Everything men can learn from George Clooney

Some 20 years ago, back in his swaggering Ocean’s Eleven days, George Clooney and his business partner, Rande Gerber (aka Mr Cindy Crawford), decided to get into the casino business.

Their plan was aspirational and immaculately dressed – Las Ramblas, Barcelona-inspired but situated in Las Vegas, would be a super-luxurious gaming complex, its vibe not shorts, sliders and beverages the size of industrial silos but, as Clooney and Gerber liked to put it, “tuxedos and martinis”.

After starring in Ocean’s Eleven, Clooney had planned to open a luxury gaming complex in Las Vegas - Village Roadshow/Getty

The handsome duo – both in their 40s back then – had the idea to build a casino that echoed Sin City’s 1950s heyday, a $3bn hotel and condo complex with a ring-a-ding-ding energy and… a dress code. In among this tawdry culture of hi-tops, flip-flops and replica football shirts, visitors to Las Ramblas would, at gorgeous George’s request, be asked to “dress up”.

“No cut-offs, culottes or espadrilles,” he insisted. Clooney wanted to bring old-school elegance to the project “so that it will feel like you are walking into… a classic Monte Carlo casino”. Of course, Las Ramblas failed – it never happened. Probably mostly, one feels, on the misguided and wildly over-ambitious sartorial message of its celebrity founder. Not everyone looks as good in black tie as Clooney does.

Clooney wore black tie to a Clooney Foundation event in New York City with his wife, Amal, in September 2024 - Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images

Like his most recent theatrical incarnation, Jay Kelly (dressed by storied Neapolitan tailor Caruso for the Noah Baumbach-directed film), Clooney has been camera-facing for decades now, red carpet adjacent for almost 30 years. His style is classic, consistent, unchanging and unfailing. Even at 64, he looks like he could take the house down.

He was at it again this weekend, attending several awards ceremonies including the Golden Globes, all twinkle and sprezzatura, sporting black tie on the red carpet with Amal and a navy Armani suit to pay tribute to the late designer at the WWD Style Awards. How does he do it? Humility, restraint and simplicity. A knack for an aesthetic that is both everyman and low-key immaculate.

Clooney, pictured with Cindy Crawford, wearing a navy Armani suit to the WWD Style Awards, Jan 9 2026 - Christopher Polk/WWD/Getty

Clooney is, apparently at his own design, the anathema of the modern, fashion-facing celebrity – no showy logos or labels, no brand ambassadorships or fashion “collabs” – he dresses with what the kids like to term as “steeze”. Style and ease. The key is simplicity – a small but versatile capsule wardrobe that can travel.

Look at his outfits from the past 20 years or so and they merge into a well-tailored colour drench of sharkskin silvers and tuxedo blacks. Mostly, Lake Como’s most-celebrated resident is wearing Giorgio Armani.

Sharkskin-silver suits have long been a mainstay in Clooney’s wardrobe (pictured at Venice Film Festival 2024) - Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

“He is always the grown up in the room,” says Ben Cobb, the former editor-in-chief of men’s style magazine Another Man and a designer for the Scandinavian house Tiger of Sweden. “He channels old-school, Hollywood glamour. Classic and classy wins the day.” Nothing overly directional, age inappropriate or “fashion”.

Clooney doesn’t employ a stylist. The suits are sharp and flattering – on his dinner jacket, a tapered waist and a peaked, satin lapel. Shoes are plain lace-ups, the bow tie judiciously proportioned. Nothing else. “Sometimes, in the noisy crowd that is the red carpet,” says Cobb, “the quiet one will stand out.”

His secret weapon? He has a few, many of them unfairly, genetically skewed: a really great and ageless head of hair; a dark and shaggy mullet in his ER days, now chromium silver like an Aston Martin fender chrome and cut like a Blue Note jazz musician’s. Last year, he transformed into a crow-headed sleaze for his lead in the Broadway play Good night and Good Luck. His hair colour was apparently derived from a supermarket bottle that had passed its sell-by date some time back in the 1960s – even he admitted it looked “bad”.

Clooney as Dr Doug Ross in ER - Sven Arnstein/NBC/NBCU via Getty

Then there’s the slim physique which is shaped by regular running, hot yoga, tennis sessions and strength training using EMS (electrical muscle stimulation) technology and a trademark, lopsided grin that can still electrify a room. But mainly, it’s his winning “aw-shucks”/“who, me?” modesty. Clooney is impeccably mannered, amusing, playful, clubbable and graciously uxorious, always deferring to Amal, bashfully delighted to be her lowly plus-one.

Does he have a grooming regime? Of sorts. Clooney cuts his hair himself, at home, using – get this – a &ZeroWidthSpace;TV-advertised contraption called a Flowbee, that attaches to a vacuum cleaner and uses suction to pull long hair into a cutting head with rotating blades. His winning uneven smile, he says, is the muscle-memory hangover from a bout of bell’s palsy in his teens.

Clooney said he cuts his own hair using a contraption called the Flowbee - Michael Tran/AFP/Getty

The glowing Clooney complexion (and chin dimple) is maintained with a dab of his wife’s hydrating and moisturising Charlotte Tilbury Magic Cream. He’s also known to favour Hermetise’s vitamin E and panthenol-rich Professional Eye Cream (the diamond powder ingredient in the £335 unguent helping the acceleration of blood circulation for dark circles under tired eyes). He also deploys lip balm just before a red carpet situation.

Sartorial brevity is key. A single-breasted Armani suit in pewter, worn with a black, open-necked shirt for semi-formal appearances. Grey chinos and a dark polo shirt for summer days on the Riva or hanging out with Amal at Villa Oleandra, Lake Como.

Clooney’s smart-casual wardrobe consists of grey chinos and a dark polo shirt - XNY/Star Max/GC Images

And on the Hollywood red carpet or Vegas strip? “I have one tux. Just one,” Clooney once said. (He definitely has at least two.) “It’s a single-button [Armani]. There’s only one mistake guys can make, and that is to try to do anything fancy. Just put on a tux. Just put a tie on, put a plain shirt on, don’t wear a bolo tie… and don’t wear a cummerbund. That’s crazy.”

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