Sartorial heros

[storeynicholas]

Entirely agree with all this. I missed Archie's checked suit above - what was Cooper's limited edition? Archie looks a little podgy in this one and the photo appears to be back to front[?]
Day Lewis in checked drainpipes looks a little scary to me (still, obviously, a great actor) but I understand that he and his family are reclusive so dressing like this doesn't frequently get to frighten the horses in the street, so to speak. Anyone heard from RWS today? I was expecting him to come on board here!! Maybe he is doing battle with a New England storm which, I smugly iunderstand, is on its way to Blighty.
NJS
PS I realize, with something of a thrill, that we have now got this onto page 2!!
NJS

[storeynicholas]

On the Fairbanks' photo - isn't Jr on the left, Sr in the middle and just a glimpse of Jr again on the right?
NJS

[townie]

I am wondering why nobody has mentioned Prince Charles, or Prince Philip, who always seem to be perfectly turned out for every occasion.

[storeynicholas]

They are and I did - in my fourth post. Don't know why the PoW has ditched his long-standing tailors - took their warrant away - strange. Rumour has it that he is now going MTM at Turnbull & Asser - seems a curious turn for a man with several millions a year in income but I suppose that, since he appears to have kept in shape, he must have a gigantic wardrobe of wearable bespoke anyway. Going back to George Sanders: I would, on reflection, place him joint first with Cooper - on top of everything else, he had one of the greatest voices (both speaking and singing); total self-assurance and was the utter epitome of nonchalance - burnishing the fact that he was always dressed to the nines, in the very best sense - and, as his Oscar for best supporting actor in 'All About Eve' testifies, a great actor too - probably deserved one for Favell in Selznick's 'Rebecca' as well - remember when he hops through the window to meet the second Mrs de Winter? However, his most enduring role may well be as the voice of Shere Khan in Disney's 'Jungle Book' - which every child should see. It is odd to reflect that , as well as all this and successive marriages to two Gabors, he literally killed himself out of 'boredom'.
NJS

[iammatt]

For me it would be Gary Cooper, not for how well he dressed, but for how natural and imperfect he always looked.

[storeynicholas]

I am fairly unconvinced that Gary Cooper stands totally alone; just as I simply do not understand the obsession of some with Cary Grant's North By North West suit (he starts off in the suit in the film as a bit of a toady and a leeddle beet of a Mummy's boy). My next comment does not apply to Gary Cooper but anyone can look imperfect and natural with it (or, especially nowadays, at it) and, to borrow a phrase from Hedy Lamarr, about female glamour - all you have to do is stand still and look stupid. I am also fast coming to the view that Jack Buchanan should share Astaire's footing and, tomorrow, I will demonstrate why I think this.
NJS

[couch]

Haven't seen "The Band Wagon" but clearly must add it to my list. The portrait you reproduce of JB is by far the most elegant I've seen of him--very admirable.

Agree about Duff Cooper and Clive Brook. Sanders always seemed correct but not especially compelling as a sartorial role model. Wonderful voice, as you say; not the best posture, and perhaps his many roles as the cynical roué unfairly color my view. I should see what he did as The Saint and then re-evaluate. I'll give you Connery as Bond, but then we'd need to include the off-the-set Gable at his best (an uneven dresser onscreen and off).

George Mason was often understatedly elegant, and at the other extreme Jean Cocteau was usually meticulously turned out (if to a fault).

The concert pianist Claudio Arrau was always supremely elegant, in full dress or mufti.

It would be churlish not to acknowledge Ralph; in every picture I've ever seen, his presentation was coherent and well-judged. Somehow it's the impression he gives of putting on and taking off entire ways of life with each outfit that sits awkwardly; one doesn't get the sense that the wardrobe arises organically from a settled, unified character. But then, maybe that's paradigmatic of our times, and one reason we don't have so many consistent style icons these days.

Day-Lewis is a fine actor. Photos of his dad the poet-scholar show a natty fellow in the rumpled-tweed donnish mode.

Odd how many actors I think of who cut a splendid figure in period pieces but not elsewhere. Richard Chamberlain comes to mind, as does Nigel Havers.

Oh--and if we're including Sanders, we should throw in Ian Richardson.

Nobody has mentioned Kennedy, Sinatra, Richard Burton, or Burt Lancaster in their early 60s incarnations, or Leonard Bernstein of that period. If we include Connery as Bond, should there be others from that epoch of men's fashion?

[iammatt]

My next comment does not apply to Gary Cooper but anyone can look imperfect and natural with it (or, especially nowadays, at it) and, to borrow a phrase from Hedy Lamarr, about female glamour - all you have to do is stand still and look stupid.

