Original article published 13 November 2010
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. The screenshots here are from the UHD release, but the colours have been adjusted for brightness and to look closer to real life.
Sean Connery’s James Bond is usually the perfect example of how to wear a suit, but in one scene in Goldfinger he makes a poor choice of attire. For his visit to M’s office in London, Bond questionably dons a country suit instead of a city suit. The suit is a mid brown and black houndstooth check in a fuzzy heavy woollen flannel. Brown is not a colour traditionally worn for conducting business in London, and Bond’s cover is that of a businessman working for Universal Exports. The houndstooth check is a country pattern, further pushing this suit into the realm of country attire.
Bond should have expected that M would be in a testy mood going into this meeting, and he should have worn a suit that showed respect to help him be in M’s good graces again. The dark grey flannel three-piece suit that he wears in the film’s final scene would have been a more appropriate choice considering the circumstances. The brown suit may have been chosen for the M’s office scene so Bond’s outfit matches the brown of the wood-panelled office.
Bond is wearing this brown suit for a production reason rather than a story reason. Most of the tailoring in Goldfinger came from one of Sean Connery’s previous films, Woman of Straw, and reusing the wardrobe was likely done to save money. Woman of Straw is primarily set in the English countryside, where this suit is perfect for day-to-day activities. It’s meant to be a suit for business and leisure in the country, opposed to a tweed suit that would be worn for country sports. While some men wear country suits in the city to convey a relaxed or professorial look, that has never been part of Bond’s sartorial identity. It’s the kind of suit M would wear to the office, not Bond. M wears brown suits in a number of Bond films, including a brown checked suit in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
The scene in M’s office ends with M requesting Bond join him for dinner, and he specifies it’s black tie. While it’s unlikely that Bond’s inappropriate office attire was part of the script, the way Bond is dressed for their daytime meeting may have caused M to emphasise how Bond must dress for dinner. Bond of this era would have normally dressed in black tie for dinner without the instruction, and Bond should have been familiar enough with M’s ways to know what the expected dress code would have been.
The houndstooth suit is not only made in a country cloth, it is made with country details. The suit jacket is styled just like the hacking jacket that Bond also wears in Goldfinger, with steep hacking pockets, a ticket pocket and a long single vent. The hip pockets have flaps, but the ticket pocket’s flap is worn tucked in to downplay the country detail.
Sean Connery’s regular tailor Anthony Sinclair made this suit in his typical classic British cut with soft but wide shoulders, slightly roped sleeve heads, a full chest with drape and a gently suppressed waist. 1960s-style narrow lapels gently roll down to the top of the jacket’s low two buttons. The front has slightly open lower quarters with a gentle curve at the bottom. Overall the suit has a full fit but a neat fit thanks to the heavy cloth that tailors well. In addition to the hacking jacket details, the jacket has the standard welt breast pocket and four buttons on each cuff. The buttons are dark brown and are most likely polished horn.
The suit trousers are typical for Connery’s 1960s Bond films, with double forward pleats, an extended waistband with a hook-and-eye closure, Daks-style button-tab side adjusters with three buttons and a trim straight leg with a contour. The Goldfinger suit trousers are set apart from Connery’s trousers in other films with offset jetted side pockets and plain hems.
With this suit, Bond wears his first waistcoat of the series. It is an odd (non-matching) waistcoat in oatmeal-coloured woollen flannel, possibly with a doeskin finish, which is a traditional type of wool for a country waistcoat. The waistcoat has six buttons down the front, with the bottom button on the waistcoat’s cutaway so it cannot fasten. It is detailed with four welt pockets and tan polyester buttons. Little of the waistcoat can be seen on screen because Connery keeps the jacket buttoned.
An odd waistcoat does not enhance the formality of this suit, especially when the waistcoat is made of a heavy, contrasting material. This waistcoat is intended for warmth in the countryside. As a utilitarian piece, this waistcoat may lower the formality of the outfit, whereas a matching three-piece suit may be slightly dressier. The waistcoat should have been left out of this outfit. Like the suit, Connery also wears the waistcoat in Woman of Straw, but he wears it with a brown barleycorn tweed hacking jacket—which is also reused in Goldfinger—instead of with this suit.
Bond’s shirt from Frank Foster is soft white with a faint broken grey dobby stripe and has a classic British spread collar with long points, a front placket and rounded double cuffs. He fastens his cuffs with elegant rose gold cushion-shaped cufflinks.
