I talked to someone on an imdb board about this. From a film perspective, Tyler needs to look flashy. It does make him more attractive to the eye, which is the effect of the filmmakers and Tyler's goal, of attracting men to fight club, which is something a greasy, grimy schmuck wouldn't be able to do. Interesting how, in the Bible, it states somewhere that Jesus had 'no attractive qualities'.

Tyler said, "every way you wish you could be . . .that's me. i look like you want to look. i fuck like you want to fuck, i am smart, capable, and more importantly, i am free in all the ways that you are not."

Tyler is what Jack wants for himself, he wants to be flash and cool in a way. also Tyler was made to look like Jack wants. everything he wears is something Jack might have seen and thought, cool!

or I'm completely off base.

[QUOTE=d.palmetto;995576]Tyler said, "every way you wish you could be . . .that's me. i look like you want to look. i fuck like you want to fuck, i am smart, capable, and more importantly, i am free in all the ways that you are not."

Tyler is what Jack wants for himself, he wants to be flash and cool in a way. also Tyler was made to look like Jack wants. everything he wears is something Jack might have seen and thought, cool!

or I'm completely off base.[/QUOTE]

No, I think you are completely right. Tyler is the handsome, cool, sleek guy that The Narrator wants him to be. Since he is basically the inner mind of The Narrator, and all, he takes on all of those qualities.

In the book, at least, Tyler gets all his clothing by stealing from Lost & Found bins.

since Tyler is the product of what the narrator wants for himself, he is bound to be a bit of a contradiction, because hardly anyone's ideals are entirely consistent.

:sombrero:

Si senor! Mr. Durden est loco!

[QUOTE=Spike;995589]In the book, at least, Tyler gets all his clothing by stealing from Lost & Found bins.[/QUOTE]

Or laundromats -- which i highly recommend to take the ones that are getting dried

:147:

[QUOTE=meditate;995569]Tyler Durden seems to have anti-materialism values as recognized in such quotes as:

“Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.”

“You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”

“We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.”

My question is, why is Tyler Durden seen wearing a retro leather jacket, a silk buttoned down collared shirt, sunglasses, black slacks, and tan loafers when he preaches against that kind of life style? Even when the narrator comes to the realization that they are the same person and Tyler takes on a new appearance, he is still seen in expensive and unneeded attire.[/QUOTE]

The thing everyone here is missing is that the way he looks didn't used to be cool. Now, because of Fight Club and a hundred other movies, looking like a consignment store mannequin is the in thing to do. Cause if you break down what he wears through out the whole movie it is either made to last - which keeps to his word of resisting consumerism - or it could be found in the bottom of a bin at Goodwill or Sal's Army. Which also illustrates his idea of not paying more money into the Titanic. The look, the style, the ideals of not caring what he looks like all show very plainly in Tyler Durden. It just happened to be that Brad Pitt - the guy all of us would use for the bases of a better looking us - can make anything look hip, expensive and cool.

Tyler represents who Jack wants to be. His opposite, being anti-materialist, and a damn good looking guy

[QUOTE=wolfer;1005895]The thing everyone here is missing is that the way he looks didn't used to be cool. Now, because of Fight Club and a hundred other movies, looking like a consignment store mannequin is the in thing to do. Cause if you break down what he wears through out the whole movie it is either made to last - which keeps to his word of resisting consumerism - or it could be found in the bottom of a bin at Goodwill or Sal's Army. Which also illustrates his idea of not paying more money into the Titanic. The look, the style, the ideals of not caring what he looks like all show very plainly in Tyler Durden. It just happened to be that Brad Pitt - the guy all of us would use for the bases of a better looking us - can make anything look hip, expensive and cool.[/QUOTE]
:gay:

Is this the next Bourne movie? The Tyler Durden Hypocrisy?

ANARKEE!

[RIGHT][RIGHT][SIZE=1][COLOR=DarkSlateGray]o[/COLOR][/SIZE][/RIGHT][/RIGHT]

[QUOTE=bigshrimpn;1005966]:gay:[/QUOTE]

Wow. you're a douche.

[QUOTE=wolfer;1006840]Wow. you're a douche.[/QUOTE]Just joking dude. Calm down. I am a douche, but not because of my post. I'm a douche for this...

:crackhead <------ Wolfer

Oh, and you misspelled [I]basis[/I].

:banana:

This is off topic but why did 'Jack' stick as the name? In the book it was Joe, why not Joe?

