JKR

It’s quite an achievement to develop an image so distinctive that it’s easily recognised even in silhouette. At the height of his fame, Chaplin’s film posters sometimes ran without his name added, so successful was the image he created. For sometime I’ve been meaning to look up what Chaplin can teach us about the art of creating a brand. So reading that the V&A is soon to mount a big show of film costumes, with his little tramp suit center stage, prompted me to do so. I assumed there were some general lessons we might draw.

How Chaplin developed the look is related in two manners: as an inspired moment, then again as a carefully thought through strategy. First the inspiration:

“The character of the Tramp was originally created by accident while Chaplin was socialising with some other famed actors of the day. Chaplin decided to make his companions laugh by putting on Buster Keaton’s shoes on the wrong feet, a jacket that was too large for him, a hat and the hairs off a shoe brush for a mustache.”

Just a lark then. However, looking back in the 1930s, Chaplin himself told an interviewer:

“A hotel set was built for (fellow Keystone comic) Mabel Normand’s film Mabel’s Strange Predicament and I was hurriedly told to put on a funny make-up. This time I went to the wardrobe and got a pair of baggy pants, a tight coat, a small derby hat and a large pair of shoes. I wanted the clothes to be a mass of contradictions, knowing pictorially the figure would be vividly outlined on the screen. To add a comic touch, I wore a small mustache that would not hide my expression. My appearance got an enthusiastic response from everyone, including Mr. Sennett. The clothes seemed to imbue me with the spirit of the character. He actually became a man with a soul – a point of view. I defined to Mr. Sennett the type of person he was. He wears an air of romantic hunger, forever seeking death, but his feet won’t let him.”

This second tale has more to teach us I think; how a technically challenging context (here the crudeness of the cinematography) can be an inspiration rather than a barrier, but in either case is a deciding factor for the look. And how even the most distinctive touch has to serve a more practical purpose (the moustache  being small enough to not swamp exaggerated facial expressions). But the first story also carries a lesson: whatever the truth about rigour and insight, a nice fable encourages us all to see the work in a magical light. ‘Print the legend’ as the saying goes.

A final observation: even the most distinctive and groundbreaking image is not immune to copycatting. There is a suggestion that Hitler put his anti-Semitism to one side to adopt Chaplin’s moustache, believing it would help make him as popular as the globally adored comic. Famously Chaplin himself once came third in a Chaplin lookalike contest. So consolation here for those of us developing trademark looks in a less stellar context…

Source for quotes : Wikipedia