Eddie Murphy’s Latest Look Is Ripe for Appropriation

Will Eddie Murphy and his natty cohort in “Dolemite Is My Name” bring back the double-knit polyester leisure suit?

Don’t bet on it. But what the movie may spawn, in some quarters at least, is yet another round of 1970s-inflected-Afro urban chic.

There is plenty of hustle in Mr. Murphy’s latest film, which arrived in theaters last week and will be on Netflix starting Oct. 25. In this upbeat biography of Rudy Ray Moore, the record store clerk turned entertainer and his stage persona Dolemite, the actor slips nimbly into character. His dapper suits, carnival-stripe bell-bottoms and platform shoes, the winged lapel of his dinner jacket invariably punched with a bright carnation, function as a liberating second skin.

His regalia is matched by the riotous costumes his companions flaunt, their high-crown Homburgs, fur-collared coats and slickly patterned polyester shirts, plumage ripe for the plucking by a novelty-parched style establishment.

Source: The New York Times

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