Original article published 13 January 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. Screenshots here are from the UHD release, but the colours have been adjusted for brightness and to look closer to real life.
In Diamonds Are Forever, the grey woollen flannel suit, the staple suit of the 1960s Sean Connery Bond wardrobe, returns to be James Bond’s first suit of the 1970s. Woollen flannel is a classic English cloth made of carded wool and has a fuzzy nap for insulation in cold weather. It’s typically made in a medium to heavy weight between 11 and 18 oz, traditionally in the heavier half of that range. This suit is likely in the middle of the weight range. Flannel’s properties and benefits are amplified in heavier weights, and it doesn’t gain anything from being made in a lighter weight. Despite the heavy weight, it’s not as durable as worsted wool, and while it has a great malleability to be shaped by a tailor’s iron, it also doesn’t hold its shape as long as worsted wool. Woollen flannel is a versatile suiting—it is just as appropriate in the office as it is in the country, even in city colours like grey and blue. The flannel suit has a relaxed but sophisticated look compared to a worsted suit.
Though the grey flannel suit was once the uniform of the average, anonymous office worker, Bond’s suit is far from dull and cookie-cutter. His suit is a mid grey melange of undyed fibres in various shades of grey, and possibly black and white fibres too. The melange of colours gives the suit a richness and depth that no other type of grey suit achieves. All of Connery’s other grey flannel suits are darker than this one and lack the mixture of shades present in this suit. This grey flannel cloth is equally appropriate and equally stylish for both suits and separate trousers.
The suit is tailored by Anthony Sinclair and cut in the same style as the rest of the suits in the film, with soft shoulders and gently roped sleeve heads, a full but clean chest, and a nipped waist. The fit isn’t as good as some of Connery’s other suits, probably because Connery may have gained weight after the final fitting. This may account for the suit jackets in Diamonds Are Forever being trimmer than they are in Connery’s earlier films, but fashions had also moved toward trimmer cuts since the early 1960s.
This suit jacket has two buttons on the front in a low stance, which is flattering to Connery’s heavier figure, though the coat pulls at the fastened button. The jacket’s details are updated for the 1970s, including wide notched lapels about 10 cm wide, deep double vents, hacking pockets with wide flaps, and a ticket pocket. Hacking pockets were traditionally saved for country suits and jackets, which is how Anthony Sinclair used them in the 1960s, but they became fashionable for all suits in the late 1960s and are still synonymous with English tailoring today. Though the wide lapels date this suit, the wide pocket flaps are a more serious offender in this area. The jacket’s buttons are grey polyester, and there are four buttons on each cuff. The jacket has a claret-coloured lining, a fashionable touch for the 1970s, and it can be peeked through the vents.
The suit trousers have a darted front and a trim, contoured leg without any taper below the knee. Bond had yet to adopt the trendy wide-leg or flared-leg styles of the decade, which dates Roger Moore’s suits from his 1970s Bond films. The trousers have an extended waistband with a hook-and-bar closure and Daks-style side adjusters with three buttons on each side that fasten to elasticised tabs. The trousers have a plain hem that is angled back to sit neatly over the shoes.
Bond’s cream cotton poplin shirt is from Turnbull & Asser, and the style is almost the same as Connery’s shirts from the 1960s. For the 1970s, the spread collar is made higher and has longer points of about 8 cm and 1 cm of tie space. The same two-button rounded cocktail cuffs from Connery’s previous films have returned, and Connery wears only the first button fastened and rolls the cuff back over the second button. The simple shape of these cuffs, without a defined place for them to fold, allows them to be rolled back elegantly. The shirt has a front placket and rear darts.
The tie is an amethyst-coloured silk grenadine from Turnbull & Asser, a delicate mid-purple-grey colour no longer offered by any of the silk grenadine mills. This is the only time Bond wears a tie in this colour, and it subtly adds interest by breaking from Bond’s usual black and navy ties without drawing attention to itself. The tie is tied in a Windsor knot, Connery’s personally preferred knot. It’s wide to match the lapels, at around 10 to 11 cm.
The shoes are bespoke black three-eyelet derby wingtip brogues from John Lobb St. James’s, which he wears with most of his suits in the film. John Lobb call this a ‘V-front’ style, after the shape the quarters form over the vamp. Unlike typical chunky brogues and derbies, this is an elegant shoe on a trim last and single leather sole—an appropriate shoe for a suit. The brogue style makes this shoe particularly stylish with a flannel suit.
