Tom cruise. suit. on letterman.

[dorian]

I've never liked Tom Cruise, so it is almost with pleasure - nono, certainly not, maybe disgust - that I am watching this peacock strut out on Letterman's show with a three button suit, buttoned right up there at the top, like a turtleneck. It makes me wonder at which point he shorted his stylist and started making sartorial decisions himself.

Why does this bother me? I don't know. Jet lag, maybe...

It seems that Hollywood stylists just do not understand men's clothing. Anybody have any ideas as to why this is?

 

[marc37]

Here is my guess. Hollywood stylists have to constantly reinvent themselves to remain in business. A stylist cannot make as much money out of Traditional styles [because they are creating nothing new], so becoming creative allows for diversification and higher profits. Creating hybrid dressing (fashion) opens the floodgates for earning higher profits. That's all it is about: money, money and more money. Traditional style doesn't yield consultants big incomes; fashion does. Celebtrities are walking advertsments for style consultants. How can they lose.

 

[color_reporter]

Hey I'll take Tom Cruise in whatever suit he chooses to wear in however manner over a man in his 54L Oxxford suit any day. Â

 

[quill]

I think marc37 hit it dead on. Sometimes, Hollywood's fashion works (Brando's T-shirts in The Wild Ones, Redfords's clothing in The Great Gatsby, etc.), but most times it does what marc has so astutely pointed out. Look at the fashion trends of Hollywood over the last 40 years, and I'll bet it's 5% mainstream-successful, 95% trash. I come from a theatre background, and a few of my friends are fairly well-known actors. Talk about a dysfuntional group of people. They are constantly striving to be different, rather than real. Yeah, that's it; different rather than real.

 

[hermes]

an interesting point is that the only reason it's sartorially wrong to button the bottom button of a jacket is because some king hundreds of years ago was too fat to do up his jacket and as a result this becomes what is accepted as sartorially correct today

what if you don't have a paunch and can do up your jacket - why should we stick to a rule that results from someone's obesity?

if you've got the personality, wear it however you like
it seemed to work for agnelli, but of course he's dead now

 

[dorian]

Okay, but Cruise had *only* the top button done up. The lines of the suit were completely destroyed, looking like a miniskirt worn on the shoulders. Fact is, this probably isn't worth much discussion, since the number of Hollywood actors whose ignorance of simple dress will continue unabated... forever.

 

[Duveen]

Actually, the top-button-only style of wearing a suit is fairly popular among the fashion elite in NYC and LA. Or so the NYT story about untucked shirts indicated...

 

[TomW]

For Cruise to button the top button only just emphasized his short stature. I'm still laughing over the mini skirt reference above - well done

 

[bigbadbuff]

I didn't see this particular outfit, but I would consider him one of the better dressing men in Hollywood. Not every outfit, but most I see work very well on him.

 

[imageWIS]

Gentlemen,

I think we have stumbled onto the perfect outfit: a 3-button suit worn with only the top button buttoned, paired with a dress shirt with both top buttons undone, no tie and the tails left untucked (long tails, like those found in a H&K shirt). All this complimented with the Piece d'Resistance: a pair of Cole Haan Nike Air "˜oxfords'.

Jon.

 

[NavyStyles]

I've always liked Tom Cruise and his fashion (which may be fairly obvious from my avatar), so I might be biased; however, I didn't find his attire utterly deplorable. Granted, I personally wouldn't have buttoned the top button, but I'll like it slide this once.

 

[bryce330]

I didn't see the show, but I don't see what the problem is with buttoning only the top button. I have seen this look popping up recently and on the right person wearing the right suit, I think it can look kind of cool.

I am much more outraged by the Brooks Brothers catalog showing the models with the fully-buttoned suits. That is completely unacceptable and I don't intend to ever shop at BB again.

 

[slave2fashion]

Cruise has worn Timothy Everest for some years now, and wears it well, although Everest is more a stylist than a tailor. Cruise is rather short, but I don't know that a taller man, say over 6 ft tall, would look well in Everest.