The Heat Style Suit

This is the first Miami Vice Month post about tie-less suits, but I'm guessing it won't be the last. When Heat came out in 1995, me and my crew were almost through college, and beginning to think about what professional life would be like. Pondering important career questions like where would the hot chicks go for happy hours, and what clothes would replace our shorts and baseball caps.

Three of us went to check Heat on opening day, and the image of DeNiro's grey suit with no tie tattooed itself on my brain. That was the answer to an office world still dominated by ties -- but ready to fall. And what better way to crumble the establishment than with a three-button suit with no tie. For a boss to call your Heat Style Suit inappropriate would be like a Fox News political correspondent calling Jon Stewart dangerous. It can't be done ... just like Stewart's comedy defines the political melee from above, a tie-less suit is the very aura of professional composure.

It's just a matter of how you carry it. Michael Mann knew this long before Heat and even before he put Don Johnson in white Armani with t-shirts. He kicked off the movement in 1981 with his first movie Thief, in which James Caan pioneered the look. A look that made even Tom Cruise a flawless, focused pro in Collateral. An attitude that turns you into a stepping razor. An outfit that we call Heat Style Suit.