Bond visits Q-Branch in Goldfinger wearing a dark blue button two suit made by Anthony Sinclair. The cloth has a mottled appearance and is fairly heavy, probably flannel. The cloth has a faint self stripe that most likely means the cloth is woven in a herringbone weave.
The suit jacket has narrow notched lapels with swelled edges, natural shoulders with a little roping at the sleeve head, a full-cut chest, jetted pockets and four-button cuffs. The jacket has the popular 1960’s detail of cloth-covered buttons. The cloth used is, of course, the same cloth that the suit is made from. Not just formalwear can have covered buttons. Though we can’t tell how many vents this suit has, we see more of it in Woman of Straw and there we can see—though not too clearly—it has double vents. The suit trousers are Connery’s usual, with double forward pleats and button-tab side adjusters with three buttons. Like the other trousers in Goldfinger, these have a plain hem.
Bond’s shirt is white with a faint broken grey stripe and has a spread collar, front placket and double cuffs. The navy knit tie is tied with a four-in-hand knot. The sporty nature of this suit—flannel with covered buttons—makes the knitted tie fitting with this suit. Bond’s shoes are black ankle boots that slip-on with elastic on the sides. The outfit is completed with a white linen pocket handkerchief in a basic TV fold.
Another solid post. Excellent site, Matt.
excelent!
my favourite style!
What a great suit and a classic look. Matt, I would like to get your take, but I believe this is the closest cinematic portrayal of the literary Bond's standard daily dark blue suit. Excellent post!
Great post again.
BTW, here is a great site with a lot of screenshots of most of the Bond films in good quality:
http://screenmusings.org/
The Quatermaster looks rather presentable, also
All best,
B
Matt, I hope you know that this blog has significantly contributed to my ever expanding list of clothes I want. :) Herringbone suits seem like just the thing for making a mostly-solids wardrobe more interesting.
Hi Matt, you said somewhere on your site that your blog was all about details. So… do you know approximately the width of Connery’s knitted ties and grenadine ties ? I would say the knitted ones are about 6 or 7 cm wide, and the grenadine ones 7 cm (except in Doctor No, maybe 8.5 cm ?), but I would really like to have your opinion.
I hope I don’t pose as a maniac :D
The grenadine ties in Dr. No are about 3 inches wide, the grenadine ties in From Russia With Love are about 2.75 inches wide and the knit ties in Goldfinger are about 2.5 inches. Knit ties in comparison to regular ties will always have to be narrower since they do not taper.
Interesting, this suit matches ‘Bond’s usuals’ from the Fleming novels pretty much exactly. Blue suit, black knit tie, chelsea boots, I wish this were a combo predominantly seen in films. Though I’ve dubbed my grey suits and blue knit ties my own ‘Bond usuals’ for when the temptation arises that I should wear that combination… Though can you blame me?
the knit tie is actually a dark navy, not black. even the post says so..
There’s always a disconnect with colour – looking at tweaked film stock transferred to digital on a tv screen via a picture on another screen via one’s eye. All are subject to change and variation. To me it looked black as well.
A dark blue isn’t black when there’s something black on screen to compare it to. Also, the screenshots that I post are not my only sources for determining what the clothes are.
First of all this whole site is fabulous.
I am actually having this suit made for me and having had my first session with the tailor (who provide clothing for TV work and also worked with the late Douglas Haywood) and they made two observations.
1. The cloth is not herringbone, it’s a barathea weave;
2. The jacket has a single vent. From looking at various stills, particular the one with Bond’s right hand in his pocket, they believed in only had one vent because the silhouette of the jacket doesn’t break as it would do with a double vent and when we put on the DVD and look at the whole scene from Bond’s entry into Moneypenny’s office the single vent can be seen.
I have to disagree with your tailor on the cloth. Because this cloth has a subtle self stripe, it would not be barathea. That’s why I guessed herringbone, since it’s the most traditional and most common type of self stripe amongst English mills. Barathea is also only used for formal wear, and I doubt a traditional tailor like Anthony Sinclair would use it for a regular lounge suit.
And this is a different suit from the one worn in Moneypenny’s office, which has a houndstooth pattern. This scene takes place the next day.
After examining the cloth on my new Blu-ray discs, I can clearly see a mottled appearance. And it’s probably a fairly heavy cloth, at least by today’s standards. But I can’t exactly figure out what creates the faint stripe.
Is this the same suit as seen during “From Russia With Love” where James Bond has his meeting with M before flying to Istanbul? The suit in this scene seems like a very dark navy flannel blue suit with a white shirt.
The suit in From Russia with Love is different. You can read about it here: https://www.bondsuits.com/the-navy-blue-lounge-suit-in-from-russia-with-love/
Great post, Matt. I may be shouted down but this is my favourite Bond Suit. So much so, that as a 21 year old (about 25 years ago!) I took photos of it to my tailor to have my first suit made. I wish I had your expertise then as I was guessing the fabric and had it made in a midnight blue wool/mohair blend. I have a feeling Australian tailors making 1990s style suits for conservative businessmen were not used to dealing with 21 year olds with a Bond fascination, as he was less than impressed with my list of instructions on natural shoulders and lapel width etc, at one point exclaiming with great finality, “these lapels are thin enough!!” I didn’t mind, I felt 10 feet tall and unstoppable in that suit.
Does this suit have ticket pocket ?
I don’t believe it does.
Ok, thank You for Your reply. Keep up the great work.