Note 01
The Grey Suit
A single mid-grey worsted, correctly cut, will outlive any wardrobe assembled by trend.
It was true in 1959 and it remains true.
The Style
A wardrobe designed
to disappear.
Cary Grant dressed with the discipline of a man who intended to be looked at for a long time. Short notes on how, and why the approach has outlasted almost every subsequent trend.
Note 02
The White Shirt
Cotton, not synthetic. Placket rather than French front.
A collar with enough spread to hold a tie but not so much that it becomes the tie's problem.
Note 03
The Watch
Worn on the inside of the wrist during the RKO years.
A small, private eccentricity that generations of watch enthusiasts have quietly borrowed since.
Note 04
The Tan
Kept, deliberately, all year.
Read at the time as leisure; read now, at the distance of decades, as maintenance.
Note 05
The Absence of Jewellery
No rings. No bracelets.
A single watch, a wedding band on occasion. The economy is the point.
Note 06
The Grooming
Hair kept short at the back and sides, longer on top, side-parted with a stiff comb.
A weekly cut, not a monthly one.
"I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me."
Cary Grant, on the persona