THE JOURNAL
Stanley Tucci is really quite extraordinary. He is a true renaissance man. He acts, writes, directs, presents, cooks, shakes (cocktails) and, along the way, collects multiple accolades for all those disciplines with an easy-breezy, effortless charm. He’s been nominated for an Academy Award, a Tony and won a Golden Globe and multiple Emmys. He’s starred in some of the movie industry’s most successful franchises – Captain America: The First Avenger and The Hunger Games. He’s appeared in some of its most acclaimed – The Lovely Bones, Road To Perdition and Conclave. And he’s shined in some of the most captivating shows on TV – Murder One and Conspiracy. And if you’ve never seen him in Big Night, the 1996 movie he co-wrote and co-directed about two Italian brothers who run a restaurant in Jersey Shore in the 1950s, you should. It’s a culinary classic. A film that could only have been created by someone who grew up in Peekskill, New York, raised by two parents of Italian descent.
For a man to be so good at so many things, it should make him easy to hate. But it’s impossible not to like Tucci. How can you dislike someone who appears to relish all that comes his way without ever looking self-satisfied? How can you begrudge a man who posts on his Instagram feed, “Where’s there a will there’s a martini” as well as a Reel of himself making potato croquettes with his mum?
You might imagine it’s all an act. He’s an actor, after all. But he and I have a good friend in common. When I first met him for dinner a few years ago, he was the most affable, interesting and interested dining companion you could wish for. And at the same friend’s birthday supper only a few months ago, it was Tucci who stood up and spontaneously delivered the sweetest, most elegant toast to our host.
And if that weren’t enough, he’s now turned his hand to clothing. No surprise, really. Whether he’s wandering through the backstreets of an Italian village, grilling a steak at home, or stepping into a limo alongside Meryl Streep while filming The Devil Wears Prada 2, Tucci is always impeccably attired. And now he has collaborated on his own clothing collection with N.Peal, the storied British cashmere brand favoured by Hollywood and worn by everyone from Cary Grant to Daniel Craig.
Over a recent Zoom call, while on a break from filming in New York, and wearing a slim-fitting charcoal-grey cashmere sweater that matches his signature bold-framed spectacles, Tucci, who looks younger than his nearly 65 years, tells MR PORTER he wants to talk about style today. It’s a subject that clearly energises him.
I know you’ve always liked good clothes, but do you have a memory of when you first realised that they were important to you?
My folks always dressed very nicely. My dad was an art teacher. This was in the 1960s, so people wore suits and ties and all that to go to work. As the years went on, he dressed slightly more casually, but I always remember him wearing a jacket. And my father’s family, on his mother’s side, owned a haberdashery in Peekskill, New York, that I thought was just one of the greatest places I’d ever walked into.
But was there a particular menswear item that made you think, “Ah, this is what it’s all about”?
Well, my dad had these ties that he would buy. But I only have one of them still because most of them got lost when I moved to England. I think about them all the time. The ties were very thin, extremely thin, cotton ties and they were batik. So, each tie was different. They were made by an artist who worked with textiles. My father bought them for $1 or $2 each. He had a whole collection of them. They were incredibly beautiful. They looked like designs for contemporary stained glass or something like that. They were gorgeous. And I remember just thinking they were the coolest things ever.
How did this collection come about?
I’d always walked by the N.Peal stores, having been in England now for a long time, and I just thought they were so beautiful. The palette was beautiful, they were really simple; they weren’t trying too hard. And they were timeless. And I love that. I just don’t like it when fashion tries too hard. I don’t like it when anything tries too hard, but especially when fashion does so.
I think about the way Gene Kelly dressed in those movies in the 1940s and 1950s. I mean, come on, that was the coolest thing. Or the way Cary Grant looked dressed in that suit in North By Northwest. The colour of that grey is like the perfect grey. And when he goes into the hotel and he calls up and he says, “I’d like to get my suit sponge cleaned.” Who even says that? I don’t even know what that is! And I just thought that was the greatest thing. He just put on the same suit again because it’s clean. But I think those images are what inspired me, or those of Sidney Poitier in the 1960s, that sort of lean elegance that they had.
Apart from the clothes themselves, why do you find those images so appealing?
Of course, there’s a romanticism and a nostalgia to those images from back then. They have become iconic. I think part of it also has to do with the photography of the time. And the quality of the imagery, the quality of the colour. You know, when you go back and you look at some of those images, they’re more powerful than those of today because everything now has such a high resolution. It’s like you’re just in the room with the person. Back then, there was always a remove. It was like there was a filter of some kind, but there wasn’t. It was simply the technology. If you look at the colour images from the 1960s and 1970s, they weren’t the way the world was actually seen. Now every photograph is exactly the way we see the world.
