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.

Noble House: Navy Pinstripe Suit

Posted on 31 March 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Noble House, a novel by James Clavell, was adapted into a television miniseries in 1988 starring Pierce Brosnan. The miniseries also features other Bond actors, such as John Rhys-Davies from The Living Daylights and Burt Kwouk from Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice and the 1967 Casino Royale spoof. Brosnan plays Ian Dunross, chairman of the oldest and largest of the British-East Asia trading companies. The character’s suits would most probably be made by a tailor in Hong Kong, and it’s likely that the clothes for the miniseries were made by a tailor in Hong Kong since that’s where it was filmed. The Hong Kong tailoring looks like Savile Row tailoring minus the English flair. The miniseries featured a lot of nice tailoring which holds up rather well today, better than what Timothy Dalton was wearing at the time as Bond.

Because Brosnan plays a business man he is dressed in a lot of stripes throughout the mini-series. Here we will look at one of his striped suits, a navy three-piece suit with alternating thick and thin pinstripes. The jacket is a button three, and although the lapels roll to the top button they still have a gentle, elegant roll. The shoulders are straight and built up with roping, but they aren’t as excessively large as the shoulders that were popular at the time. The jacket has 3 buttons on the cuffs, flapped pockets and a single vent.

The suit trousers have double reverse pleats but with a somewhat trim leg for the era. The waistcoat is the weakest part of the suit. It has 6 buttons with 5 to button, but it is more like a 5-button with an extra button added on to the bottom since the bottom button is ill-spaced and looks like an afterthought. The waistcoat is also too long, and the buttons are placed to far apart, for a less elegant look. Brosnan wears the suit with a white shirt with closesly-spaced blue pencil stripes, and it has a point collar and double cuffs. Striped shirts can work well with striped suits if the scale of the stripes are much different, but they are very close here and somewhat clash. This is a recurring problem with the clothes in Noble House. The tie is navy with white polka dots, tied in either a windsor or half-windsor knot. He also wears a folded white linen pocket square, which is far more sober than the puffed silks he previously wore in Remington Steele. The outfit is more business than Bond with two striped pieces of clothing, but if either the shirt or suit was solid it would be a great outfit for Bond.

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.

Gareth Mallory: Blue Pinstripe Suit

Posted on 21 February 2013 by Matt Spaiser

To contrast Daniel Craig’s fashion-forward suits, Ralph Fiennes’ government official Gareth Mallory in Skyfall dresses in timeless Savile Row style. It’s more like Bond’s usual look than what Daniel Craig wears in Skyfall, similar to Daniel Craig’s Brioni three-piece suit in Casino Royale. The biggest difference is that Mallory wears braces with his suits, something Bond never has done. Timothy Everest, one of the leaders of Savile Row’s New Bespoke Movement, tailored Ralph Fiennes’ suits for Skyfall. As one would expect from a Savile Row establishment, even a modern one, the suits are well-tailored. Though the often-daring Everest isn’t so adventurous with Fiennes’ suits, the suits do not look old-fashioned either. Whilst three-piece suits—as well as the double-breasted suit Fiennes wears later in the film—stand for old-fashioned values, three-piece have seen a recent rise in popularity. Fiennes may not look nearly as fashionable as Daniel Craig, but he doesn’t quite look as old and stodgy as he perhaps was meant to look either.

This suit is navy with a mid blue ropestripe and has a button two jacket in a modern Savile Row cut. Like the traditional Savile Row jacket this one has straight, padded shoulders with roped sleeveheads. But on the other hand, the jacket is cut fairly lean in the chest and does not look like a suit of armour. The jacket has slanted pockets with a ticket pocket, four-button cuffs and a single vent. The waistcoat has six buttons with five to button. The trousers have a flat front, a high rise to the waist and are worn with braces. If they wanted Mallory to look more old-fashioned he could have been wearing double-forward-pleat trousers like Sean Connery’s Bond wore. The suit’s buttons are black horn.

With this navy suit Fiennes wears a classic Jermyn Street-style shirt in light blue end-on-end with a spread collar, placket front and double cuffs. His navy tie has large white dots with a small navy dot in the center, and it appears to be tied in a Half Windsor knot. His shoes are black cap-toe oxfords.

