Clark Gable was a stylish gentleman in real life as well as on the screen. He had learned the value of a good wardrobe from his early days as a struggling actor. Overall, Gable had a strong influence on men's fashions of the 20th Century.
The Dappered Man
First and foremost, Clark Gable was known for his suits. He loved double-breasted suits with wide lapels and drape cuts for the most part, but Gable was also known to wear three piece suits as well. His suit styles are a testament to the fact that good tailoring is timeless. Even with his single-breasted suits, wide lapels were always a staple. And to top it all off, Gable always paired his evening wear with a boutonniere, favoring roses and carnations. Gable was a fan of pocket squares – either plain white with a crown fold or printed squares in various colors – he wore them all.
Gay Langland dresses like the prototypical cowboy in his weather-beaten hat and boots, snap-front shirts, and Lee Westerner jacket and pants, but—unlike some Hollywood gents—the grizzled Clark Gable easily sells us on the role. The King of Hollywood may have risen to stardom during the presumed “golden age” when the best-dressed actors typically took to the screen in elegantly cut three-piece suits, but Gable was among the few who could convincingly wear an immaculately tailored worsted suit with a fedora and oxfords in one movie and Western denim with a cattleman’s hat and Lucchese boots in the next.
After his iconic role in Gone With the Wind, men the world over wanted to look as distinguished as Clark Gable and Savinelli pipes delivered by recreating the shape, made in two finishes, and adding some color with a swirled acrylic stem to honor the film and its star. As the ultimate manly man of Hollywood’s golden age, it’s no surprise that Gable made smoking a pipe seem cool. In many of his films, he’s smoking a pipe when he’s not busy wooing his leading lady.
Clark Gable was the King of Hollywood, amassing tremendous fame and notoriety as the stuff of Hollywood legend and the epitome of the Golden Age of film. Throughout his successful career, Gable was a colossal timepiece collector of some of the world’s most renowned brands. He wasn’t loyal to one particular brand, and he had a diverse collection: a 14K gold automatic center seconds Rolex Oyster Perpetual, a Cartier Tank, a Patek Philippe Triple Date Moonphase, and a Mathey-Tissot Chrono. Gable wore his array of timepieces both on and off screen. Most notably, you can spot his Rolex Oyster Perpetual in the 1953 film Mogambo opposite Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly.
You must be logged in to post a comment.