GlamAmor-ous Men of Style--Cary Grant

In honor of Cary Grant's birthday, I thought it was time to celebrate him as one of GlamAmor's Men of Style. To be honest, I probably consider him the Man of Style...and I'm not alone.  Designers like Ralph Lauren regularly use Cary as inspiration for their men's collections.  It's no mystery why.  For starters, he's just such physical perfection--tall, dark, and handsome.  But then there's that certain quality about him...the elegance, the sophistication, and the confident and classic style choices he made throughout his life.  What's most interesting about Cary, though, is how much of his seemingly innate sense of style was actually learned.

Born Archibald (Archie) Leach in impoverished Bristol, England, it's hard to reconcile the man he was with the man he would become.  The studios almost immediately changed his name, and his persona came largely as the result of being in the hands of four great directors.  Howard Hawks highlighted his masculinity.  Leo McCarey enhanced his empathy and humor.  George Kukor taught him sophistication.  And then Alfred Hitchcock so brilliantly brought it all together, using Edith Head to polish him even more with impeccably tailored suits and tuxedos.  It was this combination of influences along with his own interest in the upper classes that created what and who we now know as Cary Grant.  As Cary once said, "I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person.  Or he became me."

Cary and roommate Randolph Scott at the house they shared on Santa Monica beach

Manly in a leather bomber jacket and khakis 

with Rita Hayworth in Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings

In sophisticated suits to play one of the upper class 

with Katharine Hepburn in George Kukor's The Philadelphia Story

In Edith Head's capable hands, first as an FBI agent 

opposite Ingrid Bergman in Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious...

...then as a retired cat burglar opposite a glowing Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief...

...and then in a tailored grey suit and amazing eyewear 

as an advertising executive in North by Northwest.

One of my favorite things about Cary is his astute use of accent color in his silk ties, 

such as alongside Audrey Hepburn in Charade and Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember

A man with ageless style, Cary remained true to the classics throughout his life...rain or shine