“I really put my male look hat on for this,” Phillips told Weekly entertainment, describing her process of dressing the men in the film. “It’s not just how men idealize women, but how they see themselves. The way Jack chooses to dress is really down to that Rat Pack’s early ’60s brother culture, in terms of that flawless suit, that relaxed outfit, and that whole archetype. This is really about gender roles and about the period in which society had these expectations. So that’s the idea of the perfect wife, mother, lover, who must be everything. But the same mindset is how Jack presents himself, and how all men present themselves, as their most lowly, handsome man.” While Don’t worry, baby never stops stumbling on its own feminism, there’s something to its visual world-building, the clothes and the skirts and all that, even now still feel coveted.
But the reality is, it turns out – again, damaged—Victoria is actually a present-day emulation of the ’50s suburb populated by well-loved voluntary cyborgs and their unwilling associates, Frank (who Wilde said they are based on “this lunatic man, Jordan Peterson, who is this pseudo-intellectual hero to the incel community”) and his colorless suit probably have more in common with countless selfish leaders of the 2020s than the 1960s, when Modernist politicians like John F. Kennedy inadvertently removed the American Men’s Daily Wardrobe. But especially in the past decade or therefore, the tieless look has become puzzling for powerful men, from government officials to tech workers to corporate executives, to convey a kind of friendly attire, work hard through their outfit choices. In turn, “peace” became something of a neo-liberal calling card; all seven world leaders at this year’s G7 summit avoid wearing ties for their annual “family photos”. (That said, according to Newton’s third law, Relationship is back!)
When Frank went to the dinner party — no tie — to try and save his simulation, it was his 21st-century masculinity that showed in Victory’s shoddy seams. Every age has its signs.