The dark olive silk knitted tie has a straight bottom. The country styling of this suit means the very informal knitted tie is an appropriate choice, despite it being one of Bond’s preferred ties for any outfit. A grenadine tie like what Connery wears in his other Bond films would have been better to dress up the suit for an important meeting. The tie is tied in Connery’s preferred full Windsor knot in M’s office, while it is tied in the character’s preferred four-in-hand knot in Moneypenny’s office. For the only time in the series, Bond’s white linen pocket square is folded into a point rather than a straight/TV fold. The shoes with this outfit are not visible in the film, but a film still shows him wearing a dark suede two-eyelet derby, likely the same shoe in brown suede with rubber soles that he wears with his tweed hacking jacket later in the film. Like the suit, these country shoes would not have been a correct choice for the London office.
Bond picks up his brown felt trilby off the coat stand as he leaves the office. The hat has a narrow brim that’s sharply turned up at the back, a front pinch, a centre dent and a narrow brown silk grosgrain ribbon at the base of the crown. Unlike the unlined trilby from Lock & Co. that Bond wears in the first two Bond films, this hat has an off-white lining. The maker of this hat is unknown, but there’s a decent shot of the hat’s logo in the 4K release. The lack of Lock & Co. in Goldfinger, as well as the lack of Turnbull & Asser, are likely due to the absence of the original Bond series director Terence Young, who made many of the initial style choices for James Bond on screen.
Now Pay Attention
| SUIT | |
| Tailor | Anthony Sinclair |
| Fabric | Brown-and-black houndstooth check flannel |
| JACKET | |
| Front buttons | 2, low stance, dark brown horn |
| Lapels | Narrow notch |
| Shoulder | Soft with roped sleeve heads |
| Breast pocket | Welt |
| Hip pockets | Slanted with flaps and ticket pocket |
| Vents | 1 |
| Cuff buttons | 4 |
| TROUSERS | |
| Front | Double forward pleats |
| Support | ‘DAKS Tops’ 3-button side-adjusters |
| Front/side pockets | Jetted offset side pockets |
| Rise | High |
| Leg | Narrow, contoured |
| Hem | Plain |
| SHIRT | |
| Shirtmaker | Frank Foster |
| Fabric | Soft white with a grey broken stripe |
| Collar | Spread |
| Cuff | Double |
| Front | Placket |
| TIE | |
| Brand | Unknown |
| Fabric | Olive silk knit |
| Knot | Full Windsor and four-in-hand |
| SHOES | |
| Shoemaker | Unknown |
| Style | Black demi-boot with side gores or black two-eyelet derby |
I disagree.
Bond's outfit does not look out of place on a visit to M's office.
In the "Swinging 60's", there was a thawing of the so-called "rules".
Bond's false identity is an "import/export" man (of government secrets?). He would not be bound the formal "rules" for City professionals, such as government officials, bankers, brokers, and lawyers. As a businessman he could dress with a little more flair and informality.
Incidentally, if Bond were an import/export man today, he would be wearing an open shirt and jeans.
Keep-up the good work!
I'm actually quite fond of this suit as you know from our discussions elsewhere. I though it looked quit formal, especially with the waistcoat, but I take it for London the suit should be black? What colors are acceptable for business in London? Also, I'd be interested in your comments on pocket squares and the folding there of.
Excellent site, quite enjoyable.
The waistcoat and white shirt make it look more formal but the brown and houndstooth pattern are what makes it inappropriate for London. The most traditional suit colours for London are the darker shades of blue and grey.
I agree with seitelman.
I rather like this look. On someone else. I wouldn't wear it personally. It's a bit Mr Toad from Wind in the Willows – too country gentleman and too old for a man in his thirties. I know the "no brown in town" maxim, but I assumed that that corresponded to shoes rather than suits. From the mid sixties onwards blue-grey-black colour palattes gave way to the grotesque browns and creams that would dominate the seventies and early eighties. So perhaps in that era it was hip and fashionable to wear a brown suit. There were nods in the Bond film to contemporary counter culture and pop culture, always somewhat tempered with formality or etiquette, and sometimes inference or avoidance. Take for example the reference to the Beatles (with earphones, of course-enjoy sensibly). Or the use (implied more than shown) of hats – after FRWL, Connery never wears a hat. He only carries it thereafter to throw onto the office hat stand for the famous gag. In Thunderball, he loses his hat after the meeting between all the 00's: "I'm sure I had a hat when I came in here." It is never seen again on Connery! Also, note that they dispense with the pocket square in Thunderball. I think that counterculture scruffiess (dry, unparted, long hair as opposed to slick partings; browns instead of blues etc; tweeds insead of silks; broad lapels and broader ties…) began to creep in in some measure – perhaps seen by the brown suit, which was probably considered hip. The formal touches of the shirt and waistcoat may be to temper this counter culture awryness. He's not a spiv, you know! More like Cool Britannia!
