Original article published 27 December 2012
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.
In wintertime Bratislava in The Living Daylights, Timothy Dalton—via costume designer Emma Porteous—recalls classic James Bond sartorial style from both the Sean Connery and Roger Moore eras by wearing a medium-dark grey flannel suit, the ideal daytime suit for cool or cold weather. Bond is respectfully dressed for a string quartet matinee concert at the conservatoire without being overdressed for the occasion or a day out in the city. The suit is made of lightweight flannel, likely worsted flannel, which has the nap of flannel but often without the heavy weight. This suit is only shown in limited seated shots and under an overcoat.
Like most of his suits in the film, this suit is ready-to-wear and, according to the book Fashioning James Bond: Costume, Gender and Identity in the World of 007 by Llewella Chapman, it was made by Paul Smith. Paul Smith is an English fashion brand with a strong tailoring collection, partly because Smith himself worked at the Savile Row tailor Lincroft Kilgour in his early days. Smith was one of the designers in the late 1970s, along with Armani, who made tailoring softer and more relaxed. While Armani guided Italian suit fashion, Smith defined a new era for the English fashion suit. Paul Smith remains a prominent and respected fashion brand today, known especially for their vibrant colour combinations.
From what little of the suit is visible, it proves to be one of Timothy Dalton’s best-fitting suits of the film. Despite it being from a fashion brand, this suit is one of Dalton’s least fashionable suits of its time in the film. The shoulders are narrower than the rest in the film and lack much or any padding, giving the suit a more natural, comfortable and overall flattering look on Dalton. Dalton was known to have torn out the padding in the shoulders of some of his suits, and the soft shoulders in this suit may be the result of Dalton’s modifications since soft shoulders like these were rare in the 1980s.
The jacket has a low button stance, probably with two buttons on the front. The lapels are wide for the era, at around 4 in / 10 cm wide, but they don’t look bad on Dalton. The jacket’s gorge—the seam where the collar meets the lapels—is at a medium height and a medium pitch, preventing this suit from looking dated to the 1980s.
Publicity stills and behind-the-scenes photos reveal more about this suit than what is visible in the film. The jacket has double vents, cut with a flare to the sides in the traditional English manner. The suit trousers have double reverse pleats instead of the traditional English forward pleats that most of Dalton’s suits in the film have. They’re cut with a high rise, but Dalton wears them low. The leg has a medium width and a plain hem. Dalton wears the suit trousers with a narrow black belt that has a brass buckle with the keeper being part of the buckle. This kind of buckle may signify that the belt is reversible.
Dalton wears a white shirt with a classic English semi-spread collar that has a medium height, a medium point length and tie space. The shirt has many hallmarks of an English shirt, such as a collar stitched 1/4 inch from the edge with a sewn-in interfacing and a narrow placket stitched 3/8 inch from the edge. The shirt also has simple button cuffs.
The tie is solid navy silk twill—the ribs are horizontal across the blade because ties are cut on the bias—and is tied in a four-in-hand knot, but it’s worn slightly loosely and sloppily around the neck at times. Such ties can be found at a number of English brands, including Turnbull & Asser. The navy tie recalls the solid navy ties that Sean Connery frequently wore with his grey flannel suits in the early Bond films. The shoes are a classic black cap-toe oxford on a traditional almond-shaped last.
Over the suit, Dalton wears a navy herringbone full-length overcoat, coordinating with the colour of the tie. During the concert, the coat is draped over the back of the chair next to him. The coat has a nap that suggests it could be a wool-and-cashmere blend. The overcoat is more typical of the 1980s than the suit is, and it has large, squared shoulders with a lot of padding; a low and steep gorge; and three buttons down the front in a very low button stance. The low button stance exposes much of the chest, and the low gorge means that the lapels won’t cover the neck when folded over, making the coat less effective at keeping out the cold than a coat traditionally is. The coat is designed to be a fashionably dramatic and luxurious showpiece more than a practical garment for warmth. Dalton wears both the coat and the suit jacket unbuttoned, meaning it must not be terribly cold outside. The coat is detailed with a centre vent, flapped pockets and four buttons on the cuffs.
Though not any of these clothes are bespoke, they are some of Dalton’s more impressive clothes in the film due to their decent fit and classic English style. They may lack the sophistication of Bond’s clothes in previous films, but they maintain a classic Bondian image.
