“In the country for dinner parties with neighbors, and especially in his own home, a man may wear a velvet smoking jacket, usually navy blue, burgundy or dark green, with a black bow tie, dinner jacket trousers and evening slippers. While this dress is acceptable for the host, it would not be right for a guest to wear this for an event with the dress code black tie actually stated on an invitation, which effectively means a dinner jacket.” – Debrett’s Handbook

You can tell a lot about a man by the way he wears a hat. Everything from how comfortable he feels in a hat to how experienced he is at wearing different types of hats. A man can use a hat to give others insight into his current mood. A hat pulled down low on the forehead gives off a signal that a man either has something to hide or ain’t up for no tomfoolery that day;

“You can’t handle the truth!”

Right up there with “Hasta la vista, baby,” that has to be one of the most memorable movie lines from the 1990s. Even if you never saw the movie A Few Good Men, I’d be willing to bet most people know which actor said it. I’ve always found humanity’s relationship with the truth a fascinating one.

“No trouble losing when you got a good excuse. And winning! That can be heavy on your back, too – like a monkey. You drop that load too when you got an excuse. All you gotta do is learn to feel sorry for yourself. It’s one of the best indoor sports – feeling sorry for yourself. A sport enjoyed by all, especially the born losers.” – Bert Gordon

That exclamation is one forever associated with getting dressed in my mind, and if you ever heard it belted out by Paul Harvey on the radio, you know exactly what that little piece of Americana sounded like. It was the typical start to the late radio commentator’s news and comment section on a morning broadcast that aired somewhere between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. – the dressing time.

I thought it about time to introduce a purely educational clip into this series. And who better to educate us on style than a trio of musical gangsters. Musical gangsters? Yes, Robin and the Seven Hoods is a “B” movie at best from 1964. It was a personality flick that can only be enjoyed by those who are -I mean, were – slavishly devoted to the personalities starring in the film.

“Everything goes past like a river and the changing taste and the various shapes of men make the whole game uncertain and delusive. Where do I find fixed points in nature, which can not be moved by man, and where I can indicate the markers by the shore to which he ought to adhere?” – Immanuel Kant

Bond… James Bond…

When contemplating where to begin a blog series on various films and media clips related to classic men’s style, it only seemed natural to start with a stereotype. Dr. No introduced Ian Fleming‘s James Bond character to the screen in the form of a well-clad Sean Connery.

In my first post on classic style in films and other screen media, I showcased Sean Connery as James Bond in the original film adaptation of that character, Dr. No. I decided to stay with Connery for one more round, but this time we see him cast in a much different role. Marnie is a lesser known 1964 Hitchcock film, which undoubtedly presented rather risqué topics to the screen at that time.