Dan Levy on His Bold Style: 'It Makes Me Feel Good and That’s All That Matters' (Exclusive)

With new movie, ‘Good Grief,’ now on Netflix, ‘Schitt’s Creek’ star opens up about his sartorial splurge

“I believed I had to have my life by the time I was 40,” explains Dan Levy.

On a recent afternoon in Los Angeles, the actor, best known for his role as David Rose in Schitt’s Creek, talks about the expectations he had of himself. “And, as I explore in my new film, that’s simply an unrealistic expectation. We can talk about it, we can write about it, we can think about it, but no one ever lives together. And now I believe you would be an incredibly boring person if you lived together.” He pauses.

“Time goes on. Or not, according to Mariah Carey. And she is one of the greatest philosophers of our time.” He laughs, but he is serious. “She is a goddess and that’s why I wrote her in one episode Schitt’s Creek!”

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With his new film Good grief, Levy created the dramatic role that turned his career around – he wrote, directed and starred in the film. In it, he moves on Schitt’s Creek‘s theater of the absurd and deep into the shadows of the bereaved. In the film, Levy plays an artist who overcomes the death of her husband (played by Luke Evans) by traveling to Paris with her two best friends. He recently walked the red carpet at the premiere, and it certainly got him thinking about how he got started.

Netflix

Just over 15 years ago, Levy made his debut as a host on Canada’s MTV. Then he was a fashionable guy with cool glasses known as the son of Eugene Levy, the father of the American Pie. People started asking where he got his frames. “I kind of felt guilty telling you like a twelve-year-old to go and spend hundreds of dollars on, you know, some Tom Ford frames.” That’s how he founded DL Eyewear. He wants to clarify his beginnings. “It’s not a celebrity brand because it was founded before I became famous.”

The company now offers dozens of frames — sunglasses for $150, optical frames for $140 — and fans still ask where it gets theirs. They also ask where he gets his clothes. But they will never bear his initials on the label.

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“I would never be in the clothing business,” he says. “Because I don’t know, I don’t know about design. I don’t know about designing clothes, I like wearing clothes, of course.” He knows that he would be the hundredth celebrity to start fashion design. “But I don’t know if having good style means you should take a job from someone who went to school for it.” He pauses, seeming to think about it. “I mean, I’d like to take 10 years off and go to Parsons School of Design, learn how to cut…”

But for now, he’s comfortable with his day job (writing, acting, directing) and a sideline that shuts down red carpets with his own independent style. (On this day, he’s wearing a Dries Van Noten suit—and, of course, DL Eyewear frames.) “There’s definitely a red carpet Day and a real-life Day,” he says. “In real life I wear the same jeans and I like different sweaters. That’s my uniform.”

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As for Red Carpet Day, he’s pushing it a bit. And he made new friends. “I ended up becoming friends with the designers.” He still loves the tailored Loewe look he wore to the 2021 Met Gala.

“It was so beautiful that you really had to see it up close to see the handiwork.” No, he couldn’t keep it. “It’s in a museum in London, I believe. Because I’ve seen people posing for photos with it and tagging me in photos on Instagram!”

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

She says of her daring style: “I think I’ve always had a strong desire to express myself through what I wear.” He laughs. “Sometimes it really confused my family! I remember being on MTV and coming home and my mom looking at what I was wearing and going, ‘Well, that was an interesting choice.’ But, you know, if it makes me feel good, that’s all that matters. I think it should be personal style. It’s just a quest to feel good in what you wear every day.”

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Source: HIS Education