Cary Grant has been a sartorial inspiration for legions of men including yours truly. After reading Marc Elliot’s biography (Cary Grant: A Biography, 2004 Three Rivers Press) — which incidentally is really not worth reading since it goes to laborious and tedious lengths to find evidence that he was (deep breath: gay) — I realized just how much of a fashion genius Grant really was.
Because more interesting than if Grant was gay was his uncanny ability to invent himself — or I should say, transform himself — from an impoverished and undereducated boy from Brighton named Archie Leach to the archetypal leading man named Cary Grant.
How he did that was as much about the clothes he wore as it was about that distinctive, mid-Atlantic accent which by now has become one of the most famous voices of the twentieth century.
Indeed, Grant knew that the clothes truly do make the man and that if he was going to make it in Hollywood against the likes of Gary Cooper (his nemesis), he needed to convince himself and the world that he truly was Cary Grant, a devil-may-care gentleman who felt as much at home in tennis flannels as in a tuxedo.
And so it was that I found myself in Palm Springs, California, standing in front of the charming and humble little Alsatian style villa that once was Grant’s, snuggly hidden by a stucco wall and overgrown cypresses and hedges. There beside the pool were the chaise-longues that I recognized from old photos. In fact little had changed from when Grant had lived there and delved deep into his psyche thanks to his then-wife, Betsy Drake and some early experiments in LSD. In one of many retirements, Grant spent long months in Palm Springs attempting to discover what might have been lost along the way to becoming Cary Grant.
Grant spent many hardscrabble years attempting to reconstruct and reinvent virtually everything about him. He hungrily learned about style and etiquette from the likes of Noel Coward, an early mentor. Appearances mattered for Grant – they were his bread-and-butter. Thus shopping was a serious vocation: he shopped with precision like a hunter sharpening the blade of his knife.
“We spent whole afternoons shopping,” says Grant’s friend, Oleg Cassini (in the book, Cary Grant Style, by Richard Torregrossa (2006, Bulfinch Press). “But not as it is done today. It was an entirely different sort of experience – Socratic, almost religious, an extended negotiation over the most basic details: fabric, cut, stitching. We were the architects of our appearance; we supervised each new suit the way an architect guides the construction of a building.”
When in London, Grant would prowl the Burlington Arcade where he was a regular visitor at Aquascutum (for suits and coats), N. Peal (for cashmere), and Floris where he purchased his favorite fragrance called “New Mown Hay” (yes, I checked and it no longer exists.)
On Jermyn Street, Grant had his shirts custom made to his exacting specifications. A preoccupation with the girth of his neck meant that shirts were made with collars that disguised this fact; it wasn’t unusual for grant to subtly raise the back of his shirt collar.
Suit jackets were carefully tested to permit Grant to put his hands in his pockets even when the jacket was buttoned closed — an affectation that became something of a signature of the Grant pose (visible in nearly every film he did.) He took great care to insure that the back of the jacket did not roll, or unsightly wrinkles appeared on the front.
Did he wear women’s underwear? Well, technically, yes he did, although not the kind you think. “They looked just like men’s swimming trunks,” says a woman who dated Grant. “They were hardly lacy or frilly. He was clearly wearing them for utilitarian reasons.” To this day, I still don’t understand men who wear the most unattractive boxers – mounds of fabric than only bunches up inside. My guess is the “Freeballin’” defense.
Author Richard Torregrossa notes that Grant, however, was no impulse shopper. “He adhered to a simple but highly disciplined philosophy of shopping that his mother passed had passed on to him as a boy… He rarely bought anything after the first viewing, no matter how tempting the merchandise. This served two purposes: it avoided impulsive expenditures and tested the true appeal of the targeted item.”
And so as I drive through Palm Springs, it’s hard not to imagine Grant in his earliest days whizzing down Palm Canyon Boulevard in a long, white convertible, open collared shirt and ascot and that grin; on his way to Melvyn’s Restaurant and Lounge just as I am tonight, to have a few cocktails. The only difference? — He looks a hell of a lot better doing it.
There is a growing interest in what the men’s cosmetics industry has come to cautiously describe as “self-care”. A spa in Utah, for instance, reports that 35 percent of their clients are men. But the hard numbers are proving that the market for men’s grooming isn’t just a hunch. The men’s market for bath and shower products has increased exponentially with profits well over twenty million dollars a year. A December 2007 report from Packaged Facts (a market research firm) revealed that teenagers and tweens are potentially one of the most lucrative demographics for grooming products, with projected worldwide sales of nearly $1.9 billion.
