(00)7 Roger Moore Outfits That Inspired Me

This past Saturday, Roger Moore would have celebrated his 96th birthday. I’m a tremendous fan of Roger Moore’s style, and it has had a notable impact on the way I dress. I rarely copy full outfits from Moore, but I use many of his looks for inspiration. I’m usually more interested in replicating individual items that he wore rather than entire outfits, or I like to dress with concepts that he used but in my own way. However, sometimes those concepts are entire outfits.

Here are seven of my favourite Roger Moore outfits and how I have used them as inspiration.

001. The Live and Let Die New York Outfit

James Bond’s only New York outfit in the film series has a special connection to me because I live in New York City. Even without the connection, I would love Roger Moore’s New York outfit of a navy double-breasted chesterfield coat, navy suit, light blue shirt and Royal Navy regimental tie. The magnificent coat is the best coat of the series. The outfit is elegant and classically British city attire, perfect for important business or a special social occasion.

I don’t have a double-breasted chesterfield, but I have a vintage navy British warm coat—another double-breasted style, albeit a sportier one. My coat is from an old New York store called Wallachs. I would like a replica of Moore’s coat one day, but for now I have a number of other serviceable coats that I love. My shirt is modelled after Roger Moore’s shirt, with a semi-spread collar, fly-front and cocktail cuffs, and it’s made by Frank Foster, the same shirtmaker who made almost all of Moore’s shirts. I would not feel comfortable wearing the regimental tie because I have not served in the Royal Navy, so I’m wearing a solid navy grenadine tie.

002. The Man with the Golden Gun Blue Suit

The marine blue silk suit that James Bond wears to a nightclub in The Man with the Golden Gun is likely Roger Moore’s most popular suited look in the Bond series. The suit’s colour makes a bold impression in a way that few of Bond’s other suits do. He wears it with a blue cotton voile shirt that keeps him cool in what is supposed to be Beirut, and the deep red satin tie nicely balances the bold suit. It’s one of the best looks for an evening social event.

Since I mainly wear suits socially and rarely for business, this is one of my favourite outfits to wear. I like to closely replicate the look with little modification, though I wear these clothes in other ways too. My suit from Anthony Sinclair is in a blue wool sharkskin, and its two-tone pattern mimics the shine and texture of silk without the cost or maintenance. I’m wearing it with a blue voile shirt from Frank Foster and a red tie from Charvet.

With this outfit, as with all of the outfits here, I am not wearing flared trousers like Moore frequently did in the 1970s. While many people get stuck on Moore’s wide trousers and lapels, I don’t let those fashion-forward details distract from the beauty that can otherwise be found in Moore’s outfits.

003. The Man with the Golden Gun Checked Jacket

One of Moore’s more controversial looks is the boldly checked jacket that he wears on Scaramanga’s island in The Man with the Golden Gun. The size of the check is not something that Bond typically wears, but I love the pattern and its black, white and red colours. The cut and style are also superb. Recently a reputable cloth merchant attempted to replicate the cloth, and a knitwear brand attempted to replicate the jacket, but both missed the mark for me. The original is untouchable. I also love how Moore wears the jacket in a simple manner with black trousers, a cream shirt and black textured silk tie.

I have a vintage jacket, unlabelled but most likely from Paul Stuart, that I wear to replicate this look. My jacket is a cream and black check and made of silk and wool, which is likely what Moore’s is made of. While Moore’s jacket is made of an open-weave cloth that is good in hot weather, mine is better in moderate temperatures. If an appropriate cloth ever became available, I’d be tempted to have a replica of Moore’s jacket made. I also wish it had hacking pockets like Moore’s jacket has. Because of Moore’s Bond (and Connery’s and Lazenby’s Bonds too), I find straight, flapped pockets too pedestrian for a sports coat. While regular straight pockets don’t break any rules, hacking pockets and patch pockets are far more creative choices.

My cream cocktail-cuff shirt from Frank Foster is a direct replica of the shirt that Moore wears. On my first visit to Frank Foster, this was the number one shirt on my list. My tie is a black grenadine from Turnbull & Asser, and it’s a suitable substitute for the more unique textured black tie that Moore wears. It also allows me to bring a bit of Connery Bond into the look. Beyond trying to copy Moore’s look, the cream shirt and black tie are natural pairings with my jacket because those are the two colours in the check. I’m wearing my jacket with charcoal gabardine trousers from Brooks Brothers because I prefer the less harsh look of charcoal compared to black. I also added a black pocket square with cream polka dots to add a bit more excitement while sticking with the tonal look. I sometimes wear this jacket with a red pocket square to recall the red in Moore’s jacket.

