Original article published 27 September 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.
James Bond wears his obligatory dinner suit in Die Another Day for a reception at Gustav Graves’ Ice Palace. Though this is Bond’s chilliest black tie occasion of the series, his outfit lacks any stylistic choices to reflect Iceland’s climate. Nevertheless, costume designer Lindy Hemming dressed Pierce Brosnan in a very stylish outfit, with some unique touches for both her and Brosnan’s fourth film in the Bond series.
The Brioni dinner suit is made of medium-weight midnight blue wool, likely in a barathea weave. A traditional heavy-weight English wool barathea would have been a better choice for the wintry setting, but it would have looked a little old-fashioned for Brosnan’s Bond. A velvet dinner jacket could have been a good choice, but a little unusual for Bond. The lapels and covered buttons are trimmed with black silk grosgrain, which creates a slight contrast with the suit’s midnight blue cloth. Compared with the typical shiny silk satin facings, silk grosgrain and other types of corded silks have a matte sheen, and many traditionalists find them a more elegant alternative. They also require the suiting to have a flatter finish rather than a shinier finish like mohair or high-super wools, so there’s enough contrast between the facings and the body.
The dinner jacket is very similar to all of Pierce Brosnan’s dinner jackets in the Bond films, in a highly traditional peaked-lapel style with one button on the front, jetted pockets, four buttons on each cuff and no vent at the rear. This dinner jacket is unusually cut for Brioni with some drape in the chest, helping to build up Brosnan’s lack of a chest and balance his lack of a waist. The fit isn’t entirely perfect—not one of the suits in this film has a perfect fit due to Brosnan’s fluctuating weight—but it’s one of the more flattering outfits in the film. The shoulders are straight with a slight roping at the sleeve heads, consistent with Brioni’s cuts for Bond. The lapels are fairly wide at around 10 cm to make a strong impression.
The most notable difference in the cut between this dinner jacket and Brosnan’s previous three is that this dinner jacket has a much higher button stance, which was particularly trendy at the time in London fashions. It downplays his chest and makes Brosnan look more bottom-heavy, which he also was at this time.
The dinner suit trousers have a darted front, a pointed and extended waistband with a button closure, and a medium-width tapered leg for a classic silhouette. The trousers have no form of support and rely on being fitted at the waist.
In a rare error for Brosnan’s Bond, at times, a small triangle of white shirt shows below the jacket’s button and above the trouser waistband. Brosnan follows the classic Bond tradition and does not wear a waistcoat or a cummerbund with this dinner suit, but neither would solve the true problem. The trousers have a high rise, so the rise isn’t the issue either. The jacket’s high button stance is the primary cause. The trousers also contribute to the problem because they sag, having no adjusters or braces to keep them up. Braces would have helped, but the jacket’s front button ideally needs to be 2 to 3 cm lower.
Even though Brioni made the most of the shirts for this film, the white dress shirt (Tuxedo shirt) is from Bond’s classic shirtmaker Turnbull & Asser. Turnbull & Asser have a record of making this shirt, and there are visual markers that this is a Turnbull & Asser shirt. The collar shape is Turnbull & Asser’s signature ‘Classic Collar’, a semi-spread collar that uniquely curves into the point along the collar’s outer edge, where it sits on the collarbone. The collar has points of 7.3 cm long and is stitched 6 mm from the edge.
The front of the shirt has a covered placket to hide the buttons and a bib of 14 narrow 6-mm pleats on each side. The shirt’s body, sleeves and pleated bib are made of lightweight cotton voile, but the collar, cuffs and centre placket are made of cotton marcella. This creates an unusually creative type of dress shirt, since a shirt with a pleated front is usually all made of the same cloth, and a shirt with a marcella collar and cuffs usually has a flat marcella bib on the front. The shirt’s cotton voile body makes this a poor choice for the cold weather in Iceland, so when combined with the medium-weight dinner suit, this outfit is for springtime weather. A heavy silk shirt would have been a much better choice for cold-weather black tie, but like a heavier jacket, a heavy silk shirt would also look old-fashioned.
Turnbull & Asser offer a ready-to-wear shirt inspired by Brosnan’s dress shirt, made entirely of white cotton voile with identically recreated 14 narrow pleats on each side and the same classic collar shape. It lacks the special fly front and marcella trimming that set the Die Another Day dress shirt apart as one of the most unusual and spectacular dress shirts of the Bond series.
The butterfly-shaped bow tie is made of black crosswise-ribbed silk grosgrain that matches the dinner jacket’s facings. The shape does not match Turnbull & Asser’s standard shape, so it’s likely from a different maker. It has less taper in the knot area, which creates a rather fat knot. The round gold cufflinks are from S.T. Dupont, which has an inlaid dark grey metal ring and a pointed gold centre. See more about the cufflinks at Bond Lifestyle.
