Marnie: The Dinner Suit

Posted on 23 April 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Sean Connery wears a very Bond-like midnight blue dinner suit in Marnie. The jacket has natural shoulders with roping and less dress drape in the chest than the other tailoring in the film. It has a button-one front and a midnight blue satin shawl collar. The jacket also has 3-button cuffs, jetted pockets and no vents. The buttons are probably horn, but may also be plastic, which was very common on dinner jackets in the 1960s. The trousers have double forward pleats and side adjusters.

Like in his Bond films, Connery wears neither a waistcoat nor a cummerbund in Marnie. The bow tie is midnight blue satin silk in a batwing shape. He wears a regular white shirt, with a spread collar and button cuffs. It has a placket with stitching closely spaced down the middle and mother of pearl buttons. A regular shirt can work for black tie in a pinch if it has double cuffs and no pocket, but the button cuffs on this shirt make it a less than ideal choice for black tie. The closest to a regular shirt Bond wears with black tie are the white-on-white stripe shirt in Thunderball and the voile shirt in Octopussy.

Never Say Never Again: V-Neck and Polo

Posted on 21 April 2013 by Matt Spaiser

In Never Say Never Again, Sean Connery briefly wears a mid-grey merino wool V-neck jumper over a polo shirt. The polo is a yellow and light blue horizontal stripe, with a ribbed light blue collar. Connery wears it with two buttons open and the collar outside the jumper’s. We don’t see the trousers worn with this outfit, but the khaki jeans he wears in the following scene may have also been worn here. The summer colours on the polo are fitting for the Mediterranean, though not as Bond-like as the blue polo in the original film, Thunderball. When on a boat, dressing in layers is always helpful since the jumper can be removed if the weather gets too warm.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Black Three-Piece Suit

Posted on 19 April 2013 by Matt Spaiser

In The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Daniel Craig plays journalist Mikael Blomkvist, a man who doesn’t quite have James Bond’s sharp sense of style. In the 2011 film, Blomkvist wears a black three-piece suit, with a modern cut. Though Bond rarely wears black suits, for a party in the evening it’s an appropriate choice. The button two jacket is trim-cut with straight shoulders, and Blomkvist wears it open for the brief time we see him in it. The waistcoat has five buttons, and they are placed low and close together. Craig leaves the bottom button open, and when he later takes off his suit jacket he unbuttons the top button as well. The flat front trousers have a plain hem. They are worn with a belt and have too short a rise to be worn with a waistcoat, thus some of the shirt peaks through.

Though Bond never wears a mid grey shirt, it works very well with this suit. The darker shirt tones down the formality and severity of the black suit, but it’s not too dark either. The shirt has a spread collar and front placket. The placket is stitched a quarter-inch from the edge, whilst the collar is stitched an eighth-inch from the edge. The narrow black tie is woven in a ribbed ottoman weave. Blomkvist wears the shirt collar unbuttoned and his tie loosened, a sloppy look that would be out of character for Bond. But it’s in character for Blomkvist, as it has been a fashionable look as of late for younger people. Daniel Craig is too old to look fashionable with a loosened tie, if anyone can indeed look fashionable with a loosened tie. Naturally, he wears black shoes with the black suit.

Marnie: English-American Style

Posted on 7 March 2013 by Matt Spaiser

In 1964′s Marnie, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Sean Connery wears an elegant mix of American Ivy League—as worn by Felix Leiter in Goldfinger—and English Savile Row style. I’m not talking about the “Updated American” suit, which takes the American sack suit and adds darts to the jacket—and sometimes pleats to the trousers. I’m talking about the way one wears his clothes. Another Hitchcock leading man, Cary Grant famously dressed in an English-American manner, often combining English tailoring with American accessories. Polo Ralph Lauren is currently the most well-known purveyor of this style, whilst New York and Chicago’s Paul Stuart and Charleston’s Ben Silver also excel at selling this style of clothing, both in their tailoring and in their accessories.

Though Connery’s sports coats and trousers in Marnie are likely English in origin, he wears them in a decidedly American manner. This jacket is a woolen herringbone tweed in black and grey. It buttons three, with the lapel rolling over the top button. That type of lapel roll is typically associated with American tailoring, though English tailors have been known to cut their suits this way as well. Though all of the suits in Marnie have a somewhat full cut, this jacket may be cut a bit fuller, since Americans often wear their sports coats larger to be able to accommodate a jumper underneath. The full cut works well on Connery, since a more athletic cut wouldn’t drape as well considering his large drop. Still, the jacket has plenty of shape. Like the suits in Marnie, this jacket has flap pockets, 3 buttons on the cuffs and no vent.