004. The Spy Who Loved Me Blazer and Striped Shirt

Moore’s first single-breasted blue blazer in the Bond films comes in The Spy Who Loved Me. I love the blazer itself, particularly for the sew-through silver-toned metal buttons and the hopsack cloth. I love how Moore contrasts the blazer with pale off-white wool trousers, which differs from how Bond paired his previous blazers with dark grey trousers. The striped blue shirt brings a sportier touch to this look. The vivid blue tie nicely complements the blue stripes in the shirt.

My navy hopsack blazer is from Canali, which I purchased in 2008. While blue blazers were still very popular in America at the time, it was very difficult to find one with double vents instead of a single vent. All of Bond’s blazers had double vents, so that detail was very important to me. This blazer originally came with black enamel buttons, which clashed with the navy cloth, and Moore’s silver-toned sew-through buttons inspired me to replace my blazer buttons with a silvery smoke mother-of-pearl set. The shirt is again from Frank Foster, and since they no longer have the same silk shirting I opted for a cotton instead. I went with a different style for the collar and cuffs, particularly since the original collar is too much of a 1970s trend. My trousers are cotton instead of wool for a more casual look, but they’re dressier than chinos in material and in cut.

Here I wore the blazer without a tie. The open-neck shirt takes inspiration from how Moore wears his double-breasted blazer with an open-neck shirt in For Your Eyes Only, also with pale trousers. While I like Moore’s tie, its shade of blue isn’t one that works particularly well with my complexion. I have neither Moore’s warm skin tone nor his tan, so I cannot wear all the same colours he does.

005. The Moonraker Blazer and Khaki Trousers

A blazer very similar to the one that Moore wears in The Spy Who Loved Me returns in Moonraker, but Moore wears it a bit differently. Here he wears it with a blue voile shirt, khaki wool cavalry twill trousers and a striped tie. When I was a boy, my father got me a signed photo of Roger Moore, and in it he’s wearing this outfit. Since dressing up as a boy usually meant wearing a blue blazer, this outfit was one of my first practical inspirations of Bond style.

I felt that I had to dress as close to this outfit as I could when I visited the Moonraker location Vaux-le-Vicomte. I’m again wearing my Canali blazer. My blue voile shirt is also from Frank Foster, with the same Lapidus tab cuff that Moore’s shirt has. The cavalry twill trousers are from Mason & Sons and the tie is from Zegna. I frequently wear this same outfit but with a different tie, since this striped tie is no longer my own style. The striped tie turned this outfit into a costume for me, whereas a solid navy tie would be more my style.

006. The For Your Eyes Only Grey Flannel Suit

One of my favourite suited outfits of Moore’s Bond tenure is his interpretation of the classic Connery Bond look: a grey flannel suit with a grenadine tie. Moore’s version of the look in For Your Eyes Only has a cream shirt and a grey tie. The low-contrast look suits both Moore and myself perfectly.

I chose the photo of Moore without his suit jacket because I do not have a grey flannel suit, but I love to wear the rest of this look with a cream Frank Foster shirt, a grey grenadine tie and grey flannel trousers. This tie is from Turnbull & Asser and the trousers are from Oliver Wicks. My outfit pictured here was taken to demonstrate the shirt, but in practice I always wear it with a jacket. Such a jacket would be one of my blue blazers or my charcoal checked jacket.

007. The Octopussy Dinner Jacket

While I love all of Moore’s black tie ensembles, the ivory dinner jacket that Moore wears in Octopussy is one that I chose as the model for my own ivory dinner jacket. It’s similar to the Goldfinger look, but has a more attractive trimmer fit and double vents instead of no vents. Moore wears it with a plain cotton voile shirt and black trousers. While I also love Moore’s dinner jacket in The Man with the Golden Gun, I thought that a single-breasted jacket would wear cooler in the hot weather that an ivory dinner jacket is intended for, and that silk would be too impractical and costly.

My dinner jacket is made by Mason & Sons in a wool and mohair cloth that is perfect for hot weather. The shirt made by Frank Foster is also cotton voile, but styled with a pleated front like the shirt that Moore wears with his ivory dinner jacket in A View to a Kill. The trousers from Mason & Sons are midnight blue instead of black. The red carnation is an homage to Goldfinger.

I find inspiration in many more Moore Bond outfits as well. I’m inspired by how Moore demonstrated the versatility of the blue blazer, and that goes beyond Bond. The inspiration often comes from the smaller details. Moore’s shirtmaker Frank Foster is my favourite shirtmaker, and I like the same deeper collars and cocktail cuffs that they made for Moore. There are other outfits that I’d love to take inspiration from, but I don’t yet have the items in my wardrobe to wear these looks.

Which of Roger Moore’s outfits do you find most inspiring? Leave a comment below.