“People Will Talk,” one of Cary Grant’s lesser known movies, boasts some interesting outfits for the sartorial historicist.
In order to portray a medical professor at a small Midwestern college in 1951, Grant was costumed in one double-breasted suit, and three suits and jackets that feature a 3/2 roll, but still have the overall cut common to 1951, not the full sack shape popularized some years later.
One ensemble would likely be seldom seen today: a soft-shouldered tweed sportcoat, 3/2 roll with ticket pocket, apparently undarted, with three sleeve buttons, and which Grant wears with the bottom two buttons fastened, similar to this 1942 Brooks Brothers advertisement.
In a further mixing of styles that might seem unorthodox today, Grant pairs the jacket not with plain-front trousers, loafers, and oxford-cloth buttondown, but with pleated and cuffed gray flannels, black lace-ups and collar-pinned shirt.
For a finishing touch, Grant employs one of his signature style gestures: socks lighter in color than his trousers. — CC
It’s an unusual, and slightly bizzare, movie, centered around the mysterious Mr. Shunderson.
Grant’s outfit is very much in keeping with the university style described in the 1934 Apparel Arts article reproduced in this AAAC thread.
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45581
“Wrong” buttoning or not, that is an outstanding fit on that jacket. That pic ought to be in ALL the “how to dress” books and articles, but, alas…..
Is the jury still out as to forward pleated trousers being “trad”?
Here’s the question Frederick, if the answer comes back from the peanut gallery that they aren’t, will you still wear them?
Yes, on occasion.