Facing the style. “A well-cut suit makes you look thinner, taller and sexier” word of sir Paul Smith, a real expert of menstyle. Menstyle, one word that contains the emanation of what a man would like to be and own. The Style. One Style. One, because it changes depending on the person. But, overall, a Universal Style exists, and it refers indeed to the suit, that can even modify and improve the corporeality better than a plastic surgeon and has the power of adding an appeal that is not possible to reach otherwise. Fashion trends are almost a negligible detail; there’s the year of the narrow lapels, then the year of the peaked lapels, like in the 40s: here the proportions come into play. If you are short, the width of the “peak” worsen the situation, for example. Tricks that men have learnt to consider. I don’t think we still need the columns that teach how to tie a tie. We’re much sharper than in the past. Or not? We are, come on.

Epochal choices. Today we talk about the importance and added value of accessories, that dignify (or mortify) the look. Shirts, ties, and then shoes, socks, watches, bags, briefcases, hats. Everything can, if matched in the proper way with the outerwear, make us look a little more special. Today is very easy, due to the extraordinary supply of products. But at the same time it’s easier to make mistakes, exactly because the supply is really wide. The “decades of elegance”, like the 30s or the 40s, had rules about shapes and lenghts, fabrics and collars, and everything else: so it was hard to fail. Today, while enhancing the individual personality, there could be the possibility of provoking confusion (and making a mess of bad matchings). The secret stays in coherence. Dandy, eccentric, conformist, traditionalist, pop, unconventional: everything is permitted, as long as you are focused on the style you decide to adopt. Right, a 1935 adv of Arrow shirts.

Master of style. John Cassavetes: a rare mix of beauty and talent. Between the 50s and the 80s he acted in about thirty movies and directed a dozen of independent movies. They were “special” movies, often filmed in interiors, like theatrical pieces. Conceptual films and intellectual scripts. Cassavetes, indeed, is not so famous, mainly among young people. The only movie that reached the public approval and made him popular as an actor at the end of the 70s was Rosemary’s Baby, by Roman Polanski. And the only well-known one he directed was Gloria. A summer night, interpreted by his wife Gena Rowlands. She had the same destiny. she is little known even if she’s as talented and beautiful as others more famous colleagues. Cassavetes has always been in the shadows, like all the greats of the show business and he was (in my opinion) unconsciously sensual. He had an innate and discreet style, he was confident wearing a suit as well as a classic/informal outfit. John Cassavetes (on the right) with Peter Falk. Picture from the book John Cassavetes by Jim Healy and Emanuela Martini (Il Castoro Publishing)

In double-breasted. This week’s picture is a frame of the movie I believe in you, set in London during the postwar period. The main character wears with self-confidence the double-breasted jacket, that way of dress of the gangsters typical of the late 40s, that oriented the fashion of great designers such as Armani and Versace. The gangster figure – from Scarface (the original one, directed by Howard Hawks in 1932) to Borsalino, Chinatown and dozens of other popular movies – has a particular appeal that in the collective consciousness refers to a specific style. Today the double-breasted lasts and is the guarantor of an elegant and refined, not necessarily too formal, attire. The lapels are shawl or peak, but narrower than then. To respect the proportions, the shirt has to have a little collar. The same for the tie. A frame from the movie I believe in you, 1952