John Malkovich Is My Venice Film Festival Fashion King

If you’ve ever seen Dangerous Liaisons—and if you haven’t, stop reading this and rent it on Apple TV immediately—then you’re aware that John Malkovich wears clothes very well. I personally remember watching it as a teenager and swooning over the Vicomte de Valmont in his powdered wigs and embroidered rococo waistcoats and silk cravats, seducing Uma Thurman and Michelle Pfeiffer not just with his predatory charisma but also through the peacocking flamboyance of his outfits.

Real Malkovich heads, though, know his eye for fashion is even more powerful off the silver screen. The actor studied costuming as part of his college degree, and in the early days of his career he worked in the wardrobe department of the legendary Steppenwolf Theater Company in Chicago. He’s a lifelong collector of rare and vintage textiles, which he later repurposed when designing for his very own brand, the delightfully named Technobohemian, which operated during the early 2010s. And he’s a favorite of the high-fashion world too—long before it became de rigueur for celebrities to trot down the runway, Malkovich walked for Rei Kawakubo’s Comme des Garçons all the way back in 1989, and later appeared in Prada’s very first menswear campaign in 1995.

Anyway, enough with the history lesson: What I’m really here to tell you is that, on the red carpet at this Venice Film Festival, it’s all about the divine Mr. M. The 72-year-old actor is in town to promote his latest film, Wild Horse Nine, a Martin McDonagh–directed caper set on Easter Island in the months leading up to the 1973 Chilean coup d’état, in which Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play world-weary CIA agents who strike up an unlikely friendship with a pair of young left-wing students. (I was lucky enough to catch a screening of it this morning on the Lido, and I can confirm, it’s a banger—not least thanks to Malkovich’s hilarious and heart-wrenching performance, which will surely see him leapfrog right to the front of next year’s race for the best actor Oscar.)

While in Venice, Malkovich has stepped out in a series of killer looks. In a snap shared by his stylist Jeanne Yang, he can be seen whizzing down the Grand Canal on a water taxi in a Hodakova shirt with an extra pair of sleeves attached to the shoulders, which he artfully draped across the boat’s lacquered mahogany roof.

At today’s press conference, he wore a white Bode suit with a retro printed shirt and a 1950s-inspired crossover tie—a brand that feels like a perfect match for Malkovich’s personal fascination with vintage prints and textiles—paired with a set of kilim rug mules designed by the Los Angeles rug dealership King Kennedy.

And tonight at the premiere, Malkovich (respectfully) had that shit on, wearing a loose-fitting black suit with a pleated cream shirt that featured a frilly collar resembling an Elizabethan neck ruff. Think Shakespeare if he slayed.

It’s my favorite look of the festival so far—not only because it reminds me a little of those fabulous lace jabots he wore in Dangerous Liaisons, but also because it’s such a clear expression of Malkovich’s very specific, and brilliantly idiosyncratic, eye for style.

In a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, Malkovich spoke about why, exactly, he’s held a lifelong fascination with the art of clothing. “That’s all we have, is our view of the world and our style,” he said, before adding: “Style is the only constant in life.” Within a landscape of stars wearing outlandish outfits solely to fulfil their brand contract obligations—and often looking a little uncomfortable while doing so—it’s refreshing to see someone wearing an outré look and clearly having a grand old time wearing that outré look. To put it in familiar terms: He’s just being John Malkovich.