Hogtown Rake interview with Richard Crouse
Richard Crouse taping one of his various TV appearances. Source: Facebook.
I have known Richard Crouse for close to a dozen years. We worked together on CBC Radio’s “Grooveshinny”, a music trivia game show on which Richard was the “musical maven”. Every week, he astonished the country with his knowledge of music both popular and obscure. But he is perhaps better known as one of Canada’s most prominent film reviewers. The whole time I have known Richard he has always dressed well with a strong streak of personality in all his outfits.
Why do you like to dress well?
I think I inherited my style sense from my father. He’s 86 years old and I’ve never seen him without, at minimum, a shirt and tie. He’s not a flashy man. I gave him some colourful socks at Christmas a few years ago and he still doesn’t feel comfortable enough to wear red striped footwear. Nonetheless he’s always well turned out and some of that must have rubbed off on me.
What does the way you dress reveal about who you are?
When I was younger and trying to break into television I wanted to be taken seriously but I was a skinny kid who wasn’t hip enough to be on Much Music and not mature enough to sit behind a news desk. I found that when I wore a suit and tie people took me more seriously, so I scrounged around second hand stores like Divine Decadence and South Pacific and put together a wardrobe that could best be described as Mad Men meets rock-a-billy. It was my idea of how a professional should look, tempered by my own rebellious streak. I think the same is true today. I don’t buy dead people’s clothes anymore but I still don’t follow trends—Coco Chanel said “fashion is made to become unfashionable”— or dress the way I’m told. My suits tend to be conservative—I only wear blue, grey or black—but I’m never too concerned with clashing patterns or colours and accessorize with skull cufflinks, wild socks, mind-altering ties and blue suede shoes. What does it say about me? Don’t judge a book by its cover… or a man by his suit. Judge me after you’ve checked out my socks.
Being on TV and working with movie stars, do you feel pressure to dress a certain way?
I don’t. The unusual suit, tie and sock combos have kind of become my thing, and I regard them as a TV uniform. Every week when I get off the air from Canada AM I get more tweets about my socks than about my reviews. I’m not sure if that is good or bad, but I know it means that people are watching. As far as dressing for the people I am interviewing… no way. They’re usually styled to an inch of their lives in clothes that cost more than Nicolas Cage’s yearly dinosaur skull budget, so I don’t think about it. I’m more interested in people who have their own unique sense of style.
Who is your style icon?
The 1965 Eaton’s catalogue guy or Cab Calloway. What’s not to like about cuffs on the pants and roomy suit jackets? In truth I don’t think I have a style icon, but rather a style era. If the style was developed between the time “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive” and “Sunshine Superman” hit the pop charts, chances are I’ll like it. If Montgomery Clift would have worn it, then so would I.
Montgomery Clift in a lovely tweed.
What are your top 3 favourite places to shop for men’s clothing in Toronto and why?
Anywhere where Thomas Pink ties are on sale is my favourite store. My clothes are often covered in / ruined by TV make-up (a first world problem if there ever was one) so tend to look for sales. Father’s Day is a great time to buy suits at the Bay because there are always deals. I buy all my footwear at the Cole Haan store on Bloor Street because I love the shoes—the Lunar soled shoes are stylish and each step feels like you are walking on the backs of angels—and it is close to the Museum Tavern where I like to take a load off and have a Negroni after a long day of shopping.
One piece of advice for the man about to embark on improving his wardrobe?
Don’t play by the rules and only wear Duchamp or Thomas Pink ties. That’s two bits of advice, but I was never good at playing by the rules.
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