The Costumes in 'Air' Feature '80s Armani Power Suits, Vintage Windbreakers and, Yes, Lots of Sneakers

“It’s not a Nike ad,” says costume designer Charlese Antoinette.

The Ben Affleck-directed “Air” chronicles the game-changing (sorry) partnership between Nike and an up-and-coming basketball player named Michael Jordan, but the then-underdog athletic brand and its now-ubiquitous swoop is actually minimally present among the costumes.

“It’s not a Nike ad,” says costume designer Charlese Antoinette. “[The costumes] just needed to really sell that we were in the ’80s. This is the time before Nike became what we know now — before the Jordan brand — and, in my opinion, before it got really cool.”

A nostalgic pop culture and politics montage perfectly captures the mood of 1984, before a series of graphics breaks down the pre-Air Jordan basketball sneaker market. Converse, then sponsoring major stars like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, dominated with 54%, followed by Adidas at 29%. Portland-based Nike claimed a paltry 17%. (Post-Jordan deal, Nike bought Converse for $315 million in 2003. In 2020, the company was valued at $34.8 billion; Adidas was at $12 bill, as the Roy kids would say.)

Reflecting the market and the fashion of the time, Antoinette only featured three Nike footwear styles in the film: the Blazer (the company’s first basketball sneaker, introduced in 1973), the Waffle (its first track shoe) and the jogger-beloved Air Pegasus ’83. She sourced vintage and bought contemporary kicks to age-down and dye to fit the scene. (Nike wasn’t involved in the making of the film.)

Sneakers, as a whole, are only lightly peppered into the costumes because, in the ’80s, even crunchy Portlanders working in the athletic realm wore dress shoes to the office. 

“Everybody is in suiting and business casual,” says Antoinette, who dressed execs like Howard White (Chris Tucker), now vice president of sports marketing for Jordan Brand, in pristine vintage Armani power suits she scored on eBay. 

Nike Creative Director Peter Moore (Matthew Maher) appropriately wears subversively practical Blazers with his dad sweaters and Pacific Northwest plaids. In the throes of a “midlife crisis,” as he says in the film, he skateboards to Nike HQ, where he’ll eventually develop the gleaming Air Jordan 1 prototype in his shoe lab.

It made the most sense for founder and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck) to wear the most Nike gear to the buttoned-up office. “If someone were to be wearing that vibe, it would be [Knight], because he’s testing out new merchandise, products and fabrications,” says Antoinette. “He’s a runner, too.”

Through her research, Antoinette found an interview with the real Nike visionary from the mid-’80s, where he was clad head-to-toe in fuchsia track gear. She was inspired, and custom-built — “completely from scratch” — the hot-pink, blue-paneled running tights, matching shirt, white track jacket and shorts that Affleck’s Knight wears to a brainstorm session where he pitches the Jordan deal. 

“When you actually see him in that gear, it’s a weekend and he comes into the office,” Antoinette says. 

Affleck was also game to wear the statement ‘fit. 

“I showed Ben and I was like, ‘I really want to do this.’ ‘He’s like, ‘Aw, man — well, if Phil wore it, then I have to do it,'” she recalls. “It just was cracking us all up. The fact that he was down was so dope.”

Looking quite content at his desk, Affleck’s Knight also wears a blue, red and black color-blocked Nike windbreaker, accessorized with polarized wraparound sports sunglasses (top). That brief, meme-generating look came through last minute thanks to Antoinette’s keen eye for streetwear and vintage.

“[Affleck] was like, ‘I just came up with this idea for the credits! I need another track suit,'” Antoinette remembers. She quickly considered vintage options that she had sourced and stockpiled for Affleck’s wardrobe. “That one was completely on the fly — and it made it on the poster.”

The unconventional, idealistic ethos of the Nike brand depicted in the film is also reflected in Viola Davis‘s costumes as Michael Jordan’s mother, Deloris. She convinced her 21-year-old son — who was actually gunning for an Adidas deal — to meet with Nike. Deloris ultimately secured the unprecedented profit-sharing Air Jordan partnership, which changed the sports marketing world and greater culture forever. And she dressed the part.

“She had an executive job at a bank in North Carolina, so she was very, very well put-together,” says Antoinette, who studied images and video of the real Deloris. 

For the Jordan family’s meeting with Knight and the Nike team, Antoinette recreated the white pencil skirt suit and turquoise blouse that Deloris wore to the landmark meeting in Portland, following visits to the competition: Converse and Adidas.

“[Her suit is] way more casual,” says Antoinette, who also used the relaxed-bu-polished suit to illustrate the last-minute nature of the meeting and Deloris’ familiarity with Nike basketball expert Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), whom she met earlier. “She just went to huge corporations, so I really wanted that to feel different, because Nike is a little bit scrappier.”

Working backwards from there, Antoinette imagined Deloris power-dressing for her earlier board room discussions with Adidas and Converse. For a meeting with the latter, she wears a vintage black-and-white Armani skirt suit.

“We planned it out to the nines, and really made sure she showed up looking amazing and professional,” says Antoinette. “Particularly, being a Black woman during that time going into these meetings with majority white people, you want to represent yourself in a certain way. She needs to be heard and taken seriously, so her dress was going to reflect the fact that she’s powerful.”

Antoinette also looked to memories of her family, who, like the Jordans, hail from North Carolina. 

“I just remember scarves being a big deal [in the ’80s],” she says, referring to Deloris’s asymmetrically-draped patterned silk (above), secured by a gold leaf pin for the Adidas meeting. “If you had a designer scarf, you would wear them draped like that, with a brooch.”

Sonny first meets Deloris in the most relaxed setting: her home in North Carolina, where he drove to convince her and her son to consider a visit to Portland. Antoinette scanned catalogs from 1978 to 1983, while also pulling from her own fond family memories, for this look, which includes a T-shirt with pastel palm trees, neatly tucked into her drop-waist dark-denim midi skirt (above). 

“I always just remember how important it was when we would travel, and you got a special shirt,” she says. “I grew up in a heavily Christian household, too, so that outfit is directly taken from something that my mom or my grand-mom wore.”

Antoinette would also share her experiences and insight with Affleck, who directly recruited the costume designer after being impressed by her work in “Judas and the Black Messiah.” The actor, director and producer credits Antoinette, along with castmates Tucker and Davis, in helping him craft a film about the story and legacy of a Black sports hero in a way that’s mindful and not appropriative, as a white creator.

“Ben and I would have really awesome conversations almost every morning, and I was really honest with him about how I feel as a Black creative and how I feel about [how] sometimes Black people are portrayed in cinema,” says Antoinette.

In line with the trailblazing Nike-Jordan deal the film depicts, which gave athletes a cut of their branded sportswear sales, Artists Equity — Affleck’s and Damon’s new production company — allows for profit-sharing amongst the movie crew, including costume designers. 

“Ben and Matt have been doing this for so long, I think they understand and appreciate who makes movies happen,” says Antoinette. 

Artists Equity also launches at a time when the Costume Designers Guild of America (IATSE 892) is ramping up its campaigning for pay equity with production designer counterparts.

“We’ve been talking about pay equity and fighting this fight for so long, and it feels like no one wants to give up a piece of their share for whatever reason,” says Antoinette. “I just think it’s cool that [Damon and Affleck are] willing to give up a piece of their share. I hope more companies set up with this model and appreciate more artists below the line.”

‘Air’ opens in theaters on Wednesday, April 5.

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Source: Fashionista.com