The Spread Collar

Posted on 26 April 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Turnbull & Asser spread collar

The standard collar amongst the English shirtmakers is the spread collar, and it’s the collar Bond wears more often than not. If it’s wider than a point collar and narrower than a cutaway it’s safe to call it a spread collar. A moderate spread flatters almost everyone and is always a safe choice. They’re great with a suit and tie, with a dinner jacket and bow tie, or open, as long as the collar isn’t too wide.

Frank Foster moderate spread collar

Turnbull & Asser made a wider spread for Sean Connery, whilst Frank Foster typically made a rather moderate—but tall—spread for Roger Moore. Sulka made a smaller, moderate spread for Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye, and Turnbull & Asser made a similar spread for Tomorrow Never Dies. For The World Is Not Enough they made a wider spread, and Brioni continued with the wide spread for Die Another Day. Daniel Craig wore Brioni shirts with a more moderate spread in Casino Royale and a similar collar from Tom Ford in Quantum of Solace.

Apart from the obvious differences of length, height and spread width, there’s the matter of tie space. It’s the quarter-inch to half-inch—or more—space between the collar leaves where the collar meets at the neck. Bond’s spread collars almost all have tie space, with the exception of the Brioni spread collars and Roger Moore’s brown stripe, double-button-collar shirt in Live and Let Die. Even with a very wide spread, a little tie space will help the knot to stay in place. Without it the knot often slips down and reveals the collar band above it because the collar leaves will push down the knot. A collar band with tie space is usually angled so the band will not show above the knot. Tie space plays just as large a roll in how large a tie knot can be worn with a collar.

Brioni spread collar with no tie space

Shirt Darts

Posted on 18 March 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Darted Turnbull & Asser shirt in From Russia With Love

Darts on the back of a shirt are currently more popular than ever now that people like wearing their clothes tighter. When darts are used, two are typically placed at the back towards the sides. They start above the waist and may extend down to the bottom of the shirt or as far as needed. Most often shirts are shaped as much as possible with the side seams and back darts are used when needed. Traditionally darts are not used on men’s shirts, but can often be found in both the backs and fronts of women’s shirts. But it’s completely acceptable for men to have darts on the back of their shirt for a more shapely and less blousy look. Darts are rarely found on ready-to-wear shirts because the closer fit they provide is very specific to the person wearing the shirt. However, they can easily be added to the shirt if taking in the side seams is not enough.

Turnbull & Asser put darts on Sean Connery’s shirts because of his large drop rather than for a close fit. Without darts, a shirt on someone as athletic as Connery would be much too large around the waist. Connery’s shirt also shows that pleats and darts on the back can work well together.

Darted Frank Foster shirt in Octopussy

Frank Foster used darts for George Lazenby and Roger Moore’s shirts to achieve a closer fit. Foster fits his shirts much closer than most English shirtmakers, but the clean, streamlined look is perfect for James Bond. The back is shirred under the yoke for fullness across the shoulder blades, and the darts take in the fullness at the waist. Daniel Craig’s dress shirt in Casino Royale is darted, and his Tom Ford shirts in Quantum of Solace and Skyfall are also darted.

Darted Tom Ford shirt in Quantum of Solace

White Collar and Cuffs

Posted on 14 March 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Roger Moore wearing a navy bengal stripe shirt with a white collar and cuffs in For Your Eyes Only.

In the United States, the contrasting white collar and cuffs style has been all but tarnished by the 1987 film Wall Street. But it’s a classic style that has been around a very long time. It goes back to the days when collars were stiff and detachable, and men would pair white collars with a body of any colour. Now the collars come soft and attached. Some retailers call a shirt with a white collar a “Winchester” shirt—presumably named after the city in England, not the rifle—but I have not found an historical use of this term and believe it’s just a modern marketing term.

Bond wears shirts with a white collar and cuffs in For Your Eyes Only and A View to a Kill, made by Frank Foster. Though the style is best worn with double cuffs, Bond wears his with button cuffs. Likewise, a spread collar is the best collar to be in white, though point collars can work well too. White collars and cuffs are most stylishly paired with a body that includes white. Bond’s shirts have white in the form of bengal stripes, though it’s also common to see a white collar on an end-on-end shirt. Collars and cuffs typically wear out before the body of a shirt wears out, and the collar and cuffs of almost any dressier shirt can be replaced with white since it’s typically impossible to find the original cloth for replacements. And even if the original cloth is obtainable it’s not going to match a shirt that has been washed many times. Checks don’t mate so well with white collars because of the difference in formality and purpose. White collars are a rather dressy style and are excellent for morning dress. For everyday wear they work best with a suit or a dressier blazer but are best avoided wearing with other sports coats and without a coat or tie. And because of their daywear tradition they are best worn during the day.

Roger Moore wearing a pink bengal stripe shirt with a white collar and cuffs in A View to a Kill.