Now Pay Attention
| SUIT | |
| Tailor | Anthony Sinclair |
| Fabric | Mid grey woollen flannel |
| JACKET | |
| Front buttons | 2, low stance |
| Lapels | Wide notch |
| Shoulder | Soft with roped sleeve heads |
| Breast pocket | Welt |
| Hip pockets | Slanted with flaps and ticket pocket |
| Vents | 2 |
| Cuff buttons | 4 |
| TROUSERS | |
| Front | Darted |
| Support | ‘DAKS Tops’ 3-button side-adjusters |
| Front/side pockets | On-seam side pockets |
| Rise | High |
| Leg | Narrow, contoured |
| Hem | Plain |
| SHIRT | |
| Shirtmaker | Turnbull & Asser |
| Fabric | Cream cotton poplin |
| Collar | Spread |
| Cuff | 2-button cocktail |
| Front | Placket |
| TIE | |
| Brand | Turnbull & Asser |
| Fabric | Amethyst grenadine |
| Knot | Windsor |
| SHOES | |
| Shoemaker | John Lobb St. James’s |
| Style | Black 3-eyelet derby brogue |
Apart from the jacket pulling on account of Connery’s girth in the movie (I agree with previous comments to the effect that he looked far better in Never Say Never Again and I do think that his suits also seemed to pull a bit in You Only Live Twice) I like this outfit. I also find the tie attractive. It’s an unusual colour and a change from Connery’s black and navy staples (but not such a departure as the dreaded pink one later in the movie!). The shirt looks white in the first two photos but more a cream/ecru colour in the lower one. Also, are the jackets of Tom Ford’s current suits not cut in a style reminiscent of this, especially the pocket flaps you mention?
As you say, Matt, the lower button stance enhances what is an imperfect situation. So many heavy set people nowadays wear high button suits and they look like Humpty Dumpty!
I agree, the wider lapels and flaps are very Tom Ford. I quite like it.
Great post, Matt, as always. I would be very interested to get my hands on a smilar tie. The amethyst colour is very appealing indeed. I wonder is Sam Hober could elaborate such a tie.
On another topic, I was wondering if you could analyze the suit Roger Moore wears in the pre-opening of Octopussy, where the tweed jacket converts into a military jacket. That is quite a benchmark in sartorial prowess, I imagine.
Happy New Year and thanks again for your great work
Stan
Not bad, definitely one of the best suits in Diamonds, but this isn’t the pinnacle of Connery or Sinclair either. I do like it, but it’s just not my favourite. The fit is what bothers me about it. I don’t really like Diamonds Are Forever as a film, but it’s hard to say anything too harsh about a grey flannel suit!
Despite the 70’s style and the fit of the suit jacket, it’s quite ok. If I had to choose one suit from the movie, it would be the grey one from the scenes in Amsterdam and Las Vegas. Add a pocket square and it would have been fine.
Did Connery use a pocket square at all in this film? If I remember correctly he didn’t. The folded white linen pocket square always looked good for the pefect finishing touch.
But most importantly, Connery’s performance as Bond in Diamonds Are Forever was great regardless his age and weight.
The suit in Amsterdam is a glen plaid, whilst the suit in Las Vegas is solid grey. There’s a good variety of tailored clothing in Diamonds Are Forever.
Yes, he was definitely in better shape in NSNA. You’ll especially notice his face is a little wider here despite being a decade previous to that film.
It would seem, left to his own devices, Connery prefers the Windsor knot. It’s seen in Dr. No, this film, and the aforementioned NSNA. I think I’ve seen him use it in a few other films where his character wears suits, but correct me if I’m wrong. While not a terrible choice on his physique (and far from the monsters worn by modern Wall Street yuppies or football players), I feel a half-Windsor or Prince Albert would have looked much better and more Bond-like.
I’m also looking forward to Matt covering the Octopussy sports coat/military jacket.
Incidentally, Moore did something similar a decade earlier in Live and Let Die when a dark colour coat (with safari style features) which he had been wearing whilst handgliding is turned inside out to reveal, hey presto, the jacket of a beige suit.
He looks like a millionaire:) Despite the added weight, I thought he looked better here than the PREVIOUS “You Only Live Twice”. I think the taller hair balanced his rounder face…he still looked solidly built. He turned in a fairly energetic performance, and despite black Tuxedo scene aside I don’t really notice his weight gain…for as much has been written about it.