[QUOTE=ElStevo;1006853]This is off topic but why did 'Jack' stick as the name? In the book it was Joe, why not Joe?[/QUOTE]:offtopic: :dance:

Got me there Big. I can't type for shit with one hand.

These chicks don't even know the name of my band,
But they're all on me like they want to hold hands.

Durden is the modern man.

I doubt that Jack really wishes he could wear a tattered pink bathrobe.

“I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.”

If someone told me that they wanted to look like me, I would assume they meant physical attributes. Tyler is an athletic, blue eyed, blond haired man. Jack has the typical middle class American physique: brown hair, blue eyes, thin with little muscle definition. I don’t think Tyler actually means “I dress like you would like to dress”.

[QUOTE=meditate;1008413]I doubt that Jack really wishes he could wear a tattered pink bathrobe.

“I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable, and most importantly, I am free in all the ways that you are not.”

If someone told me that they wanted to look like me, I would assume they meant physical attributes. Tyler is an athletic, blue eyed, blond haired man. Jack has the typical middle class American physique: brown hair, blue eyes, thin with little muscle definition. I don’t think Tyler actually means “I dress like you would like to dress”.[/QUOTE]

Jack always had on office cloth and Tyler was in fashion, if jack created Tyler in a portrait he wished he was, you of course have to count the cloth as part of the whole i want to become this! idea,

[QUOTE=meditate;1008413]I doubt that Jack really wishes he could wear a tattered pink bathrobe.
[/QUOTE]

He does, society just tells him he doesn't so he thinks he doesn't. Just like his attraction to Marla. Not a girl impress the father he doesn't have, so he doesn't like her.

Joe is from Reader's Digest, and they threatened legal action if they used the name.

And guy making fun of Wolfer, interesting reply, but you could have done without pointing out the spelling error. It's an internet forum. Perfection-free zone.

Why does everyone asume good looking clothes are expensive? Everything tyler wears is shit you could find at thrift shops, flea markets and pawn shops. Which is where i bought all my shit as well.

Im not as outrageous as tyler though.

you wear other people's thrift hand me down for sale underwear?

[QUOTE=UbikRex;1016126]you wear other people's thrift hand me down for sale underwear?[/QUOTE]
Actually i buy my underwear in bulk. Like 20 black boxer briefs. 20 bucks.

I thought it was ironic how they made fun of the CK model when brad pitt has a body just like that

He is what he wants to be, a flashy smart athletic guy. But although he hates material things, he still has that everything Jack wants to be thing going on. So he tries maintain this anti-material stare while keeping his charisma.

It's because a movie is different than a book. A movie has a fashion coordinator designed to create a lasting impression -- a book has an anti-consumerism guy who steals out of bins. Also, if you look at his clothes in the movie, they all could be seen in the bottom of a lost and found pile.

The other reason that Tyler can get away with it is that he's defining his own personal life-style, not being taken over by a seperate Martha Stewart life-style.

Everyone elses' theories are true too, though, by my calculations.

you guys are missing the silver lining here...(seriously no pun) tyler does not exist. therefor he cannot be a hypocrite.

"i look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I am smart, capable and most importantly, I am free in everyway you are not"

He does look flashy in the book as well as the movie but the movie makes it more obvious, like previously stated, because of brad pitt. Which isnt a bad thing, it is driving the point that the narrator (who is nameless in the book) wants to look like this and be capable of throwing those clothese away at any moment. It adds to the appeal, the image of Tyler Durden is more seductful than if he looked like a homeless guy...would you create that image in your head? He wanted the opposite of the white button up shirt, grey/black pants and tie he wore EVERY day and he justifies this lifestyle with these teachings by having tyler get them from thrift shops. Similar qualities with marla, she is dressed for a tragedy making her life such a dark comedy.

"i got this dress from a thrift shop for $1 Somebody loved it for one day and then tossed it"

at least thats what i got from it, ive been wrong plenty of times before

I think this is a good line because you always have to remember that (at least to me) Fight Club isn't just about saying "fuck the man". More importantly, as exemplified in the Robert K. Hessle scene, Fight Club is about choosing your own life rather than being succumbed into template lifestyles.

I love that scene because if you analyze it, Tyler is making Robert K. Hessle go back to school and become a responsible citizen of America, which contradicts Tyler's beliefs. Therefore, all Tyler really wants is for people to take control of their lives. To prove that with enough determination, you could do anything, such as destroy history or bring the nation back to ground zero.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.

"My eyes are open..."

