Spring will soon be here and to me nothing says spring more than a suit in a black and white Glen Urquhart check. Sean Connery wears two Glen Urquhart check suits in From Russia With Love, but here we will just be looking at a the first one. A true Glen Urquhart check is made in just black and white in an even twill weave, as seen below. A Glen Urquhart check is often made with an overcheck in red, rust, or blue, the latter being great for a spring suit.
This suit is like most of Connery’s other James Bond suits. It has a two-button front, 4-button cuffs, a full, draped chest and narrow lapels that gently roll to the top button. The shoulders are natural with a roped sleeve head. This suit has flapped pockets and a single vent. The trousers have Connery’s typical double forward pleats and side tabs.
The Turnbull & Asser shirt is pale blue poplin with their classic spread collar and 2-button turnback cuffs. Bond wears a navy blue grenadine tie and folded white linen pocket handkerchief.
I just wanted to say this was a particularly easy-to-follow posting. I presume many people who read this blog do not know remotely as much about the topic as you do, so the close-up of the pattern was a helpful hint.
This is my most looked forward to blog outside of my work domain, so here's my encouragement to keep it up!
lovely suit, lovely fabric and Sir Sean carry's it off well. But why did he shift between single vent and double vents?
In both From Russia With Love and Goldfinger Bond had suits with single vents, double vents and no vents. For suits, Dr. No was all double vents, Thunderball was all vent-less, You Only Live Twice was all single vents, and Diamonds Are Forever was all double vents. I don't know why all the changes. Double vents became the standard in England by the 1970s but were probably more common in America in the 60s (from what I see in movies and television) than they were in England. I wish I knew the reason for the variation, other than just to have variety.
this is a great blog thanks!
Truly, one of my favorite blogs. Excellent material!
Congratulations on this most excellent blog. You demonstrate with great precision and accuracy a multitude of unknown details that comprise the style of our favourite gentleman spy. I have been watching this blog practically from day one. Up to this point I had never found a site which analytically explains the outfits and the general style of each movie. Once the weather gets even warmer I would be most interested to read your analysis on two iconic “warm weather” suits, the linen suit worn by Brosnan in “The World is not enough” and the bluish light gray (?) one worn by Moore in “The Man with the Golden Gun” , when he …pays a visit to Maud Adams in her hotel for the first time.
Keep up the good job!
Great articles. I love the Connery era suits, none of the other actors has really come close.
I hadn't realised that the suits in FRWL were patterned though, I'd always seen them as being solid colour (mind you, it looks obvious in the screen caps).
It’s funny to see that even Connery has allowed himself some originality in his jacket cuffs : his buttonholes aren’t straight but slanted. Anyway, it is much more discreet than leaving the last cuff button undone.
The buttonholes are straight. The pattern doesn’t look straight because of the way the sleeves are shaped.
Sorry if I still insist, nothing personnal about that ^^ But what do you think of this picture ?
http://www.amnesta.net/other/007/russia2.html
Well now that you point out that shot, they do look slanted, following the pattern. In the picture I posted they looked just as straight as the buttonholes on the plaid jacket I wore today.
It’s the angle of his forearm, elbow pointing toward the camera. Nothing more than an optical illusion I’m afraid.
Apparently he was wearing a tie bar with this suit, based on a new behind the scenes pic posted by @007 on twitter. I’m not sure if we’re meant to think he actually wears one normally, since all the other scenes in the movie in which he is not wearing a jacket or is wearing it unbuttoned do not show one.
I still have Daniel Craig ahead by a country mile for fussiest Bond though. =D
Interesting, can you share the picture ?
https://static.wixstatic.com/media/31b808_37dca73c62e74b9495453aff126f229c~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_640,h_411,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/31b808_37dca73c62e74b9495453aff126f229c~mv2.jpg
Sorry for the late response… haha
Matt,
I’ve noticed reading your blog that even within colors that are cool like blue, you have cooler blues and warmer blues. Would the same go for a suit with a grey effect like this black and white glen check? Would this be a cooler grey than for example, the black and cream glen check in Dr. No, cream being warmer than white? Or am I off base here? I’ve noticed a lot of grey suits, since they are rarely made with just one color thread, appear to warmer or cooler to me depending on on what some of the thread colors are. Taking it a step further, if I am right, does that mean that a cooler glen check would look better with other cool colors and people with cool skin tones, while a warmer glen check would look better with say a cream shirt and someone with warmer skin tones? Or I am just way off?
This one is a warmer grey, just like the check in Dr. No as the ‘white’ in this check is really cream since wool is never pure white. You can see how it is warmer than Kerim’s grey suit. Cooler glen checks can be black and light or mid grey, which Bond has worn a lot. Whether the check has cream or light grey, it can be more flattering on warm and cool complexions, respectively, but overall it doesn’t make a big difference.
Could the cloth be a worsted flannel ?
It looks like a regular worsted to me.
Too much light reflection to be anything flannel, worsted or woolen.
Is this suit slightly darker than the famous Goldfinger 3-piece ?
I think it is slightly darker, but it could be an illusion.