Manufacturers are carefully testing the waters as men explore the benefits (real or imagined) of beauty and grooming products. A walk down the aisles of pharmacies and department store cosmetics departments reveals a host of new products geared towards men’s skincare, along with aftershaves, deodorants, and depilatories. Speaking of… er, hair removal, more and more men are indeed shaving, trimming, and waxing away body hair, such that Nair — the hair removal lotion for women — recently launched a silver-bottled version for men. When Procter and Gamble decided to reposition its Old Spice brand as “Old Spice High Endurance” (like so many men’s grooming products, names are vaguely sexual), it did so with a website featuring a woman in a bikini with the tagline: “when she sweats it’s sexy. When you sweat, you stink.”
For the post-pubescent male that’s something they worry about, according to a recent story in the New York Times (“For Tween Boys, Masculinity in a Spray Can”, 01/31/10). Unless you’ve been living under a rock, drugstore brands like Axe and Swagger (by Old Spice) you already know that young men have become keenly aware that to get the girl, you better smell like a (clean) man — and definitely not like a girl. Most of these products are riots of musk, lime, and insistently “soapy” fragrances. Axe’s new AxeVice, a body fragrance, comes with the tagline, “Turns Nice Girls Naughty.” Now There’s incentive.
But the ball — so to speak — is still in the girls’ court. According to research firm NPD, 41-percent of boys 8 – 18 say a girl is their best friend. And as we all know, women continue to be very influential when it comes to how men shop.
To a point.
Because I still find it interesting to see just how many young boys and men are shopping together, and more often than not, the leader of the pack calls the shots about what’s cool and what’s not. Unlike men even twice their age, young men are vain out of necessity: to “fit in,” and more importantly, get the girl.
Meanwhile their adult counterparts are partaking in not-so-typically manly spa treatments like facials and pedicures — but they’re doing it privately, and in places that don’t feature candles and flowers. The International Spa Association recently estimated that 31 percent of spa-goers are men — not too shabby, considering how relatively recent the trend. Some provide screens in-between chairs so men don’t actually have to look at each other. The “man spa” offers plenty of privacy and things like flat-screen TV’s with plenty of sports channels. Bikini Cuts in Salt Lake City borders on a Hooter’s with a bevy of young women providing manicures — while wearing a bikini. But most importantly, the name of the treatment should sound “manly.” Said one spa owner, “Men are results oriented. Call it a foot repair and guys know what the result will be.”
Of course, anyone who’s used a gym lately has probably noticed that men are grooming a lot more than just their toes and feet. Suddenly grown men of 35 have the body hair equivalent of a 15-year old boy. “Manscaping” has become increasingly common with straight men — where previously it was an almost exclusive preoccupation of gay men, drag queens, and the occasional ballet dancer.
So much so that in 2007 Philips, Inc. launched the “Bodygroom” and became the first to officially target male hair “…beneath the chin, including those sensitive spots below the belt.” One can only imagine the terrible accidents that happened for the men who chose a wet razor to groom themselves in places that demand the deft use of a hand mirror.
Philips launched a wildly successful web campaign that featured a man in a white bathrobe extolling the virtues of his newly smooth, er, groin. But rather than show his groin they flashed images of nuts, carrots, and so on, with the claim that all that hair removal from the southern region adds an extra “optical inch” to that… carrot.
Meanwhile online shopping sites like Beauty.com and Drugstore.com are quickly researching the best way to position themselves with men — especially since so many men are increasingly buying their grooming products online. The question is: can they speak to their customer simply and effectively, without the silly puns and false machismo?
Look kids! This is what’s left of daddy’s bank account
It’s part of our DNA to shop — or at least that’s what we’ve always been told. There was nothing more lustful than American consumerism, the wanton disregard for tomorrow when the urge (and ease) allowed them to have what they want today.
But that seems to have changed.
A recent New York Times/CBS News poll reveals that almost half of the Americans surveyed said they were spending less time buying “nonessentials” and more than half were spending less money in stores and online.
Not exactly music to the ears of economists. But it certainly begs the question: why have we been so hopelessly dependent on a consumer economy for so long?
