Cary Grant's suit

[Andy]

AAAC Forum Member, Richard Torregrossa, has written an article about "Cary Grant and the Secrets of the Perfect Suit":

http://www.richardtorregrossa.com/Ca...rfect-suit.htm

[rsmeyer]

Originally Posted by Andy

AAAC Forum Member, Richard Torregrossa, has written an article about "Cary Grant and the Secrets of the Perfect Suit":

http://www.richardtorregrossa.com/Ca...rfect-suit.htm

The tiny car pictured in the article is a BMW Isetta 300. A friend of mine had one in college (early 60's).

[Twinspeare]

Nice article. However, with all due respect to the author's sartorial scholarship, unless I am extremely mistaken, Grant's shirt is NOT a button-down. It simply has a soft, unconstructed collar.

(I am of course talking about the shirt Grant is wearing with the suit in most of the movie, not the one he is wearing without a suit in the final scenes, where I believe a deliberately ill-fitting, somewhat oversized shirt was used in order to suggest that it was bought for him in a casual way by the secret agent who had to buy him some clothes).

[Rossini]

And I can't imagine you'd ever catch him wearing a button-down? There's a lesson (I hope!)

[Tonyp]

Class of Class. CG was a picture of Sartorial splendor. His movies were great as well!

[acidicboy]

I bought his book on Cary Grant, a nice book.

[RichardS]

And I can't imagine you'd ever catch him wearing a button-down? There's a lesson (I hope!)

That`s wrong.

In the last scenes of NBNW and in at least one other movie (Hoiuseboat) he is sporting a BD shirt. I have seen many other publicity and private pictures of him wearing one as well.

[maxnharry]

Originally Posted by Rossini

And I can't imagine you'd ever catch him wearing a button-down? There's a lesson (I hope!)

Clearly not in keeping with the "rules" as many of us understand them, but Grant often wore a button-down with his suits.

http://www.ustar.net/Merchant2/graph...0002/grant.jpg

[son of brummell]

Grant's suit in "North by Northwest" was made by Quintino, Grant's Beverly Hills tailor. The suit was not made by Kilgour, French & Stanbury.

The suit is extensively discussed in the bespoke section of the www.thelondonlounge.net.

Incidentally, Quintino received screen credit for Grant's wardrobe in "Indiscreet" which shortly pre-dated "North by Northwest".

[Gruto]

Originally Posted by son of brummell

Grant's suit in "North by Northwest" was made by Quintino, Grant's Beverly Hills tailor.

He is a brave man, Kilgour's Mr Brandelli, claming that Kilgour made it.

[guitone]

Andy, thanks for the link.

[clothesboy]

No disrespect to Mr. MacMurray but there is a strong resemblance to Captain Marvel. That's a very old comic book character for the younger members.

[Twinspeare]

Back to Grant's shirt in this movie: if it was OTR, as the author of the article claims (but which I doubt very much), it must have been one of those 1950s soft-collar shirts the like of which I have been looking for in vain for years. Grant is not the only actor to wear a soft-collared (non-BD) shirt in the movie. I hope very much that they will become fashionable again sometime, but in the meantime: does anyone on this forum know where one might get soft-collar shirts OTR? I love soft-collared shirts with thin interlining but I have a strong aversion to button-downs (and to oxford cloth, for that matter). Any hint?

[bluetag39]

What did Cary Grant's tailor do to make him look so good? Or was it the personna more than the clothes?

[PJC in NoVa]

Originally Posted by Twinspeare

Back to Grant's shirt in this movie: if it was OTR, as the author of the article claims (but which I doubt very much), it must have been one of those 1950s soft-collar shirts the like of which I have been looking for in vain for years. Grant is not the only actor to wear a soft-collared (non-BD) shirt in the movie. I hope very much that they will become fashionable again sometime, but in the meantime: does anyone on this forum know where one might get soft-collar shirts OTR? I love soft-collared shirts with thin interlining but I have a strong aversion to button-downs (and to oxford cloth, for that matter). Any hint?

I think Matt Deckard of this forum, who favors retro-look clothing, had this type of shirt made for himself not long ago by Hemrajani. You might try PM'ing him.

[Audi S5 TC]

Originally Posted by son of brummell

Grant's suit in "North by Northwest" was made by Quintino, Grant's Beverly Hills tailor. The suit was not made by Kilgour, French & Stanbury.

The suit is extensively discussed in the bespoke section of the www.thelondonlounge.net.

Incidentally, Quintino received screen credit for Grant's wardrobe in "Indiscreet" which shortly pre-dated "North by Northwest".

Cary grand also wore Oxxford suits, in addition to some of the bespoke suits that he wore.

[PJC in NoVa]

Originally Posted by bluetag39

What did Cary Grant's tailor do to make him look so good? Or was it the personna more than the clothes?

It probably helped that Grant had the physique of one of the male figures from the old (painted) Brooks Bros. catalogues--6 ft. 1 and 180 lbs.

He stayed in shape as he aged, too--at least he looks to be in pretty decent condition even in his later films. Certainly he never let himself go like Marlon Branflakes during his "Is that Colonel Kurtz or just Uncle Fester?" phase.

I've read that CG thought he had a few flaws in his build, one being a too-short neck that was also, he felt, a trifle thick (at 17") for a man 20 lbs south of the deuce and an inch north of the big 6. To compensate he favored a lower band on his shirt collars, IIRC.

[Mattdeckard]

Here's a link to that shirt I had made. It has a non fused collar so it tends to roll outward which is what I like... also tails galore.

http://clubcad.thecad.net/showthread.php?t=36