Ryan Gosling’s Scorpion Jacket 

Lauren Cochrane
 

Costume designer Erin Benach revisits the wardrobe creation that took the zeitgeist by storm

When Drive landed in the summer of 2011, Nicolas Winding Refn’s modern interpretation of a 1970s neo-noir divided the culture between those who adored its loner-hero mythology, slick set pieces and pulsing synth-wave soundtrack and critics who argued it was a victim of style over substance. A curious development made the case for both sides, as the runaway popularity of an article of clothing threatened to overshadow the film itself. Sure, Ryan Gosling puts in an effective, almost dialogue-free performance, but in the intervening years his character’s white satin bomber jacket emerged as the film’s real protagonist. It was the jacket that made Gosling a bona fide movie star, embodying his character, the unnamed Driver, hired to zoom around Los Angeles either as stuntman or getaway chauffeur. The white satin highlighted the Driver’s strong and silent energy—like him, it’s a blank slate on which to project a fantasy—while the embroidered scorpion hinted at his mysterious past, ruthless nature and capacity for violence. The threads were central to the movie’s poster, and in the opening scene, Refn lovingly pans Gosling’s back to give the audience a full view of that scorpion. The jacket said everything, and everyone was talking about it. 

Soon after the film’s debut, in Cannes, the scorpion jacket became an iconic fashion moment IRL, a statement of forward-leaning masculinity. It moved the needle for what clothes made a man, shifting away from the butch bravado of Marlon Brando’s leather motorcycle jacket in The Wild One and James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause bloodred windbreaker to something more complex and modern. 

That Halloween, young men adopted the look en masse. It then took on a life of its own, influencing similarly styled designs on the catwalk at brands ranging from Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci (glossy and printed in Spring 2013 menswear) to Balenciaga (deconstructed in Fall 2013 Menswear) and Prada (embellished with beadwork in Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear). Trickling down to those with smaller budgets, versions of the jacket were found at stores like Emporio Armani (minimalist) and Brooks Brothers (utilitarian). The ubiquity of the silhouette broke age, race and wealth barriers, with celebrities such as Pharrell Williams and 77-year-old chef Mary Berry on The Great British Bake Off sporting versions. It appeared in video games, like Grand Theft Auto V. Even now, 13 years on from the film’s release, the jacket is highly sought after. Versions are available on Etsy or, for the right price, an exact replica can be yours (check Reddit for information). As GQ reported last year, many of those obsessed with the jacket would have been children when the film originally came out, suggesting that the demand goes beyond mere nostalgia.  

The sartorial vision of Drive was the work of Los Angeles–based costume designer Erin Benach. The film was her third project with Gosling, after indie successes Half Nelson and Blue Valentine, and she would go on to work with him twice more, including on his directorial debut, Lost River, in 2014. A frequent collaborator of indie directors Jeff Nichols and Derek Cianfrance, Benach is now established as a name to call on for the fantastical (Birds of Prey), the rock ’n’ roll (A Star Is Born) and the period-specific (The Bikeriders). She is currently finishing up a Trey Edward Shults film, starring Jenna Ortega and the Weeknd, and in the early stages of prepping her next movie with Cianfrance as well as a long-gestating sci-fi project with Nichols. But Drive and that jacket got her there.  

“You remember that character because of that jacket. And also you remember the jacket, but you might not remember the story.” 

How did you get into costume design?

I was a graphic designer at Penguin Books and I was bored, so I started taking night classes at FIT [Fashion Institute of Technology]. I was living in New York at the time. I felt that my fashion design sense was not about trends or color stories or the market, and not about the fashion world, and I noticed that [the fashion students] weren’t my people. I’m much nerdier. But I still loved the design of it. I slept, ate and breathed it. When I started learning about film and creating a character, that I felt like I could sink my teeth into. It spoke to me on a deeper level. How do you interpret a personality and a psychology and a character—how do you figure out who they are—through fashion? Someone put me in touch with a costume designer to do an internship. She said, “You’re going to learn. I’m going to teach you, but you’re going to be good at this.”

What films got you thinking about clothes?

I think Annie Hall—Diane Keaton wearing the tie and the vest, that was groundbreaking. I thought, Whoa, that could be a costume, that’s cool. That really affected me. There are many others—The Fifth Element, with Milla Jovovich and her hair. I love the new Dune. The first Dune, for me, was so good that I cried.

You’d been working in film for a while, but Drive became a pivotal moment for your career.

It definitely was. I’d had really good luck beforehand with indies that popped, and I was working with great people and great directors. It wasn’t that I knew [Drive would be a hit] right away, but I knew after it became this cult classic.

Was it clear how important the jacket would be?

It got so much screen time, I remember being embarrassed. The director of photography was panning up the back of the jacket. It was such a moment, and I thought, Okay, this is a thing. I didn’t know it was going to be a thing when I was making the jacket. It wasn’t until we were shooting it, and I saw the handling of the shots and the scenes.

When did you realize that it had taken on a life of its own?

When GQ contacted me maybe for the fifth time. I thought, Oh, this has really moved a needle in some way. But it wasn’t the film-world needle. It was a cultural phenomenon, and that’s something unique in a costume designer’s career because, most of the time, it is about the clothing [in service to the character]. My job is to take this character, and then take the tone of a movie and take the world that we’re building, and marry those things.

How do you tend to do that?

It’s not a formula. I read a script. Sometimes things jump out at me, and I have a real vision—I can picture this character in purple in this scene, in this setting right now, and I write those notes down when I’m first reading a script. I always sit down quietly in a room by myself, because I need to really capture those moments. Or sometimes it happens in a fitting room, where an actor is embodying the character just by the way they’re holding their shoulders and their feet, the way they’re holding their bodies. And something clicks where I’ll think, This is that character.