Bond’s five-eyelet cap-toe derby shoes are a significant break from black tie tradition. The shoes are the Church’s Cartmel, identified by BondClothing at AJB007. These shoes have a slightly squared toe on their classic 73 last. The five-eyelet derby has a very utilitarian and military-like appearance compared with a more traditional shoe for black tie, like a plain-toe oxford or a two-eyelet or three-eyelet derby, or a modern black tie shoe like a plain wholecut oxford. While the shoes are hardly seen on screen, the Bond films should have higher standards in this area for the 21st century.
Bond boasts his strength and manliness by not wearing an overcoat outside, as everyone else does, and he does not need sunglasses for the Icarus weapon demonstration either. If he weren’t Bond, he would just look unprepared. It would have been an excellent opportunity for Bond to wear the velvet-collared Chesterfield coat he later wears in Korea.
Now Pay Attention
| SUIT | |
| Tailor | Brioni |
| Fabric | Midnight blue wool |
| JACKET | |
| Front buttons | 1, high stance, black silk grosgrain covered |
| Lapels | Medium-wide peak, trimmed in black silk grosgrain |
| Shoulder | Straight and padded with slightly roped sleeve heads |
| Breast pocket | Welt |
| Hip pockets | Straight, jetted |
| Vents | 0 |
| Cuff buttons | 4 |
| TROUSERS | |
| Front | Darted |
| Support | None |
| Front/side pockets | Unknown |
| Rise | High |
| Leg | Tapered |
| Hem | Plain |
| Trimming | Black silk grosgrain side braid |
| SHIRT | |
| Shirtmaker | Turnbull & Asser |
| Fabric | White cotton voile with cotton marcella trimming |
| Collar | Semi-spread |
| Cuff | Square double |
| Front | Marcella fly front with narrow voile pleats |
| BOW TIE | |
| Brand | Unknown |
| Fabric | Black silk grosgrain |
| Shape | Medium-wide thistle |
| SHOES | |
| Shoemaker | Church’s |
| Style | Black Five-Eyelet Cap-Toe Derby |
Nothing but class….
Why wouldn’t you wear a cummerbund with this outfit?
A black tie outfit should always include a waistcoat or cummerbund, but foregoing those elements is something that Bond often does.
The cummerbund has gone the way of the top hat and the opera cape. It is something that British officers copied from Indian gentlemen that used to wear a piece of cloth around their waists on formal occasions. Im glad is dead. The cummerbund looks bad especially on men with a belly.
Personally I prefer black tie without the cummerbund. As long as you have a correct rise and suspenders I am satisfied. Of course a waistcoat is a better alternative but perhaps a bit formal for Bond in this situation. Besides, cummerbunds tend to look sloppy on gentlemen with a slight belly (sorry Pierce).
It should come as no surprise that I really like this. Die Another Day is an utterly ridiculous movie, and yet it is aesthetically speaking a very good-looking one. Lots of classic Bond glamour elements– the cars (when we can actually see them!), the clothes, the leading ladies, the locations, and the fencing scene. It’s a shame that the plot is ludicrous and the stunts all look phony. It’s my generation’s Moonraker, beautiful looking and glamourously over the top!
A personal favorite. I usually prefer black for dinner suits, but this is very good.
And no, I didn’t like Tom Ford’s blue dinner jacket for Skyfall. The black shawl collar is also awful.
Why do you dislike the shawl collar?
I have no problems with the shawl collar.
I believe, in the case of Skyfall, that the blue tone used in the dinner jacket was too… fashion. It just didn’t match the character. The black shawl collar ruined the suit also. I’d prefer if it was only black, or a darker shade of blue.
Regards.
I believe you are right about the shirt being from T&A. I think it is one of the Bond-shirts they have (or had) on display in the Bury st locale.
S
I’d think the reason for having Bond wear niether a waistcoat nor a cummerbund is because of the scene where he is undressing very quickly in the ice hotel suite. Such a garmen would not be as easy to remove. And if Connery could wear a tuxedo without a cummerbund, all other men can too.
Matt, do you know if Brosnan wore a waistcoat or cummerbund with his tuxedo in the casino scene in TWINE (wich was very similair in style to this one)?
There was no waist-covering in The World is Not Enough either.
Matt, could you please clarify what you mean by a “clean chest”? It seemed obvious at first, but then I wondered what would constitute an unclean chest!
The opposite of a clean chest is a draped chest that has a lot of extra cloth that folds at the sides. Connery’s suits do not have a clean chest.
