Bill Murray’s 10 Most Inspiring Cinematic Style Moments

Menswear writers are constantly prattling on about how to get that classic Cary Grant / Frank Sinatra / Gary Cooper super-dooper groomed, sleekly stylish look down. (Whoah, you say: “Pot calling the kettle black there, Barker?!” Yeah, OK, guilty as charged.) But if we were to get a little more imaginative — kick back, relax and keep it real, kids — there are plenty of less obvious Hollywood men’s style inspo subjects we could just as easily look to.

Guys like Bill Murray.

We’re all down with Bill, right? Not the best-looking bloke; bald, pocky, got a gut. Rarely dressed to the nines, kinda awkward when he is. Bit of a schlub, really. Goddamn funny and loveable, though. And there are times when slick Rat Pack intensity is simply outta the question, times when loveable schlub is the best any of us can hope for. Here’re 10 cinematic hints on hitting the mark, Murray style.
 

10. CADDYSHACK CHIC
With his on-fleek camo bucket hat and minimalist athleisure grey marl tee, Murray’s addled, challenged greenskeeper Carl Spackler works a very 2016 look in this ’80s comedy classic.

9. FEAR & CLOTHING
Unsurprisingly Murray got the sartorial styling of his friend Hunter S Thompson spot-on when playing the debauched author in semi-autobiographical 1980 film Where The Buffalo Roam — a movie as disjointed as Thompson/Murray’s fabulously haphazard ensembles.

8. AQUAMANTASTIC
When you think nautical style, you’re envisaging blazer, Breton stripes and red pants, right? Forget that cliché and opt instead for something more explorative — Papa Hemingway meets Papa Smurf meets scuba daddy Jacques Cousteau — a la Murray in The Life Aquatic.

7. CHRONIC FATIGUES
Military style influences are never a bad idea — though we’d counsel against going head-to-toe olive drab per Murray’s keystone soldier in Stripes.

6. TONE DEF
In Rushmore, Murray plays an industrialist who, like Mark Zuckerberg today, strives to whittle down his daily decision-making and avoid the tyranny of choice insofar as garments go, opting for shirts and ties in exact matching tones. As with so many of Wes Anderson’s filmic flourishes, it’s so wrong, it’s right. (Much like that mo’ though, yo.)

5. ZIP CODE
Like a modern-day Beau Brummell, Murray’s character in Broken Flowers seeks an ensemble equal parts practical and put-together. Grip it, zip it and rip it — the tracksuit is the logical answer.

4. TUXED UP
In Lost in Translation, Murray proves that the tuxedo isn’t merely the essential outfit for formal times, but also, relaxing times… Suntory time.

3. PRESIDENTIAL DECREE
No matter which side of the political divide they happen to fall into, no menswear traditionalist could disagree with Murray’s on-point tailoring, playing US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson.

2. WHERE’S THE BEEF?
Hawaiian shirts are highly au courant, and in fact, Murray’s Meatballs styling here is eerily reminiscent of Wonderection warbler Harry Styles’ current lewk. Don’t let that put you off.

1. ROYAL FLUSH
Intellectual turtlenecks and scholarly corduroys confer gravity on Murray’s character, cuckolded neurologist Raleigh St. Clair in Wes Anderson’s magnificent The Royal Tenenbaums. Handy, dandy reference material for anyone of a professorial sartorial bent.