Now Pay Attention
| SUIT | |
| Tailor | Paul Smith |
| Fabric | Medium-dark grey worsted flannel |
| JACKET | |
| Front buttons | Probably 2, low stance |
| Lapels | Wide notch |
| Shoulder | Soft with natural sleeve heads |
| Breast pocket | Welt |
| Hip pockets | Unknown |
| Vents | 2 |
| TROUSERS | |
| Front | Double reverse pleats |
| Support | Black belt |
| Front/side pockets | Slanted |
| Rise | High |
| Leg | Medium |
| Hem | Plain |
| SHIRT | |
| Shirtmaker | Unknown |
| Fabric | White cotton poplin |
| Collar | Semi-spread |
| Cuff | 1-button rounded |
| Front | Placket |
| TIE | |
| Brand | Unknown |
| Fabric | Navy silk twill |
| Knot | Four-in-hand |
| SHOES | |
| Shoemaker | Unknown |
| Style | Black cap-toe oxfords |
Dalton looks great here. Classic Bond.
Fair enough, it’s not the worst at all from Dalton but surely, if the producers’ aim was to go back to the style of the earlier movies, then it’s a hit and miss result. Why not a grenadine or silk knit tie rather than this nondescript thing? Yes, the suit is definitely one of the better ones we have seen Dalton wear but the coat, from my recall, was pretty unremarkable and very much a late 1980’s look.
Overall, the movie was inconsistant sartorially, a mish mash; a lower gorge on one suit and a higher one on another. Wide lapels, mid width and somewhat narrower ones. The shirts with fuller spread collars like here and ugly 1980’s short collared things with the leather car coat and the beige suit. Of course, Dalton didn’t view this aspect of the character as important. Connery had no innate feel for these things either but he had better guidance.
Dalton looks good here, as he does throughout the first half of The Living Daylights. While I generally agree with David and the clothes are unremarkable, I think it more or less fits the actor and the character, and is of a style I prefer to the some of the more colorful Moore choices and the fussy Brosnan.
Aren’t the lapels a little unusual for 1986? I don’t recall these wide lapels being in fashion at all then. They look more 1930s or 1970s to me.
I also recently saw this movie on the big screen and as mediocre as Dalton looks, he actually is much better dressed and his clothes are much better fitted than just about everyone else around him. Apparently the creative team was exhausted by 1986 (actually, I would argue that exhaustion set in with the Tarzan yell and some of the India sequences in Octopussy, marring an otherwise very good film) and did not have the time, thought, or money to pay attention to clothing.
“Aren’t the lapels a little unusual for 1986? I don’t recall these wide lapels being in fashion at all then. They look more 1930s or 1970s to me.”
Given the wider lapels, tasteful gorge height, and the natural shoulders of the suit, I’d wager that it might be just that – one of Dalton’s own personal suits – by then, 10 years old – thrown on for a quick take.
-Kurt
Because the trousers have pleats they suit most likely isn’t from the 70s. It was a little early for wide lapels, but they were back in full swing by Licence to Kill. The more traditional suits sold in America at the time had natural shoulders and a tasteful gorge height, so I wouldn’t think it’s impossible to a British or Austrian suit to do the same.
I actually prefer a ‘mediocre’ Bond; he’s a spy and a conservative and thusly requires a wardrobe of subtlety and tasteful reservation. A toned-down and arctic cool Dalton was just the ticket after the avuncular warmth of Moore.
The lapels are so wide they cover a significant part of the breast pocket. Is this normal? If so, it seems like a rather impractical piece of design.
The “normal” width for a lapel would be roughly halfway across. These lapels cover about a third of the breast pocket. Typically, the lapels of a button two jacket would cover about a quarter of the breast pocket. What do you find so impractical about this design? The breast pocket isn’t to be used for anything other than a handkerchief, so I can’t agree that the lapel covering the breast pocket is impractical.
Yes, I think you’re right. I guess I’d never really considered the matter before and had just assumed that the breast pocket ought to be fully visible, but there’s no particular reason why it should be. If anything, a bit of lapel overlap could help to keep a pocket square in place.
