Luke Wilson takes a swing at golf fashions with Chrome line

Tag : chrome

LOS ANGELES — If the clothes make the leading man, LukeWilson is angling to play the handsome high school lit teacher— you know, the one who made you cry when he read aloud fromA Separate Peace. He rarely veers from his Kennedy-era haircut andtypically shows up at events in rumpled khakis or cords and apreppy blazer. Then, there’s that squint. More musing thanmacho, Wilson has perfected a studied squint — or is it awince? — that precedes his answers to tough questions.
“How would I describe my personal style?” he asks. Longsquint. “Maybe free-spirited with a lot of pizzazz?”
Ha. Nothing could be further from the truth. An hour earlier at aphoto shoot, Wilson stared down a pair of silver Puma golf shoes— as audacious as Dorothy’s ruby red slippers butoutfitted with removable spikes.
“Those are great, but. …” he says in his Texasdrawl. “Well, I’m not the type to call attention tomyself. Especially not when I’m playing golf.”
The laconic actor might be the most earnest celebrity endorserever. Never mind that Wilson, 36, helped co-design those metallicsneakers as part of a new golf line for Puma. (He suggested theyalso make a pair in black.) He’s not about to slip onanything that doesn’t suit his low-profile persona.
“Johan wears the splashy stuff,” Wilson says, referringto Swedish golf heartthrob Johan Edfors, his co-collaborator on theChrome collection that rolled out in July. The two worked to comeup with styles to suit both extroverts and introverts on the links.
There are bold shirts in hothouse pinks and greens for Edfors andmuted cardigans for Wilson. “I like the real meticulous lookof guys like Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. They had their own tailorsmaking their clothes back then,” Wilson says.
No doubt Puma wanted a slice of the $5 billion golf apparel markettoo. In the past 100 years, golf fashion has gone from tweedknickers and neckties to neon, collarless shirts and ventedtrousers. There’s a celebrity charity event every weekend,which has only heightened the game’s popularity.There’s no red carpet yet, but the greens have become acompetitive fashion forum. Tiger Woods wears hot pink Nike; SamuelJackson prefers canary yellow Titleist.
On this afternoon, Wilson picks black pants and a retro windbreakerfrom the Puma collection. He looks like a guy who knows how to mixa Tom Collins and pack a family station wagon for vacation.
Wilson golfs every day he’s not working and has shot in a fewpro-am tournaments. Handicap? “I can fire in the 70s a coupleof times a year, and then I have been known to blast scores intothe hundreds.”
Deadpan modesty is Wilson’s trademark. On screen, he oftenplays the self-deprecating straight man who charms the leading ladyin movies such as Old School and The Family Stone. But it was thelook of his role as the depressed mope and ex-tennis pro Richie inWes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums that started trends.
Guys trawled eBay for the vintage Fila tennis togs and slim-cutkhaki corduroy suits Wilson wore in the film. Perhaps Puma hopes tocapitalize on followers of that retro sport style too.
Growing up in Dallas with two older brothers (actor Owen anddirector Andrew), Luke Wilson took sartorial cues from his mom, aphotographer who assisted Richard Avedon. “We always hadfashion photography books around, and the pictures reminded me ofmovie stills.”
His father, an ad exec, originally hailed from Massachusetts andprobably influenced Wilson’s rugged New England look.
“The fact that I have no one in my life might be reflected inmy style,” he says, and winces. “I don’t dryclean my clothes, and I live alone. Oh, boy! This has taken adepressing turn.”
After a few more verbal jabs at himself, he gets serious and namechecks designers Costume National, J. Lindeberg and John Varvatos.He admits to owning a few tuxedos. “There’s nothingbetter than a good suit,” Wilson says. “That’swhy Eric Clapton wears them all the time. You always look better ina suit than a T-shirt.”
Besides, collarless shirts, shorts and jeans are forbidden atBel-Air Country Club, where Wilson tees off regularly. “Ican’t say anything more because I’m so lucky to belongand I don’t want to even call attention to that fact.”In other words, the silver shoes would really be his undoing.