It’s the fall of 1981 and Bruce Springsteenthen 31, had just finished a hugely successful tour for her latest album, “The River”. But instead of returning to the studio to produce new songs — as was the preference of his record label Columbia Records — the musician retreated to a quiet house in Colts Neck, New Jersey, close to where he grew up, to rest and recover.
There, intentionally isolated but unwittingly reliving childhood trauma and subsequent depression, Springsteen ended up recording 10 songs alone that would form his emblematic lo-fi album “Nebraska”.
This decisive period in the rock star’s life is the backdrop of “Springsteen: Save Me From the Unknown“, new film directed by Scott Cooper, , 34, from “The Bear”, as a convincing Springsteenand Jeremy Strong, of “Succession” fame, playing his longtime friend and manager, Jon Landau.
The stylish biopic portrays the turbulent times of Springsteen’s youth and its influence on his music. The film doesn’t hesitate to examine the singer’s often painful oscillation between being a tireless global rock idol and a fragile humanin addition to his search for authenticity and belonging when distanced from his working-class roots.
This dichotomy also manifests itself through Springsteen’s clothing — his familiar working-class “Americana” uniform of Levi’s jeans, leather jackets with raised collars, plaid flannel shirts, white tank tops and boots, a look that the now 76-year-old musician still maintains.
In a video interview with CNNthe film’s costume designer, Kasia Walicka Maimone (whose resume includes “The Gilded Age,” “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Capote”), said she and her team did a lot of preparation before their first meeting with Springsteen, who was involved in the production.
“Bruce was very involved and was amazing to spend time with him because, of course, he’s a legend. Many of us in the film were already big fans,” she said. “The way he can communicate emotion and tell stories that resonate is, to me, like religion. But there was definitely a point where we had to put the wonder aside and say, “OK, now we need to become collaborators.”
But, according to Maimone, Springsteen respected the creative process immensely. “What became clear from the very first conversation I had with Bruce was that, although he was photographed very well at that particular time (1981-1982), there were pieces he loved more than others — his everyday clothes were different from the items he wore in photo shoots or shows. We were constantly surpassing levels of intimacy and discovering those super private moments and pieces that were meaningful to him… That’s what we tried to reflect in the film, so the Bruce’s contribution was fundamental.”
In fact, some of the clothes White wears in the film are borrowed from Springsteen’s real wardrobeincluding a Triumph Motorcycles t-shirt and an original blue and white checkered shirt from the early 1980s that the star used to wear. “That was one of Bruce’s most beloved pieces, and it was very delicate,” said Maimone. “We knew that she could fall apart during filmingmainly because Jeremy Allen White and Bruce Springsteen are not the same size. But we all really wanted to use her in an emotional scene with Bruce and his father, and Bruce felt that if the play was going to fall apart, that particular scene would be the one. most beautiful time for this to happen.”
The personal is political
Very few rock stars have a wardrobe that stands the test of time. Fewer still maintain this throughout a 50-year career. However, 45 years after “Nebraska”, the one they call “The Boss” remains one of the world’s biggest musical icons with a virtually unchanged personal style, having sold more than 140 million records, won 20 Grammy Awards and accumulated a billion-dollar fortune in the process.
Part of Springsteen’s visual legend comes from the fact that everything he wears—the jeans, the leather jackets, the flannel shirts—is easily accessible to your fans. “At that time (the early 1980s), Bruce Springsteen had universal appeal. Men wanted to be him and women wanted to date him,” said Patricia Mears, associate director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, in a phone call.
“He’s not consciously stylish, but he’s authentically working class, which is where most of his audience comes from as well.” His sartorial choices embody the image of a man who “does an honest day’s work,” an idea that certainly appeals to his fan base.
But it is a look also linked to personal politics and patriotism — like, for example, the worn-out Levi’s, the worn-out baseball cap and the general red, white and blue theme on the cover of his 1984 album “Born In The USA.” Springsteen also stayed true to his progressive roots despite his worldwide fame. “He supports workersnever presents itself as elitist and navigates a very narrow channel, still managing to appeal to its working-class base — many of whom likely supported Donald Trump — without doing the same,” Mears added.
Nancy Deihl, a fashion historian and head of the art department at New York University who grew up in New Jersey, says she knew Springsteen and his style before he became world famous. “I remember a multigenerational conversation over a holiday dinner,” Deihl explained over the phone. “All the parents said Bruce Springsteen’s clothes made him look sloppy. They were used to impeccable artists like Frank Sinatra or Tom Jones. They interpreted his working-class style — the scarves, the jeans — as alternative, as if he ‘didn’t try hard enough.'”
However, Deihl sees the style workwear by Springsteen as “a socioeconomic significance; basic, functional items in fabrics like denim and flannel,” she explained. “Not only do these associations echo the message of her music, they also don’t age.”
How he wears what he wears
Springsteen was also a precursor to the rise of workwear within fashion more broadly, Mears explained. “Today, workwear is commonly repurposed as fashion — think Carhartt and Dickies — and performing hipsters seek that authenticity with sometimes limited success. But the way Springsteen did it is not artificial.”
Your connection with American roots and American folk music legitimized him to dress that way.
To create a compelling image in the film, it was important for Maimone to capture both the way Springsteen wears his clothes and find the right pieces. “Bruce has a naturally fantastic style, but he also adds charisma to his clothes,” she said. “He wore utilitarian work pieces in a very specific way — the super-tight, high-waisted jeans, the Cuban-heeled boots, the perfectly fitting leather jackets… Bruce’s proportions are perfectly balanced and he wears the pieces very naturally and confidently. The same piece on someone else could look very different. My job was to capture that naturalness and confidence.”
Maimone said she and the wardrobe team spent a lot of time with White as he “absorbed” Springsteenconsulting old photographs, vintage pieces from the era they spent months searching for, and insights from Springsteen himself.
“Jeremy was becoming, you know, the spirit channeler by Bruce Springsteen,” Maimone said. “He did it so beautifully and it turned into him in a phenomenal way. And that translated into the way he wore those pieces. Sometimes we compare the clothes in a movie to a second “skin”, another level of the character. And Jeremy ‘absorbed’ Bruce Springsteen’s skin.”
The artist himself agrees. “. He simply inhabited my inner life“, Springsteen said in the film’s notes. “The camera captured these complexities and this was essential to making the character completely believable. That’s where his magic comes from, and he did a simply beautiful job.”
