Izzy recommends the soft-shoulder look for those who can get away with it, a group which, unfortunately for him, doesn’t include David Hyde Pierce (here posing with his recent Tony Award). Unless he plans on mastering the military press at the gym, he needs a jacket with some padding to bring his shoulders closer to horizontal.
Jorge Garcia, one of the stars of the TV show Lost, clearly has a lot of food experience under his belt. But by wearing a well-fitting tuxedo—and keeping it buttoned—he looks like he’s been forced to forage on a desert island.
Izzy had never seen anyone wear an unbuttoned wing-collar shirt before, but at Cannes French film star Alain Delon nearly pulls it off—but certainly not the unkempt haircut or blinged-up lapel pin.
Izzy has already remarked on Valentino’s other-worldly skin tone, but he now wonders whether the designer suffers from an eating disorder, and has overdosed on carrots.
Although tuxedos with peak or shawl lapels are more traditional and proper than those with a notch lapel, Izzy has rarely found a shawl lapel that suits his fancy. But by going with narrow lapels, Project Runway’s Tim Gunn demonstrates an exceptional case.
For those who are looking for the ultimate in formidable formal wear, Izzy recommends one of these fierce stiff formal collars from Harvie & Hudson of Jermyn Street. He himself is ginning up the courage to wear one.
Looking a bit like a turtle sticking its head out of its shell, Eddie Murphy would have benefited from a higher collar. Also, while midnight blue is an acceptable and sophisticated alternative to black in formal wear, the color of Murphy’s jacket is both unflattering and too light to qualify as such.
Dressing like a stout flightless marine bird is par for the course at the Oscars, but George Miller, the producer of Happy Feet, went delightfully all out by tucking a white silk scarf into his jacket.
By neglecting to wear a cummerbund, Hugh Grant was perhaps going for a devil-may-care look, but in the end, he merely ended up emphasizing his tummy.
From what Washington Post movie reviewer Stephen Hunter writes, the Good Shepherd sounds like it will be a holiday treat for the clothes-minded:
[Matt Damon's character] is from one of those old families — you know, the ones who knew everybody, got the best jobs and knew which wine went with which course. Ever notice their lapels? They never bunched up when they sat down, like yours or mine did. They had drape, and that’s the giveaway right there….
As anthropology and archaeology, the film is first-class. If old WASP high Anglican haberdashery was the dullest, tweediest cavalcade of threads ever conceived, the movie certainly understands this. The suits fit beautifully and look like mud on asphalt, the shoes are both shiny and dull, nobody has the wit to wear a Burberry but only those sacklike London Fog single-breasted raincoats and the little ’50s small-brimmed hat, usually with the tail feather of a Bavarian woodcock in the band. Color? These guys never heard of it!
Just in time for the release of his new perfume, Black Orchid, former Gucci designer Tom Ford confessed that he does not wear deodorant*, saying he prefers his own “human smell.” He also apparently prefers that ten-foot clearance everyone gives him.
*Or underwear.
Daniel Handler, a.k.a. author Lemony Snicket, demonstrates the importance of choosing a bowtie in proportion to one’s head.
Combine a substantial noggin with a tiny tie, and one’s head can perilously look like a balloon that’s been tied off.
