Can the Camel Coat in Anora Please Sit Down?
What happens when you're just some neutral outerwear in a sea of loud Versace bathrobes.
If you haven’t yet seen Anora, the below post has no spoilers, everything discussed is in the synopsis or part of the trailer.
Sometimes the most iconic outfit from a movie isn’t the one you would wear. And sometimes the most iconic line in a movie isn’t the one that everyone quotes. In Anora, the outfit everyone overlooks is the subject of my favorite line no one ever mentions.
“Who’s this man in the camel coat?? Who are you sir??”
Ani, Igor, Ivan and Toros are all sitting in a courtroom in Tribeca, where they have all been gathered by Toros, in hopes of getting Ani and Ivan’s marriage annulled. They arrive before the sun has risen and sleep in a Cadillac outside before emerging in the most deranged arrangement of outerwear.
Ani is in her Brighton Beach Best, a black fur coat Ivan took her shopping for—which she points out is made of Russian sabel, not mink. Igor is in an innocuous black puffer coat. Ivan is wearing a one-of-one oversized navy sweatshirt covered in cartoons airbrushed by Brooklyn-based artist Atticus Torre; with a wide-open mouth and crossed eyes, the illustration mimics his alcohol and drug induced haze while framing his exposed clavicles—he obviously is not wearing a shirt underneath. Toros is wearing a camel coat, which he slipped into after changing out of his priest robe earlier in the film, when he is interrupted mid-christening by a call that his boss’s young son has married an exotic dancer.
He also has a large distinguishable birthmark on his right cheek. He is a brunette. He rises from his seat in the pews to grab Ani and Ivan by the crooks of their elbows, attempting to move quietly but with the wary haste of a kidnapper. There are so many other ways to call him out, so many other things the judge could latch onto as he asks him to remove himself from the situation. He could also just say, “Who’s this man?” And yet in his eyes he is not just a man. He is a man in a camel coat.
Ani looks back at Toros as he comes for her arm and points her manicured acrylic nail right at his face, “Do not fucking touch me.”
And then the judge chimes in, “Who’s this man in the camel coat?!”
In the theater, that really made me laugh out loud. There is so much insanity to what is currently unfolding. Ivan is grabbing at his crotch with the limpness of a corpse before raising his hand. Ani waves away the claims of their union being inauthentic by exclaiming “Duress my ass” as the sparkly hair extensions glimmer in her straight jet black hair. When she mentions her husband is intoxicated, Toros rises again and says “Your honor objection” before the judge snaps back, “Camel coat sit down.”
Not sir, not even Mr. Camel Coat…just Camel Coat.
Toros is a Orthodox priest and the enforcer of a Russian oligarch. But in that moment he is reduced to a man with an affinity for classic, neutral outerwear. At one point the judge even refers to him as “Camel Man.”
His outfit is the antithesis of everything else happening in the movie, which is set in Brighton Beach. As someone from the outer boroughs1, I was told I would love the gaudy tackiness Anora tapped into and I did. Ani’s wardrobe consists of impersonation Herve Leger bandage dresses2, shimmering hoops, and a strapless corset top tucked into high-waisted ripped denim booty shorts. At one point Ivan and her share a kiss overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in matching Versace robes.
But that’s what makes the camel coat call out so deeply funny. It’s so normal. So unassuming. So everything most of the wardrobe in the film isn’t. In a sea of chaos, Toros is a camel coat, trying to restore normalcy in a situation that feels out of his control. Ani’s fur coat and large diamond ring represent the wealth she associates with finally making it and living the life she deserves. Ivan’s basketball shorts worn with a blazer (once again, while shirtless) at the altar, loud designer monogrammed jeans and baggy ostentatious streetwear show that he’s ultimately still a brash child with little sense of self. And Toro’s camel coat, the only thing we see him wear outside of his papal garb, is grounded in a sense of normalcy he’s trying so hard to grasp onto and restore for everyone else.
Whereas others are defined by their fanatical choices, he is defined by how out of place he looks. When the judge sees an intoxicated newlywed with his hairless chest peeking out from under his cartoon covered hoodie and his fiery wife in a long black mink coat with tall black leather heeled boots, Toros doesn’t even seem like he could be an extra in their reality. And so in that moment he’s defined by his camel coat, the item which sets him entirely apart from the rest in that moment, even if it would drown him in anonymity anywhere else.
And so, I just love that line. I hear it on repeat when I see someone in a camel coat. It’s a reminder that sometimes the clothing that defines us isn’t the loudest or quirkiest. Sometimes you are nothing but a camel coat. And that’s kinda funny.
And On That Note, What Camel Coats Would The Cast of Anora Wear?
Ani would wear this Ser.O.Ya dulcette coat because it’s sophisticated, with fabric that swirls around the torso and a shortened length that also makes it sexy enough for her to gravitate towards. Or she’d make Ivan buy her one by Gucci with monogrammed lapels (he’d probably end up picking up this cardigan while he’s there). Originally I thought maybe she’d wear the sue cropped jacket by Khaite, but the brand is definitely not on her radar—although it would be something she’d look cute in, paired with some tall black boots by Balenciaga or Acne.
Ivan would simply never wear a longer coat, but he would wear this camel Amiri bomber jacket while making jokes to his friends that the leaves on the back look like weed. Igor doesn’t ever go shopping for new things but he’s sentimental—he smiles with pride when he tells Ani his car is actually his grandmother’s—so he’d hold onto something secondhand passed down from a family member and wear that because of the memory attached and less for the look itself.
And Thank You…And Some Things To Look Forward To!
The response to this newsletter has been so incredible and so much more than I was anticipating at the onset! I am so excited to keep working on it for all of you and your enthusiasm about this it is so exciting to me. It makes me giddy. Like…I’m kicking my feet right now and giggling just thinking about it.
As for what you can look forward to this month…White Lotus starts tonight (!!!), and you can expect weekly fashion dispatches every Monday from me in addition to the weekly send about something else. I also have an interview with the show's costume designer, Alex Bovaird, coming out this week too! We had a great chat and I cannot wait for all of you to see.
*I grew up in Astoria, Queens, home to me and my family and an unnamed club underneath the N train and next to a Burger King with a red carpet, a velvet rope and strict dress code—which I visited while underage. One of those times, my boyfriend was turned away from the door for wearing shorts in the summer (they were nice shorts) but many men with torn acid wash jeans and long sleeve Ed Hardy shirts were allowed in instead. I told the bouncer, “But ripped skinny jeans are okay?” only to realize he too was wearing ripped skinny jeans. (We did not make it in and never returned).
There’s a video circulating where Mikey Madison states the blue bandage dress was the costume designer assistant’s old prom dress, which wasn’t actually Hervé Léger. It being fake makes it even more historically accurate in this context.