John Steed: The Man Two Girls Left For Bond

Posted on 25 January 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Before James Bond came to the screen in 1962, a few secret agents had already been established on camera. Patrick MacNee may be best known to Bond fans for his role as Sir Godfrey Tibbett in A View to a Kill. Years earlier in 1961 he first starred as John Steed in The Avengers with future Bond girls Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg, and by 1962 he had established himself as one of the dandiest spies known for his bowler and umbrella. His suits were English and had an Edwardian flair, just as Roger Moore’s suits in colour episodes of The Saint have. But rather than having narrow lapels, shorter jackets lengths and drainpipe trousers, MacNee’s suits are classically proportioned in all ways. MacNee chose to set his suits apart with unique details such as velvet collars and cloth-covered buttons.

For the first four season MacNee wore English-tailored suits. The clothes in the fifth series are credited to Pierre Cardin, though later in that series MacNee again starts wearing some of his own English-tailored suits from the forth series and earlier, like the suit pictured here that dates back to the first series. Patrick MacNee was even credited for designing his own suits in the sixth series of the show, which very much resemble the suits from the fourth series and earlier with the single-button front and velvet collar. He was not credited for his wardrobe before the sixth series, but they were most likely created at his direction.

This mid grey three-piece suit pictured in this article has a timeless cut that is undeniably the Savile Row cut, with a straight shoulder on the natural shoulder line, a fairly clean chest, closely-fitted waist and flared skirt. The jacket buttons one and has double vents, slanted flap pockets with a ticket pocket and a flap breast pocket. The jacket’s flared cuffs have a vent but neither a button nor an overlap. It’s a far more elegant option to not have buttons on the cuffs than it is to leave one open, as many choose to do these days. It also does a great job at framing the shirt’s double cuffs. Roger Moore later wore this style cuff on his adventurous double-breasted suit in The Man Who Haunted Himself. The waistcoat buttons six with very wide notch lapels and a straight bottom. All buttons on the jacket and waistcoat are covered in the suit’s grey cloth. The trousers have a flat front with cross pockets and plain bottoms.

MacNee wears a light blue shirt with a cutaway collar—a traditional cutaway that’s not as extreme and today’s fashionable variations can be—and double cuffs. The tie is mid grey with white polka dots, and it’s tied in a Windsor knot. MacNee often wore black ankle boots with elastic gussets with this type of suit, and a grey suede variation on occasion.

The images of this suit come from one of it’s few appearances in colour, in the fifth series episode “You Have Just Been Murdered.” Though we’re seeing this suit in 1967, it was quite an adventurous style for when it was tailored in 1961. This appearance of the suit lack’s Steed’s trademark bowler and umbrella, but we’ll see that and more the next time I write about The Avengers.

See the book Reading between Designs by Piers D. Britton and Simon J. Barker for a comprehensive overview of John Steed’s wardrobe.

The Saint: Funeral Suit and Coat

Posted on 18 January 2013 by Matt Spaiser

Roger Moore’s Simon Templar is well-dressed to a funeral in the Series 6 episode of The Saint, “Legacy for the Saint.” To keep warm in the cemetery he wears a charcoal grey car coat. The coat’s length is a few inches above the knee but is still considerably longer than a suit jacket so it can be worn over it. A car coat is shorter than the typical overcoat to make it easier when entering and exiting a car. Topcoats are often shorter as well, but they are also lighter and Moore’s coat is not. We don’t see much of the coat in “Legacy for the Saint,” but it makes another brief appearance in “The Time to Die.” The coat is cut with natural shoulders, buttons three, and has 3 buttons on the cuffs and a single vent.

The Saint in a charcoal car coat

Under the coat Moore wears a three-piece suit made by Cyril Castle in charcoal with a very narrow-spaced light grey stripe. The suit coat has softly-padded shoulders, a draped chest and nipped waist typical of Castle’s tailoring, and like all of Moore’s single-breasted suits in The Saint this one buttons three. The suit coat is characteristic of the 1960′s Neo-Edwardian style, with narrow notched lapels, slanted flap pockets, double vents and single-button gauntlet cuffs. The length of the jacket is slightly shorter than the typical length, though not nearly as short as fashionable jackets today. The waistcoat buttons six with notch lapels and a straight bottom. And in his waistcoat pockets he wears a pocket watch with a fob chain. The trousers have a flat front with plain hems.

