Stephen Colbert’s 11-season run behind the “Late Show” desk came to a close last night. And with that, there is one less man in a suit to watch on late-night television.
For the better part of a half-century, the suited late-night host has been one of TV’s stubborn constants. Even as America has undergone a great style make-under — as chief executives have discarded their ties, and half-zip sweaters supplanted blazers in corporate life — you could still rely on the impish late-night host in a dark suit. He is the jester clad like a diplomat. The comforting clown who dressed like a litigator.
Colbert hewed to the stock uniform of late-night hosts: dark suit, pressed white shirt and unremarkable tie. The outfit was so vital to the job that suits became a topic during his protracted farewell tour.
“What are you going to do about all of your suits?” Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night compatriot, asked Colbert on a recent episode of “Strike Force Five,” a limited run podcast featuring five late-night hosts, including Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver. (Currently, all major late-night hosts are middle-aged white men.)
“Originally, they said I couldn’t have any,” replied Colbert, whose show CBS announced in July that it would cancel, citing financial reasons. The plan then was for the suits to be sold for charity, but eventually, Colbert said, the network relented. “I’m giving them to a bunch of people,” he said, including his two adult sons. “I’ve got like 18 tuxedos at this point.”
Would-be takers won’t find much variety in Colbert’s surfeit of suits. His jackets were always single-breasted, and most of them were dark blue, with some gray peppered in. A recent charity auction revealed that his wardrobe included suits from Zegna and Giorgio Armani. Some were faintly striped or checked, but still, there was not much raffish about them.
It’s easy to forget that the late-night look was not always so uniform. Johnny Carson was the resident rake of ’70s TV. He wore French cuff shirts with gumball-size gold cuff links and sharkskin sport jackets with flyaway peak lapels.
“Probably no performer in the modern era has had as much impact on style trends as Johnny Carson,” The New York Times reported in 1972, in an article about Johnny Carson Apparel, Inc., which sold suits and sport coats in the image of Carson’s wardrobe. That year, its sales totaled $35 million, which would be around $275 million today.
For his first episode of “Late Night” in 1982, David Letterman came out dressed in a checkered blazer and wide striped tie. But by the time he hit “The Late Show” 11 years later, he was in a solid colored suit and his tie was mildly more modest.
Indeed, as the suit increasingly became a totem of stodgy conventionality, late-night hosts began to view it as a sort of tool. Their crispy, somber-shaded tailoring clashed with their sardonic personas. It wasn’t quite a gag itself, but alongside the wood-paneled desk and faux cityscape backdrop, the suit become a key ingredient of the late-night recipe. It was a way to lull viewers in, to comfort them even. After a workday, they could tune in and find a paternal figure dressed in an unobtrusive manner, whose job it was to offer some humor before bedtime.
Some hosts have attempted to buck convention. Jimmy Kimmel initially clung to the sophomoric schlub image he’d honed on the sketch comedy series “The Man Show.” But, by his third season, Kimmel succumbed to the suit-and-tie standards of his late-night forefathers. As The Times noted, “This went against his original regular-guy approach, but it seemed more welcoming to a wider range of viewers.” There are two key outliers today. Greg Gutfeld on Fox News is known for his polos and tees, and Seth Meyers gave up the suit during the pandemic, part of a broader retooling of his show’s format. (He still wore a dark suit for the taping of “Strike Force Five,” aligning with his co-hosts.)
Colbert perhaps understood the straight-man image better than any of his friendly rivals in late night. After a tenure as a correspondent on “The Daily Show,” Colbert became the host of “The Colbert Report,” adopting the persona of a pompous conservative pundit in dark suits and primary-colored ties. Brooks Brothers was the official provider of Colbert’s suits for the show, even creating a custom camo suit for the host’s visit to Iraq in 2009.
When Colbert arrived at CBS in 2015, he dropped the character but kept the suit. In his “Late Night” debut, he wore a blue suit, white shirt and dotted red tie. His extra-long finale last night was emotional and mirthful, with special guests including Paul McCartney, Jon Batiste and Bryan Cranston, and when it was over, Colbert, in his suit, signed off for good. It may not have been how Colbert would’ve wanted his late night legacy to end. But he still dressed the part.
Jacob Gallagher is a Times reporter covering fashion and style.
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