Among the thousand and one words that make up New York’s vernacular slang, there is one that, when pronounced, makes the tongue click and the mouth round like a large bubble of chewing gum. “Schmuck”. A noun inherited from the Yiddish spoken by old Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side, used to point the finger at those who overdo it.
A schmuck is a lout. Howard Ratner is a schmuck. The main character in the Safdie brothers’ brand-new, much-acclaimed film Uncut Gems is a prime example of the type. Played with delicious flair by actor Adam Sandler, Howard Ratner is a diamond dealer with cartoonish patter, dripping with misplaced pride, who haunts the streets of Manhattan dragging a procession of troubles behind him.
Everything is so grotesque, so garish that it ends up lending a certain coolness to the screen
Above all, here is a man with a killer look, somewhere between a bargain-basement mobster and a professional bowler. Howard Ratner likes clothes that cost a great deal and sparkle under every neon light and every sky. Flash at any price. On top: Howard Ratner likes striped polo shirts whose sleeves cling to the contours of his biceps, silk shirts in a salmon-pink shade, and grandfather-style double-breasted suits. Below: usually held up by a belt with a large gold buckle at navel height, his trousers have visible pleats as though they have just come back from the dry cleaner’s, and end in a heap of unsightly creases over Italian loafers that curl up rather comically and are themselves adorned with an eye-catching buckle.
In moments when the tension rises a notch or two, Howard Ratner also enjoys wearing a Sunday sports tracksuit in synthetic fabric, paired with thick-soled trainers. He is a tough guy, like that. And it all invariably comes with the same array of accessories that make him the schmuckiest of all schmucks: a bracelet weighing a tonne, a Geneva-brand watch with a thousand carats and a striking red dial, along with a pair of dark-lensed sunglasses. Naturally. "These clothes convey Howard Ratner’s business side, but also a dark, raw side," explains director Benny Safdie in the American edition of GQ magazine (…) That said: "If you come looking for me, you’re going to see all sorts of colours." "If you think of a guy who is not really up to date with fashion and likes to wear this sort of thing to go clubbing, that’s him," adds costume designer Miyako Bellizi in The Cut.
Schmuck, but stylish.
To shape this look, more or less that of all the birds of ill omen in the Diamond District, the production team pounded the grimy, dimly lit streets of this part of New York, tucked beneath the famous echo of Times Square. For hours, they watched the faces loitering on the steps of jewellery shops, waiting for a good deal, dried cigarette between their lips and lukewarm coffee in hand. "On 47th Street, they stopped twenty years ago; they are stuck in time," says Josh Safdie.
While most of the pieces in Howard Ratner’s wardrobe come from established labels, some were the subject of painstaking research. The production’s costume designers tracked down an old blazer on eBay, as well as a suit jacket on the aptly named website doublebreastedsuits.com. Price of the thing: $19.99. For his part, actor Adam Sandler reportedly happily dressed like a schmuck. The only thing he refused to concede was overly tight jeans. No way he was going to feel too constricted around the thighs on camera.
And, truth be told, after being dressed any old way scene after scene, Howard Ratner’s character somehow becomes elegant. Everything is so grotesque, so garish that it ends up lending a certain coolness to the screen. There is something there, a sense of chic, almost. Schmuck, but stylish.
It is hardly surprising, then, that when it comes to fancy-dress parties, people now do not hesitate to dress like him. Nor is it surprising that major fashion columns recommend some of his pieces.
At Hast, we would not go that far. A little seriousness, all the same.