Moore’s ecru Frank Foster shirt has a spread collar, plain front and cocktail cuffs, and this is the first episode we see Moore wearing cocktail cuffs. The turnback of the cocktail cuffs in The Saint has a much wider spread compared to the cuffs he wears later in the Bond films. They have some similarities to the Turnbull & Asser cuffs Sean Connery wore, but these lay flatter, as Foster prefers.

Though Moore does not often wear black, the funeral setting of the episode makes this the time to include black into the outfit. Moore wears a narrow, black satin silk tie and a black silk pocket handkerchief folded with two points. A black suit for a funeral is not necessary, and for someone who isn’t an immediate family member of the deceased a black suit can come off as excessively somber. Templar wears the perfect amount of black for attending a friend’s wedding. And the shoes are black as well, of course.

Classic City Suit: The Grey Rope Stripe

Posted on 20 December 2012 by Matt Spaiser

In Octopussy, James Bond comes to the office wearing a three-piece suit by Douglas Hayward in dark grey serge with a white rope stripe. Because the grey isn’t very dark, the rope stripe isn’t as overbearing as it could be on a dark navy or charcoal suit. And a white rope stripe on a black suit makes one look like a gangster The timelessness of the grey rope stripe is proven by it’s recent appearance in Skyfall, but now with a light blue stripe that coordinates with Daniel Craig’s shirt. The suit in Octopussy is a classic button three, cut with a clean chest and has natural shoulders with roped sleeveheads. The lapels are a little on the narrow side, in comparison with the classically-balanced lapels on the beige gabardine suit we see following this one. The jacket has double vents, three buttons on the cuffs and flapped pockets. The trousers have a flat front. The waistcoat has six buttons, with the bottom left open.

M and the Minister of Defense are also wearing three-piece striped suits, in navy worsted and brown flannel, respectively.

The light blue poplin shirt is made by Frank Foster and has a spread collar, a placket and single-button, rounded barrel cuffs. The brick red tie has the dull sheen of a repp tie, and it is neatly tied in a four-in-hand knot. Even though none of the elements of this outfit match each other, everything goes well together in a most classic way.

The Charcoal Windowpane Suit

Posted on 7 December 2012 by Matt Spaiser

For GoldenEye, costume designer Lindy Hemming commissioned three different three-piece suits—plus plenty of extras—from Brioni. But only one suit’s waistcoat made it into the film, and that suit is the charcoal grey one with a blue windowpane. The charcoal ground is slightly iridescent, containing threads in differing shades of grey with hints of purple. The windowpane suit is not a very common one, and it’s most often seen in more rustic cloths or as part of a Prince of Wales check. But a windowpane on a city suit is quite elegant, and Bond’s example subtly stands out amongst the more typical solids and stripes.

This Brioni suit has their typical straight shoulder, and like Brosnan’s other suits in GoldenEye it is slightly tapered through the body and has a low button stance. The suit buttons three and has four buttons on the cuffs, double vents and slanted pockets with a ticket pocket. The latter two add an Anglicised flair to the 1990′s Italian cut to create an almost timeless look. The suit’s trousers have double reverse pleats and turn-ups. The waistcoat buttons six.

Brosnan wears two shirt with this suit: an ivory shirt in London and a light blue shirt in Saint Petersburg. The light blue has a semi-solid appearance that suggests an end-on-end weave. The shirts are made by Sulka and have a moderate spread collar, placket front and double cuffs. The same tie is worn with the two shirt. The tie is a grid pattern of red, cream and yellow on a dark blue ground and outlined in black. A puffed silk handkerchief in the breast pocket coordinated with the blue ground of the tie.

An example of this suit was sold at auction at Bonhams in Knightsbridge on 6 Mar 2007 for £8,640. The lot included a blue Sea Island cotton shirt from Turnbull & Asser and a Simpsons of Piccadilly tie in navy, red, beige, brown and green that was made for GoldenEye but unused. I suspect it was to be used with one of the two shirts instead of the same tie being used with both shirts. The auction listing also mentions a cloth label inside the suit that reads “MARK SOUTWORT REF 3.”

The Suits of James Bond

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