Though Bond only wears shirts with a white collar and cuffs in two films, Roger Moore wears them in his personal life, as well as in some earlier films and television, like in Street People and The Persuaders. In The Man Who Haunted Himself he wears a plain white detachable collar with a white self-stripe shirt. Pierce Brosnan occasionally wears shirts with a white collar—but not white cuffs—in Remington Steele, mostly with suits but occasionally with blazers.

Pierce Brosnan wearing a blue (probably end-on-end) shirt with a pinned white collar in the 1982 episode of Remington Steele titled “You’re Steele the One for Me”.

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.

James Cook at Turnbull & Asser Bespoke

Posted on 5 February 2013 by Matt Spaiser

In July I visited the Turnbull & Asser bespoke shop on Bury Street off Jermyn Street. The bespoke shop has been there for about forty years after it was moved from the downstairs of the original Jermyn Street store next door, which has been there since 1903. I spoke with longtime Turnbull & Asser employee and James Bond fan James Cook on his work with Lindy Hemming as well as his opinions on what a well-fitted shirt is and why men should care about their appearance.

James Cook

Matt Spaiser: How long have you been with Turnbull & Asser

James Cook: I’ve been 17 and a half years.

MS: An you’ve worked here and New York?

JC: So I started in ready-to-wear and then basically looked after the ties there. Turnbull & Asser is all hands on, everyone gets involved. So with that, and then came into bespoke and went to New York two years and then came back again to London. And to Japan and Europe. Turnbull & Asser is very much, as I said, hands on so everyone gets involved in everything.

MS: What do you do in bespoke?

JC: Set up customers, just look after the clientele, really. We don’t really have titles at Turnbull & Asser. I take out the rubbish at night but also serve customers.

MS: You’ve basically trained here.

JC: Everything started in ready-to-wear to learn the basics, on standard product. The ties are all handmade, and the shirts. You have to go the factory to understand all the processes and understand the customer and the customer’s needs. Then we have a certain kind of clientele. We have a sort of regular visitor so we have to understand them. Basically you have to be like a mini-concierge at the same time, understand the local area, assist them. It’s a very personal experience for the customer.

The Fitting Room

MS: On to the Bond films, what kind of role did you have?

JC: Lindy Hemming, who was the costume designer for quite a few of the films, as I was getting older being more involved they asked me to help for assistance for purchasing items for the film. So basically all the bad people in the film Die Another Day, I was helping get the clothing. Lindy Hemming and the film, they know what they want to go for, and then we have to find the pieces. So I was assisting—that’s how Lindy Hemming asked my managing director can I go to Pinewood to see the film being made. She knew I was interested in James Bond. And I got to be in the film as an extra.

MS: That’s great. So do you know much about the history of James Bond and Turnbull & Asser?

JC: Terence Young, he was the first director, was a customer. He was in the Irish Guards. And actually Cubby Broccoli and Saltzman, they also became customers. But Terence Young, because he was a customer at Turnbull & Asser anyway,…and people like David Niven and Terence Young used to have that cuff [2-button turnback cuff], so they introduced it to Sean Connery for the first film, Dr. No.

So all the villains have shirts made by Turnbull & Asser and we’ve done the ties as well. But now, at Turnbull & Asser we always charge for everything we do. We don’t give away things for free—In this modern world of giving freebies, promotion. Since Lindy Hemming has stopped doing the costumes, they’ve gone to other companies.

But some say Ian Fleming may have been a customer. We’re not truly sure because we never kept an archive years ago. It never seemed that important. Obviously today people like to know all the history. I imagine he was. He was based in this area, so I wouldn’t be surprised.

Master Shirtmaker David Gale, with his shirt patterns

MS: What to you is a well-fitting shirt?

JC: To me a well-fitting shirt is a shirt that basically feels comfortable, look clean, has a good collar. It just has to fit over the body. I don’t think it needs to be super tight, I just think it should be comfortable. That’s when you know it’s comfortable, when you’re not thinking about it. To me that’s a well-fitting shirt. But James Bond, he always wears his jacket since he is a gentleman. Years ago a gentleman would never take off his suit and tie. In today’s world it has come and gone, but a man would always look well dressed. That’s why I think men like James Bond, because he’s elegantly dressed. He can mix with all types of people.

MS: With an off-the-peg shirt, should people get them altered?

JC: If you’re lucky to fit into a ready-to-wear shirt, the it’s fine. But it’s worth altering a jacket, to waist the jacket. Nothing should be too tight and uncomfortable, but everyone should pay attention to their appearance. It shows discipline. To make yourself look a bit sharper it speaks volumes. Ian Fleming was in the navy, and even as a civilian he would be a bit more formal and smart because it’s that self-discipline. It’s having respect for yourself.

