Ernst Stavro Blofeld’s first two appearances in the James Bond films are faceless, with only a white Persian cat on his lap serving as the character’s face. At the time he premiered on screen in From Russia with Love, he was a mysterious character, but one that readers of the 1961 novel Thunderball would have been familiar with. In the films From Russia with Love and Thunderball, Blofeld is only addressed as ‘Number 1’. In the From Russia with Love end credits, the character is named ‘Ernst Blofeld’, and the actor is uncredited with only a question mark. He’s absent completely from Thunderball‘s credits. In both films, he’s portrayed on screen by Anthony Dawson, who previously played Professor Dent in Dr. No, and he’s voiced by Eric Pohlmann.
Blofeld is best known for wearing a Mao suit, a style established by Donald Pleasence’s portrayal in You Only Live Twice. In the character’s first two appearances, his manner of dress has more similarities to James Bond’s.
In this initial portrayal of Blofeld, little of his outfit is visible because his face is always out of view, and he is always seated. His outfit is very muted, helping him hide in the shadows. The outfit says little about him, and his clothes intentionally and effectively draw no attention to his appearance. We’re meant to focus on his voice, not on his corporeal form.
In From Russia with Love, Blofeld wears a brown-and-blue melange worsted two-piece single-breasted suit. This kind of fabric was popular in mid-20th-century Europe, but it has since fallen out of favour. It looks neutral due to the combination of warm and cool tones, but it has a richness that grey lacks. The cloth is medium-weight for its time, around 350 to 400 grams. The suit is outdated due to its wide lapels. The lapels are much wider than those of most other characters in the film, signifying that the suit is from the mid-1950s at the latest. Whether or not this was intentional, it portrays Blofeld as an older man who has little use for fashion trends or for new suits. He’s not regularly spending his ill-gotten gains on his wardrobe because clothes do not concern him.
Brown polyester buttons and buttonholes pick up the brown in the suit. The buttons aren’t all brown, as some have been replaced with shinier blue buttons. Replacement buttons again suggest this is an older suit.
Like most of the wardrobe in the early Bond films, the suit is English and possibly made by a bespoke tailor. The style of the padded shoulders with roped sleeve heads, while hardly visible, suggests this. The suit may even be Anthony Dawson’s own.
The suit trousers are finished with turn-ups and have a wider leg than Bond’s trousers have.
Blofeld demonstrates he’s a fearless man by wearing a dark suit with a white cat on his lap. He does not care one bit about getting cat fur on his clothes and what that says about his image. He’s above worrying about what people think of him. There are, however, only a few stray white cat hairs on his suit, so the wardrobe team must have been standing by to remove the cat hair between every take. The white cat is the perfect accessory to this outfit. It keeps with Blofeld’s neutral-toned outfit, but it doesn’t clash with anything else he could possibly wear.
Blofeld is wearing the same suit for the second and final appearance of this version of the character in Thunderball, and there the suit’s straight, flapped hip pockets are visible.
The cuffs are the most significant part of the outfit. The suit jacket has four buttons on each cuff, and the cream shirt has double cuffs. In From Russia with Love, the cufflinks are a very mid-century, chunky gold parallelogram. In Thunderball, his cufflinks are gold and rectangular. In both films, he also wears a gold enamelled SPECTRE ring, and it’s on the little finger of his right hand in From Russia with Love and on the little finger of his left hand in Thunderball.
His tie in From Russia with Love is a skinny black silk knit, the same tie that Ian Fleming gave Bond in the books. The tie is much too skinny for the lapels. Knitted ties should be narrower than the lapels because they lack the taper of an ordinary tie, but this tie is less than half the width of the lapels and looks extremely unbalanced. While not as sophisticated as the navy grenadine ties that Bond wears in the first two films, this tie shows that Blofeld is Bond’s equal. In Thunderball, the black tie might be a black grenadine tie instead of a knit, matching one of the ties Bond wears in the same film.
The outfit is finished with a straight-folded white linen pocket square in From Russia with Love, but it’s absent in Thunderball, just like Bond’s pocket square is. His shoes are black leather loafers, a Bondian choice like the tie.
I’m way early in my tailoring journey, and dress basically for personal taste as I work fully remote. Great that you mentioned knitted and grenadine ties: I have a navy grenadine tie (love it, pretty classy) but was wondering how a knitted tie would look in comparison, the difference between them, and whether it’s worth owning both (for fun, as no need to dress up for work). Yeah I know I can Google it but I was looking for personal opinions:)
I only have one knitted tie (J. Press, when they were still at my local mall), so I say, take my words with a pound of salt –
It’s a much different look, and depending on the color, it could either be absolutely complementing, or it could clash really badly. Best take is to keep it a muted, dark color. If you want a bold take, stop at brown. Don’t go any further.
Otherwise, for any outfit that doesn’t require a waistcoat – unless your tie is customized – then knitted ties are fun to have, and great to wear.
Knitted ties are inherently more casual than grenadine, and are better suited to less refined suitings, such as tweed and flannel. Grenadine is more suited to worsted fabrics.
Mandy,
Pardon me, but I have to interject.
Knitted tie works even with worsted suitings. Granted, don’t make it an overly fussy one – just keep it single breasted, notched lapel, and trousers to your liking – and it works okay. I’ve worn my J Press black knitted tie with my fancy midnight blue suit, and no one noticed, except compliments. No worries there.
