STYLE SETTERS: MR CHARLIE CHAPLIN!

A look at the comic screen icon for whom the term "dressing the part" was surely tailor made.

It is true to say that for most of the 20th century, and possibly even today, the name Charlie Chaplin was better known around the world than that of any other public figure. Even more tellingly, so was his appearance in the many films he made in the early years of the movies when he was known as the king of comedy. In fact, Sir Charlie was one of the first people in any walk of life to understand the importance of branding. He also knew the dangers of changing, upgrading or modernising the brand. Once he had finalised the elements of his "look", the Tramp was always the same recognisably hard done by, inadequate nonentity whose inability to cope with life and his bewilderment and sadness at getting everything wrong had people across the entire globe laughing and crying with every maladroit movement he made. 

As with Mr Johnny Depp's unchanging costume in Pirates of the Caribbean, for Sir Charlie the uniform was as much a character as the actor inside it, which is why he took so much care to get it right. Take his grotesquely oversized shoes, which gave him his characteristic screen walk. The fact is that inside them he was wearing a pair of the correct size for his feet. Interestingly, for someone who as a boy lived in poverty in south London and was twice confined to the workhouse, shoes were one of his obsessions - not surprisingly, perhaps, as for much of his childhood they were a luxury way beyond the grasp of his impoverished mother. And the insecurity affected him throughout his life. He was known to be a compulsive buyer, especially of clothes. At the height of his Hollywood success, a friend recalled that when Sir Charlie's wardrobe was opened it revealed rows of shoes, all identical, with suede shoes on the top row and black ones below, all in immaculate condition. He would never go barefoot again.

Some of the most important things that brought Sir Charlie a sense of order and place in life were good clothes - and plenty of them. He had favourite suits duplicated even to the extent of having many identical ones in his wardrobe, usually grey flannel and always to be worn with a pair of his many high-button shoes. Off the screen, his appearance was always immaculate. He normally wore a natty suit, to use the jargon of the 1920s, although he was equally as elegant in a cashmere sweater and plus fours. It comes as a surprise, however, to learn from his friend, the director Mr King Wallis Vidor, that this most professional of men, when it came to his appearance on or off the set, actually cut his own hair for his role as the little tramp in the very early days - and all his life he took the greatest care with his hair. 

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STYLE SETTERS: MR HUMPHREY BOGART!

A look at the Hollywood icon renowned for being economical with words, but never with style.

Laconic, effortless and the man who stole the heart of Ms Lauren Bacall, Mr Humphrey Bogart was the most insouciant actor of his time. In strong contrast to present-day Hollywood stars, he never ran towards the cameras with a fireball a feet or two behind him and he never used two words if one would do. In fact, most of Mr Bogart's great movie moments - and there were many - gained their strength from the fact that he said virtually nothing at all, capable as he was of saying everything necessary by the way he lit a cigarette or gazed ahead - nothing more overtly dramatic than that. 

"The expression 'laid-back' could have been invented for the one they called Bogie and the truth is they just don't make them like that any more."

But he wasn't entirely as he seemed. Although he became the archetype of the American tough guy and a symbol of US egalitarianism between the wars, Mr Bogart was not a man of the people. His family was comfortably off when he was young and he went to good schools - although he was expelled in 1918 in a scenario evocative of The Catcher in the Rye. Even though Mr Bogart's background wasn't entirely one of silver-spoon assurance, it was comfortable enough to give him the laid-back air that was to be the backbone of his performances on screen as well as in life. And that was the reason why Bogie had such a huge effect on men everywhere. Quite simply, they wanted to be like him because they loved his confidence and cool authority, and the effect they had on women, on and off the screen. In fact, Mr Bogart was the creator of a school of acting, influencing stars such as Messrs Jean-Paul Belmondo and Yves Montand, who admired the sexual charisma that came naturally to Mr Bogart but had to be learnt by others. 

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STYLE SETTERS: MR ALAIN DELON!

"I like to be loved like I love myself." Don't we all?

Despite our nostalgic idealisation of the 1960s, it was the 1950s that were the true beginning of modernity in fashion and the arts - and nowhere more clearly than in the world of male film heroes. It was a question of "move over Messrs Gregory Peck and Cary Grant in your immaculately tailored perfection; come in the new young Turks to take your rightful place on cinema screens across the globe".

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STYLE SETTERS: MR CARY GRANT!

Good Morning! Stay Classy!

Born in a working-class area of Bristol, in the west of England, in 1904, Mr Archibald Leach legally changed his name to Cary Grant, his professional name as an actor, in 1942. His mother suffered from depression when he was young and was committed to a mental institution. He never saw her at all during his childhood and adolescence. In fact, he thought she was dead and did not discover the truth until he had lived in the US for many years. He hated school, managed to get expelled and started his long theatrical career on the "halls" doing all the undignified things that were part of an actor's practical training in those days.

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