Score one for Timothy Dalton. I find this beige wool gaberdine suit from The Living Daylights to be Dalton’s most successful of the series for a number of reasons. Most importantly, the suit fits well, but it’s also a classic style. The jacket’s shoulders are straight and padded, but not built up or out too much as most of his other suits are guilty of. The only problem with the suit is large armholes that impede arm movement. That’s what causes the shoulders to raise when the arms are raised, and most off the peg suits are plagued with this problem.
The jacket is a classic 2-button with double vents, flapped pockets and 3-button cuffs. The trousers aren’t clear. At first it appears that they have classic forward pleats, but a closer look reveals what might be kiss pleats, which is more generally called an inverted box pleat. It’s like a forward pleat and reverse pleat coming together. That style was popular in the late 1980s and into the 1990s and typically results in very baggy trouser legs, but these legs look very neat. Perhaps with the future blu-ray release the trouser style will be clearer.
It’s well known that Timothy Dalton is not comfortable dressed up, and here he forgoes the tie. Without a tie he looks more comfortable, and it’s okay to wear a casual suit—like one made of beige gaberdine—without a tie. The darker business suits that Dalton wears in Licence to Kill don’t work nearly as well sans tie. His cream shirt has an undersized spread collar, a placket front and 1-button cuffs. Dalton wears brown slip-ons and a brown belt.
Grey isn’t a very popular colour for linen, which is typically in its natural beige colour. When not natural, other earth tones, white and blue are still far more popular than grey linen. But this grey linen is quite appropriate for Bond’s arrival in the Bahamas in Casino Royale. The suit coat has a 3-button front, 4-button cuffs, double vents and flapped pockets, cut with straight shoulders and roped sleeveheads.
The unusual thing about this suit is the peak lapels. Peak lapels typically aren’t found on single-breasted coats outside of formalwear. Another name for peak lapels is double-breasted lapels, and that’s because they are the standard for double-breasted coats. The trousers have a flat front and turn-ups. The legs are also full-cut, which has many benefits with linen. Because linen has the tendency to wrinkle more than any other cloth, a tighter leg will only cause more wrinkles. A full leg also wears cooler than a tight leg. The suit’s maker is unknown.
Bond’s shirt is white with fancy self patterns, alternating track stripes with large and small chains on a white open plain-weave. The shirt has shorts sleeves, shoulder straps, a placket front and a large, two-button spread collar. Bond’s shoes are dark brown suede chukka boots, and Bond commits the faux pas of wearing a black leather belt with brown shoes. The sunglasses are from Persol, model 2244.
As part of 92nd Street Y’s Fashion Icons with Fern Mallis series, Tom Ford—the designer of Daniel Craig’s suits in Quantum of Solace and the next Bond film Skyfall—spoke about his personal and professional life in a sold-out talk with moderator Fern Mallis—best known as the creator of New York’s Fashion Week. 92nd Street Y is a world-class cultural institution in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and its Fashion Icons series has already featured great designers including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. Ford talked a little about his clothes, but he gave more insight into his personal life and tastes that reflects the clothes we see in his collection now.
Ford wore his usual dark charcoal grey 2-button suit with wide peak lapels. The suit had the shoulders typically seen on his recent suits, with no padding but plenty of stiff canvassing to give them a natural but clean line, along with roped sleeveheads. The suit also had a single vent and straight pocket with large flaps, including a ticket pocket. Four visible buttons on the cuffs finished the sleeves, and most likely there was a fifth unbuttoned at the end. Though his jacket covered the top of his trousers, a fullness through the leg suggest they have double forward pleats like in his latest collection. His white shirt had a pinned collar and double cuffs. He wore a solid black tie, tied in a four-in-hand knot, and a reverse-puffed black-and-white-patterned pocket square. The shoes were black chelsea boots. Overall his style was similar to what James Bond would wear, combined with Classic Hollywood, and everything fit him superbly.
Ford’s interest in dressing well started as a child in the 1960s, when he wore suits and carried a briefcase to school because he thought a book bag looked messy. And because of his different choices he was picked on and beaten by other students. “The first case of bullying for having too much style,” Mallis commented.
Tom Ford is unique amongst fashion designers because, as he said, he is focused on “making a product that was about quality.” He said, “I’m a practical, commercial fashion designer” and “always designed jackets with two sleeves.” Fashion is not an art for him, and he mentioned the most commercial things about his clothes are surprisingly their highest quality and highest price. But people are interested in quality and are willing to pay for it. He started the Tom Ford line because he didn’t like what he found when he went shopping, so he designed what he wanted to wear and figured others were looking for the same thing. And for those looking for the best quality as well as an innovative twist on classic style, Tom Ford delivers.
Ford is not interested in doing an “H&M colection” and said he’s only interested in “the best stitching, the best fabric, the best quality, and that’s what excites me.” Details also interest Ford: “Not everyone cares that their buttonholes open. It drives me crazy if my buttonholes don’t open.” Ford called himself a perfectionist. But when asked if he cared that most people can’t afford to buy his clothes, Ford said “you don’t have to wear designer clothes to have style” and mentioned if you want to wear something more affordable from his collection you can buy a pair of his sunglasses.
For much of the evening Tom Ford talked about things beyond fashion, such as his penchant for taking four to five baths a day and walking around the house mostly naked. He’s no longer interested in living in New York City or any city because there’s too much stimulation. Said Ford, “I had to leave New York to find out who I was as a designer.” Though he spends much of his time on his ranch outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, his predominately grey collections are most at home in the city.