Regarding the triangular pocket square, I like how it works symmetrically with the waistcoat. Cary Grant carries off a triangular pocket square with aplomb in Hitchcock's Notorious (1946). As opposed to Connery's sharp, pointy style here (which works with the waistcoat) Grant's is soft, subtle (only peeping out) and slightly puffed. I usually wear an ironed white cotton hankerchief with my suits, with maybe less than 1cm showing, but for more casual, dressed-down occasions I opt for the Grant-esque soft triangle, which can be shaped by balancing the middle of pocket square on top of your 3 longest fingers, held upright (it should drape, forming a natural triangle shape) and then (with your other hand wrapped around in a C shape) pulling down and pinching it at the bottom to preserve the shape. Then put it in the pocket bottom first and, if need be, pull it back up by the top. It should look like the lining of your breast pocket if you do it right. Sorry for going on… you did ask!
Regarding the incongruous country-gent suit ensemble Bond wears for his drubbing in M's office, surely Bond's tie is a dark-olive knit rather than a black-knit? I think we should be told? I adore your blog by the way, really sterling stuff.
Anon, after looking at the tie again I think it is probably dark brown. On the Ultimate Edition DVD it does have an olive tint, but a lot of colours have been changed on that edition. I looked back to older prints of the film (on multiple screens) and saw that it's dark brown.
I just checked the blu-ray and to me it is clear that the tie is olive green. T&A stil sell the tie in this color also I believe.
S
Yes the tie is definitely green–somewhere between olive and army green. And looking at the 4k print, I’d describe the suit as brown-leaning grey–not a pure brown–same with the waistcoat.
Yea it does seem like it’s probably some sort of dark green. The thunderballs pic archive site also has a photograph of this outfit and it appears green there as well. It’s possible Lowry messed up the color grading during restoration, though they were working off the original negatives… they’d really have to mess that up quite badly.
Lowry actually messed up the color grading quite a bit during the restoration. Thankfully, the Connery films are coming out on 4k next month and the transfers are sourced from the original negative so some of our questions may be finally solved.
I’m really hoping the upcoming Blu-rays are not the Lowry. There’s still a chance of it being so because those were done in 4K… just in a compromised way.
S, on the blu-ray it does look olive, but on the other prints I have it looks brown. I'm more apt to go with the colours from the older versions. Colours were altered in the blu-ray versions.
Hey Matt,
After seeing GOLDFINGER tonight in a digital Blu-Ray version in a cinema, I can assure you that the knitted tie Bond wears in the M office scene in is really dark green and not brown.
C.
It looks green on the Blu-ray DVD too. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s correct. Many colours have changed a lot with the Blu-ray releases, but that doesn’t always mean colour correction. The tie is a yellow-brown, which looks green in comparison to the blue-brown suit.
I’ve always thought this look was terrific – perhaps my favourite from the series. Ironically, before I really started to understand about these things, I’d always assumed this to be a version of city morning dress, thanks to the lighter waistcoat – I don’t have a sense of whether the contemporary audience would have seen it as echoing that look or an anti-establishment rejection of it.
The green tie came as an unwelcome surprise when I got the Blu Ray, so I’m glad you think it might be a trick of the transfer.
Your website is excellent – I’ve read all of it, and have learnt tons from it, so thanks very much, and keep up the good work.
I can’t say whether by the standards of the day Bond’s ‘ensemble’ in this scene is less than appropriate for the London businessman. In my opinion though, this combination has to be one of the most beautiful and timeless suit combinations I have ever seen. The understated greys and taupes look so right. The cut of the jacket and the waistcoat flatters the excellent physique of Connery to great effect (and I think the modern short length and narrow shouldered jackets have lost the plot). Of course the look is maximally beautiful on a such a good looking chap as the young Sean Connery.
In response to David C’s comment; Sean Connery advises Jill Masterson (‘Dear Girl’) that one should never listen to the Beatles without earmuffs, which has a somewhat different connotation than never listening without earphones. In other words he is dissing the Beatles as so much noise. Either Connery was not impressed with the Beatles as being quality music or the opinion stated was not his own but rather he was just faithfully reading lines in the script written for the character of Bond. I tend to think that Connery came up with that himself.
Matt’s right. It may or may not be an attractive look, but it is absolutely not appropriate. Although, there was one time of year, I think the Summer, when brown in town was acceptable – I think the idea being you weren’t supposed to be at the office, so could nip in from the country in your tweeds. My father (who’s in his 80’s now) used to say something about brown being acceptable between Goodwood and some other social season event, can’t remember which.
