Staff Pick: The Man in the White Suit
Thinking about style, sustainability and satire of capitalism…in 1952.
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit is iconic, but who is The Man in the White Suit? Both 1950s stories speak to concerns of male identity in the postwar moment, but The Man in the White Suit also takes up millennial-adjacent concerns of innovation, sustainability, and stylish science in its capitalist critique. Despite being lesser-known, The Man in the White Suit deserves a watch in 2017.
Sidney Stratton invents a resilient fiber that repels dirt and cannot tear, resulting in a perma-white fabric. It’s then made into a luminous suit (literally glowing with radioactivity) that looks very, very cool. The film is about his battle against both the mill managers and workers, who he would ultimately be putting out of a job if this superior fiber changes the textile market as Stratton envisions.
The film treats Stratton as a heroic, innovative genius in a world that won’t let him change it. What’s most fascinating about watching this 1952 movie now is how much the values of innovation and sustainability are treated as the clearly righteous path, but also how both the “laborers” and the managing class of “capitalists” are conflated into one money-hungry opposition that won’t let The Man in the White Suit become the everyman of the more sustainability-minded future. I don’t know about you, but I would absolutely prefer indestructable white to gray flannel. #superduper100.
In the age of Silicon Valley and fast fashion still swinging, this movie could easily be made again and handle the question of sustainable consumption in a very literal way. We can see Stratton as ahead of his time, but the question remains though, could he even succeed today if he would sacrifice big business (planned obsolescence)? Or in a contemporary re-make, would the world see his invention as big business?
Fashion may definitionally change with the times and encourage disposability, but in a moment when it’s fashionable to care about the world, thinking about sartorial Soylent may be a productive use of our imaginations. Especially if it looks this cool.
Watch The Man in the White Suit now on Tribeca Shortlist!
