Two Men and Their Hair

BOBBY CANNAVALE (LEFT) AND JOHN TURTURRO IN HAIR.

“I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m a film buff, but I love film,” says Rag & Bone’s Marcus Wainwright over the phone. “I used to have a massive DVD collection pre-Netflix, and I’ve always referenced film for collections, from James Bond to Fluke,” he continues. “Bond is a really interesting set of films, because it shows the evolution of menswear from the ’50s, ’60s, all the way through to now … Roger Moore’s flared, violet suit, Sean Connery’s in super-skinny mod suits. It’s really interesting to see how clothes have changed over the years through that.”

Over the last few years, Rag & Bone have been producing shorts as Rag & Bone Films. While it’s not unusual for a fashion house to create campaign films, Rag & Bone Films has already gone beyond that. In 2015, the New York-based company released The Driver, an 18-minute fictional short written, directed by, and starring Michael Pitt. At the end of last month, Hair, a whimsical New York narrative created by John Turturro with help from his friend Bobby Cannavale, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. “If you take away the pressure to have the product be the absolute hero of something, it gives you incredible freedom,” Wainwright explains. “We asked John if he’d be up for directing something, and he came up with the idea for Hair. I had very little to contribute creatively to it, other than saying you have to wear Rag & Bone …  The Driver was the same thing with Michael.”

In Hair, Turturro and Cannavale meet at a barbershop and have an invested and extremely funny discussion about their hair. “I can’t just have anybody doing my hair,” announces an indignant Cannavale. “I thought the whole thematic undertone of this film thing was about hair and a man’s particularness about his own hair.”

The unscripted dialogue was inspired by several different events: Turturro having to grow his hair out for a new film, a story Turturro had read about Don King, and an email Cannavale sent Turturro before the shoot date. “There was a bit of a heated debate about who we were going to book to do hair on the day—literally,” recalls Wainwright. “Bobby sent John an email, kind of pissed off that they weren’t going to book his hair guy.”

Hair is not the first collaboration between Rag & Bone and Turturro. The Brooklyn-based actor also participated in the label’s Men’s Project. “My first indelible memory [of John] has to be Jesus from The Big Lewboski. I think that’s one of the most epic scenes … and maybe one of the most iconic characters in film,” Wainwright says. Years later, Wainwright saw the actor in the flesh at a Knicks game in New York City. “He was sitting in the front row with Spike Lee. I thought, ‘Turturro. What a legend.'”

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