Mr spaiser,
since I’m in the Pacific rim I’m planning on getting this suit cut for me and taking it back to the states. I really do like this lapel width. what should i tell the tailor when constructing the lapel. Also did you get a chance to look at my pics on what type of colorings I should and shouldn’t wear?
Kind regards,
the wannabe Johnny english
These lapels are about 4 inches wide. You would look best in dark, cool colours. So grey and navy.
Is the suit center vent or douvle vented?
I do not know. Because Dalton mostly wears an overcoat over the suit, we do not see the back of the suit. I have not been able to find any still that show the back of the suit either.
In the article you referred to a publicity still in which the suit is featured.
I saw some BTS photos with Maryam D’Abo, but I think is the herringbone one.
Do you have a link to the photos you refer above?
Matt,
The official Bond franchise Instagram posted a high quality production still from this scene and it appears that Dalton was wearing wingtip brogue oxfords here instead of the captoe oxfords previously believed:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DJrGZiKJ4Ea/?igsh=MTA0eGRxcHVoY3B3OQ==
Thank you! I have seen this photo before but I didn’t notice the wingtips. I checked other photos and they confirm the shoes are full brogues.
This is the best Dalton looked in the series, to be honest.
Probably my favourite outfit of his, with some reservations. It’s a shame he never buttoned the jacket and wore the trousers too low. Has Paul Smith always done reverse pleats? They’re putting them on their women’s suits more recently.
I’d say this is my second favorite of Dalton’s outfits from his run (the gun club jacket is my favorite.)
It’s too bad we see so little of it.
I understand Tim’s wardrobe in TLD was not bespoke because he was contracted at a very late stage in the preproduction phase and came in just as the shooting began, so there was not much time to buy anything but off the rack. It would be interesting to explore weather his wardrobe was emulated from Pierce’s and if Pierce kept and privately wore bespoke suits intended for his canceled role in TLD.
According to the costume designer, Dalton didn’t want bespoke suits from Hayward and wanted his clothes off the pegs. It sounds like bespoke may still have been possible despite the late casting, at least for some of the scenes. They had two months to get the tailoring together for the earliest scenes necessary, and it could have been rushed in time. Anthony Sinclair managed it in a similar time frame for Diamonds Are Forever.
I haven’t been able to find out anything about Pierce’s clothes for The Living Daylights. If they used Hayward, I haven’t seen photos of Pierce in Hayward suits. The suits he wears in Noble House look like they could have been made for Bond, but I have no idea if they could have been the Bond costumes he was fitted for. They don’t look like English tailoring.
I believe that Tiny Nicholls was the costume supervisor for TLD and he also was the costume designer for The Fourth Protocol with Michael Caine and Pierce Brosnan from 1987. What are the chances that some of the costumes that may have been made for Brosnan in TLD wound up in that film, like the Prince of Wales suit Brosnan wears?
It couldn’t have been possible that The Fourth Protocol used Bond costumes because Brosnan signed the contract for Bond around the same time production on The Fourth Protocol began in 1986.
Ah, that makes sense. It’s interesting the similarities with some of the costumes in that film and in the Bond films. Brosnan in the Prince of Wales suit and Michael Caine in the gun club check, navy suit blue shirt and blue tie, etc. Maybe Nicholls is doing this intentionally or maybe these were just so common at the time they were sort of a default. Either way it’s interesting, as is Caine’s choice of Windsor knots.
I agree with Lee, and I think some outfits from the Fourth Protocol would be cool to review, especially Caine’s gunclub check sports jacket ! Regarding Dalton’s suit, I was never a fan of the suit lapels which do scream a bit late 70s, contrasting with the navy overcoat and some other suits, even if the whole ensemble and especially the fit looked pretty… pretty good from what we could see. Do you have a link regarding the picture of him wearing the trousers too low, Matt ?
Yes, and Pierce wore a nice light grey suit at the Albert Hall in the Fourth Protocol.
Here’s a picture on set where you can see him wearing his trousers too low.
https://retrovintagemodstyle.blogspot.com/2015/12/timothy-dalton-living-daylights.html?m=1
Thanks. Good thing they aren’t seen in the movie.
I really wonder how one can technically wear high rise trousers at a low rise ? Unless the waist is too big for the wearer, allowing for the trousers to normally sag a bit.
If the waist is even just a little too big, they can slip down. The only stay up if someone has a small enough waist compared to their hips.