Ronald Reagan’s Suit Designer Talks Dressing Presidents and Now Dennis Quaid in ‘Reagan’
Most bespoke suits take weeks to make after several fittings. In the case of Dennis Quaid and his wardrobe for the movie “Reagan,” the process was significantly accelerated.
Rick Pallack, the longtime Los Angeles-based custom tailor to the stars, said he got a call from producer Mark Joseph, a one-time CNN anchor who Pallack had dressed in those days, asking him to create the wardrobe for the lead actor in the movie he’d spent 18 years developing.
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“I got a call four years ago at the height of COVID,” Pallack recalled. Joseph had remained a friend and asked Pallack if he could create a custom wardrobe for Quaid to wear in the film — and he needed it in three weeks.
Undeterred by the short amount of time, Pallack immediately got on board. “Dennis wasn’t even in town, he was with his band up in Alaska,” he said. “So I got his wife to take a tape measurer and give his sizes to me.” Pallack created a custom try-on suit in three days and when Quaid was back in L.A. over Labor Day weekend, they had their one-and-only fitting. “Then he was off to Oklahoma to film,” Pallack said.
During that meeting, Pallack also filled Quaid in about Ronald Reagan whom he had dressed when the president returned to California after his term ended. “Dennis had never met Reagan so I shared things about his sartorial style,” Pallack said. “The way he dressed was flawless. Everything he wore was true custom bespoke — he was definitely our best-dressed president. He always had the prefect dimple in his tie, he only wore single-breasted, two-button suits and button-fly pants. And everything was made from English fabrics that were heavier and stiffer so he always looked perfect.”
He continued: “I didn’t know him when he was president, but when he came back to Los Angeles. He loved talking to me about his custom wardrobe.”
In order to replicate that wardrobe as closely as possible, Pallack said he personally called the mills in England where he had gotten the fabrics for Reagan’s original suits. “They were closed because of COVID and because it was August,” he recalled. But he was able to convince the mill owners to search out and ship him the right piece goods.
“We made everything in two weeks,” Pallack said.
Because the film is a period piece, following the future president from his childhood in Illinois through his years in Hollywood to the Oval Office, Pallack created suits with silhouettes popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
All told, he said he probably created 20 suits and 20 shirts — created from Reagan’s original custom shirt pattern: monogrammed on the body with the initials RWR, a low, vanishing collar and French cuffs. Because Quaid was often waving in the film, Pallack was asked to redo the shirts so the cuffs reached to the bottom of his wrist. “So we cut off all the cuffs and made them an inch longer,” he said with a laugh.
The neckwear in the film came from Pallack’s personal archives from the 1980s and he also created Reagan’s ubiquitous white pocket squares.
Pallack credits his staff at his atelier for pulling off the feat and is happy with how the final product turned out.
“The movie is absolutely terrific,” he said. “Dennis turns into Ronald Reagan and Penelope Ann Miller, who plays Nancy Reagan, was actually better than the real Nancy.”
Pallack said the former president had an “extraordinary life and journey” that is chronicled in the film. “But it’s not a political movie,” he said. “It’s a love story. Without Nancy, he would have been a game show host.”
Pallack attended the premiere at the original Grauman’s Chinese Theater last week where some of his suits were on display along with pieces created for the other characters in the film, he said. His credit in the film read: Mr. Quaid’s wardrobe designed by Rick Pallack.
The custom tailor said Reagan — the real thing — was one of seven presidents he has dressed over the course of his career. He proudly keeps personal notes he has received from George Bush, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford as well as celebrities ranging from Pierce Brosnan and Sylvester Stallone to Frank Sinatra.
In addition to his custom atelier, Pallack also offers golf, tennis and resort wear as well as other off-the-rack collections.
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