Due to the immense reach and visual appeal of film, television, and photography, celebrities hold significant power to rapidly influence fashion trends. Their appearances in these media not only make styles and products look desirable and fashionable but also create a compelling allure that drives consumer interest and encourages people to make purchases.

The first character that I was introduced to that had the most profound impact on my future style was the Joker, specifically, the one from the animated “Batman” series on television. The Joker is a Jungian archetype that represents a fun-loving, light-hearted, and unfiltered character. His goal is to spread joy and make others laugh. He like in the deck of cards is a wildcard. That’s both my personality archetype and what I aspire to be. However, The “Batman” villain, the Joker, is a mischievous trickster and a demented criminal mastermind. While his goal is to have a good time and to make himself and others laugh, his actions and intentions are evil, which he finds humorous and fun and therefore makes him that much more sinister. I strive for my actions and intentions to be honorable and virtuous, so we’re two different sides of the same coin. There’s the paradox, the evil trickster Joker versus the Joker as jester or comic relief.

Little did I know that my future wardrobe would be purposely cultivated with purple and green pieces to emulate that character’s color scheme and make me feel like I’m always in my Joker costume. I’m planning a future post to show you all my purple and green; it’s a lot. I’m also a fanboy of the character and if he’s on clothing or accessories, I’m interested.

It all started when I got these Converse shoes. I believe I was in sixth grade. I remember hanging on the monkey bars at recess looking down at my high-top, Joker Converse, and thinking they were the coolest shoes ever and I was happy wearing them. These are not the pair that I owned, but I’m glad that I could still find evidence of these shoes for reference on the internet.

Vintage Converse Chuck Taylor "Joker" High Tops 1989 (m 5.5) Dc Comics. This photo comes from an ad for these on sale on ebay for $65 plus taxes and shipping.

I started to type, “a few years ago,” to tell you that I was excited to find a place that makes custom converse, BLVD Custom. However, now that I look it up, I realize that what I meant by “a few years ago” is actually 2008, seventeen years ago, when Christopher Nolan’s Batman film, “The Dark Knight” was released and I got the idea to remake these beauties from my past. However, the shop already had a pair of Converse with the new, Heath Ledger joker design. I deliberated for a bit and decided to get that pair instead of recreating the design that I loved from my youth. That was my mistake. Even though I customized them with fat green laces and I’ve worn them multiple times, I don’t get the same fun vibe that I did from those original Joker shoes. These, like the actual character, feel more serious and less fun, and have me questioning myself when I wear them, “Why so serious?” (Heath Ledger Joker quote)

Convers All-Star Low-Top Heath Ledger Joker shoes from the collection at BLVD customs. They must have been limited edition because I can’t find them on their site anymore. I believe that I paid $130 plus taxes and free shipping.

Invicta Venom DC Comics Joker Limited Edition Men's 52.5mm Watch 26790 US. I don’t see this exact limited edition model for sale anymore. The difference is that this watch has a silicone band with holes for clasping. I bought it as soon as it was released for $220 with taxes and shipping included. This is the most expensive watch I have ever purchased and I’m sure you can see why. Here’s a link to a similar Joker watch from Invicta for $799.90 plus taxes. However, you need to know that I would never pay that amount and I don’t recommend you spend that much money on a watch either.

One of the first movies that I saw that I can remember having a huge influence on my personal style and that of my friends’ was the film, Mission Impossible (1996) starring Tom Cruise. I remember being super confused by the plot and I couldn’t figure out who knew what or what was what and who was who. However, one thing that I wasn’t confused about was how cool Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, looked. Was it the haircut, the black jacket, the wraparound Oakley’s? I wanted all of it and found that getting the haircut would be the easiest place to start and wouldn’t take too much convincing to get my mother on board with the idea. The haircut was short and spiky, but still clean-cut.

