Vitals

Cary Grant as Brian Cruikshank (aka Peter Joshua, Alexander Dyle, or Adam Canfield), U.S. Treasury agent

Paris, April 1963

Film: Charade
Release Date: December 5, 1963
Director: Stanley Donen

Background

Heading back to business for the first day in the new year, nothing is more appropriate for a winter’s day in the office than a charcoal flannel suit similar to the one that Cary Grant’s multi-named hero wore to the office for the finale of Charade.

What’d He Wear?

Accompanying Reggie Lampert (Audrey Hepburn), Brian Cruikshank is directed to his own office at the U.S. Embassy while wearing a warm charcoal flannel business suit that reflects a cyanic shade in certain light.

Cary Grant was a noted advocate of gray flannel suits, stating as much in his iconic piece for This Week in the 1960s:

What about a second suit? Well, I think a grey worsted or flannel would be most serviceable. Not too light in color, not too dark. And, this time, of medium weight but not more than what is known as ten-ounce cloth.

The single-breasted suit jacket has notch lapels that are fashionably slim for 1963 and gently roll over the top of the three buttons down the front. He carries his thick-framed eyeglasses in his welted breast pocket. The ventless jacket also has straight, jetted hip pockets and 3-button cuffs.

The flat front trousers rise just high enough to perfectly meet the pointed blade of his tie and the center button of his jacket. Not much is seen of Grant’s trousers in this sequence, as he spends most of it with either his jacket buttoned or behind his desk, but they are likely styled the same as his others with straight side pockets and two jetted back pockets. He also appears to wear his trousers with a belt, as he did in other scenes for clipping his holster.

Grant’s poplin dress shirt is pale ecru, just a shade away from white, with the same semi-spread collar with longer points designed to de-emphasize Grant’s muscular neck. The shirt has a front placket and single cuffs – rather than double, or French, cuffs – for his silver rectangular cuff links. His silk tie is dark blue.

Grant likely wears the same black leather 2-eyelet plain-toe derby shoes and thin black dress socks that he wore with his earlier-seen dark navy suit.

How to Get the Look

A timeless style icon, Cary Grant exemplifies an ideal springtime business suit with his charcoal flannel in Charade.

• Charcoal blue flannel business suit, consisting of:
  • Single-breasted 3-roll-2 button jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight jetted hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and ventless back
  • Flat front trousers with belt loops and plain-hemmed bottoms
• White poplin dress shirt with semi-spread collar, front placket, and single cuffs
• Dark blue silk tie
• Silver rectangular cuff links
• Black leather 2-eyelet derby shoes with a long tie
• Thin black dress socks

Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie and try to get the Criterion Collection version, which was restored to the highest quality after the various low-definition versions released during the film’s tenure in public domain.

The Quote

Reggie: Is there a Mrs. Cruikshank…?
Brian/Adam/Peter: Yes.
Reggie: But you’re divorced.
Brian/Adam/Peter: No…
Reggie: Oh.
Brian/Adam/Peter: My mother, she lives in Detroit, you’d like her… she’d like you too.

Footnote

I tend to schedule my posts pretty well in advance. For some reason, all of my first 2017 posts (until Cary Grant’s birthday on January 18th) are all from movies with titles that begin with the letter “C”. Hm.