Not since the Great Depression have we seen Americans returning to “the simple life” — or life where shopping and mass consumption is not such a singular focus.
Perhaps that’s why art supply stores, libraries, and even museums are showing better than usual foot traffic. According to the New York Times, attendance at many museums and cultural events dropped from 2002 to 2008, but in 2009 showed a measurable increase (although they don’t tell us by what percent.)
Meanwhile, movie attendance increased 5-percent — not enough to make up for the dramatic losses over the past ten years but it has to mean something, especially if you’re a studio that isn’t producing movies like Avatar.
Hobbies, sports, and simple home improvements have become the new way of spending leisure time, and it’s made an impact on the idea of family togetherness. Rather than going and maxxing out daddy’s credit card, families are re-discovering the simple life. In a January 3 Times article, “In Recession, Americans Doing More, Buying Less,” Barbara Koricanek, a retired nurse said she realized “we don’t need half of what we got,” and began getting rid of excess clothes in her closet and even baking her own bread. Another family bought a used canoe on Craigslist and took to weekends paddling the waters of the Florida coast.
The Queen of DIY perfection, Martha Stewart, has rebranded her daily television show as “Hands On Television.” In the past few months, she has increased the number of segments on home crafts, recycling everyday materials into a variety of useful objects. It’s hard to believe that in this day and age, anyone would watch an entire segment about the many uses of Mason jars.
While Americans may not be shopping for yet another pair of jeans or designer shoes, they are looking for ways to interact in a meaningful way, and the neighborhood craft center or organized activity clubs may just be the next consumer market.
In a recent “Complaint Box” in the New York Times, journalist David Sax writes a witty and sarcastic account of trying to get the attention of a sales associate.
“That’s why I came in here today,” he writes. “To trade money for goods and services. The way it works is: I ask questions about various products — in this case the clothes beautifully displayed around us — and you, in your role as service person, answer them, perhaps even leaving the spot behind the desk to physically touch the clothes and aid in my investigation and ultimate purchase of them.”
Sax does a great job of making the obvious, painfully funny — and true. He is like so many men, eager to learn how to look better and more than willing to pay for it. “I need guidance. Think of me as soft clay, ready to be molded in your image.”
When will retailers understand that perhaps every day, they lose a sale because of an incompetent or unwilling salesperson? Invest in your sales staff as if they were the very walls and floors of your store, the merchandise itself. Without top notch service, a store can simply not survive, even in the worst of times.
Read Patrick Sax’s entire piece
(NEW YORK) – The woman who conceived of Fashion’s Night Out did her best to encourage New Yorkers to shop.
After a circus of media and screaming fans at Bergdorf Goodman, Anna Wintour zipped over to the Meatpacking District in a black Cadillac Escalade, which paused in front of the Stella McCartney boutique.
By this time the crowd of press photographers had grown unruly and desperate for anyone who was even remotely a celebrity. Inside, a rather rumpled and ordinary assortment of guests waited for Something To Happen — anything — especially since they weren’t shopping and the bar was holding back on the champagne until some auspicious moment.
But it was Kate Hudson who made her entrance first and a sea of cellphones were raised as everyone tried to score an image of Ms. Hudson before the bodyguards ushered her into a fitting room in the back of the store.
Vogue Editor Anna Wintour at the Stella McCartney Boutique.
It was Ms. Wintour, though, who sent them all into a true frenzy with some simply frozen in their tracks. She waded upstream through the photographers and citizen journalists, her trademark bob gleaming in the spark of flashbulbs. It appeared that her visit was unclear and unscheduled: was she to visit Kate in the dressing room? Where’s Stella anyway? And who do you have to &%$ to get a drink around here?
The decision was made after some murmers into a cellphone. We’re leaving. I managed to present her with a copy of my book, Branding the Man, which she carefully examined as if it were the cover of a magazine, and then thanked me, her eyes flashing beneath her bangs.
With Actress Lucy Liu at Alexander McQueen
The scene was more or less the same throughout the Meatpacking District, with revelers behaving like it was New Year’s Eve, but with better liquor. Indeed, the longest lines weren’t at the fitting rooms or cash registers, but at the bar. At Christian Louboutin, I half-expected people to start drinking out of the floor sample shoes. It was a blase group of young things who clearly had no intention of buying shoes, only of clearing out what was left of the mini-bottles of champagne.
