Cary Grant's Suit in North by Northwest?

[Wolfmanjack]

Remember the virtually indestructible and impeccably tailored suit worn by Cary Grant in North by Northwest? Here is part of that unforgettable scene where Grant is being chased by a crop duster.

[video=youtube;g458w2X9uHc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g458w2X9uHc[/video]

An interesting story about this suit can be found here: North by Northwest: Cary Grant’s Kilgour Suit by Chris Laverty

Laverty has carefully identified every detail of the Grant's ensemble,

Lightweight wool single breasted suit, ventless, with three button fastening and notched lapels. Trousers with forward pleats. ‘Oxblood’ leather derby shoes worn with grey thin ribbed socks. White medium spread collar shirt with double cuff; silver cufflinks, grey silk tie.

According to Laverty, Grant went through five of these suits during the filming; perhaps it was not so indestructible after all.

This podcast is a very entertaining story about Cary Grant's Suit, written by Todd McEwen and read by James Cromwell. The story begins at 34:50, well into the program, and lasts about 25 min. Sit back and enjoy it as you browse the Lounge.

 

[Tomasso]

Thanks, I'd read the McEwen piece in Granta years ago but had never heard this reading. There has been much debate about who actually made the NbN suit. Kilgour proudly claims it but a screen shot shows a Quintino (Grant's Beverly Hills tailor) label in the suit coat. And then a Vanity Fair piece states that an investigation pointed to Norton & Sons . Who knows.[huh]

 

[herringbonekid]

believe it or not i've met someone who claims to have made the trousers for that suit, who was a trouser maker at Kilgour at the time. his name is Paul Hubbard and he now runs a workshop called 'the Sample Studio' in Hove who make up clothes for small / exclusive designer labels such as Heritage Research and Paul Harnden.

 

[Wolfmanjack]

believe it or not i've met someone who claims to have made the trousers for that suit, who was a trouser maker at Kilgour at the time. his name is Paul Hubbard and he now runs a workshop called 'the Sample Studio' in Hove who make up clothes for small / exclusive designer labels such as Heritage Research and Paul Harnden.

Interesting, I wonder if he would corroborate Chris Laverty's history of the suit?

 

[MrBern]

Interesting, I wonder if he would corroborate Chris Laverty's history of the suit?

Laverty's history seems to be derived from Torregrossa's book...which he does credit at the end of the blog.
Im not sure if Torregrossa ever posted here, but he is a member. He did an article for Classic Style a few years ago.
Here's a bit from his website
http://www.richardtorregrossa.com/Cary-Grant-and-the-secrets-of-the-perfect-suit.htm

 

[Wolfmanjack]

Laverty's history seems to be derived from Torregrossa's book...which he does credit at the end of the blog.
Im not sure if Torregrossa ever posted here, but he is a member. He did an article for Classic Style a few years ago.
Here's a bit from his website
http://www.richardtorregrossa.com/Cary-Grant-and-the-secrets-of-the-perfect-suit.htm

Thanks for the link; interesting story.

 

[Chasseur]

Two things that perplexed me about Torregrossa's otherwise excellent book are the points he brough up about Grant favoring double vented suit jackets and not wearing hats. I own and regularly watch most of Grant's films and even into the 1950s and 60s its pretty rare to find him in double vented jacket (including the suits for North by Northwest, THE suit is ventless). On the second point while Grant does not really wear hats in his films in the 1950s-60s (as hat wearing decreased in general etc.) its is he commonly in hats in his 1930s and 40s movies (including some rather eccentric hat styles).

 

[Mario]

I won't comment on the double vented jackets but I'm pretty sure that Grant didn't like hats too much. Even back in the 30's and 40's when hats were pretty much mandatory he couldn't get them off his head soon enough. On a sidenote: I often don't like his choice of hats as quite a lot of them were simply too low-crowned for my taste. But then...

...here's an excellent photo of Cary in a really tall-crowned fedora (1930's):

​

And one of the low-crowned variety (His Girl Friday, 1940):

​

 

[Wolfmanjack]

Yes, fairly low-crown and lots of taper, but they look good on him.

Here's an atypical hat for Cary:

 

[Chasseur]

Mario and Jack,

Your two posts illustrate much better what I was trying to say.

If one goes by Grant's films and publicity photos from the 1930s and 40s one sees him constantly wearing a wide variety of hats. So the book's point about Grant not wearing hats always struck me a little like the "JKF killed the hat" ancedote that gets repeated so much its taken as gospel (not here of course...). Sure Grant stopped wearing hats in the 1950s, but so did many people so I am not sure why this point is so repeated about Grant in particular. Not meaning to sound too critical, otherwise I really enjoyed that book, they are just two points that bothered me.