Grant Who?

It was Fred Astaire vs. Cary Grant for the title of best dressed man of old hollywood over at The Sartorialist earlier this weak. As usual, I'm late to join to join the fun, but better late than never. If my title didn't tip you off, my vote goes to Astaire.


For Grant, his clothes are the frame. For Astaire, his clothes are part of the artwork.


Astaire's style manages to express his personality or the persona he wants everyone to think he is. Witty, casual, approachable: Astaire's clothes help convey all this. The Sartorialist says Astaire's less-than-perfect looks made him more relateable and attainable to male fans. I say that it goes beyond his genetically created looks and extends to his clothes, which also portray a more welcoming, friendly air than Cary Grant's.

While I admit to giving Astaire bonus points for pulling off that effortless casual chic look that I think is so much harder to pull off than polished formal looks, Astaire is just overall more creative and inspiring with his clothing. He mixes patterns and colors that even I hesitate to mess with, and that says a lot. Colors and patterns are much more difficult to work with, and Astaire handles them with aplomb.

I must also point out that in a google search of images for both actors, most Cary Grant pictures were headshots while Fred Astaire's more commonly depicted his whole body. While this may have been to showcase Astaire's big claim to fame in the dancing arena, it's also important to note that his clothes always seem like an extension of the dance and Astaire himself.

To be fair, I must also admit that I have far from seen all the movies of either of these two actors, etc., etc., and I tend to find Grant's films boring. He's kind of my male Audrey Hepburn: goodlooking, dresses nice, but I find them both terribly boring.





I do like the tie he's wearing in the picture above though.

Inspired by my posts this week discussing color, I decided that I needed to wear some more. The bush and I had a very good conversation in the picture above, by the way.

I've also been kind of on a personal mission lately to wear all the pieces I usually don't wear often because I find them hard to work into an outfit I like. This shirt tunic--three more inches and it could have been a dress!-- is difficult for me to wear because it does the same thing to my boobs as my last outfit. Basically, I think it make them look droopy. Blech! So I employed the same bow trick and voile! The girls appear as they should.

I lunched at Burger King and forgot I had this crown on my head, so I walked around with it for much of today. I kind of like it though.

My Outfit: Click the pics for details.

Other Photos: Yahoo and Google Image Search

Her King-ness,

Ivy Frozen