Original article published 8 March 2011
I am in the process of rewriting and republishing old articles about James Bond’s outfits that are in need of a refresh and expansion. All former comments are preserved below.
For James Bond’s first full day in Istanbul in From Russia with Love, he wears the first of two Glen Urquhart check suits in the film. This suit says ‘springtime’ in a way few other suits do. The medium-scale black-and-white check bridges the darkness of winter with the brightness of summer. The check is bolder than what Sean Connery’s James Bond usually wears, and it gives this suit a more old-fashioned look than Bond’s usual finer checks. This cloth is a traditional medium-weight at around 350-400 grams, making it ideal for spring and autumn temperatures.
This suit’s check is a true Glen Urquhart check, woven in a twill weave and in a black-and-white colourway without an overcheck. This check is sometimes called a ‘Prince of Wales check’, often when it has an overcheck. For Bond, this is a daytime suit, likely due to its light overall colour. The light colour and check ensure Bond is visible in the dark underground Basilica Cistern. He changes into a much darker grey flannel suit for the evening, either for a more appropriate colour or for the warmth of flannel after the sun has set.
This is the third of seven suits from Anthony Sinclair that Bond wears in the film, and it’s made in the same overall style as the rest. The suits in From Russia with Love all have a full cut, but this suit may have a fuller cut than the rest, and it looks like it’s a size too large in places. The chest is cut with drape, which is the folds of cloth at the sides of the chest and upper back. The jacket’s waist is suppressed relative to the chest, but it is cut with a lot of room, almost in a sloppy way. Sinclair cut Connery’s jackets with a loosely fitted waist to give his large drop a more elegant silhouette and to conceal his Walther PPK. While there’s plenty of room to conceal a gun in this suit, we don’t see Bond’s gun in these scenes. The shoulders are soft and slightly extended with just a hint of a capped sleeve head. The front has open lower quarters that are slightly rounded at the bottom.
The jacket has two buttons on the front in a low stance. The narrow lapels of about 7.5 cm wide emphasise the jacket’s fullness, while they elegantly and gradually roll down to the jacket’s top button. The lapel ends high above the top button, making this look almost like a jacket with three buttons. The lapels have a medium-height gorge on a slightly steep angle. The jacket is detailed with a welt breast pocket, flapped hip pockets, four buttons on each cuff and a single rear vent.
When Bond enters the scene, he walks around with his hand in his pocket, which causes the vent to open up sightly. The vent is well cut with a generous overlap so it doesn’t open up very wide. Double vents would have provide a neater appearance for someone who likes to casually keep his hand in his pocket, though doing so is considered poor form in certain contexts, especially for a naval man like Bond. Bond wears the jacket buttoned at all times, even when sitting down on a boat. The jacket is cut full enough that it’s comfortable to wear fastened when seated.
The jacket’s buttons are mid grey polyester, though dark grey or black horn would be a better modern alternative. The buttonholes are much darker, either in black or dark grey, to highlight the contrast in the check.
The suit trousers have double forward pleats, on-seam side pockets and one rear jetted pocket on the right. The leg is trim from the knee down and is finished with turn-ups. The waistband has a square extension with a hidden hook and bar closure and ‘Daks tops’ side adjusters with an elasticised tab on each side that fastens to one of three buttons.
The shirt is bespoke from Turnbull & Asser and matches most of the shirts that Sean Connery wears in Dr. No and From Russia with Love. It is made of pale blue cotton poplin, with a sheen that suggests Sea Island cotton. It has a spread collar with a low stand and medium-length points of about 7.5 cm long, rounded two-button cocktail cuffs and a narrow front placket. If it matches the other shirts in the film, it has shoulder pleats and two darts at the small of the back.
The tie is a skinny—around 6.5 to 7 cm wide—navy silk grenadine from Turnbull & Asser, and it is tied in a small four-in-hand knot that sits stylishly askew. A behind-the-scenes photo shows that Bond is wearing a tie clip—a tie clip that is much too wide for the tie as its wider than the tie itself. He wears the tie clip low, about three-quarters of the way down the tie, so it keeps the tie in place but stays hidden under the buttoned jacket. This is a function position for a tie clip, but it’s not a stylish placement for it.
Bond wears a white linen handkerchief folded in his breast pocket. Connery’s Bond does not match his pocket square to his shirt, but instead he uses it as a neutral pop of white to balance the outfit. Here it coordinates with the white in the suit’s check, but considering how all of his pocket squares are white, the coordination is a coincidence rather than purposeful. His shoes are black three-eyelet cap-toe derbys, his typical shoe in the film. It was a popular style at the time, and while it lacks the formality of an oxford, it is elegant enough and provides more flexibility for Bond’s activities.