 While sitting under a bodhi tree the buddha was approached by a man. The Man asked "Are you a god?" Buddha said "No". The man asked "Are you a Man?" Buddha replied "No". "are you a magician?" "No". "Well what are you?" The buddha replied "I AM AWAKE"

I'm probably restating redundant points but I'm far too lazy to read more than a few previous points. Firstly, as stated, Tyler was everything the narrator wishes he could be, rather than a pushover in a 9 to 5 office job. Also Giggan, I may be misreading your point, but remember, Tyler only looks like Tyler to the narrator. Everyone else is seeing the "Edward Norton" character. He did, however, need to look flasy to the narrator in order for this alternate persona and the overconfidance associated with it to be believable as a seperate entity.

Ugh. I'm rambling.

As said promptly above,

“You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.”

Everyone plays the part, he is just showing in retrospect, being that "he" does not exist, no matter how or what you do you can't get away from anything corporate. The world is overrun. We all cease to exist.

There's plenty of things you can do to get away from all things corporate.

True, but everything has a name behind it, everything has a label.

I always thought Tyler's style of dress was just what he thought was cool. It certainly goes against all the clean-cut designer ensembles the narrator wears, a style Tyler considers "effeminate". His clothes for most of the movie look like a typical male douchebag searching through bargain bins for anything he thought looked tough. "A T-shirt that says 'Hustler'? I gotta have this!"
And then when the narrator realizes Tyler is in his imagination, I think Tyler appears to Jack with fancy bad-ass sunglasses and nice fur coats and everything because the narrator has realized that all this anti-consumerist bullshit doesn't matter, it was just a distraction, and the only thing that matters is his own awareness that Tyler is an unrealistic ideal of the perfect paternal man in his life, and as such he appears to the narrator as flamboyantly well-dressed.
Also, I just find it really ironic that Tyler Durden no doubt hated Brad Pitt for the stupid wealth-obsessed escapist culture he represented. I mean, Tyler has that line talking about the guys in fight club being told they would all grow up to become "millionaires and movie gods", when of course that very line of dialogue was being spoken by a millionaire movie god.

I agree; Tyler's clothing visually manifests Jack's perception of what Tyler stands for. In the beginning of his friendship with Jack, Tyler is dressed as the ultra-"macho" epitome of fashion-transcending grunge. Once Jack is disillusioned by Tyler's preoccupation with anti-wealth, the glorified male icon is reduced to a flamboyant (good word, VC) and senselessly self-indulgent entity. Tyler's later inclination to down-right showy clothes manifest his obsession with making statements instead of meaning them.

What do you guys think about the symbolism behind the black investigator? I think its kind of like a role reversal, you know, the black guy hunting down the white guy. Chuck is such a racist, am I right?

QFT.

Most of what Pitt wore in the film was 20 year old thriftstore finds.

I don't know if anyone has expressed this idea yet because I didn't take the time to read all of the posts, but Tyler could be dressed like that because, really, symbollically, Tyler became at the end of the book what he rallied against. He was against consumerism, religion, and government because they all made people into sheep. People just went along their happy way doing whatever "noraml" society told them to do. Tyler is dressed in "designer" clothing because, after he started Project Mayhem and became powerful, he was the one telling everyone how to live their lives. All the members of Project Mayhem followed his orders to the letter without question, except Jack. That could be why Tyler dresses the way he does. Just a thought here.

HIS NAME IS NOT JACK!!!

My roommate, however, is called Jack.

His name was Robert Paulsen
His name was Robert Paulsen
His name was Robert Paulsen
His name was Robert Paulsen

I don't know why or what triggers it but I just start chanting it like a damn monkey waiting to be shot into space. (this made no sense)

STOP CALLING ME WARREN, MY NAME ISN'T FUCKING WARREN!!!

I
AM
BEOWULF!!!!!

Jesus, I am sorry. The narrator, if that makes you feel better. Jack is just what most people call him. Christ allmighty.

"In the world I see - you are stalking elk through the damp canyon forests around the ruins of Rockefeller Center. You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life. You'll climb the wrist-thick kudzu vines that wrap the Sears Tower. And when you look down, you'll see tiny figures pounding corn, laying strips of venison on the empty car pool lane of some abandoned superhighway."

I pasted the whole line from IMDB. But the line I'm thinking of is "You'll wear leather clothes that will last you the rest of your life" Tyler dressed for function, it just so happened to be fashionable.

THIS...

IS....

SPARRRRTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

(somebody had to do it)