Red rabbit Trading Co. And Bryceland’s & Co. Collaboration silver and turquoise belt buckle inspired by Oppenheimer film staring cillian Murphy. Resting on denim jeans. Alligator skin black belt.

On Film Costumes and Oppenheimer
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On Film Costumes and Oppenheimer

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Another award season has wrapped up for the year, leaving us to reflect on some of our favourite, and some of the more dire, cinematic moments of the past twelve months. As menswear enthusiasts, we pay particularly close attention to movie wardrobes, and given our interests, a special eye is cast over historical film productions.


Running the costume department for a period piece of film can be a tricky affair. You need to perform a balancing act of sorts: Firstly you need to portray historical accuracy. This needs to be tempered however with an audience’s preconceptions for clothing of the time which often fixate on the broader strokes of the decade in question. All the while you need to be trying to tell a particular character’s story via their sartorial choices.

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer film directed by Christopher Nolan leaning against classic American car, Wearing single breasted vintage wool suit with pleated trousers trilby style hat and leather belt with silver and turquoise Native American south west American style belt buckle with hand stamped detail. White spear point shirt and black wide tie. Belt buckle similar to new Bryceland’s & Co. Red Rabbit silver and turquoise 1” belt buckle

Of particular note to us this year was Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the deserved winner of the Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards. It also racked up another six of the thirteen Oscars it was in the running for, yet unfortunately losing out for Best Costume Design to Yorgos Lanthimos’s surreal Poor Things. We were still very taken with designer Ellen Mirojnick’s sartorial vision for the American 1930s and 40s that she was tasked with recreating for the titular biopic.


Mirojnick is an Emmy decorated industry veteran; starting work in the 1980s. Of early note was her “Greed Is Good’ creation of Gordon Gekko in 1987’s Wall Street - the gold standard of 80s power dressing. Michael Douglas’s slick backed hair, Albert Thurston braces and pinstripe suits becoming the de facto time capsule for yuppified boardroom machismo.


It is his time as a recruit of the top secret Manhattan Project, and in particular, his tenure as director of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico which really piqued our interest. Here, he abandons the tweed and flannel of academia for a uniform more suited to his stature, his environment and the task at hand. With a certain amount of independence away from the coastal centres of power, his wardrobe reflects well the desert and big skies around him.



His brown and sand coloured suiting of calvary twill is cut in time-appropriate large and drapey fit, with “Hollywood Top belt loops”, wide lapels, extended shoulder and a generous silhouette. Those subdued hues are paired with a sky blue spear collar shirt and plain chocolate brown tie. On his head a distinctive telescopic crown wide brimmed hat recalls the contemporary headwear of similarly desert dwelling Frank Lloyd Wright.

Robert Oppenheimer smoking cigarette black and white original photo, Wearing single breasted vintage wool suit with pleated trousers trilby style hat and leather belt with silver and turquoise Native American south west American style belt buckle with hand stamped detail. White spear point shirt and black wide tie. Belt buckle similar to new Bryceland’s & Co. Red Rabbit silver and turquoise 1” belt buckle
Red rabbit Trading Co. And Bryceland’s & Co. Collaboration silver and turquoise hand stamped Native American south west American belt buckle inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer film staring Cillian Murphy, with original vintage sample next to it. Fit for one inch and one and a quarter inch belts. Natural patina polished silver. Photo taken in workshop in Lockhart Texas. Handmade jewellery
Red rabbit Trading Co. And Bryceland’s & Co. Collaboration silver and turquoise hand stamped Native American south west American belt buckle inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer film staring Cillian Murphy, with original vintage sample next to it. Fit for one inch and one and a quarter inch belts. Natural patina polished silver. Photo taken in workshop in Lockhart Texas. Handmade jewellery

Ellen Mirojnick commented to Vox Magazine, “There’s an elegance, an empowerment and a strength about who that man has become as he walks out of this office in the totality of this outfit… A rock star is born.”


Perhaps the only real piece of flash to the ensemble, and certainly the focal point of the look, is Oppenheimer’s belt buckle. On a plain brown thin belt sits a rectangular silver belt buckle with what appears to be Navajo style engraving around a central turquoise lozenge. The perfect rounding out of the outfit, it places the character squarely in both his geographical location and a more metaphorical place: on the frontier of the American West and somewhere of historical and cultural importance.

Robert Oppenheimer smoking cigarette black and white original photo, Wearing single breasted vintage wool suit with pleated trousers trilby style hat and leather belt with silver and turquoise Native American south west American style belt buckle with hand stamped detail. White spear point shirt and black wide tie. Belt buckle similar to new Bryceland’s & Co. Red Rabbit silver and turquoise 1” belt buckle. Sat on vintage chair. 1920’s 1930’s 1940’s style
Men stood and sat outside pub wearing brown single breasted three roll two wool suit with pleated trousers by WW Chan, westerner shirt in dobby stripe from Bryceland’s and Co. With Oppenheimer inspired silver and turquoise south west American collaboration red rabbit trading co. belt buckle. Smoking cigarette. Man sits on bench wearing hunting jacket in foreground with pint of beer/ale on wooden table in front of him. Kenpi wool hunting jacket from Bryceland’s & Co. Inspired by wool rich and Pendleton vintage jacket. Wearing trilby style hat from Wellema Hat co. California
Man stands in the street outside of English London pub with hands in pockets. Wearing Woolrich and Pendleton inspired contemporary hunting jacket from Bryceland’s and Co. With cashmere rollneck jumper made in Scotland. Black HBT Washed high rise Vietnam era inspired fatigue pants. With alligator skin belt and silver and turquoise red rabbit trading co. Bryceland’s collaboration silver and turquoise Oppenheimer inspired belt buckle.

We immediately were put in mind of some of our own pieces from the Bryceland’s collection; our ready-to-wear and made-to-order creations from California’s Wellema Hats. Our signature made-to-order suiting block and belt looped Winston trousers from WW Chan. Our range of plain ties from Florence’s Sevenfold. And most especially, the turquoise & western jewellery and accessories exclusively made for us by Red Rabbit Trading from Texas, who kindly supply us with a range of silver and turquoise belt buckles in a similarly singular and elegant style.


Mike's hand-tooled process for our buckle is worked off of a vintage example we have, most probably made in the 1960's mimicking an older style, very similar to that of Oppenheimer's. Though the original Oppenheimer buckle was just hand-tooled silver, lacking a turquoise cabochon, working with Mike, it would have been remiss not to include a stone as the focal point. Each buckle has a unique stone set in the centre, ranging from darker green matrix stones, to clear blue un-mottled stones. 


Wellema hat Co. Bryceland’s & Co. Charcoal beaver pelt handmade trilby style high crown hat. With handmade silver jewellery placed on top. Handmade turquoise and silver necklaces, rings, pins and cuff made in Lockhart Texas by red rabbit trading co. Including silver and turquoise hand stamped belt buckle inspired by Oppenheimer film staring Cillian Murphy. Rested on vintage club chair with teak room divider behind. Vintage style.

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By Tony Sylvester