Now Pay Attention
| SUIT | |
| Tailor | Anthony Sinclair |
| Fabric | Worsted black-and-white Glen Urquhart check |
| JACKET | |
| Front buttons | 2, low stance |
| Lapels | Narrow notch |
| Shoulder | Soft with capped sleeve heads |
| Breast pocket | Welt |
| Hip pockets | Straight, flap |
| Vents | 1 |
| Cuff buttons | 4 |
| TROUSERS | |
| Front | Double forward pleats |
| Support | ‘DAKS Tops’ 3-button side-adjusters |
| Front/side pockets | On-seam side pockets |
| Rise | High |
| Leg | Narrow, straight |
| Hem | Turn-ups |
| SHIRT | |
| Shirtmaker | Turnbull & Asser |
| Fabric | Pale blue cotton poplin |
| Collar | Spread |
| Cuff | 2-button cocktail |
| Front | Placket |
| TIE | |
| Brand | Turnbull & Asser |
| Fabric | Navy grenadine |
| Knot | Four-in-hand |
| SHOES | |
| Shoemaker | Unknown |
| Style | Black 3-eyelet cap-toe derby and black slip-on |
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.
Judging from the first picture, it looks like Kerim Bey’s suit was made from a wool and mohair blend.
My favourite of all of Connery’s grey check suits – yes, even more so than the Goldfinger one. I feel as though you can see the weight, perhaps caused by the fuller cut, and I’ve always thought Connery looked particularly comfortable in this suit. It almost looks cosy.
I absolutely agree. I prefer this over the Goldfinger suit.
Beautiful suit and great article as usual Matt. Do you have a link to the behind-the-scene photo with the tie clip? Interesting to wonder whether this was styled as part of the outfit, or simply a practical measure to keep Connery’s tie in place. Between this, the Goldfinger hacking jacket , and Marnie, he seems to have been fond of tie clips around this time.
Here you can see how it’s only there for function, not style: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/31b808_c33c2d8551a541998896a4edfb230e1d~mv2.jpeg/v1/fill/w_978,h_978,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/31b808_c33c2d8551a541998896a4edfb230e1d~mv2.jpeg
maybe the inelegant tie clip featured a hidden cyanide pill?
As a heterosexual man, I still find Connery’s eyebrows pretty sexy. It’s like the tie clip, slightly askew, is matching them ! Ahah
Sinclair, what do you find inelegant about the tie clip?
This is suit is absolutely timeless and one could easily wear this now. The single vent though not as common these days gives the jacket an almost blazer/sport jacket like quality and could easily be worn as separates. As for Connery’s wardrobe in FRWL there is quietly relaxed style and I really enjoy it.
I don’t quite agree. I think it would need a larger check pattern and different buttons, at minimum, in order to work as a sports jacket.
Don Draper vibes
Draper had some nice suits, but his trousers nearly always had a flat front and were worn with a belt.
Yup. And that’s the way I like them! I loved the earlier seasons’ suits in Mad Men especially of course the three button versions. There’s a great website that might be seen as the Mad Men version of Bondsuits, where the site curator goes through every single suit worn by Don Draper episode by episode. Mad Men’s costume designer was Janie Bryant. If they decide to reboot the next Bond and retrocon the story then she would get my vote for the CD job (if Matt’s too busy!)
She would be great even for modern productions. I don’t think they’re going to go back to the 1950s for a couple reasons, one being the sexism in the books was worse than anything in the movies (which is saying something) and that isn’t going to sell well these days, another is that they’ve helped fund the recent movies through product placement.
Never found Draper that stylish, really. He was pretty well dressed, but in an everyday (for the 1960s) sort of way. Although, Jon Hamm seemed to have quite a similar build to Connery in this era, so I can see why the comparison would be made.
His suits had a closer fit and were definitely a bit more current to the 1960s than Bond’s, which had one foot in the 1950s with their double pleated trousers and fuller cut.
Yes and this is why I think there’s a general overlap in the approach to dressing of Draper and Book Bond. They both know the rudiments of how to dress well and do so in a way that portrays confidence and success, a certain level of affluence and a sort of utilitarian view of style. Bond had his London ‘uniform’ which in a way replicated his naval uniform – navy suit, white shirt, black tie and shoes. Draper who was just a few years younger than Bond had his own uniform which in the early years was mid grey / silver grey suits, white shirts, black ties and shoes. In both cases a minimum of fussiness and flashy gimmicks, in a way the ‘quiet luxury’ that Matt wrote about recently. Roger Sterling embodied the more flashy style with waistcoats, three pieces. DBs etc.
Interesting detail about the tie clip as it’s a rarity for Bond at least until Craig came along.
I like them and have several – always the slide variety rather than the spring clip as I believe they are less damaging to ties especially grenadines. I tend to favour one more chunky version I got from one of the few remaining silver shops in Cozumel many years ago, with an engraved zigzag pattern that I was told is a Maya interpretation of a snake! Like Connery here, I tend to use them lower than the buttoning point of my jackets so they’re functional more than decorative and will only be seen at such times as when I unbutton and sit down to eat to keep my tie out of my soup!
