Big Suit

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The big suit appears on the poster for Stop Making Sense

The "Big Suit" was a costume worn by David Byrne during Talking Heads' concerts on the 1983-1984 tour for Speaking in Tongues. After appearing in the film Stop Making Sense, including on the poster, it became one of the most iconic visual symbols of the band. In each show, Byrne appeared wearing the suit during the song Girlfriend is Better and continued to wear it into the following song, Take Me to the River.

Background and Creation

The idea for the suit came to David Byrne while in Japan in 1982. Talking Heads had just finished a tour there, and David was staying behind. While talking to somebody about live performances, David heard the line "on stage everything is bigger!" Taking this to heart, David started scribbling a design on a napkin, "it was just a little line drawing [...] it was basically a rectangle with feet sticking out the bottom and a little tiny head on top."[1]

The costume was designed in part by Gale Blacker. Underneath the outer suit, David would wear a "kind of girdle" which attached to the pants and the jacket, "so the pants kind of just hung down. They barely touched my legs and same with the jacket. The jacket had a big shoulder armature, and the jacket just kind of hung down from that and barely touched my chest.."[1]

Sources

  1. 1.0 1.1 Gross, Terry. “For David Byrne, Talking Heads Was about Making Emotional Sense — Not Literal Sense.” Spokane Public Radio, 5 July 2024, www.spokanepublicradio.org/2024-07-05/for-david-byrne-talking-heads-was-about-making-emotional-sense-not-literal-sense. Accessed 10 July 2024.