When you meet with a director about a project, what kinds of questions do you ask?

I was just on the phone this morning with Derek Cianfrance. We’re starting a new movie and I was like, Why does the character work at this place? And why does she have a degree in this other subject? Because I wanted to understand her motivations, her psychology, why she’s making her choices. We’re creating a person by sewing together these ideas. Maybe some other questions will be: How do you want the audience to feel in this moment? Do you want them to have compassion for her or do you want them to feel like they suddenly don’t trust her? I ask about those emotional moments.

How did it happen with Drive?

The most effective thing for me was Ryan playing the music. There was a time when I was reading this script and we were making this movie, but I didn’t really understand the movie we were making. And I actually said that to Ryan at some point. I said, “I don’t totally get it.” And he said, “I’m going to make it make sense for you.” Then he played me Johnny Jewel’s music—the Chromatics and Glass Candy and Desire—and I saw some of the photo references and I got it. He and Nicolas [Winding Refn] had gone riding at night, and Ryan had played him that music. That’s how they started building this world and mood.

Did you use any references from previous films?

I used the classics: Steve McQueen, James Dean, Paul Newman. Those classic men. Our guy was a version of a classic. He wears the jacket and he wears the denim with the denim, and there’s something about that. I wanted to be both classic and “big” at the same time. I felt like Ryan in this role, and the role of the movie in culture, was to be quite simple. And other than this superhero moment with the scorpion, everything else needed to be almost nondescript or generic. 

 Is it true that Ryan showed you a jacket that this one was based on?

He brought me a 1950s Korean War souvenir jacket, the jackets that American soldiers brought home. It was vintage, with really beautiful embroidery and beautiful colors, but the jacket itself was really poorly fitting. It was round and poofy, and not a nice silhouette. Still, we thought there was something there. Ryan and I have always loved clothing together. We had been collaborating for years by this point. We almost started our own workwear brand together. 

So that’s the inspiration. Did you make the jacket we see?

I whipped up the more structured version with the inset sleeve. There was a lot of R&D. We did a straight jacket, a quilted version. We did a smaller-quilting-pattern version. We did thicker batting, thinner batting. There were maybe six versions. It could have been a very different shape, a very different color. The color was really interesting. Our DP was like, “No, you cannot give me a white satin jacket to shoot at night. This whole movie’s at night, you’re killing me.” But they had a camera test, where they went driving at night. They took a dark version, and white, and then a cream and a silvery white. And they okayed the creamy white. If it had been a dark color, I don’t think it would have been the moment that it was.

What’s the story behind the scorpion?

Ryan is very inspired by different things at different times. He was showing me Kenneth Anger videos, basically the first music videos from back in the day. One of the most famous is Scorpio Rising. It was that, and the fact that Ryan is a Scorpio in real life.

Have you noticed the jacket’s influence on fashion?

Ryan wearing it in Drive kicked off that fashion trend. I think it was Prada who did the first one, and then everyone else followed suit. I also think it had a fashion legacy, in that the jacket helped maintain the character in people’s minds. I feel like you remember that character because of that jacket. And also you remember the jacket, but you might not remember the story. 

I still see so many of them online, so there’s clearly still a demand. What do you think of the superfans who are re-creating them?

I love it. There’s no better flattery. I’m just like, Yes, you’re still doing it, I love it. 

There are always multiples of costumes made for movies. Do you know where the original jackets are?

There were maybe 11, but quite a few of those got bloody. The bloody ones went into trash and a couple went to auction. They raised money for some good causes. And then of course, Ryan has one. But you never know what movie is going to be the one that someone would want to have the costume for in 20 years, or put it in a museum. You just don’t know.

Are moments like the Drive jacket rare in costume design or can they be manufactured?

I was asked to do a movie not so long ago, and they asked me to create something like the Drive jacket, but obviously not the Drive jacket. I actually took it on. Enough time had passed, I was able to be creatively free from it. I like the idea of iconography in costumes. I think it makes it. Those moments, when they happen, are really exciting. 

A recent film you worked on, Jeff Nichols’s The Bikeriders, is also a very jacket-based movie.

Yes, but this was very different because it’s not about it being a singular, iconic, fantastical character at all. It was all about realism. I had a great time making those costumes and making them lived-in. There was a uniform, which was a biker jacket, and then I had to take that and put personality and character into each version of it. It was really fun to do.

Is there a piece you’ve made for another film that you think is as deserving of the attention the Drive jacket got—maybe a personal favorite?

My caution-tape jacket for Harley Quinn [in The Suicide Squad] was a really zany, iconic, insane but super fun, special piece. I’m standing in front of the Warner Bros. costume department right now so I’m thinking of A Star Is Born, but it’s really Bradley’s shirts that I loved. The biker jackets with all the patches on them and the vests that I did for Bikeriders—those are really specially made pieces to me. We made all the patches and they’re all unique and we aged everything to look super old.

Is there an item from your closet or from pop culture that had special significance to you, in the way your Drive jacket did for others?

I definitely hold onto pieces for a very long time—typically because I like them, not necessarily for sentimental value. It’s so funny, but I have a lot of pieces from my mom. She took really good care of her stuff and she would pass them down to me, or I would raid her closet. I have a great sweater, this cashmere sweater from the 1970s with a really interesting graphic print design on the front center—block colors, red and blue and cream. Very ’70s. I treat it like it’s my baby. I probably wear it like once or twice a year because I love it so much but don’t want it to get ruined.