At that time, I had a Russian lady, hairstylist, who had been giving me haircuts from the time that I was a toddler. I now realize she took everything very literally. She saw in the photo that he had wet hair and she thought not only did I want the haircut, but I also wanted my hair to look permanently wet. She used and sold me the following gel product that I used to style my hair during this era.

Sebastian WET Liquid Sculpting Gel 10.2 Oz Discontinued. I found the discontinued gel that I used to use. It’s for sale on ebay for $75 plus taxes and shipping. The listing says it’s new without the box. I guess the seller saved it since 1993. I’m not sure if hair gel gets better with age like a fine wine. I would think this is past its expiration.

Generic Value Products Liquid Sculpting Gel 12oz. $13.04 plus taxes and $4.95 delivery. In case you were looking to reproduce that wet-look, hairstyle, I found a replacement product on amazon that gets great reviews. 4.5 stars out of 877 ratings and the bottle even says that it’s comparable to “Sebastian Wet” gel.

My best attempt at the jacket was a Mossimo water repellent jacket that I had that I’ve tried to find and repurchase recently because it was very cool. It was kind of like a modern bomber jacket like the one that I recently bought from Banana Republic except it had a collar, and had a shiny, textured, material. The jacket also had a little bit of hardness to it, it wan’t soft and buttery like a nylon windbreaker. It was like you took one of those and starched it to make it hard and paper-like. The texture of the material was reminiscent of the way a wax record feels grooved. It also made a scratchy DJ sound when you scratched or ran your finger on it.

Mossimo Repeller Zip Windbreaker Water Resistant Jacket Stussy X-Large XL 90s. Somehow I found my jacket for sale on ebay for $29.94 plus taxes and $11.71 shipping. However, mine was a size small. You can see on the left, the “Mossimo” branding embroidered on the left chest area and the bronze or copper interior lining on the inside that’s hard to forget. I paid $99 for it brand new in 1995/96.

Here’s a better look at the Tom Cruise, Ethan Hunt, black leather Mission Impossible 1 jacket.

As I’m writing this post, the old memories are coming back to me. At some point after getting the Mossimo jacket described and pictured above, I convinced my grandmother to get me a real leather jacket like the one in the movie. We went to get it at the Beverly Center which was near her apartment and was our regular shopping spot. On this day, we went to the Wilson’s leather store. I ended up buying a black leather jacket, similar to the one that he is wearing in this photo except for a few differences that always bothered me. Unfortunately, my tastes were more mature than my body and thus, my jacket was a bit big on me as almost all clothes were at that time in my life. I was a small, short, skinny kid trying to wearing adult clothes. However, due to the fact that the jacket had room for me to grow into it, I still have it and it still fits me today. I have ideas of air-brushing it with a metallic green pigment like I did with my leather shoes that I’ll show you in a DIY fashion post sometime in the future. Also, his jacket seemed a little thinner than mine and the shoulder pads in my jacket seemed bulkier than his.

Wilson’s Leather Men’s Three Button Black Leather Jacket. I’m trying to remember the price…I think it was approximately $200 plus taxes.

The next thing that I was determined to get were those Oakleys, but good luck getting those from my parents. My mother used to make trips to downtown LA a lot and she bought me a pair of silver sunglasses that sort of resembled them, but were generic, non-branded, and way too big on me. They did have that wraparound style to them as well, but they were the size that a grown man would wear and I was a tiny, schoolboy.

**Oakley Eye Jacket™ Redux** $188.00 originally $235.00 now 20% off

It’s weird because as I try to find photos of the sunglasses that I thought he wore in the first “Mission Impossible,” nothing exists. It seems that Tom Cruise wore the Oakley Romeo 1 version in “Mission Impossible 2,” but I never saw that movie. Obviously, though, Oakley has a partnership with the “Mission Impossible” series as he wears that brand throughout the sequels, so it’s a bit confusing. Perhaps, he never wore these in that first movie, but I know they came out around that time because me and my best friend were both competing to see who could get those glasses. He ended up winning and getting the glasses, and I never did. The Oakley sunglasses in the photo above look almost exactly like those original sunglasses that I’m referring to and these are currently on sale at the Oakley website. From what I can remember, they were a little less expensive back then, but still quite pricey, approximately $130 plus tax. If Tom Cruise wore them in the movie, I’m pretty sure that his were black ones, though.

