Once Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers) becomes one of the many James Bonds in the 1967 spoof Casino Royale, he starts dressing better. His gun club check suit is an excellent example of the improvement in his wardrobe. The gun club check is black and red on a white ground, and in these colours and a small scale it works well as a casual city suit rather than the sporty country suit one would expect out of a gun club check. Little of the suit jacket is seen, but it is certainly made by the same tailor who made his second dinner suit.
The tailor who made this suit is Major Hayward, a tailoring firm made up of Dimi Major and Douglas Hayward based in Fulham, London. Shortly after this film was made, Major and Hayward split into their own firms.
This button three suit jacket has the same soft shoulders and fishmouth “cran Necker” notch lapels that the dinner jacket has. The suit jacket has flapped pockets, three buttons on the cuffs and probably double vents.
Much more of the suit trousers than the suit jacket are seen. The trousers are very much of their time, with a darted front and frogmouth pockets. The leg is tapered to the knee and straight from the knee to the hem. The rear right pocket is jetted with a button through it whilst the rear left pocket has a flap. The trousers have a fairly traditional rise.
Since Sellers wears this suit without the jacket more than he does with the jacket, his shirt becomes the main focus of the outfit. And it deserves to be the main focus because it’s beautifully-made and well-fitted.The shirt is made of cream voile with a double layer in the front so it is not sheer like the back and sleeves are. It has a spread collar, a front placket and a darted back with side pleats. The double cuffs have the link holes close to the fold, and the outer edge of the cuff has a large curve like on Sean Connery’s cocktail cuffs. The cuffs are attached with shirring. The shirt is made by Frank Foster, who made shirts for Peter Sellers in other films as well as for many men in the regular James Bond series.
With the outfit, Sellers wears a dark brown knitted tie that he sometimes keeps tucked into his trousers. The trousers are held up with black textured leather belt that clashes with Sellers’ burgundy shoes, and it’s the only mistake he makes in what’s a rather elegant and Bond-like outfit.
From the description you provide of the trousers, the cut and the styling, (front darts, frogmouth pockets, traditional rise, leg tapered to the knee and straight from the knee to the hem) they sound, for me, the ideal. Close to perfect. Regarding the shirt, it seems as if you’re probably on the money with Foster given that he produced other shirts for Sellers. The placket would, of course, confirm it but the cuff shirring and the description of the back make it sound plausible.
Btw, it really is a pity that all the authentic Bond tailoring is through. Might I suggest a future post on Michael Caine’s (likely) Douglas Hayward suit in “Get Carter”? This is another example of what I would personally deem a near perfect example men’s tailoring.
Clothes on Film wrote an excellent piece on the Get Carter suit: http://clothesonfilm.com/michael-caine-in-get-carter-killer-suit/20222/
It is a good article. In fact, I’m willing to skip the bit where they get the director’s name wrong. :)
It’s a very nice, well-fitting suit. I assume that this was meant to convey to the audience that the clothes are certainly more suggestive of MI6 Agent James Bond, rather than what I even admit to be a more non-descript, stereotypically academic or country appearance found within the brown tweed suit shown in the earlier post, although Bond could dress that way as well, if the setting and circumstances are fitting enough. With some exceptions, hasn’t Bond generally adhered to the notion that one shouldn’t wear brown in the city, at least while in London?
Bond mostly hasn’t worn brown in London, except a few times. He wears checked suits with brown in them to the office in Goldfinger and GoldenEye and a brown suit to the office in Thunderball.
Evelyn tremble also wears a very nice dark grey flannel suit in a couple of scenes. To me, that’s his best suit in the film – very Bond. Any plans on covering it?
I certainly will cover that suit in the future. I almost wrote about it this time, but I chose the checked suit instead since it shows off the beautiful shirt.
Frank Foster’s Instagram page has a picture of this shirt, indicating that they made this shirt.