Letters: Dressing Robert Redford

For almost 30 years I designed Roffe skiwear—all made in downtown Seattle. During the 1970s and ’80s, Roffe supplied Robert Redford with a new outfit every year—always black. (He was a size 31 long in stretch pants.)

This is the drawing of the suit he is wearing from the 1978–79 Roffe order form, which includes the custom design details: “black with red piping across the Western yoke and on top edge of the collar.”

The suit was made of a new type of fabric: a woven stretch nylon from Schoeller Textil in Switzerland. The jacket’s retail price was $105, the same as the ski pants.

In the movie Downhill Racer, Redford wore a simple shell I designed for Roffe. The front was made from 70-denier coated nylon. Because the shell had to be slim fitting yet with enough stretch to allow the wearer to ski in a full tuck, the back was made of thick wool, while Dacron and Lycra two-way stretch fabric went across the shoulders. (Four-way stretch fabric had not yet been created.)

The photos for the advertisements that Roffe ran in the ski magazines in the fall of 1978 were shot at Redford’s Sundance resort. He let us stay in his old house, and he gave me a tour of his new house, built overlooking the ski area and Mt. Timpanogos.

Redford and Paul Newman were very close friends off the screen. On a Newman visit they would sit in Redford’s music room equipped with a super sound system and a small fridge with a beer tap. They listened to music, drank beer and bathed their faces in bowls of ice cubes, believing it helped keep them facially perfect.

They often pranked each other. On one visit, they went for a spin in Redford’s new Porsche. When they stopped at a gas station, Newman headed for the restroom. Redford took off. The attendant was suspicious about this abandonment. Newman was left trying to convince the fellow that he really was Paul Newman. Redford thought it great fun. He didn’t tell me how long it was before he came back to get Newman. 

Wini Jones
Vice President, ISHA Board of Directors
Bainbridge Island, Washington

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