The amethyst color, is it similar to a dark lavender ?
Yes
For some reason I decided to take another look at this post – I love the suit, wide pocket flaps and all, but I especially love the humor and self-confidence that Connery exudes in these stills. A far cry from Craig’s tight-jawed angst!
Matt, would you say this is a similar tie ?
https://www.samhober.com/neckties/grenadine-ties/grenadine-grossa/grenadine-grossa-solid-silk-ties/lavender-grenadine-grossa-silk-tie-32.html
No, it’s not that similar. I have the swatch in person, and the colour is too vibrant.
Slight fit issue with the jacket aside which is quite minor, I love this suit and nice choice of tie too, an unusual but welcome choice for Connery’s bond.
Any idea where to find a similar tie, Matt ? T&A or Sam Hober unfortunately don’t seem to offer something similar…
T&A and Sam Hober both only offer standard colours from the grenadine weavers. It was probably a standard colour in 1971, but it has not been available for a long time. I’ve never seen it available from anyone who sells grenadine ties.
Do you think the amethyst tie would’ve been a good choice for the Ecru suit he wears later in the film?
It might work, but the colour may be too muted.
All in favor for a revival of such tie color ? Maybe we could get Sam Hober to offer thus color again ?
Sam Hober makes ties in the colours that are available, and this one isn’t.
But that’s my point exactly. If there are enough customers interested in this color, maybe Sam Hober could convince the people in Italy weaving the grenadine silk to make it available again in such color. Although apparently my comment didn’t really cause a global enthusiasm, ahah.
I’d be with you Le Chiffre, I’d love this colour to become available again if someone could convince the weavers. If they ship to the UK, they’ve sold two lol
I have always admired the colour of this tie-put me down for one as well!
I hear you Le Chiffre, this color would be an instant purchase for me if they ever offered a grenadine in that color.
I’ve never been an enormous fan of the very cream shirts worn with this outfit and with Roger Moore’s comparable flannel outfit with the grey grenadine tie in For Your Eyes Only. I’m usually all for mixing warm and cool tones but there’s something about this look that really doesn’t work for me. Shame, because I love all the aspects individually, just not together.
Agreed. A white shirt would have looked better with his gray suits, especially the mid-to-light gray ones he wears for most of this movie.
Such a lovely suit. But what do we think of M wearing “brown in town”? Surely he more than Bond would observe the convention that brown is only for country wear? Is this a mistake on the part of the producers, or am I missing something?
Bernard Lee’s M usually dressed like that. Matt has said in other posts that “no brown in town” only really applied to the City of London, and MI6’s office is in Westminster. Plus, Connery’s Bond wore brown suits to the office in both “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball.”
It’s probably been said before – possibly by me – but Jaysus what sort of lifestyle was Connery leading that aged him so rapidly from Thunderball a mere six years previously? He looks absolutely slaughtered here especially in the head and shoulders shots.
Like someone said above he looked much better 12 years later in NSNA. Maybe he realised the rot had set in and got himself a trainer and / or dietician at some point?
Yes I was thinking that. He has aged massively in the years since YOLT. Funny now that I am 54, he is now younger than me when he made NSNA, despite the endless gags about him being over the hill.
… and keep in mind Rog was three years older than Sean and took over the role in LALD at age 46. Sean retired (again) after he’d made DAF at age 41!
I’m not bashing, but here’s the reality.
That’s what happens when you’re a body builder and you dropped out halfway through. That’s what happens with unchecked diets and stress – which leads to stress eating. That’s what happens when you’re in constant state of being upset, and have nowhere to turn to – at least for some people, but it could go sideways.
As a body builder, you eat massive, *massive*, amounts of proteins, if not drinking it, too. Those create a metabolism routine that, if built over the years, and left unchecked, once you stop doing lifting, will lead you there. You’ll be hungry, have large meals/overeat, and the weight gains without you knowing it. Then, it just happens almost overnight.
Unchecked diets, when combined with stress, cause stress eating. It goes for whatever is available to munch on, including very unhealthy snacks. A prolonged habit will lead to consequences that, I think you’ve seen as much as I did. Noteworthily, you’ll also stress drinking, and Sir Sean prefers beers, which will contribute even worse.