The swinging sixties did not affect business attire (unless you were in show-business or fashion) – and anyway, Bond here is wearing a classic, traditional outfit (imho) – it’s just that it’s one for the country.
IMHO this suit is nothing that Bond should be ashamed of. The light vest under a dark suit was right on-trend for the era, often seen on propertied gents and professional men. As for “no brown in town”. It was thought vulgar to flaunt the fact that one had a country estate, or an open invitation to stay at one. Surely the rule could be stretched if a chap had to rush into town to deal with a crisis. Here Bond is reporting on a woman murdered by his target, so a stumble like this is excusable. It’s true that brown shoes don’t take a shine well, especially under artificial light, but Bond is wearing (very ugly) black shoes. In Australia, the rule is “no brown shoes after dark”. In the final analysis, if posing as the country squire helps Bond in the deceptions required of a field agent, we can call it a training exercise.
Appropriate for his UnivEx cover or not, it’s one of Connery’s very best ensembles, certainly in the top ten, if not top five. Any man who wore this gem today would be the best dressed man in any room.
Matt could the jacket of this suit work as a sports jacket?
Has anyone else taken a look at the new 4k? In the new screenshots, Bond’s tie appears to be olive and the suit looks charcoal with a slight brown tinge.
I haven’t had a look yet, but I plan to soon.
https://filmcolors.org/filter/?_sf_s=goldfinger#/image/20438
This probably doesn’t help, but its a scan from a Technicolor strip of Goldfinger.
Brilliant article with refresh and expansion! I have enjoyed reading about the contexts and background for M’s line, emphasising how Bond must dress for dinner.
Nice timeless ensemble, but surely I still don’t think it’s for office business attire today.
In 60s 007 movies there are appearances of M himself dressed in brown at the office! Furthermore, you can find even other characters in brown suit at M’s. I am surprised it was not noticed before. This closes the discussion
I’m gonna say something that’s probably pretty unpopular here but I think Connery’s Windsor knots look far better than his four in hand knots.
Not an unreasonable contention – and it only strengthens my suspicion that this suit is an excellent ‘Connery’ look that mostly ignores 007 (Not unreasonable, given this was a costume designed for an entirely different character).
While the cinematic Bond is a sharp-dressed man , it’s nice to see little details from Fleming like the four-in-hand knot preserved whether or not they make the actor look his Best for the very reason that this illustrates Bond’s fundamental attitude to style: he likes to dress in the Best, but what he really loves is to stick to his guns and let Fashion be ****ed.
Put another way, Bond doesn’t wear the four/m-in-hand knot because he thinks it’s stylish, he wears it because the Windsor is a knot unfit to be worn by a trustworthy servant of The Crown!
It’s exactly this sort of purely subjective prejudice (like the literary Bond’s utter and utterly hilarious contempt for tea) that help make 007 a character unto himself and not just an Icon, like all the best humanising details.
Call the four in hand knot a shibboleth if you like – a way of quietly letting fans of the Fleming Bond know that while the films are going in their own direction, they’re not going to forget where they come from, just do things a little differently by informed, deliberate decision and not mere carelessness.
Also, confusion to the Duke of Windsor: quoting the family business doesn’t give you license to go off the reservation, especially where the Nazis are concerned!
I love the four in hand knot, I just think Connery’s are too small and accentuate his large head.
The Duke of Windsor has nothing to do with the Windsor knot itself.
My take is that this is an excellent Sean Connery suit that doesn’t quite fit Bond, James Bond – the very last person one would associate with the ‘Country Squire’ look.
It amuses me at least little bit to wonder if Oddjob made off with Bond’s favourite suits when he knocked 007 unconscious and murdered poor Jill Masterson, leaving Bond to get by with what May had available at home.
…
Why YES, May absolutely exists in the cinematic Bond continuity, we just haven’t seen her yet!
Ahah. Not sure it would be worth it, Oddjob being much bigger and shorter than Connery (maybe he wanted to keep it and sell it on Ebay later though).
My mental image is that he would have burned it, as another “You cannot protect your own” gesture, but it’s amusing to imagine Oddjob auctioning Bond’s clothing off to his fellow henchmen.
