Warm-Weather Glen Plaid Suit

Posted on 10 April 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Sean Connery’s second black and white plaid suit in From Russia With Love is almost identical to the glen plaid suit in Dr. No. The cloth is woven in a plain weave, making it better suited for warmer weather than the more traditional twill-weave Glen Urquhart check suit Connery wears earlier in From Russia With Love. The scale of the pattern on this suit isn’t as fine as the similar check in Dr. No, but all the details are the same except for pocket flaps being present on this suit. The button-two suit jacket has natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads, a draped chest and a nipped waist. It has double vents and four-button cuffs. The suit trousers have double forward pleats and turn ups.

Connery’s pale blue shirt is from Turnbull & Asser and has a spread collar, front placket and two-button cocktail cuffs. He wears a navy grenadine tie, tied in a four-in-hand knot. He wears a white linen folded pocket handkerchief, black socks and black derby shoes. His hat is a brown felt trilby.

The Skyfall Glen Plaid Suit

Posted on 18 February 2013 by Matt Spaiser

For Skyfall, costume designer Jany Temime chose classic cloths that respect James Bond’s sartorial history, even if the fashionable cut of the suits does not. One of these cloths is a glen plaid in mid grey and black. Connery’s Bond wore a number of glen plaid suits in his Bond films, usually in a finer pattern. This one is most similar to the classic black and white Glen Urquhart check Bond wore in From Russia With Love. Tom Ford calls this a Prince of Wales check, however the original Prince of Wales check was much larger design in rust-brown and white with a navy box of six ends around the four and four (large houndstooth) section. However, the term is very often used to refer to any check based on the Glen Urquhart check, and whether the usage is correct or not is up to you.

The cut and style of this suit is exactly the same as the other Tom Ford suits in the film. The fit is skin-tight, with narrow, straight shoulders. The jacket buttons three and the narrow lapels roll at the top button, though the suit is so tight that the front pulls open at the top button. The flapped hip pockets are on a shallow slant, to hint at the classic English style but not to draw attention to it. The cuffs have three buttons and the last one is left open. There is a single vent at the rear, and the vent is cut with extra overlap as to prevent Bond’s rear from showing. The suit trousers have a flat front and are cut with a low rise and narrow leg. They have side adjusters and an extended waistband with hook closure.

Bond’s sky blue poplin shirt—also made by Tom Ford—has a soft tab collar, a placket down the front and double cuffs. A sky blue cotton handkerchief folded in the pocket matches the shirt. The tie is a square check in blue and alternating black and light grey. The black and light grey in the tie complement the black and grey in the suit. The shoes are the black Crockett & Jones Highbury model, a 3-eyelet derby with Dainite rubber studded soles. Dainite soles are not quite as elegant as the classic leather soles—and they can also feel very stiff in my experience—but they do provide Bond with the extra traction he needs. As far as rubber soles go on dress shoes, Dainite studded soles are amongst the best.

There’s no excuse for the jacket’s collar standing away from the neck.

Q’s Introduction

Posted on 26 October 2012 by Matt Spaiser

Skyfall is released today in the UK, and a new quartermaster is introduced. But let’s take a look back 49 years ago. From Russia With Love introduced Desmond Llyewlyn’s famous Q character, and he went on to appear in 16 more Bond films. He’s first seen in M’s office wearing a 3-piece Prince of Wales check suit and looking the best-dressed he ever was in the series. It’s his own suit—the budget didn’t allow for minor characters’ wardrobes—made in a Savile Row style and probably bespoke. The Prince of Wales check cloth is black and white with red lines framing the pattern. The jacket is a very traditional button three with padded shoulders, a full chest and a nipped waist. It has flapped pockets, three buttons on the cuffs and a single vent. Q wears the jacket unbuttoned except for in a close-up shot, a continuity error. When he has it buttoned, only the middle is fastened.

The suit’s waistcoat has six buttons with five to button and the trousers have forward pleats. Q wears a cream shirt with a spread collar and a Brigade of Guards regimental tie with navy and maroon stripes. DIrector of From Russia With Love, Terence Young, directed Llewelyn in a 1950 film called They Were Not Divided. Lewellyn played a Guards Officer and Young himself was a former Guards Officer. The tie is surely a nod to the film they did together 13 years earlier.

Whilst Bond’s suit is influenced by 1960s fashions with its two buttons and narrow lapels, Q’s suit doesn’t belong to any era.

The Saint: Relevant to Skyfall?

Posted on 14 October 2012 by Matt Spaiser

As Roger Moore celebrates his 85th birthday today, we look at some very relevant tailoring from his past. A blue-grey, subtle Glen Urquhart check suit first featured in the fifth series episode of The Saint ”The Helpful Pirate” has quite a few similarities to the suits Daniel Craig wears in Skyfall. The similarities are the obvious ones: three buttons down the front, very narrow lapels, a shorter jacket length (though Moore’s isn’t as short as Craig’s), a single vent and flat front trousers with a tapered leg. This suit is unique in The Saint in that it’s the only one that stylistically bridges the more traditional suits from the first four series to the more rakish suits in the fifth and sixth series.

The overall cut is where 1966 and 2012 differ. Cyril Castle’s suit jacket for Moore has natural shoulders whilst Tom Ford’s suit jacket for Craig has slightly built-up shoulders. Moore’s jacket has a full, draped chest whilst Craig’s has a cleaner, close-fitting chest, but both have a lot of waist suppression. Moore’s trousers have a higher rise than Craig’s, and the legs are narrow but not skin-tight. Moore’s jacket has the added details of single-button gauntlet cuffs and a ticket pocket.