The trousers are English in cut. They have double forward pleats, a tapered leg with turn-ups, side tabs and an extended waistband closure. The choice of charcoal for the trousers isn’t the best since there is little contrast with the jacket. However, there is contrast in texture, and that counts for something. In comparison to the trousers, the shirt is an American classic that Connery never wore as Bond: a button-down. The key to a successful button down collar is in the roll. The buttons are placed a bit higher up than where the collar points fall to assist the roll. The button-down is a rather casual collar, and thus Connery only wears it with sports coats in Marnie. Most people in England would never wear a tie with a button-down collar, since the buttons are there to help the collar stand up when it is unbuttoned more than they are there frame the tie. Connery also wears his ties in Marnie much different from how he wears them as Bond. The ties are narrower in Marnie, and narrower than his already somewhat narrow lapels. The tie is plain black, and he clips it to his shirt with a tie bar. He wears the bar with a slight downward angle. And in some shots the tie tucked into his trousers, meaning his ties are an extra-long length considering Connery’s height. Because the tie is so narrow, it’s difficult to tell if he is using a Windsor or Half Windsor knot. The lace-up shoes are black, keeping all the colours of the outfit in black, white and grey.

Catch Me If You Can: The Goldfinger Suit

Posted on 26 February 2013 by Matt Spaiser

After seeing Goldfinger, Leonardo DiCaprio’s real-life character Frank Abagnale Jr. in Catch Me If You Can is inspired to have not one but three suits made just like Sean Connery’s famous three-piece suit in Goldfinger.

“Now you’re sure this is the suit, right?” says Abagnale.

“Positive. It’s the exact suit he wore in the movie,” replied the tailor.

It’s actually not an exact replica of the suit suit but rather what many people think the suit is without taking a close look. One could say it’s an American tailor’s interpretation, and going by the story the mistakes are understandable considering there weren’t home video tapes in the 1960s to pause. But the film’s costume designer should have had enough resources in 2002 to make a better replica of the suit. Like Connery’s suit, DiCaprio’s is a light grey three-piece suit with a button two jacket that has a ticket pocket and double vents. The waistcoat is actually very close to the original, but plenty of mistakes are made elsewhere.

The biggest mistake is the cloth. Connery’s suit is a fine glen plaid whereas DiCaprio’s is a light grey pick-and-pick. At first glance, Connery’s suit appears to also be a pick-and-pick weave—and one of the plaid’s four sections is pick-and-pick—but a closer look reveals that the cloth is a fine glen plaid. Though the jacket has double vents, DiCaprio’s vents are only half the length of Connery’s. Short vents were a popular 1960s trend that Bond never wore. Whilst Connery’s suit has natural shoulders and a draped chest, DiCaprio’s suit has straight, padded shoulders and lacks the drape. They’ve also put only three buttons on the cuffs instead of four. The waistcoat is very close, with six buttons, notch lapels and four welt pockets. But the bottom button is not on the cut-away portion of the waistcoat. The cutaway needs to start higher, and that mean the trousers would also need to have a longer rise than they’ve given him.

The trousers are another one of the biggest mistakes after the wrong cloth. Few Americans in the 1960s wore pleated trousers so they didn’t expect Connery’s trousers to have pleats. Thus they made the trousers with a flat front and a modern low rise. The hem is also too short and just barely touched the shoes. Though the suit incorporates a few popular 1960′s trends that weren’t present on the original suit, such as short vents and flat front trousers, the only part of Sean Connery’s suit that dates it to the 60s was not included: narrow lapels! DiCaprio’s suit has much wider lapels. Whilst the suit isn’t an exact replica, it’s still a nice homage to the original.

It’s hard to tell if they were trying to copy the shirt and tie as well, but—to give them credit—let’s say not. DiCaprio’s shirt collar is much smaller and narrower than Connery’s, and it the cuffs are button cuffs rather than double cuffs. It’s a very typical shirt for the men in the mid 60′s who weren’t wearing button-down collars. DiCaprio’s tie is black and woven, whilst the original was a navy knitted tie. DiCaprio wears V-front derby shoes like Connery did, but DiCaprio’s have wing-tips rather than plain fronts. They did get the pocket square right.

