by clutching a folded copy of a real-life newspaper. Now that’s something!
But the blazer really worked, if only because Keaton has the chutzpah to pull it off. (As Uncut Gems co-director Josh Safdie once characterized his protagonist’s leather blazer to GQ, “It says business, it says grit, and it says chic. But it also says, ‘If you come near me, I will slap the shit out of you.’”) I’d expect nothing less from the Batman universe’s second-most-devoted sneakerhead.
“I’m a little surprised how many people take it seriously,” Keaton recently told GQ’s Gabriella Paiella, speaking on the topic of modern celebrity. “I was just with somebody I really liked the other day. This guy’s great, so talented, so funny. A stand-up. We were at a little get-together. And for me, I mean—this guy’s way younger than me, and I felt him behaving himself too much. I was pointing out some stuff that I thought was funny, and I don’t know—I was shocked that there was no sense of mischief.”
And that’s the thing about a leather blazer—it’s a little mischievous. Perhaps by wearing it, Keaton is merely conveying his state of mind these days.
“I might have more fun with [fame] now. It’s not like I don’t care about it, I care about it to the degree that it’s my job, you shouldn’t be a jerk. But, essentially, it’s kind of all ridiculous,” he told GQ. “That’s the great thing: It all looks silly. The whole thing looks sillier every day.” Spoken like a man who’s going to wear the leather blazer anyways.
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