Moore wears the suit with an ecru shirt with a spread collar and double cuffs. A grenadine tie knotted four-in-hand makes a connection to the Bond films, though Moore’s is an aubergine purple, a colour Sean Connery never wore. Moore wears black slip-on shoes and ecru socks, unusually I suppose to match the shirt.

In another connection to Bond, Vladek Sheybal, who played SPECTRE agent Kronsteen in From Russia with Love, is featured in this episode.

The Blue Overcheck

Posted on 1 October 2012 by Matt Spaiser

In On Her Majesty’s Secret Service George Lazenby takes the black and white Prince of Wales check suit that Sean Connery often wore and adds a blue overcheck. The black and white check pattern part is slightly off from a typical Glen Urquhart check. The overall large check is taller than it is wide, as it typically is, but the finer horizontal lines are emphasized. The cloth is most likely woven in an even twill like the standard Prince of Wales check is. One interesting thing that tailor Dimi Major does is he rotates the cloth 180 degrees on adjacent panels. This can be seen by looking at the horizontal stripe sections in the pattern. On the lapels a white stripe in on top, on the front body panels a black stripe is on top and on the sleeves a white stripe is on top again. Some tailors match their checks this way instead of the more logical way of matching them in all the same direction.

The illustration below is the closest I can come up with to figuring out the atypical check pattern. Click the image to enlarge:

The button two suit jacket has natural shoulders, a clean chest and a close cut overall, with a shorter jacket length. The cut is in line with the current fashions of then and now, though unlike today’s fashionable suits this suit does not look shrunken. The jacket is detailed with three button cuffs, steeply angled hacking pockets with a ticket pocket and double vents. The double vents are deep and have an outward flare. The suit’s buttons are made of dark grey horn. The trousers have a flat front and narrow legs. This suit is full of late 60′s English flare and is the most fashionable suit Lazenby wears in the film. It’s the most fashionable we’ll see Bond until Roger Moore gets settled in the role.

The sky blue shirt made by Frank Foster picks up the blue windowpane in the suit. The shirt has a point collar and single-button barrel cuffs. The navy knitted tie has a soft, dull look with slight pilling that would suggest wool as opposed to the standard silk. The shoes are black.

Woman of Straw: The Glen Plaid Suit before Goldfinger

Posted on 7 July 2012 by Matt Spaiser

Not until next week will I be getting to Designing 007 at the Barbican, but the people at Anthony Sinclair have re-created the iconic grey glen plaid suit from Goldfinger for the exhibition. A few months before Goldfinger, Sean Connery wears appears to be that suit in Woman of Straw, sans waistcoat. The jacket has the same 2-button front, flapped pockets with a ticket pocket, double vents and 4-button cuffs, and the trousers have forward-pleated trousers with side adjusters. Connery wears the suit with a sky blue shirt. The shirt has a spread collar and double cuffs. Connery wears a brown satin tie, a folded white linen handkerchief in his breast pocket and black shoes.

Remington Steele: 1-Button Glen Urquhart Suit

Posted on 21 May 2012 by Matt Spaiser

When Remington Steele began in 1982, Pierce Brosnan had a wardrobe of classic, English-inspired suits. As the series progress Brosnan switched over to modern Italian fashions, such as low-buttoning double-breasted suits. Very few of the series’ original suits made it past the second season, but one that did was a 3-piece, 1-button black and cream Glen Urquhart check suit with an intersecting red windowpane. This suit was first seen in the second episode of the series and saw many appearances throughout the first season and in promotional photos. Brosnan wore it once in the second season, sans waistcoat, and once again in the fifth episode of the third season, titled “Blue Blooded Steele.” The images here are taken from that episode, where Steele impersonates a duke. And what an fitting suit for a duke.

with Efrem Zilbalist, Jr.

Most of Brosnan’s suits from the beginning of the series were 3-piece suits, but this is only one of two that had a single-button jacket. The 1-button suit jacket may be cut just like a 2-button suit jacket—as Brosnan’s is here—or it may be cut away more at the front skirt. The button (black on this suit) should be at the same place as the top button on a 2-button suit. 1-button suits saw their highest popularity in the 1960′s where they could be seen on television stars such as Patrick Macnee, Don Adams, Dick Van Dyke and Eddie Albert, and jazz musicians like Miles Davis. Some people continued to wear 1-button suits, such as former game show host Bob Barker, and H. Huntsman on Savile Row is famously known for the style.

A close-up of the fabric and the slanted shoulder seam. WIth Stephanie Zimbalist.

This jacket is cut with pagoda shoulders and a shoulder seam that runs diagonally back down the shoulder rather than straight across like most do. It has deep double vents, flapped pockets and 3-button cuffs. The waistcoat has a 5-button front with the bottom worn open. The trousers have a flat front, a straight leg and plain hems. The only thing wrong with this suit is that the trousers are worn with a belt, which disrupts the line of waistcoat. In Remington Steele, Pierce Brosnan routinely wears his 3-piece suits —and even his dinner suits—with a belt.

Brosnan’s pale blue shirt has a moderate spread collar, placket front and double cuffs. The narrow tie is black with a pattern of silver ovals, tied in a small four-in-hand knot. A casually stuffed red silk handkerchief brings out the red windowpane in the suit. Brosnan wears black shoes and a black belt.

The Famous North By Northwest Suit

Posted on 29 April 2012 by Matt Spaiser

“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.

Arthur Lyons at Kilgour, French & Stanbury of Savile Row made the original suit for the film. At one point in the film when Cary Grant takes off his suit it is possible to see a label from his Beverly Hills tailor Quintino, who made extra copies of the suit to be dirtied. Quintino is credited for the wardrobe he wore a year earlier in the film Indiscreet.

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.

The Suits of James Bond

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