I think the ‘correctness’ of this outfit overlooks an important point of Bond, especially as incarnated by Connery: the non-conformism. Let’s not forget Fleming’s literary character would have come into that briefing with a short-sleeved dress shirt, knitted black tie, and black moccasins, none of which would constitute conventional City of London attire. To that timeless spirit, Connery is also adding an indelible element of the ‘Angry Young Man’, the classless Brit coming up in the world in such plays/films as “Look Back in Anger” and “Room at the Top”. New looks, breaking the rules, that youth, require that he dress with his own distinctive style. Even the trilby establishes Bond as a more youthful, down-to-earth man than, say, the bowler that a Niven-portrayed 007 might have adopted in a 1950s Bond film. Such quirks also make Bond a full developed character. Knowing the ‘right’ way to dress is one thing, but confidently adopting your own style and taste regardless of protocol, and getting away with it with aplomb, is surely an important aspect of Bond Style as well.
The way this outfit breaks the rules is much different from all the examples you mention. This outfit is a very traditional country outfit, and something that a man who is a generation older than Bond would wear in the country. It doesn’t make an appropriate statement about Bond in breaking the rules. It either says, ‘Bond rushed into town from his country estate’ or ‘Bond likes to dress up as if he owns a country estate.’ Neither of these statements are true. Until this suit, Bond of the films is established as someone who follows conventional British dress but with minimalism and a slightly youthful edge. This outfit has none of what was established as Bond’s look previously, and nothing Bond wears later is similar. It’s nothing more than a case of Bond borrowing Anthony Richmond’s wardrobe, and this is where the character’s wardrobes don’t appropriately overlap. The next time Bond wears a comparable suit is as his Hilary Bray disguise, and Roger Moore wears Bond’s only comparable suit in Moonraker, while hunting in the country. Bond’s brown mohair suit for the office in Thunderball is one that breaks from the conventional rules while making a statement appropriate for the character.
Or put another way, Bond is very much a ‘town’ rather than a ‘country’ (and very possibly due to his disdain for blood sports that would have been the practically inevitable companion to a significant span of time spent at any country home in Great Britain – a very reasonable extension of his literary counterpart’s distaste for cold blooded murder).
Have to agree that this outfit is not in the same mold of rule breaking as literary Bond. The biggest culprit in my mind is the waistcoat, why would they choose to include it as it is certainly optional, regardless of the costume reuse.
My only thought is that it emphasizes Bond messed up in Miami. He’s not dressed correctly so the audience gets the impression he is on the back-foot, maybe? Your point about M instructing black tie for dinner would be part of this too and Given the Guy Hamilton came up with the idea that Q was annoyed with Bond for treating his gadgets poorly, I could maybe see this being a directorial decision. But I question if this is the case; I feel I am looking into this in a way that a lot of people do with a Kubrick film.
Not even David Niven could convince me that any Bind, James Bond (Verily not even a 1950s James Bond) would wear a bowler hat as anything but a temporary disguise.
Bond has more game than the African wilderness, but it’s simply not his style (Any more than swaggering around in a powder blue romper suit would be John Steeds!).
Dagnabit, why must autocorrect insist on making ‘Bond’ into ‘Bind’ at unpredictable intervals?!?
Do you archive the old versions anywhere? Usually, when you post one of those rewrites, it’s been a while since I read the original version, and I never remember how it was before; I’d love to compare the versions.
I am able to view older versions, but I don’t publish the older versions because I don’t believe they offer any value in addition to the new versions. Generally, these updated posts are two to three times as long as the original.
Even though this suit may be inappropriate for M’s office, I must admit it has always been one of my favorite Connery-Bond suits; the brown houndstooth fabric has such a pleasing color. Great eye concerning the different tie knots Matt! I never noticed it before, but now I can’t unsee it.
It’s clear when Connery ties his own knots in movies! Some people may assume every bit of dressing is done by costuming assistants, etc. but based on my experience on set and what I’ve heard from a costume designer, it differs from one set to another, one scene to another.
With the first two Bond movies being successful, they clearly had a bigger budget for Goldfinger, and they probably decided to reuse most of the Woman of Straw wardrobe to save money on costumes and use it for set design. It’s a very understandable choice. We wouldn’t have had such Bondian classics as the barleycorn tweed jacket, the glen check 3-piece, or the ivory dinner jacket without Woman of straw. However, this particular outfit, even if it still has country marked all over it, would have had a more Connery Bond look had they simply forgotten the contrasting waitscoat (and also use the regular tv fold Connery’s Bond used to wear for his first three movies instead of that point). It’s quite strange since they successfully added or removed waistcoats for other outfits shared by the two movies. Anyway, you can’t deny Connery is dressed for the setting here !
I suspect, like with Daniel Craig’s suits, that they may have sewn in the pocket square to keep it neat. It’s exactly the same point fold as in Woman of Straw.
Good point, the dimensions are indeed too similar…
It’s the wrong choice for the city, but boy does this ensemble look beautiful against the wood MI6 sets.