I did more research, and I found them! Oakley Minute FMJ 5.56 Silver Sunglasses—Black Iridium are for sale on eBay for $350. These are the exact glasses that I wanted.

The next film that affected my style was “Fight Club” (1999), starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. I was more Edward Norton, but I wanted to be Brad Pitt. Again, the first aspect of that character that I tried to copy was the haircut. I remember bringing my Russian hairstylist lady a photo of Brad Pitt with his hair like it is in the photo below, and she said, “I can give you that haircut, but you’ll never look like that.” I’m not sure if that was somehow her sense of humor or if she didn’t want me to complain when I tried to compare myself to the photo after my haircut.

Similar to the Tom Cruise hairstyle, Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden’s hairstyle was also spiky but longer spikes, less military looking, more bedhead.

American Crew Men's Hair Fiber, Like Styling Gel with High Hold & Low Shine, Travel Size, 1.7 oz $8.55
American Crew Men's Hair Fiber, Like Hair Gel with High Hold & Low Shine, **3 oz.** $17.84
At the end of the haircut, she styled my hair with this product and sold me a jar. It worked very well and I still use this product. I like that it isn’t shiny, so it gives you the hold and makes it look like that’s what your hair does naturally. I’ve had many people in the past ask me, “How does your hair stay like that?”

The bold style of Brad Pitt’s character, Tyler Durden, in “Fight Club.”

Furthermore, I was influenced by this character, Tyler Durden’s, wardrobe, and I started to buy flashier shirts. I remember buying a short sleeve Hawaiian shirt on Melrose that I later saw Tek from the Real World Hawaii wearing, and a white, short sleeve, polyester/cotton blend, collared shirt with orange, gray, and light blue square designs printed all over it by 26Red. One day, as a freshman in high school, I wore this shirt for the first time, but I took it off right before reaching the front door because I felt too noticeable and self-conscious. I remember styling it with blue corduroy pants and a gray undershirt that became my outer shirt when I took it off and stuck it in my backpack. I wasn’t ready to make such a bold statement yet. Also, I liked his sunglasses, but I would never have had the self-confidence to wear that color tint yet. It’s funny that later on in life, I would wear my rose-tinted migraine glasses almost every day.

Of course, as I attempted to find a photo of the 26Red shirt for reference to show you, I couldn’t find anything and figured it was lost in time as just a memory in my head. I decided to take a quick look in my closet of older items that I keep for sentimental /memory/costume reasons and I’m flabbergasted to find that I kept it. This shirt somehow remained in my closet even through donations and closet clearings. I haven’t worn it since high school. I must have thought that I would be able to wear it for an audition sometime. I’m still in disbelief, but I’m thrilled to be able to show it to you. It’s a bit washed out, but you get the idea.

There’s no label on this shirt, but I remember it being made by the brand 26Red. I believe that I purchased it at Pacific Sunwear.

This shirt is made by the brand, Pineapple Connection, and was purchased somewhere on Melrose Ave.

This is my version of Tyler Durden’s leaves shirt as pictured above. This was also purchased somewhere on Melrose Ave. It is made by the brand, Elee.

The final character that I want to discuss in this post is one that has had...

Lastly, the character that has had the most influence on my current style is Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the American drug trafficer, George Jung, from the film, “Blow” (2001). Again, the aspect of this character that I most aspired to copy was his hairstyle. I was now in college and I had never had longer hair, so I decided to grow it out and try to resemble look. It grew out a bit and got longer, but it definitely didn’t get the length or fullness that he had in that film. I remember both my grandmother and my mother disapproving of my longer hair and pestering me to cut it. Neither of these women liked me thinking independently. I was supposed to pass every decision especially about my appearance through their committee for approval.