Meanwhile at Alexander McQueen, Actress Lucy Liu looked stunning in head-to-toe McQueen. “It’s fierce, isn’t it?” she said to all who admired her, which was pretty much everybody. As Hostess with the Mostess, she did her best to talk about the clothes — in-between requests for a picture.
By Midnight the irritating drizzle sent everyone scurrying into any restaurant that would take them, while others just huddled in the hopes of finding a taxi.
A cunning clutch does double duty.
A group of girls clutched ingenious little clutches with the word “Taxi” inscribed in neon letter (the purses, designed by Regine Bash, are available at www.2enlight10.com). They didn’t really seem to help them get a cab, but they sure looked cute trying.
In his groundbreaking book, Ways of Seeing, author John Berger writes of the innate “sense of being” possessed by women. The book, which was published in 1972, takes a feminist approach to the role of women in art where, as the book claims, women have largely played the role of performer for the benefit of men. Writes Berger:
Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relations of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly, an object of vision: a sight.
But all that has changed, and now it’s your turn, dude.
Because now the score is even, and men are increasingly becoming as objectified as women — and they’re willing participants. Consider any number of men’s advertisements where the objectified man could just as easily be a woman. He returns your gaze and says, “you know you want me.”
Wait – what happened? Well when Nair launches a depilatory for men, you know a revolution is happening.
But the act of enhancing one’s personal appearance has a purpose that goes far beyond attracting the opposite sex; in fact, in this hyperactive global economy, career experts say that appearance is increasingly becoming a critical factor for men seeking (and keeping) a job. The world of work is about the appearance at least, of youth, and youth being equated with modernity and energy. Consider the exponential increase in the use of hair coloring, plastic surgery, and gym memberships – by men. Cultural critic Jonathan Rauch calls the latter the “Buff Revolution,” pointing out that since the 1980’s men’s bodies have become as fetishized as women’s, with magazines, advertising, and movie stars all promoting an enhanced physical form.
It’s generally no secret that the gay world that has come to increasingly influence the men’s grooming and clothing market – not to mention the growing influence of Japan and Europe. But mainstream retailers, buyers, and marketers are still missing the mark when it comes to how they sell to straight men even on a global level, men have evolved into near-equal consumers with their female counterparts. So what’s taking the U.S. market so long to catch up? Chalk it up to an American unease with obvious male vanity (too gay, too intellectual, too “European”) and the idea that “dressing up” reeks of a class society (dude, you think you’re better than me?). The real American guy would like to believe that he never has to be influenced by convention or etiquette, and that a “real man” is rough and completely unaware of his appearance. Until now.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not long a whole lot has changed. Men continue to typically shop with the assistance of women (mothers, wives, girlfriends), and tend to leave the decision-making to them. That’s a trend that’s changing and it’s becoming more common to see young men shopping in groups of two and three (strength and security in numbers). A 2003 NPD study showed that more men pick out their own clothing than ever before. The same study three years earlier showed that women shopped for 76% of men. Today, women buy for less than half of them.
Trend forecasters continue to look to Asia for how the market might evolve. Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, and Hong Kong each reveal a thriving men’s retail market, one that’s growing by leaps and bounds and with no end in sight. Men account for roughly 50% of retail sales.
In Asia just as in the African American community, appearance speaks to how one “represents,” and fashion is a critical means of showing that one has arrived. Vanity and class is an important commodity in moving up the socio-economic ladder — just as Hillary’s pantsuits somehow demonstrate she’s ready to play with the big boys.
But the men’s wear retail landscape is a confusing one, and unlike women, men are still afraid that the wrong pair of pants or color shirt will somehow emasculate them right then and there, in front of the whole world. Why should I trust a store, or the flamboyant salesman to tell me what to wear?
It’s the retail conundrum that could potentially unlock a major new market, one that is nearly as extensive as that of the women’s market. Clothes, grooming products, accessories, jewelry – could all experience exponential growth once the male customer has evolved. So how do we get a man to discover his badass sartorial self? What if men’s wear in the U.S. was merchandised and sold in a completely different manner? What if the design and branding of a man’s store made men want to go shopping and do so with confidence and trust?
Find out in my new book, Branding the Man: Why Men Are the Next Frontier in Fashion Retail, in stores August 25, 2009. Reserve your copy now.