Marc-Ange Draco, played by Gabriele Ferzetti in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, is one of the best-dressed characters of the James Bond series. For his own birthday party at a bull fight in Portugal he wears a dark brown pinwale corduroy sports coat. Judging by many similarities in the cut and in the details to James Bond’s jacket in this scene, Draco’s jacket is likely made by the same tailor, Dimi Major. Major made other clothes for Ferzetti in the film.
The jacket is cut with a moderately full chest and soft shoulders with roped sleeve heads. The jacket is a button three, and the lapels roll at the top button. Draco chooses to fasten the top two buttons. The lapels allow the top button to fasten, but they also have an elegant roll if one chooses to only fasten the middle button. This type of cut has the most versatility of all button three cuts. The jacket is detailed with swelled edges, slanted hacking pockets, three buttons on each cuff and a single vent in the rear.
The jacket looks perfect on Ferzetti. Dimi Major did a superb job fitting the jacket, especially considering that cotton doesn’t tailor as wool or linen does. With Ferzetti’s cool tan and dark hair, a dark cool brown jacket suits him quite well. This jacket looks infinitely more modern and wearable today than Bond’s houndstooth jacket does because its a more casual material in dark solid colour. The rest of the outfit isn’t as wearable in most settings today, but it is still well put-together.
With the jacket, Draco wears an ecru shirt—likely silk—with a “Lido” or “Cooper” collar, which is a type of one-piece collar like a camp collar. The underside of the collar continues up from the body of the shirt whilst the top side extends down into the shirt. The cuffs are square, and each likely fasten with a single button. The shirt has a raised placket, which is unusual for a shirt with a Lido/Cooper collar. The shirt’s buttons are black shell. Frank Foster possibly made this shirt as he was involved with George Lazenby’s shirts for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
Draco wears a silk day cravat under his shirt. It is pale yellow with a printed brown grid. At each intersection of the grid’s lines is a grey diamond with a black border.
Draco’s trousers are stone—likely cavalry twill—worsted jodhpurs with a flat front and frogmouth pockets. The trousers have an extended waistband with a hidden clasp closure and likely have adjusters on the side since they are not tailored with belt loops. Like the jacket, these are also probably made by Dimi Major. The jodhpurs are tucked into tall black leather English riding boots.
Matt do you think there could be a little bit of brown in the jacket ? it almost looks like it in certain photos and in the film.
You may be right that it’s a very dark brown. Thank you.
“This jacket looks infinitely more modern and wearable today than Bond’s houndstooth jacket does because it is a more casual material in solid block.” I might rephrase this to say “Young men are more likely to wear this jacket today than Bond’s houndstooth jacket because it is a more casual material in dark solid colour.” Nowadays it takes a certain panache to wear an equestrian jacket like Lazenby’s, in part because men are afraid of pattern, and in part because, in our compulsively egalitarian culture, an equestrian jacket has aristocratic associations that are now “uncool” if not outright suspect. I, for one, love Lazenby’s jacket. The cut and the pattern make his tall, broad-shouldered figure look even more imposing. The sand-colored stock and the pin are a different story, however. Now we are crossing into John Steed territory…
I don’t think it’s the fact that Lazenby’s jacket has a pattern that makes it look somewhat dated (indeed, Daniel Craig has worn patterned suitings in each of his last two Bond films). Rather, I think it’s the specific pattern at issue.
Draco, by contrast, could easily walk into a casual cocktail party wearing that jacket and be one of the best-dressed men in the room.
Good comments Dan. I might suggest that Lazenby’s sports jacket may be considered less versatile today, as houndstooth, gun club and Prince of Wales type tweed-ish jackets are often looked upon (rightly or wrongly!) as the purview of old fogeys whereas Draco’s solid blazer could be adapted to a number of occasions and age groups.
Once again, I have trouble discriminating between black and very dark brown here so I’ll have to take Matt’s word for it that it’s brown!
And finally, it may just be semantics but that’s not what I think of as a camp collar on Draco’s shirt. It appears to have an overlapping placket that buttons right up to the top. I think of a camp collar shirt as having mini ‘lapels’ and a vestigial loop closure at the top as seen commonly on bowling shirts.
Anyway, another good article and more evidence that the often overlooked OHMSS is actually one of the best in the series and probably the last film to bear a close resemblance to the books until Craig’s Casino Royale, which just goes to prove IMO that the producers’ divergence from the source material from the seventies onwards was a big mistake!
You can see the brown in the lighter shots, as well as when you compare it to the people in black clothes around Draco.
After looking into this type of collar, I found some people call it a camp collar because it’s a one-piece collar. However, the terms “Lido” collar and “Cooper” collar are more specific when referring to this type of collar.
“I might suggest that Lazenby’s sports jacket may be considered less versatile today, as houndstooth, gun club and Prince of Wales type tweed-ish jackets are often looked upon (rightly or wrongly!) as the purview of old fogeys whereas Draco’s solid blazer could be adapted to a number of occasions and age groups.” – Rod, you are probably correct, but what I would REALLY like to know is who decided that wonderful country tweeds are “old-fogeyish”. Did a hipster committee meet in some darkened basement unbeknownst to the rest of us and make that decision?
I couldn’t resist posting this from the King & Allen website: “However these days, even those who have previously turned their nose up at tweed are starting to admire it, no longer considering tweed to be the fusty fabric, worn only by geography teachers and those who enjoy country pursuits. Tweed is a stylish cloth for the modern man.” http://kingandallen.co.uk/how-to-wear-tweed/
I have always loved this scene and Draco’s outfit is great. I never realized the jacket was brown though, but now I indeed see it. Dimi Major created some of the best clothes in the Bond series, if not THE best. Great article as always!
Very dark brown is slowly coming back in to fashion. I’ve seen quite a few suits of late in a dark muted tone of brown with black in the the material. Either way the shade is perfect for Draco. It is probably a very dark brown with some black I it to really mute it. My grandfather has dark (now greying) hair and a tan cool complexion and he looks great in a black jacket, he often wears a black blazer. I have a black sports coat in cotton and it looks great worn at night to a casual dinner date or party. Daniel Craig wore an unstructured black sport coat in Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Bolder patterned sports jackets and suits are very much coming back into fashion. But more in Prince of Wales and Glen Urquhart checks. I haven’t seen many hound-tooth checks of recent times. Matt your right when you say dark solid jackets fit in more today. You see many people wearing solid black, navy or grey jackets to social events, It can look a little boring but it is still more common nowadays to checks.
Gabriele Ferzetti was a very elegant man.
His tailors were the best in Italy,specially Caraceni of Rome (Galliano,and after Tommy & Giulio).
Is a funny story about Ferzetti..in 1965 he shot some TV commercials for a ready to wear firm “Facis”. Ferzetti in the commercial wear..his clothes from Caraceni!
He refusal to wear any ready to wear suit or jacket.
Executives of Facis were a bit irritates,but he was a big star,so….
P.S.
I think that as a old clotheshose,Ferzetti has enjoied for the suits and jackets of Dimitri Major.
I can imagine that for he this was one of more pleasent moment of his job for “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”.
Jodhpurs would look out of place on a man anywhere but in a paddock nowadays, but the combination up top would work fine. Even the day cravat. Here in the States, it’s been catching on amongst TV personalities, especially since Charles Woodson has been wearing one during his Monday Night Football coverage. It’s an affectation, but it’s not quite as far afield as it had been.