Hollywood icons and their wardrobe choices

[hopkins-luder]

It has been my understanding that, in the 30s, at least, the actors were required to supply their own wardrobe. The studios, always on the cheap, required this as a cost-saving measure.
For example, Bogart supplied his own suit for Maltese Falcon. Notice it's one suit for the entire movie (no wardrobe bumps as they're called). Sidney Greenstreet had to have his clothes made by the studios, given his more-than-ample size. Parenthetically, in a picture book of Bogie's movies, the stills from the Falcon reveal that Greenstreet is wearing his own cufflinks with the initials 'S' on one side of the cuff, and 'G' on the other; his character's name was Kasper Gutman.
There were no doubles or triples of clothing. No need, really. One manages to get through one's day without ruining one's suit, as a general rule. There were no chases or violent action scenes in those movies, ergo, no danger to one's clothing or distress to the wardrobe people.
This means that, when one watches a movie from the Halcyon period of men's style, one is seeing what the actors chose to wear, in the way that they chose to wear it, not the choice of some wardrobe designer, as we have these days. William Powell wore high fishtail waisted trousers in the second Thin Man movie, After the Thin Man, which can be seen in the shaving scene on the train. These would have been the perfect choice for a gentleman of Powell's age at the time. Fred Astaire and Edward Horton wore their waistcoats buttoned to the bottom in one of those wonderful romps involving mistaken identity and winning Ginger in the last reel when all is sorted out.
I convey this as nothing more than a friendly observation. I look to these chat sites for ideas, not dictates, which I find odious. Style is a cafeteria where one finds what one likes and disregards the rest.
I must say, however, that I do find the AA/Esky fashion plates and commentary provided by Mr. Alden just as inspirational as I find the stylings of Messrs. Powell and Astaire.
Merry Christmas and a Stylish and Happy 2011 to all.

[Jordan Marc]

Even before Cary Grant became an independent actor and producer, which annoyed the hell out of the movie moguls, clauses concerning allowances for the wardrobes of leading men were written into the contracts. It was fairly well-documented by CG himself that he was influenced by the style of Douglas
Fairbanks, whom he met aboard ship when crossing the Atlantic to America. Quite a good model, m'thinks. Grant had English tailors and American tailors, not the least of which included Kilgour,
Stanbury & French in London and Bernard Weatherill in New York City. There were tailors in Los
Angeles and Hong Kong, too.

I doubt the studio bosses had much of anything to say about Grant's wardrobe allowance after he became big box office, certainly not after he became an independent actor and producer. That
irritated the moguls (what didn't?), which explains why Grant never went home with a slew of
Oscars. They kept him out of the running year after year. The Academy eventually gave him an
honorary Oscar for the body of his work toward the end of his career, by which time the power
of the moguls was long gone and the studios had turned to their bete noir for profits, tee vee.

Concerning the neverending discussion of who made the suit in North by Northwest, there were
a number of them from different sources. The cornfield sequence in the picture required a whole rack of them, as most action sequences do in movies.

JMB

[Costi]

There were no doubles or triples of clothing. No need, really. One manages to get through one's day without ruining one's suit, as a general rule. There were no chases or violent action scenes in those movies, ergo, no danger to one's clothing or distress to the wardrobe people.

We need to consider the fact that a 90-minute movie may take weeks or months of shooting and no suit can cope with daily wear (+ packing/unpacking, steaming, ironing, carrying around from one shooting place to another) without ending up in frays.

Style is a cafeteria where one finds what one likes and disregards the rest.

Very nicely put! Of course, making your own pie is even better

[SMCK]

Having no idea how to start a new thread I have tagged this unto this thread which seems near enough.

Just read todays Will's blog a suitable wardrobe, which is a daily adrenaline shot for me, so thank you Will.
Will reminds us of upcoming Doyle's New York sale of the effects of Douglas Fairbanks, which includes much of his kit.
Whilst unlikely to purchase , there is much to inspire here. I covet his tan velvet dinner jacket, Lot. 408. an idea that I know I could make use of; especially if I could find a suitable length of silk velvet .
Thank you again Will.I will leave it to others to put up the picture.

[SMCK]

825883 fairbanks.jpg

[NJS]

The catalogue is here:

http://www.doylenewyork.com/asp/searchr ... g=12&ps=25

I have put in a bid on one item.
NJS

PS Use the search box in the auction site and search Douglas Fairbanks.
NJS