Frank Sinatra and Jack Lemmon were buried in Jack Taylor suits. More importantly, they lived in the bespoke clothes crafted by the tailor to the stars—as did Cary Grant, Joe Louis, Glen Ford, Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum and the Duke of Windsor. According to legend, Charles Bronson’s contract insisted that he would only wear Jack Taylor on set. And one day Elvis turned up at the Beverly Hills shop, asking for custom shirts with ruffled sleeves. Taylor eyed him up and down and decided, “Why not?”
The documentary Jack Taylor of Beverly Hills (out now on DVD) is an entertaining look at a man who made his mark on pop culture through fashion. Taylor wanted to be an artist, but—and this is never explained—wound up in men’s clothing. What he brought to the business was an artist’s eye for color, texture and composition, along with a sense for the importance of a signature style. Not unlike Frank Lloyd Wright, Taylor was known for doing certain things his way and his relationship with clients was a collaboration. If you wanted cuffs on your trousers, get lost. They collect schmutz.
Ninety years old when filmed for this movie by documentarian Cecile Leroy Beaulieu, Taylor had outlived most of his friends and old clients. And yet he kept his shop open, continued doing business and found a young generation of post sloppy-Boomer customers. Actor Jason Schwartzman, interviewed for the film in a Jack Taylor suit, explains that he doesn’t look good in jeans and T-shirts and, besides, everyone he admires, from the Beatles on down, wore suits. The stories Beaulieu collected are amusing, including Taylor’s house calls, which often involved tossing the contents of someone’s wardrobe into the discard pile. Call it Straight Eye for Any Guy.