When most people think of natural shoulder suits, it’s the soft shoulder that curves down at the ends to follow the shoulder into the arm. But we often forget that the shoulder has a concave shape too, though some men don’t have a shoulder like this. The pagoda shoulder suit emphasizes that concave part of the shoulder but doesn’t curve down at the end like some other natural shoulder suits do. Instead the shoulder line curves out, often ending with a roped sleevehead to emphasize the concave shape. Usually this type of shoulder has padding on the end to keep the shape, but some tailors may achieve this look with just proper sewing and canvas. It’s not a very common type of shoulder, but it’s found on Tom Ford’s Regency model that Daniel Craig wears in Quantum of Solace. Some of Timothy Dalton’s suits in The Living Daylights also featured a pagoda shoulder.
If there is one place appropriate to wear safari clothing it has to be the jungle. In Moonraker, Bond wears a beige cotton drill safari suit that’s quite traditional, at least above the knee. The safari shirt/jacket has a 5-button front, including the collar button, and Bond buttons the bottom three. It has four patch pockets with flaps and box pleats, deep side vents, 1-button cuffs and shoulder straps. A fitted cut is the biggest difference this safari jacket has from the traditional safari jacket, which has a straight cut and a belt instead. This safari jacket shows little of the 1970′s trends.
The matching trousers are full-cut with a slightly flared leg, the only concession in this outfit to the 1970s. They are worn with a tan, brown and white striped web belt with a D-ring buckle. The only thing really inappropriate with this outfit are the beige slip-on shoes. Waxed leather boots probably would have been a better choice.
“He’s a well-tailored one, isn’t he,” says Martin Landau’s character Leonard. Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest set the tone for all spy films to come in the 1960s, and Cary Grant’s famous plaid suit has many similarities to the many plaid suits Sean Connery wore in the Bond films. Much has been written about this suit already, though I felt it iconic enough to include in my own blog.
The most debated question regarding this suit is who made it. Kilgour, French & Stanbury of Savile Row claim to have made this suit. At one point in the film when Cary Grant takes off his suit a label from his Beverly Hills tailor Quintino is seen, and the suit does resemble the Quintino suits he wore a year earlier in the film Indiscreet. Quintino is credited for the wardrobe in that film. Still, it is very much possible that Quintino copied the original Kilgour, French & Stanbury suit for additional suits in the production.
The 2-piece suit is made from lightweight worsted wool in a blue and grey fine glen plaid pattern. It has a full cut overall but is still neatly tailor. The suit jacket has a 3-button front rolled to the middle button. Though some people have the idea that this suit has no darts like the American sack, there are indeed darts to shape the front. The shoulders are padded and straight with roped sleeveheads. It has jetted pockets, 3-button cuffs and no vent in the back. The trousers are very similar to what Sean Connery wore in the Bond films, with a long rise, double forward pleats, turn-ups and side adjusters. Whilst Connery’s side adjusters have buttons, Grant’s are two strips of cloth that tighten with a clasp. The trousers also have slanted side pockets and one rear jetted pocket on the right.
The white poplin shirt has an unusual point collar. Typically point collars have an interlining and are worn with collar stays to keep the points straight, but Grant’s collar is soft like a button-down collar. A soft collar like this would usually be worn pinned, though this collar is a little too wide for a pin. The shirt has double cuffs fastened with round blue enamel cuff links, though round silver cufflinks are also seen. The shirt also has no pocket and a shirred back. Though Grant’s tie looks like grey satin silk, it’s actually grey with white pin-dots, giving it a shiny effect. It is tied in a four-in-hand knot. . Grant wears grey socks and cap-toe oxfords in burgundy, a colour that might suggest cordovan leather.
Last year we looked at the elephant grey silk suit Bond wears in Moonraker. In The Spy Who Loved Me, Bond wears an identical suit from Angelo, Roma in light brown dupioni silk that wonderfully complements Moore’s warm complexion as well as the mediterranean surroundings. The lapels are wide and the trouser legs are flared, but the fit is superb. The suit coat has a clean cut with straight, structured shoulders, roped sleeveheads, a 2-button front and deep double vents. The flat front trousers have no side pockets and no visible method of tightening the waist. The trousers are fitted through the hips and thighs until the legs start to flare out a few inches above the knee.
Bond wears two shirts with this suit. The first is a fancy striped pattern in ecru and brown. The second shirt is solid ecru. Both shirts are made by Frank Foster with a deep point collar, tab cuffs and Foster’s unique placket front. Bond’s tie has wide stripes in cream, light brown and dark brown, and it’s tied in a four-in-hand knot. The shoes are light brown horse-bit slip-ons. Light brown socks extend the line of the leg into the shoes.
Though not all the same, the Roman shoulder, military shoulder and equestrian shoulder are all strongly structured shoulders with a straight line and more generous padding. Though the shoulders may be built up, they aren’t necessarily stiff. The width and amount of padding vary depending on the tailor and depending on the current trends. Characterised by a clean, strong silhouette, the Roman style has its origins in the military and equestrian style on Savile Row. H. Huntsman is a good example of a Savile Row tailor who makes an equestrian style. Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig have all worn this style in the Bond films.
Most of Roger Moore’s suits in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker come from Angelo Roma. These suits have narrow, straight shoulders with roped sleeveheads.
Timothy Dalton wears suits in Licence to Kill with the straight, oversized shoulders that were popular at the time. Though his suit is more characteristic of something from a Milan fashion house, the idea of a straight, built-up shoulder is the same.
Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig have both worn suits from Brioni, the most famous Roman tailor. Brioni’s shoulders are very similar to what Angelo made for Roger Moore, though they tend to be wider. When Brosnan started the role in 1995, Brioni’s shoulders were wider and more built up, following the 1990s trends, and by The World is Not Enough had a more classic look (see the top image).
