• September 18, 2000
• Vol. 54
• No. 12

Bruce Willis

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From PEOPLE Magazine

FORGET THAT Sixth Sense. As our judges see it, what Bruce Willis needs is a fashion sense–the sense not to wear clothes that don't fit and never to pair a topcoat with sneakers and jeans. "If you ever see me with these outfits on, don't get mad," says singer Sisqó. "I'm just following the legends. But it ain't right." For starters, says Comedy Central's Ben Stein, Willis, 45, "doesn't need to wear the baseball hats. He looks far more intelligent and distinguished without them." Designer Elie Tahari suspects that the 6-ft. actor just doesn't care how he looks. "Clothes don't seem to mean much to him," he says. The sales staff of the Giorgio Armani boutique Willis shopped at in Munich earlier this year might disagree. But as our panelists note, not even $20 million per picture–or $3,000 per designer suit–can buy a man style. "Bruce was a bartender from New Jersey and I love him," says model Mia Tyler. "But this hasn't been a good year for him."

The gangster suit Willis wore to the L.A. premiere of The Whole Nine Yards in February was too much–literally. "The jacket is too big and the sleeves are way too long," says Sisqó. Elie Tahari agrees: "It's too baggy." And from one follicularly challenged fella to another, Ben Stein advises losing the hat: "It makes him look like a guy trying to hide his hair loss."

Can anyone say "yech" en francais Willis was judged the opposite of chic at the Planet Hollywood in Paris last fall. "The leather jacket with the hat?" says Ben Stein. "No, sorry." The leather jacket sans hat? "No," says Elie Tahari. "He looks like he's wearing his little brother's clothes." Adds Sisqó: "Shoulder pads–man, that's bad."

Willis looks like he lost a fight with his washer and dryer, says Elie Tahari, of the "old clothes" the actor showed up in at Manhattan's Planet Hollywood last October, "He dried his shirt and the sleeves shrunk." So did the rest of the outfit. "That shirt's too tight, the pants are too tight, even the shoes look too tight," says Sisqó, "You can tell because of those big bows."

Our judges can't figure out Willis's slick style at the Manhattan premiere of The Story of Us last fall. "What an awful suit," declares Mia Tyler. "It doesn't look like it even fits him. It's pulling all over." Sisqó thinks the actor's "Moonlighting look is dated." As does Elie Tahari: "The jacket is from the '80s, with the big shoulders. It's too Wall Street." And at the same time, not Wall Street enough, scolds Ben Stein: "He should be wearing a necktie."