However, of course, they’re what should be considered a “dressed down” item, which I do agree. But these days, I have no pocket squares nor ties with my tailored outfits, and I’m still okay, so, so long as colours are kept controlled, why overthink?
How about instead of Googling or asking, you search this very site for one of the many articles on this topic? :)
https://www.bondsuits.com/007-variations-on-the-solid-tie/
Kamal,
Many members are first timers. I’ve been here over ten years. But many may not.
Travers, I mentioned the search function for a reason. Didn’t suggest I expect people to know the site map!
I don’t know how well versed you are with interwebs forums, but no matter how advanced a web system is, many forums aren’t social media. Many are new first timers, and you simply don’t know. We still have first timers here, and many else more.
Why do you think they went from this to the Mao suit, and then to a suit with a Nehru collar in FYEO?
Probably just a thing with villainous chic trends, which, I have to be honest, is a lot less than intelligent.
I always figured Blofeld wore a Mao suit in “You Only Live Twice” as a hint that Red China was backing him in that movie. Donald Pleasance’s version of Blofeld ended up being so iconic that future versions of the character dressed similarly even when there was no in-universe reason for him to do so.
I tend to assume the Mao suit is partly local colour by way of cultural appropriation – a slightly more subtle variation on the literary Blofeld wearing full Samurai armour and ‘oriental’ robes in YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE – whilst emphasising his increasing megalomania.
He goes from “I am a sophisticated businessman-gangster” to “CHAIRMAN MAO ANSWERS TO ME” in a single costume switch.
Blofeld’s voice in Thunderball sounds different from the one in FRWL. I read some place many years ago that in Thunderball he was voiced by Joseph Wiseman because Saltzman like the voice of doom aspect that he had in Dr. No. Any way to verify that?
It is mentioned as Eric Pohlman but “altered” in Thunderball on IMDb and Wikipedia. I don’t think Saltzman would hire a US-based Canadian actor for voice work when a perfectly suitable and recurring UK-based actor could do the job.
I don’t believe that to be the case: my understanding is that the chap who played Professor Dent in DR. NO was the physical actor for Blofeld at one point, but that was the limit of any overlap between the two earliest Bond villains.
Continuity errors are rife within the Bond film cannon and there are numerous transgressions even within films (Thunderball among the most egregious due partly to editing decisions) as well as among films. Still – the switching of the iconic octopus ring from one hand to the other is a basic error that should have been caught, if not by the production team then by the actor himself. (See also Connery’s mysterious shoe swaps in the Junkanoo chase scene in TB).
I’m also puzzled by the mixing of suit jacket cuff buttons. That seems to be the result of excessive Paul Getty level parsimony on the part of a wealthy super villain holding the world to ransom for one MEEELLION dollars!
I bet that when they made these movies they never dreamt that 60 years later people would be pouring over these minute details!
It is, however, in keeping with the literary Blofeld being a man with no visible human weaknesses and a steely self-confidence: let lesser mortals worry about buttons, Blofeld has whole worlds to conquer!
No cocktail cuffs for ESB
One of his cuff buttons is missing.
Matt, you mention, the blue and brown melange was popular, in Europe at least, but has now fallen out of favor. Any reason why? I agree it is a great looking rich neutral and am not sure why it would have become unpopular.
Lee,
Sorry for interjecting, but I think here’s the reason why.
Even before the big coof (2020), suiting has been in steep decline within the Continental Europe spheres. Many European tailors admit they get more customers from America than they do their respective continent, and I haven’t even included England. We have deeper appreciation for these old world flavours than where they are coming from.
Find as many European strangers as you can, and ask them, do they even own a casual tailored outfit?
Outside of some grey and navy suits, I bet they don’t even respect suits as much as we do.
Over here, tailored outfits are still highly appreciated. I have no problem wearing my Goldfinger tweed outfit. There were times in summer when I wore my ecru suit. Nil in issues or formality. I can even wear my Goldfinger tweed outfit into cities. It’s nice, neat, and respected.
But in Europe? They can barely afford groceries, rent, and utilities as is. That and, the last two generations don’t even have half of our appreciation for fine dressing.
No other messages here, except the truth.
Good Europeans who have held, and are holding, the lines, you have to admit, it has been a far cry from the older days.
So, going back to the actual question, it’s more so of a casual color(s), and not practical, nor affordable, and hence, it gets sideline and, well, unpopular.
Any clue who makes the cufflinks???
Some have bemoaned the ubiquity of ‘Spectre’ the cat, but I’ve always liked the fact it’s a little visual nod to the literary Blofeld starting his crime ring in post-War Turkey (I believe the early cats were a mix of Persian and Turking Angora cat).
Also, it’s interesting to wonder how the fully-visible Blofeld actors would have pulled off this ensemble.
In my humble opinion, this version of Blofeld was best. Man behind the curtain, shadowy authority figure, a legitimate criminal mastermind. A Basil Zaharoff set to screen. The bald head and scar, the rest of it, too cartoonish. I know a lot of that is due to the endless parodies in the western canon but to me the cat is menacing enough while still maintaining evil charm. I would have liked that if they did formally introduce Blofeld, it had been played by Dawson, continuity be damned. Although the Pollman voice made it.
Are there any good modern examples of this kind of mélange fabric? I’d like to learn more about it.