Excellent. Probably my favorite of Brosnan’s tuxedos (only TWINE is competitive; just personal taste). Nicely cut despite Brosnan’s ballooning weight (I believe he is heavier here than even Connery in Diamonds).
On a personal note, I never wear a cummerbund or a waistcoat, figuring if it is good enough for Bond, it is good enough for me. And I think the look is simpler and less fussy that way. Also, I do prefer the shawl collar. I am curious as to why others do not like them.
Matt, do you have enough info on the suit that Bond wears earlier in DAD when he meets M and Q in their secret meeting room where Bond Gets the Aston Martin Vanquish?
Yes, I have plenty on that suit. I’ll probably be posting about it later this month.
Awesome! Looking forward to it!
Excellent! Very well done by Matt and posters!
I’m just curious, how can he take the pants off when in the restroom
The same way you’d take any trousers off when going to the restroom?
Thanks.
I’m not mad about the tie. It looks very boxy.
One of the promotional stills for this film has Brosnan wearing a different midnight blue dinner jacket (it’s the second picture for DAD promotional stills on the Thunderballs archive).
https://www.thunderballs.org/dieanotherdaypromotionalstills?lightbox=dataItem-jgyzdt0y
There are a few strange things about it. It is certainly meant to be a dinner jacket, with peaked silk faced lapels, but it appears to be a button two instead of one and also has flapped pockets. But the really strange thing is the quarters of the jacket are very open, almost like a cutaway would be.
I was wondering if you knew anything about this jacket and why it is cut in such a strange way. I also noticed that there are other promotional dinner jacket pictures in the same set but they do not have the strange details. My only thought is that the one in question has been photoshopped in some way but I can’t see why that would have been done.
Your last sentence is correct. This is a poor Photoshop job. I have doubts that the body below the arms even belongs to Pierce Brosnan. The MGM/UA Home Video releases from the mid 1990s to early 2000s often feature artwork that takes Bond actor heads (often mirroring the heads) and places them on other bodies. As a graphic designer myself, I don’t believe this is ever an acceptable approach, especially not for such a prestigious product.
That’s quite strange, never would have thought they’d do that, as you say, for a prestige product. But I guess the low res technology at the time made it passable. In a way it sort of proves your point about dressing to draw attention in the direction of the face. Doubtless that’s what the marketers wanted to do if they are pasting Brosnan’s face onto a body, but the weird cut has done the opposite, for me at least.
Thanks for checking
There were 2006/2007 Omega promos of Craig too in which it’s clearly Craig’s face from something else grafted onto some guy. (It is not Bond Craig; maybe Road to Perdition given the trad side parted hair instead of CR spikes.) I remember seeing them at Omega dealers and airports.
Looks like someone’s body wearing a modern suitsupply suit hahah. I see the pictures Matt is referring too. The dvd hard cover looked extremely cheap… I remember Lazenby’s face awfully photoshopped hahah. Maybe they will become collectors items…
Yeah lots of 90s direct to video and low budget films had those copy and paste jobs for their vhs/dvd covers.
I’m just really surprised this was done with a high budget franchise like Bond. But maybe that just speaks to how much the bar has been raised. In part that’s due to improved technology. But I think it’s also due to the fact that things like this blog exist. Far as I can tell this is Matt’s passion project, but the design and presentation is exceptional. So now I expect the same level from any major production nowadays.
Matt is the jacket cut through the body on the fuller side to look better with Brosnan’s more filled out physique? Brosnan is considerably thicker around the waist in DAD then in TWINE only 3 years earlier.
I think Brosnan’s weight fluctuated throughout filming, and he’s trimmer in these scenes than he is in some other scenes. That may account for some extra fullness.
Interesting. I agree with you about his weight fluctuating. However I think he looked in much better shape in his pajamas trousers for the scene with M. I think he gained weight here, which is probably the reason the shirtless scene here is almost non existent.
Brosnan’s « lack of chest »… you’re kidding ? He’s at least a 42 judging from the pyjama scenes. This isn’t Goldeneye…
His chest isn’t big compared to his waist in this film. We see his chest very briefly when he removes his shirt. I don’t think it’s a 42. If it were, they’d be showing it more in this scene.
I don’t think he lost one chest size between shooting the yacht club entrance scene, which is brief as well but brief enough to catch his size, and this scene, but whatever. I thought it strange you focused on this point, while Connery and Moore weren’t especially on top of their form in their last Bond movie, big chest or not.
I focused on it here because the cut is unusual for Brosnan.