Turnbull & Asser Shirt Patterns

Posted on 7 February 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Turnbull & Asser’s main shop at 71-72 Jermyn Street

Whilst visiting Turnbull & Asser in July, employee Steven Quin brought some James Bond shirt patterns out of the archive to show me. Though they didn’t have Daniel Craig’s pattern on hand, they had two other Bond actors’ patterns.

Pierce Brosnan’s Pattern

Above is Pierce Brosnan’s pattern, showing the body and various collars. Though not shown in the picture, also included in Brosnan’s pattern envelope was a cocktail cuff pattern, in the same style as Connery’s cocktail cuff. They said Brosnan had a cocktail cuff shirt made for his personal wardrobe, though he didn’t wear one in any of his Bond films. Most of his shirts in the Bond films had Turnbull & Asser’s standard double cuffs

Sean Connery’s Pattern

Though Turnbull & Asser no longer has Sean Connery’s pattern from the 1960s, they were able to show me his pattern from 1982, which would have been made for Never Say Never Again. Above you can see the button-down cocktail cuff pattern on the bottom right. Above the cuff are a collar band and two different collar patterns, the lower one being very similar to the Classic Turnbull & Asser collar. The upper collar was the one used mostly in the film, though the lower one may have been used as well.

And pictured below, in a corner at the bespoke shop, is a James Bond wall featuring three of the Bond ties that can still be purchased. Beneath the ties are two signed photos.

Evelyn Tremble: Dinner Suits

Posted on 15 January 2013 by Matt Spaiser

In 1967′s Casino Royale spoof, Peter Sellers plays a baccarat expert named Evelyn Tremble, who isn’t the nattiest of dressers. But he’s turned into one of the film’s many James Bonds and is put into a midnight blue dinner suit worthy of the character. The dinner jacket has straight shoulders, buttons one, and has cran Necker notched lapels faced in midnight blue satin silk. The only time we see Bond wearing the cran Necker lapel style in the series is in A View to a Kill. It still isn’t the ideal lapel style for a dinner jacket, but everything else is right. The jacket also has jetted pockets and double vents. The flat front trousers have frogmouth pockets.

Tremble’s white dress shirt has a pleated front, covered-button placket and curved double cuffs. Frank Foster was Sellers’ personal shirtmaker, though I see no evidence that this is a Foster shirt. Tremble wears a black satin, batwing bow tie and a matching narrow cummerbund. His shoes are short, black ankle boots.

A shawl collar dinner suit on Tremble earlier in the film.

Before Tremble becomes James Bond, he wears a black shawl collar dinner suit. Whilst many would consider the shawl collar to be more refined than the notched lapels on Tremble’s later dinner jacket, the later outfit improves much over the earlier one. Besides this dinner jacket not being as well fitted, Tremble is wearing a regular white shirt, and his trousers have a belt.

The Tailor of Panama: Another MI6 Agent

Posted on 18 December 2012 by Matt Spaiser

In 2001, Pierce Brosnan plays another MI6 agent with a far more relaxed fashion sense than James Bond in The Tailor of Panama. 1990′s trends in tailoring have carried over to the next decade, seen in Brosnan’s full-cut, button three suit made of tan linen. The cloth could be a linen blend, maybe with cotton, silk or both, since it doesn’t wrinkle as much as 100% linen ordinarily does. The button stance is high and the buttons are spaced far apart. The jacket has no vent, 3 buttons on the cuffs and flapped pockets. The trousers have a flat front and full-cut legs. Though the suit isn’t a fine example of tailoring, the loose, unstructured look can be quite comfortable in Panama’s tropical climate.

Brosnan wears a sky blue shirt, with a short point collar, open breast pocket on the left, a centre box pleat in the back and sleeves pleated at the shoulders. The rounded barrel cuffs fasten with one button but have a second button placed around the cuff to close the cuff with a smaller circumference. His monk shoes and belt are burgundy leather with brass buckles.

Brosnan’s outdated, casual style is well-fitted to his character Andy Osnard, who contrasts Geoffrey Rush’s Harry Pendel, the titular character. Roger Moore’s tailor in the 1980′s Bond films, Douglas Hayward, was author John LeCarre’s model for Pendel. Rush’s clothing was far more impressive than Brosnan’s and may be the subject of a future entry here.

The Suits of James Bond

Category Archives: Other Films