Saturday, 4 June 2016

Style icon: Clark Gable

In which G.M. Norton gushes over Gable.

Clark Gable is one of those fellows that chaps would love to be and ladies long to be with. Fitting the classic aesthetics of tall, dark and handsome, he was a jolly fine actor too.

As a keen exponent of the pencil moustache and side-part hairstyle, I feel a close affinity to Mr. Gable. Cementing his name in Hollywood history with the acclaimed Gone with the Wind, my beloved and I would go on to name our eldest daughter after the female protagonist.

During the 1930s, Clark followed the popular styles of the time with wide lapel jackets and high-rise trousers with pleats. With his tall frame, broad shoulders and slim waist; he pulled this off with aplomb.

It was common-place during the '30s and '40s for actors to wear their own clothes on film. The likes of Humphrey Bogart famously worn his own suits in the previously dissected The Maltese Falcon. I do wonder which clothes personally belonged to Mr. Gable.

Gable's attire in films was always first class. From the black gabardine suit in the 1934 picture, It Happened One Night, through to the safari-inspired ensemble in the 1953 film, Mogambo, Clark was sartorial perfection.

Style shines from him almost as brightly as his beaming Hollywood smile. Whether he's demonstrating his masculinity by fixing a motorcar, cavorting with hounds or contentedly sipping on his pipe; it seems that looking good just comes natural to Gable.

A fan of the casual look as much as a three-piece suit, one can certainly learn a lot from the King of Hollywood.

Like many men from the golden age, Clark also had the sartorial sense to wear a signet ring on his pinkie finger.

Clark takes a deserved place on my Style Icons roll of honour, joining his chum Cary Grant. Apparently, as well as sharing the same initials, CG, they often swapped clothes as they were a similar size. It must have played havoc if they had anything monogrammed.