What would Cary Grant wear?

One of the questions I pose to new image clients is “who’s style do you admire?” A great percentage of my clients identify silver screen Hollywood actor, Cary Grant, as their style icon.

Cary Grant inspires modern-day fellas because he was tall, dark, handsome; he wore beautifully stylish clothes punctuated by the best accessories, from sunglasses to pocket hankies. Cary Grant never wore anything outlandish or poorly fit; he seemed fabulously low-key in his dashing dress that complimented his witty and gentlemanly demeanor.

Cary Grant was an old school gent who held the door for ladies, kept his shoes polished, and I’m sure charmed the pants off of  everyone he met – men wanted to be him, Cary married five women and shacked up with a sixth for 4 years, and as a young man in Hollywood, got cozy with fellow actor, Randolph Scott. He had that charm, that charisma that drew people to him.

Through the wonder of social media, I have come across a great true story by writer / producer, Tyler St. Mark who describes the sartorial impact that followed a Cary Grant sighting in a Beverly Hills restaurant:

I used to attend a monthly breakfast at a trendy (and expensive) restaurant in Beverly Hills. Each month I would meet with a group of young P. R. execs at a Sunday brunch. This was during the era when “dressing down” became popular and I was disconcerted to see my colleagues dressing more and more casually.

One particular Sunday, I observed the entire restaurant suddenly go silent and all eyes were directed to the entrance. There, at the top of the stairs was a handsome older man with white hair, wearing an impeccably tailored gray suit with a white dress shirt and pale blue sweater under it. He was obviously over-dressed but the smart ensemble complimented his tan face. Clearly the guy was a “class act” and vaguely familiar.

The entire restaurant followed the man and as he passed our table, he smiled politely and acknowledged our group. We all seemed to recognize him at the same time and rose to our feet almost at the same time as we scrambled to meet him and shake his hand.

The man was, in fact, Cary Grant.

After he left, we all seem to bask in his “afterglow,” but one young upstart in our group remarked, “Can you believe he was wearing a SUIT?” We all looked at this jerk who was dressed in a simple sport shirt and shorts. “Yes,” our equally casual host replied, “and we WEREN’T!” I smiled as it was exactly what we were all thinking.

The next Sunday, almost  every one of us was wearing slacks and a sport jacket and from then on, whenever I attended any special event, I would always think to myself, “What would Cary Grant wear?”

And so gents, through this tale I want you to remember a couple of things: it’s better to be overdressed than under dressed, and next time you’re standing there staring into your closet, ask Tyler’s question and take Cary’s cue.

The new royalty

The Canadian Press contacted me to do a piece on holiday wear for men this week, and the reporter mentioned something about pulling archive photos of people like Brad Pitt if I wanted to talk about a celebrity style. She needn’t go to the trouble of looking for visuals because I don’t encourage anyone to swipe another person’s mode of dress – to me, that’s like stealing someone’s identity. Why would we want to look like someone we’re not? We are our own people with  our own style, our own speed, and we are not Brad Pitt.

This got me thinking.

Why aren’t there more Brad Pitt types in the world? Why aren’t there more men confident enough to know themselves and laugh at themselves and illustrate themselves through their dress? Are we that uninteresting? Are we collectively afraid to do our own thing?

Throughout history, humans have followed the sartorial cues of influential people in positions of power.  Up until the recent past,  it was royalty that set the tone of dress to court and then on down to the common people. Kings were incredibly influential this way. To illustrate just how dominant royal men have been on society, I offer the following examples:

1.  Footwear during the Tudor period was soft, wide, and square. Some historians attribute the slashed, square-toed shoes of this era to Henry VIII who is said to have suffered from gout, a very painful arthritic-type of joint inflammation most often affecting the joint of the large toe.

A nice, soft, wide shoe would nicely accommodate this affliction,  often brought on by alcohol – wine, beer, and mead were the wet for the Tudor whistle, and high fat and cholesterol levels in the blood.  I have read that Henry may have been a binge-eater, taking much fatty red meat as a mechanism to cope with stress – his waist was 54″!

2. When Louis XIII of France went prematurely bald around 1624, the men’s wig was born. Louis’ choice of neat and wavy scalp covering swept across Europe and the fashion carried on into his son’s reign, when wigs rose in height and cascaded luxuriously over the shoulders.

The (extremely high maintenance) wig became a staple amongst courtiers and professionals, and the size of wig carried social meaning (“big wig”). Wigs even became part of military uniforms.

Wigs got longer, fuller, and astoundingly high; they changed to white and were powdered, then shortened to a simpler bob which morphed into tightly curled wigs. Wigs for men remained popular in Europe until the 1790s but were for various reasons abandoned however, British judges and barristers continue the tradition of wearing (strange-looking curled and tailed) wigs in court.

So we’ve got a fat guy with gout and a young bald man influencing the way men have dressed across the ages.

We’re well into the 21st century and royalty doesn’t really have the same pull that it once did, so what’s going on now? Who are the style leaders and who do men look to for cues? Entertainers.

Actors, musicians, and popular politicians have replaced royalty when it comes to setting trends. I ask my clients whose style they admire and often I hear James Bond, Cary Grant, George Clooney, and Brad Pitt. What is it about these guys that other men like so much?

Classy Simplicity

This group wears well-fitting and quietly cool clothes; clothes that aren’t stamped with logos and labels that shout out for attention, and busy, flashy accessories. Take Brad Pitt, he’s got his own cool style with a hint of cheekiness worked in through hats, scarves, sunglasses, and haircuts, giving him an interesting and fitting look even when he’s in jeans and a t-shirt.

It seems to me that Brad Pitt knows himself well enough to feel comfortable expressing himself and his sense of humour through his accessories; I like that he punctuates his simple, low-key wardrobe with cool pieces – not every man can pull off a knitted tam worn Rasta style with a long Van Dyke beard.

I’m always encouraging men to play with their clothes and the way they put themselves together. It’s important to find the right pieces that suit the individual in the right colour and the right proportion, even the right texture; something that suits the guy’s personality, things that they feel comfortable in, not what they think Brad Pitt would wear, for they are not Brad Pitt.