Remember, he was also really upset and stressed. He’s upset that people only see him as “James Bond”, and not as Sean Connery. That upsetting fact sets him up for tremendous stress. Both of which, sets him up to letting himself loose, and with no one to keep anything in check, he’ll just keep going. His first wife cannot stop or talk to him about those things due to his temper, which worsen the problem. He has nowhere and no one to healthily vent, and the public is full of dumb people. Nobody else also knows how to coach him how to respond, and/or rather coach him to respond in ways that he absolutely hated, and so, it compounded.
I go through somewhat similar things to him. I understand. But, I’m not a body builder, so when I’m upset, I simply don’t eat, especially because I’d yakked everything out, and also because my meal has to be my happy time.
Intricate, but not complex.
Funnily enough, Connery later revealed that his fight trainer on NSNA was a then-obscure Steven Seagal, and that he’d deliberately broke his wrist when Connery turned out to be better at doing fight scenes than he was. (I can believe it.)
Rod, Connery looked somewhat better in Zardoz! (Kill James Bond has a rather humorous review of this movie which, despite some aspects that haven’t dated well, they actually liked.)
I always felt the mankini from Borat was inspired by Zardoz.
But more seriously, Connery looks great in A Bridge Too Far as well as in The Last Crusade, though he embraces the reality that he’s not a young man in the latter. Perhaps that’s the key, being comfortable in one’s age.
Connery already looked better in “Murder on the Orient Express,” which was released just three years after DAF. Maybe he was feeling less stressed after having put Bond behind him again, or maybe the prospect of working with Sidney Lumet inspired him to start taking better care of himself.
He certainly looks like he’s been enjoying life to put it mildly.
It’s interesting to note Broccoli and Saltzman told Roger to lose weight before LALD began filming. I think we can safely assume they wouldn’t have dared tell Sean that by this stage!
Similarly, DAF is the first time since Dr No the Connery eyebrows are untrimmed. With the grey hair coming through in addition he suddenly looks at least fifty1
Travers, I don’t think that comment is particularly appropriate on a style and clothing website-best to stick to the topic at hand!
What is a contoured leg? I thought Connery’s trousers were almost always tapered?
English bespoke tailors often contour the trouser shape to the leg for neatness and comfort. This leg has little taper, but it’s not straight either because of the contour.
Is it like a Guard’s Cut, or Guard’s Hem, I can’t remember what it;’s actually called?
The guardsman slant is something just the method of slanting the trouser hem over the shoe, and that can be applied to any trouser cut.
Another observation – this one addressing this particular scene rather than Bond’s threads. We know that after quite a violent start – “That’s a Smith and Wesson – and you’ve had your six” the films moved further towards comedy as the series progressed but when we get to this exchange, which was presumably an attempt at humour:
“51 I’d say”
“There is no year for sherry Bond”
“I was referring to the original vintage from which it was made – 1851”
Bond doesn’t come off as amusing he comes off as an objectionable know-it-all, upstaging his boss in front of a colleague. I suppose they are trying to present Bond (a violent ex military mid level civil servant) as at home in the elite world of liquor connoisseurs, but t’s not a good look and asks a lot of the audience that we’re expected to believe he could be so expert in sherry as to make such a precise statement.
In a way it’s a reworking of a similar scene in Goldfinger where Bond and M are meeting with a gold expert rather than a diamond expert and the subject is not sherry but the ”rather ordinary brandy”. Bond once again feels the need to prove his booze bona fides and upstages M with his knowledge. It’s no wonder M can at times get testy with his minion.
one stated the year and when M testing said that
Bond is like that with M quite a bit in this era. The butterfly comment in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service brought back that element from Goldfinger, and then after this film it’s continued with Roger throughout the 1970s. I think it peaks in The Man with the Golden Gun.
Yes that’s another good example Matt from OHMSS – “I didn’t know your experience extended to lepidoptery”. I preferred his more realistic and deferential exchange with M in Dr No when asked about ‘toppling’ – he didn’t come back with a smart arse response he gave a somewhat vague best attempt answer and M was fine with that!
The suit is not a trainwreck, considering its era but it does show how from the late 60s to today, even high end bespoke tailors have lost the ability to stylishly drape even moderately overweight men. Someone of Connery’s build from the 20s through the mid-60s would have been so much more flattered/protected in even a decent off the rack suit.
The problem is that he gained weight after being fitted for the suit. If the suit fit him better (which is not at all Sinclair’s fault), then it would drape better.