In You Only Live Twice, Bond visits Dikko Henderson’s (Charles Gray) home and follows the Japanese custom of removing his shoes. Bond finds himself leaving in a hurry to chase after Henderson’s killer, without time to put on his shoes. After running outside in his stocking feet, Bond kills the man who killed Henderson and takes not only his shoes but also his trench coat and fedora as a disguise. Bond wears the olive trench coat over his black and white herringbone suit. The knee-length trench coat is double-breasted with ten buttons. It has raglan sleeves, shoulder straps, a yoke across the upper back, a storm flap on the front right, and a single vent. It has a self belt—which Bond lets hang—and wrist straps that close with a leather buckles.
The hat is a black fedora with a medium-narrow brim, a centre dent and front pinch in the crown, and a wide grosgrain ribbon.
Though the shoes are black and white and resemble co-respondent/spectator shoes, they are not such shoes in the traditional sense. The vamp is white and has a black stripe up the middle. The quarters are also white. The toe piece that extends around the front of the shoe is black, as is the heel counter. The shoes have black elastic gussets on the sides of the instep. The soles and heels are black. It difficult to tell if these shoes are leather, but the soles look like leather due to the wear. Rest assured, these ugly shoes are not Bond’s own!
During the fight, the shoes appear to be taller. The white extends higher in the front and back, but not on the sides. You can see the difference in the photo above. It’s not unusual for different shoes to be used in the same scene for more physically demanding parts.
It’s only taken you three years to write about these Matt!
I don’t mind these shoes to be honest. I wouldn’t buy them but I can see how they would be popular in Asia. When I lived in Japan I was constantly puzzled by what was popular there. Either they were so far ahead fashion wise that I couldn’t figure it out or they were in some weird alternate dimension time loop and were 20 years behind. All and all not the most hideous shoe I’ve seen this year.
Paul Williams of the Temptations wears similar shoes here: http://cdn.madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/The-Temptations-1.jpg
Nice find!
The coat looks like it’s from Acuascutum. I think this coat is defenitely something Bond could have in his own wardrobe, I really like the brownish/greyish olive colour, it’s much more subtle than in beige.
The Sword Swinging man ist Dwayne Johnsons Grandfather.
Did this have anything to do with 1930s fashion made popular by the movie “Bonnie and Clyde” which also came out in 1967?
No, this style was popular in Japan and should not be confused for the co-respondent shoe.
I thought the shoes were an odd choice for Bond to be wearing whether they were popular at the time or not. But, the oddest part to me was the fact that he (or stunt double) is wearing heels during the fight scene (that are extremely scuffed up on the sides) and then in the next scene he’s seen in flats which are immaculate. It made me think of The Wild, Wild West show w/Robert Conrad where they employed the same tactic, but in the opposite order – – which made more sense. He was always wearing black sneakers during fight scenes and then in the next scene, after the fight, you would see him in the stacked leather cowboy heels.
It is highly unlikely that the assassins shoes would have fit Sean Connery, who was 6’2” and had large feet, US size 11, or UK 10. I could not find a store that sold shoes US size 9 when I was in Japan. That was a major problem of looking around to find a place that sold larger sizes. Most Japanese men would have shoe sizes of around size 8, so good luck with Connery fitting into those.
You Only Live Twice is a fantasy film for sure. I don’t think it mattered to the writers that Bond wouldn’t be able to fit into Japanese shoes.