It’s yet another wardrobe malfunction.
The always fastidious fashion plate Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, the former Bonanno crime-family boss, has had one more collision with courtroom haute couture.
Before appearing in Brooklyn federal court this morning for jury selection in his upcoming capital-murder trial, the mobster voiced his displeasure that he had not been provided a tie to wear at the hearing.
In the end, Basciano ended up borrowing a tie from Judge Nicholas Garaufis – marking the second occasion the Bonanno boss has turned to the jurist for the latest items of sartorial style.
During his 2007 murder and racketeering trial, Basciano ran out of freshly laundered dress shirts and was forced to borrow a shirt-and-tie combination from the judge himself.
In that incident, when Basciano appeared in court in a gray suit paired with a white undershirt, so Garaufis asked his size and sent out for a dress shirt.
Garaufis referred to the episode during a court hearing several weeks ago, saying he hopes that Basciano will have an ample array of clothing at his disposal.
But today’s development raises the question of whether such wardrobe challenges will come to dominate Basciano’s forthcoming trial on yet another murder charge.
“Do you want to hold onto this – the tie – just in case, and return it to me at the end of the trial?” Garaufis asked Ying Stafford, one of Basciano’s defense attorneys after today’s jury hearing.
To prevent similar scenarios, the judge last month ordered prison officials to make available to the mobster a selection of five coordinated business outfits each day of his death-penalty trial, which is scheduled to begin in April.
“The court now orders that the [federal Manhattan detention center] accept up to five sets of clothing, including but not limited to undershirts, socks, shoes, dress shirts, suit pants and suit jackets, be made available to Basciano prior to each court date in this case,” Judge Nicholas Garaufis wrote.
The judge’s unusual order was prompted by a request from Basciano’s defense attorneys aimed at ensuring that the mobster’s trial in Brooklyn federal court will not be marred by the sort of wardrobe inventory misstep seen at the 2007 trial.
But the defense attorneys’ request did not specifically mention ties, leading to today’s misunderstanding with officials at the federal Bureau of Prisons.
The judge drew attention to this issue of fashion semantics at today’s court hearing.
“Apparently, whatever was in my order didn’t include ties…although it says ‘accessories,” Garaufis said. “A tie is an accessory. The definition of accessories includes a tie, shirts, shoes, socks, belts.”
At which point George Goltzer, another Basciano defense attorney, made a lighthearted query about style preferences between competing men’s clothiers.
“Brooks Brothers is quite fashionable, your Honor,” Goltzer said. “Do you want to entertain a formal motion for Paul Stuart?”
Taxpayers won’t be paying for the clothing, which will be privately delivered to the detention center.
Although he spends his days behind bars in solitary confinement, Basciano appears in court with an immaculately proportioned haircut that looks as if it were sculpted at a pricey Madison Avenue salon.
Hair care is a subject Basciano knows something about: He used to own a beauty salon in The Bronx, Hello Gorgeous, from which his nickname is derived.
Two weeks ago at the start of jury selection, Basciano appeared in a well-tailored suit but privately groused that the length of his pants’ cuffs was not to his taste.
Basciano, who is already serving a life sentence on an earlier conviction, faces new charges of murdering a mob associate.