Johnny Depp in “Blow” (2001). I happened to get a jacket from H&M recently that I’m noticing looks a lot like this. I might need to get a white turtleneck and then I’d have a great Halloween costume.

Another factor that I had to consider was that I was an auditioning actor at the time and I didn’t want to get new headshots just because I had a new hairstyle. I figured that the casting people could imagine what I looked like with the shorter hair as I had styled it in my headshots, but I guess that they couldn’t because I didn’t book any acting jobs during that time.

One of the memories that I have from then is going with my frat brothers to Las Vegas. We went to a pool party at our hotel, which was either the Palms or the Hard Rock Hotel. I was wearing brown, board shorts with flowers on them and my two-tone Ralph Lauren aviators with my longer hair and as I was walking to my place in line, someone said loudly, “Look at this guy, he looks like he’s right out of the seventies!” I remember thinking proudly to myself that I had achieved the look that I had aspired to acquire and I was enjoying it. I felt in tune with that time period and I started to purchase more pieces that gave me that 70’s look and vibe.

Blue Paisley Long Sleeve by the brand, Krush. I bought this somewhere on Melrose Ave.

Brown Paisley Long Sleeve by the brand, BC Ethic. I bought this somewhere on Melrose Ave. as well.

After returning from that trip, some time passed and I went back to my shorter hairstyle. I got inspired to make my acting career a priority and attempted to become a commercial booking machine again. Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet realized that those days had passed me by.

Then, a few years ago, during the COVID-19 quarantine, I grew my hair out for over a year without getting a haircut. At that time, I was not interested in looking polished and I did not want to leave the apartment. My hair was a stringy mess, and when I went to get my haircut, I ended up cutting off a lot more than I wanted. I felt that I had to get my hairstyle back to being clean-cut as I was planning to start leaving the house again and attempt to get a new waiter job.

I went to a nice salon that I was introduced to through a deal that I got on Groupon once before. This hairstylist guy was from Brussels and he gave me the worst haircut that I ever had in my life. He took the back of my hair in his hands asked how short I wanted it, and made one straight cut. Then he did a few snips on the top and said, “Ok, you’re done.” Perhaps it was because I used the Groupon again, but I figured he had little else to do, as few other people were leaving the house for appointments, and I thought he would spend some time giving me a nice haircut. I was wrong! I sat in my car looking at my hair for a few minutes and I felt myself getting upset and angry at how little care he put into the cut. He didn’t even trim my sideburns. I decided to go back in there and I asked him if he could trim my sideburns which he did after sensing that my vibe was now quite heavy and unhappy. I never returned to that place and I never used or purchased a Groupon again. It has been my experience that you don’t get good service using those.

A few months later, I was rehired and working at my previous waiter job when one of the guests at my table exclaimed to his friends, "Hey, doesn’t this guy look like George ?" The year was probably 2023, so I asked, "George ?" He said, "'Yeah, from the movie, ‘Blow.’” I was quite surprised and satisfied that this guy spotted my resemblance to that character. I told him that was the inspiration for my current look, and I informed him that nobody had ever guessed that correctly. You could tell that he felt satisfied with his astute observation.

When I began writing this post, I didn’t realize that I had so many hairstyle stories to tell. A portion of my wardrobe is dedicated to purple and green pieces based on my fondness for those colors together as I was introduced through the character of the Joker. The actors who have played characters that have had the most influence on my style are Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Johnny Depp, all of whom were at some point the biggest celebrities in the world. I only mentioned some of the memorable characters that they played that have influenced my style, but each of these actors has more that I could have discussed. As far as the real people are concerned, Johnny Depp, in my opinion, has the coolest style. He peacocks well with accessories mostly hats, scarves, and jewelry. During and after his trial with Amber Heard, I noticed men filling their hands with jewelry or “hand candy” as a female, ex-co-worker once described it, trying to emulate his bohemian look.

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