Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette. In today's video, we'll discuss the life
and career of one of the 20th century's most multifaceted entertainers,
Sammy Davis Jr., and how you can emulate his signature style.
Today's video is another installment in our How to Dress Like series,
where we profile icons in the history of menswear.
You can find our playlist of those videos here,
and if you'd like to learn even more about other Gentlemen of Style,
you can see our full article series on the website.
Before fully diving into the style of Sammy Davis Jr. today, however,
let's first examine the life and career of this entertainer
who worked as a singer, dancer, actor, comedian,
and activist, and whose career spanned six decades.
He was perhaps best known as a member of the Rat Pack
and his biggest hit song, the catchy single The Candyman
hit number one on the Billboard charts in 1972,
but he was already a well-established entertainer long before that
with a rich and storied career. Davis whose full name was
Samuel George Davis Jr. was born on December
8th 1925 in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.
For decades, Harlem had been a crucible of black
talent in the United States and Sammy Davis' family was no exception.
His father Samuel George Davis Sr. was an African-American vaudeville
performer and his mother Elvera Sanchez was a tap
dancer and comedienne of Spanish and Afro-Cuban roots.
Davis learned a great deal about entertainment from his father and the
vaudeville troupe he belonged to, the Will Mastin Trio. Because of this
vaudevillian background, Sammy became proficient in all of the
standard entertainment disciplines, including acting, dancing, singing, comedy,
and even impressions, although he's most
remembered today for his incredible tap dancing routines
and his music. In 1943, Davis was drafted into the United States
army, where, unfortunately, he encountered
prejudice and abuse at the hands of his fellow soldiers.
Davis later said that because he had grown up amongst black entertainers and
performed largely for black audiences, his experiences in the army were his
first real encounters with racism. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be his last.
He often had to contend with racial intolerance from many of his
fellow soldiers, getting into frequent fights and having
his nose broken several times. Eventually, he was
reassigned to the entertainment branch of the army
where he was able to perform for his fellow troops.
After the war, he was honorably discharged from the army
and then resumed performing with the Will Maston Trio.
A near-fatal car accident in 1954 resulted in the loss of his left eye.
While he was recuperating, he began to discuss religion with his friend Eddie
Cantor, himself a famed Jewish comedian and
Davis would later convert to Judaism himself.
Within a few months of the accident, Davis had recovered and was back to his
rigorous performing schedule appearing in the Broadway show Mr. Wonderful
in 1956. He appeared on the cover of his
first album wearing an eye patch after his
accident, and this confidence attracted the
attention of Frank Sinatra, who was, of course, a very popular singer
in his own right by this time. Sinatra and Davis
became fast friends and by 1959, Davis was a
member of a group that included himself and Sinatra
as well as Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford.
This group would come to be known in popular culture as the Rat Pack.
Although he was already a moderate star
in his own right, Davis' association with the Rat Pack
catapulted his career to new heights. Davis made his most popular films while
he was a member of the Rat Pack, including Ocean's 11 in 1960,
Sergeants 3 in 1962, and Robin in The Seven Hoods in 1964.
Davis also maintained an active presence on the nightclub scene,
in the recording studio, and on Broadway where his talents as a singer and dancer
were always in demand. He was also an active supporter of the
civil rights movement of the 1960s, headlining
several events to raise money for the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In 1967, Davis became the first black man to be featured on the cover of GQ magazine
wearing a double-breasted checked suit and matching overcoat
that had been tailored by Rat Pack tailor Sy Devore.
By 1968, after career stress and marital troubles, Davis' career began to
flounder and he did descend into drug and alcohol
abuse. Fortunately, though, his third and final
wife Altovise Gore, herself an entertainer, helped Sammy to break these
addictions and resume his career. Davis would remain a popular
figure in Las Vegas and on television, especially on variety
shows where he liked to discuss his various hobbies,
everything from trick shooting to photography.
By the late 1980s, though, Davis wild lifestyle of drinking and partying had
caught up to him and he was now suffering from cirrhosis
of the liver and throat cancer. A planned tour in 1989
had to be scrapped, so that he could seek medical attention and sadly, he passed
away from complications due to throat cancer
on May 16, 1990, in Beverly Hills. Two days later in
tribute to Davis, the lights on the Las Vegas strip were
dimmed in his honor and his tombstone fittingly reads, "The
Entertainer; He did it all." So, now that you know a bit
more about his life, let's examine Sammy Davis Jr.'s personal
style and what made it so memorable. Even in his first film
appearance in 1933 in Rufus Jones for President at the age
of just seven years old, Sammy already looked
incredibly stylish in a double-breasted jacket and flat cap. But
over the ensuing decades Sammy's wardrobe would become very
diverse, just as his career would. He would wear
different kinds of things in his movies, on stage, and in his personal life.