As a kid I remember my Dad using a tie clip shaped like a dagger which I thought was very cool. In later life he didn’t use it and I’m guessing he lost it and didn’t bother replacing it as they seemed to go out of style in the seventies. (Did Rog, Tim or Brozz ever use them as Bond? I don’t think so!)
There are some good bargains to be had from vintage shops and online. I acquired quite a few and gave some away to my brother, my best man and my wife’s dad at our wedding but stopped buying them when I settled on the aforementioned one which gets almost all the attention!
I don’t think the other Bonds have that I can recall.
“He wears the tie clip low, about three-quarters of the way down the tie, so it keeps the tie in place but stays hidden under the buttoned jacket. This is a function position for a tie clip, but it’s not a stylish placement for it.”
If only the tie clip in NTTD was worn similarly and actually clipped to the shirt.
Giselle, I have a few tie clips (received as gifts and one inherited from my grandpa). I never use them and much prefer to just utilize the keeper, as I find tie clips unflattering, fussy and clumsy. They may even tug into and damage the fabric of the tie, as a kind of middle-class version of a tie pin. When worn three-quarters down, they draw the attention to the stomach area (cf. Matt’s link above). They are associated with US servicemen, and I suspect that they will be a nuisance when passing through airport security, etc. I also don’t like mass-produced T Bar cufflinks…
While I’ve heard of it from others, I’ve never personally had that problem with any of mine. If they don’t have any sharp corners, are rounded, or are the slide type I don’t see why they’d present that problem. They also don’t serve the same function as the keeper on the back of a tie, which many ties from this era didn’t even have! They’re meant to be clipped to the shirt placket to keep your tie from moving around. But I have a few examples of The Tie Thing (gifted to me when my blog was more active) that work pretty well by buttoning to the shirt front and through the keeper. I’m sure there are knockoffs of them now.
Bond fans and readers of this blog may have noticed that Sean did not clip his tie bar to the shirt placket, just using it as a keeper and for a bit of gravity, worn three-quarters down.
The tie bar in From Russia with Love is attached to the shirt. I can’t tell for sure about the one in Goldfinger.
I’ve been a Bond fan since childhood and a reader of this blog since its inception…
I have seen old ads for tie clips that specifically reference clipping to the shirt, I have never seen any that indicate it’s to be used like a keeper loop. Not to mention that the back facing clip of some have scalloped edges that would damage the tie but not the shirt, indicate that’s the purpose of the clip.
It may well be the case here that Connery is wearing it in an unusual way to keep the tie in place and not see the clip, for the simple reason that they want the tie to stay in place but for Bond to not be wearing a clip. Via movie magic of only having it in place for shots with the jacket closed or the frame being above Connery’s chest, the illusion is achieved. If they want a shot with his jacket open, they would just take the clip off between takes.
This wouldn’t even be that strange. I was on the set of a commercial once where the director literally taped an actor’s shirt to his back to make sure a pin stayed in place on the actor’s front for a shot. The audience is only meant to see what the director wants, how that is achieved is often not realistic.
Lee, thanks for your very good comments on directors artistic choices to create illusions in film productions. It is superimportent to pay close attention to details, otherwise the illusion is easily broken.
Regarding tie clips, Matt wrote an interesting article (cf. Feb 17th, 2011) on Ian Fleming’s second Bond novel Live and Let Die (1954). In one of the quotations from the novel, it appears that Bond consider tie clips to be something of an American flashy novelty, and not something he would normally wear.
Still, for a field agent, a tie clip can be useful to conceal a hidden microphone, as in The Saint, episode “Simon and Delilah” (1967).
Tie clips provide a bit of weight and gravity, and can be useful to help the tie to “toe the line” without having to attach it to the shirt. That obviously only works properly when wearing the clip low, like three-quarters down. I have noticed Sean Connery, Prince Philip, and the young King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) wearing tie clips in that “old school” way. It is also a well-known fact that the late Queen Elisabeth II wore hidden weights at the hem of her skirt to prevent it from blowing in the wind.
Interesting that this suit appears to be cut fuller than the other suits in the movie, I believe the navy/charcoal chalkstripe suit (Was it ever determined what color that suit was? I was even more confused by what color the suit is when I watched the 4k.) may also have the same fit as this suit.
I do remember that one having surprisingly low armholes for a bespoke suit, even taking into account his concealment needs.
Quite so. It may be the heavier cloth, but he definitely seemed to be drowning around the waist area in that final suit. Perhaps at that time he finally lost the little weight Young reprimanded him to have for the famous hotel room scene (the original DVD commentary is hilarious, Young had no filter at all !).
I guess that I have the minority viewpoint, but FRWL, while a great movie, has my least favorite suits from the 60s films. And this is the one that I like least. They have the opposite problem of the Craig years: they are too loose instead of too tight. No idea if this is the fault of the suit being worn the wrong way or it being made too voluminous.
His other suits mostly fit better than this example.