In The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond infiltrates Hai-Fat’s estate posing as Scaramanga, wearing an outfit of all cream. Scaramanga was known for dressing in white, and Bond follows similarly in an outfit of a cream shirt and cream trousers. The shirt is made from silk crepe de chine with a double-layer front so it’s not so sheer and so it doesn’t give away Bond’s “superfluous papilla” before he removes his shirt. It has five buttons down the front, and the hem is straight and short with button tabs on the sides to cinch the waist. The shirt is cut rather straight but the back is darted for a neater fit on Moore’s body. The sleeves have turned-up cuffs with an extended button tab to secure the cuff.
The shirt’s large collar is a very unique one, with a construction similar to a camp collar though it looks more like a regular collar. It stands up in front like a typical point collar but doesn’t have a separate collar band; it just folds over. There is no collar band. Since the shirt doesn’t tuck, there’s no awkwardness of untucking and tucking.
The maker of the shirt is likely either Roger Moore’s usual shirtmaker Frank Foster or Jimmy Chen, who made Roger Moore’s sage green safari camp shirt that he wears later in the film.
The cream linen trousers made by Cyril Castle have a darted front, a slightly flared leg and no side pockets but two button-through rear pockets. The cut is slightly fuller than most of Moore’s other trousers in the film so they wear cooler and wrinkle less. Moore wears cream socks to match his trousers, a brown exotic skin belt and dark brown Gucci horse-bit slip-ons.
Always liked this look, but never noticed just how huge the collar was!
Moore wore similar shirts in the black and white “Saint” series only with a kind of rounded camp collar as I recall (you probably have the correct definition for this collar style). Overall, I prefer the safari shirt he wears later in the film, to be honest, and his short sleeve shirts from “For Your Eyes Only”, to this. The collar here is more high fashion than the others on his shirts in this movie and would have worked better with one in the same, restrained, style as the others from MWTGG. On this occasion, the loafers are a little jarring. Tan suede ones (like he wears in Cairo in “The Spy Who Loved Me”) or espadrilles would have made for a better look in my opinion.
“Tan suede ones (like he wears in Cairo in “The Spy Who Loved Me”) or espadrilles would have made for a better look in my opinion.” – I agree; I myself am partial to suede desert boots.
Matt i have a question, which brand, designer or tailor was the first one to introduce those “rings” (i dont know how to say it properly) in the male slip-ons instep part? it was ferragamo or it was gucci?
Slip-ons like the ferragamo parigi are popular here in my country among guys, everybody wants to have slip-ons with “rings” but many make the mistake to think that all shoes with “rings” are ferragamo…
The decoration is called a horse bit. Gucci is most famous for the style and is said to have invented it. The shoes Moore is wearing look most like Gucci, and he had other Gucci products in the film, such as a belt and a suitcase. He switched over to Ferragamo in The Spy Who Loved Me.
I actually like this. Again, like my comments to Connery’s You Only Live Twice brown linen, I would prefer different colored pants. But I think it looks good, looks proper for the time and place, and fits Roger Moore and his age and character well.
The shoes are awful. Some boots or something else, just about anything else, would be better.
This suits Moore really well, particularly given his complexion. I was just amazed, seeing him turf through the bushes in it, that he didn’t have any grass stains when he got over the wall!
I’m quite fond of this outfit and wear similar clothes in the summer, but I’ve never gotten the appeal of horsebit loafers or anything tasseled.
Do you like Hip’s casual style or Bond’s casual?
A great post Matt! It is very interesting what one learns when looking closer into the clothes like you do. The details such as the buttons on the bottom sides of the shirt is what makes this so interesting and unique as a usual for James Bond! Matt just out of curiosity, do you like this outfit or the green safari camp shirt worn latter?