Friends of Cad, G. Bruce Boyer
If classic menswear has a spiritual guide, it’s G. Bruce Boyer. Bruce has spent decades shaping how we think about style. As former fashion editor at GQ, Esquire, and Town & Country, and the author of seminal works like Elegance, Eminently Suitable, True Style, and Gary Cooper: Enduring Style, his writing has helped define the language of modern classic menswear.
Bruce’s essays are known not just for their insight, but for their rhythm, what some have come to call his “book RIFFS”: lyrical, literary meditations that drift from Beau Brummell to jazz clubs, from Savile Row to Fitzgerald, always returning to the idea that style is a form of storytelling. His prose is as tailored as the garments he admires, measured, expressive, and quietly unforgettable.
We’re proud to count Bruce as a friend of the house and a client. He’s commissioned pieces with Cad & The Dandy that reflect his enduring belief in clothes that are lived in, not just looked at. In this conversation, we talk about the emotional resonance of garments, the enduring relevance of Savile Row, and the quiet revolution happening in American menswear.
We’re grateful to Bruce for his time, his wisdom, and his continued belief in the power of good clothes to shape how we move through the world.
Q. You’ve long championed the idea that style is more about character than clothing. How has that belief shaped your own wardrobe over the years?
A. Clothing is the manifest advertisement we show the world about who we are. We're all actors and wear costumes to play our part. Some people are never quite comfortable in their parts, they never find themselves and look like they've been wearing rented tuxedos all their lives. Others conform and wear the uniform of their group. But we all try to find our way on the lighted stage of life, and our clothes are overt signs of our attempt to achieve our role in the play. We all want to define our role in the cast of characters. When we're young we experiment, and as we age, we often find ourselves playing unexpected parts -- and often it's not in the comedies -- and we have to make adjustments. How we make these adjustments, I think, shows our character, our struggle to master the parts thrown at us.
For myself, I experimented a great deal when I was young growing up in a lower middle-class (or upper lower-class) neighborhood. During my adolescence young men were flaunting zoot suits for dress occasions, and "Rebel style" black leather motorcycle gear for everyday. When my family left that neighborhood and moved into a solidly middle-class one and I went to a large high school, I discovered "Ivy style" dress and appropriated it. After that,. foreign films caught my interest and I added British and Italian elements to my wardrobe. By the time I graduated from high school my tastes and wardrobe were set, and I've merely been micro-managing from there.
So I'd say that my own wardrobe has been a clear indication of the democratic ideal that any of us can take advantage of the porosity of class. What more that says about my character, I must leave to psychiatry.
Q. When you commissioned your latest jacket and trouser with us, what were you looking for in terms of feel, silhouette, and longevity?
A. I put myself among those few people who believe that comfort should never be sacrificed to fashion. I find it too difficult to work or play if my clothes feel uncomfortable. I can't imagine how guys could wear all those tight-fitting suits we've seen for the past two decades and more. Has there ever been a stupid style that's taken so long to die? The ideal for me is to have tailored clothing that has both shape and comfort, and that's the most difficult thing to do in tailoring. My friend Mariano Rubinacci used to tell me that a suit should look slim on the outside and feel large on the inside, and that's the best way to describe my approach. Second, I like traditional styling because when I was young I couldn't afford to buy new clothes all the time, and now that I'm much older, maintaining a classic rather than a fashion wardrobe is my little contribution to sustainability. I have clothing and accessories that are thirty, forty, even fifty years old. I may be a dinosaur, but I still regard myself as a semi-stylish one. I look on my old tweed jackets as old friends, full of memories and reminders of events we've shared.
The idea of silhouette can be misleading because the conception of fit and fashion determine shape, and these things can change. But for me the ideal silhouette has easy shaping at the waist, a slightly broad shoulder that drops to the sleeve head with little or no padding, and a skirt (that part of the coat below the waist) that sits over the hips with just an imperceptible suggestion of flair, and finally a chest and back blade that has a bit of drape. The trousers should sit over the hips (rather than on or below them) and taper gently to the cuff. All the other details are matters of individual choice.
Q. You’ve written about the emotional resonance of garments, how they carry memory and meaning. Is there a piece in your wardrobe that holds particular personal weight?
A. I still have and wear a pair of brown suede cap toe oxfords I bought in London sixty years ago. They've been re-soled and heeled half-a-dozen times and the uppers still look beautiful. The shoe dog who made them for me was John Carnera, who was a disciple of George Cleverley, regarded as perhaps the greatest shoemaker of the 20th Century, and they have the traditional Cleverley semi-chiselled toe and tight heel which makes them extremely comfortable and handsome.