Skyfall’s Tab Collar

Posted on 19 November 2012 by Matt Spaiser

A tab collar is a point collar with a tab that connects the two sides of the collar underneath the tie. Though tab collar is British in origin, it tends to be shunned by the British these day. Most collars other than the spread and cutaway collars are. The Prince of Wales (Edward) was the first to wear the tab collar, and he wore both pointed and rounded variations. Following its introduction, the tab collar was popular in the 1920s and 1930s. It saw a revival in the 1960s and last saw some popularity during the early 1990s in the United States. Throughout Skyfall, James Bond wears Tom Ford shirts with a tab collar, a first for the character. Bond’s tab collar has a button tab, though more traditional ones fastened with a stud. Some makers in the 1980s and 90s used a snap fastener for the tab. The collar usually has a soft interfacing like a button-down collar so it can curve around the tie. However, Tom Wolfe, who today often wears tab-collar shirts made by Alexander Kabbaz, wears a tall, stiff tab collar like some of the originals were. Some tab collars can take collar stays for a stiffer look, though Bond keeps his soft with an elegant roll.

The tab collar does more to frame the tie than to frame the face. They work best with the classic four-in-hand knot because of its small size. The collar pushes the knot and the whole tie out from the neck and body to create an elegant arch. The similar pinned collar achieves the same goal. A collar pin is much flashier, a style we often saw on Pierce Brosnan in the early Remington Steele episodes. The biggest disadvantage to the tab collar is that it can’t be worn without a tie. But in Skyfall, Bond always keeps his tie on to preserve the tab collar’s neat appearance.

Ruffles: This Never Happened to the Other Fella

Posted on 11 September 2012 by Matt Spaiser

George Lazenby is the only Bond to have the distinction of wearing a ruffled-front dress shirt. And he wears not one but two in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Roger Moore can be seen in a ruffled-front dress shirt in The Persuaders, and he wore one for some promo shots for Live and Let Die under a very nice double-breasted dinner suit, but Moore never actually wore one in a Bond film. Moore and Lazenby used the same shirtmaker, Frank Foster, and he made their ruffled-front shirts. The dress shirts both have a point collar, double cuffs and mother-of-pearl buttons down the front placket. The backs are darted and the shirts fit very close around the waist. Apart from his brown casual outfit, the ruffles are the only part of George Lazenby’s wardrobe that looks dated today.

Frank Foster: Measuring and Fitting

Posted on 23 July 2012 by Matt Spaiser

During my stay in London I went to see Frank Foster—who has made shirts for Roger Moore and George Lazenby in addition to countless other stars—to order shirts and interview him. The interview will be coming later in multiple parts but for now I will discuss the experience of bespeaking shirts from Frank Foster.

Just a selection of the many cloths lying around the shop

Foster’s shop is a working shop in a basement at 40 Pall Mall; it doesn’t provide the luxury experience of a Jermyn Street street or Savile Row shop, but it doesn’t need to. There is a minimum of six shirts for the first order and each shirt costs £135, no matter the cloth. The minimum of six shirts is because of the extra effort involved with creating the pattern, but once the pattern is created future shirts can be ordered with ease.

A vintage buttonhole machine

The first thing I did was pick out cloths, for which Foster’s wife Mary, who does much of the sewing, helped me. They have countless rolls of cloth spanning a hundred years lying all around the shop. I attempted to convey the colours and types of cloth I wanted and Mary found for me the closest that they had. I also asked her to find me cloths she though would flatter my complexion, and Foster helped me with that as well. It’s good to have an idea of what you want before going in but also to be open to discovering a beautiful cloth you never thought existed. Mary clips off a piece of the cloth I choose to review later, and Foster tapes down the chosen clippings to a book for reference. The cloths I chose ended up being a cream poplin, an ivory royal oxford, a blue zendaline (which Mary called the “Rolls-Royce” of shirtings and said Roger Moore had often worn similar cloths), a white-on-white stripe and a blue and white hairline stipe.

Mary’s sewing machine

After Foster tapes the cloth into his book he takes note of the style of each shirt. I’m having all long-sleeve shirts made in the traditional English style with no pocket and a placket on the front. Foster asked if I had a particular collar style in mind or if I wanted him to come up with something that would best suit my face and neck, and I chose the latter. I had on a standard Turnbull & Asser shirt and he told me something lower and slightly wider spread in comparison would suit me best. He’s a true artist and sketches everything to show me. For the cuffs I chose a variety of styles that only Frank Foster can do: three shirts with 2-button cocktail cuffs, two shirts with 1-button button-down cocktail cuffs and one shirt with a tab cuff.

Frank Foster measuring me for a shirt

I went in the Tuesday I arrived in London to be measured and by Friday they were able to have a fitting ready. Very few shirt makers still do a fitting, but it significantly helps in getting a better fit. The fitting shirt is made of one of the cloths I chose, but it has no buttons or buttonholes, no collar and only one cuff. Foster pinned the shirt to perfect his measurements of my body. I’ll be receiving one shirt first and if all is well they will make the remaining five.

Frank Foster fitting the blue and white hairline stripe shirt

The Suits of James Bond

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