Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style

[richstyle]

Checked in as I have on other sites and saw the posts about my book. Thanks for the kind words.

If you enjoy it half as much as Manton's fine book (The Suit: A Machiavellian Approach to Men's Style), I'd be pleased.

Cary Grant: A Celebration of Style (Foreword by Giorgio Armani, Afterword by Michael Kors) is the first full-length biography to trace the evolution of Cary Grant as a man of style, and by style I mean not only the way he wore his suits but how he behaved. Style, in other words, as a reflection of character. But there's plenty of good and new info on his sartorial habits.

I'm happy to answer any questions or read any comments you might have about it.

Cheers,
RT

 

[chrisc]

Hey, that's great! I always thought Cary Grant's style deserved a book.

Now, is this more of a picture book or a biography?

 

[richstyle]

Originally Posted by chrisc

Hey, that's great! I always thought Cary Grant's style deserved a book.

Now, is this more of a picture book or a biography?

It's a full length biography with over 100 photos, some rare and never before published, documents, and letters. So it's sort of both. There's an excerpt in this month's Town &Country magazine.

 

[Ivan Kipling]

Most interested, to enjoy your new book! Mr. Grant's marriage to Woolworth heiress, Barbara Hutton, has fascinated me. They had engrossing things, to say about each other.

I once heard Edith Head, name Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, as the two 'best' bodies, she had ever dressed, during her film career. And she dressed a lot, of bodies!

I'm eager too, to observe the fit of Mr. Grant's clothes, via your upcoming photos. My idea of another, dashing and elegant man, is Zachary Scott. I loved how he wore clothes. Scott looked IMPECCABLE, in Mildred Pierce. Just as Mr. Grant managed to look . . . whenever he came onscreen.

Congratulations!

 

[Stax]

i look forward to it

 

[andrebaron]

TCM had N by NW; he looks impecable in the steel gray suit...what a cut! wondering who tailored that piece? And where is it today??

 

[Ivan Kipling]

'baron, North by Northwest was 'Metro,' not Paramount, so Edith Head did not do this picture. Ms. Head dressed Cary Grant, for a number of Hitchcock classics, but not this one. Back then, the studios had great costume departments, stocked with able cutters, tailors, and seamstresses.

Lana Turner once quit a picture, after Otto Preminger asked her to wear ready-to-wear, onscreen. She wouldn't do it. Custom garments, on and off screen, can make allllll the difference.

 

[Tomasso]

Originally Posted by Ivan Kipling

Lana Turner once quit a picture, after Otto Preminger asked her to wear ready-to-wear, onscreen. She wouldn't do it. Custom garments, on and off screen, can make allllll the difference.

You are correct, IK. The movie was "Anatomy of a Murder" and LT's character was a soldiers wife who wouldn't have been dressed to the nines. Filming had already begun but rather than yield to her demands Preminger fired her and hired Lee Remick.

 

[Ivan Kipling]

That is correct, Tomasso . . . and the movie, suffered as a result. Although I ADORE, Lee Remick, she was too young, too fresh, and too dewy for the part. Lana Turner had been WELL SEASONED, by this time . . . a little bit beaten up, if you will; she was a superb choice, for the role.

Another eruption about costuming occurred when Audrey Hepburn all but refused to wear Mary Quant, during Two for the Road. She begged the higher ups for Givenchy, but they would not relent. I think Quant did a good job, for Miss H. But, Givenchy would have been better. Or, Saint Laurent, for that matter.

 

[Jovan]

Hmm... and I was wondering where the stereotype for queeny actresses came from.

Only thing I'd skip over in this book is the foreword by Giorgio Armani. He is completely unqualified to say anything about classic style after his little diatribe on Savile Row.

 

[richstyle]

Originally Posted by Ivan Kipling

Most interested, to enjoy your new book! Mr. Grant's marriage to Woolworth heiress, Barbara Hutton, has fascinated me. They had engrossing things, to say about each other.

I once heard Edith Head, name Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, as the two 'best' bodies, she had ever dressed, during her film career. And she dressed a lot, of bodies!

I'm eager too, to observe the fit of Mr. Grant's clothes, via your upcoming photos. My idea of another, dashing and elegant man, is Zachary Scott. I loved how he wore clothes. Scott looked IMPECCABLE, in Mildred Pierce. Just as Mr. Grant managed to look . . . whenever he came onscreen.

Congratulations!

Thanks for the kind words. Hope you enjoy the book. And Zachary Scott! I'm a huge fan. Thought I was the only one. Devilishly dapper he was.

 

[richstyle]

Originally Posted by andrebaron

TCM had N by NW; he looks impecable in the steel gray suit...what a cut! wondering who tailored that piece? And where is it today??

There's quite a bit about that in the book. Kilgour did the suits. And a close friend of his inherited some of his clothes. I think they'll someday either be auctioned off or better yet, placed in the costume collection of some big time museum.

 

[richstyle]

Originally Posted by Ivan Kipling

'baron, North by Northwest was 'Metro,' not Paramount, so Edith Head did not do this picture. Ms. Head dressed Cary Grant, for a number of Hitchcock classics, but not this one. Back then, the studios had great costume departments, stocked with able cutters, tailors, and seamstresses.

Lana Turner once quit a picture, after Otto Preminger asked her to wear ready-to-wear, onscreen. She wouldn't do it. Custom garments, on and off screen, can make allllll the difference.

I respectfully differ. All the male stars wore their own clothes. Kept those Savile Row tailors in business as a result. There were no big wardrobe departments back then, not for the men at least. CG picked out his own clothes in To Catch A Thief. Edith Head had no say in it. There's quite a bit about that in the book, too.

CG created his own style in collaboration with his tailors initially, then by the 1940s he knew so much about tailoring and what harmonized with his well-developed personal style, he was telling them what to do. "Move the button over 1/8 of an inch, extend the shirt cuff by 1/4 inch...." That's what makes him so interesting as a style icon.

 

[Manton]

Originally Posted by richstyle

Kilgour did the suits. And a close friend of his inherited some of his clothes.
Isn't there a screen credit at the end of NbyNW that "Quintino of Beverly Hills" did the suit(s) he wore in the movie? Honest question, I seem to remember that, but I might have conjured it out of thin air.

 

[Ivan Kipling]

I see. Interesting. I'd once heard a woman named CHLOTILDE, speaking avidly about 'all the suits' she made for Cary Grant, at FOX. About the wardrobe departments, how did designers like Jean Louis, Edith Head, Helen Rose, Adrian, keep so busy? Didn't they design clothes that actually were seen, in films? Certainly the women's wardrobes were not clothes inside the stars' closets?? What about all those costume epics? Who made all of those, clothes? I remember hearing that the costumes for CLEOPATRA, were all made, specifically, for that film . . . except perhaps, for all the thousands of extras.

As for Zachary Scott . . . No, you are not alone. My mother loved him, too. So did my sister. An elegant, sophisticated, graceful man! Died at age 51, by the way. I'm almost there . . .

Back to Mr. Grant . . . his hips were rather broad, do you agree? Wasn't his backside, rather . . . streamlined? As I recall, Mr. Grant was not at all beefy, from behind.