Q. What role do you think a house like Cad & The Dandy can play in the American menswear landscape today?
A. My feeling is that Cad & Dandy has a good business model for individualized clothing in the 21st Century. They've done a great deal to standardize the process of having clothes made while still retaining the traditional sense of bespoke. Many men today would have gone to customized tailoring years ago if they weren't put off by the process of (1) the idiosyncrasies of the tailor, and (2) and the enormous and arduous amount of time consumed. Cad & Dandy is able to keep to a definite schedule, provide try-on models, and still give a man all the attention to measurements for fittings and choice of details and cloth. It's a more streamlined model of personalized clothing for the 21st Century man without sacrificing the hands-on attention. Someone had to do this for those of us who want personalized gear, and Cad & Dandy has come to the rescue.
Q. You’ve seen tailoring rise, fall, and rise again. What do you think is driving the renewed interest in craftsmanship and classic menswear?
A. If you look at the spectrum of men's clothing from the most casual of work clothes to bespoke tailoring over the past hundred years, you'll see that until 50 years ago most men were in the middle, having a suit or two and a sports coat or two along with the few accessories that support tailored garments. But since then, many of those men have drifted to the most casual end of the spectrum while a few have chosen to go to the higher end. Today there's something of a renaissance of tailored garments precisely because that type of clothing is no longer mandated by business or social dress. People generally have much more freedom in what they want to wear. That is of course something of a two-edged sword as we can see by simply looking out the window at the passing throng. But it seems that more and more young men are opting for personalized clothing because they want to remain individuals in their dress, rather than wearing something seen in every shop window in every mall. Democracy provides us with the growing opportunity of choice in our lives, and I think it's wonderful to see young people taking advantage of that in their choice of clothes. Many young men today are choosing suits, not because they have to wear them, but because they want to.
Q. You’ve always favored soft tailoring and natural shoulders. What is it about that aesthetic that continues to appeal to you?
A. In a nutshell, soft tailoring has always appealed to me because it's more comfortable, but I think it also has a sense of sprezzatura , a sense of nonchalant elegance that's simply not there in more built-up garments. I've been around tailors long enough to tell you that making a coat that has both shape and softness is without question the most difficult thing to do. Anyone can give you a coat that's soft if you don't care about shape. And anyone can make you a coat that has shape with a stiff infrastructure of padding. The ideal is to do both, and those tailors are few and far between. My aesthetic is to look put together without a lot of fuss and feathers, I don't want to look as though I'd spent half my morning picking out a pocket square that matches my socks. I'm vain, but not that blatantly vain. Being all matched up speaks to a special vanity of insecurity. A few well-placed wrinkles attests to our comfort with the world and ourselves.
Q. If you could distill your philosophy of dress into a single principle for the next generation, what would it be?
A. My advice is that young men should buy the best quality clothing they can afford, and with an eye towards longevity. The reality is that cheap clothes look cheap even when they're new, while quality clothes look good even when they're old. In fact they look better as they age. And don't bother looking for bargains, there aren't any. You get what you pay for. I'd rather have three good pair of shoes than six cheap ones.
Q. Are there any upcoming projects that you are excited about?
A. I thought you'd never ask. My current publisher is planning an audio book of my volume of essays titled TRUE STYLE, which is lovely because I'm told that more people today listen to books rather than read them. And in 2027 Southern Methodist University Press is publishing a small book of my poetry, which is a real kick for me. So, how 'bout them apples!
Q. Finally, what’s bringing you joy these days—inside or outside the wardrobe?
A. Well, I just mentioned poetry, and at the moment I'm just finishing a biography of the English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy. I've always loved his poetry more than the novels on which his reputation has rested, and I find that in the almost hundred years since his death, he's as relevant as ever. I also still get the great thrill I always have gotten from music. Music and dancing and clothes are all wrapped up in me, the only difference now, as opposed to when I was a young man, is that music is a great deal more poignant and capable of making me cry. I suppose that's because I know it will bring me no more memories.
Q. Quick fire round, Name 5 films that you’d recommend watching for the clothing alone.
A. Just off the front of my mind at the moment, I'd say my favorites in modern dress would be: any film with Fred Astaire, A Month in the Country with Edward Fox and Vanessa Redgrave, Marriage Italian Style with the handsome Marcello Mastroianni, Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, Phantom Thread, and Bullitt just for Steve McQueen alone.
Bruce, thank you for your generosity, your insight, and your enduring example. We’re honoured to share this conversation with you, the one and only Yoda of Menswear.
