Categories Billions Fashion and Style Merchandise

The Fashion and Style of Bobby Axelrod in Billions Seasons 1 Thru 5, Plus Season 7

Bobby Axelrod: The CASHmere King

by Gingersnap | damian-lewis.com | May 4, 2018 (updated October 23, 2023)

You would think Damian Lewis and Bobby Axelrod couldn’t dress more differently but diving a little deeper, I found some commonalities. However, if we were to simplify, Damian typically dresses up with spurts of leisure whereas Axe dresses down with spurts of formality. Svelte Damian can wear a suit like a coat hanger and Axe can wear a hoodie like a dope Bankster. As Billions costume designer Eric Daman has said, “Damian looks like he just walked off a mens catwalk in Italy” so when “Axe does wear a suit, it’s like a punch to the face.”

Continue reading The Fashion and Style of Bobby Axelrod in Billions Seasons 1 Thru 5, Plus Season 7

Categories Billions Fashion and Style Print Media

How To Dress Like a Billionaire – April 23, 2018

Now on its third season, Showtime’s dramedy “Billions” masterfully captures the changing dress codes of the finance world

by Jacob Gallagher | Wall Street Journal | April 23, 2018

Bobby “Axe” Axelrod (next to his wife Lara, played by Malin Akerman) wearing his trademark hoodie. Source: Showtime – Photo by Jeff Neumann

TYPE “BOBBY AXELROD” into Google and the first recommendation that pops up is “Bobby Axelrod hoodie.” So, to satisfy your curiosity: Mr. Axelrod, the cool-as-an-ice-cube-in-Alaska protagonist of Showtime’s series “Billions,” wears Loro Piana zip-ups. They’re cashmere and just in case you’re really interested in dressing like the man who makes the billions on “Billions,” each one costs $2,295. For a glorified sweatshirt, they’re a needlessly expensive indulgence, which makes them perfect for a show that is the embodiment of what wealth looks like today.

Now on its third season, the drama unfurls a cat-and-mouse chase between Mr. Axelrod (played by Damien Lewis), an ethically flexible Manhattan hedge fund manager, and Charles “Chuck” Rhoades Jr. (played by Paul Giamatti), an ethically flexible United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. The plots weave stock swapping and legal loopholing with fist-bumping bros, strip-club sushi lunches and even an excursion to a BDSM dungeon. In short, the show is glorious, greedy fun.

More than that though, what “Mad Men” did to immortalize the style of 1950s ad agencies, “Billions” is doing for post-Great Recession financial firms. Aside from his used-Camry-priced hoodie, Mr. Axelrod dresses more or less like the guy who sold me my coffee this morning, with his simple, dark A.P.C. jeans and egalitarian Puma sneakers. Gordon Gekko would mistake Bobby Axelrod for an intern.

Continue reading How To Dress Like a Billionaire – April 23, 2018

Categories Billions Interviews Media Personal and Family Life Print Media

Damian Lewis: The King of the Box Set – February, 2017

How Homeland Star Mr. Damian Lewis Struck Gold for a Second Time with Billions

by Mr. Simon Mills | Mr. Porter | February, 2017

Photography by Mr Jon Gorrigan
Styling by Ms Eilidh Greig, Fashion Editor, MR PORTER

He’s a truly transatlantic citizen, is Mr. Damian Lewis. A nationality-fluid, dual persona – a true Brit for half the year and an Uncle Sam adoptee the rest of it. He may have been born in north London, educated at Eton College and served his time at the Royal Shakespeare Company, but when filming scenes as Marine Sergeant Nicholas Brody in Homeland or, more recently, as hedge fund hustler Bobby Axelrod in the Showtime series Billionsthe Style Council member embeds himself culturally and linguistically in North American life – goes to ball games, wears “sweats” and “sneakers” and calls women (ironically) “broads”.

The accent he adopts for the character he’s playing isn’t dropped when the filming stops. He keeps it going when talking to the crew and catering and stays in full American drawl for interviews, taxi rides, grocery shops and restaurant orders. Really good actors can do this kind of thing. Mr. Lewis says it helps him focus on the roles in hand and puts everyone at ease on set. Jumping in and out of accents, he says, would feel “awkward”. But not everyone is impressed. “I once did a US TV interview in my American accent and somehow it was seen by quite a few of my friends back in England. There were several irate text messages. ‘You’re British. Stop talking like an American!’ It has become second nature to me now and I am happy to do it,” he shrugs. “That said, if I am with Brits, I come out of it pretty quickly.”

Continue reading Damian Lewis: The King of the Box Set – February, 2017