I’d say a 42 in DAD is within the realm of possibility. By the movie Remember Me in 2010 he was wearing a size 44 suit in RTW, and he doesn’t look too much larger there than in DAD.
A cheaper version of the shirt available here. I bought one, the only difference that I can see with the full priced version is slight variations in the block size, although I’m sure someone will correct me on that. https://turnbullandasser.co.uk/products/die-another-day-inspired-voile-dress-shirt
Do we know what size Brosnan’s waist or chest was in any of his Bond films?
His Brioni suit in TWINE measured 42” in the chest when sold at auction.
I forgot about the auction listing. That makes Brosnan at most a size 40 in 1999. Considering the suit has a somewhat full cut, he could have measured 39 inches, and in the 1990s it wasn’t uncommon to find a ready-to-wear 38 that measured 42 inches, especially with Italian suits.
I’d guess he had a 38″ chest in “Goldeneye.” He was at his slimmest then, and it lines up with Q’s comment that the grappling hook belt is a size 34. It’s hardly proof by itself (that line could have been in the script before they even cast Brosnan), but if it’s accurate, then Brosnan would have had about a 32″ waist at the time. So in other words, a pretty normal, healthy slim build.
Not sure how unpopular of an opinion this is but the DAD suits have never really impressed me all that much. I just find high button stances unattractive on anyone and it makes Brosnan even more top heavy than he already was at this point. Give me the TND or TWINE suits over these any day of the week.
They’re really not that exciting, and you’re right about the button stance. I especially dislike the striped suit in the London underground. He had some really nice coats at least.
A nice outfit, but a dress shirt for Black Tie presents a great opportunity to wear studs. You can play around with it, express a bit of personality, match the cufflinks, etc. I’m not a big fan of fly fronts as I find them a bit boring, although it did look good on Craig at the poker table in CR, creating an extra vertical line, matching the white moire ribbon braces.
Yeah but as IIRC Matt said at the time he really shouldn’t have taken his jacket off at the table. OK we know he was supposed to be playing a raw version of Bond unused to high style and it was late at night after many tiring rounds but it just wasn’t a good look. If anything he should have done the Bryan Ferry lounge lizard look and undone is bow tie but kept his jacket on!
Exactly! Craig was a blue collar Bond and Bryan is the ultimate lounge lizard.
Like this?
https://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/bryan-ferry/index.html
Yes that’s quintessentially a very Ferry-esque look right there although of course the jacket is not very Bondian. There were rumours in the eighties that Ferry had been approached to play Bond and IMO he looks the part of Book Bond. I’m always a bit amused by his upper crust veneer. He grew up three miles from me in a very blue collar industrial northern town. His dad was a miner. BF like Sting made a point of deliberately losing his accent which doesn’t sit well with me as after 35 years in America I still proudly speak broad Mackem.
Like many of the rock icons – Bowie, Clapton, Marriott, Beck, Rod, Townshend – Ferry was a Mod in the sixties (worked in a clothes shop) and like some of those you can see the re-emergence of Mod style from time to time in their personal choices. Anyway what do people think of 1980s Ferry as Bond? Black hair, unruly comma that won’t stay put, cold grey eyes, thin cruel mouth. About the right height and weight and knows how to wear a suit!
‘Byron Ferrari’ certainly could pull off the Bond look! Not sure about how he would have handled the fight scenes, though. His father Frederick was actually a farmer from Washington, Tyne and Wear (yes, George Washington’s family emanated from the area) who had to work in a mine during the depression of the 1930s. He took care of the ponies and wasn’t a miner per se.
It’s an opportunity, but Americans seem to be the ones more predisposed towards wearing studs with pleated front shirts for whatever reason. James Bond never wore them until the last few decades.
Ordinary mother of pearl buttons, like Sean wore in Dr. No, looks nice too, and more interesting than fly fronts, in my humble opinon.
Mother of pearl buttons are hardly ordinary, most people have plastic buttons!
I hope we can all agree that the most timelessly elegant and classic element in this film was she who is fairest of them all, Rosamund Pike.
If DIE ANOTHER DAY did nothing else right, it still introduced her to international audiences.
…
On a less worshipful note, I find it hard to dislike DIE ANOTHER DAY, but find it even more difficult to think of it as a good Bond movie: it’s entertaining, but you can see where the fabric of the franchise was wearing a bit thin.
I must, however, admit that the Ice Palace is one of my favourite settings from the entire series: don’t ask me why, something about the ‘Winter Wonderland’ aesthetic and the way it’s impossibly cool but not technically-impossible strikes me as very, very true to the spirit of Bond, James Bond.
(‘Impossibly cool, but not technically-impossible’ strikes me as an excellent summation of the ideal setting for a Bond film).