Since When Did Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye Get All the Cool Jackets?
Marvel doesn't like to mess around with its cash cows – sorry, characters. Not visually, anyway. Despite a grand total of 21 actors talcum powdering themselves into the famous Spider-Man morph suit, the boyish (if not slightly annoying) superhero is nigh on identical to his comic book counterpart. The same for Black Widow, with her lick of red hair, and black leather catsuit in-office uniform that was clearly designed by someone who has never had to work in a black leather catsuit. The same for Iron-Man, the same for Thor, the same for Captain America: they appear on-screen as Stan Lee intended.
But not Hawkeye. No. Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye was never afforded such a dignity. In his 2D days, the Avengers answer to Robin Hood couldn't have endured a more dramatic change, going from a purple Prince of Thieves puss-in-boots to sleeveless Moldovan Eurovision entry. Neither were particularly cool, but the costume department, well they'd done Renner pretty badly..
One can assume said costume designer with an axe to grind has moved on. During filming for Hawkeye, Disney+'s standalone TV series that gives Marvel's resident Agincourt cosplayer his own spinoff, Renner was pictured in one notable jacket. It is a good jacket. It is a classic jacket. Because this boxy, pleasingly beat-up field jacket is the sort you can wear again, and again, and again, and with pretty much anything.
So, like Renner deftly proves, above other workwear-y bits: stompy boots, dark jeans, corduroy etc. It's the stuff seemingly everyone in Manhattan's East Village owns. That's because they look really good in it.
Look closer, though, and this isn't just a one-off. Hawkeye doesn't just split apples from 100m away to the oohs and ahhs of drunken party guests. He also deploys the two-jacket method: a safe, smart way to keep warm, and one that allows some airtime for a second autumnal favourite. Mixing textures adds depth, which is good layering, which means you too should slot denim under corduroy, or over shirts under worker jackets.
Of course, Hawkeye is in its early stages of filming. Anything could happen! But after the implosion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Galactus lost his head during the Infinity Civil Ultron Armada War (or... something like that?), Renner's archer has emerged from the primordial soup a better, smarter, sharper superhero. No talcum powder necessary.
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