Do you think you’ve tried to bring some old-school, Hollywood style back in a contemporary way with what you’ve created with N.Peal?
Yes. If we were to maybe film some stuff in the future, I’d almost want to have the photoshoot be reminiscent of some of the imagery from back then.
Which are your favourite pieces that you’ve designed?
I really love the pullover sweaters with the zipper. And I like the little accents that we put in, you know, just that little hint of colour that makes something a bit different. Even with the socks. I just want to wear four pairs of those socks at one time.
The same with the knitted polo tops we created. They are so versatile. You can wear them by themselves or with a jacket. You can dress them up, dress them down. And the soft unstructured jackets that feel like a sort of cardigan. I like to wear a jacket a lot, like my dad, but there are certain times if I’m home, and we’re having a dinner party or something, where it’s nice to wear something casual, but it still feels like you’re dressing up a little.
Obviously, you travel a lot with work, and this collection for N.Peal is called The Art Of Travelling. Are there certain pieces in your wardrobe that you won’t travel without?
Yes, depending on the season, right? In the summer, I have a seersucker jacket that I like. I always have a blue blazer. Not a traditional blue blazer with the brass buttons, but like a cool, easy thing that I can throw into the overhead storage on the plane. Because when you put it on it still looks good. Jeans, obviously. And I almost always wear smart shoes. I actually wore sneakers on the plane the other day, and the idea just makes me uncomfortable. It doesn’t make any sense because they’re supposed to make you comfortable. I mean, they’re obviously physically more comfortable. But I always feel like I should have a pair of shoes on. So, everywhere I travel, I always have a jacket or two and a suit. And I’ll take a few ties with me. I’m always prepared for anything, with the exception of a tux.
It seems that the movies and your father have been your biggest sartorial influences.
Yes, I still enjoy watching old movies, even films from the 1930s and 1940s. The way people dressed then was just great. The men were always wearing white shirts, a tie and a jacket and suspenders, whether they were a cop, a gangster, a doctor or whatever. They all dressed well. I just really love that.
Then, of course, as you move into the 1960s, you’d see the Italian films of the time and how they dressed. Men such as Marcello Mastroianni. I just rewatched 8½ a few weeks ago and it’s so interesting because he wears the same thing throughout the entire film, which is basically a dark suit, a white shirt and a black tie. You don’t need anything else because the whole film is so graphic. It’s black and white and what he’s wearing is just so perfect. Oh God, the elegance is… it’s too much. But here’s the thing. Now when I walk around Italy, I’m shocked to see how many people, how many Italians, are not as well dressed as they used to be.
Really. You think it’s changed?
Very much so. Very much so. When I lived in Italy, you never saw anybody wearing a pair of shorts. I remember I was in Rome and I went for a run and I had a pair of exercise shorts on, and everybody looked at me as if I was insane going for a run. And now everybody in Italy is going for a run, they’re exercising and there are gyms all over the place. But also, when people are just walking around shopping, or dining, they’re now dressed so casually and I’m still not used to it. They’re not tourists, they’re Italians. I still can’t reconcile it.
You think they should dress up for dinner still?
Yeah, you bet. Some people do, but not as many. As I said, I always have a jacket and, if I am filming and I go out to eat, I put on a jacket. It makes it feel like… I don’t know, it’s just my thing.
It psychologically nudges you into the occasion.
It does. What it does is it changes, there’s a shift. When you’re acting, there’s a phrase that my teacher used to use for when a scene is going one way and then suddenly there’s a shift in the scene. So, the tone of the scene has to shift and then it goes a few more lines and then there’s a shift again. And it could be in the balance of power between the two characters; whatever it is, there’s an emotional shift. And I do feel that it’s really important; at the end of the day, there has to be a shift. There has to be a shut off. You shut something off and you turn something on. And what you’re turning on is a new part of you, another part of you, which is that I’m going to look different, I’m going to clean myself up.
I’m a big believer in taking a shower, putting on something nice and going out for a proper meal or making a proper meal. Otherwise, everything is just the same. And that’s the way we tend to dress these days. No matter where you go, you dress the same way unless you’re going to a wedding. And you’re like, that’s it? That’s what you’re going to wear to the theatre? The same thing you wore to the kids’ baseball game?
From superfine cashmere polo shirts and chunky rollnecks to knitted cashmere blazers and utility jackets, knitted ties and travel socks, there’s something in Stanley Tucci’s collection for N.Peal that will suit every shift, scene and occasion this autumn. It’s classic, but with character; smooth and warm. Much like the man himself.