Yes, but there are relatively few who can look good in the process.

To be honest, perfection is pretty dull, and the inspiration I can take from a man who is wearing a perfectly coordinated outfit with a perfectly knotted tie is quite little. I mean, that is not so difficult to achieve and it has no relationship to real life.

[storeynicholas]

I think, with respect, that you are confusing perfection (an unchallenged and unequalled 10/10 at 46 years after you died is pretty good) with the petit maitre syndrome.
NJS

[dopey]

Thanks for the comments on Buchanan, SN. I am a fan of the Bandwagon (and my daughter are rabid for it) but knew nothing about the man who played Jeffery Cordoba. That he was a stage actor (or at least playing one) was obvious. He had great clothes in the film, as did Astaire and levant. In fact one of Astaire's chalkstripes in the film is one I have been chasing for a while, though I feel the color in the print has no analog in real life.

[WF]

I dont think anyone has mentioned Jean Gabin yet? or Marcello Mastroianni?

[storeynicholas]

Couch - if you are a Cornish Couch, you might like this picture of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, 2nd Professor of English Literature at Cambridge, writer, anthologist and educationalist (known as 'Q') 1863-1944:
"Q is for Q in the late Verrall's boots;
His bedder plays draughts on his castaway suits."


[img]http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg55 ... ALJPEG.jpg

Noted for always being dressed to the nines, he was described as 'King of Fowey, in a quiet way'.

I am glad that you liked the Baron portrait of JB. It used to be on the wall of the foyer of the Garrick Theatre but someone moved it to the Royal retiring room. JB built the Leicester Square Theatre (later Odeon West End) on the south side of Leicester Square, living for a while in a flat on top of it. He also funded his school friend from Helensburgh, John Logie Baird in his pioneering work on television. Some of his films with Elsie Randolph such as 'Smash and Grab' are quite fun to watch. He also owned the first road model of the 1931 8 litre Bentley. There is a good biography of him by Michael Marshall called Top Hat and Tails - the life of Jack Buchanan. The Band Wagon is a great film about entertainnment and ends with a chorus of the song 'That's Entertainment'. JB probably had a slightly better voice that Astaire but, obviously was not in his league as a dancer - the sequences where Astaire dances with Cyd Charisse in this film are superb. However, in this film he did sing and dance a number with Astaire and, soft shoe shuffle that it is, he carries it off very well - indeed, one gets the feeling that Astaire was very much running on less than full throttle to let JB have the limelight for this number and, for overall appearance, JB is at least Astaire's equal. Here they are in the number 'I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan':


Clive Brook was one of the first of the 'British Raj' in Hollywood and moved easily from silents to talkies but he took his family home at the beginning of the 1940s and so isn't remembered as well as junior contemporaries like Ronald Colman. Here he is as the first talkie Sherlock Holmes - providing a sartorial template for Basil Rathbone:
[img]http://s245.photobucket.com/albums/gg55 ... erlock.jpg

George Sanders as The Saint was very good but to see him at his best 'All About Eve' is the one to watch - for which he was given the best supporting actor Oscar. Gable sometimes looked terrible - probably at his best in western hunting clothes - apart from that, he veered between Davies & Son and some truly terrible off the peg things. I don't disagree with anything that you say and I especially welcome the mention of Ian Richardson - another fine choice.
NJS[/img]

[storeynicholas]

I hope that the images for the above post arrive here:

Quiller-Couch:


Jack and Fred:



Clive Brook:

[storeynicholas]

This last photograph, of Clive Brook, raises the question whether blue tweed always represents a lost opportunity - here I think not - and, moreover, for a 'town tweed' top coat what could be much better? The demise of this style of tweed hat is to be lamented. Lock's have just about given up on them because caps are such a big thing now - but I prefer this.
NJS

[Des Esseintes]

While not entirely unexpected, given the dominance of British and US contributors to this board and, even more so, Britsih and US actors to the history of cinema, the near absence (with the exception of a few selected cinematic icons such a De Sica) of any continental style heroes so far is striking.

Experience with this forum suggests the Avvocato should feature, and Cristobal Balenciaga (for Spain) and a few French masters of style has been lauded by forum members, however, I would very much like to assume there are also quite a few cutsomers of the famous Knize and their contemporaries less well known today, i.e., K.u.K connoisseurs of fine clothing and stylish appearance that should make the cut easily, maybe even a few Germans from the golden age of Berlin, back in Isherwood's days?

Curious to see your non-Anglo-American suggestions,

dE