The Not So Secret Message of The Joker's Outfit

Okay, a YouTube video, professing to explain the history of all the Joker's costumes, made me mad enough to write this post.  Why am I continually surprised at the shoddy scholarship on YouTube?!  Why do I keep imagining that I will learn something by clicking on these videos?

BAH! FOOLS!

In this case I never got past 01:10, where the video describes the Joker's original costume as "straight out of film noir gangster films".

This, for those of you who are not familiar with sartorial history, is incorrect.

"Gangsters" did not wear TAILCOATS.  Nor flat-topped hats, nor vests, nor wing collars, nor string ties. These are elements of clothing from 40 to 50 years earlier than the "Gangster Era".

Nor dress gloves.

I get it. When you are a child every four-legged animal is "doggy" for a while, until you learn more terms and details to distinguish among quadrupeds.  So, too, if you are a contemporary unstudied person, you lump together decades worth of clothing styles in a big box labelled "OLD".

I am more empathetic than I sound. My husband is a costume designer (his work above), and compared to HIM, what I know about clothing can't fill a thimble.

So I will explain to you what the Joker's original outfit is meant to evoke (which would have been MUCH clearer to people in 1939). In short, the Joker is outfitted AS A CARDPLAYER.

Are you familiar with the Gambler, from the Injustice Society?
Does his outfit look familiar?

The hat that the Joker wears? It's not a "fedora"; it's literally CALLED a "Gambler's Hat".

Its top is FLAT and low, unlike a fedora or trilby.

The string tie? Its common name is a "Kentucky tie", and it's associated with Southern cardplayers (and those who drifted to the Wild West with their style intact).

Such as this guy in this Western film.

And WHY is the Joker dressed this way? It's obvious: he's coded as a CARD PLAYER. 

John Carradine ("Stagecoach"1939) would have made an interesting Joker.

And a sneaky one, not a good honest cowboy type, but a sneaky, sneering, aristocratic SOUTHERN one.

The first image of the Joker is from the splash page of his first story shows him...
dealing a hand of cards.

The time we see the Joker smile is when he self-identifies as a cheating card player.

The pinstriped pants and spats...

Or the "stirrup" pants, another old-school element 

...are also part of the look. Everything about the Joker's outfit says "shady gambler."

There are some echos of the Wild West UNDERTAKER, but the hat, the color of the suit, and pants and spats undercut that association severely, leaving "gambler" the only on-target association.

Thanks to period films and closer proximity to the era, the Southern/Western Gambler was a more familiar trope when the character of the Joker was introduced. This type of clothing (particularly in a usually "villainous" color) was really all the Joker needed to be thematically costumed.  

With due deference to the artists of the Bronze Age, a lot is lost by outfitting the Joker in contemporary styles and there is a reason these looks don't stick (despite their effective color scheme).

How To Dress Like Speed Saunders: The Basics

 First and foremost you need the puce Glenurquhart Estate Check suit (or at least the jacket).

God bless Calvin Klein

Since no one would be caught dead wearing a tieless cutaway collar, let alone one in Cubicle Blue, I can only assume this is a mannequin, rather than a corpse.

Don't wear the jacket with TAN pants like this, not even if you are dead. Pair with solid black slacks; the inker will thank you for it.

If you want to go the whole nine yards, wear the whole suit. This should be reserved for full-body scenes like standing outside a building.

Sure it costs more, but it's worth it just for the Summoning Authority Figure scenes.

OBVIOUSLY, a pocket square is required. It must be white, in a two-point fold. Do not accouter it with a flat-line pocket square, as this unshaven fool has. There as many possible errors in this regard as there are pocket folds.

ONLY ONE of these is permissible. 

Remember, Speed Saunders is stylish, but not a DANDY.  He employs only the classic double-peak fold, distinguishing himself the single-peak-wearing clod (such as your Slam Bradley types) and the triple-peaked clowns (like Bentley of Scotland Yard).

Bentley, who wears white socks and brown shoes
with an undeserved blue double-breasted. Ugh.

A THREE-PIECE double-breasted.
Ugh; Bentley. Why hasn't anyone arrested YOU?!

No, the only choice for a Speed Saunders outfit is the two-point, thus:

I include this diagram for those of you who did not manage to acquire this knowledge at the orphanage or Reform School for Boys.

Wear these with any WHITE point-collar (and ONLY a point-collar) dress shirt.

Remember, if you wear it with a button-down collar, the authorities have orders to shoot you on sight.

Off-setting the expense of the jacket/suit is the reverse-barbershop (black and red) tie, which can be gotten for a song.

Note that they could not even find a corpse or mannequin that would monstrously wear this knot with a spread collar thus. *shudder*

N.B. This tie MUST be Bendy Sinister.  If it is BENDY, rather than Bendy Sinister, children will point and mock, ladies avert their gaze, gentlemen shake their heads, and all members of the Speed Saunders Aficionados Club will deny you food, water, shelter, and witty conversation, and you will be subject to their pitiless Faces of Judgement. Furthermore, Metropolitan Libraries will be within their rights to forbid you entry.

Finally, the hat, which, always remember is to be one WHENEVER one is outside or soon to be outside. Do not remove your hat if you have to just tesseract inside for one or two panels to question someone.  It wastes too much time.

You will need TWO hats; a summer-weight orange trilby and a winter-weight orange trilby (if you don't already have them).

I am embarrassed for the sellers who were driven to nonsensically call it a "trilby fedora" because their customers are Americans or philistines.

NOT a fedora; a trilby.  We are Ace Investigators, not the Crimson Avenger. 

And that's it! So simple! You are now ready for your Speed Saunders cos-play.