In 1968, after a decade in the doldrums churning out terrible films and soundtrack albums, Elvis Presley made a triumphant return to the stage in a televised comeback special. The black leather suit he wore for this performance lives long in the memories of his fans. A replica of it was central to the performance given by Austin Butler in Baz Luhrman’s smash hit movie of the Rock and Roller’s life.
Butler was thrown in at the deep end during the filming of the biopic of perhaps the most famous singer of the twentieth century. The first scene he shot depicted one of the most famous performances of Elvis’s career, the one that has become known as the 68 Comeback Special.
By all accounts, the performance went well and set the tone for the rest of the film’s production. So, to mark it, Butler kept the replica of the iconic black suit he wore in the scene.
Clothes were essential to Butler’s performance. Inhabiting them helped him inhabit Elvis’s character. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly he said: “Clothes change the way that you feel for any character that you play, but never more so than with him, because in the ’50s when I’m wearing a lace shirt, you move differently where the pants flow.”
“When you’re in leather pants, you feel a lot different than when you’re in flowy ’50s pants.”
It seems for some actors the performance is all in the (leather) pants.
Josslyn Shi from California College of Art has been crowned Overall Winner of the Real Leather. Stay Different. International Student Design Competition at a glittering final event held at the U.S. Embassy in London.
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Onwards and upwards – just look at what our design stars are achieving in the worlds of style and show business.
Think small is where RLSD takes a look at some of the companies around the world that we think are doing the right thing with leather. This is a greenwashing free zone – no matter what they produce, sustainability is at the heart of what they do.
As with all recycling and upcycling perhaps the most prominent benefit is the environmental impact reduction. Leather production is resource-intensive, involving land usage, water consumption, and the emission of greenhouse gases. By upcycling, you reduce the