And while certain elements of his style would
change to suit the trends of various decades,
other elements stayed with him as part of his central style philosophy.
We'll now take a look at specific different kinds of garments
starting with suits. Davis was rarely seen without a suit of some kind and
while he would follow some of the more dated trends in the
1970s, his overall choices tended to be darker
in tone, and often solid but sometimes with a
subtle pattern, like a light check. Early on in his
career, he favored single-breasted two-button suit jackets,
which were standard for men of the day and, of course, are still a popular choice
even today. Many of his suits in the 1950s were
likely made from mohair, which in contrast to the heavier wool
suits of the 1940s, were made from a lighter softer and more
crease-resistant fabric. And if you'd like to learn more about
the benefits of mohair as a suiting the fabric you can find
our guide on the subject here. At this time his jackets were cut straight in
the body and his pants had wider legs and often had pleats. He also wore a
somewhat conservative wardrobe throughout the early 1960s,
again, following what was in fashion at the time.
At this time, he came to favor slim fitting
one-button jackets with narrow lapels. He could, however,
also, be seen wearing double-breasted jackets from time to time,
often with a six-on-two configuration, And when the brighter colors and
patterns of the mid to late 1960s arrived, Sammy was again quick to
follow the trends here incorporating more
flashy items into his wardrobe. This is exemplified in the
GQ cover we mentioned previously, where not only is his suit and
matching overcoat in a relatively bold pattern,
but he's also seen wearing a gold ring. The Rat Pack was known to take advantage
of the talents of Hollywood tailor Sy Devore, and through designing
and building suits for them, Devore became almost as famous as the
Rat Pack for a time. At his shop on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood,
Devore became known for making suits for
the Rat Pack out of a distinctive fabric known as sharkskin.
This is a smooth worsted fabric that's woven with
two different colored sets of thread made from natural fibers, such as
mohair, wool, or silk. The different colors give the final product a
two-toned woven appearance creating a subtle texture.
The overall effect, though, especially from a distance is still of a single
color usually in dark grey or navy. And as you
might expect, the name comes from the finish of the
fabric, whose soft glossiness brings to mind the wet
skin of a shark. Davis' entertainment style was
energetic and really athletic, as he danced and moved across the stage.
To accommodate this, he came to prefer trousers that were of a straighter cut,
and also had no break so that his shoes were cleanly
exposed. The slimmer lapels he came to favor also
had the effect of making his shoulders look a bit broader in comparison,
which helped to build up his small frame, as he was
only about 5 feet, 5 inches tall. He also favored
slim ties, which were in fashion in the late 50s
and early 60s, but continued to wear them well past their initial point of
popularity. He was also fond of wearing his top
collar button undone and his ties somewhat loosely
tied, as can be seen in Ocean's 11 to give
a bit of a more casual, sprezzatura-like feel. And in addition to
wearing trousers with little to no break, he also wore them with a relatively high
waist to make his legs look longer. He was a fan of the
Hollywood top trouser style, which had a waistband that extended
higher than where the belt would sit. Next, we'll move on to jewelry.
Beginning in the 1950s, there was a consumer boom
in America as the Second World War had ended,
materials were now cheaper and people were more confident in spending
than they had been previously. In fact, the economy would grow
by about 37%, compared to the previous period in this time,
and people were encouraged to buy more items that would previously have been
considered luxuries, including jewelry like
cufflinks or rings. Celebrities of the time
exemplified this and Davis was definitely one of them.
He started by wearing a large gold pinky ring and became a fan
of rings of all shapes and sizes. By the way,
you can find out more about rings and their place in a classic
gentleman's wardrobe by viewing our guide here. He was also a
fan of large, decorative, and flashy cufflinks,
and in a memorable television appearance on the sitcom
All in The Family he wore a large gold medallion,
which came to be associated with him in the broader popular culture.
As we've already discussed, Sammy only had the use of his right eye
for most of his adult life and after moving from the eye patch to wearing a
glass eye he also chose to wear glasses as a
style accessory. He's perhaps most well known for wearing
a pair of Kazal 623 optical frames but these weren't his
only pair, as he could also be seen wearing styles
with thicker rims or oversized shapes, and of course we've
also got numerous guides to both Eyeglasses and Sunglasses which you can
find here. Moving on to Davis' hairstyle, it didn't
really vary much over the course of his
life, as he preferred something slick and conservative. His hair did get a
little bit longer at points in the 1970s, but by the 1980s he had returned to the
style akin to a disconnected undercut that had
made him famous. Of course, the disconnected undercut is
one of a handful of classic hairstyles for gentlemen and
we've done a video on this topic, which you can find here.
