Style File: NYPD Blue

Slowly working our way through the NYPD Blue back catalogue - currently on Season 2 and I feel I need to comment on the fashion style on the show.

Sipowicz may have been a style icon for a certain type of man. He is mentioned in the Simpson's when Marge tells Homer he shouldn't wear a tie with a short-sleeved shirt and he responds that Sipowicz does. In Seinfeld, George apparently has a picture of Sipowicz behind a door in his apartment. As I said, he inspires a certain type of man - stocky and fictional.

My main fashion interest in NYPD Blue lies elsewhere, with the glamorous secretary Donna Abandando. Her hair, make-up and demeanour are 1950s starlet, whereas her wardrobe is usually pure 80s (the show was filmed in the 90s). I look forward to each new episode to see what garish coloured knitwear or blouse she will be wearing.

Hers is not a look to be copied nor envied, but nonetheless it has a certain charm.

Familiar Names and Faces

My aunt dated a man called John Kelly for years. He was a committment-phobic window-cleaner with an idiot brother and mullet.

This association has coloured my perspective of the first series of NYPD Blue where the main character is called John Kelly. NYPD Blue's John Kelly is quite different from my aunt's John Kelly, although both seem to consider themselves a hit with the ladies, for reasons beyond my comprehension.

NYPD Blue's John Kelly is also played by David Caruso, never my favourite CSI actor. Here he is younger and more carrot-topped (all that Florida sunshine seems to have lightened his hair). He is less prone to staring off into the distance, but he still fails to charm me and everytime another character mentions his name, I expect my aunt's former beau to appear.

Still this isn't enough to spoil NYPD Blue for me. Dennis Franz as Sipowicz is a tour de force and the supporting characters of Martinez and Medavoy are great too. And whilst it is not quite in the same league as The Wire or Homocide, it has shocked me a few times, and there are 12 seasons of it, which should keep us occupied for some months to come.