A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 4: Pete's pants

(Notice Pete is the smart one and avoids being beaten by Alex).

Pete's trousers are similar to the other droogs. You may notice that their waist areas tend to be puffy. I am not sure if this is due to the shirt or if there is padding around this area (probably a sexual statement), but I'll know when I get receive my clothes. The pants seem to be made of a poplin material. It is not that easy to find white poplin pants, and I looked at some other materials like linen for ease of shopping, but I settled on a very suitable pair of Ralph Lauren white poplin pants (some of them actually had suspender buttons on them!). While these aren't perfectly screen accurate, they actually look very Kubrick-esque, so much that I think they are acceptable.

These pants are around $85.

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 3: Pete's shirt

Pete has a very different shirt than Alex and the other droogs. For one, it has no collar. This is no big deal, except that the only shirts you are going to find with no collar are probably going to be in some formal shop or in the bargain bucket at JC Penney's and is going to be made out of sateen or some shit.

His material is clearly poplin cotton, is thick, well-worn and soft, not thin and painfully sharp like the type of shirt you will find in a mall.

So what is the shirt? Well, it is could be custom, but I think I've found the shirt, or at least the inspiration for the shirt.

It looks like a German M43 heer shirt from WWII. I am fairly confident because a) I counted the buttons b) the style and thickness or the collar and the area where the shirt is buttoned look very similar to Pete's. c) this would go along well with his military themedboots and suspenders (and would be ironic, considering he would be wearing a German shirt, British suspenders, and American boots, and a French beret, thereby showing that his historical perspective is weak or at least his rage is just an outlet for his youthful angst, and his military inspired outfit is just for show. Notice Billy Boy and his gang have military inspired clothing, so it is not surprising that Alex and the droogies would have military clothes.

Here is the shirt I purchased - it was about $60 shipped from a reenactment seller called Spearhead. I had to purchase a reproduction due to difficulty finding an original and, most likely, the prohibitive cost. Depending on the look of the shirt (it is slightly off-white), I will probably stain the pants I get in a Coca Cola solution to match the shirt and the grungy look of the droogs.

Pete unbuttons his long-sleeved shirt and wears a regular cotton collared undershirt. Thankfully, this is much easier to find =)

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 2: Pete's suspenders

This was a hard find. I believe I am the first to correctly identify these. If you look at the typical A Clockwork Orange costume, people basically look like idiots. They find their dad's khaki's and some cheap, white suspenders and even ::gasp:: a belt. Now Pete's suspenders, for one, aren't white. They are more of a taupe or sand color, and they match his codpiece. They also don't clip to his pants - they have leather trouser savers (let me know what these things are called) that button to the inside of his pants.

Now look at the back - they look nothing like normal suspenders or even Y-suspenders (which are what Alex wears).

After scouring the innernette, I have determined what these suspenders are: British WWII trouser braces. These were worn with battle-dress trousers by all Commonwealth troops (British, Canadian, Australian, Scottish, etc). They are stamped with the year of manufacturing, and the suspenders I have are dated 1945. Good luck on your hunt!

A Clockwork Orange Costume Part 1: The boots worn by Alex and co.

After doing some research, it seems like all of the droogs as well as Alex wear the same pairs of boots. I was worried at first because I thought I'd have to shell out big money to import some British army boots, but it turns out that the boots are clearly US issued military boots. Specifically, the boots are vintage split-sole Corcoran paratrooper jump boots.

Unfortunately, that means getting a pair can be difficult and expensive. I have been looking at eBay and many of them are a brown/rust color; I believe these are from WWII and the Korean war. Therefore, any newer than that should be black. You can get new paratrooper boots for around $150, but the droogs boots look well-worn and have an older style shine and sole.

Look at the heels and count the pins holding them in place: 13 exactly.

It is also very difficult to find the split-sole shoes that Alex and co. wear. The regular sole jump boots from the 60s look virtually identical to the ones Alex wears. I purchased a set for around $75 in good shape. Any set of used Corcoran model 1500 boots will look good, and the only detail it won't have is the split sole (I can't imagine anyone calling you out on this detail, but if they do, give me their info so I can congratulate them).

The problem with Pete from A Clockwork Orange

Pete is obviously smart. He doesn't screw with Alex much and is often spared punishment. He is also quite stealthy, and spends the least time in front of the camera. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult to reconstruct his outfit. And while a casual viewer may say "They all wear the same thing," this is not true at all. Georgie has a downright bizarre outfit with a knit shirt and bloody bullet nipple things, and Alex has some sort of Edwardian or military, double pocket shirt, as well as those eyeball cuffs, among other details. Dim has a stripped shirt and eyeball suspenders. And Pete, well pete has a completely different shirt (no collar), different suspenders, that black beret, a totally different weapon, different eyeballs, large white buttons, and some bitching makeup. We'll get to all of this shortly but suffice to say, it is not easy being Pete.