We'll move on now to Black Tie ensembles, which were a common
feature of entertainers of Davis' day, But much like
his standard everyday suits, he was known to wear his
Black Tie outfits in a somewhat nonchalant style. He kept his lapels
slim and while he would occasionally wear peaked lapels or a shawl collar,
he was a fan of wearing notched lapel tuxedo jackets.
While the notched lapel has come and gone over the centuries as a feature of
Black Tie, we would today recommend that you wear a
shawl collar or peak lapels as the most traditionally correct options.
He would often wear a tuxedo
shirt with pleated fronts and would always wear a
self-tied bow tie. Indeed, it would often
be untied at certain points during shows for an especially
nonchalant look. Davis would also frequently wear a
pocket square in a bolder and contrasting color.
While a white linen square would be the most conservative choice for
suiting or for tuxedos, Davis was often known to wear silk pocket squares
in louder colors. Now that we've broken down
Sammy Davis Jr.'s style over the decades of his life, then,
the question remains: What's the best way for you
to emulate that style? Of course, Sammy was comfortable
playing around with the rules of different dress codes,
and added his own unique touches to things.
And his wardrobe of course varied, both from day to day,
and from decade to decade. As we can see from both his suits
and his tuxedos, which were well-tailored but worn with an
air of casual elegance, one thing to keep in mind, if you'd like to emulate Davis
is to not take yourself too seriously, You could try to emulate the slick back hairstyle
and pencil-thin mustache that Davis was
known for at different points in his career but
this might verge on being a bit costumey. If you'd like to go with a look
that's closer to what Davis wore earlier in his career in the 1950s and
60s, you'll want to go with a slimmer fitting suit.
It could be single or double-breasted in
configuration, but adding a touch like jetted pockets
for additional slimness would be a good choice. And while he was
most frequently seen in suits, Davis wasn't a stranger to
the occasional sport jacket, so you could opt for one of these as
well in a similar fitting style. Whatever the case, if going
for this cleaner look we would recommend a shirt with a
classic point or even a spear collar and a slim dark tie.
Conversely, if you'd prefer a slightly more casual look,
you could, of course, go for unbuttoning the top button of your shirt collar
We wouldn't really recommend that you wear a
loosely knotted tie with an open collar, but of course
you could skip the tie altogether for more casual ensembles.
And as we mentioned, Sammy was a fan of loud and large jewelry.
While if you were to go for styles he wore, they would probably look
a bit dated today you could certainly go for
something more modern and subtle. On that note, you can take a look
at our video on 7 Do's and Don'ts for Men's Jewelry here.
And don't forget that eyewear, whether they be eyeglasses or sunglasses with
larger and wider frames like aviators
and wayfarers, can give you that Sammy Davis Jr. look.
And one bonus point here, we often discuss
hats on this channel, and indeed, Davis
was no stranger to headwear. He would frequently wear bowler hats in film,
but he was also seen wearing pork pies
fedoras and other styles. So, as you might have guessed,
You can take a look at our comprehensive hat playlist here.
In conclusion, then, the crux of Sammy Davis Jr.'s style lay
in taking the distinctive features of
various trends over the decades and incorporating them into a larger style
that was more timeless and unique. Even if you're not
interested in directly replicating his signature looks,
the overall lesson to take from Sammy Davis is, again,
not to take yourself too seriously and have fun with the way you're dressing,
so long as you also know what makes you look good.
In today's video, I'm wearing an outfit that's largely in line with
some of the earlier styles of Sammy Davis' career
in the 50s and 60s. My two-piece suit is in navy blue
and it has a subtle bird's eye texture to its weave.
While it does have peaked lapels and flapped pockets,
its overall slim fit especially combined with the trousers,
gives it that athletic Sammy Davis look. I've also chosen a darker grenadine tie
in brown from Fort Belvedere and an off-white
shirt. The shirt has French cuffs, into which I've inserted
vintage cufflinks in gold with a starburst pattern
that does look 50s or 60s inspired. I've also chosen to wear a gold ring
today to harmonize with the cufflinks, featuring a stone in yellow that goes
well with my socks. These are two-toned shadow stripe
models from Fort Belvedere in navy blue and yellow.
The break on my slim fitting trousers is relatively high to
show off these socks and the fact that I'm wearing suede,
loafers in dark brown also shows them off as well.
Also harmonizing with the color palette is my pocket square,
which is in white linen but contains a contrasting
yellow design element you can find the socks and the tie I'm wearing
in the Fort Belvedere Shop,
along with a wide array of other menswear accessories,
though we don't sell anything quite as
bold as would be favored by Sammy Davis Jr. at this time.