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Yesterday, my colleague and fellow Jeff Goldblum enthusiast, Janelle Okwodu, sent me a hot-off-the-wires paparazzi shot of the actor and jazz musician; I may or may not have swooned in line at Rite Aid. The thinking girl’s heartthrob was pictured strolling through the streets of Soho in the skinniest of skinny jeans, a white tee, Saint Laurent leather jacket, and Saint Laurent leopard-trim high-tops, along with his signature specs. The look was an exercise in pretty classic codes of cool, and while it might not raise eyebrows on someone a third of his age, at 63, Goldblum is notably crushing it, without ever looking as though he’s in the throes of a late-midlife crisis.
Indeed, while Goldblum has always boasted a certain sartorial flair (that’s him looking like he escaped from the Gucci runway, sporting a spangly snake jacket in Robert Altman’s 1975 music-biz epic, Nashville), the past year or so has found him in particularly fighting form both on and off the red carpet. Goldblum’s rakish physique seems tailor-made for the Saint Laurent brand of cool prior to Hedi Slimane’s departure (from moto jackets to Chelsea boots and two-tone loafers, the house is a foundation of the Goldblum look), and he counts stylist Andrew Vottero as his secret weapon.
After meeting on the set of a GQ shoot, the duo hit it off and were soon working to pare back Goldblum’s wardrobe to the bare bones and rebuild it with quintessentially cool pieces befitting the icon. “When we first started working together and going through his closets,” Vottero tells Vogue.com, “we got rid of basically everything, but he had all this old Yohji Yamamoto stuff. He is actually really interested in clothing.” While Saint Laurent has been a mainstay, Vottero says you’ll find a bevy of brands making up these looks—Lanvin, Patrik Ervell, Acne Studios, a perfectly cut Carhartt chino in nigh every color. “We’ve been into Gucci four or five times, and we love the idea of it, but we haven’t quite figured out how to make that work,” Vottero says with a laugh. “Jeff Goldblum is enough of a personality. The clothes we want to make subtle and sophisticated and cool, and suited to him.”
Goldblum bucks the strange Hollywood stigma of wear-once-and-dispose, often reworking garments for different appearances. “I love that he’s still wearing those spectator shoes that we bought him two years ago,” Vottero offers. “I think it’s cool that these things develop a little bit of character, a little bit of personality.” Whether it’s a leather jacket or an idiosyncratic actor, Goldblum is vivid testimony to the fact that some things just get better, and better, with age.
